Up Times
by Bryley · July 2022
Bryley’s First Thirty-Five Years
Since 1987 when Bryley was incorporated, the world looks different: we now have immersive virtual reality, AI that converses with us and cell phones that have more computing power than 1980s mainframes.
Looking back on thirty-five years, who can deny that the ubiquity of the internet has been the big game-changer for us all? How can we estimate the value of our new-found ability to time-travel – to instantly be in each other’s presence – even across the globe? And imagine the pandemic without that connectivity?
Bryley’s past trajectory might be summed up by noting its shift … [9 min. read]
Twenty-Two Percent Have Suffered a Mobile Compromise
The Same Verizon Study Showed Fifty-Nine Percent of Businesses Have Sacrificed Security for Employees’ Flexibility Going Mobile Has Increased Our Exposure
It used to be our precious assets were protected behind layers of security: Cash was in a steel safe, customer lists and bank records were in a locked filing cabinet and HR records were behind a locked HR office door.
Of course electronics revolutionized the workplace. Employees then used computers to navigate a digital file system which contained the business’ confidential info. The sensitive documents that were once tangible were now within the network for users to access. The data was protected by passwords and limited permissions. These were useful means when computing devices were stationary and did not leave the physical office. Yes, employees used to report to the office for work and only there and then be granted access to confidential information. It was rare for the data that companies prized to ever leave the premises.
And of course this is no longer true. Because of their convenience, mobile computing devices are part of most working environments … [7 min. read]
Bryley Again Ranks Among Top IT Service Providers
The Worcester Business Journal (WBJ) annually analyzes and publishes a resultant list of IT Service Providers in Central Massachusetts. The recently-published report ranked Bryley Systems among the top ten … [2 min. read]
Business Continuity Mixtape – Bryley-curated stories from around the internet:
The FBI has observed cyber criminals contacting US investors, fraudulently claiming to offer legitimate cryptocurrency investment services, and convincing investors to download fraudulent mobile apps, which the cyber criminals have used with increasing success over time to defraud the investors of their cryptocurrency according to an FBI report covered by CNBC. One of the big take-aways is that the so-called walled gardens of the phone app stores do not mean the apps are fully vetted for security … [5 min. read] cnbc.com
The Clock of the Long Now is meant to be an on-going project … a clock built to run with minimal maintenance for ten thousand years. Its goal is to get us to think about the future of humanity. Michael Chabon, motivated by his young son’s dystopian view of things, elaborated on its meaning in this short 2006 essay … [7 min. read] longnow.org
For many, this boon of publicly available personal information is upsetting simply because we want some level of privacy. For others, there is a concern that people can take advantage of these bits of free-floating information. Maddie Ellis provides a helpful update on how to keep your information more private online. Especially interesting are Google’s moves – likely in response to the European data privacy laws and hoping to avoid similar US scrutiny – that appear to give us more control: In April, Google updated its search policies to let people request the removal of home addresses and contact information … [8 min. read] wsj.com
Thanks to another leaked series of internal communications, there is disturbing confirmation about TikTok’s lack of confidentiality. How much will the Chinese government choose to insert itself into TikTok parent ByteDance’s business? For instance might they influence the content suggested to users of the platform? A few years ago there were talks of a possible sale of the US TikTok to Oracle. The closest we got is US data is now on Oracle servers, but still, per the leaks, everything is seen in China … [6 min. read] gizmodo.com
Note: The Mixtape section is Bryley’s curated list of external stories. Bryley does not take credit for the content of these stories, nor does it endorse or imply an affiliation with the authors or publications in which they appear.
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