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There are a lot of computer shops out there that you can call up to fix an issue or install a piece of equipment. They might be able to get you out of crisis mode, but they aren’t looking at the full picture.
At NuTech Services, we understand business. We consult. We provide solutions to solve everyday challenges. We just happen to fix computers as well.
We believe (and have proven) that if you proactively manage technology, run maintenance religiously, and monitor a business network, everyday issues and downtime will be greatly reduced.
This is what makes us different than your typical tech support company. Sure, we can fix computer issues when you have them, but our specialty is preventing them in the first place.
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NuTech Services has been instrumental to our company's expansion. Because of NuTech Services, we've been able to go paperless and establish a remote office.
On July 3rd, the Tony-winning Broadway musical was released on Disney+, meaning that history buffs and theater nerds alike don’t have to Wait for It. Even better, you can now watch Hamilton with all your friends. We Know, it’s pretty cool, especially since you don’t all need to be In the Room Where it Happens. Let’s go over how you can arrange that in this song-title-pun-filled blog.
What is a Watch Party? Simple: it’s where you virtually gather with your friends and family to simultaneously stream a movie or show together, despite being in different locations. Many services, like Amazon Video, added this feature to help people make it through social distancing during the global COVID-19 pandemic without telling anyone to “Meet Me Inside.”
To enjoy this theater production of the life and times of Alexander Hamilton along with your socially distant friends, there are a few things that will be required of all participants.
Naturally, everyone who wants to watch will need an individual Disney+ account. Unfortunately, the free trial offer for Disney+ is no longer offered. After all, once the second season of the Mandalorian was announced, they knew they could say “You’ll Be Back” to all their subscribers (we’ll see how the $30 rental for the live-action Mulan impacts this).
Subscribing only requires a quick visit to https://www.disneyplus.com/. You may also want to check online for any promotional codes that may be currently offered.
Everyone also needs to install a Chrome browser plugin. There are some exclusive to Disney+, while others allow you to host watch parties via Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, and Prime Video as well. If you’re hosting, pick the one that works for you and make sure everyone has it installed ahead of time so there aren’t any delays. If you only care about doing a watch party with Disney Plus, you can use the Disney Plus Party plugin. If you want to host watch parties with Netflix, Prime Video, YouTube, and Hulu as well, you can check out Vemos.
These plugins will let you synchronize your video with the rest of the watch party and chat with one another. Add the plugin to the top of your browser and create an account.
Once that’s accomplished, you can start up Disney+ in your Chrome browser and start the movie. Then you can click on your new plugin and select the option to host. You’ll be prompted to name your viewing room. Meanwhile, the rest of your party will need to have installed the plugin, created an account, joined a movie, and entered the name of your room. That Would Be Enough for everyone to participate.
Then, as the host, you have the power to start the movie and have it play to everyone’s device. You can pause it so that people can Take a Break without asking “What’d I Miss?” or you can play the entire production Non-Stop.
Fair warning—some of these group viewing applications are only free for a set number of hours each week. Make sure you pick one long enough to view the whole thing, so nobody starts asking What Comes Next?
With any luck, this will allow you and your friends to watch Hamilton and keep everyone Satisfied.
Want more handy technology tips and tricks? Consider NuTech Services Your Obedient Servant. Each week, we update this blog with more tips and best practices, along with a Hurricane of useful technology information. With our help, you don’t have to feel Helpless when it comes to your business’ IT. We can be your Right Hand Man, just give us a call at 810-230-9455.
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Consider the capabilities of our mobile devices today, as compared to those that were considered high-end before Apple premiered the iPhone in 2007 (Not to discredit all the classic PDA/smartphones that came before the iPhone, like the Palm Trio, the Blackberry, and the line of super cool HTC Windows phones, but general consensus feels that the big shift in mobile computing really started with Apple). The difference is staggering. While those devices that are affectionately referred to as “dumb phones” certainly can contain sensitive data, it is effectively nothing compared to what a smartphone can access.
Applications for money management, shopping, medical data, and so many other examples of personal information currently reside on today’s mobile devices—which is precisely what makes the security that protects these devices so important. The authentication method that a user can confirm their identity through is just one example of this security.
The various methods that are available to users now each offer their own method of maintaining security, presumably for the user’s convenience. However, as we have established previously, not all these authentication methods are equally good.
Let’s review your various available options and see how their differences make some a better solution than the others.
These authentication measures are effectively the baseline security on any mobile device, as they also protect the device from other forms of authentication being added without approval. While these security measures are by no means impassable, they form the foundation for any decent security measures if used responsibly.
Of course, we do have to address the inherent weaknesses that these authentication requirements present. Most of these weaknesses are derived from the user responsible for setting them up. For instance, a 2012 study demonstrated that most people used PINs that either represented personally important years, simply repeated digits, or heavily featured the number “69.” Also prevalent, numbers that are simple to type: 1234, 7890, and so on. Another research study revealed that the benefits on a six-digit PIN were negligible as compared to a four-digit PIN, as the added length provides a false sense of security and winds up encouraging less-secure PINs in general.
Of course, passwords are also an option (and a stronger one to boot) if the user has the patience to retype their password each time the device locks. The consensus is that these authentication measures are the most secure option currently available.
Improved hardware and software now allow users to effectively use their own bodies as the key to their mobile devices, as biometric authentication is now incorporated into many mobile devices. Of course, the efficacy of biometric authentication isn’t universally consistent—some methods are simply more secure than others are.
Fingerprint Sensors: Most smartphones will have fingerprint-detection capabilities for some time, some projections seeing up to 90 percent of devices incorporating these tools by 2023, while 95 percent of phones had such a sensor in 2018.
There are various technologies in play that power these sensors, with varying security efficacy. For instance, Samsung devices are beginning to include sensors under the screen, which create a three-dimensional image of a fingerprint. While this makes them inherently very secure, screen protectors have been shown to bamboozle them, potentially allowing any fingerprint to unlock them. Furthermore, fingerprints can potentially be harvested from surfaces and transplanted to a device, so properly training your device to your unique fingerprint is crucial.
Iris Scanning: The prevailing opinion is that iris scanning is the most secure form of biometric authentication, as fingerprints aren’t as unique as a person’s irises are. Some phones feature these capabilities, but they may not be as popular, as scanning the iris can take a little longer simply because the user must look directly at the sensor for it to work.
Facial Recognition: Many manufacturers have begun to phase out fingerprint sensors for facial recognition options, especially as full screens have grown in popularity. With appropriately captured reference data, decent facial recognition software can simplify the unlocking process significantly.
However, the quality of the software and the images it uses for reference can cause some issue. Poor-quality images—like those with excessive glare—can make it easier for an attacker to make it past the lock, not to mention make it more challenging for the user.
Finally, many Android devices have the option to designate a pattern on a 2x2 or 3x3 grid that must be tapped correctly to unlock the device. Studies have shown that this method is by far the least secure of the authentication requirements, as it becomes far easier for an attacker to figure out the user’s chosen pattern.
For instance, in one study, researchers discovered that a full 65 percent of the 351 participants selected a code that began at the top-left square and immediately proceeded to the top-right, presumably influenced by Westernized reading patterns. Larger grids encouraged shorter patterns, and the data collected during the study revealed that some patterns were commonly adopted:
Proving patterns are an even worse method, these researchers also observed that knock codes were more easily forgotten, with about 10 percent of participants having forgotten theirs by the end of the 10-minute study, and their five-second entry time being slower than the 4.5 seconds needed for a PIN.
With our mobile devices playing such a huge role in our personal and professional lives, their security needs to be prioritized, with only the most secure methods protecting them.
For assistance in managing your security, from your in-house business solutions to the devices your employees use each day, reach out to NuTech Services. Our team can assist you in implementing the technology you need while educating your employees on the importance of secure practices. Give us a call at 810-230-9455 to learn more.
There’s been a consistent pattern that has emerged with popular software applications: a major update or other change is made, and uproar on social media ensues.
Just look at what happened when the Android platform’s Facebook application began requesting access to the user’s smartphone camera several years ago now. While this was required so that Facebook’s newly released native photo-taking capabilities could be embraced, there was still a lot said about it on social media.
Don’t get us wrong—many of the changes made in technology can be concerning, especially where it involves a user’s privacy. However, there is usually a ton of misinformation muddying the waters. Again, we’re not saying that you can always trust giant tech companies and their data collection policies… quite the opposite, in fact. You’re right to feel concerned at times and should be exercising the control over their collection of your data that you have a right to.
Having said that, we couldn’t help but notice an extreme response to the news of Apple and Google’s new COVID-19 contact tracing application framework.
Nope.
Neither Google or Apple added an application to your mobile device without your knowledge or consent. What Google and Apple did was collaborate to develop an application framework, which can now be used by app developers as they create COVID-19 tracking apps.
However, due to sensationalism on social media, a lot of people are concerned. Just look at this post that has been making the rounds on Facebook:
“**VERY IMPORTANT ALERT!***
A COVID-19 sensor has been secretly installed into every phone. Apparently, when everyone was having “phone disruption” over the weekend, they were adding COVID-19 Tracker [SIC] to our phones!
If you have an Android phone, go under settings, then look for google settings and you will find it installed there.
If you are using an iPhone, go under settings, privacy, then health. It is there but not yet functional.
The App can notify you if you’ve been near someone who has been reported having COVID-19.”
There’s a lot of misleading information to unpack here. First, neither Google nor Apple secretly installed a new “sensor” (especially since we’re talking about a software update, not a hardware update).
This software update was simply a setting to enable the COVID-19 Exposure Notification system that the two platforms are preparing. When this system has its official applications developed, users will not only have to install the application and activate it, but also confirm that they want to participate with Google or Apple.
So, this update simply provides a unified framework for local governments and the health industry to use as they create their COVID-19 applications, while offering users the choice of whether they want to participate.
Seriously, unless you consciously selected the option to “Install,” your mobile device isn’t going to start tracking you and those close to you to identify anyone with COVID-19. In fact, if you follow that Facebook post’s instructions to your settings, you’ll see that you have to A: install a participating application or B: finish setting up a participating application before your notifications can even be activated.
In a rare joint statement from Apple and Google, they go on record to say, “What we’ve built is not an app—rather public agencies will incorporate the API into their own apps that people install.”
To clarify further, an API is an Application Programming Interface. Think of it as the foundation of an application. By teaming up, Apple and Google have laid the foundation for others to build their own applications upon.
As a bonus, this also makes it easier for people to opt out. Unfortunately, if too many people decide not to use the system, it may not be reliable enough to work at all.
Well, the system itself is extremely new, so responsibility for the official applications will fall to state and local governments.
The platform that Google and Apple co-developed is built to be decentralized, which will help to make it more secure. Basically, when a user opts to use one of these apps, their phone is assigned a random ID and it is then shared with other phones within the range of a Bluetooth connection. Each phone then stores an anonymous roster of the other IDs it has been in proximity to.
So, when someone is diagnosed with COVID-19, they would then manually share that with the contact tracing app. Then, with their permission, all the IDs that their phone has stored over the prior two weeks would be uploaded and those users would be sent a notification of their potential exposure. Your location isn’t shared, nobody’s identity is shared, not even Google or Apple will get this information. In addition to all this, that random ID is changed every 10 to 20 minutes, and the apps are not allowed to use your location or to track it in the background.
As a result, these apps are safe to use with complete anonymity, and to avoid opting in, you just wouldn’t install any COVID-19 tracking apps, official or not.
Okay, since we know that some will want to ask this question, we felt we needed to address it.
In short, you shouldn’t because it isn’t an app, it is an API. As such, it can’t just be uninstalled. It is now part of the Android and iOS operating systems and is pushed to devices through security updates.
If you were to do some Internet snooping, you could find some walkthroughs on the Internet that take you through how to roll back your phone and other such processes, but that only leaves your device exposed to other threats. Again, there is nothing to uninstall, and neglecting future security updates is a terrible idea.
The API is nothing to worry about. It is nothing more than a setting, and one that is deactivated by default. If you really are worried, both Apple and Google have confirmed that not installing, or uninstalling, a COVID-19 Exposure Notification app is enough to avoid participation.
And again, since we can’t stress this enough:
DO NOT FOLLOW ANY INSTRUCTIONS ONLINE THAT WALK YOU THROUGH ROLLING BACK YOUR PHONE AND OPTING OUT OF SECURITY UPDATES.
If you are that serious about your privacy, it just doesn’t make sense to expose that privacy to greater risk.
In our professional opinion, understanding the technology used to create the COVID-19 Exposure Notification system, every effort has been made to ensure the security and anonymity of its users. Keep in mind, there are also healthcare regulations to comply with as well, and our clients will know how stringent they are where data privacy is concerned.
The decision whether or not to use the COVID-19 Exposure Notification system falls to you, but you can rest assured that both Google and Apple have done everything right to keep their system safe, private, and secure.
Please, to learn more about these technologies, don’t hesitate to give us a call.
NuTech Services is proud to announce the launch of our new website at www.nutechology.com. The goal of the new website is to make it easier for our existing clients to submit and manage support requests, and provide more information about our services for prospective clients.
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