Friday 1 December 2017

Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency is the term used to described new forms of digital currency that can be traded on the Internet. The most popular of these is Bitcoin, which was founded in 2008. Other popular cryptocurrencies are Ethereum and Litecoin. The underpinning technology is called blockchain. This allows for transactions to be made using a ledger style system. All transactions can be viewed on the ledger, making it a transparent system. Each transaction has a digital fingerprint that can't be faked, and thereby making it a trustworthy system. Blockchain relies on decentralised processing by multiple computers using a peer to peer network, in much the same way that bittorrent shares files between computers. To perform a transaction using bitcoin, you will need a digital wallet. This is used to store your transactions and the private key, which is used to encrypt your transactions and verify your digital identity. It is the encryption that creates the trustworthy part of the system and is why these are called cryptocurrencies.

When a transaction is made, it is added to a block of transactions. Miners will mathematically verify this block and ensure it is consistent with the previous block in the chain (hence the term blockchain). The blockchain (or ledger) is verified through a mathematical fingerprint (hash). Each transaction has to be mathematically proven in order for it to be verified. This is called mining. Computers that perform the mining calculations are rewarded with bitcoins. The difficulty of the calculations (and as a result, the processing effort) increases as more transactions are made. This means more power is required to verify a block of the blockchain as the number of transactions increases. So mining was a lot easier a few years ago, but requires more processing today and is therefore a more expensive process.

You may have seen in the news that Bitcoin has been reaching an all time high value. Currently it is sitting over US $10,000 per bitcoin. The cryptocurrency has gone through an exponential increase in value since 2016 when it was sitting at around US$500 per bitcoin (https://www.investing.com/currencies/btc-usd). This rapid rise can lead to swings in value as investors seek to profit and others are driven by FOMO (fear of missing out). Economists have seen this behaviour before (in the dotcom craze) and warn that this can lead to a bubble in the market. As more investors seek to buy the cryptocurrency, its value will rise, as there are only 21 million bitcoins that can be traded. The fundamental value of using a cryptocurrency is yet to be proven and only when there is mainstream support for using the cryptocurrency can it become truly useful. Some retailers are starting to offer payment with bitcoin (or other cryptocurrencies) but this is limited to a small part of the market. There is history of bitcoin trading sites getting hacked or the founders embezzling the funds. As usual it pays to be cautious when dealing with your hard earned cash. The largest trading site is coinbase.com

There are clear benefits in using a distributed transparent and trustworthy ledger system. From a banking perspective this could simplify and minimise the cost of interbank transfers. Currently it can take days for money to transfer between banks, with a block chain system this could be completed in a matter of seconds. This leads to benefits in time for the customer and cuts down on fees for the bank. There is no doubt banks are looking to use this technology but it can also be a digital disruptor to their way of working as the threat of cryptocurrencies becoming legitimised grows. For more information about cryptocurrencies take a look at the articles at www.coindesk.com/information/

Wednesday 1 November 2017

GSuite for Small Business

Last month I wrote about Microsoft's Office 365 cloud offering for small business. Google also offer similar services with their GSuite products, which includes, email, calendar as well as apps for documents (Docs), spreadsheets (Sheets), presentations (Slides), file storage (Drive) and video conferencing, amongst many other apps. The main difference is that Google is a cloud based company first and foremost, so their services are delivered with Cloud and mobile access at their core. Google Drive operates similar to Dropbox, where files are synchronised from your local device to the cloud and back to other devices you have connected to it. You can also create a shared space where team members can share files. This is called Team Drive.

GSuite allows collaboration and sharing between members of the same organisation. Pricing is based on a monthly user subscription and the Business plan is currently $10/user per month (https://gsuite.google.com.au/pricing.html). For a small business. this is a quick way to get the services needed to run a business available, with little up front cost. The Office apps are cloud based, so do not offer as many functions as the Microsoft desktop apps, although they are compatible with the Microsoft formats. If you want the advanced functionality of Microsoft Office apps, you can either buy the Microsoft suite and still use the storage with Drive, or go with the Office 365 subscription mentioned last month. You will get similar services either way, it depends what you are familiar with.


For more information on GSuite take a look here (https://gsuite.google.com.au/).

Wednesday 4 October 2017

Office 365 for Small Business


If you have a small business and want a more professional digital image, such as your own email domain e.g. myname@mybusiness.com.au, then you may want to consider using Office 365. The benefits of using Office 365 are enterprise level email service, team collaboration through Sharepoint document management as well as video and audio conferencing through Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams. Office 365 allows small businesses to use these enterprise level services without requiring the on premise setup of servers and equipment as these are all provided from the Cloud (using Microsoft's services). You will still need your own PCs or tablets to use these services, as well as a reasonable internet connection.

Office 365 plans are based on a subscription model and are charged per user per month. The cost will vary according services provided and the following plans are suitable for small businesses:
  • Business ($7.04/user/month) - Office apps, cloud file storage and sharing. No email.
  • Business Essentials ($13.20/user/month) - Email, cloud file storage and sharing. Video and audio conference through Skype for Business. No desktop office apps provided. 
  • Business Premium ($17.49/user/month) - Includes essentials services plus the office apps. 
Note that pricing is based on a user per month but is billed annually. A pro rata monthly rate will be slightly more expensive (https://products.office.com/en-au/compare-all-microsoft-office-products?tab=2).

Just another note on email usage. A user can have multiple email addresses (e.g. info@mybusiness.com.au, accounts@mybusiness.com.au), but all emails will go to one mailbox. It is possible to have multiple business domains E.g. myname@business1.com.au and myname@business2.com.au, but sending from both requires a bit of finessing, but is possible. If you want to keep the emails in separate mailboxes then you will need a subscription for each mailbox.

There are many benefits for small businesses to use the subscription service. Access to enterprise level services at a fraction of the setup costs are a good deal. Note that the initial setup may require a professional to configure, but once setup, should be relatively easy to maintain.

Saturday 9 September 2017

Spam management

Spam is unsolicited email that you get in your inbox, usually attempting to sell you something or entice you to a website. This email can be annoying if it arrives en masse but some spam can also be malicious, attempting to phish information or install malware on your computer. Depending on your email provider, they will usually have a spam filter applied to your email, but these can be overcome if you signup for marketing emails, or your email address is added to a spam list.


One of the largest spam databases has been discovered recently, weighing in at a massive 14GB and approximately 711 million email addresses. Worryingly, some of these email addresses also included passwords. These are likely to have been harvested from hacked sites such as Yahoo. If you want to identify whether your email address is on the list then go to https://haveibeenpwned.com/ and check there. If you do find your email listed, then it is a good idea to change the passwords associated with that email address so that hackers don't use those details to gain access to your information.


The other issues with being on the spam list is that you are likely to get more spam emails. Once your email is added to a spam list it is difficult to remove it. While legitimate companies will provide an unsubscribe feature, this can be used by illegitimate spammers to confirm that your email address is active. So once you click on the unsubscribe link, you will be targeted for further emails. As mentioned earlier, depending on your email provider, the spam protection may vary. The larger email providers like GMail and Outlook.com allow you to identify spam in your inbox, and this helps fine tune the settings for your email. Bigpond don't have the same level of protection so you will need to use a client based spam filter to fine tune the spam settings. Spamfigher (http://www.spamfighter.com/) is a paid product with a free ad supported version, that can be added to the common email clients (Outlook, Windows Mail etc.) to provide additional spam protection if required. Some anti-virus products will also include spam protection as part of the security suite.


Often the best way to beat spam is to avoid it. To prevent your email address being used for spam, use a separate junk email address for signing up to sites or marketing lists. This way you can check the junk email occasionally for any legitimate email but keep your private email safe from spam. For more information on tuning your spam filter in gmail and outlook.com, take a look at these sites.


https://support.google.com/mail/answer/1366858
https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Help-keep-spam-out-of-your-Inbox-in-Outlook-com-a3ece97b-82f8-4a5e-9ac3-e92fa6427ae4

Tuesday 1 August 2017

Limiting internet data usage

If you are unfortunate enough to only have access to mobile broadband or satellite broadband, then chances are you will need to keep a close watch on how much data you use over the month. These plans have a limited allocation (or quota) and you will either be charged excess usage fees, have your internet shaped (limited speed) or have no internet access at all, if you exceed your monthly quota. As a result it is important to manage your bandwidth usage, and there are a few ways to do this.

One of the most common causes of excess usage is system updates. In the case of Windows 10 PCs, these updates are mandatory and can be large, especially for feature updates. There is a way to prevent automatic downloads on Windows 10 by changing your network setting to a metered connection. Go to Start > Settings > Network & Internet > Wi-Fi > and then either Advanced or your Connection name. Set Metered Connection to On and you will now be prompted when updates are available. It is still advisable to apply updates regularly, especially security updates, but at least with this setting on you can choose when to download them.

iPhones and iPads are also bandwidth hogs when it comes to updates. These can be as large as a gigabyte for major updates. Apple does not make it easy to prevent these updates but if the pre-requisites aren't met then it will not download the updates. In particular, the device needs to be on charge and connected to a wifi network. Disabling wifi when you charge your phone is one work around. For other options take a look at this post (https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-9741). It is possible to restrict automatic updates of Apps on iOS devices. This can be done by going to Settings > iTunes and App Store and disabling all the options under Automatic Downloads. This way you can choose to update Apps when you have the bandwidth available.


If your updates are not causing your bandwidth usage then it may be the content that you are downloading. Video streaming will quickly use up bandwidth, this includes the likes of Netflix, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. Any site that shows videos has the potential to eat into your precious monthly quota so keep a watch on the sites you visit.


Unfortunately there is a big disparity between prices for data on mobile broadband and other forms of broadband. Until this improves, it pays to be careful about what is download over these expensive connections.

Monday 3 July 2017

Cyberwar and ransomware

Ransomware has been making the news lately with the WannaCry and, more recently, Petya strains grabbing the headlines. These threats were so dangerous because they easily spread to unpatched computers. The reason these malware attacks were so effective was because they used a zero day exploit that was developed for cyber attacks by the U.S. National Security Agency (called EternalBlue). The exploit was made public by hacking groups and Microsoft did develop patches to protect their systems, but the issue is that many systems remained unpatched resulting in outages to many businesses. More exploits are being released. The CIA hacking tools were released on Wikileaks in March 2017 (https://wikileaks.org/ciav7p1/) which will no doubt lead to further malicious threats being released in the wild.

So what is a patch? These are software updates to the system developed by the software vendor. Microsoft regularly releases patches to improve performance or fix security flaws on Windows systems. These show up as Windows Updates. It is a good idea to apply these updates as they are released. In fact, Windows 10 doesn't give you the option, it enforces the updates automatically. This does require internet access in order for the updates to be downloaded though.

So the computers most effected by these exploits were running older Windows systems (mainly Windows 7) and Microsoft took the rare step of releasing a security patch for Windows XP (which is no longer supported and doesn't get security updates any more). Even though WannaCry preceded Petya, many systems were still impacted when Petya was released. Initially it was thought that Petya was another ransomware threat but it turned out that it was not possible to get the encryption keys and the email address used to contact the criminals was shut down, making it impossible to get in contact, even if a company wanted to. It would appear that Petya was written to destroy data while acting like ransomware. As this threat first appeared in the Ukraine, it would seem that they were the initial targets of the attacks, which subsequently spread to the rest of the world.

With the continued release of these exploits that are used by nation states for cyber warfare, it raises issues about disclosure to the software vendors. Is it ethical for a government to withhold these zero day exploits from the vendors, especially when they can be used for criminal purposes? More to the point, it has become critically important that companies maintain regular updates to avoid being attacked by malware. It is surprising to me that many companies do not stay on top of this. For the home user, it is also important to ensure that they maintain regular patching for their system and software they use (such as Microsoft office, Adobe reader, Adobe flash and java etc). Be aware though that updates must come from a trusted vendor site and not a third party website as these can be used to inject malware instead of legitimate software. For more information on how to maintain patching in Windows go to https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12373/windows-update-faq. For Apple Macs check this link https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT201541.

Thursday 1 June 2017

Backups

TL;DR
  • Backups are not often considered important
  • Cloud storage services can mitigate risk of data loss
  • External drives and NAS are other options for backup
  • Test backups and keep a copy offline

For most people, backups are the sort of thing you don't pay attention to until you need them. A number of clients have recently required specialist data recovery as their hard drives had failed and they wanted to get back their precious photos and documents. These services can cost upwards of $1000 so it is generally the last resort. The reality is that hard drives and storage devices do fail, so it is always worth have at least 2 copies of your data. Fortunately there are a number of ways you can do this these days.

Cloud services such as Dropbox, iCloud, Google Drive or Microsoft's OneDrive are all ways that you can store documents and photos somewhere other than your PC. Most cloud services offer a free service but this is usually limited to a few gigabytes of storage. This won't last long as photos and videos will easily fill that space in a very short time. Paid options are worth looking at (especially compared to the price of professional data recovery) and if you are bundling in your subscription with other services, this can be good value. In the case of Drive and One Drive, if you are paying for the G Suite or Office 365 packages then you will get increased storage bundled in with those plans (see https://gsuite.google.com.au/intl/en_au/pricing.html and https://products.office.com/en-au/office-365-home). The other benefit of cloud storage is that you can access your files from other devices and locations. Be aware though that you will need a reasonable internet connection and data quota in order to sync your files to the cloud. 

A more traditional option is to backup to an external drive. These are readily available from Officeworks, or other tech stores, and a reasonably sized 2 TB portable drive will cost around $100.  Windows PCs and Macs require require an initial setup to connect the external drive for backup, but once this is done, they will automatically backup after that. The guide to backing up in Windows 10 is available at https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/17143/windows-10-back-up-your-files and for Macs you can access this at https://support.apple.com/en-au/mac-backup.

Another option for local backup is to use Network Attached Storage (NAS). These are essentially hard drives that connect to your network and can be used as centralised storage for backups and file sharing (photos, videos etc.). The benefit of NAS is that you can backup multiple computers to the same storage on the network. QNAP and Synology are popular brands and their products start from $150. You may need to purchase the hard drive separately so consider this when evaluating these options. To backup to a NAS device, you will typically use the software that comes with the product. Ensure that your router is fast enough to support the network traffic (at least gigabit ethernet). For more information go to https://www.qnap.com/en-au/ and https://www.synology.com/en-global/support/nas_selector.

Cloud and local drive backups are not exclusive and I would recommend using both. Having multiple backups can reduce the risk of losing your data to a ransomware attack or other failure.  It is also worth testing your backups by restoring a file every now and then. You don't want to find out after the fact that your backups are not working, so test these regularly. So before your computer storage fails, make the effort and get a good backup, fast!

Monday 1 May 2017

NBN Address checker

If you were wondering when the nbn will be available at your home or business, the nbn have recently improved their address checker on their website (http://www.nbnco.com.au/connect-home-or-business/check-your-address.html). This will now give an estimate of the availability of the nbn at your address and the type of connection you can get. It is based on nbn's updated three year construction plan. If a rollout is not planned or underway then you will be advised that you can access the skymuster satellite service. This is an improvement as previous searches only advised when building may commence and did not give a detailed description of what you may be able to access. 

In the Chittering Shire, the address checker advises that nbn fixed wireless services are planned to be available in March 2017 in Upper Chittering. It should be noted that these plans are subject to change, but this is looking promising for that area. Lower Chittering and Bindoon are slated for October to December 2017 and will also be receiving fixed wireless within that coverage area.  Building has also commenced in townsites throughout the Gingin Shire, with some sites already available.

The nbn coverage map is useful if you would like to see how far the fixed wireless coverage goes in your area. It will also show the progress of the fixed wired technologies and can be accessed at the nbn website (http://www.nbnco.com.au/learn-about-the-nbn/rollout-map.html). 

Tech for non-profits

If you are involved in a not-for-profit (NFP) or income-tax-exempt (ITE) organisation, then it may be possible for you to get discounted technology for the use within that organisation. TechSoup is a global alliance of technologies companies that provide discounted products to NFP organisations. Donor companies include Microsoft, Google, Cisco, Symantec and Adobe, to mention a few. In Australia, Connecting Up is the Australian partner of the TechSoup alliance and you will need to register with them to access these discounts.

Some of the examples of products available under the program are all of Microsoft's licensed products including Office suites and Desktop and Server licenses. There are some limitations as to the number of licenses that can be redeemed within a two year allocation cycle. Similarly, Google's Apps for non-profits (G Suite) is available and this provides access to Google's cloud services for business, such as docs, email, calendar etc. There are also security products available and discounts on accounting software. In addition discounted hardware can also be redeemed, including laptops, desktops and networking equipment. A full list of donors and products can be found here https://www.connectingup.org/discounts. Connecting UP also offer a premium membership model which costs $150 per annum. In addition to accessing the partner program (which is available under free membership), you will also be able to access events, mentoring and promotional facilities provided by Connecting Up (https://www.connectingup.org/membership/benefits).

Joining Connecting Up is as simple as registering your details and providing information about the NFP. Within three working days, your details should be validated and if successful, you can then start ordering from their site. Being listed on the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission Register or income tax exempt on the Australian Business Register will help with qualification for the program. In addition, donor companies may require other criteria to be met for their products. Details can be found at https://www.connectingup.org/help/will-my-organisation-qualify-connecting-ups-donation-and-discount-program.

Once you have qualified and your account is setup for purchasing, you can place a donation request through the Connect Up site. Not all products are free. Some are discounted from retail pricing. In addition, there may be an administration fee charge by Connecting Up when making donation requests. Some partners restrict the number of requests that can be made. The details are available at https://www.connectingup.org/help/how-often-and-how-much-can-i-order-from-each-of-your-partners


So if you are involved in a NFP group that may benefit from reduced tech purchases, I would recommend taking advantage of the discounts offered by Connecting Up. For more information go to their website https://www.connectingup.org.

Monday 6 March 2017

Square Up POS app

I have previously written about mobile payment options for merchants provided by the major banks and PayPal. In this edition I am going to discuss another point of sale solution which provides a lot of functionality for a shopfront.

Square Up is an online provider for payments and point of sale. They started with an Apple only app but have now expanded that to Android devices. The square app can accept payments through these devices using a card reader which you can purchase from them ($59 for the contactless card reader or $19 for the chip reader). Credit card payments processed through Square attract a flat rate 1.9% fee. The benefit of square though is not just in the card processing. In fact, you don't even need to use the payment gateway to access the extensive features of the point of sale app.

The app provides extensive ability for creating shop items and can track insights on purchases and repeat customers (if the details are added). Customer feedback is incorporated into the receipts provided via sms or email. If you already have a payment gateway then you can record the transaction as a paid item and this is tracked against your sales.
Logging into the Square Up web portal provides details on sales history and sales items. This is a very useful resource for small businesses as it provide insight into the top sales items and sales times as well as a number of other metrics. It is also possible to expand the solution to multiple locations (if you have a number of shopfronts).

Square Up also provide an employee management function for $3 per month per employee. Employees can log their time into the app and it also allows restriction of access to certain functions per employee. This may be useful for more complex businesses that have multiple employees.

So for a free app it provides a lot of functionality and can either be used as your payment gateway provider or with an existing provider if you have one. For more information go to the Square Up site at squareup.com.

Monday 13 February 2017

Anti Virus and Privacy

It is common these days for software to be available for free. While this has made it easier to access software, vendors still need a business model that generates revenue for them to support the development and maintenance of these products. Anti virus products have followed this trend and there are now a number of free and paid products available. Most of these free products work on the basis that you get basic real time scanning protection with additional functionality available as paid options. Yet these products have deep access to the operating systems and as a result are capable of gathering a lot of information about your computer. The information they gather can be used for marketing purposes and this is of commercial value. Some vendors bundle 3rd party products into their installations to make the products commercially viable. So the question becomes how is your personal information used by these vendors?

AV comparative's performed analysis of 21 anti virus products and documented the results in their Data transmission in Internet security products report (http://www.av-comparatives.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/avc_datasending_2014_en.pdf). To evaluate how well the products rated on information disclosure, they reviewed the privacy policy and the end user license agreements (EULA), monitored the information that was sent from the computer and sent a questionnaire to the vendors asking for details of the information that is captured by their products. The information was then collated and vendors were rated on the level of protection provided for user privacy. It should be noted that AV vendors do require some information in order to manage their product licenses and to improve virus detection rates. The main concern though is if that personal information is collated and sold on for marketing purposes. As an example, web sites can be tracked by AV software to ensure that known malicious sites are blocked. Yet it is also possible that this information can be kept and data mined by the vendor.

The AV products that were rated best with respect to personal information disclosure were:
  1. AhnLab
  2. Emsisoft
  3. eScan
  4. BullGuard
  5. Fortinet

Products rated the worst (or vendors did not disclose what information they kept):
  1. McAfee
  2. Microsoft
  3. Symantec
  4. Trend Micro
  5. Webroot
  6. AVG

There were many products that had a mixed rating for personal information disclosure. The products rated best for privacy considerations overall were:
  1. AhnLab
  2. Avira
  3. eScan
  4. Fortinet
  5. Panda

It should be noted that this report was release in 2014 so may be out of date with respect to the latest product versions. In general, it is worth reading through the EULA and privacy policies to understand how your information can and will be used by the vendors. Also be wary of any 3rd party software that is bundled with the free AV product as this may disclose your personal information too. It is usually best to untick the box for add-ons and other products when installing these products. While privacy seems to be a commodity we are happy to trade for free stuff, it is worth considering the implications of what is done with your information. If you are interested in how you can better safe guard your online information take a look at the EFF's surveillance self-defense site at https://ssd.eff.org/en.

Tuesday 10 January 2017

Paper replacement apps

Despite the promises of a paperless office it seems that we are printing and producing more paper documents than ever. I don't think that will change any time soon but there some apps that can be used to replace the handy paper pad. I have been trying out a few apps that are suitable for a Windows 10 tablet with a stylus. There are a number of options available from the Windows Store, but I have whittled down the choices to three apps: Nebo, Bamboo Paper and Graphiter.
Nebo, by MyScript, is my favourite as a paper notebook replacement. You can organise your notebooks into folders and create separate notebooks for different uses. One of the best features is that Nebo can convert your handwriting into text. It does this on the fly and seems to be very accurate, even with my scratchy handwriting. You can also draw boxes and shapes in diagram mode as well as math formulas. This can all be exported to Word for further editing purposes. I did find that the layout of converted text can be tricky to manage but this is not a big deal if you export it.
Bamboo Paper, by Wacom (who are known for digital pen editing), is a worthy mention. For simple note taking, this a very useful app. It doesn’t provide text recognition but it is easy to use and feels very natural when writing. Paid features allow you to add highlighters, crayons and paintbrushes as well as a variety of colours for each of these tools. This is handy if you want to use the app for sketching and drawing as well as note taking. This is a good all round pen app but if you want a specialised sketching app then Graphiter may be a better choice.
Graphiter provides a pencil for free use but the value of the app comes from the paid options. This allows you to use coloured pencils, pens and a blending tool. The ability of this app is only limited by your own sketching prowess. The demo shows very detailed real life drawings that are possible with the app. You can customise the heaviness of the pencil as well as the pencil width to allow for detailed sketching.
Overall I have found that Windows 10 tablet mode with a stylus is very useful and there are many choices of apps to make the most of this mode. For further information follow the links below.