SynchroNews
Fearsome Amex Phishing Scam
We know this horror story: A trusted character is not who (or what) others think he is. Typically, movie audiences get to see the creature’s eyes glow or go all black when the onscreen victim isn’t looking. Devils behind a recent phishing scam that targeted American Express accounts, however, were fiendishly clever about hiding their…
Read MoreAre Humans Mean to Artificially Intelligent Entities?
Sometimes we are the fiends … science reveals that humans tend to be meaner to artificially intelligent entities than to other humans. Let’s find out why: A new incarnation of a 1970s thriller, Westworld, has begun airing on HBO to rave reviews and much excitement. The original film featured an android cowboy (Yul Brynner) walking…
Read MoreIn Other Tales of Terror
As frightening as the recent Amex phishing scam was, it wasn’t the only monster-related cybersecurity incident to come to light during the past few weeks. Here are a few of the headliners: On September 22, Yahoo revealed that data from at least 500 million user accounts might have been stolen in one of the largest…
Read MoreMatching Our Technology to the Enterprise NCC-1701
When you stop and think about it, today we have quite a bit of technology that was science fiction back in 1966. And in some ways, we’re actually a bit ahead of where Gene Roddenberry expected the human race to be in the 23rd Century. Take, for example, the communicator. On Star Trek TOS (the…
Read MoreIf IT Threats Were Cast as Star Trek Villains …
The United Federation of Planets had a lot of enemies, and if you run a business, you also face some substantial threats to your operation. So in recognition of Star Trek’s 50th anniversary, we decided to cast IT’s most infamous bad actors as notable villains from the Trek shows and movies. Ransomware and Viruses as…
Read MoreInventions and Innovations Straight Outta Ireland
Since everybody is Irish on St. Patrick’s Day, we thought we’d mention some Ā inventions that we can now claim as part of our newly acquired heritage. As listed at Irish Central (seriously, it’s a website) here are 10 notable inventions by our Irish brethren: Color Photography Invented by John Joly, Bracknagh, Ireland (1857 – 1933)…
Read MoreNetwork Security: What Is Risk Analysis?
When you think about risks to your business network … what comes to mind? Hackers? A server meltdown? Data loss? That would be an understandable response, but actually those aren’t risks. Instead, they are properly understood as “threats.” So what’s the difference, you ask? (Or pretend you did.) To conduct a proper risk analysis, look…
Read MoreNetwork Security: What Is Risk Analysis?
When you think about risks to your business network … what comes to mind? Hackers? A server meltdown? Data loss? That would be an understandable response, but actually those aren’t risks. Instead, they are properly understood as “threats.” So what’s the difference, you ask? (Or pretend you did.) To conduct a proper risk analysis, look…
Read MoreBack to School Special: Kids & Social Media
This may come as a shock, but kids like their smartphones … and their iPads … and laptops or even desktop computers. If you don’t believe us, find a teenager and ask him; maybe he’ll stop texting long enough to answer you. One Pew Research poll from a couple of years ago found that kids…
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