Posted in Commentary with tags Google on October 28, 2024 by itnerd
AI Overviews in Search are coming to Canada! Google is beginning the full rollout of AI Overviews in Canada — helping you search the web in a whole new way, no matter what questions are on your mind. This innovative AI-powered feature simplifies how users connect with web information.
Key Benefits:
Connect to the best of the web: Helping people discover content from publishers, businesses and creators remains central to Google’s approach. Google has introduced more prominent ways to show links to relevant websites within AI Overviews, with a right-hand link display on desktop and a similar experience on mobile, accessible by tapping the site icons in the upper right.
Traffic increases: Earlier this month, Google launched in-line links that appear directly within the text of AI Overviews. In testing, both the right-hand link display and in-line links drove an increase in traffic to supporting websites compared to the previous designs, and the link display has made it easier for people to visit sites that interest them.
Expand your queries: AI Overviews are just one of the ways Google is building AI into Search, and dramatically expanding the kinds of questions you can ask on Google – which creates even more ways for people to explore content online.
Posted in Commentary with tags Hacked on October 28, 2024 by itnerd
The Canada Revenue Agency is once again the victim of being pwned. This time it looks like they got pwned via a supply chain attack. Here’s what went down:
At the height of this year’s tax season, the Canada Revenue Agency discovered that hackers had obtained confidential data used by one of the country’s largest tax preparation firms, H&R Block Canada.
Imposters used the company’s confidential credentials to get unauthorized access into hundreds of Canadians’ personal CRA accounts, change direct deposit information, submit false returns and pocket more than $6 million in bogus refunds from the public purse, an investigation by CBC’s The Fifth Estate and Radio-Canada has found.
In one case, the hackers filed a return with a legitimate postal code, but a fake address on a non-existent Tomato Street.
“Obviously the door is open and some people are infiltrating the system,” André Lareau, an associate tax professor at Laval University in Quebec City, said in an interview. “But the CRA does not seem to have found the key to lock the door.”
According to sources, the crisis prompted the CRA to contact the office of Revenue Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau.
How many Canada Revenue Agency accounts could we be talking about? How about this:
In answers to questions from The Fifth Estate/Radio-Canada, the CRA admitted it has been hit with more than 31,468 “material” privacy breaches from March 2020 to December 2023, affecting 62,000 individual Canadian taxpayers.
This is pretty bad. And given that the Canada Revenue Agency has been pwned so many times over the years, which has led to a lawsuit over their last round of getting pwned, you’d think that they would up their game. But clearly that’s not the case. And Canadians should expect not only answers about why getting pwned is still a problem with the Canada Revenue Agency, but concrete steps on how they are going to stop getting pwned. In the meantime, I would encourage all Canadians to check their Canada Revenue Agency accounts to make sure that they are not victims of this. And I would do that ASAP.
By: Mike Stanford, Founder & President, AlwaysMobile
In today’s digital age, staying connected while traveling internationally is essential. Whether you’re sharing memories on social media, navigating unfamiliar cities, or keeping in touch with loved ones, having reliable internet access can make all the difference. Most international travelers use their mobile carrier’s roaming feature, but this can be expensive as the daily roaming fees can really add up. Alternatively, travelers can purchase physical SIM cards allowing access to local networks when abroad – a cheaper option than roaming but with the hassle of finding and managing multiple SIM cards. Enter the eSIM—an innovative solution that revolutionizes how we connect abroad.
Always Mobile, a Canadian-based eSIM provider, launched in the Spring of 2024 offering eSIM-enabled mobile data plans to over 170 destinations worldwide. When talking to Canadians about this new technology, the most frequent question we get is “What is an eSIM?” So lets dive in.
What is an eSIM?
An eSIM, or embedded SIM, is a digital SIM that can be downloaded directly into your device. Unlike traditional SIM cards that require physical swapping, an eSIM allows you to activate a cellular plan without needing to insert a physical card. This cutting-edge technology is supported by most modern smartphones, tablets, and other connected devices, making it easier than ever to manage your connectivity needs and save on expensive roaming fees while traveling.
How to Use an eSIM
Using an eSIM is incredibly straightforward. Here’s how you can get started with Always Mobile’s eSIM data plans:
Purchase Your Plan: Visit Always Mobile and select an eSIM data plan that suits your travel needs. Whether you’re planning a short getaway or a longer adventure, there are various options available.
Activate Your eSIM: Once you’ve purchased your plan, you’ll receive a QR code via email. Simply scan this code with your device’s camera and follow the prompts to activate your eSIM.
Stay Connected: After activation, your device will be ready to access local data networks in your destination. You can now enjoy seamless internet access without the fuss of changing SIM cards or searching for Wi-Fi hotspots.
The Benefits of eSIM Data Plans for International Travel
Convenience: One of the most significant advantages of eSIM technology is its convenience. With an eSIM, you can switch between carriers and plans with just a few taps on your device. No more searching for a local SIM card upon arrival or worrying about losing your physical card.
Cost-Effectiveness: Always Mobile offers competitive pricing for its eSIM data plans, allowing you to choose the best option that fits your budget. Avoid high roaming charges by opting for a local plan tailored to your destination.
Flexibility: Traveling through multiple countries? With Always Mobile’s eSIM, you can also buy regional plans which cover multiple countries on one eSIM. This flexibility is super convenient for that European vacation or the power business traveler covering multiple stops in Asia for example.
Enhanced Security: eSIMs are often more secure than local Wi-Fi networks; offering a higher level of protection to sensitive personal and corporate information.
In a world where staying connected is vital, eSIM data plans stand out as the perfect solution for international travelers. With their ease of use, cost savings, flexibility, and security, eSIMs are changing the way we travel. Don’t let connectivity issues hold you back—embrace the future of mobile communication with an eSIM data plan on your next trip abroad.
You can visit Always Mobile today and explore the freedom of global connectivity at your fingertips!
Posted in Commentary with tags DH2i on October 28, 2024 by itnerd
DH2i today announced it will be showcasing its DxEnterprise Microsoft SQL Server high availability software for instances and containers at this year’s PASS Data Community Summit. PASS Summit 2024 will bring thousands of data platform professionals together for an in-person event in Seattle, WA, from November 4-8, 2024.
DH2i Booth #204:
Attendees will have the opportunity to experience DH2i’s industry-leading DxEnterprise software firsthand and learn how to drive Microsoft SQL Server downtime and data loss to near-zero across on-prem, remote, cloud, and hybrid environments – all while eliminating management complexity. DH2i will also show how to easily set up multi-site clusters for disaster recovery (DR), manage Windows and Linux SQL Server side-by-side in the same cluster, and easily and securely usher in the era of containers with DxOperator by DH2i, the industry’s preferred SQL Server Operator for Kubernetes (K8s).
Wednesday, November 6: 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm in Room 345-346
DH2i’s CTO and Co-Founder, OJ Ngo, to join Microsoft’s Principal Product Manager, Amit Khandelwal, to discuss how organizations can cost-effectively maintain “5-nines” SQL Server uptime while eliminating the risk of cloud vendor lock-in. While Kubernetes and containers offer infrastructure autonomy, they also introduce complexity and downtime risks. Ngo and Khandelwal will present a solution to these concerns by demonstrating a cloud-agnostic SQL Server environment using Kubernetes, allowing multi-cloud deployments and automatic failover across platforms. This approach accelerates digital transformation, enabling unified HA management for SQL Server across Windows, Linux, and Kubernetes in a single framework.
DH2i’s CTO and Co-Founder, OJ Ngo, will present a 10-minute lightning talk to demonstrate how easy SQL Server container deployment and HA can be with the industry’s preferred SQL Server Operator for Kubernetes. Whether you’re an expert or just curious about the benefits of database containers, this session will show an easy-to-execute, 3-step approach to deploy a customizable, Always-On Availability Group in an Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster.
20-Minute Session at AWS Booth: “Deploy a SQL Server Availability Group on Amazon EKS with Ease using DH2i”
Wednesday, November 6 at 1:00 pm at the AWS Booth
DH2i’s CTO and Co-Founder, OJ Ngo, will present alongside Yogi Barot from AWS as they demonstrate an easy, operator-driven approach to deploy highly available SQL Server on Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service and the combined ability of this solution stack to ensure the industry’s lowest downtime for SQL Server containers.
Posted in Commentary with tags PIXM on October 28, 2024 by itnerd
PIXM Security, the leader in AI-driven computer vision cybersecurity, announced today the launch of its new Managed Service Provider (MSP) program for zero-day phishing protection. With over 500,000 end users already protected, PIXM shields MSPs and their customers from credential theft and zero-day phishing attacks that can lead to malware and other exploits on their laptops, desktops and mobile platforms.
Over 50 percent of phishing links are clicked outside corporate email. While phishing security is often associated solely with email protection, cybercriminals are adapting and increasingly exploiting other channels such as SMS, social media platforms (such as Facebook), SaaS work apps (such as Slack and Google Docs), and even QR codes to deliver phishing attacks. This shift leaves many organizations vulnerable, as legacy email security solutions do not cover these expanding attack vectors.
PIXM uses AI Computer Vision to protect users right in the browser the moment they click on a link. This real-time approach acts as a “second set of eyes,” instantly and accurately analyzing web pages and on screen content to determine its legitimacy and promptly alerting users to potential threats and phishing attempts. This approach provides unmatched protection across all digital touchpoints and all types of phishing attacks.
PIXM also prevents threats from stealthy spear phishing links that users click in their email box, which evade even the most sophisticated email protection because hackers can mask credential harvesting phishing links until the moment they are clicked by a targeted user.
The PIXM MSP program includes these and other benefits:
High Value, Low Cost: $1 per user, per month with unlimited devices.
High Margin: Aggressive margins for new partners.
High Impact, Low Friction: Stops targeted phishing attacks at the click and deploys in minutes as a browser-based plugin, supporting IOS, Windows and Mac, with no training required.
Free NFRLicenses: While securing clients, MSPs can also protect their own teams with no-cost Not For Resale (NFR) licenses.
PIXM will launch the MSP program and present its award winning technology at Kaseya DattoCon 2024 in Miami on October 28 – 30 at Booth B14 and at IT Nation Connect 2024 in Orlando on November 6 – 8 at Booth 20.
Posted in Commentary with tags Hacked on October 27, 2024 by itnerd
Another day, another big data breach. This time it’s Landmark Admin which is an Insurance administrative services company. According to a filing with the Main Attorney General’s office, the company said that it was the victim of a cyberattack back in May and over 800,000 people have had the following information stolen:
“Based on the investigation, the following information related to potentially impacted individuals may have been subject to unauthorized access: first name/initial and last name; address; Social Security number; tax identification number; driver’s license number/state-issued identification card; passport number; financial account number; medical information; date of birth; health insurance policy number; and life and annuity policy information,”
Well that sucks. Though what sucks more is the fact that we’re in late October and the public is only finding out about this company being pwned back in May. In any case, the company goes on to say that impacted people should monitor their credit reports and bank accounts for suspicious activity. How do you know if you’re impacted, well the company will reach out to you to let you know if you’ve been affected.
Personally, if I were affected by this, I’d want to know why it took so long to make this information public. I’m hoping that somebody is going to ask that question. As in someone in government that has the power to compel the company to serve up the answer to that question.
In August of 2024, SafeBreach labs security researcher Alon Leviev discovered Windows Downdate, which was first presented at Black Hat USA 2024 and DEF CON 32 (2024), where he developed a tool to take over the Windows Update process to craft custom downgrades on critical OS components to expose previously fixed vulnerabilities. Using this downgrade ability, he discovered CVE-2024-21302, a privilege escalation vulnerability affecting the entire Windows virtualization stack.
While CVE-2024-21302 was patched because it crossed a defined security boundary, the Windows Update takeover, which was also reported to Microsoft, has remained unpatched because it did not cross a defined security boundary. Alon’s follow-up research exposes a severe flaw in Windows Update that allows the reactivation of the “ItsNotASecurityBoundary” Driver Signature Enforcement (DSE) bypass, permitting the loading of unsigned kernel drivers. This can be exploited to deploy custom rootkits, disable security features, and compromise system integrity.
Last week I posted a story about dumping Bell for Distributel. And I mentioned that I would have the install done today. That did happen and here’s how it went.
Distributel had scheduled Bell to come out to do the install between noon and 5PM today. And they did confirm that on Monday. But they had also sent me a box with two items in it which arrived on Monday:
This is a Deco AX3000 WiFi access point and router by TP-Link. I didn’t plug it in as I had zero intention of using it. But I could get more than one of these at the time that I ordered to deliver mesh WiFi. After that, I would have to rent them from Distributel.
This is an analog telephone adapter made by a company called Grandstream which would allow me to plug my phones into Distributel’s VoIP service. I would actually be using this as home phone service is important to us.
Now once the Bell tech arrived, he disconnected my HH4000 and did some tests. Then he went downstairs to the building’s telephone room to do something. I have no clue what. Then he came back and plugged this in.
This is a Nokia ONT or optical networking terminal. In layman’s terms, it converts fibre optic to Ethernet. And the one big plus to this is that once I plugged my router in and made some changes, I would be connected to Distributel’s Internet service. That’s more civilized than having to find ways to get past Bell’s hardware using either method to do that.
Now setting things up isn’t hard. But it’s not something the average person would do. Having said that, here’s what I did to get this working. Distributel appears to run on Bell’s fibre via its own VLAN or virtual LAN. In layman’s terms, it’s an isolated virtual network that’s part of a larger network. So if you use your own router like I am, you need to specify that inside the configuration for your router. Since I am using an Asus ZenWiFi XT8, I had to find the place inside the router’s configuration pages to specify the VLAN. I ultimately found it here:
I had to go to LAN and then click on the IPTV tab. Why Asus put it there, I have no idea. But anyway, Distributel appears to require you to enter a VID value of 40 for the Internet as pictured above after changing the ISP profile to manual. Then under special applications I set it up the way it is pictured above. I then pressed apply. Before I declare victory, there’s one more thing that I needed to do:
Because Distributel is a Bell company, they of course use PPPoE. So I had to snag my PPPoE username and password from the Distributel eCare website, which I was smart enough to register for prior to the install and enter the username and password on the page above which you get to by going to WAN on the left and Internet Connection and changing the WAN Connection type to PPPoE. The place to enter the username and password is under Account Settings.
After I did that, I was live. Though it did take about 20 minutes for the Nokia ONT to work due to multiple software updates that it required. The total time invested in this install was about 90 minutes from start to finish. And of course, I did a speed test to see what speeds I was getting.
So because I was using PPPoE, I was expecting a hit in terms of my upload speed. And based on this, the 1 Gbps downstream/750 Mbps upstream that I am paying for was leaving about 200 Mbps upstream speed on the table. That’s purely down to my Asus hardware and its inability to handle PPPoE traffic. Which is a bit of an incentive to move off of Asus hardware to something better able to handle this traffic. And in case you’re wondering why I am not using the TP-Link gear that Distributel sent me, I never use ISP hardware if I can possibly avoid it because I don’t want to be locked into their gear and whatever security issues come with that gear.
So with that part done, I needed to turn my attention to Bell. When I first called Distributel, they said that they would take care of cancelling all my services. But I had a suspicion that this wasn’t true. Thus I called back and it turns out that they would only cancel my home phone, and everything else was on me. Not the biggest deal in the world but Distributel needs to train their agents to deliver the correct information 100% of the time. In any case, I called Bell and when I pressed the options to cancel my account, I got dumped to retentions. They then asked me if I was interested in hearing what specials that they had and I blew them off. I was kind of surprised by that because my experience with my clients is that Bell is usually dismissive of customers who leave. As in if you want to leave, go ahead sort of dismissive. Then they call days or weeks later with a “winback” deal. But that seems to have have changed recently if they are trying to retain me as I am going out the door. Having said that, I am certain that I will be receiving a bunch of calls in the next few days and weeks to try and lure me back. Now beyond that, I also got via email what I needed to send my HH4000 back to them, which I will do next week.
I’ll let you know how it goes with Distributel. So far almost everything that they said that they were going to do has been delivered. I’ll be watching to see if that continues.
Posted in Commentary with tags Zoho on October 24, 2024 by itnerd
Zoho Corporation, a global technology company headquartered in Chennai, announced today that it will be leveraging the NVIDIA AI accelerated computing platform – which includes NVIDIA NeMo, part of NVIDIA AI Enterprise software – to build and deploy its large language models (LLMs) in its SaaS applications. Once the LLMs are built and deployed, they will be available to Zoho Corporation’s 700,000+ customers across ManageEngine and Zoho.com globally. Over the past year, the company has invested more than USD 10 million in NVIDIA’s AI technology and GPUs, and plans to invest an additional USD 10 million in the coming year.
Zoho prioritises user privacy from the outset to create models that are compliant with privacy regulations from the ground up, rather than retrofitting them later. Its goal is to help businesses realize ROI swiftly and effectively by leveraging the full stack of NVIDIA AI software and accelerated computing to increase throughput and reduce latency.
Zoho has been building its own AI technology for over a decade and adding it contextually to its wide portfolio of over 100 products across its ManageEngine and Zoho divisions. Its approach to AI is multi-modal, geared towards deriving contextual intelligence that can help users make business decisions. The company is building narrow, small and medium language models, which are distinct from LLMs. This provides options for using different size models in order to provide better results across a variety of use cases. Relying on multiple models also means that businesses that do not have a large amount of data can still benefit from AI. Privacy is also a core tenet in Zoho’s AI strategy, and its LLM models will not be trained on customer data.
Through this collaboration, Zoho will be accelerating its LLMs on the NVIDIA accelerated computing platform with NVIDIA Hopper GPUs, using the NVIDIA NeMo end-to-end platform for developing custom generative AI—including LLMs, multimodal, vision, and speech AI. Additionally, Zoho is testing NVIDIA TensorRT-LLM to optimize its LLMs for deployment, and has already seen a 60% increase in throughput and 35% reduction in latency compared with a previously used open-source framework. The company is also accelerating other workloads like speech-to-text on NVIDIA accelerated computing infrastructure.
Posted in Commentary with tags Hacked on October 24, 2024 by itnerd
Disability nonprofit Easterseals filed a breach notification with regulators after the Rhysida ransomware group attempted to extort $1.3 million from the organization this week.
Easterseals, which provides support to disabled children, seniors, military veterans and others, stated that on April 1 its Peoria-based Central Illinois location “experienced a network disruption that impacted the functionality and access of certain systems.”
The investigation determined that the bad actor accessed certain files from Easterseals’ network, some of which includes personal information of almost 15,000 individuals, such as:
Full names
Addresses
Driver’s licenses
SSNs
Medical information
Passports
The nonprofit serves more than 1.5 million people across the country and provides additional services to 100,000 physicians. Easterseals says that more than 80% of its fundraising is spent directly on care for the disabled.
Stephen Gates, Principal Security SME, Horizon3.ai had this to say:
“Nonprofits are no longer immune to cyberattacks, despite their humanitarian missions. Attackers likely target them for three main reasons: their vast stores of confidential donor data, often weak security postures, and constrained IT budgets. These organizations face the growing challenge of doing more with less.
“Now is the time for non-profits to conduct thorough assessments of their networks, identifying blind spots beyond just known vulnerabilities. Easily compromised credentials, exposed data, misconfigurations, weak security controls, and inadequate policies are significant threats. The cost of traditional, human-led risk assessments can be prohibitive, but autonomous solutions are now available to deliver affordable, efficient assessments that anyone can use.”
This of course isn’t good. But it does illustrate that any sector is a target from threat actors like these. Thus every group needs to do what they need to do to keep threat actors out, and by extension not become the next headline.
Introducing AI Overviews in Canada
Posted in Commentary with tags Google on October 28, 2024 by itnerdAI Overviews in Search are coming to Canada! Google is beginning the full rollout of AI Overviews in Canada — helping you search the web in a whole new way, no matter what questions are on your mind. This innovative AI-powered feature simplifies how users connect with web information.
Key Benefits:
Please find the full blog post here.
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