Category Archives: Cloud Storage
Catch Of The Week: COVID-19 Phishing Via LinkedIn – Los Alamos Daily Post
Screenshot of a COVID-19 phishing message. Courtesy/Becky Rutherford
By BECKY RUTHERFORDLos Alamos
COVID-19 phishing scams so hot right now. Check out the latest and greatest, straight from my inbox (First screenshot of the phishing message above. Second screenshot is posted at the bottom of the story).
LinkedIn is a great way to build your professional network and make connections, but this is not the kind of connection I want to make. Yes, this is relatively obvious, but lets go over the signs that this is malicious:
Do I know the sender? Am I expecting information about a government grant from the CDC? No, I am not. If you dont know the sender, dont trust the message. Delete it. If you are concerned, it might be something legit, contact the company out of band; go directly to their website, call a verified customer service number, etc.
Typos. This message is from a Project Manager at the Centers for Decease Control and Prevention. Also, the OneDrive link is spelled CONVID rather than COVID. There are usually clues like typos or grammatical errors in phishing emails, though certainly not always.
A couple of things to note in the second example; this is linking to a legitimate Microsoft OneDrive ( a cloud storage provider) site, and the link is https. What is https? Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure; this means that communications are encrypted to protect the information you send to and from websites. Back in the good old days (like a couple of years ago), we could tell users that if a link was https, it was probably safe to click. Unfortunately, now it is easy to get an SSL cert for your site and run the website as https. Https does not mean a site is safe to visit; it just means that your data will be encrypted while being stolen. Not helpful.
Another trend; bad guys like to abuse legitimate cloud hosting services like OneDrive, Google Drive, etc. to serve up phishing sites. Why? If your email service uses any kind of filtering (most do), it probably blocks emails with links to malicious websites. But if you get an email with a link to a legitimate cloud service like OneDrive, how will your email know to filter it out? It will probably get through, and you might click it. Just because a link is hosted on a legit service like OneDrive does not mean you can trust it; anyone can set up a site and host whatever they want on it.
I do not know what the actual phishing site looks like (dont click the link!), but I am betting it is a credential stealer. The phishing landing page will likely be spoofing Microsoft and asking you to log in to view the message. Then it will steal your credentials and use them to access your Microsoft account and any linked accounts, not good.
The profile this was sent from was likely compromised, though I cannot say for sure. If you do not have 2FA (Two Factor Authentication) set up on all of your social media accounts, now is the time to do so. Without that added layer of protection, your accounts are substantially more likely to get compromised. Microsoft engineers speaking at the RSA cybersecurity conference said that 99.99% of the compromised Microsoft email accounts they track did not have 2FA enabled. So if you enable 2FA, you have a .01% chance of your account being compromised; I like those odds. How can you set up 2FA? Either through text message authentication or an authenticator app like Google Authenticator, Authy, LastPass Authenticator, etc.
This message was sent to me via LinkedIn InMail, a messaging tool that recruiters and others can pay for as a premium service to directly message LinkedIn members. The scary thing is that in addition to the message going into my LinkedIn inbox, it also went straight into my personal email inbox. Cybercriminals love to abuse legitimate services; it adds that hint of authenticity to the scam.
If you get a suspicious message like this through any social media account, be sure to report it. In this case, I reported the message to LinkedIn as spam and also reported the profile it came from as likely to be compromised. I also contacted Microsoft and let them know the OneDrive site is likely a phishing site.
I deleted the messages from my inbox after reporting them. Im sure more scams will immediately pop up, but it is always good to report these.
COVID-19 has everyone scared and distracted, and the bad guys know its the perfect time to catch us off guard. Everyone is a target for scams like these; be aware and dont fall for a phish.
Second screenshot of the phishing message. Courtesy/Becky Rutherford
Editors note: Becky Rutherford works in information technology at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
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Catch Of The Week: COVID-19 Phishing Via LinkedIn - Los Alamos Daily Post
Police protection: What does it cost? – corneliustoday.com
By Dave Vieser. Chief Kevin Black is asking the Town Board for an additional $17,000 in the 2020-21 budget to provide front-line officers with body cameras.
The will be reviewed in greater detail during the towns budget discussions which get under way with the help of Zoom, a video conferencing tool, next week.
Body-worn cameras protect our officers who place their lives on the frontline of defense each day, said Black. He needs 12 to avoid the need for device sharing.
Body cams help protect officers and citizens against false accusations, claims of misconduct and abuse.
They also increase transparency and accountability of officers and may help de-escalate confrontational situations between officers and civilians.
The first generation of modern police body cameras was introduced around 2005 in the United Kingdom, while in 2014, large scale implementation began in the United States.
The $17,000 requested by the police would also cover the cost of cloud storage for a year.
The department is also seeking an additional $17,000 to hire a part-time officer for their animal control section, and $540,000 to continue its vehicle replacement program which calls for replacement of cars with more 100,000 miles. The department currently has a total of 54 vehicles in their fleet. Almost a quarter of the fleet has more than 80,000 miles on the odometer.
Pursuant to state law, the new, roughly $24 million budget must be adopted by June 30.
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Police protection: What does it cost? - corneliustoday.com
Are you an HPE user? Be warned about the self-destructing disk drives – Digital Information World
Our generation is nowadays moving more towards digital platforms, we still remember the Polaroid we used to take but now its all changed into digital pictures and sharing them through various devices via different digital platforms.
People end up having a huge collection of data on their digital devices and it is always a bit concerning for them to just have data on one device as it can be corrupted easily.
So, to secure their data on more devices, people use a variety of disk drives to move and secure their precious data so that it can be easy for them to use it whenever they want and wherever they want as clouds only save specific data free of cost and for more data, they charge so instead of cloud storage some users prefer disk drives for their data.
In 2015, When HP split its operation in two, Hewlett Packard Enterprise came into existence and since then, the enterprise has been serving its users a variety of products and services.
Recently, Hewlett Packard Enterprise started warning its users about its specific SAS solid-state drives that could fail after being operated for more than 40,000 hours.
If you do some calculations youll realize that 40,000 hours of operations mean the usage of their drives for 4 years, 206 days and 16 hours.
Yes, this is the life limit of the drivers that Hewlett is warning its users about and along with that Hewlett Packard Enterprise is also recommending the users of its drives to upgrade the firmware in an attempt to fix this issue.
Usually, OEM manufactures the SSDs but this issue of the drives could also affect the vendors and customers of HPE and thats why its already warning its users regarding the issue.
If youre trying to compare this warning with the incident that happened in November 2019 then you shouldnt as the failure of 2019 happened after 32,768 hours of operations and not 40,000 hours.
If you really want to save yourself from the trouble of data loss you need to update the drives to HPD7 firmware as for now it is being considered as the ultimate savior of this issue.
HPE is strongly recommending its users to update the firmware for this critical fix and negligence of this update to SSD Firmware Version HPD7 would pretty much result in the failure of your drives and loss of your precious data after 40,000 hours of operations and the only way to get the data back is by backup which can only happen if theres no fault tolerance.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise also listed out the affected SSD models used in a number of its servers and storage products which included HPE ProLiant, Apollo 4200m Synergy Storage Modules, Synergy, StoreEasy 1000 Storage and D3000 Storage Enclosure.
According to the listing provided by HPE, some platforms were not affected which included SAP HANA, XP Storage, StoreEasy 3000 Storage, StoreVirtual 4000/3200 storage, 3PAR StoreServ Storage, D6000/D8000 Disk Enclosures, StoreOnce, SimpliVity, Primera Storage, MSA Storage, Nimble Storage and ConvergedSystem 300/500 was also not affected with this issue.
You can download the Firmware Update from the HPE support bulletin to secure your derives from this issue.
Photo: DPA / Picture alliance / Getty Images
Read next: How Free VPNs can be Dangerous? [Infographic]
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Are you an HPE user? Be warned about the self-destructing disk drives - Digital Information World
6 Tricks You Need to Know About Zoom – Entrepreneur
Get familiar with this collaborative, remote-meeting tool.
March26, 20205 min read
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
If you have recently been directed to work from home, odds are you're going to need to know about Zoom.Zoom is the premier application for remote work meetings and one of the best ways I've personally been able to keep my business running with a remote team. It is easy to use, but there are a few tricks that can make your Zoom experience seamless.
Applying the following tips can help you avoid potential disasters when organizing your first online business meeting.
Although Zoom allows you to schedulemeetings, you might find it easier to use a meeting ID instead. This ID can be used repeatedly, eliminating the need to set up a new room for every meeting. Team members can save this code to reference for every planned meeting. You can schedule your meeting on your companys calendarand start the meeting without having to schedule it in Zoom.
Related:25 Tech Tools, Tricks and Tips to Get the Most Out of Your Chromebook
While using Zoom for video or audio meetings, you can also use a chat feature for instant messaging. Messages can be sent to the entire group or privately to one individual. This allows communication to continue without interrupting the speaker.
Chat channels can also be created for use outside of meetings. These can be categorized for different groups or purposes and named accordingly. Files, imagesand screen captures can be shared here for reference in future meetings or to bring back something from a past meeting.
Being able to direct a meeting remotely can be tricky. Zoom provides host controls to help make meetings run smoothly. The meeting host has options for controlling the participants audio, videoand screen-sharing settings. Participants can alter their own preferences, but it is reassuring for a host to know that they have the capability of managing their group.
If the host chooses to mute all other participants unless called upon, the "raise hand"feature can be implemented. Just as if you were in a classroom, this button command allows a participant to notify the speaker that they have a question or comment to contribute. This feature prevents unneeded and distracting interruptions that can derail or drag out a meeting.
Hosts can also enable simultaneous screen sharing.
Related:15 Tips, Hacks and Tricks to Get the Most Out of Google Photos
Collaborating on a presentation is made easier with Zooms screen-sharing capabilities. The meeting host can enable multiple participants to share their screens based on their teams needs. Documents can be compared in real time, presentations can be given with multiple layersand more. This is the digital equivalent of distributing resources in the meeting room.
For a more lighthearted meeting for team-building or morale-boosting, consider using screen sharing for ice-breaking activities. Ask participants to make a quick drawing on their computers and compare them to each other in a silly contest. New members can easily share images of their personal life so the rest of the team can get to know them better.
Zooms video call technology provides active speaker viewing. Its software detects which user is speaking and changes the screen to their window. This, in theory, allows for seamless transition between contributors. If too many people are speaking and this feature becomes overbearing, you can quickly disable it by selecting a particular participant to lock your screen onto. Focusing on the host, even when others make comments, can create an online atmosphere that seems most similar to a real-life meeting.
For the especially daring, gallery view allows you to view up to 25 screens at a time, allowing you to see the entire team at once.
The free-to-use Zoom tools work great, with the exception of one caveat. The basic plan only allows meetings for up to 40 minutes. An upgrade to the paid pro plan gives you a 24-hour limit more than enough time if you plan on needing more than what the Basic plan allows. It also is amazing for running your business when you don't have wifi.
If you figure you only need 40 minutes or less for your meetings, you wont have to worry about upgrading your plan. Zoom allows all of its users to host unlimited meetings with up to 100 participants. Other features of the Basic plan, as mentioned above, are local recording of your meetings, the nifty hand raising feature, and simultaneous screen sharing among participants.
Besides extended meeting time allotment, the pro plan also offers 1 GB cloud storage for recording, a customized personal meeting IDand the additional add-on plans. For larger corporations, business and enterprise plans allow for more participants and more hosts.
This is the cheapest MicroSD memory card per gigabyte in the world – TechRadar
Memory cards play an essential role in the digital lives of millions; they are crucial to the operation of dashcams and smartphones, but also IoT devices and more.
MicroSD cards are by far the most popular variety, and average prices have slowly fallen over the past few months. But, after reaching an historic low, prices have crept up again as a result of the ongoing coronavirus crisis.
Despite the price hike, we've managed to track down a 256GB microSD card - the Teamgroup TCUSDX256GUHS46 - for $28.99 (roughly 25) from Newegg, down from an SRP of $32.99.
Have you managed to get hold of a cheaper product with equivalent specifications? Let us know and we'll tip our hat to you.
This is not the cheapest price per gigabyte we've seen for a microSD card - they hit rock-bottom back in October 2019, and have been rising gradually over the past few weeks. However, Teamgroup's card is the most affordable on the market today.
The card is a UHS-1 U1 Class 10 model with a maximum read speed of 80MBps and a maximum write speed of 20MBps, although speeds are likely to be less impressive in practice. The card is also waterproof (IPX7) and shock-resistant.
As with all external storage devices, we would suggest you use a cloud storage service to back up your data to avoid loss.
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This is the cheapest MicroSD memory card per gigabyte in the world - TechRadar
Zerto 8 extends VMware backup and DR to Google Cloud Platform – Blocks and Files
Zerto has added support for backup and disaster to VMware workloads on Google Cloud Platform via its latest software release.
Zerto 8 makes its official debut tomorrow, March 24, in a webinar at 11am (ET) . A blog provides a sneak, watch-the-webinar, preview.
Google is prepping a VMware Engine andwill announce VMware-as-a-service this summer, according to Zerto, which will provide a backup and DR facility. The backup and disaster recovery supplier already supports VMware workloads on AWS and Azure.
Zerto said in the company blog: Youll be able to protect and migrate your native VMware workloads to your dedicated VMware environment in Google Cloud using the same policies and configurations that you utilize for your current infrastructure, just in the cloud. Stay tuned for Googles public announcement.
Zerto announced v7.0 in April last year, and combined backup and disaster recovery using hypervisor-based replication and journalling for short- and long-term retention.
Zerto 8.0 features include:
Zerto v8.0 Release Notes provides more details, on Zerto Analytics, for example. But they say nothing about Google Cloud Platform support. We note there is no support for Hyper-V virtual machines on the Google cloud.
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Zerto 8 extends VMware backup and DR to Google Cloud Platform - Blocks and Files
This Mac Pro with RGB lights should never have seen the light of day – iMore
Twitterer and Youtuber Quinn Nelson has put RGB lights inside a Mac Pro chassis, and we really don't know what to think anymore.
Nelson took to Twitter yesterday, March 23 saying:
As a proof of concept, it works. Now I need to make it look less awful.
He was talking about the RGB light strip he's just added to his Mac Pro chassis. An accompanying video saw the Mac Pro's chassis lit up in all sorts of garish, fluorescent colors.
Another closeup shot of the Mac Pro's front (pictured) was accompanied with the line "Admit it. It has the potential to look cool." Nelson further stated that the design looked "pretty clean", asking "You think Jony Ive would like this?" I think we can all agree the answer would be no.
In fairness, Nelson did admit "I need to make it look less awful", so clearly he understands that there is some work to be done. Or perhaps, he knows deep down that this is a totally futile exercise that he should never have done in the first place. Apple is, of course, renowned for its clean, crisp aluminum surfaces, polished edges, lines, and curves. No one can be in any doubt that Apple's design ethos was never meant to cross paths with the world of RGB lights and gaming.
Yet Nelson seems to be hellbent on his quest to properly adapt his Mac Pro to RBG lighting, posting a photo of him taking a Mac Pro to task with heavy cutting machinery earlier today.
It's enough to turn the stomach really. Quinn, we really hope you know what you're doing.
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This Mac Pro with RGB lights should never have seen the light of day - iMore
New Zerto release offers better integration with cloud services – iTWire
Disaster-recovery-as-a-service provider Zerto has released version 8.0 of its software, featuring integration with Google Cloud, closer integration with the Azure and AWS public platforms, and more innovation with VMware.
Zerto chief executive Ziv Kedem said in a statement: "With Zerto 8.0, our mission is to deliver IT resilience everywhere, by introducing a range of new and powerful features along with deeper integration with market-leading public cloud providers. We give customers the protection they want, wherever they need it.
Zerto has been moving the dial on resilience for the past decade, and the ongoing development and wider integration of our platform shows the importance of technology leadership in an era where businesses can never stand still on data protection and recovery.
The new release brings its leading Continuous Data Protection technology to Google Clouds VMware-as-a-Service offering and will support VMware on Google Cloud, enabling users to protect and migrate native VMware workloads in Google Cloud Platform with Zertos leading RTOs, RPOs and workload mobility.
Other features:
Additionally, Zerto 8.0 lays the foundation for the future of data protection, replacing traditional snapshot-based backup with low RPO journal-based operational recovery, enabling enterprises to perform day-to-day granular recovery quickly.
Were excited to partner with Zerto and to integrate its capabilities in disaster recovery and backup with Google Cloud, said Manvinder Singh, director, Partnerships at Google Cloud. Zertos expertise in supporting and securing VMware workloads in the cloud will be a benefit to organisations that are increasingly running mission-critical workloads on Google Cloud.
Zerto's support for VMware Virtual Volumes helps our mutual customers protect their digital infrastructure, said Lee Caswell, vice-president of Marketing, HCI BU, VMware.
As an Advanced tier Technology Alliance Partner, Zerto is helping customers realise the unique VMware ability to offer consistent storage policy-based management across traditional storage and hyperconverged infrastructure.
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Storj’s Decentralized Cloud Storage Service ‘Tardigrade’ Goes Live – CoinDesk – Coindesk
Decentralized storage provider Storj Labs says its blockchain-based cloud service is now available for businesses and individuals to securely store files and documents.
With the formal launch announced Tuesday, users are now able to begin migrating and backing up data onto the Tardigrade Decentralized Cloud Storage Service named after the famously hard to destroy microorganisms.
The open-source network, which currently has 19 petabytes (19 million gigabytes) of available capacity, is hosted on thousands of nodes run by individuals and partners based all around the world. There are currently about 3,000 users on the platform.
Decentralization benefits the cloud in many ways, and our first customers are already seeing how it improves security, privacy, and resiliency, while also lowering costs, said Ben Golub, Storj Labs executive chairman, who joined the company from Docker back in early 2018.
When a file is uploaded, it is encrypted and then split into 80 fragments distributed on separate nodes. To hedge against the possibility an individual node could become compromised or experience an outage, users only need 29 pieces to fully reconstruct a file.
Speaking to CoinDesk, Storj's co-founder and chief strategy officer, Shawn Wilkinson, said the firm starts "at about half the price" of centralized cloud storage providers" such as Amazon Web Services (AWS). There are also no bandwidth caps, meaning users can store as much data as they like on the platform.
Based in Atlanta, Storj raised $3 million in seed funding from Google Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures and Techstars in 2017 when it decided to pivot towards becoming an enterprise storage system. The protocol launched in private alpha at the end of 2018.
The platform migrated its storage service from bitcoin to ethereum back in 2017. Wilkinson said the company has no further plans to move protocols. "Ethereum allows us to affordably send thousands of transactions to thousands of Storage Node Operators each month," he said.
Users already on the data storage management protocols, Kafkaesque, Fluree and CNCTED, as well as identity solution Verif-y all Storj launch partners who helped beta test Tardigrade will be able to access decentralized storage through a connector linking the platforms together
Designed to be fully compatible with developers familiar with the Amazon S3 protocol, Tardigrade can also be used for engineers building storage solutions in other languages including Python, Go and Android.
The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.
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Storj's Decentralized Cloud Storage Service 'Tardigrade' Goes Live - CoinDesk - Coindesk
The top 3 indoor home security cameras of 2020 – CNET
From smart doorbells to outdoor cameras and models with facial recognition, there are a ton ofhome security cameraoptions out there. Indoor security cameras keep watch when you aren't home, looking after your valuables -- or simply monitoring a mischievous pet.
They range in price from 20 bucks up to several hundreds of dollars and offer a variety of features and specs. I've highlighted three of my favorite models below to help guide your decision if you're on the hunt for a new indoor home security camera.
Let's start with price: The Wyze Cam only costs $20. In a sea of costly security cameras, the Wyze Cam offers a killer value. Couple that with its straightforward app, easy installation and solid performance -- and you have an excellent indoor home security camera.
The thing that sets it apart even more is its free two-week cloud storage and built-in microSD card slot for local storage. You have to buy a microSD card separately, but that's standard for most cams with local storage. It supports Alexa and Google Assistant voice commands and has a motion detection zone feature. Read more from CNET.
Read more: Top cheap home security devices in 2020
The $200 Netatmo Smart Indoor Camera, previously called the Netatmo Welcome, is one of the few indoor security cameras that works with HomeKit Secure Video. HomeKit Secure Video is a service that works with the iOS-only Home app. It offers 10 days of free event-based video history, stored in iCloud.
Few security camera companies offer free cloud storage anymore (ahem, Arlo) -- and even fewer offer 10 full days of free cloud storage. Wyze is an exception with its two weeks of free storage, which is one reason why it's my current favorite indoor cam.
The Smart Indoor Camera from Netatmo has 1080p HD live streaming, a 130-degree field of view, night vision and local storage with an included microSD card. It also has facial recognition capabilities when you create a database of friends and family members. In addition to working with HomeKit, the Smart Indoor Camera also supports Alexa and Google Assistant voice commands. Read more from CNET.
Read more: Our favorite DIY home security systems of 2020
At $299, the Nest Cam IQ Indoor is definitely pricey. But it also happens to have a ton of high-end features with a lot of appeal. First, it has 1080p HD live streaming, free person alerts and 4K image sensor. That 4K image sensor allows for a feature called "Supersight" that zooms in on a person and tracks them within the camera's field of view.
If you pay for Nest Aware, which starts at $5 per month, you get access to the facial recognition feature. With facial recognition, you can create a database of friends and family in the app and then receive custom alerts when the camera recognizes"Dave" or "Molly."
The Nest Cam IQ Indoor also has a built-in Google Assistant speaker for general or smart-home-specific voice commands. Read more from CNET.
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The top 3 indoor home security cameras of 2020 - CNET