Archive for June 20, 2023

HouseSigma: Enhancing Consumer Transparency in Calgary’s Housing Market

Posted in Commentary with tags on June 20, 2023 by itnerd

HouseSigma, a trailblazing Canadian proptech company, has officially launched in Alberta, bringing unprecedented transparency and consumer empowerment to the region’s real estate landscape. On the heels of its 2018 launch in Toronto, and rapid expansion into BC, HouseSigma is now providing access to its suite of innovative online tools to Calgarians and other rural Alberta markets, with sights set on an Edmonton launch in the coming months.

HouseSigma’s visionary platform empowers current and prospective homebuyers, sellers, and consumers interested in market trends by providing unprecedented access to real-time market insights, revolutionizing the way Canadians make real estate decisions. HouseSigma sets itself apart as a leader in transparency with its comprehensive and real-time MLS Sold data, complete sold price history, and A.I.-based home valuation capabilities for instant and accurate estimations of any address. Users can also request updates for specific communities, customized areas, or property types on new listings and sold properties. In addition, the platform’s detailed market trend reports enable users, including realtors and developers, to make informed decisions at a hyperlocal level.

Since its launch in 2018, HouseSigma has gained widespread popularity among Canadian millennials and become a trusted resource for real estate information.

HouseSigma’s sold history of properties includes historical pictures of MLS listings, providing users with valuable insights into a property’s past transactions and renovations. Previously available only through realtors, HouseSigma also offers real-time data to the public, ensuring that consumers can access critical information to make informed decisions based on current market trends and comparable properties. The platform is free to use, ensuring that every Canadian has access to the tools and information needed to navigate the housing market with confidence.

HouseSigma serves consumers at every point of the home buying or selling journey who value doing their own research, empowering users with a deep understanding of local market dynamics. In addition, realtors can benefit from the user-friendly interface and easy access to MLS data, while developers can utilize HouseSigma’s A.I. machine learning algorithm to quickly estimate property values and monitor market trends for informed decision-making.

For more information about how HouseSigma is disrupting the Canadian housing market and reshaping the homeownership journey for consumers, visit www.housesigma.com.

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Iowa’s Largest School District Was Pwned In A Ransomware Attack

Posted in Commentary with tags on June 20, 2023 by itnerd

Yesterday, Iowa’s largest school district, Des Moines Public Schools, confirmed in a statement that on January 9th of this year, a ransomware attack had forced it to take all networked systems offline, cancel several days of classes impacting more than 35,000 students and staff, and resulted in a data breach affecting 6,700 individuals.  

“The cyberattack against DMPS included a ransom demand. No ransom has been or will be paid in response to this attack based on the advice of our cybersecurity experts and what is in the best interest of the school district and community,” Des Moines Public Schools said. 

This is the third Iowa district to have been hit by a ransomware attack in the last year. Emsisoft threat analyst Brett Callow recently said this on Twitter:

Stephen Gates, Principal Security SME, Horizon3.ai had this to say:

   “Waiting for over 5 months to notify individuals that their data might have been exposed will not win you a “rapid response contest” anytime soon. We as an industry must do better in alerting those potentially impacted so they can take some sort of defensive action sooner rather than later.

   “School systems are often easy pickings for attackers. Their IT staff, who are usually responsible for security, tend to be overworked and underpaid, and the security technologies at their fingertips are not always the best or the latest. I suggest a different approach that allows schools systems of any size to affordably find, fix, and verify truly exploitable vulnerabilities using autonomous, repetitive, penetration tests that expose the greatest risks so they can be immediately remediated with guidance anyone could follow. Maybe it’s time to rethink the way we’re securing our greatest assets – our nation’s children and their families.”

While I get that the education sector doesn’t have the resources to fight this sort of thing, never mind notify people quickly, I have to ask if they can do better. Because they will continue to be targets until they actually do better.

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TELUS’ Internet and Mobility for Good programs help new refugees arriving in Canada get connected 

Posted in Commentary with tags on June 20, 2023 by itnerd

Already supporting more than 3,200 Government Assisted Refugees across Canada, TELUS today announced that it will now support even more government assisted refugees arriving in Canada with low cost home Internet and mobility plans as well as free mobile devices, in partnership with its expanded network of Resettlement Assistance Program service provider organizations. 

According to the United Nations, refugees are 50 per cent less likely than the general population to have an Internet-enabled phone, and 29 per cent of refugee households have no phone at all. TELUS’ programs for Government Assisted Refugees are helping families begin their new lives in Canada, enabling them to get connected to their friends, family and new support networks, as well as access essential services and critical online resources. The program is available across Canada where TELUS home Internet and mobility services are offered. 

TELUS has partnered with 13 Resettlement Assistance Program service provider organizations across the country, some of which include Immigrant Services Society of B.C., Inter Cultural Association of Greater Victoria, Immigrant Services Calgary, London Cross Cultural Learning Centre, Rainbow Railroad and CREDIL, with plans to partner with additional service provider organizations across the country and to expand the Connecting for Good for Government Assisted Refugees program to more communities.  

Mobility for Good for Government Assisted Refugees is available nationwide and includes mobility services for $25 a month and a free certified pre-owned device. Internet for Good for Government Assisted Refugees plans start at $10/month for 2 years and are available in British Columbia, Alberta, and parts of Quebec, where TELUS offers home Internet services. Currently, the Internet for Good program offers speeds up to 50 Mbps, with a 150Mbps plan set to launch in July. 

In addition to supporting Government Assisted Refugees through its Internet and Mobility for Good programs, and as an extension of this announcement, TELUS is also working with ISSofBC to sponsor an immigrant family, enabling them to establish their roots in Canada. This includes more than $50,000 in funding to assist the family during their first year in Canada, as well as support from TELUS team members who have been volunteering as “settlement mentors,” virtually meeting with the family on a regular basis as they prepare for their life transition and move to Canada. 

Earlier this year, TELUS’ Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area Community Board provided MakeWay Charitable Society with a grant to support their Welcome Groups for Newcomer Youth program. The funding will match refugee newcomer youth with volunteers for six months of settlement and integration support in order to provide them with guidance, training and access to resources to build their capacity and address their unique needs.

TELUS’ programming in support of  Government Assisted Refugees is part of its broader Connecting for Good portfolio of programs that gives people in need access to TELUS’ world-leading technology. To learn more about TELUS Internet and Mobility for Good  for Government Assisted Refugees, visit telus.com/GovAssistedRefugees.

Resettlement agencies interested in becoming a partner can contact TELUS at connectingforgood@telus.com. 

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Here’s What I See Are Key Takeaways In Regards To The Reddit Gong Show

Posted in Commentary with tags on June 20, 2023 by itnerd

I think that we can all agree that Reddit has become a train wreck next to a dumpster fire because of this API situation that has caused outrage across Reddit and beyond. But watching from this from the outside, I have three takeaways from this gong show:

  1. Reddit wants too much money way too quickly: Clearly this API change by Reddit is an attempt to not only kill third party apps, but to make money as fast as possible. Otherwise, Reddit would not have said that it wants to charge such insane fees for using said API. Now I get that Reddit might feel that third party apps are profiting off of Reddit when Reddit itself isn’t revenue positive, but this isn’t how you solve that problem.
  2. This situation exposes Reddit’s dirty little secret: Reddit exists because of Steve Huffman, but it has succeeded because of unpaid labour by moderators and posters. The problem is that Huffman has really managed to anger moderators and posters enough that they will go elsewhere if they are pushed hard enough. If that happens, the site will collapse and Huffman will be screwed. If Huffman were smart, which clearly he isn’t, he’d find a way to address that.
  3. This situation exposes Steve Huffman’s true personality: Because of this situation, it turns out that Steve Huffman is a liar and jerk. And not only that, he has deliberately induced a panic situation to try and get what he wants. Which is money. The problem is that instead of people capitulating to him, they’ve rebelled. Big time. Now he could walk this back easily if he really wanted to. But here’s his other problem, his ego is stopping him from doing this. Which means that this situation is going to get way worse and have a worse outcome because of that.

To be clear, Reddit can’t continue as is because it’s bleeding money like a gunshot victim in Compton CA. But this isn’t how you solve that problem. If Reddit’s board of directors had any backbone, they would realize this and put Huffman in the bin as quickly as possible. Then after that, walk back a lot of this stuff that he’s done and try to be partners with all the people that Huffman has angered. That doesn’t just include the Appllo’s of the world, but the user base and moderators as well.

However, that’s likely not going to happen as I suspect that if the board was going to do that, it would have done it already. That means that Reddit is pretty much doomed seeing as a lot of popular subreddits are looking for homes elsewhere, and traffic to the site has dropped during the API protests. That’s not a good place to be if you’re Reddit. And the only person to blame for that is Steve Huffman. It sucks to be you Steve.

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Cyware Announces Technology Partnership with Mimecast

Posted in Commentary with tags on June 20, 2023 by itnerd

Cyware, a leading provider of threat intelligence management and cyber fusion solutions, announced today a strategic technology partnership with Mimecast, an advanced email and collaboration security company. This technology alliance brings together Mimecast’s advanced secure email gateway with Cyware’s cutting-edge security automation and collaboration platform. The joint solution will provide customers with proactive defense against ransomware, malware, phishing, and other evolving cyberthreats.

Cyware’s Cyber Fusion Platform uniquely combines TIP, SOAR, and security collaboration tools, helping organizations prioritize threats and incidents, automate any type of security workflow, and automatically disseminate alerts to threat sharing communities. Mimecast’s robust secure email gateway provides comprehensive cloud-based secure email services that stop known and emerging threats before they reach customer networks.

Cyware’s technology partnership with Mimecast provides joint customers with:

  • Proactive Threat Detection: The technology integration of Cyware’s threat intelligence management with Mimecast’s email security solutions enables organizations to detect and block sophisticated threats such as malware, ransomware, and phishing in real-time, reducing the risk of successful cyberattacks.
  • Rapid Incident Response: By automating workflows through Cyware’s orchestration platform, security teams can respond swiftly and effectively to email-driven security incidents, reducing response time and minimizing potential damage.
  • Comprehensive Visibility: Organizations can gain holistic visibility into their threat landscape by combining Cyware’s threat intelligence with Mimecast’s email security analytics, enabling them to make informed decisions and prioritize security efforts.
  • Enhanced Security Collaboration: By combining Mimecast’s email security detection with Cyware’s automated threat dissemination, internal and external security teams can be instantly alerted to threats from anywhere in the organization.

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DH2i Partners with SUSE to Ease SQL Server Container Modernization

Posted in Commentary on June 20, 2023 by itnerd

DH2i, the world’s leading provider of always-secure and always-on IT infrastructure solutions, is partnering with SUSE, a global leader in innovative, reliable and secure enterprise-grade open source solutions, to offer the simplest route to Microsoft SQL Server container modernization. By combining DH2i’s DxEnterprise Smart High Availability Clustering software with Rancher by SUSE, organizations can seamlessly migrate both physical and virtual SQL Server databases to availability groups in Kubernetes within minutes. This collaboration empowers businesses to modernize their SQL Server environment, resulting in accelerated application deployment, optimized resource utilization, and substantial cost savings on infrastructure and management expenses.

SQL Server often houses an organization’s most crucial data assets, making maximum uptime and security vital concerns for IT teams. These stringent requirements make the task of modernizing SQL Server especially trying, and the thought of containers in production SQL Server environments totally inconceivable. However, DH2i and SUSE have flipped the paradigm on its head and helped ensure that you can achieve near-zero downtime and Zero Trust security for even the most mission-critical SQL Server environments in containers.

DH2i’s DxEnterprise software, in conjunction with Rancher by SUSE, offers organizations the opportunity to leverage the benefits of containerization for SQL Server modernization. This powerful combination allows for swift and efficient migration of both physical and virtual SQL Server databases to availability groups in Kubernetes. By harnessing these technologies, organizations can achieve faster, more streamlined, and cost-effective modernization of their SQL Server environments.

To make deployment and migration even easier, Rancher by SUSE offers a streamlined web interface to deploy highly available SQL Server AGs in Kubernetes using a Helm chart. This makes a complex deployment achievable in only a few clicks with a single line of code. Once deployed, DxE can easily pull instances and containers into the same cluster and Availability Group and easily facilitate migration using database mirroring.

Use-Case: Migrating a Database from a Windows Virtual Machine to Kubernetes

The value of containers for modernizing SQL Server is widely recognized across industries. DH2i serves a diverse range of global customers, including those in financial services, manufacturing, legal, government, and more. A common trend among these customers is their transition from predominantly virtualized environments to containerization as part of their modernization journey.

Watch this use-case in action with a short video demonstration detailing the migration of a SQL Server database from a standalone Windows virtual machine to a Kubernetes container environment at the following link: https://dh2i.com/modernize-from-vm-to-containers-demo-dh2i/

To learn more about how DH2i and Rancher by SUSE can help you modernize your SQL Server environment, get signed up for a free demo consultation at: https://dh2i.com/demo/.

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Next Announces ‘Scoped Investigations’ to Protect Employee Privacy

Posted in Commentary with tags on June 20, 2023 by itnerd

Next DLP , a leader in insider risk and data protection, today announced a new ‘Scoped Investigations’ capability in the Reveal platform that protects privacy by time bounding and restricting access to employee activity to only investigators with an approved and legitimate need to access it. A complementary pseudonymization feature redacts personally identifiable information (“PII”) so that security professionals can investigate potential incidents without seeing employee details. This prevents bias and protects employee privacy while permitting security professionals to get their jobs done.

Scoped Investigations empower organizations to meet employee privacy expectations and comply with information security regulations by limiting the information accessible to security analysts for forensic analysis by default. Scoped Investigations grants time-bound, revocable, and audited data access to allow comprehensive investigations by authorized personnel only.

This new capability helps internal auditors and data protection officers (DPOs) prevent unnecessary exposure or mishandling of sensitive employee data by enforcing the ‘need to know’ and ‘least privilege’ principles. Additionally, Reveal APIs enable customers to seamlessly integrate with existing identity based authorization workflows.

Next DLP is a leading provider of insider risk and data protection solutions. The Reveal Platform by Next uncovers risk, stops data loss, educates employees, and fulfills security, compliance, and regulatory needs. The company’s leadership brings decades of cyber and technology experience from Fortra (f.k.a. HelpSystems), DigitalGuardian, Crowdstrike, Forcepoint, Mimecast, IBM, Cisco, and Veracode. Next is trusted by organizations big and small, from the Fortune 100 to fast-growing healthcare and technology companies. For more information visit www.nextdlp.com.

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