Bluetek IT Solutions Blog

The rise in popularity of crypto art, also known as NFTs, comes at a price.

The good

• Blue chip NFT projects such as CryptoPunks, Bored Ape Yacht Club, and CyberKongz have great teams and communities behind them. These NFTs have some sort of utility and even reward holders, which results in passive income. 
• CryptoPunks became so popular that individual images have been auctioned off at Christie's and Sotheby's.
•  At first, everyone could get in. Let's take Axie Infinity as an example. It was extremely popular in Southeast Asia because the cost of entry was close to nothing and you could make some money on the side with it, which was crucial for some during the pandemic.
• The future of NFTs goes beyond crypto art. More on that in the video.

The Dwellwell product aims to take the guesswork out of property maintenance and serve as a 'check engine light' for homes.

Dwellwell, a data and analytics product that monitors the health of the entire home, launched with the goal of transforming residential property maintenance, according to the company. Bethesda, Maryland-based Dwellwell Analytics has raised more than $12 million in seed funding from the State of Maryland and executives from the proptech, engineering, and real estate industries since its founding in 2018.

Reports show security is a major concern when using a collaboration tool because it houses the customer data and also important internal data.

The benefits of collaboration tools are spoken everywhere: less reliance on email, more organic collaboration on projects, and better communication and relationships between teams.

Collaboration tools consist of solutions, including video conferencing, VoIP, document sharing, and instant messaging.

However, these tools create potential security threats, and evaluating vulnerabilities — and viable solutions — should be a sustainable part of our tool-selection process.

Security Threats To Be Aware Of — And Potential Solutions

Privileged users: Different individuals in the organization may have varying levels of access to your collaboration tool. With collaboration software, information can reside within unique partitions, with access restricted to selected team members. If a privileged user’s information is compromised, then the entire data will be available to all.

Microsoft says the preview is built off “the core of Microsoft Lists,” and comes with some new features, including tabbed views and the ability to add images in-line. The preview isn’t a feature-complete version of Lists, unfortunately, as Microsoft mentions that it’s missing some functionalities of the standard app (although it’s not clear exactly what). It’s also not available on the iOS or Android app yet.

If you do decide to try out the preview, keep in mind that there are some limitations on storage — rather generous ones, at least. You can create up to 50 lists with a limit of up to 2,000 items per list and can upload up to 200MB worth of videos, files, and images to each list.

It's ironic when you can put yourself at risk by responding to a message in your browser that warns you that you are at risk. If you ever see a message telling you about a potential malware threat while visiting a Web page, that message may be an attempt to get you to install a rogue security program that that can harm your home or business computer.

Scareware

You might know the terms malware and spyware, but scareware may be a new one. Modern cybercriminals now attack victims by scaring them using a variety of methods. One reason that attackers succeed is that many tech-savvy computer users understand how important it is to respond to security warning messages. Microsoft's Window Defender program, for example, issues an alert when malevolent software attempts to infiltrate your system. Similarly -- but fraudulently -- scareware issues a fake warning message that alerts you to a threat that does not exist.

NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING continues to find its way into unexpected corners. This time, it's phishing emails. In a small study, researchers found that they could use the deep learning language model GPT-3, along with other AI-as-a-service platforms, to significantly lower the barrier to entry for crafting spearphishing campaigns at a massive scale. 

Not a day goes by we don’t hear about another “ransomware” attack, it seems – including high-profile attacks on a major U.S. oil pipeline and the world’s largest meat processing company.

President Joe Biden pressured Russian President Vladimir Putin to crack down on ransomware attacks to “avoid unnecessary action.”

As the name suggests, ransomware is an attack that locks your computer and demands a ransom to give back your data.

Cybercriminals typically target businesses and governments – in the hopes they’ll pay bounties to release files and perhaps avoid a public relations disaster – but opportunistic crooks also extort money from regular computer users, like you and me. Because hey, it all adds up.

You might sit down to use your laptop or desktop and see an on-screen alert that your computer has been locked or that your files have been “encrypted.” To obtain a decryption key, you must pay up. The ransom demanded from individuals varies greatly, but it's typically a few hundred dollars and must be paid in difficult-to-trace cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin.

One of the most important applications we choose is our internet browser. When on a computer or a mobile device, we work in that most of the time because many applications are now cloud-based, so accessing them means going through your browser.

Over the years browsers have come and gone. A little over a decade ago, Internet Explorer was the head of the pack, and now that browser is retired, Google’s Chrome has been in the top spot for several years.

But just because a browser is number one today, doesn’t mean it’s going to stay that way. One browser that has steadily been making its way up in popularity since its release in 2015 is Microsoft Edge.

Edge is the replacement for Internet Explorer, but it’s taken a while for it to become mainstream. It seems that now is its time.

It's only a prototype for now, but TCL's glasses look similar to the vision that other tech companies have been promising for years.

TCL, best known in the US for its value-priced TVs, is now looking to leap into lenses with a new smart glasses concept it announced ahead of CES 2022. The Chinese electronics maker joins tech giants like Facebook parent company Meta, Microsoft, Oppo, Snap and Apple in exploring the potential of augmented and virtual reality. 

2021 can be described as the year of the software supply chain attack – the year in which SolarWinds opened the world’s eyes, and the extent of the threat became apparent.

Apart from SolarWinds, other major attacks included Kaseya, Codecov, ua-parser-js and Log4j. In each case, the attraction for the attacker is that a single breach, compromise or vulnerability in distributed code can lead to multiple – even thousands – of victims.

Following a six-month analysis of customer security assessments conducted by Argon (an Aqua Security company), the 2021 Software Supply Chain Security Report highlights the primary areas of criminal focus: open-source vulnerabilities and poisoning; code integrity issues; and exploiting the software supply chain process and supplier trust to distribute malware or backdoors.

A torn-down virtual infrastructure creates risks for any business. And it can have a significant impact on how quickly you can retrieve your data and resume operations following an attack.

These days, many businesses use virtualized infrastructure for more straightforward data storage. It’s because this approach is superior to physical solutions due to enhanced flexibility, straightforward provisioning, and affordable pricing. 

However, this model also requires a comprehensive approach to security. 

There’s a much greater risk of data loss, as many tools and practices for physical data protection are nearly useless in the virtual setting. Virtual threats are different, that’s why you need to think beyond traditional perimeter protection. 

So, if you’re using a virtualized infrastructure for data storage, keep reading. 

This article discusses the risks of improper virtualized infrastructure security and talks about ways you can improve it. 

What is AIOps?

Coined by Gartner, AIOps—i.e. artificial intelligence for IT operations—is the application of artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, such as natural language processing and machine learning models, to automate and streamline operational workflows. By aggregating data in real-time, AIOps platforms can make predictions around operational hazards, such as a data breach, which can either kick off a prescriptive action automatically, like a defense protocol, or alert security teams to action on an urgent issue more immediately. These tools are typically integrated into DevOps and DevSecOps teams to help with performance monitoring and reduce mean-time-to-know (MTTK).

The demand for AIOps has only grown with the increased business focus on digital transformation initiatives. While the use of virtual machines, container-based microservices and shared multi-tenant infrastructure have accelerated application development, it has unfortunately come at the expense of operational efficiency as each app has its own set of data. AIOps attempts to break down the operational silos by aggregating this data and providing more transparency and insight to it organizations. This, in turn, allows businesses to reduce costs and improve decision-making to make progress against goals.

In 2021, leadership was about finding new ways to deliver on commitments and grow, despite global challenges. It involved coaching teams that were working out of home offices and balancing new distractions and personal commitments – all while managing anxiety about what was to come. In 2022, we hope to finally put the pandemic behind us and set the tone for a new kind of workplace and workplace culture.

Whether you are a veteran leader or are stepping into a leadership role for the first time, you likely realize that there is no one-size-fits-all approach for the times ahead. The following tenets can help you craft a leadership strategy that supports your team as they deliver results without disruption.

1. Create a culture that supports innovation

You should turn off autofill in your password manager, and stop using some browser password managers altogether, argues a Czech security researcher.

"Most password managers have the autofill feature enabled by default, even though it reduces the security of the stored password," said Marek Toth, a penetration tester at Avast, in a recent blog post.

Autofilling is when your password manager fills in the username and password fields in a website's login page with your saved credentials without you actively prompting the password manager. 

The characters pasted into the field can then be "read" by scripts present in the login page — such as might be preset in an online ad that has nothing to do with the page itself — and those scripts will be able to copy and send your username and password anywhere. 

Browser developers are making privacy a priority, but they still may not be doing as much as you'd like in fighting pervasive ad industry trackers. You can take your online privacy into your own hands and outsmart that online tracking, though. A good way to start is by adjusting some of your browser settings. 

Incidents like Facebook's Cambridge Analytica scandal elevated privacy protection on Silicon Valley's priority list by revealing how companies compile reams of data as you traverse the internet. Their goal? To build a richly detailed user profile so they can target you with more accurate, clickable and thus profitable advertisements.

Apple and Google are in a war for the web, with Google pushing aggressively for an interactive web to rival native apps and Apple moving more slowly -- partly out of concern new features will worsen security and be annoying to use. Privacy adds another dimension to the competition and to your browser decision.

Ransomware is malware that encrypts your files or stops you from using your computer until you pay money (a ransom) for them to be unlocked. If your computer is connected to a network the ransomware may also spread to other computers or storage devices on the network. 

Some of the ways you can get infected by ransomware include:

-Visiting unsafe, suspicious, or fake websites.

-Opening file attachments that you weren’t expecting or from people you don’t know.

-Opening malicious or bad links in emails, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media posts, or in instant messenger or SMS chats.

You can often recognize a fake email and webpage because they have bad spelling, or just look unusual. Look out for strange spellings of company names (like "PayePal" instead of "PayPal") or unusual spaces, symbols, or punctuation (like "iTunesCustomer Service" instead of "iTunes Customer Service").

Ransomware can target any PC—whether it’s a home computer, PCs on an enterprise network, or servers used by a government agency.

You may have state-of-the-art servers, but their efficiency can diminish over time. Managing them is key to optimizing your business operations.

Numerous organizations rely on servers for various IT functions, such as applications, emails, hosting websites, and data storage. 

Although many companies have turned to cloud-based services using remote data centers, many enterprises still depend on in-house servers. As such, they need to ensure their devices remain in tip-top condition

That’s where server management comes into play. 

Managing your servers can streamline the performance of your team by allowing them to complete complex tasks faster. Plus, it can enable them to detect problems early on before they get out of hand and compromise your business. As a result, the risk of experiencing operational setbacks is drastically lower. 

But the only way to make the most of your server management is to perform it correctly. And to help you do so, this article will share nine tips on improving your server management. 

A scientist who wrote a leading textbook on artificial intelligence has said experts are “spooked” by their own success in the field, comparing the advance of AI to the development of the atom bomb.

Prof Stuart Russell, the founder of the Center for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence at the University of California, Berkeley, said most experts believed that machines more intelligent than humans would be developed this century, and he called for international treaties to regulate the development of the technology.

Technology manufacturers cater to two very large markets with different needs: home users and businesses. You’re about to enter the SoHo (small office, home office) market where home technologies dominate because most single traders don’t need proper business systems with all the extra costs and complications involved.

Some complications are unavoidable. These include, as you know, backup and security, plus things like coping with data protection requirements. But as you will be a startup business working from home, I suggest using home technologies as far as possible. You can move to a business-oriented approach when you need to expand. When that time comes, you will have a much better idea of what you actually need.

Most companies know this by now. What they’re trying to figure out is: how can they avoid becoming yet another bad example?

The short answer is, thinking critically about the data you’re collecting and how you’re using it needs to be everyone’s job. Expanding the circle of who is in the room helping to question, build, and monitor algorithms is the only way that we will develop responsible AI. Doing that work requires data literacy — the ability to parse and organize complex data, interpret and summarize information, develop predictions, or appreciate the ethical implications of algorithms. Like math, it can be learned in beginner and advanced modes, spans multiple disciplines, and is often more practical than academic.