Facebook Dealing With Fallout From a Huge Data Leak

 Facebook is by far the largest social media network and it does bring a lot of value to a lot of people. Whether that be for personal use or professional use, Facebook has staked a claim as the most successful technology company in the world. With this comes scrutiny, especially if you’ve operated the way Facebook has over the past few years. Let’s take a look at a situation that Facebook is dealing with in 2021.

What’s the Issue?

The situation Facebook has found itself in didn’t actually start recently. In 2019, they acknowledged a data breach that exposed the Facebook ID, phone number, birth dates, email addresses, and more than a half a billion Facebook users (533 million). Recently, this information, which had been for sale on the dark web since the breach, was dumped online and made available for free. 

Facebook wanted to make sure that the narrative surrounding the massive data dump was positive, saying that they have since patched the vulnerability that made this happen. Some cybersecurity analysts aren’t so sure as there is evidence that it had been acquired by scraping, a hacking strategy used to lodge loose unprotected data. Either way, it has peaked the attention of many data privacy advocates and government officials. 

Once Data is Leaked, It’s Leaked

The massive data breach that resulted in this recent release, may not have any tangible value, but Facebook’s market value has dropped more than $80 billion since news of the breach hit the airwaves in 2019. We also know these facts:

• One of Facebook’s major revenue streams revolves around transactions with this data.
• This data is out there for free.
• It was likely obtained from a hacking tactic called scraping.

Once a person’s data is available online, it is out there forever. That’s why it is so important for your company to prioritize putting in place tools and strategies that will help you keep your customers’ and your staff’s data safe. If Facebook wasn’t one of the largest technology companies with one of the most utilized services in the world, the billions and billions of dollars this whole snafu would have surely bankrupted them. As it stands today, Facebook is still worth a whopping 665 billion dollars. 

How Can Your Small Business Improve Its Physical Security

 Small and medium-sized businesses have been playing catchup for over a decade when it comes to getting the physical security solutions that larger companies utilize. Fortunately, the gap has shrunk in recent years. Today, we thought we would outline the need for these tools and the physical security solutions that your business should be using to protect your assets.

SMBs aren’t just mom-and-pop shops, they can have hundreds of people on the payroll. That doesn’t mean that physical security isn’t important for smaller businesses, it just outlines that even small companies have a lot of people and resources to protect. For the larger business--even the larger SMB--having a team of people looking after the business’ security is typical. These businesses will have security guards on staff whose jobs are to monitor and patrol. 

These organizations typically have all of the following tools in place:

Security Cameras

The innovations to security camera systems have been remarkable in a short period of time. Only a few short years ago it seemed that any surveillance cameras produced images that had lousy detail and were sometimes more of a hindrance than a help. Today’s security cameras, however, have high-definition (HD) cameras with megapixel IP lenses that capture everything in great detail. 

Other improvements include camera systems with a wide dynamic range (WDR), digital signal processing (DSP), and noise canceling. These features help these HD systems create cleaner images in a long list of different environments. Some systems support low-light operations for use in times when businesses are closed. 

Today, there are camera options for all types of businesses, even the mom-and-pop shops we referenced before. A number of options provide additional value through integrations with security companies, or advanced technology features that use AI to analyze any motion detected to trigger a recording, trip an alarm, or simply alert the authorities. 

Security Systems

Outside of your surveillance system, SMBs may want to consider installing a more sophisticated security system on their brick-and-mortar facilities. Looking beyond the digital camera system, businesses can establish motion detectors, door alarms, and access control. These systems typically work through your business’ wireless network, so you will need to have a high-speed and reliable connection, but it is a great investment to protect your business’ assets. 

Access Control

We typically talk about access control as a type of security used to protect your business’ digital assets, but the same principle applies to your physical security. Not all employees need access to all parts of your business, and with a comprehensive access control system, you can make that so. Typically, these systems are a combination of automatic locking and authentication systems that are placed on doors. You can choose from mechanical, which uses a keypad for entry; electronic, which can power any number of authentication systems, such as key fobs or badges; or biometric, which ties access to some type of physical attribute. Whichever you choose, your access control system can be controlled through a secure portal through security software. 

Lighting

You wouldn’t think of lighting as being a strong deterrent against theft, but you would be surprised. Unfortunately, leaving the lights on all the time is wasteful and expensive. To use lighting for security, motion-detecting lights, as well as lights that are set to come on at the same time every day, can ensure that your business isn’t left in the dark when it comes to securing your brick and mortar assets. 

Solid State Storage Can Breathe New Life Into Your Computer

 When you are looking to buy a new computer, you need to consider the options available for data storage. This is especially true if you are looking to replace a computer used by several users. The more people that use a computer the more files will likely be stored, after all. Today, however, there is another determination to be made: how fast is your storage device?

Storage Really Isn’t a Concern Anymore

Storage used to really be a problem, but today users have all types of storage options on a new PC or laptop. Typically, most budget laptops will come with a hard disk drive (HDD) that has 256 GB or 512 GB or 1 TB on it. The funny thing is that it costs the factory that produces them the same amount to make them regardless of the capacity. 

With humans producing more data than ever—around eight billion 1.4 MB floppy disks per second—there have to be new storage options available. 

And there are.

The modern disk drive can now hold more data and run much faster. Think about it this way, the built-in storage of an average, off-the-rack PC holds the equivalent of about 750,000 of those floppy disks that we all used 20 years ago. If you consider, too, that there are cloud vendors that provide basically unlimited amounts of storage, you wouldn’t worry too much about the quantity of data held on your PC’s disk drive. 

The 1TB drive that was built into your PC really is a lot and unless you plan on using it for high-storage tasks: photography, video editing, 3D modeling, or gaming, you won’t really need everything you get. 

At this point capacity shouldn’t be your final metric for determining the PC you’ll use, unless you know for a fact you’re going to need a lot of storage.

Really, Only Performance Matters

Ultimately, your hard drive's effectiveness is the defining factor. The modern PC has an incredible amount of processing power, which means running resource-intensive software is a breeze. This means the speed of your hard drive could be a problem if it doesn’t perform fast enough. 

There are two types of disk drives:

Hard Disk Drive (HDDs)

HDDs contain magnetic platters that spin at very high rates of speed. They have been the standard for decades now and are generally more affordable than other forms of storage. These rewritable platters are capable of storing high capacities of data and are used in servers and other high-yield storage facilities. 

Solid State Drives (SSDs)

SSDs are effectively digital storage devices. They contain no moving parts, and as a result, they are much faster, which has an effect on all of a system’s processes. These drives were initially expensive, but prices have been dropping as they become the norm. At Net It On we typically recommend that any new workstation or laptop should have an SSD for the main system/application drive.

Looking at the Future Impact of Blockchain

 For the past decade or so, one of the most mentioned emerging technologies is blockchain. It was hailed as the technology that would change everything, but as far as the practical uses that would facilitate that change, blockchain hasn’t seemed to have done much. Today, we thought we would take a closer look at blockchain and why it hasn’t become the world-altering technology a lot of people were expecting.

What is Blockchain Technology?

Blockchain technology is pretty complicated, so why don’t we give you a basic summary. The blockchain is a distributed ledger that is ultra-secure, unalterable, and completely transparent. It uses encryption to provide reliability. So each transaction on the blockchain is its own specific block, regardless if it is simply making an adjustment to information in a previous block. Since this information is stored over several computers and not just centralized, it is nearly impossible to hack without breaking the chain and corrupting the record. 

When Will Blockchain Change the World?

It already has, of course. As the technology that makes cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin possible, it already has provided a value to society. Blockchain, however, has been mentioned as one of those technologies that will change the world because it can be used for data security and reliability, an increasingly important aspect considering the number of threats that are out there at the moment. 

 At this time, there are numerous ways that blockchain technology can be used. Companies big and small are trying to bring to market new and useful pieces of technology using blockchain; they just haven’t accomplished this yet. Why? It’s simple. 

Blockchain Changes Everything

The major problem with replacing the technological systems that are used today with blockchain fueled systems is that companies have already invested in innovative solutions. The cost is simply too high to abandon those systems to integrate blockchain-based alternatives. While it has been proven in specialized cases that blockchain technology provides unparalleled data security, reliability, and transparency, it’s simply not cost effective enough for businesses to prioritize at the moment. This should change as blockchain technologies begin to become more cost-effective for businesses to use. For now, however, it’s just not a viable option for many businesses. 

Industries that are Using Blockchain

There have been some industries that have rolled out some effective blockchain technology. These include healthcare and finance, but going forward you will see blockchain-fueled systems in the following sectors:

• Asset management
• Capital market infrastructure
• Finance
• Global trade and commerce
• FinTech and payment systems
• Real Estate
• Individual identity and access control
• Energy
• Governments
• Healthcare
• Law
• Media
• Contract management
• Philanthropy

 This list is growing rapidly. We’re only years away from blockchain-enhanced systems keeping transactional data safe, regardless of the industry. 

Tip of the Week: Microsoft Word Features You May Not Have Known About

 If your business utilizes Microsoft Word in any way, shape, or form, there’s a good chance that you aren’t using it to its full capabilities. Let’s go over just a few of the features that the software offers that can assist you in excelling (whoops… wrong Office application) in your day-to-day responsibilities, and how to put them to use.

Focus Mode

There are times that the Microsoft Word interface—packed with utility and features as it is—can be a distraction to your workflows. Fortunately, Microsoft Word has a means to remove this source of distraction from your display: Focus Mode.

Activating Focus Mode effectively wipes away the interface from the top of your screen, allowing you to focus exclusively on the content that you are producing. In the View menu, go to the Immersive section and click on Focus to activate Focus Mode. Your interface will disappear leaving only the document you're working on. When in Focus Mode, you can also change the background of your document workspace to a color that better suits your needs.

To exit out of Focus Mode, simply hover your cursor near the top of the screen to call the interface back up. Selecting Focus again will return your display to normal.

Immersive Reader

The Immersive Reader button appears right next to the Focus button and is intended to make reading a document more accessible by temporarily changing text size and formatting to suit the reader’s unique needs. You can even have your text automatically broken up by its different syllables if need be.

Of course, some people comprehend what they are reading better if they can listen to it, which Immersive Reader also enables through its Read Aloud functionality. With full control over the voice that is reading, what in the document is being read, and how quickly it is being read out, this makes it much simpler for people with different productivity styles to succeed the way they do best.

Inserting an Online Video

Sometimes, multimedia is just what a document needs to be particularly engaging, and if you have a video on YouTube or Vimeo in mind that you want to include, Word provides a simple means of doing so. Under the Insert Menu, you’ll find Online Video. Clicking this will enable you to paste in a link to insert the video clip into your document.

This video can be moved around and resized as you see fit and can be played within the document itself.

Admittedly, these capabilities may not be the ones you use the most out of what Word has to offer but can certainly be helpful to know at the right time. What other programs or solutions would you like to see more tips about? Let us know in the comments!

The Internet is Very Different From Place to Place

 While it seems decidedly commonplace nowadays, the Internet is undeniably a miracle of the modern age—shrinking the world in a way never seen before. Of course, this has complicated things considerably in terms of the rules that the Internet must comply with, based on regional regulations. Let’s reexamine the impact that these laws, regulations, and restrictions have had on how the Internet appears across the globe.

How the Internet is Dictated by Politics

Geopolitical considerations have had a ton of influence over the way that the Internet has been shaped—something that runs more or less counter to the foundational idea of the world wide web. Seeing as how critical the Internet is to modern society, is it so surprising that some governments want to impose their own will over it?

Of course not, which is why we see the following events and more happening all the time:

• The United States government has considered blocking TikTok and WeChat, as they are hosted in China.
• The Indian government has blocked dozens of applications (including these two) for similar reasons and are now looking critically at Twitter.
• The Australian government was at odds with Facebook over a proposed law, leading to Facebook changing its functionality in the country until an agreement was struck.

These Internet companies and the disputes they have with these governments have made it so that the Internet is notably different depending on the region you are accessing it from. The global spread of nationalism over the past decade has only made these differences even more pronounced.

The Changes

Consider Facebook: when it first went global, so many people were given a taste of freedom that some societies had never had—only to have some nations (like the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the People’s Republic of China) immediately restrict this access. Regardless, Facebook spread around the world at a pace rarely before seen.

However, all these years and countless Facebook-inspired headlines later, many countries are clearly having second thoughts about these companies having so much influence and actively working to rein them in.

Let’s consider the situation in Australia. When the country’s government passed a law that was meant to require technology firms and social networking platforms (notably, Facebook) to pay for the privilege to share certain content, many news organizations and charities found their ability to use the platform hindered. While a short-term solution was agreed upon, the underlying concerns regarding Internet governance remain.

Could Global Regulations be Incoming?

Many have taken up the call for a unified standard in terms of Internet use and regulation, but any progress towards this end has been slow. It certainly doesn’t help that the Internet is a more critical aspect of everyday life in some countries over others, and so there are financial motivations in play to complicate whatever standards may be suggested.

But what do you think? Should the Internet be treated as a global resource, standardized by one set of rules? Should individual nation-states have different amounts of power over the use of the Internet within their borders? Let us know what you think so we can keep the conversation going.

A.I. Can Sell Pastries and Diagnose Cancer

 Artificial intelligence is one of the most intriguing technologies that has come down the pike. For the small and medium-sized business, it may seem more like science fiction than a solution to their business’ operational problems. Today, AI is more accessible for the SMB than ever, and today, we thought we would share with you a situation where the technology—designed to help out in a bakery—is being used to diagnose cancer. 

Why Would a Bakery Use AI in the First Place?

In Japan, where the technology was developed, they have a lot of cafeteria-style restaurants. An AI-aided software was developed to automate the role of cashier. Instead of having a human cashier on staff to count out the shopper’s selections at checkout, an attendant simply instructs customers to place the baked goods they want to buy out on the counter. Once they are ready to check out, the whole process takes seconds. The AI effectively identifies the pastries, calculates the price owed and calculates a total for the customer. This allows each customer to be rang up much more quickly.

By streamlining the process with automation, these Japanese bakeries, which usually carry large selections of items, were able to check out more people and it increased their revenue. It also cut down on the packaging required as the AI would identify each individual pastry. The development of this AI-integrated application was spearheaded by BRAIN Co. Called BakeryScan, it is now in over 400 retail establishments in Japan and costs around $20,000 to deploy. 

By the way: if you’re worried about the prospect of unwrapped baked goods being sold in the past year or so, the technology has since improved to recognize pastries through protective wrapping just as accurately.

This technology has obvious benefits for retail organizations, but what you won’t expect is that nearly the same software could find another use: Diagnosing cancer.

A doctor at Kyoto’s Louis Pasteur Center for Medical Research saw a segment on TV and the connection was made. Turns out that some baked goods look similar to some cancer cells observed through a microscope. Making an association with the utility of the BakeryScan AI, it was repurposed as AI-Scan, a medical tool. 

AI-Scan can spot differences in cancerous urinary cells with its Cyto-AiSCAN offshoot (with accuracy measuring over 99 percent), and has been adopted for many other purposes. Today, organizations are using it to distinguish pill types, one company uses it to identify bolts and other fasteners that may have some problem. Toyota has also started using the technology to help design more effective airbags. 

This gives you a good idea about how AI is being adopted to further the technology used to improve the outlook for humanity, but it can also be used to help your business. Today, there are a number of software solutions that have integrated an AI or machine learning system that can help you streamline processes or, like AI-Scan, change the way you view your business.