The Arms Race Continues
If you’re using a SonicWall firewall, heads up–the manufacturer has released an urgent security notice about an exploitable vulnerability in their VPN products.
I don’t want to seem like I’m picking on SonicWall…we actually love it and although we don’t sell it, we have even recommended it from time to time. Still, it seems that larger companies across industries have a target on their backs for just such activities these days. VPN vulnerabilities are the latest popular point of entry for cybercrooks seeking to gain access to a company´s internal networks…you don’t have to break down the front door if you can just pick all the locks.
Although we´re not a vendor for the utility, it’s a very popular product and that means we manage a LOT of these devices, and if you´re reading this there´s a decent chance you use it. If you´re among those who may have been exposed through the SonicWall hack, talk to your IT guy to make sure it’s properly patched…it´s much harder to get the baddies out once they’re in.
Worth Its Weight in Words
Have you ever actually tried doing any transcription?
Go ahead, give it a shot…bring a notebook to your next conversation (or next bingewatching session) and see how many of the spoken words you can correctly commit to paper in real time before you want to just give up and set fire to the thing.
If you want to avoid setting off your smoke detector, we could just agree for the sake of conversation that manual transcription is difficult and frustrating, so if you want to keep meticulous running notes on the video conferences that have taken over our lives, check out HappyScribe for Microsoft Teams or Otter for Zoom.
The Aisles of Amazon
So I recently went to my first Amazon grocery store and although I walked in as a skeptic I have to say it was pretty amazing. Not only did we find everything we came for quickly and easily, we even scored some super fresh sushi along the way. The coolest part is that after we were done shopping we simply walked out of the store with a full cart…it was all the thrill of shoplifting without any of the, um…shoplifting.
If it sounds a bit confusing, this CNET piece should shed some light…in any event, I bet that´s not the last place I´ll get to try that.
The Last Word
All right, that’s enough living on the edge (of technology) for one week. Thanks as always for making time between video conferences for this incandescent installment of ¨Brad’s Blog!¨ I’ll be back in your inbox in a few days, but until then if you want to chat, mine is always open!