Blog – Page 2

October 29, 2018 by Joseph Martin

Move over Facebook. Where teens are concerned, Instagram reigns supreme, according to a recently published survey.

Piper Jaffray has been tracking how teenagers use the internet for nearly twenty years, and the second report of this year has some interesting findings indeed.

Here are the highlights:

85 percent of teens report using Instagram at least once a month, up from 79 percent in the fall of 2016.

84 percent of teens report using Snapchat at least once a month, up from 80 percent in the fall of 2016.

Just 36 percent of teens report using Facebook at least once a month, down from 52 percent in the fall of 2016.

In terms of their favorite social media platforms, here’s how things look as of this year:

Snapchat in first place with 46 percent

Instagram in second place with 32 percent

Twitter a distant third with six percent

Facebook fourth with just five percent

Interestingly, more teens still use Instagram, but the survey revealed that when the teens were asked which platform they prefer, Snapchat still wins the day.

The survey revealed the reason behind the seeming disconnect. Instagram is the social media channel of choice when it comes to brand engagement of teens, with an overwhelming majority of teens preferring to be contacted by brands via Instagram.

It should be noted, however, that Snapchat is improving in this regard, but industry insiders are doubtful that Snapchat will be able to overcome Instagram’s dominance in brand engagement. This is because Instagram has been focusing heavily on improving engagement with the youngest cohort of the teen set.

Unless the company makes a major misstep in handling that segment of the demographic, they’re unlikely to lose them in the longer term. Meanwhile, Facebook has become the bastion of older users. Mom and dad check their Facebook accounts. Teens check Instagram.

If your business markets products to teens, this is good information to know. If you don’t have a robust presence on Instagram, then your social media isn’t doing as much for you as it could be.

October 27, 2018 by Joseph Martin

You probably haven’t heard of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Systems.

They’re a low-profile division of the Department of Health and Human Services responsible for administering the Affordable Care Act.

Recently, the company announced that they detected anomalous activity in the systems related to the healthcare.gov website that brokers and insurance agents use to assist people who apply for healthcare coverage.

The abnormal activity was detected in the Federally Facilitated Exchange system, and the direct enrollment pathway in particular. This is connected to (but separate from) the healthcare.gov website itself.

A statement issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Systems said:

“At this time, we believe that approximately 75,000 individuals’ files were accessed. While this is a small fraction of the consumer records present on the FFE, any breach of our system is unacceptable… We will continue to work around the clock to help those potentially impacted and ensure the protection of consumer information.”

CMS made it clear that their investigation into the matter was still in its earliest stages.

They did offer the following additional information:

“Upon verification of the breach, CMS took immediate steps to secure the system and consumer information, further investigate the incident, and subsequently notify federal law enforcement. We are actively engaged in and committed to helping those potentially impacted as well as ensuring the protection of consumer information.”

Additionally, CMS stated that they identified the broker accounts that were associated with the anomalous activity and deactivated them out of an abundance of caution.

At some point in the near future, we can expect that CMS will be contacting those whose data was compromised and providing them with a series of next steps. The agency is already moving to bolster their security measures and promises that they’ll have them in place before the end of October 2018.

If you’ve used the healthcare.gov portal and required the assistance of a broker or insurance agent to get coverage for yourself and your family, there is a small chance your data may have been compromised. However, at this point, there’s no way to be certain. Be on the lookout for a communication from CMS in the near future, however, just in case.

October 26, 2018 by Joseph Martin

Microsoft hasn’t been terribly impressive lately when it comes to Windows 10 updates. In fact, it’s fair to say that they’ve been a complete mess. Just recently, they’ve issued updates that have deleted user files and caused crashes after creating incompatibilities with keyboard drivers. Now, (courtesy of the most recent Windows 10 update), many users are reporting that they’ve got no sound due to corrupted or incompatible audio drivers.

The company has made hasty corrections to their previously botched updates and patches, but as yet, there has been no official word from the company about a fix for the audio driver issue. The legions of Windows 10 users aren’t happy about it, and are taking to social media to express their displeasure.

All over Reddit and Twitter, dissatisfied Windows 10 users are up in arms about the string of shoddy updates that have created more problems than they have solved.

Since Microsoft hasn’t released a fix for the latest debacle, the company’s massive user base has begun investigating and have come up with a workaround.

In a nutshell, if you’ve installed the latest Windows 10 update and lost your audio as a result, go into your device manager and look for an audio driver that has “SST” as part of the name. If you find one on the list, right click that device and select “Update Driver.” Once the driver has been updated (which may require a system restart), your audio functionality should be restored.

As mentioned at the start, this isn’t the first time the company has issued a botched update, and the problems only appear to be getting worse over time. It seems clear at this point that Microsoft doesn’t have enough support staff to identify and prioritize bugs reported by their army of beta testers. Until that changes, we can expect issues like this to continue.

October 25, 2018 by Joseph Martin

Google is taking additional steps to bolster user privacy and better secure the data of the company’s legions of Android device owners. The company recently announced a change to the Android Backup Service that will encrypt all user backup data stored on its cloud servers, such that even Google itself can’t read it.

Google has long allowed Android users to back up their app data and phone settings to their Google account so when they upgrade their phones, the process of getting the new device set up is quick and painless. However, until this recent change, none of the backup data stored was encrypted.

Beginning with Android Pie, the new encryption paradigm will work as follows:

Your Android device will generate a random security key that is unknown and invisible to Google

The key will be encrypted using your passcode, pattern, or lock screen PIN

Once encrypted, the key will be sent (securely) to a Titan security chip on Google’s servers

As Google explained in a recent blog post: “The Titan chip is configured to only release the backup decryption key when presented with a correct claim derived from the user’s passcode.”

All that sounds good in theory, but what about brute force hacking attempts? The company has an answer for that as well.

Here’s what they had to say about that topic:

“The limited number of incorrect attempts is strictly enforced by a custom Titan firmware that cannot be updated without erasing the contents of the chip…by design, this means that no one (including Google) can access a user’s backed-up application data without specifically knowing their passcode.”

The company has not specified which Android smartphones will be able to take advantage of the additional layer of security. All we know at this point is that the device must be running the latest OS (Android 9 – Pie). We expect to get a comprehensive device list from Google in the near future.

October 24, 2018 by Joseph Martin

Gamers take the games they play seriously. So seriously, in fact, that they’re not above resorting to dirty tricks to score a win.

Recently, social media has been abuzz with reports of a messaging app bug on Sony’s PlayStation devices. Specifically, there’s a bug in both the Android and iOS messaging apps that allow malicious gamers to send a poisoned character via group chat that will brick your gaming console.

If you’re in the middle of a tense death match, you lose by default, because you’re booted from the system entirely.

Here’s an example of what we’re seeing on Reddit:

“There is a new glitch that basically bricks your console and forces you to factory reset it. Even deleting the message from the mobile app doesn’t work. It happened to me during Rainbow Six: Siege. A player from the other team used a dummy account to send the message and crashed my entire team. We all have had to factory reset. Only one of our guys wasn’t affected, and he has his messages private.”

This note holds the key to the workaround until Sony makes some type of official response. If you haven’t yet had the dubious honor of being the recipient of this poisoned message, set your messages to private immediately.

Here’s how you do that:

Go to “Settings” and select “Account Management, Privacy Settings”

Enter your password

Select “Messages” and change it to either “Friends Only” or “No One,” then exit out of the subsystem. You’re all set from there.

If you’d rather change your message settings from your PC and a web browser, you can do that too, though the process is a bit different.

Here’s how:

From your PC, surf your way to the PSN Privacy Settings Management Page

Select “Personal Information/Messages”

Select “Edit,” then change the setting to either “Friends Only” or “No One.” Save and exit.

October 23, 2018 by Joseph Martin

Gaming and Gambling are huge industries with a truly global footprint. It’s no surprise then, that these industries have become an increasingly popular target for hackers.

Interestingly, according to the latest report issued by ThreatMatrix, the attack vector of choice when it comes to these industries is IP Spoofing. It has increased by a staggering 257 percent since this time last year, making it far and away the fastest growing attack vector in the gambling and gaming industry.

A spokesman for ThreatMatrix had this to say about the report:

“Rising cybercrime levels is no small issue for a sector that enjoys a truly global customer base. With more than two billion gamers worldwide, nearly 60 percent of the industry’s traffic is cross-border.

Operators must contend with a rapidly evolving regulatory landscape and stringent new anti-money laundering laws, making the verification of the true location of a transacting gamer a vital component in authenticating identity.”

Note that at least some of the increase in IP spoofing stems from the gamers themselves, specifically in countries where certain gaming activities may be illegal. Gamers who wish to participate anyway, in violation of their country’s laws, have to fake an IP address to make it appear that they are located in some other country.

Another key finding of the report is the fact that an increasing percentage of gamers and gamblers access sites primarily from their mobile devices. Mobile access has increased by 45 percent between this year and last. As of now, fully 71 percent of gaming and gambling transactions are made on a mobile device, which is serving to make them an increasingly attractive target for hackers.

A TreatMatrix spokesman continues to explain, saying:

“To deal with these challenges, gaming and gambling operators must incorporate dynamic digital identity intelligence that pieces together key indicators such as device intelligence, true geolocation, online identity credentials and threat analysis to better inform risk decisions. The key is to be able to effectively differentiate trusted users from fraudsters and understand changes in trusted user behavior without adding unnecessary friction.”

A daunting challenge indeed.

October 22, 2018 by Joseph Martin

This hasn’t been a great month for two of the titans of tech. Both Apple and Microsoft have been plagued with bug-riddled updates to their operating systems. In Apple’s case, their new iOS 12 had to be patched just three weeks after its release because of all the bugs the company’s burgeoning user base discovered almost immediately after updating.

Unfortunately, the 12.0.1 patch seems to have created almost as many issues as it solved for some users. In particular, some users are reporting network and signal connectivity problems, leading to an increasing number of broken calls. It has created such a stir that it’s even caught the attention of national media.

A recent Forbes article had this to say:

“Since upgrading, owners of both new and old iPhones are finding their phones either don’t make or receive calls. Bluetooth connectivity, Wi-Fi and battery-related issues are again surfacing on an iOS generation which Apple has promoted as being all about efficiency, stability, and speed.”

We’re also seeing an interesting incarnation of the law of unintended consequences where iOS 12 is concerned. One of the things Apple did differently in this latest version of the OS was to reorganize how the OS recognizes people in your contacts list, referring to the Apple ID number.

Unfortunately, many users tended to group contacts under a common Apple ID (family under one, co-workers under another, and so on).

Recently, select users got a shock when they used iMessage to send a note to a friend and wound up sending it to a whole group, simply because iMessage uses the same Apple ID that now organizes your contacts. The company issued a quick patch to fix that, but as you might expect, it caused a fair amount of concern for the short period the but/unintended consequence existed.

All that to say, Apple is off to a rocky start with iOS 12. So far, at least, we’ve been underwhelmed. The promised speed, stability and efficiency isn’t being delivered.

October 20, 2018 by Joseph Martin

As many as 30,000 people made up of a mix of both civilian and military personnel have had their personal and financial information exposed. This exposure is what has been reported as a major security breach of the Pentagon.

This is proof positive that no organization is safe from watchful hackers scattered all around the world.

The Associated Press report on the incident includes:

“The department is continuing to gather additional information about the incident, which involves the potential compromise of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) of DoD personnel maintained by a single commercial vendor that provided travel management services to the department. This vendor was performing a small percentage of the overall travel management services of the DoD…The department is continuing to assess the risk of harm and will ensure notifications are made to affected personnel.”

While there’s no good time for a data breach like this, it couldn’t have come at a worse time. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) had issued a scathing report of critical vulnerabilities in virtually all of the weapons systems programs the agency currently runs.

A small excerpt of the report reads as follows:

“One test report indicated that the test team was able to guess an administrator password in nine seconds…Multiple weapon systems used commercial or open source software, but did not change the default password when the software was installed, which allowed test teams to look up the password on the internet and gain administrator privileges for that software.”

It gets worse. When confronted with the findings of the report, Pentagon officials dismissed the report as being unrealistic.

Clearly, there was something to the report, or this breach would not have happened. The hope is that it will be sufficient to cause Pentagon officials to do some soul searching and reevaluate their positions. If not, you can bet that something like this will happen again.

October 19, 2018 by Joseph Martin

Microsoft is having problems, and those problems are spilling out onto the company’s massive user base. In a highly unusual move, the company pulled its latest Windows 10 update after receiving numerous complaints from users about missing files.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time the company has had problems with updates to their OS. Back in April, the company delayed a planned update because at the last minute, Blue Screen of Death issues were discovered. In another instance, they had to rush out a patch after an update to fix Chrome and desktop freezing issues that impacted more than half a billion machines.

These issues have led many to begin questioning the company’s QA/QC process. It’s a fair question, because the issues described above are far from trivial, and should have been caught.

At the core, it appears that the main problem is communication. Research has revealed that these issues were caught, they simply weren’t flagged for review because they didn’t get a sufficient number of upvotes by the beta testing user community.

Windows 10 represents a significant departure from the company and a new era of openness. While Windows 8 was designed with little to no user input, Microsoft opted to open the Windows 10 development process up, relying on more than ten million beta testers to try out their new features and solicit feedback on.

Unfortunately, there appears to be a few gaps in their process, and those gaps are allowing serious problems to go un-noticed until they are in the wild.

Another problem is that because the company is relying so heavily on their massive beta test group, they phased out their dedicated Software Test Engineering staff. This was during a massive round of layoffs that came about a year ahead of the Windows 10 release.

Apparently, the decision to remove the STE group from the equation was premature, and given the recent flood of problems, the Windows 10 feedback program appears to be in need of a serious overhaul.

October 18, 2018 by Joseph Martin

Most people don’t know what the latest version of WiFi is called. That’s the fault of the Wi-Fi Alliance, the group that manages the implementation of WiFi. Since their earliest days, the group has insisted on a highly unconventional version numbering scheme.

If you’re curious, the current version is 802.11ac. The group’s numbering system isn’t very user friendly, which makes WiFi support fairly user un-friendly too.

All that is changing, however. The next version of WiFi will simply be known as “WiFi 6.” Going forward, the alliance will be using a conventional version numbering scheme that should make everyone’s lives easier.

Even better, they’re retroactively changing the names of all previous WiFi versions too, so it will be faster and easier to identify exactly what you’re working with.

Here are the old/new version names, as a handy reference:

802.11b = Wi-Fi 1

802.11a = Wi-Fi 2

802.11g = Wi-Fi 3

802.11n = Wi-Fi 4

802.11ac = Wi-Fi 5

The next standard to be released was originally to be named 802.11ax, but again, per the Wi-Fi Alliance, will be rebranded as simply WiFi 6. This will make it much easier for users to not only identify exactly which version they’re using, but also to keep their devices up to date.

In addition to that, the Wi-Fi Alliance has created a series of images that manufacturers can use on their products to provide an easily understood symbol with the WiFi version number the device is running. This will allow users to make better purchasing decisions when it’s time to buy new equipment.

User groups and manufacturers alike have signaled their strong support of the change, and it’s seen by an overwhelming majority as being a very good change on a variety of fronts. Kudos to the Wi-Fi Alliance Group for taking the step, and making all of our lives easier.

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