While this may just seem to be a mildly amusing annoyance, this phenomenon has some concerning security ramifications. Let?s discuss how deep the rabbit hole goes, and what the impact could be to your security. What Do Our Smart Assistants Actually Hear? You?re certainly aware by now of how these smart assistants work. A small device lives in your home or office, either as a standalone device or piggybacked into your phone or other appliance. With a simple voice command, assorted information can be shared or activities can be completed with little effort. By default, this voice command is dictated by which device is being used: Amazon Alexa devices respond to the term ?Alexa,? ?Computer,? ?Amazon,? or ?Echo.? Google Home devices wake up to ?Okay/Hey, Google.? Apple?s Siri responds to ?Hey Siri.? Microsoft?s Cortana reacts to its name, ?Cortana,? or ?Hey, Cortana.? However, we?ve all also seen examples of these smart assistants picking up other sounds when we aren?t expecting it to react. How often have you seen someone say something, only to be interrupted as their smart assistant responds? To be honest with yourself, how often have you been the one to say the wrong thing and trigger an out-of-context response? You are far from alone. Many people have done the same, and there are some legitimate security concerns paired to this phenomenon. In fact, these incorrect wake words have even inspired academic research. The Research In their report, Unacceptable, where is my privacy? Exploring Accidental Triggers of Smart Speakers, researchers used a variety of smart devices to listen to various samples of audio material, including popular television shows like Modern Family and Game of Thrones, news broadcasts, as well as the professional audio data used to train these speakers. With this approach, the researchers analyzed when the terms that successfully activated the assistants were spoken, ultimately generating a list of over a thousand audio sequences. From there, they were even able to break down the words into their individual sounds and identify other potential false triggers that also activated the voice assistants. For instance, depending on the pronunciation of the word, the following substitutions awakened the voice assistants: Alexa devices also responded to ?unacceptable? and ?election,? while ?tobacco? could stand in for the wake word ?Echo.? Furthermore, ?and the zone? was mistaken for ?Amazon.? Google Home devices would wake up to ?Okay, cool.? Apple?s Siri also reacted to ?a city.? Microsoft?s Cortana could be activated by ?Montana.? This phenomenon was not only found in devices trained in English, either. Speakers set to German and some from Chinese manufacturers set to Chinese were also tested, with some samples being more resistant to accidental activation, while some new examples proved very effective?for instance, the German phrase for ?On Sunday? (?Am Sonntag?) was commonly mistaken for ?Amazon.? What This Means to Privacy While the results of this study are fascinating, the true purpose is more disconcerting. Let?s go back to the way these assistants work. As we said, once the wake word or phrase is recognized by the device, it actively begins listening. In an ideal world, the assistant would only recognize the predetermined words and activate when those specific words were spoken. However, we know that isn?t the case, as this study proves. So, now we have a situation in […]
Secure Your Data with Multiple Backups Your backup is more than just an insurance policy for your business operations. In the case of a disaster or other cause of data loss, your backup essentially takes your business? place, allowing you to recover more quickly with fewer consequences. This means that your backup needs to be kept safe. The first step to doing so is to make sure your data backup is stored separately from your primary data storage. We suggest using the 3-2-1 rule, which is three total copies of your data, with two available onsite and one stored offsite. This will help you avoid a situation where the same disaster that damaged the original data wipes out your backup too. Cloud-based backups are especially effective at preserving your data in a major disaster. Create a Disaster Recovery Strategy How quickly could your business return to full operation after undergoing a disaster? While establishing an off-site backup to preserve your data is a good start, you also need to have a plan in place that will allow you to put that data to use as quickly as possible. This is where it is useful to have a disaster recovery strategy, as it allows you to proactively prepare for circumstances that would otherwise lead to data loss and wasted time and productivity. Make Sure Your Backup is Working Imagine what it would be like to go through the entire process of establishing an offsite backup, only to have it fail when you?re relying on it. Fortunately, this can be avoided through some simple tests to ensure that the backup works effectively. You?ll be happy you did if you ever find yourself in the position that you need to restore from a backup and it works. If you can?t trust your data backup, it needs to be modified. White Mountain IT Services can help. Reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.
Electronic Health Records were developed to enhance the speed that health care organizations could see patients, get them the care they need, and get paid. With so many moving parts, the EHR would change the face of healthcare, but have they been consistently updated to give patients control over their experiences with their healthcare providers? Not always. There are a couple of reasons for this. The first is that the EHR, while being a platform that could do a lot for a patient, was actually designed to streamline patient care and keep costs from inflating too much. Neither has really worked as costs continue to rise and EHRs aren?t always up to date with all relevant information. Another is a result of cost inflation: many healthcare facilities are being sold to larger healthcare providers and then being dismantled. These mergers and acquisitions dictate that any EHR functionality be consolidated, making cost too prohibitive to innovate. Furthermore, every major EHR system is highly proprietary, making interoperability with other systems a non-starter for many EHR companies. Regardless of the reasons why innovation isn?t happening, it?s not. There are many technologies that have been developed in the past decade that could be worked into the EHR to give patients more control over their own health data, but without consistent upgrades made to the EHR systems these opportunities are lost. Governments from all over the world have spent a lot of money attempting to promote the use of the EHR. The thought behind it is intriguing. A digital file where every piece of data that is needed by healthcare providers to give the best patient care, as well as a way to connect insurers into the process to ensure that these providers get paid. During the last economic downturn in 2009, the HITECH Act was passed with billions of dollars going to healthcare providers in order for them to upgrade away from the file folder system that doctors had been using for decades prior. In those 11 years, many organizations that implemented EHR systems haven?t upgraded them. Imagine if you were using a piece of software that was developed 11 years ago? Microsoft just retired Windows 7 support forever. That OS was released in 2009. The point here is that in order for the healthcare system to innovate, it will take an investment by healthcare providers to continue to push the envelope by implementing software that is on the cutting edge, not trying to patch software that should have been replaced three times over. Modern EHR solutions have some of the most innovative tools right down to active imaging and reporting. There are solutions today using IoT sensors that can tell doctors and nurses everything they need to know about a patient so that their time is used resourcefully. It?s a shame that people are stuck paying some healthcare providers exorbitant costs while they use technology from yesteryear. If your medical practice is looking to make an investment in their patient?s ability to take control of their health, call the IT professionals at (603) 889-0800 to talk about how we can help you innovate your EHR platform today.
Variables of a Successful Continuity Plan Threat Identification/Remediation Using what is called a threat matrix, you should work to Identify all the threats that could railroad your business. You will want to include any situation that could cause your business to stop. Examples can be as simple as a power outage to major calamities like a tornado ripping your building apart. Your business? threat matrix should list threats (from most to least likely) and what your response would be to each. Mission-Critical Processes Each business has mission-critical processes that need to be working fluidly in order to do business as usual. These should all be found in a comprehensive continuity plan. Chain of Command Every business has a leader, management, and subordinates. Knowing who oversees what is crucial when looking to get your business back up and running after an event that knocks continuity out. Evacuation Plan for Employee Safety Your business? continuity plan should outline a strategy to safely get your people out of harm?s way should some disaster strike your business. Communication Hierarchy If continuity is broken, people need to know about it. There should be a point of contact for every department on your staff, so that they can contact employees, vendors, and customers if the need arises. Disaster Recovery Clearly, you?ll need your data if you want your business to continue after an event. Having a disaster recovery plan that includes comprehensive data backup is a major part of getting your technology up and running, should something happen to your business? information systems. Inventory of Your IT Infrastructure Concordantly, if a situation arises where your IT is knocked out, having an inventory of everything that you have can also be used to procure resources should you need to rebuild. When Is It Over? You will want to have a process in place that signals the end of an incident, and that all ?I?s are dotted and ?T?s are crossed. This will allow managers and employees to know that they can get back to business without worrying about residual negative circumstances. There are no guarantees that the breach of your business? continuity will have a happy ending. What is true is that with a dedicated plan in place, you will have a fighting chance. If you need help putting together the technology resources to support your disaster recovery initiatives, or if you would just like to discuss business continuity with one of our experts, give us a call at (603) 889-0800.
Condition 1: Your Battery Will Degrade Over Time, and Naturally Hold Less Power in a Full Charge While the ones currently being put into smartphones are much better than the ones used in the past, batteries have long been one of the fastest components to fail in smartphones and laptops alike. The timeline of this failure can come as a surprise, too?manufacturers admit that, by the time a year has passed, most batteries will have lost a sizable amount of their available life. Many recommend users to expect a loss of 20 percent after 400 charge cycles. With this knowledge, you can see that it is important to adjust how a device is charged to help extend the lifespan of its battery. Condition 2: Temperature Extremes Can Encourage Degradation A smartphone?s battery capacity can also be adversely impacted by very high as well as very low temperatures. This is a common issue for people who often leave their devices in their cars. With the potential for extreme temperatures on either side of the spectrum depending on where someone lives, the enclosed car only exacerbates these impacts. Keeping a device at a happy medium can therefore help keep the device?s batteries from losing too much potential. Condition 3: You Let Your Battery Run Out of Charge Not too terribly long ago, the prevailing advice for preserving a mobile device battery?s lifespan was to let it get all the way down to zero before you next charged it. More recent innovations in batteries and their internal chemistry have actually made this a bad thing to do for the battery?s longevity. Instead, it is advisable to keep your device?s battery somewhere between 20 and 90 percent. Condition 4: The Screen is Too Bright It just makes sense that keeping your screen turned all the way up would result in a greater draw on the device?s power reserves. However, it can actually harm your battery in the long term as well. Fortunately, both iOS and Android devices now have built-in utilities to help you control your screen?s brightness, but you can also boost it further by manually setting your brightness to the lowest brightness that is still visible. Condition 5: The Screen Stays on Too Long Most modern smartphones feature a setting that turns off the screen if there is no activity registered for a set period, usually ranging between a few seconds to a few minutes. There are also applications that can give you more granular control over this, and some smartphone makers will include extra software to keep unnecessary battery usage at a minimum. Condition 6: You Haven?t Adjusted the On-Board Battery Saver Most smartphones today come with some capability to control how much battery life is taken up by background processes. While this solution might not give you the longevity you would expect from a device that likely cost you over a grand, it can help you to make the most of it. Properly managing your mobile device?s battery can have a lot of impact on how it operates, which in turn can impact your finances. To learn more ways to get more out of the technology that your business relies on, subscribe to our blog, and give White Mountain IT Services a call at (603) 889-0800.
