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There are a lot of computer shops out there that you can call up to fix an issue or install a piece of equipment. They might be able to get you out of crisis mode, but they aren’t looking at the full picture.
At 415 IT, we understand business. We consult. We provide solutions to solve everyday challenges. We just happen to fix computers as well.
We believe (and have proven) that if you proactively manage technology, run maintenance religiously, and monitor a business network, everyday issues and downtime will be greatly reduced.
This is what makes us different than your typical tech support company. Sure, we can fix computer issues when you have them, but our specialty is preventing them in the first place.
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First, it will be helpful to go over how websites work (giving you a hint as to the nature of the close call we’ll be discussing).
When navigating to a website, you type that website’s URL into your address bar and you’re brought to the website, right? While this is how it appears on the surface, there’s actually a lot more going on underneath.
The domain name we know, as users, to go to a website is different than the actual functioning name that your Internet browser recognizes. Instead, your browser recognizes a series of numbers known as an Internet Protocol (IP) Address. IP addresses are too in-depth of a topic for us to go into much detail here, but to sum up: they tell the browser which web server it needs to direct towards to find the desired website.
Obviously, a series of numbers is more difficult to remember than a name, so this discrepancy would make the Internet much harder to use if it weren’t for nameservers.
Nameservers are the component of the Internet that helps bridge the URL to the IP address. When you type a website into the address bar, the browser references a nameserver to find out where the correct web server is before requesting content from it. In essence, the nameserver helps your browser translate your request into a language it understands—in many ways acting like your browser’s GPS.
In other words, the nameserver is a crucially important part of how the Internet functions, which means that these servers are particularly important to keep secure… particularly if the nameserver in question controls a top-level domain (the “.com”,”.net”,or “.edu” part). If an attacker were to gain control of a top-level nameserver, man-in-the-middle attacks could be used to redirect web traffic to malicious websites.
Therefore, when security researcher Fredrik Almroth noticed that one of the nameservers for the .cd country code top-level domain (belonging to the Democratic Republic of Congo) was set to expire, he took notice. When these domains expire, as did the nameserver domain scpt-network.com did in October, the governments that own them have a set amount of time to renew it before someone else could claim it.
Almroth was monitoring this domain to ensure that it was renewed, just to be safe. Once the end of December rolled around, the security researcher was quick to snap it up to protect it from ne’er-do-wells who would otherwise abuse it. Because the other nameserver to the domain was still operational, Almroth simply had any requests timeout of his nameserver and be passed to the working one.
In short, quite a bit. With possession of such a nameserver, an attacker could potentially intercept any traffic—encrypted or not—directed to a .cd domain. This could give an attacker a frightening amount of power and control over thousands of websites.
The Congolese government ultimately opted to set up a new domain, ensuring that security was never in question.
In short, technology can be complicated, which means that threats can potentially come from every angle.
Cybercriminals are irritatingly resourceful and will absolutely resort to cheap tricks to get their way. The size of their target is also irrelevant to them, so whether they’re targeting a government infrastructure or the website a local store keeps up doesn’t particularly concern them. As such, businesses of all shapes and sizes need to have a trusted resource they can rely on to keep their IT in order, especially in terms of its security.
As such a resource to many businesses, 415 IT prioritizes keeping an eye on all aspects of our clients’ technology solutions to help avoid issues like these that could otherwise have gone unnoticed. To find out more about what we can do for your operations, give us a call at (415) 295-4898 today.
Every January, massive crowds show up in Las Vegas for CES. Since March of 2020, however, there have been many conferences postponed or moved online in attempts to avoid having massive crowds in one location. Despite the technology available to make this work, it radically depreciates the value of a conference. Today, we will briefly discuss the conference’s role in business, how CES 2021 will work, and some of the tech coming out of an all-virtual CES.
Conferences have an important role to play in business. Not only does it give multiple businesses the opportunity to show off the goods and services they’ve been working on, it also gives their people the opportunity to see what their competitors are doing, network among their industry peers, and to learn about the new innovations that are happening inside their market. For many businesses, they are some of the only opportunities available to gain the exposure they require to keep going. That’s not to mention the workshops and breakout sessions typically given by industry leaders and experts.
As we all know, the COVID-19 pandemic has made large gatherings rather tricky (and very risky), so many conferences have tried their best to forge ahead virtually. CES 2021, which is one of the largest conferences attended by technology professionals every year, had to move to the Internet. You may think this would be fitting for an expo of innovative technology, but it has come with some logistical challenges.
How do you get 1,800 companies to coordinate online with 150,000 attendees? Streaming video. Companies from all over the world who normally would have a station in Las Vegas, are instead focusing on introducing their products and services virtually. Here are some of the trends of the three-day exhibition.
Obviously, people are having a hard time getting a handle on the COVID-19 pandemic as infection rates are up across the globe. Not surprisingly, there was a fair share of COVID-related devices. There were smart masks that connect to your phone and monitor your breathing and the quality of air in your immediate area. There were numerous introductions of touchless appliance fixtures using both motion sensor technology and voice recognition. There was a robot designed to use UV-C light to destroy viruses on surfaces, and a wearable air purifier.
TV innovations are always popular with CES attendees and a virtual conference doesn’t change that. One of the most innovative televisions was from LG, which introduced a 55-inch transparent TV that is built into a bed frame. They also introduced a 48-inch bendable display that can curve on demand.
CES 2021 saw two separate companies come out with new rolling displays for smartphones. LG introduced their rollable phone, they are calling LG Rollable as of now, that they plan on launching this year. Chinese company TCL also came out with a rollable phone that extends and contracts the display as you need it.
Everyone knows that 5G is probably the most important technology for 2021 (besides arguably COVID-19-themed tech), and despite what telecoms have been marketing, the technology is just now starting to be implemented. Companies discussed how 5G will improve the speed of society and provide new options for telemedicine and education. 5G is one of the core technologies needed to build smart cities, which is gaining plenty of traction as the technology gets deployed.
Fueled by 5G, one technology that has been emerging for some time, and that had a prominent place in CES 2021 is the driverless car. This is one of those “future” technologies that is very close to happening. There was even an event that explained that the tech is so close that people should start talking about the rules of governing autonomous vehicles.
Despite having to do it over the Internet, CES 2021 went off as planned. It may not be ideal, but it proves that innovation can’t be stymied by a global pandemic. Did you see something interesting from CES 2021? What do you think is the most impressive tech coming out of CES 2021? Comment below and return to our blog for more useful technology content.
It’s not a surprise that most businesses choose tools they can both afford and work for their needs. This typically has more to do with integrations it has with other pieces of software the organization uses. Let’s look at some of the variables that businesses have to consider when determining what productivity software is right for them.
For businesses, it’s no secret that cost really matters. Most organizations, when comparing productivity suites, will find little differences between the actual software itself. Sure, one particular word processor is better than another, one spreadsheet program works best with your existing tools, and so on...but as a suite, the cheapest option is probably going to give you the ability to do what you need to do. That said, this software is going to be used for storing (and sharing) presumably sensitive company data. For that reason it has to be a reliable option.
Your staff has a way of functioning that is different from another set of people. As a result, your productivity software has to be compatible with as many platforms as possible. If you have a team that uses ChromeOS-fueled laptops, but your productivity suite only supports Windows 10, it’s not going to do them any good. Make sure that the apps can be available on most or all of the major computing platforms.
The ability to access files on a mobile device has to be considered essential for today’s business. Today, many of the top productivity suites are available as a cloud-hosted service. This provides much of the mobility that users who access business data on the go would need.
This kind of goes hand-in-hand with reliability, but it’s always important to prioritize security when you are picking software for your business. Two of the most-utilized productivity suites, Microsoft Office 365 and Google Workspace, come as cloud-hosted solutions. This means that Microsoft and Google, respectively, will host your files and data as well as the software.
Today, communications that happen over the Internet are extremely important to any business with remote workers. Most of the top productivity suites also come with hosted email and the ability to at least integrate a video conferencing solution. This ensures that your team will have options in which to communicate and collaborate in innovative ways.
Regardless of which appset you choose, you should know that 415 IT can help your organization design a computing infrastructure and deploy all the tools your staff needs to keep your company productive. Call our expert technicians at (415) 295-4898.
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