The Intelligent New (and Awesome) Data Types Supported by Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Excel Data Types

To date, Excel and similar apps deal primarily with text and numbers as data types. However, that tradition is about to be a thing of the past as Microsoft is adding two new data types to Excel. These data types allow cells to contain rich, intelligent data that can better represent more real-world data types.

Limitations and Possibilities

Suppose you are putting together a spreadsheet that will plot the relationship between a company’s sales and population in South America. The sales data is easy enough to find, but tracking down the latest population for each South American country might be a bit time consuming and error-prone. At the last minute, someone asks for data that shows sales related to the size of the country, which means another session of hunting down the right information.

What if you could have all that information for a country — population, square miles, map, gross national product, average minimum wage and more – all contained in a single cell within your worksheet? Believe it or not, those days are not too far away.

Excel’s New Intelligent Data Types

There are two new intelligent data types available in Excel: Geography and Stocks. That means that cells in your Excel workbook are no longer limited to holding flat information like text, numbers, or dates. Cells can now house an incredible amount of information related to geography and stocks. Not only can you access this information easily, you can even work with it when you are offline. Both of these data types can be found under the Data tab in Excel, and converting existing data to either of these types is very simple.

Working with the New Geography Data Type

Let’s suppose we have a worksheet that contains a single-column table. The table contains strings that represent countries. To convert this data to the new Geography data type, highlight the country names, then go to the Data tab and click on Geography. This takes care of the conversion.

You’ll notice that an icon appears in the cells next to each country name. It resembles a map that has been unfolded. If you click on that icon, you’ll see a data card that contains tons of information about that country. Now that cell is no longer just a string of characters, but a rich data type with much deeper meaning. All of the data from the data card is actually contained in that cell, and you don’t need an internet connection to access that data.

You will notice that a widget appears to the right at the top of the table. If you click on it, it offers to add another column. You can select from a list of available fields based on the data contained in the card you just looked at.

Microsoft Excel Data Types

Stock Data Type

The Stock Data type works in a similar manner to the Geography data type but provides access to data involving stocks. Let’s say you have a table with a single column that contains some company names and some ticker names. You highlight that data, then go to the Data tab and select Stocks. That converts the string data into the new Stock data type, and all the names are switched to company names. You’ll notice that an icon appears by each company name, allowing you to access the data card for that company.

Stock data changes quickly, unlike the Geography data. Because of the dynamic nature of Stock data, the data is refreshable. Some of it is available in almost real-time, while other data will be delayed. If you want to do calculations with cells that contain either the Geography or Stock data type, type in a formula referencing the cell number and then use the . (dot operator) to select the correct member of that geography object. Anything you can do with normal data, you can do with these new data types.

Intelligent Data Types

The Microsoft Knowledge Graph, the intelligent service that also powers Bing, is what provides the data. When someone points out that the Stock and Geography data types are intelligent, that means far more than fixing typos or spelling errors. For example, these intelligent data types can interpret data requests in context. It may ask for more specifics if you enter a city name and convert it to the Geography data type because it wants to make sure what city you mean. However, if a city is listed with other city names in a particular geographical region, then Excel will select a city in that particular region (context).

Accessing It

Not all Excel 365 users can access these new AI data types just yet. According to Microsoft,

“The new data types are being released as preview to Office 365 subscribers enrolled in the Office Insiders program, in the English language only, starting in April 2018. “

However, it will eventually be rolled out for all Office 365 users. And other AI data types will also be added to Microsoft Excel’s repertoire. These developments mean that in Excel you can do even more, even faster.

 

CIPA Compliance – What Does It Mean?

CIPA Education

Schools and libraries applying for E-rate technology funding discounts must be CIPA Compliant. CIPA stands for the Children’s Internet Protection Act and mandates that if an institution is receiving a discount for network and network-adjacent services, then it must develop a protocol for use of these services by minors. Further, CIPA stipulates that the public must be notified that the district, school, or library is going to be developing an internet safety protocol, and offer a public hearing before developing the protocol (again with adequate notice to the public ahead of time).

CIPA Education

The E-Rate discount applies to:

  • Data Transmission Services and Internet Access
  • Voice Services
  • Internal Connections
  • Managed Internal Broadband Services
  • Basic Maintenance of Internal Connections

It does not apply to funding the actual computers, VoIP phones, software, or any other devices that use the above telecommunication services.

Eligible institutions or educational consortiums accepted into the program will receive need-based discounts of between 20-90% off of the costs for the above-mentioned services.

CIPA Compliance Overview

Before implementing an internet use policy, schools, and libraries have to provide reasonable notice to their learning communities that they’re going to be putting one together. Additionally, they must hold at least one public hearing where citizens may ask questions or register concerns.

Lastly, the policy must include two certification requirements: online protection of minors such as filters that can block out objectionable content, and they must include a plan to educate minors on internet safety, cyberbullying, “Netiquette” and more.

The 2011 update also notes that public libraries are not subject to CIPA compliance.

Additionally, schools and libraries have to put into their policy:

  • Education on safe direct-link contacts such as email or chat.
  • Unauthorized access like hacking perpetrated by minors and other unlawful acts committed by minors using school devices or using internet services on school property.
  • Unauthorized access, dissemination of, or use of minors’ personal information including grades, addresses, medical alerts, etc.
  • Restrict minor children’s ability to access potentially harmful material.

Here is an example of a CIPA Compliance Contractor used by Walled Lake Consolidated Schools in Walled Lake, Michigan.

Adults on Campus

Adults using the internet for appropriate, necessary means are permitted to remove filters blocking access to necessary websites and programs. Adults are also not subject to internet tracking.

Who Determines What Materials Are Appropriate?

Local and state authorities determine what content is appropriate or inappropriate. Further, the blocking of entire social networking sites such as Facebook is not required per CIPA, though individual instances of objectionable or mature content should be filtered out.

Important Additions to CIPA as of 2011

E-rate finding discount recipients must develop and implement a workable strategy for protecting minors and their information, and for educating minor students in how to properly present and protect themselves online.

Schools must provide lessons in “Netiquette” and direct communication (e.g., chat sessions, email) safety education for minors using the internet on school property or with school devices.

What About BYOT/BYOD?

The biggest wrench in the works after funding issues is the BYOD/BYOT phenomenon. It’s natural to allow students to bring in their own devices. It takes care of a few problems regarding access and funding. Plus it reduces the amount of class time needed to train students on an unfamiliar device since they are using their own devices. However, the problems that Bring Your Own Device programs include far outweigh the benefits.

What Is Due Diligence On The Educator’s Part?

Really, the same tried-and-true methods that caught kids with comics or Playboys behind their textbooks still work today. Move around the room as you would for any other group activity or quiet study time, and make your presence known.

Screen mirroring works too and has the added bonus of allowing you to pretend that you’re a TSA agent or mall security officer. It does not allow for classroom management best practices, however, since the instructor may be glued to the screen too closely. It also opens teachers up to liability regarding students’ privacy since a distracted teacher may leave a mirrored workspace screen unattended, giving someone else an opportunity to access student work.

Going back to BYOD, which almost certainly would not be mirrored, students may use a personal broadband or other mobile networks to get around filters. Of course, it would be a violation of not only CIPA-related policies but likely policies already on the books in just about every school district. The best protection is to have a clear, promulgated policy in place that spells out expectations as well as consequences for violations of the policy.

Personal use on a private network also does not currently fall under CIPA’s scope, nor is there any reason to think that it ever would, since CIPA compliance relates to use of school network services and devices. Making the access to restricted materials difficult, expensive, or extremely inconvenient will naturally cut down on the number of people trying to do so.

Last Word – “The Spirit Of CIPA”

Due to the nature of technological innovation today, there are going to be instances of uncertainty. If you “keep in the spirit of CIPA,” you should be all right. Districts developing their policies should make it clear that students and educators failing to make a good faith effort to remain in compliance put funding and the safety of minors at risk, therefore violations will have consequences. It should not be too difficult to uphold the spirit of the CIPA since CIPA guidelines line up faithfully with the goals of all educators: to provide a secure learning environment for students.

The next E-Rate training webinar is Wednesday September 19, 2018 and it takes educators through the invoicing process.

 

How Can I Benefit From Keyboard Shortcuts?

Keyboard shortcuts

What Are Keyboard Shortcuts?

Keyboard ‘shortcuts’ are the strategic use of combinations of keys on your keyboard to perform some task in your software more efficiently. There are shortcuts you can use in your file folders, word processing programs, and even for your email accounts or any social media services, you might use. In addition to increasing time efficiency, some users prefer the potentially increased accuracy of certain keyboard shortcuts.

Keyboard shortcuts

Text highlighting and spreadsheet cell selection, for example, may be more accurate using a keyboard shortcut versus selections from even the most advanced mice. In any case, if you use mainstream computer software frequently, keyboard shortcuts have been designed for some potential benefit you or your employees can experience.

Which Shortcuts Have Been Most Helpful?

While general preferences have the most priority in what is defined as truly helpful for use, online resources have reported some keyboard shortcuts being more popular or commonly beneficial than others. Here are five keyboard shortcuts that could potentially be ‘life-changing’:

  • Locking a screen
  • Window or app switching
  • Opening Windows Explorer
  • Opening search bars
  • Selecting all text

These shortcuts are reported to be the most common time savers when performing common computer software tasks. Pressing the Windows key with the L key (Windows + L) allows a user to quickly lock their screen to more quickly step away from their system.

Pressing the ALT and Tab keys (ALT + Tab) allows a user to navigate between programs they are using. This can be more efficient than using a mouse to click through or minimize several programs as users navigate through their software.

In the common event of a need to locate an unused file, pressing the Windows and E keys (Windows + E) will open Windows Explorer without a mouse navigation and click. This can be useful even if the application is already on the user’s taskbar.

In the event you need to search for additional information, you can press the CTRL and F keys (CTRL + F) to open a search bar. If you need to select all text in a document or screen, pressing the CTRL and A keys (CTRL + A) will result in this being automatically performed, and without the more tedious mouse-button-holding-while-scrolling action notorious for its frustrated multiple attempts.

Other keyboard shortcuts may be less commonly demanded by users but still potentially beneficial to you. Pressing the CTRL and D keys (CTRL + D) automatically moves files to the recycle bin on your system. Pressing the CTRL, Shift, and Escape keys (CTRL + Shift + Esc) automatically opens the Task Manager, allowing you to search for problems.

MoneyTalks News and Buffer recommended several additional keyboard shortcuts as potential ways to boost organizational productivity. In addition to the more commonly known but often still uncommonly used CTRL + S, CTRL + C, and CTRL + V shortcuts for saving, copying, and pasting respectively, these sources report that an emphasis on shortcuts can have a measurable impact on organizational or general productivity and output.

Windows shortcuts recommended include:

  • CTRL + N (Open new window)
  • CTRL + T (Open new tab)
  • Windows key + M (Hide window)

Gmail shortcuts recommended include:

  • CTRL + Shift + C (Add CC recipient)
  • CTRL + Shift + B (Add BCC recipient)

Twitter shortcuts recommended include:

  • G + L (Move directly to Twitter lists)
  • J/K (Cycle forward or backward through tweets)
  • Enter (Open tweet details)
  • | (Close open tweets)

Facebook shortcuts recommended include:

  • 0 (Help page)
  • 1 (Homepage)
  • 2 (Timeline page)
  • 3 (Friends page)
  • 4 (Inbox)
  • 5 (Notifications)
  • 6 (Settings page)
  • 7 (Activity Log page)
  • J/K (Scroll forwards or backward along posts)
  • L (Like or Unlike a post)
  • C (Comment creation)
  • S (Share post)
  • P (Create new post)
  • / (Search)

YouTube shortcuts recommended include:

  • 1 (Jump to the 10% mark of a video)
  • 2-9 (Jump to the corresponding 20%-90% through a video)
  • Spacebar (Pause or Unpause the video)

Google+ shortcuts recommended include:

  • / (Open search bar)
  • J/K (Scroll up or down in posts)
  • Left Arrow (Jump to the menu)

WordPress shortcuts recommended include:

  • <Command> + 2, 3, or 4 (Jump to corresponding heading)
  • Alt + Shift + A (Add link)
  • Alt + Shift + M (Insert image)

What’s In Store For The Future Of Keyboard Shortcuts?

More innovative developments are on the way in an attempt to further improve efficiencies, and you may be able to take advantage of them quite soon. One recent development by a team of researchers extends keyboard shortcuts with arm and wrist gestures so that users can work more quickly with rotations using sensors.

In another development, a research team developed ‘finger aware’ shortcuts, which senses hand posture while allowing secondary movements to trigger shortcuts as other tasks are performed. Actions potentially triggered with a user’s thumb are being coined ‘FingerArc’ functions, while the secondary key actions are being referred to as ‘FingerChord’ functions. Both of these may be considered useful, or even become commonplace in the near future.

What Should I Remember About Keyboard Shortcuts?

  • Keyboard shortcuts exist in great numbers.
  • They can be beneficial for better efficiency.
  • When used across a workplace, measurable productivity increases may be observed/experienced.
  • Additional, and potentially revolutionary, developments are underway.

What Should I Know About Fluxion Hacking And Protection?

Social Engineering

What is Fluxion?

Fluxion is a new program that combines social engineering and technology to trick users into giving up their log-in and password information. This program is a step above Wifiphisher, which lacks the ability to verify WPA passwords. Fluxion takes all the work out of hacking using a variety of processes that quickly and easily convince users to provide their Wi-Fi password.

Hackers can acquire these passwords through a few simple taps on a keyboard. Fluxion is regarded as a success in making it easier than ever for cyber thieves to steal valuable information from users.

Fundamentally, or in terms of many aspects of its basic framework, it is similar to previous developments but uses a twin access point in combination with handshake capture and integrated jamming functions. These can work together so that aspects of hardware and software operations that normally take place in the standard functionality of the user account are overwhelmed.

What Recent Developments And Potentials Should I Be Concerned With?

The extent that Fluxion has developed in combination with its accessibility and ease of use online is the most concerning. A search of Google or other major internet search engines will reveal numerous instructional pages that can be downloaded. These instructions provide anyone with a little Internet skill to begin a new career as a cyber thief. These sites provide public access to a range of resources that make it possible for anyone to violate user privacy and accounts and steal login information.

The program initiated as an improvement over a successful attack and was rewritten, so both the structure and coding have been strategically optimized in addition to its user-friendliness and availability.

How Does Fluxion Work?

Fluxion uses what is known as a WPA handshake to affect the functionality of a login page as it attempts to gain receipt of user information. It can affect how the user’s entire script is controlled as the original network is jammed, and a clone is created with the same name, attempting to persuade the user into making an unsafe connection under the guise of a familiar one. It often requests that the user allow time for their router or firmware to reload or be updated. This is just a ploy; the real objective is to steal sensitive information.

Fluxion is an EvilAP attack tool, written with a combination of Bash and Python, that is used for MiTM attacks on WPA Wireless networks. Online sources report on Fluxion as a potentially beneficial tool while touting its features similar to how potential improvements in business functions could be experienced through software installation. Hack Insight claims that the use of Fluxion allows network scanning, handshake capture, web interface use, imitating original access points, the de-authentication of all users on a network, capturing and redirecting of all DNS requests, captive portal launching, password verification processes, and automatic program termination following the recording of a viable password. Technology and strategies applied include the launching of FakeAP instances for access point emulation, fake DNS server launching, and MDK3 process spawning.

Social Engineering

What’s Been Happening In Research And Development?

Research and development (R&D) regarding Fluxion and related computer software security processes have involved multiple studies and patents in the past year. At the 12th International Conference on Recent Innovations in Science, Engineering, and Management, researchers reported having developed a highly successful cracking system by using Fluxion as their foundation. They explained that the damage that can be done with new hacking software using Fluxion demands better software processes in addition to network strategies in currently maintained and improving systems, particularly those that handle network connections and passwords.

At the 2017 IEEE International Conference on Power, Control, Signals and Instrumentation Engineering (ICPCSI), researchers reported that a number of new security patents have been involved in safeguarding against new hacking techniques that are relevant to the processes used by Fluxion. Fluxion was projected to remain a target of ethical hackers in ongoing research and development, and a foundation of the more damaging tools developed and made accessible online.

What’s The Bottom Line?

  • Accessibility and ease of use make Fluxion particularly dangerous
  • Combines multiple processes for high potential effectiveness
  • Foundation of new and more deadly cyber security attacks
  • Warrants multiple security upgrades and ongoing R&D

Migrating Your Healthcare IT To The Cloud: What’s It Gonna Cost You?

healthcare cloud

You may have an EHR system, decision support systems, purchasing, payroll, laboratory, pharmacy, personnel, finance, planning, and a myriad of other systems running on hardware that’s getting very long in the tooth.

healthcare cloud

Many PCs are still running some older version of Windows. These issues can be a constant source of security headaches for the IT staff of today’s healthcare organization. From causing security breaches to all-out system failures, this type of trouble can cost your health organization money. In addition, your staff will not have the modern tools they need to do their jobs.

The cloud vendors see your suffering, and, as they are kind, they offer to take this all off your hands and move all your IT operations to the cloud. “For how much?” you ask. “Between $35 and $165 per seat per month,” they reply. You are taken aback. $35 per seat per month is about what you’re paying for Microsoft Office Enterprise, which, you dimly recall, sort of runs in the cloud, or at least it can. What a deal! Where do you sign?

What Was That You Said About Cost Again?

The first thing you realize is that cost is the actual cost of cloud operations once the migration has been completed. Nothing was said (yet) about the cost of moving to the cloud. Digging deeper, you note that the amount charged will vary by processor load, storage used, and “egress” – the cost of moving your data out of the cloud vendor’s data centers down to your PCs, smartphones, and tablets. You quickly discover that if all you want to do is store your data, the cloud is an incredible bargain. If you want to use your data, on the other hand, then this is a whole different story.

There are two choices when it comes to the Cloud: the private and the public cloud. In addition, there are two big vendors: Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft’s Azure.

So many choices to make and it’s important to make the right ones in order to get exactly what your healthcare organization needs without paying too much.

If your hospital is located in a rural area with practices spread far and wide, then your healthcare facility will need many different services than if you are a single large hospital in a big city. Keeping all of this info on a yellow legal pad may not be ideal. With so many different choices to make, it can be beneficial to work with a trusted IT consultant instead.

There are so many decisions to make and it’s important to find the right IT provider who will oversee everything from start to finish. If you run a busy healthcare facility, you probably don’t have the time or the skills to do all this work yourself. Once you find the right IT service provider, work very closely with them to develop a migration plan, an infrastructure plan, a schedule for moving services, backup storage, and security services.

So, What Are The Real Cloud Advantages?

Moving your operations to the cloud has four substantial advantages:

  1. You no longer have to worry about back-end hardware. All that goes away, except for the servers that interface with the cloud.
  2. You no longer have to worry about capacity, in terms of processor load, memory, or storage. Whatever you need, the cloud provides.
  3. Your security worries will be, not eliminated, but drastically reduced.
  4. You will be able to reduce your in-house IT staff, possibly substantially.

These benefits are arguably worth a tidy sum to most healthcare organizations. AWS, Azure, and a private cloud can provide all of them. So how do you choose?

How Do I Choose The Vendor?

The first thing you need to realize is that you will need a redundant, “failover” site that automatically comes online if the cloud provider’s main site for your applications is down. This does happen – Amazon ran into this issue with its own site on Prime Day 2018.

The cost of this is not automatically included, and it can be substantial. The second thing is that private clouds, where the vendor can treat you as a sole client, are much more configurable than the public cloud (AWS or Azure), which has to be configured to support all comers. Of course, if the situation demands it, you can run part of your operations in a private cloud, and the rest in the public cloud; setting up communication between them is relatively easy.

Should I Wade In Or Jump In?

McKinsey, the renowned consulting firm, has studied both failed and successful cloud migrations and recommends a phased approach. Of course, no solution is one-size-fits-all, but there is a good deal of thought and expertise behind their recommendations. In other words, they say wade in, don’t jump in.

Wading rather than jumping allows you to:

  • Test the feasibility of cloud migrations
  • Orient your IT staff to cloud operations
  • Distribute costs over time
  • End the project gracefully if it is proving infeasible

Wading will also give you a much more realistic appreciation of the costs and the benefits that are involved.

So, What’s The Bottom Live?

Unless the IT gods are smiling at your organization, you will not be running all your IT operations in the cloud for the $35 you pay for Microsoft Office Enterprise. When site redundancy, egress costs, and processor surge demands are considered, your total costs per seat per month are likely to be higher than this.

When you consider that cost versus a realistic assessment of your current costs (including hardware, software, staff costs, network costs, electricity, cooling, backup, and security), moving to the cloud may still be a bargain. It totally depends on your organization’s needs and the way it handles data. With most healthcare organizations growing by leaps and bounds and considering the high demands that doctors and patients place on the healthcare system, there’s every reason to believe that you will eventually have to make the switch.

What’s So Important About My Out-of-Office Message?

Out of Office Messages

Vacation and time away from work is a necessity in order to be able to unplug and recharge. As research often tells us, disconnecting from work, talk around the water cooler, office politics, and even checking email can ultimately help us lead a more productive life.

Out of Office Messages

Too often we feel the tension of knowing we need to take a break and fearing that our time away from work will just lead to more work when we get back. While many factors play into this tension, there are small ways we can alleviate the stress of the return to work after much needed time off.

One of the first steps to making our vacation time more productive is placing a fitting out of office (OOO) email that establishes well-defined boundaries for our time away from the workplace. So how do we write the perfect OOO message that doesn’t make us look like a “slacker,” or potentially lead to missed opportunities while we’re away from work?

Believe it or not, what we often perceive as something that can negatively affect the way we are seen or our business success — can frequently be used to our advantage. OOO messages that are written carefully and effectively can be an unbelievable implementation that leads us to a win. These little autoresponders built into our emails can give us the opportunity to make social contacts with teammates, customers, and retailers. Whether we are taking a vacation, spending time with family during a funeral, away at a conference, or celebrating the birth of a new baby, Out-of-Office messages can lead to greater success.

Making the Message Meaningful

Sharing a little information about your absence can be turned into a conversation starter the next time you communicate with the recipient of the OOO email. Let the individual reader know that you are just as human as everyone else. This will be a good reminder that you have quite a bit in common.

Begin by asking yourself a few important questions: Why am I taking time away from the office? Where are you going on vacation and why is your time away with friends and family significant? What is the purpose of the conference you are attending, and how will that help you attend to your client’s needs?

Applying OOO emails that have a personal touch can lead to better conversations at work and with your clients. Upon your return, they will be more likely to ask you about the conference you attended or the vacation destination. Perhaps they went to the same place on one of their vacations or they desire to go there someday. This connection may lead to a more meaningful relationship with others in your office.

Sharing a Valuable Resource

Sometimes you can share a resource that was beneficial to you either at work or personally. If you know your audience, what can you suggest to them that can be beneficial? Have you considered what could help the people who email you the most? It could be an online article you found to be helpful. Maybe you have the ability to offer a coupon or discount in your OOO email to clients while you are away. If you are attending a conference where there is a recognized presenter that could resonate with your email recipients, you could possibly include a link to his/her material.

Customizing Your Email Message

Some email providers allow you the option to draft messages to various groups. For example, Gmail gives you the ability to send autoresponders to those you have designated in your various address book groupings, while also sending it out to people you don’t have in your address book. This gives you the capability to be more flexible and personal with your various groups. So often, we tend to share more personal information with our colleagues at work versus our clients or customers.

Let’s look at some examples of OOO emails that can give you the ability to make an impact with the recipients of the email while you are away from work.

Effective Out-of-Office Email Samples

Hi, I’m celebrating the birth of my newborn girl, as well as taking some time to assist my wife during the new transition. Because of this momentous occasion, I will not be checking my email until [date]. If you need anything right away, please contact my office partner [email].

Hi! Thank you for reaching out to me. I trust you are having a wonderful summer. It’s time for my annual family vacation at The Cape. I look forward to answering your email when I return on [date]. While I’m away, let me share this valuable online discount with you. I hope you find it helpful.

An external email could say: Hi, I’m currently celebrating my much-anticipated marriage with my husband. I’ll be away from the office until [date]. Please don’t hesitate to touch base with [my assistant] if you need support while I’m away. I look forward to connecting with you when I return from my honeymoon.

An internal email might say: Robert and I are officially tying the knot on [date]. After the wedding, we will be heading to The Bahamas for the honeymoon until [date]. In my absence, please contact [colleague] for any assistance. Just in case you have never seen my handsome husband, I’ve attached our engagement picture of this email!

Conclusion

As you can see, you can be as personal as you like with these emails. They can share as much information as you’re comfortable with. The goal is to connect with readers and make them feel like part of the family. This will build relationships both in and out of the workplace.

What Do I Need To Know About The Google Chrome Vulnerability CVE-2018-6177?

Google Chrome

What is CVE-2018-6177?

Today’s new releases of browser software are supposed to be improvements over past versions in terms of functionality, helpful features, security, and the speed of overall operation. However, these changes often involve new vulnerabilities which hackers can target and exploit. A recent release of Google Chrome is a good example. A vulnerability allowed hackers to access user information stored in major web platforms such as Facebook and Google. This vulnerability was identified as CVE-2018-6177. It was only recently addressed with the release of a patch known as Chrome 68.

Google Chrome

How Have People Been Affected?

The Chrome vulnerability has caused people to hesitate about upgrading to the most current version of the browser. The previous release’s vulnerability has allowed hackers to have increased access to data stored on online databases, including Google and Facebook, leaving a full range of personal information exposed.

The vulnerability exploits a weakness in audio and video HTML tags used in the engine. It has been listed in the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures database, a dot.org website dedicated to such issues. The National Vulnerability Database (NVD), a US government establishment also dedicated to this cause notes an entry about these issues that is incomplete.

The most severe attacks that a user can experience include identity theft, resources theft, and system damage through the execution of arbitrary code. Users could also experience common side effects of hacker attacks, including being locked out of their accounts, or having to address unauthorized messages or postings. Users may also be redirected to sites that could involve phishing attempts or some other damaging hacking effort. Denial-of-service and authorized network accounts are also possible for organizations or individuals becoming victims to hackers exploiting the vulnerability.

The Center for Internet Security reported that the most recent release of the browser will show unsecure designations on websites using HTTP rather than HTTPS (standard hyper-text transfer protocol rather than secured protocol of this type). This may make users assume that state, local, tribal, or territorial (SLTT) government websites are not secure. While users are recommended to follow federal and developer organization guidelines for security, the risk of the vulnerability remaining in the software is classified as high for multiple user types. More specifically, the range of vulnerability levels for user types are reported as being:

  • ‘High’ for large and medium government and business entities
  • ‘Medium’ for small government and business entities
  • ‘Low’ for home or individual users

The vulnerability is also referred to as a cross-origin information leak specific to the internal Blink Engine, or web browsing database used as a foundational operating platform for the browser. The Center for Internet Security recommends that users:

  • Apply the stable channel update available through Google
  • Run software as a non-privileged or non-administrative user (to minimize impacts of successful attacks)
  • Ensure non-trusted links are not browsed
  • Inform all users of the vulnerability and its demands
  • Apply a Principle of Least Privilege (maximizing security and minimizing accessibility amid organizational requirements) to all systems, users, and services

Reporting on potential instances of successful hacks through this vulnerability, The Hacker News described a scenario where a user with a Facebook account could potentially have their personal information accessed and misused.

A researcher with this source made several Facebook posts, using different combinations of audiences to categorize potential victim types by personal traits categorized by the service, and confirmed the nature of the vulnerability. When a website embeds multiple Facebook posts of this type on a webpage, it loads and displays only some of them, based on matching to individual profile information.

The vulnerability allows hackers to gain access to the personal information of visitors to such pages, and regardless of their privacy settings. The browser version does not have a direct way for administrators to determine if embedded posts were loaded for specific visitors, creating a security demand to check and address this.

Users can attempt to rely on Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS), a security feature within the browser that blocks websites from reading content from other sites without authorization. However, as the aforementioned audio and video HTML tags do not validate the types of content retrieved from other sources or block responses with invalid Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIMEs), hackers are able to use multiple hidden tags on websites to request Facebook post information.

While the approach does not generate Facebook posts, hackers can exploit the vulnerability while using JavaScript to gauge request numbers and read the sizes of cross-origin resources to determine which posts and information sets they can get from users. Since several scripts run simultaneously, hackers can effectively data mine once they are able to generate these responses.

Hackers can potentially design sites to return different response sizes dependent on the traits of the logged-in users, and then record information from all people observed through the connections.

The vulnerability is similar to another recent browser issue, a related difficulty involved in cross-origin requests that allowed hackers to read Gmail and Facebook messages. The previous issue was patched in June, and although the current issue was addressed in a patch included with Chrome 68, unpatched users remain vulnerable to the described exploitations.

What’s The Bottom Line?

  • Chrome releases have been subject to audio and video HTML tag vulnerabilities.
  • Facebook and Google messages, along with personal information are vulnerable.
  • Chrome 68 has addressed the issue; users are recommended to replace their older version with the patched version immediately.

You’ve Heard Of Smart Homes. What’s a Smart Health Care Organization?

Smart Hospital

What’s smart about a smart home? Well, you can talk to it. You can tell your phone to tell the oven to turn itself down to 200 degrees. You can tell your thermostat to drop the nighttime temperature to 68. You can start the car from the upstairs guest bathroom. And so on.

Smart Hospital

What you may not realize is that the technology behind these simple tasks is staggering. All of them wholly or partially involve the transmission of data from the oven, the thermostat, and the car across the internet, and anything involving voice recognition is likely to invoke a mainframe running in the cloud to do the voice processing. All of that takes place in an amount of time short enough for you not to notice any lag between the command and the execution.

If that’s what a smart home looks like, what does a smart healthcare organization look like?

The answer to that question involves noting that we are moving from the first generation of cloud services into the second, while most healthcare organizations are only making partial use of the first generation. And we need to take note of what the renowned consulting firm McKinsey calls the “data culture,” one which most healthcare organizations have yet to adopt.

Is Your Hospital As Smart As Your Thermostat?

The Nest Learning Thermostat is capable of learning the temperature control patterns you use and going through them even when you are away. In addition, you can control it from anywhere in the world with your phone. Simply memorizing a pattern is not very advanced. What is advanced is discovering patterns that no human suspected were even there.

A famous example was Walmart’s discovery, made by an AI system, that there was a surge in sales of strawberry Pop-Tarts whenever a hurricane was forecast in South Florida. Not cinnamon and brown sugar Pop-Tarts. Not green apple Pop-Tarts. Strawberry Pop-Tarts. Hurricanes were forecast, so the Walmart trucks loaded up with strawberry Pop-Tarts and rolled towards South Florida. Walmart’s profits inched up a little bit. Of such small fragments are large corporate incomes made.

What Does The Strawberry Pop-Tarts Story Tell Us?

To make that profit-making discovery, Walmart’s systems needed to have data available – detailed sales records, broken down by ZIP code, inventory records are broken down by store, and weather data, all available to the same system. This is the first lesson. Data can no longer be siloed. If patterns are to be found, the data in which they exist must at least appear as one data set.

The second lesson is like the first: For analysis, old(er) data is fine. For action, data must be real-time. It does no good if the Nest thermostat is adjusting the in-home temperature based on the outside temperature readings from six months ago.

The third lesson, somewhat less obvious than the other two, is this: To be effective, the actions taken must make a difference. The difference here was in profit. In a health care organization, it might be patient load, room occupancy, revenue stream, patient satisfaction, physician satisfaction, nurse retention, or cost reduction.

The key is linking action to some parameter that is important. Analysis for the sake of analysis is likely to be fruitless, and organizations that engage in it will be disappointed and decide that AI is not for them. And if they decide that, they are almost certain to reduce their future competitiveness, and perhaps their very survival.

How Is Cloud Evolution Affecting AI?

The cloud is rapidly evolving from a place where data is simply stored to a place where the vast majority of an organization’s data is used to create a bigger bottom line.

The advantages of a cloud for health care organizations are increased security, decreased hardware and software expenses, decreased IT staff expenses, and lack of worries about capacity in terms of processors, memory, or storage.

The big worry for healthcare organizations is the loss of control. Cloud providers are becoming more sensitive to this issue and devoting more resources to collaborating with clients in health care to increase their comfort level.

Cloud providers are also very aware that their clients are interested in using AI and are moving to capture that market. One piece of advice is not to combine a migration to the cloud with a major rollout of AI unless you know the pitfalls in advance and have made contingency plans for when things don’t work. Having competent consultants can make the difference between success and failure.

What Is Needed For AI Success?

McKinsey refers to the part of organizational culture that thinks about and uses data as the “data culture.” Its research has discovered that there are wide differences in the data culture of organizations.

Key elements are:

  • General employee awareness of data and its benefits
  • An integrating of data into the organization’s day-to-day operations (as opposed to “cool stuff” that gets developed and never used)
  • Executive and board buy-in
  • The linkage of data with affirmative actions

This latter does not mean that you know what you will do with the results that AI produces before they happen. It does mean that the organization is “reality-based” and is committed to taking the actions that AI reveals as possibilities, provided they are linked to parameters that are important to the organization.

What Are The Key AI-Enabled Technologies Of Cloud 2.0?

Advanced analysis, deep learning, voice recognition, virtual agents (software that acts like humans for specific tasks), robotics, machine learning, image recognition and analysis, natural language programming, and more are all available today.

The key question is what hospitals can use them for. One obvious application is voice recognition and virtual agents for patients able to communicate, replacing the call bell in a hospital room. Instead of having an aide go to the room to answer the bell, then come back and tell the nurse what is needed, just put an Amazon Echo Dot in each room.

The hospital saves time and money while patient satisfaction improves. This is just one of a vast number of ways hospitals could use today’s advanced AI technologies to improve healthcare. The question is whether they’re ready to move into 21st century technology.

 

How Can I Best Protect My Business Entity From Current Hacker Potentials?

Computer Security

Improvements in technology have led to increased connectivity with improvements in security, but have also involved unique vulnerabilities and potential for hackers to access a wide range of information. Particularly problematic to businesses is the potential for a phisher to represent a part of the organization, or a supplier with a business connection to it, as they request organizational information or even funding.

Computer Security

What Are Current Major Risks?

Business managers and employees run the risk of being phished from their work accounts while seemingly doing normal business, only to find that they inadvertently provided company funds or information that could be used to damage the company’s systems or even their reputation. This creates new demand for organizational and network security processes and defenses, with phishing, internet-of-things (IoT) security, and general WPA2 hacking being among the greatest current threats to major organizations, small businesses, and individuals alike.

Phishing internally can lead to thousands or even millions of dollars accidentally provided or outright stolen after the critical information is inadvertently provided. An individual can create an email using some phishing technique to hide, mask, or otherwise misrepresent their actual identity while claiming to be an active member, supplier, or some other legitimate affiliate of the organization. The recipient may receive a SharePoint document link that is hyperlinked to malware capable of hacking or damaging system software, and while being directed to a login screen or invoice to request funds or sensitive information to be further misused.

Hackers have the potential to work around even the most advanced anti-phishing filters, using tactics such as reducing the triggering text to a font size of zero to avoid detection. This allows them to pass the filters with how the data is read while displaying apparently legitimate communications and requests to an organizational manager or employee.

According to the Business Owner’s Guide to Technology, these instances have been common. The reporters cited two recent instances of tens of thousands of dollars being accidentally sent amid a phishing campaign. This campaign went beyond the fake login screen to record credentials in attempts to involve phony invoices as well. There have been cases where millions of dollars were lost through a similar approach.

Another major risk that organizations have, amid a false sense of security, is the size of their network in their maintained IoT. While it has become common for tablet devices, personal laptops, mobile phones, and other devices to be used within a business network for increased internet connectivity and email, it is also becoming more common for hackers to use their own devices to access information. This can potentially be done internally or externally, creating a demand for increased security or upgrading beyond vulnerabilities in the WPA2 security protocol. This issue follows along the lines of phishing potentials in terms of general security vulnerabilities that are the greatest threat to large businesses, small businesses, and individuals alike.

WPA2 hacking, in general, has become more effective, as the protocol itself has been upgraded and developed for security vulnerabilities realized to demand a completely new protocol, WPA3.

Inc. explained that hackers may very well have preferences for businesses, due to the probability that at least some bit of useable information can be recorded from the network. While managers and even network administrators may assume that the most recent mainstream releases of security software and protocol recommendations are enough to protect them, hackers continue to work against these, demanding that upgrades and software that have yet to become mainstream be implemented. This, therefore, demands ongoing research and dedication to optimizing network security.

What Other Specific Recommendations Are There For General Risks?

Beyond general best practices and the issues listed above, experts continue to make recommendations for the optimization of security. To optimize defenses against phishing, a combination of proactive awareness campaigns of recent threats and optimizing the use of available security features is all experts can recommend avoiding inadvertent user cooperation.

To optimize defenses against WPA2 hacking, if transfer to the now-available WPA3 is not possible or deemed sufficiently feasible, minimizing network accessibility to essential job functions or requirements only for all users, while maximizing all relevant security, is recommended. Multi-step user authentications can help against both phishing and hacking attempts.

Other issues are not as commonplace or severe, but are still regarded as important. Network owners are advised to watch out for privilege escalations, which hackers may use in an attempt to gain increasing access to information once they have breached the network to any extent. Maintaining control though rootkit detection is also recommended, as are methods to scan activities and ‘backdoors’ for forms of malware left by hackers who may have been able to remove their event logs before installing their own backdoor access.

As a final measure, taking extra steps to ensure that all employees are actually operating in compliance with security protocols is recommended, as many organizational managers may not even be aware of the extent of shortcuts or vulnerabilities they effectively allow for the sake of convenience. Purple Griffon is one online source that has compiled additional details regarding these potential threats and recommended protective actions.

What’s Most Important?

  • Ensuring compliance and best practices against phishing
  • Advanced anti-phishing protection (ATP) or related software
  • Network security optimization or WPA3 integration
  • Remaining current with news, research, and developments

 

Hurricane Florence Update: Florence Now A CAT4 Major Hurricane

Hurricane Florence strengthens to Category 4

Evacuation Orders Begin in the Carolinas

The National Hurricane Center is now saying that Florence has maximum sustained winds of 115mph, with gusts to 140mph. It is now a Category 4 storm and is expected to hit the Southeastern US coast on Thursday.

Hurricane Florence 2018

North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland, and Virginia governors have declared a state of emergency and urged residents to be prepared by stocking up on the essential supplies of food, water, flashlights, and batteries.

N.C. Governor asks Trump for Federal Declaration

With Hurricane Florence setting its sights on the Carolinas, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper has asked President Trump to declare a federal disaster. The Governor said on Monday, the federal declaration would allow for federal assistance and increase the state and local efforts in providing for a proper emergency response. Governor Cooper said he had a conversation with FEMA Director Brock Long on Monday.

Governor Cooper Says to Prepare for the Worst

The North Carolina governor also forewarned citizens in Hurricane Florence’s path to prepare to be without power for an extended period of time.

In a Monday Morning press conference, Cooper said, “When it comes to utilities, families need to be ready. They need to prepare to be without power for a while; that’s why we’re urging people to have their emergency kits and prepare for this.”

Currently leaving it up to local and county governments, Cooper also anticipates the other coastal communities in North Carolina to issue mandatory evacuation orders for residents and visitors just like Dare County and Hatteras Island have already done.

Military Bases are Preparing for Florence

In Norfolk, Virginia, the U.S. Navy has directed all working warships and submarines in the area to leave port in advance of Hurricane Florence. Both the Naval Station Norfolk and Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek have said they have almost 30 ships currently planning evacuate as soon as possible.

With an extensive beachfront, Camp Lejeune is preparing for Hurricane Florence as well. The largest U.S. Marine Corps base on the East Coast, Lejeune is located about 50 miles northeast of Wilmington, North Carolina.

Historic Hurricane

If the hurricane hits as hard as predicted, Florence will be the most powerful to strike the area in three decades. Water could reach up to 15 feet high, and rainfall will move inland over the next four to five days.

The center of the hurricane is heading over the southwestern Atlantic Ocean between Bermuda and the Bahamas and some are predicting it to intensify into a Category 4 storm. With winds possibly reaching as high as 130-156 mph by Wednesday, it should reach the East Coast on Thursday or early Friday.

The last category 3 hurricane to hit the Atlantic Southeast Coast was Hurricane Fran in September 1996. Fran caused extensive damage and was the fourth major hurricane of the 1996 Atlantic hurricane season.

Category 4 Hurricane History in the Southeast

The deadliest and most powerful hurricanes to hit the Southeast Atlantic North of Florida were Hurricane Hazel. in September 1954 and hurricane Hugo in September 1989. Hazel reached the U.S. right around the border between North and South Carolina, registering as a Category 4 hurricane. Before reaching the U.S., Hazel killed more than 400 people in Haiti. It then belted Canada, categorized as an extratropical storm.

Hurricane Hugo was briefly a Category 5 hurricane crossing over Guadeloupe and St. Croix. It Weakened as it passed over Puerto Rico to a Category 3 hurricane and was downgraded to a Category 2 as it rematerialized in the Atlantic. But, just before it reached just the Charleston area it re-strengthened into a Category 4 hurricane, with 140 mph sustained winds.

Hurricane Florence News from Myrtle Beach

Myrtle Beach area residents have been asked to evacuate if and when Governor Henry McMaster gives the order. Myrtle Beach Spokesman Mark Kruea said for those who make the choice to ignore the order, “You take your own life into your hands.”

Kruea also said Myrtle Beach does not have “mandatory” the evacuation policy, but they strongly warn about the dangers if its citizens choose to stay.

Hurricane Florence News from Charleston, SC

Hurricane Florence’s path looks Charlotte and the city’s surrounding area will experience the impact of the Hurricane’s power.

Charlotte authorities are closely monitoring the Hurricane’s progress to help its residents be ready when Florence makes landfall and moves inland.

Hurricane Florence News from Wilmington, NC

Wilmington and all of Southeastern North Carolina area could easily be affected by Hurricane Florence and are encouraged to take precautions by local government agencies.

The University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) announced classes are canceled and issued a voluntary evacuation for all its students as the storm continues to rapidly approach the Carolina coast.

Hurricane Florence News from Florence, NC

Damaging winds and flooding rain are very possible later this week as Hurricane Florence moves inland. Florence residents are asked to start thinking now about how they will prepare for Florence and be vigilant about watching the progress of the Hurricane.