Tag Archives: Judith Bitterli

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Apple Watch and the smartwatch revolution

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The brand has done an excellent marketing campaign in rolling it out, including high-profile celebrity seedings (Katy Perry, Beyoncé and Christy Turlington Burns, to name a few) and a high-touch, pre-order program that included in-store previews for customized “fittings.”

Initial reports by analysts estimate Apple have already taken 2.3 million pre-orders, giving it the familiar headache of demand outstripping supply.

Some reports indicate the anticipated April 24 ship date has been quietly removed for their website, and Apple’s retail chief acknowledged in internal memos that the watch won’t be available for sale with inventory in its retail stores until June.

Meanwhile, research firm ABI estimates Apple will sell over 13 million Apple Watches this year.  Whenever the Apple Watch arrives, it’s a big and much-anticipated step in the wearable marketplace – and one of the major reasons pundits are calling this “the year of wearables.”

No doubt, this is an exciting time and a major step in wearable technology becoming mainstream.

Excitement may be tempered by the mixed initial reaction to the Apple Watch from testers who have concerns over battery life and functionality. Others have had trouble navigating through the various features. You can see a good summary of the media reactions here.

My thoughts? The Apple Watch is certainly more attractive than most wearable technology, having that great Apple sense of style. It has many fitness features (if not all the health apps originally envisioned) and allows you to use Apple Pay along with all sorts of other apps, whose number and magnitude will rapidly increase as third-party developers come along.

Currently, the pricing may be the biggest drawback. I’m not talking about the $10,000 gold watch, but the starting price point of $349/$549 for the sport watch depending on finishes. This, in my view, makes it an early adopter choice and not yet truly mainstream.

Not to be overlooked, is Google’s Android Wear OS for watches –which recently  received a major software update to greatly expand its watch capabilities. It comes just in time for the Apple Watch debut and looks to give that smartwatch platform a boost.  The Android Wear watches made by Samsung and LG have opening prices in the more demur range of $150-$300. (Researchers estimated that 720,000 smartwatches based on Android Wear shipped in the last six months of 2014.)

For now, these smartwatches all seem like more of a sidekick for our smartphones. An iPhone 5 ($549 unlocked) or above is required for Apple Watch, and an Android device (around $249 and up, depending on the maker) for the Google watch platform. But then, smartphone tethering is the case with most wearable devices today.

Still, it remains to be seen whether the new category of smartwatches will become really useful tools vs. timepiece status symbols. At AVG, we have already integrated our AVG Zen product into smart watches so that you can monitor and control the protection, performance and privacy of your devices with a single touch.

AVG Zen wearable

Personally, I will be keeping privacy and data in mind as smart watch manufacturers add more functionality to their devices. Using the Apple Watch as an example, it already has access to my personal health and payment information as well as my contacts, email and calendar.

How smart watches store, transmit and share this information will be a major influencer on whether or not I decide to experiment with a smart watch of my own.

AVG

Using Technology to Celebrate Earth Day 2015

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Given the enormous swings in climate change we are witnessing around the world, Earth Day takes on more meaning for many of us than ever before. Whether you acknowledge climate change, or not, protecting Mother Earth should be an imperative for us all.  Here’s a reminder for all of us living in the tech world about a few steps we can take to help protect the earth:

Recycle your technology

If you have an old cell phone or smartphone that you can donate for a good cause, that’s a wonderful place to start. Carrier Verizon, for example, has a program where your donation aids victims of domestic violence. It’s safe to recycle or donate smartphones, just be sure to wipe the device and take out the memory card first!

For those of us who work from home, many of us have printers and accumulate empty printer cartridges that can pile up. You don’t want those to end up in a landfill, though sadly, millions do…to the tone (sorry for the pun) of 350 million a year, according to Cartridge World. So please contact your equipment manufacturers about recycling programs. For example, HP has a robust program.

In the UK, Recycle4charity is an initiative that works with dozens of charities to generate donations from recycling old mobiles and printer cartridges.

For more advice on recycling technology check out CNet’s latest report. And, iRecycle by Earth911 is a free app on both Android and iOS that details more than 1,600,000 ways to recycle more than 350 materials.

 

There’s an app for that…

An ever-growing number of eco-friendly apps out there can help us protect the planet. By one estimate from IBM’s Smarter Planet there were 400 million green-related apps downloaded in 2014. That’s a lot of apps!

Here are a few of my favorites:

  • Monitor & reduce your energy consumption. By now, most people are familiar with the Nest thermostat to monitor and control your home thermostat. But there are many other examples such as The Wiser Energy Management System, by Schneider Electric. It’s a home energy management solution that lets you track and control your energy expenditures (and thus your costs).
  • Eliminate junk mail. How often do you find your mailbox still cluttered with junk mail? PaperKarma by Reputation.com is a free app that allows you to take a picture of the unwanted mail, and then handles it from there, contacting the distributor and cancelling further contact.
  • Travel energy-wise. Carma Carpool is an app available for free to cut down on costs, traffic jams, greenhouse gas emissions and overall pollution. Carma enables you to find rides and share your commute in many major cities in the U.S. and Ireland, as well as Oslo. It’s also a great way to use the Diamond lane, and the San Francisco Bay Area you get free tolls!
  • Shop eco-wise. Many of us also like to shop for eco-friendly products in environmentally friendly stores. GoodGuides, which I’ve mentioned before, is a free app that helps you find health, environmental, and social performance ratings for over 120,000 food, personal care, and household products — from baby shampoo to bathroom cleaner.
  • Get the game. Finally, the Earth Day Network has announced it will work developers of the “Angry Birds” game to create a game experience, called “Champions for Earth” to raise environmental awareness. Stay tuned. The game is due out in the fall.

I hope some of these ideas will help inspire you to celebrate Earth Day this Wednesday and every day.

AVG

‘Future Crimes’ – A New Book That Takes on the Future of Cybercrime

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“If you control the code, you control the world. This is the future that awaits us.”
– Marc Goodman

As anyone who reads this space knows, I’m a big fan of the Internet of Things, and yet equally worried about security in this brave new world.

A new book “Future Crimes: Everything Is Connected, Everyone Is Vulnerable and What We Can Do About It” emphasises these points and makes some suggestions.

What struck me is that many of what crimes Goodman labels as “future crimes” are already happening all around us. From the recent ISIS hack of French TV station to the epic hacks of the past year on major brands from Sony to Target, Home Depot and Chase. We’re definitely already at the intersection of connected technology and cybercrime.

“We’ve gone ahead and wired this world but failed to secure it,” Goodman said in a tweet. “We can but it’s going to be hard.”

Goodman writes about identity theft, stolen data, smartphone hacks, and speculates worryingly about the future. He sees this getting worse, of course, with the advent of smart houses, smart cars, and an increasingly wired world.

The recent wave of cybercrimes illustrates his warnings, and is one of the reasons it’s become a hit. The book was rated as Amazon’s Best Book of the Month in March and is a bestseller on the New York Times “Crime and Punishment” list.

When he writes about the future of technology, from smart pacemakers to 3-D technology, and the shadowy figures out to exploit the weaknesses of these devices, it can read like science fiction. But, as we’re fully aware at AVG, a connected future is rapidly approaching and it’s reality, not fiction.

Goodman does offer some positives, which is what made the book interesting to me: Without action this would be a litany of gloom and doom. He suggests the sharing of information between public and private sectors, something President Obama has been strongly advocating. Goodman also envisions  a “Manhattan Project” type organization combining the best and brightest from the private and governmental sector.

Goodman also says it is crucial to increase the technical knowledge of ordinary people, who use technology on an everyday basis. I think this is a very good idea. From our Clinton Global Initiative Smart User Mission to our Magda and Mo ebook series for children, at AVG we view it as part of our mission to we teach internet safety to the new generation of users coming online.  As Goodman points out, being tech savvy is only going to increase in importance.

AVG

Wear Red for Pay Equity

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Today, April 14, is National Equal Pay Day, which is designed to highlight the issue of gender/pay gap.

Why does National Equal Pay Day fall in the month of April? Because that’s how far into the year it is estimated that a woman must work to earn what a man earned in the previous year! Pay-equity.org is urging supporters to wear red today to symbolize how far behind women and minorities are in their pay.

We have a long way to go, inside and out of tech on this issue. As has been reported by the Government’s Department of Labor, overall women who work full-time still make 78 cents for every dollar a male counterpart makes. You can see details here. This despite the fact that the Equal Pay Act was enacted in 1963! (Ironically, at the height of the Mad Men era.)

AAUW (American Association of University Women), one of the champions in the fight to end wage discrimination, notes that for some inexplicable reason, there is a 7% difference in the earnings of males and females just one year after they graduate college. AAUW also reports that in 2013, the disparity is even greater for Hispanics, African Americans, American Indian and Native Hawaiian women.

Furthermore AAUW reports, “working mothers are often penalized for having children, while fatherhood generally tends to boost a man’s career.” In fact, the latter was the basis of my recent talk “Boardroom or Baby” at SXSW Interactive, which was designed to begin to tackle this issue.

The good (and sometimes painful) news is that pay rates and gender discrimination have been in the news a lot lately!

Earlier this year we applauded the Academy Award winning actress Patricia Arquette for her conscious-raising remarks at the Oscar bash. (See my earlier blog.)

And pay equity is a priority for the newly minted U.S. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton – who weighed in on the topic at the Women in Tech Conference in Silicon Valley and said in her keynote, “She’s right — it is time to have wage equality once and for all.”

President Obama clearly supports fair pay. I’m just guessing, but I think as the smart son of a single working mother he saw first-hand how wage discrimination worked. In his tenure he has signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and established the National Equal Pay Task Force. You can read more here about two new executive actions to help combat pay discrimination and strengthen enforcement of equal pay laws.

Then, there are the many recent lawsuits in the tech world that demonstrate how far we have to go in terms of pay and discrimination. (I won’t go into them here.)

Needless to say, it’s enough to make anyone see red. I think any fair-minded person, no matter what their gender or identity would agree.
So what can you do besides wear red today? You can get a free equal payday kit here with a lot of suggestions. And you can educate yourself. There’s an illuminating fact sheet supplied by AAUW.

Finally… as a woman, or a minority, or really as any employee, you should feel free to ask for a wage increase if you think you are due one! It’s amazing when you review the statistics of people who just don’t ask for a wage increase.

So, while I wouldn’t say National Equal Pay Day is really cause for celebration, we can use it to raise awareness. And you can wear red… I am.

AVG

Why ransomware poses a risk to businesses

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Last year’s attack on Sony is perhaps the most famous recent example of ransomware, but new increasingly sophisticated forms of the malware are on the rise.

To make matters worse, the scale of the problem is hard to know, because new research suggests many incidents are going unreported!

Ransomware is like digital kidnapping. An attacker encrypts the victim’s computer, or even individual files and charges a ransom for their safe return. If the ransom isn’t paid the files are destroyed and files seemingly lost forever.

Individuals, businesses, colleges and government agencies have all been among targets of ransomware. Any institution or individual that has critical files or systems are potential targets for ransomware attackers.

Even gamers were recently targeted, with the threat of losing their online creations providing the leverage.

Businesses in particular though can suffer at the hands of ransomware as shown in a recent attack targeting Danish chiropractors. The victims received an email from a potential new patient who conveniently provided past medical records via cloud storage service Dropbox. Once opened, the PacMan malware springs into action and encrypts essential business files containing valuable medical information.

Here in the United States, both the FBI and the White Collar Crime Center advise you to report ransomware threats or events to the agency at www.ic3.gov, and importantly, they advise against paying the ransom!

New research by ThreatTrack suggests that 30% of companies surveyed would negotiate and essentially “pay up” for the recovery of data. More notably, 55% of those that had previously been victims of ransomware said they would pay up again!

It also appears many incidents are likely going unreported, according to the ThreatTrack survey. Why? Likely because companies don’t want to suffer public scrutiny and humiliation or, perhaps, to encourage copycats.

 

What’s to be done?

The government and those of us in the security industry advise the first line of defense is preparedness.

Some basic tips include:

  • Educate yourself and employees about ransomware.
  • Regularly back up your data – and make sure a copy is stored offline.
  • Install and enable antivirus protection.
  • Make sure you keep all your systems and programs up to date.
  • Beware of links, and attachments. If in doubt, do not open it!

You can also stay abreast and get information on malware and other security threats here on the blog.

As with disease in the real world, prevention is sometimes the best cure in the digital world. It may seem like a bother, but having a preventative strategy could save you pain in the long run.

AVG

Will humans soon be banned from driving?

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A driverless car recently made the journey from the Golden Gate Bridge in California and drove cross-country to New York City. The voyage was the longest autonomous drive attempt in the U.S., and has put driverless vehicles in the news again.

The successful journey brought to mind a recent prediction from Elon Musk, the founder of electric car manufacturer Tesla:

“[Legislators] may outlaw driving cars because it’s too dangerous… You can’t have a person driving a two-ton death machine”.

While at first this might seem radical, I feel it’s a potentially realistic image of the future.

With Tesla, Google, Apple, and most major automakers working on self-driving cars, it’s a safe bet they will be commonplace in the next decade.

For his part, Musk drew a relationship with elevators: When elevators first came about, each had an elevator operator.  But as people became more used to the technology, and elevators became more safe and efficient, the operators went away.

Certainly, there is a lot to consider with the day of the self-driving cars coming. At the Nvidia conference, which debuted the firm’s computer platform for driverless cars, security issues with autonomous cars were also highlighted.

As Musk noted, there are some basic security concerns to deal with to make sure that people won’t be able to hack into vehicles.

“We’ve put a lot of effort into that, and we’ve had third parties try to hack it,” Musk said. He also said the threat of hackers taking over cars becomes more significant if the steering wheel and brake pedal disappear. Until then, he says drivers can override any potential problems.

As we’ve reported previously, car hacking is already happening today with automated, smart devices including car locks. Imagine when the entire car is vulnerable?

According to a recent congressional inquiry by Senator Ed Markey, there is a widespread absence of security and privacy protection being taken into consideration as automakers race to embrace the technology without considering the implications.

Clearly, the automotive and cybersecurity industries need to monitor autonomous technology very carefully, and adapt where needed.

Put simply, cars are another piece…a big piece… of the entire landscape of the Internet of Things, and if we are going to leave the driving to technology, we must make sure that it’s safe and secure.

AVG

Online Tax Identity Fraud on the rise

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I recently called my friend Mary to wish her a happy 83rd birthday. She was having a fine day, but had just received a disturbing phone message from the IRS requesting that she call back urgently to settle a tax debt, and that she could use her credit card to do so.

Thankfully, Mary was too smart to trust a blind call from a purported IRS representative – because the call was a one of the “imposter” tax fraud scams making the rounds. In this case, a con artist impersonates a government official and tries to bilk trusting taxpayers for un-owed back taxes. (This type of scam also happened to me last year, though not at tax time!)

Of the 2.5 million consumer complaints received by the Federal Trade Commission last year received, the imposter scams were the third most common.  Debt collection scams ranked second. But at the very top of the list is identity theft. (You can see the full list here.)

In tax identity theft, scammers steal Social Security numbers to file for a tax refund before the real taxpayer can. In many cases, victims may not even learn about the fraud until they file a return, at which point IRS notifies them that the return has already been filed and paid!

The IRS announced  that the number of tax identity theft cases has doubled each year in recent years. It estimated it has paid out $5.8 billion in fraudulent tax refunds in 2013 because of identity theft. The IRS also reported it also was able to stop another 5 million attempts to get fraudulent refunds, which saved taxpayers another $20 billion.

Many tax fraud cases involve stolen social security numbers. CNNMoney reports that hackers stole more than 6.5 million Social Security numbers last year, with up to 80 million more at risk this year as part of the Anthem data breach alone.

2014 is sometimes called the year of the hack and it is clear that while large-scale breaches continue we will surely see elevated rates of identity theft, especially in the tax season.

All is not lost though, by following a few steps you can help keep all your credentials in the right place:

  • Always keep you AntiVirus up to date! If you don’t protect your device, your data could be vulnerable to attack.
  • Never click a link you don’t trust. If in doubt, visit the official website and log in to your account there.
  • Shred physical copies of important documents when they’re no longer needed.
  • Don’t trust urgent phone calls or emails from the IRS demanding action and personal information. The IRS will never contact you by phone or email!
  • If you do get contacted, make a note of their number, and report it to the IRS at its fraud report site.

 

Here’s wishing you many happy returns!

AVG

Backlash against the “Selfie Stick”

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If you’ve been to a museum or tourist attraction recently you’ll have likely seen the now ubiquitous “selfie stick” in action. Users say the sticks provide better perspective and help avoid the fish-eye view of the hand-held phone camera. You could even argue that it’s also more secure than handing your valuable camera or phone over to a stranger(although I don’t know that there is much from preventing someone dashing by and snatching your stick along with your smartphone).

However the backlash against selfie sticks has appeared almost as quickly as the trend itself.

Many museums and other institutions are now taking the matter into their own hands and banning selfie sticks. For example, the Forbidden City in China joined the Palace of Versailles and Britain’s National Gallery, which both announced bans this past week. London’s National Gallery said it outlawed the “Narcisstick” in order to “protect paintings, individual privacy and the overall visitor experience”.

Earlier this month in the U.S., the Smithsonian museums in Washington also banned selfie sticks. Cameras and pictures are still allowed, but selfie sticks, tripods and monopods are not.

In a statement, the Smithsonian said, “For the safety of our visitors and collections, the Smithsonian prohibits the use of tripods or monopods in our museums and gardens. Effective today, March 3, monopod selfie sticks are included in this policy.” You can see the full statement here.

Other U.S. museums that ban selfie sticks include the Art Institute of Chicago, and New York’s Museum of Modern Art.  As do other international favorites such as the Uffizi in Florence and the Colosseum in Rome. A Collosseum spokesperson noted that the twirling around of hundreds of sticks can become unwittingly dangerous when “fully extended with outstretched arms, the devices take up over half the width of the monument’s interior corridors.”

Selfie Stick

Image courtesy of the BBC

 

In Canada, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the Pointe-à-Callière Archaeology Museum called the stick the “wand of narcissism” when it placed it on the do not enter list.

The consensus among critics is that selfie sticks are obnoxious and a danger as well as a privacy concern.

The additional field of view that makes the selfie stick such a boon to the photographer also increases the chances that unsuspecting passersby  may get caught in the shot.

It’s a safe to say that if you’re traveling this spring or summer, it’s best to check to see what the policies are at the attractions you plan to visit before you consider taking a selfie stick along…

I personally have mixed feelings about selfie sticks. I’ve found them equal parts intrusive, (as I’ve tried to enjoy some art) and practical (as I’ve struggled to capture myself and friends in a unique moment).

For me it comes down to safety and privacy concerns. Crowded tourist attractions and exhibitions are enough of a ruckus without adding selfie sticks to the equation.

 

Title mage courtesy of New York Post

AVG

TechHire: A New Initiative to Pay Dividends in Diversity in Tech

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Companies and organizations from Starbucks to the Federal Government are desperate for tech workers, so there is no reason not to recruit the best talent whatever it resides.

It was also encouraging to see that these concerns are ongoing at our country’s highest levels. On March 9, President Obama announced the TechHire Initiative before the National League of Cities. It’s a new program that includes a grass-roots campaign to achieve greater diversity in the tech world.

In his remarks to city leaders, the President stated, “When these jobs go unfilled, it’s a missed opportunity for the workers, but it’s also a missed opportunity for your city, your community, your county, your state, and our nation.  And here’s something else:  If we’re not producing enough tech workers, over time that’s going to threaten our leadership and global innovation, which is the bread and butter of the 21st century economy.” You can learn more here.

It was no coincidence that President Obama unveiled the campaign at the National League of Cities convention, which is made up of mayors and community leaders from around the U.S., as TechHire involves local communities, local leaders in a number of ways.

For example, on a training and teaching basis, it includes universities and community colleges but also nontraditional approaches like “coding bootcamps,” and online courses.

The President announced that 20 cities and regions across the country, from Louisville to Portland, will work together to recruit and place applicants in some the 120,000 vacant positions and to develop more fast track tech training opportunities.

In other words, it’s addressing the current employee shortage and the pipeline issue simultaneously – a great approach, in my opinion.

The President also announced $100 million in new Federal investments to train and connect more workers to good jobs in technology and other in-demand fields. The initiative will provide training and employment support to those in need including individuals with child care responsibilities, disabilities, limited English or disconnected youth.

Here are just a few examples of the initiative in action:

  • In St. Louis, 150 employers will partner with local non-profit Launchcode, to train women and underrepresented minorities for tech jobs.
  • In New York City, the Tech Talent Pipeline has announced new commitments to prepare college students in the City University of New York system for and connect them to paid internship opportunities at local tech companies.
  • A $100 million competition has been launched to connect Americans with disabilities and disconnected youth to jobs in technology and other in-demand fields.

 

I know many of my readers are small business owners and managers.  I think we can all agree that tech and innovation are major parts of any business proposition these days.

I’m excited about this new initiative because it addresses a real need for employers. It is inclusive and engages local communities, where real work and progress can be made—and tracked!  People can get involved and learn more at #TechHire on social media and follow @WhiteHouseOSTP on Twitter.

AVG

Judith Bitterli answers your questions on Women in Tech

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  • Why are there fewer women studying technology but more women using it?

  • Do you think more women would be in tech if there wasn’t so much misogyny in the media?

Video

Judith Bitterli Answers Your Questions on Women in Tech

 

  • Do women in tech jobs earn as much as their male counterparts?

  • Women in tech are facing time management issues. What can they do to solve this problem?

Video

Judith Bitterli Answers Your Questions on Women in Tech

 

  • Should young girls be discouraged that tech is a male dominated field?

  • What do companies like AVG do to encourage young women to start a career in tech?

Video

Judith Bitterli Answers Your Questions on Women in Tech

 

  • Do you think suppliers and consumers can work together to encourage more women to have a career in tech?

  • Is there an effort to feature women who are excelling as an example for others?

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Judith Bitterli Answers Your Questions on Women in Tech

 

Thank you for all your questions, if there’s something you’d like to ask me, please let me know by getting in touch via Twitter @JudyatAVG.