Tag Archives: Lifestyle

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Routers are set to become the digital battleground of the future

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By now, most of us are familiar with the term the “Internet of Things”. It has come to describe the always on, always connected world where day to day objects are online. It ranges from smart-watches to smart fridges and is closer to reality than you may think.

Much has been written about the need to secure the devices that make up the Internet of Things, but I believe there is another battle to be won.

According to most reliable research, the number of Internet connected devices is growing rapidly and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

IoT Devices

 

Building security into each and every one of these devices is no mean feat. In fact, it will be very difficult indeed. That’s what I believe that it is of vital importance that we focus our attention on securing routers and Wi-Fi hotspots.

As the number of Internet enabled devices in our homes continues to increase, more and more members of the public are getting ready to adopt smart home appliances, energy meters and wearables.

Connected Devices

 

All of these newly connected devices entering the home should be rigorously secured as they will be handling data specific to your household. Securing them individually could be tough though, until you realise that they share something in common – they communicate via the Internet access point, a home router.

As you can see, the number of home routers in the market is continuing to grow rapidly, but is only a fraction of the number of total devices.

Private Hotspots

 

Robustly securing each home router or a public hotspot has the knock-on effect of securing the data transmission of dozens of devices and, for my money, is a much more realistic approach to securing the Internet of Things.

Sadly, security on most popular routers is still pretty basic and has a user experience to match. Clunky menus that aren’t immediately intuitive can leave users at a loss when it comes to making changes to their Internet settings.

Here are three simple things that you can do right now to help improve the security of your home Wi-Fi network.

 

Three steps to securing your home router:

Change the login details

Most routers will come with default login details. Many people never get round to changing them but you really should. “User name: admin Password: Password” is not a secure login and could potentially grant router level access to attackers if they know the manufacturer defaults of your device.

Set up an access list:

Most routers will allow you to set up a “permitted devices” list that limits access to your network. Setting this list up and including all your family’s devices is a good way to make sure that no unauthorized devices access your network.

Double check your Firewall

A Firewall is an important router feature that helps filter out bad traffic requests coming into your home. All traffic that is sent and received in your home goes through a Firewall and more specifically through “ports”. These are akin to doors, with each one dedicated to certain traffic types. It is always worth checking your Firewall settings in your router to make sure that you do not have any unnecessarily opened ports.

 

For tips on how to improve your home Wi-Fi Signal, check out the video below.

AVG

The Value of an Unplugged Vacation

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In keeping with tradition, each year my husband Bob and I gather some of our 14 nieces and nephews and do an annual diving trip. Generally we provide diving lessons to each of the children as they come of age. This year, we did an “alumni” trip for all of the kids who have participated before.

It was truly awesome – and all about diving, eating and sleeping and, then… repeat.

We also had a no-devices-allowed policy. So each evening we had dinner at the big pagoda on the beach. Afterwards, all of us in hammocks. And every night we had amazing conversations!

I was most struck by my young nieces and nephews’ views on how nice it was to be unplugged… Thoughts on how intrusive the internet and smart devices have become in their young lives…I.e. If you don’t text back in real-time, you could lose a friend who thinks you are being unresponsive… (Sound familiar?)

But they really reveled in the opportunity to get away from it all. It wasn’t just me, but kids!

It started me thinking in general about the value of vacations, but especially unplugged ones.

The benefits of taking a vacation are well documented, and practical. Pluses include higher productivity, improved morale, better employee retention, and a better overall workplace culture. That’s just in the workplace. The health benefits for the individual are evident too and should concern all of us.

Numerous studies have shown that vacations lower blood pressure and ease depression…and that even looking forward to a vacation brings major dividends. In just one example, the widely regarded Framingham Heart Study, a long-term ongoing cardiovascular study that began in 1948 to analyze adult subjects who were at risk of heart disease, found a positive correlation between more frequent vacations and longer healthier lives.

But did you know that more than 40% of American workers who received paid time off did not take all of their allotted time in 2013—even despite the obvious personal benefits? This is according to the most recent study entitled “An Assessment of Paid Time Off in the U.S.” commissioned by the U.S. Travel Association, a trade group, and completed by Oxford Economics. The study found, among other things, that we as workers left an average of 3.2 paid time off days unused in 2013, which adds up to 429 million unused days off.

The fact is many people who don’t take vacations are not only hurting themselves and their own productivity. They’re also hurting our country’s economy. And in terms of the overall economy, the Oxford/USTA study found that if employees would take just one additional day of earned leave each year, the result would mean $73 billion in output for the U.S. economy and positive impacts for both employees and businesses.

It has lead to some innovative workplace policies. One of the most intriguing is a Denver-base tech company’s Paid Paid Vacation policy. Bart Lorang, co-founder and CEO of the Denver-based tech company FullContact introduced “Paid Paid Vacation” in 2012. In addition to the standard 15 days paid vacation plus federal holidays (allotted by many US companies), the company gives employees $7,500 to finance a trip. That’s cash on top of their full salaries. The concept is both generous and innovative by US standards!

There is a caveat, however. The employees have to agree to three rules:

  • No checking works emails, texts, or calls.
  • No working, period.
  • You have to actually go on vacation or you don’t get the money.

 

According to FullContact, the program has translated into real-life benefits.

For example, FullContact’s communications director Brad McCarty told the Washington Post, “The really big names in tech all focus on the same idea, that employee happiness has to come before everything else. While it’s really difficult to measure that return on investment from a dollar standpoint, it’s not difficult to measure what happens when someone returns from a Paid Paid Vacation: you see, without fail, people shining brighter, working harder and more excited to get back into the swing of things.” There also are other ancillary benefits, as Lorang told the Business Insider.

Of note: because the employee who is going on vacation is literally cut-off from work, it’s essential that other employees are cross-trained or up-to-speed on the vacationee’s projects. This means sharing information and avoiding the ‘hero’ trap – the “I’m the only one that can do this” mentality…

Perhaps best of all, and an inspiration for other small business owners, is that Lorang takes his own advice and has an unplugged vacation at least once a year.

I know that we are all very busy and engaged with our work and our daily lives. And our schedules are always overbooked. But please do take the time to have some fun, unplug, or have an adventure by yourself and/or with your loved ones. You’ll find yourself coming back to work with a smile on your face!

Here’s a shout out and “miss you” to all my nieces and nephews, who seem to be learning this at an early age! Inspiring.J

AVG

Why “Chip and PIN” is more secure than “Swipe and Sign”  

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This change to “chip and PIN” has already occurred in many other countries and has reduced credit card fraud – in particular “card skimming” and “cloning” whereby somebody can make a copy of your credit card and use it elsewhere.

Most credit cards now contain a “smart chip” on them that are much more secure than the “magnetic stripe”.  The reason for this is that the smart chip is actually a tiny-computer that can interact directly with a payment terminal or ATM – and they’re designed never to give up their secret information.  Whereas a magnetic stripe reveals all its data and is easily copied.

U.S. business owners who fail to upgrade their payment terminals to support chip & PIN by October will also become liable for any fraudulent transactions as American Express, Discover, MasterCard and VISA get set to implement the change.  However, some “pay at the pump” Gas stations will be exempt until 2017.

The good news for all of us though is that insisting on a PIN at the point of sale means your card, if lost or stolen, is useless to whoever might get hold of it – except for contactless transactions which don’t require a PIN under a certain transaction amount.  As always you should still protect your credit cards the same way you do with cash.

Five (5) quick PIN tricks and tips:

  1. Did you know YOU can change your PIN at any time? You can easily change the PIN assigned to your new card at an ATM (usually at an ATM belonging to your bank) – just look for the “select new PIN” or “Other” options.
  2. How long is your PIN? It can be between 4 and 6-digits in length – personally I like to use 5 just to be different!
  3. Don’t use your date of birth! Having a 4 or 6-digit PIN can be a temptation to store your birthdate, but it should be obvious that this is something to avoid at all cost!
  4. Don’t use predictable key combinations! Try to avoid choosing a PIN that uses a combination of keys that form a pattern – for example, 2580, 1234, 1379.
  5. Never write your PIN down! Now that you know how to change the PIN yourself, you should be able to choose one that you’ll never forget – so make sure you don’t write it down or store it anywhere, like on your mobile device – doing so will almost certainly be a violation of your credit card issuer’s acceptable usage policy.

 

Until next time, stay safe out there.

Title image courtesy of thisismoney.com

AVG

Three reasons to be happy that Apple Pay has arrived in the UK

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I’ve long been a fan of Apple Pay and the fact that it is finally available in my homeland, the UK, is a good thing.

While most Americans are still using credit card magstripes to make payments, a few early adopters have been using Apple Pay since it was released around a year ago in the US. I am one of them, and I have to admit I’m impressed.

First and most obviously, there’s the convenience of being able to make small purchases quickly and easily using just my phone. No more digging around for my wallet or cash but a quick bleep and I’m done.

Next is the security. Paying with Apple Pay isn’t just convenient but secure as well. When you hover over the contactless payment point, you use the Touch ID to authenticate the transaction, making it much more secure than the contactless credit and debit cards already in use in the UK which have no authentication at all and can be used by anyone for small purchases.

Touch ID

 

Apple Pay also helps protect your privacy thanks to Apple’s Unique Device Account Number. A system specifically designed for Apple Pay, using a Unique Device Account Number means that Apple never needs to transmit or share your actual card or banking details with the merchant. This adds a significant layer of protection for your payment data.

 

Apple Pay Diagram

Image source

 

For more information on how mobile payments work check out this blog from my colleague Judith Bitterli and these three trends from Charlie Sanchez.

In You can follow me on Twitter @TonyatAVG and find my Google+ profile here.

AVG

Digital Diaries: Teens are Photoshopping their images before sharing

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Our latest  Digital Diaries research shows that more than two in ten children said they had edited photos of themselves before posting them online. Photoshopping at age 11 -13? Twenty-two percent of kids surveyed reported they had. Why?

Globally, thirty percent of the kids who altered their photos said they did so to make them look better.  Thirty four percent (34%) said they edited to make the photo look like more fun. And girls (21%) were more prone to do the editing than boys.

In the age of Facebook and Instagram, this definitely ties into the pressures we place on kids as a society to look perfect – and unrealistic beauty standards perpetuated by models and movie stars (many of whom are often Photoshopped).

Here in the U.S., did you know that one of the options now offered for school photos is to Photoshop your kid’s photo? You can take care of any imperfections like braces, blemishes and teeth whitening that might make the photos appear less than perfect.

In 2010, when The New York Times reported on the emergence of the phenomena, some of the leading school portrait photography companies reported up to 10% of elementary school photos were being altered. What kind of message does this photo altering send to kids?

“If we encourage kids to want to erase their imperfections when they’re very young, how will they ever be able to handle acne…or wrinkles?” wrote a young blogger who has written about the negative effects of Photoshopping on young people—specifically girls on social media.

Which brings us back to digital parenting…There’s a lot here for us to continue to ponder as we and our families live more and more of our lives always on and online.

It’s important for parents to show their children that what they see online or in the movies isn’t always real. The digital doctoring of images in the pursuit of ‘perfection’ can have damaging consequences for the self-image and confidence of young girls and boys.

The digital world holds a host of opportunity and excitement for our children, but as parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts, it’s our job to guide them and educate them in the pro’s, con’s and deceptions that it can bring with it.

AVG

App developers still need to win the trust of older generations

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It is, perhaps, natural to think about apps as a young person’s playground.

Though much research shows that 50+ are one of the fastest growing markets for mobile devices, there is a dearth of mobile apps for our generation.

This may soon change as the number of apps offering real value to the 50+ age group continues to grow. This was underscored by news from the recent AARP 50+ Live Pitch event, held in May in Miami Beach. Entrepreneurs were more focused than ever on mobile apps to help 50+ generations.

Not surprisingly, a key focus in mobile app development for Seniors was health. Nearly half of the 15 products presented at the AARP 50+ Live pitch were in the mobile health category.

In terms of physical health, most of us are aware there are a large array of mobile health apps that can help all of us (regardless of age) track our health – ranging from Fitbits to apps with more serious medical applications.

There is a growing number of apps are out there that can help Seniors stay mentally sharp. In fact, the winner of the audience award at the AARP 50+ Live Pitch entrepreneurs’ event was Constant Therapy, a brain game app for those suffering from strokes or dementia.

Constant Therapy

 

Most people have heard of apps like Lumosity that train your memory and attention with games, but this new class of apps like Constant Therapy and clevermind are aimed to help at those who have already begun experiencing medical problems.

Independent living is another important area that apps can add real value to seniors. I recently ran across Seniorly, a product of a San Francisco startup, which allows seniors to find affordable and like-minded independent or assisted living housing, when people aren’t able to live by themselves anymore.

(I also think this start-up is admirable because it was started by two Millennials, and it’s a great sign that the younger generation has its eye on our market.  After all, all of us are aging, and it’s nice to know that there will be apps to help us along the way!)

 

Seniors don’t download as many apps

All of this positivity and development is fantastic but there’s a major hurdle that the app industry needs to overcome – seniors are less likely to download apps than others.

There are many reasons for this, but research (including ours) points to concerns about privacy and security, as being chief among them.

Our own recent AVG surveys show that 50+ generations have concerns about

  • Security of data and files (70%)
  • Keeping data private (48%)

 

Boomers and Tech

 

In general, our AVG research also found nearly 50% of consumers surveyed say a lack of trust limits the amount of apps they download. More than one-in-seven mobile media users are uncomfortable sharing personal data, such as location or contact details…

Is it little wonder that Seniors are concerned? We’ve all seen the rise in security breaches in the news in the past year (impacting major brands we use like Target and Sony to name a few), where millions of people’s credit card info has been put risk… But this is particularly troubling with healthcare info breaches such as those experienced Anthem and several BlueCross providers.  Healthcare data is among our most sensitive information.

As I noted in my recent AVG blog on the topic, IT security has to be a priority for all businesses, but particularly when it comes healthcare, where the stakes are so high and the impact has the potential to go well beyond financial!

AVG

Undo Send: a Gift to Email and the Workplace

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The Internet, email and mobile devices are the most essential connectors in today’s workplace.   Between meeting alerts, necessary attachments, and up-to-date correspondence, most of us depend heavily on email in our work-a-day world.

And most of us also have sent embarrassing or regrettable emails: whether in the heat of the moment, when tired, or with an inadvertent ‘Reply All’ – or even, in some cases, hitting send to the wrong person entirely.

These days, when we’re all on tablets and smartphones we’re even more apt to make a mistake with our emails, when writing on the go or “trying” to multitask…and the email autocorrect kicks in. You probably have your own favorite funny and cringing email mistakes due to the ‘helpful’ autocorrect feature in email.

Humor aside, misplaced or poorly worded emails are a major issue for the workplace. One study by an enterprise email provider in 2013, found that 64% of people blamed unintended email for causing anger or confusion in the workplace; 43% found that this communication tool also was the most likely (above phones, IM, and text, for example) to cause resentment between senders and receivers.

Just this past month, Google officially launched its “Undo Send” feature for users of its Gmail accounts. The delete-that-email feature had been available for the past year in beta, housed in its Google Labs section.

If you tried Undo Send via Gmail Labs, your Undo Send setting now will be on by default.

Otherwise, you will find that you can easily enable the Undo Send feature in your Gmail settings. You can even set your system to have up to thirty seconds to review your message before you send.  For details, go here.

For many years, users of Microsoft Exchange Server-based email systems have had the opportunity to recall and replace their emails. But most home and personal email users, and many small business accounts do not use Microsoft Exchange. And, in order, to recall your message, the recipient of the e-mail message that you want to recall also must be using an Exchange account. You can’t recall a message sent to an outside email system, such as someone’s POP3 e-mail account.

There are an estimated 900 million Gmail users, and almost 25% say they use the service during work hours. Some estimates place the number of mid-sized business users of Gmail at 60%. You can do the math and see that the new Undo Send feature of Gmail will be a valuable tool to the workplace.

Unsend? I’m all for it!  But, of course, we should all still review our emails before we hit send…

AVG

10 Tips to stay safe online this summer vacation

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I recently got back from a family holiday in Yellowstone where there was no Internet connection at all. For me it was a blissful digital detox but my son didn’t take so kindly to it. He would jump onto any public network that appeared, regardless of its security, in an attempt to get himself back online where he could game and chat with his friends.

It got me thinking that, from start to finish, there were a lot of things during a summer vacation that could lead to some risky online behavior.

With that in mind, I’ve put together my 10 tips to help you and your family stay safe while booking, travelling and enjoying your vacation.

 

Summer Travel Tips

 
 

Read more

For full details on all the above tips and more, check out my simple fact sheet.

AVG

Fire Department drone warning: if you fly, we can’t.

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In the United States, California as well as parts of the Midwest and Southwest are experiencing some of the worst drought conditions on record and facing severe wildfire risks. An as of early this week, ABC World News reported that more than 50 major wildfires were estimated to be burning in the US.

At the same time, ABC’s local San Francisco affiliate also was reporting on the promise of drones using regular and infrared cameras to assist in fighting wildfires.

A Wired article earlier in June reported on the promise of  “Fighting Forest Fires before they get Big –with Drones’.   “The idea,” Wired wrote, “is to enable early location and identification of fires using drones, planes, and satellites mounted with special infrared cameras. The system, called Fire Urgency Estimator in Geosynchronous Orbit (Fuego), could help spot new wildfires anywhere in the Western US barely three minutes after they start. The promise of Fuego is the ability to pinpoint fires more quickly and for firefighters to get to the fire more quickly and put it out faster.

Increasingly, drones and unmanned flying vehicles are becoming a popular tool in fire departments for assisting in assessing fires of all types, and using the technology in this manner totally make sense…

But there is other news about drones and forest fires that is equally concerning, even chilling:  In late June, a drone flying in illegal airspace forced fire crews near Los Angeles to divert their air drops, allowing a fire in the Big Bear Lake area.

As reported in the LA Times, a ground commander saw a drone at approximately 11,000 feet up (way above the FAA’s 400 feet regulation) and this forced an air tanker and two smaller planes to turn away from their strategic drops.  The tanker diverted and dropped its retardant on a fire near the Nevada border, and the two smaller planes had to jettison their drops so that they could land with a safe weight. As the planes returned to their base, they saw another drone, this one flying nearly three times above the 400-foot limit.

“These folks who are handling these drones, I have to assume they have no idea what they’re doing,” said Chon Bribiescas, a spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service. “They not only endangered the folks on the ground, but they endanger the pilots.”

All in all, the forced pullback the LA firefighters had to do last week was a missed opportunity to control the fire. Subsequent missions had to be scrubbed as well and officials said that the private drones definitely allowed the fire to grow.

This isn’t the first time that fire fighters have had problems with drones – there were incidents in Oregon, Washington state, Northern California and Idaho last year.

Compounding the “What were they thinking?” factor, these drone operators had to be operating from the ground near an unpredictable fire, not to mention that a fire zone is restricted airspace to begin with.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has released multiple statements warning operators that “Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFRs) are typically put in place during wildfires that require most aircraft, manned or unmanned, other than those engaged in wildfire suppression operations to obtain permission from fire managers to enter specified airspace.”

The Forest Service has put up red signs that state succinctly: “If you fly, we can’t.” Enough said.

Meanwhile, the FAA is expected to issue new rules governing drone aircraft operation in the near future, though drone-flying incidents like these are already illegal. Certainly the drone operators involved in these forest fire incidents aren’t doing the growing drone industry and their fellow operators any favors.

Title image courtesy of CBS News

AVG

How can we encourage girls to pursue a career in tech?

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My career in the technology sector is a fortunate accident but it remains far too rare an outcome for women entering today’s workforce. This week I addressed an audience at the Child Internet Safety Summit in London to offer a woman’s perspective on what it means to be in technology, why it’s so important for young women to consider a career in the technology sector and what they can do to prepare themselves to be a part of the industry.

Of the many data points that serve to paint the picture of women in technology, I think that Maria Klawe, president at Harvey Mudd in Claremont California provides the clearest description of the problem.

“We’ve done lots of research on why young women don’t choose tech careers and number one is they think it’s not interesting. Number two, they think they wouldn’t be good at it. Number three, they think they will be working with a number of people that they just wouldn’t feel comfortable or happy working alongside.”

 

Not Interesting?

Ouch. It’s hard to understand this perspective from inside tech. From my vantage point, this is the industry most directly affecting people’s lives today and being a part of that is genuinely exciting. Somehow, at home, in schools and even in movies and television, we’re somehow failing to capture the imagination of young women. What I can other women in tech can do is be evangelists and invest some of our time talking with women and sharing our perspectives whether we are coders, marketers or engineers.

 

Not Good At It?

Young women don’t come to the conclusion that they wouldn’t be good at a particular thing without some pretty strong communication from their community. Whether at home or at school, our families and institutions need to consciously change the dialog and tone. The evidence is clear that women are just as capable as men in business, technology, medicine and virtually every other field. We need to stop suggesting otherwise and present the skills that lead to tech openly and without bias.

 

Not Comfortable?

I cannot honestly think of a workplace in which everyone liked each other or got along all the time. Working with a variety of personalities is essential to success regardless of sector so it makes me wonder what message we are sending to young women that gives them this perception of people working in technology. Perhaps the most important thing we can do is to help teach all children how to work together, to compromise and to be a part of a truly diverse workforce.

Much of the media’s focus on women-in-tech has focused on coding, and the good news is that there are many companies and organizations working to make sure young women know that this field is open to them and that there’s much that they have to offer and can accomplish. We’re far from there but we’ve started.

More importantly though, we need a more comprehensive change perceptions and from the beginning communicate to girls and young women that entire world of careers is open to them and welcomes them. To that end we should all do the following:

  1. Become advocates and mentors and provide encouragement, affirmation and confidence. Women in particular need to be role models and mentors in their community.
  1. Young women need to seek out sponsors, someone who will truly take an active role in supporting their career aspirations.
  1. Men need to be allies and supportive.“A true male ally is a man who is willing to defend women when there are no women in the room.”

 

Ultimately, the most impactful thing we can do in our industry is to tell a good story that demonstrates technology is compelling and accessible to everyone.

We don’t need to change who people are or turn women into men. We simply need to make sure that we all women have the opportunity to choose to be a part of whatever industry we want.

Debbie Sterling, Founder and CEO of Goldieblox said it well, “There’s nothing wrong with being a princess, we just think girls can build their own castles too.”

Video

Boardroom or Baby: The choices of women in tech