People often ask me what's on my mind, what I'm working on, and what's "new and exciting." Since I'm not big on social media, this is how I share these things a few times a year.
Winter is upon us. Supply chain issues, inflation, realizing computer chips are in everything we use, and cybercrimes are all on the rise.
In other news…
We primarily work with professional service firms, and it appears that for the overwhelming majority, hybrid is the new normal, with almost nobody in the office five days a week anymore. Most businesses have successfully migrated to Desktop as a Service or similar cloud platforms to facilitate this, but some are still relying on less secure and underperforming technologies. Too often, I still hear about Remote Desktop exploits happening today.
Who remembers when everyone carried a Blackberry? It was not that long ago! Last month, Blackberry finally ended service on its once-dominant PDA. I still remember my first RIM 950 with its 3-line screen and single AA battery. I also remember when Blackberry PDAs merged with phones, and I could finally have a single device! Then, in early 2011, I finally traded in my last Blackberry (Curve) for an iPhone 4. Fun fact: we have a variety of vintage PDAs decorating the walls of our office, including Blackberries, Palm Pilots, and even an Apple Newton! Blackberry (the company) is still around, but they are now a software company.
Computer chips and AWS are a part of our daily lives. The supply chain issues and last November’s AWS outage remind us of this. However, I disagree with this NY Times article that blames outages on faulty chips. Most outages, especially these days, boil down to software glitches or human errors, not hardware malfunctions. Most modern systems, especially cloud, are designed to withstand hardware or network malfunctions with minimal or no user disruption.
A Majority of Surveyed Companies Were Hit by Ransomware Attacks In 2021 – And Paid Ransom Demands, yet cyber attacks remain the topic that nobody wants to read about or deal with (which may be why attacks keep happening). In December, Kronos was hit, impacting payroll for thousands of employees across hundreds of countries, and six weeks later, payrolls were still impacted. Every organization must be responsible for cybersecurity and look both downstream to their employees and clients, and upstream to their vendors and providers.
And lastly, I have never linked to an article from ESPN.com…until now! Even the defensive line of an NFL team could not stop ransomware, as the San Francisco 49ers were recently hit by ransomware.
Thanks for reading.
-Morris Tabush