Entries by Garin Livingstone

Email Encryption That Works

July 17, 2020 in /by

How many times have you heard that email is not secure? But it was always too hard to do much about it. Well, it’s still not secure: The security exposures are on the devices that have the account […]

Tom Barnes joins Bryley Systems and makes the case for Business Continuity

June 29, 2020 in /by

Business continuity is the advance planning and preparation undertaken to ensure that an organization will have the capability to operate its critical business functions during emergency events. Tom Barnes, the newest addition to our Business Development Team,  developed a Business Continuity presentation that he recently shared with co-workers. Tom holds a BS in Psychology from […]

Continuous Email Service

June 29, 2020 in /by

Just as a business relies on email to do its work, it needs to make sure its email service is uninterrupted; and to maintain the information in its emails. The fact is there’s actually a lot going on under email’s hood

Avoiding Cybercriminal Exploitation of COVID-19

June 16, 2020 in /by

Who isn’t looking for some answers? Are the risks of the virus serious for me and the people I’m around? Which government leaders have it right? Am I being asked to go back to work in an unsafe environment? How will the economy impact me and those I care about? This is the kind of uncertainty the unscrupulous prey on.

Is Bryley a Technology Company? Sorta

May 29, 2020 in /by

Don’t get me wrong, Bryley loves tech. We love what it brings us, for example:

1 Access to our collective knowledge
2 The extension of our minds 1
3 Time Travel 2 — the time it used to take to communicate with someone else has been erased
4 Collaboration tools
5 Productivity boosters
6 Twitch and Snood

But Bryley sees its function as helping a business run smoothly, reliably, continuously. And our tool to get this done is technology expertise.

Bryley’s a Managed Service Provider — Which Is What Exactly?

A Managed Service Provider (MSP) oversees a company’s computer network infrastructure. MSPs deliver ongoing support that can include the setup, installation, configuration and maintenance of the network and its assets. An MSP can augment a business’s internal IT department and provide higher-level, rarer skills that may not be available to the internal IT department. Because MSPs are proactive, bringing centralized systems management solutions, an MSP can give unmatched peace of mind, that a business’s functioning is secure. 3 The following is not comprehensive, but are some of the areas in which MSPs help.

If you give a moose a mouse…It’s going to want a keyboard! (Or, moose on the loose.)

May 14, 2020 in /by

Today (Thursday, 5/14/2020) at 9am this little guy was visiting Clinton’s Central Park which borders our office. (That’s the Clinton, Massachusetts Town Hall in the background.) Apparently, he was seeking IT support, but was unable to press our video-doorbell. (Cathy Livingstone is demonstrating the appropriate video-doorbell technique, which can be challenging if you have a […]

Hat Day at Bryley…

May 8, 2020 in /by

It’s Friday, so something special is going on at the office. Kristin, Director of Services/Delivery, suggested “Fun Friday — Hat Day!”, which led to these pictures

If This Is Week Seven It Must Be Tuesday

April 30, 2020 in , /by

While most of the Bryley team works from the Clinton office, I’m physically distanced, writing at home. And as the days have grown to months in this work-from-home-if-you-can-work-from-home world, our perspectives change as our settling-in has changed us. So here’s a bit of remote work advice, for the times they are still a-changin’.

Can Machine Learning Save Us from Us?

March 17, 2020 in , /by

Among the top headlines in Google News’s Technology section today was criminal hackers use of AI (Artificial Intelligence) and its subset, ML (Machine Learning)1. Opening the article, I found a synopsis of a Tech Republic report, “Cybersecurity: Let’s Get Tactical,” in which the authors give ten ways cybercriminals are attacking with AI2 including

  • phishing attacks, in which, upon gaining credentialed access, automatic scripts can wreak havoc, including draining bank accounts
  • credential stuffing and brute force attacks, in which AI systems try passwords — and password possibilities — on many websites
  • bulletproof hosting services that use automation to hide the tracks of malicious websites, so they can’t be stopped by law-enforcement, or often flagged by network scanning tools

The fact is, it’s an arms race. Both malware and criminal sites would be pretty quickly and easily identified on a network by the nature of their activity. So the criminals try to disguise their malware in benign code and their sites in bulletproof hosting schemes. The way they keep the ruse going is through machine learning adapting to changing circumstances.

Cybersecurity Risk Assessment Becoming a Must for Investors

February 25, 2020 in , /by

In July the World Economic Forum (WEF) delivered a paper1 that argued for putting the muscle of investment into shifting the cybersecurity landscape. WEF/Marsh & McLennan reports2 that among weapons of mass destruction and natural disasters, cyberattacks are seventh in likelihood and eighth in impact as the greatest threats to global prosperity.