What Do Our Smart Assistants Actually Hear? We all know that person that claims that the smart assistants are being hacked into by the government and they are listening into our conversations. For the majority of us, that conspiracy doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. That said, these devices do listen, when they are prompted to. Here is how to trigger four of the most popular assistants: Amazon Alexa devices respond to the term “Alexa,” ”Computer,” ”Amazon,” or “Echo.” Google Home devices wake up to “Okay/Hey, Google.” Apple’s Siri responds to “Hey Siri.” Microsoft’s Cortana reacts to its name, “Cortana,” or “Hey, Cortana.” There have, in fact, been instances where these smart assistants, and especially with the smart speakers, pick up some things they weren’t supposed to. If you have one of these speakers in your home, there have to be some natural security concerns, but they probably aren’t from the manufacturers. The Analysis Researchers looked into the question of what exactly these smart assistants hear and formed a paper titled, Unacceptable, where is my privacy? Exploring Accidental Triggers of Smart Speakers. They analyzed when the terms that successfully activated the assistants were spoken, finishing with over a thousand phrases. They then further analyzed them into their phonetic sounds to try and ascertain why there were so many false positives. Depending on how a user pronounced a word, some triggers were found, including: Alexa devices also responded to “unacceptable” and “election,” while “tobacco” could stand in for the wake word “Echo.” Furthermore, “and the zone” was mistaken for “Amazon.” Google Home devices would wake up to “Okay, cool.” Apple’s Siri also reacted to “a city.” Microsoft’s Cortana could be activated by “Montana.” Of course, these assistants are used on devices all over the world, and as a result found that when used in other languages had a lot of the same issues. For example, the German phrase for “On Sunday” (“Am Sonntag”) was commonly mistaken for “Amazon.” What Does This Mean for Individual Privacy? Even with the interesting nature of this analysis, the findings are a little more disconcerting. The study shows that once the wake word or phrase is recognized by the device, it immediately starts listening for queries, commands, and the like. So even though they claim to only start listening when prompted to, several different iterations of phrases can cause the assistant to start listening. The complications don’t end there, since the data is reviewed manually by people—which already destroys any notion of privacy—one of those technicians could potentially be given information that wasn’t intended to be captured by an assistant. This could potentially be devastating if the technician whose job is to manually check this information were to gain access to account information or some other PII and use it in an unethical way. The smart speaker, and smart assistant are useful products that need a little more refinement before we can completely trust them. To learn more about new technology and how it is being used, check back to our blog regularly.
Android 1.0 (2008) In 2008, the Android platform debuted, lacking so many of the bells and whistles that were to be introduced and incorporated over time. Its integration of Google’s applications and tools was limited—a few early apps were built into the operating system, and Chrome was not yet included. Naturally, there was not yet an on-screen keyboard, as this was still in the age when tactile keyboards were all that was available. Android 1.5 Cupcake (2009) The Android platform as we would recognize it today really got its start in Cupcake, the first of many versions to be named for treats. The virtual touchscreen keyboard was introduced, and third-party app widgets were available for the first time. Cupcake was also the first Android OS to enable video recording. Android 1.6 Donut (2009) That same year also saw Android Donut, which allowed a wider variety of devices to use Android as it now supported more screen sizes and resolutions. This version of Android was also available to more carriers, thanks to the code-division multiple access (CDMA) network support that was integrated into the platform. CDMA is now being phased out, ten years having gone by and other options emerging. Android 2.0/2.1 Eclair (2009) Just weeks after debuting Donut, Android gussied up their OS a bit with Eclair and took advantage of their much-hyped release of the Motorola Droid to market its new capabilities. These capabilities included things like voice-guided navigation with real-time traffic updates, text-to-speech functionality, and the pinch-to-zoom feature. Up to that point, pinch-to-zoom was a feature exclusive to iOS. Android 2.2 Froyo (2010) Eclair was introduced in January of 2010. Froyo quickly followed with a May release. Primarily focused on improving the OS’s background operations, Froyo did also introduce a few things that remain standard. This included the dock-based interface that all Android users are still familiar with. Voice Actions were also introduced with Froyo. However, we would be remiss if we didn’t also mention that Froyo was the first version of Android to offer Flash support, which directly countered Apple’s moratorium on the Adobe software. While now defunct, Flash once powered a sizable percentage of media and online content, which put Android above Apple in at least this regard. Android 2.3 Gingerbread (2010) Another version primarily concerned with fixing background issues and making invisible improvements, Gingerbread did offer native Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Near Field Communication (NFC) support, along with updating the user interface yet again. Gingerbread was also the first Android version to have the Download Manager, which helped users better control what their devices had downloaded. This operating system would remain on phones and receive updates that stretched into 2011, as the next OS was focused more on the emerging tablet market and its needs. Android 3.0/3.2 Honeycomb (2011) As tablets rose in popularity, Android adjusted to their rise with its Honeycomb OS, launched with the Motorola Xoom. This OS was exclusively produced for tablets and was completely reconsidered for this purpose. While Honeycomb only lasted for about a year, many of its features (like the on-screen navigation buttons and the card-based Recent Apps layout) have persisted since. Android 4.0/4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich (2011) By late 2011, the mobile and tablet interfaces started to blend with Ice Cream Sandwich, thereby taking the strongest […]
Lock Your Screen in Place One of the most annoying parts of using a touchscreen mobile device is the screen rotation. Sure, it is useful when you want to use it, but when you don’t mean to, it can discombobulate even the most seasoned user. Since Android 9, the OS has provided an option to lock your screen in place. If you are using a device with stock Android, simply go to System Settings, access Display and from there, Advanced. Here is where you’ll find the Auto-rotate screen option and the means to switch it off. On Samsung devices, users find a bit of a different process as the toggle for this can actually be found in the Quick Settings menu that you can find at the top of your notifications tray. Look for the icon labeled Auto rotate, which you will want to switch to Portrait. This will disable Landscape mode completely. Notifications Bothering You? You have Options Sometimes there are just too many notifications. Android has done a good job of simplifying the process to take control over all these notifications. Once you get a notification you don’t want, you can press and hold it to access the control panel. This will allow you to silence them or completely turn them off. Clean the Charging Port for a Faster Charge If you are like a lot of people, your phone goes with you everywhere. Sometimes debris can get in the charging port and hinder the connection between the charger and the phone. Before you go out and drop $1,000 on a new phone, try seeing if it could be something you can take care of quickly. With caution, take a toothpick and try to tease any stuff lodged in the charging port. Most of the time you may get some pocket lint, but there may be other debris stopping the charge from being as effective as it can be. Android phones are some of the most popular phones on the market. For more great tips and tricks on how to get the most out of your mobile device, visit our blog weekly or call our technology professionals today at (831) 758-3636.
Here, let’s discuss how to put together a knowledge base to ensure that your team has access to the information they need. The Root of All Knowledge is Data With the right data at your disposal, and a means of using it, your capability to improve your business’ many processes is substantially improved. Whether you’re considering your procurement processes, your standard operations, or your delivery and support, the right information makes all the difference. However, you need to collect this information first. How do you do that? Simple. By educating yourself through experience and analysis, you can devise improved processes for your business, ultimately boosting its productivity and its general success. Documentation Of course, for this to happen, your information needs to be in a usable, accessible format. This is where a documented knowledge base becomes key. Creating one is an important task to undertake and is a process that needs to be standardized so that others can and will follow it as needed later on. Your documentation should cover the correct procedure for completing a defined task, as well as the reason for that process and the underlying goal for doing so. Creating a knowledge base like this brings you some considerable benefits, including: More consistent service delivery—If a standardized process is followed each time an activity is carried out, your clients and customers should be able to reliably expect a certain outcome, growing their confidence in your business. Reduced time consulting support—With a reference to lean on, problems can be solved more efficiently, without needing to expend extra time or manpower pulling in an additional resource for help. Reduced training costs—With a comprehensive knowledge base, you have a tool that can help you train your employees, as well as a resource for them to refer to when needed. Establishing this knowledge base also helps you when the time comes to onboard someone new. Starting Your Knowledge Base The first step to creating a knowledge base is recognizing the need for one. If your team keeps asking the same questions repeatedly, they will likely benefit from such a resource. Once you’ve identified the need for a knowledge base, you should go through any training content or informational resources you do have to see if there are any gaps. Then, once you’ve picked a tone for your knowledge base to take (to help avoid apparent contradiction) you can put together your completed resources. After that comes the management. As circumstances change all the time—especially in business—these documents will almost certainly need updating on occasion. You also need to be sure that your documentation is in a format that makes it easy for your staff to access it and find what they are looking for. This process can help you create a knowledge base for whoever needs it, whether that means for your employees or your clients. If you need assistance with the technical side of managing a knowledge base, or any IT challenge you may be facing, reach out to SRS Networks at (831) 758-3636.
Tip #1 – Get a Workspace Sometimes it is hard to rearrange your life, but it is much easier to rearrange your home. If you are being asked to work from home, or if your kids are going to be telelearning or doing a hybrid approach like many schools are doing these days, a space to do work is crucial. It gets a little hairy when online school and work overlap, but most people’s homes are filled to the brim with leisure space. You’ll need a dedicated workspace if you want to get anything done. Tip #2 – Prepare Like You Always Would Just because you aren’t going to leave the house doesn’t mean you should act like you aren’t. A great way to get yourself in a productive frame of mind is to get up and go through your routine like you would if you were leaving all day. Sure, your cat will still try to sleep on your desk, but getting in the right frame of mind is really important if you want to be your best during the workday. Tip #3 – Limit Your Social Media Use It’s completely understandable that when you are home that you would want to engage with people via social media. The problem is that you are expected to be working or doing schoolwork and social media is a never ending distraction. To facilitate this change, it is a good idea to remove social media shortcuts from your work browser or use a whole other browser for work. You can also choose to use an incognito window for work so that you don’t have as easy of access to your social accounts. Tip #4 – Understand When You are Most Productive Even when you were working from the office or going to school, you didn’t spend all day focused on your work. Most people don’t work like that. The ones that claim to typically sign the checks. You need to know when you are most effective and buckle down during those times. Save your most difficult tasks for times when you are at your best and your workday will get easier. Tip #5 – Make Sure Everyone is On the Same Page In order for you to be productive you need to sustain focus. If there are constant distractions coming from the other people at your house, you likely won’t get much done; and what you get done will likely not be your best. You need to communicate your needs and expectations with the people who are around you. Set ground rules that make everyone understand that when you are at work that you are not to be disturbed. It’s hard to work from home if people keep bothering you all day long. Tip #6 – Communicate with Others While you try to manage your distractions at home, you need to understand that you still have a team out there that works more effectively if you are on the same page, too. Be sure to reach out to your co-workers to talk about work or life every once in a while. You are working from home, not the Sahara Desert (unless that’s where your home is), make sure the people you work with know you’re still alive. Working from home or going […]
What is Password Hygiene?The practice of securing your accounts with well constructed, unique passwords is called password hygiene. Having good password hygiene means that you will avoid the use of authentication methods that can be easily compromised. Below is a list of unhygienic password creation practices: The use of personal details, like your name or birthday The names of friends, family, or pets The use of commonly used words (like “password” or a favorite sports team) Using simple keyboard combinations (like “12345” or “qwerty”) The us of repeated login credentials (like username: Cornoa2020, password: Corona2020) Using short passwords If you are now worried that your passwords are easily guessable, don’t fret. Here, we’re going to outline some strategies you should stop using immediately as they no longer provide the value they once did to keep your accounts secure. Alphanumeric Switching – This is just a fancy euphemism for turning some of your letters in your password to numbers. If you’ve been making passwords for any length of time, you’ve probably taken part in this practice. The problem is that it is ineffective against the modern hacking software designed to crack passwords. Length Requirements – For much of the past decade, if you needed to make an account password, it had to be a certain number of characters. According to the Nation Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) longer passwords are actually hurting your chances of keeping an account secure as they are harder to remember. Banning Cut and Paste – This practice was only done for a few years, but industry leaders now find it to be a pointless security gimmick. It eliminates the availability for users to use a password manager, which is one of the best practices for password-led security in 2020. Password Hints – If you set up online banking anytime in the past decade you were asked a series of questions that would allow you to gain access to your credentials. This isn’t as effective nowadays as more information about users are available online. Too Frequent Password Changes – You’ll still want to make users change their password, but having them do it so frequently that they forget their credentials can be a major problem for a business. Best Practices of Password Hygiene We have come to recommend that users create passphrases made up of at least three words that don’t have any correlation. In this method, if you want to use replacement characters (like the aforementioned alphanumeric switching), it has value. For example if you were to make the At SRS Networks, we recommend that users use a passphrase made up of at least three words that don’t have anything to do with one another. We also believe that using replacement characters can have value in this method. For example, a passphrase of “japanlovessushi” is not in itself secure, because it’s a common phrase, but a passphrase of “japanlovesenchiladas” is better. Use substitution methods to add security from there. If you would like more information about password hygiene or securing your accounts and identity online, call the IT professionals at SRS Networks today at (831) 758-3636.
Defining FinTech Financial technology, or FinTech, describes the services and solutions that are now available to assist individuals and businesses alike in properly managing their finances. This application of technology has exploded with options in the past few years, providing more options for people without the solutions themselves carrying a substantial price tag. Many established financial institutions have also implemented FinTech to give their customers secure access to various services and tools. As you might imagine, this demonstrates quite a shift from the origins of FinTech, which was basically a tool for financial institutions to use behind the scenes. With the industry’s growth, the customer soon became the intended user, and now, these solutions provide access to bank accounts, credit cards, stock portfolios, and insurance policies alike. What are the Most Common FinTech Services Today? As more FinTech-powered applications have been developed, the potential uses for these tools have been expanded upon considerably. In addition to the assorted solutions listed above, there are now apps that allow users to send payments quickly and easily to retailers and other users. To name a few examples of these, think PayPal and its subsidiary, Venmo. Other varieties of FinTech have also popped up. FinTech also includes crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter and GoFundMe, assisting users to collect donations for business ideas and other goals. Cryptocurrency is an example of FinTech that has become so popular, it spawned its own application ecosystem. FinTech Can Also Be Used by Businesses Today, developers have created a litany of FinTech tools and applications designed for business purposes. Using these tools, companies can secure loans and otherwise access the financial resources they need to manage to ensure efficiency is preserved in their operations. Many of today’s dynamic business management platforms also integrate with FinTech applications, assisting businesses as they interact with financial institutions and crunch the numbers, as they say. Monitoring your organization’s finances without incurring too much cost is key to properly distributing and investing your available resources. FinTech can help you do so, and SRS Networks can help you properly make use of it. To learn more about the options your business has to consider, reach out to us at (831) 758-3636 to start a conversation.
Data Equals Insights This simple equation does a good job of summarizing the benefits of analytics. Because analytics are just data-driven predictions applied to your business’ circumstances, you can infer quite a bit just from the data you collect during your normal operations. One type of analytics you may have heard of before is business analysis. By drawing out the value from massive data sets by processing the numbers, analytics can provide you with the answers to your business questions and—as a result—assist you in shaping the most effective business strategy. Data Sources The data your business uses to generate these analytics can come from a variety of sources. These sources include: Data Aggregation—Collecting and filtering through data from transactional records and data provided by your customers. Forecasting—Examining past trends and using them to form expectations for the future. Association and Sequence Identification—Identifying patterns to help predict your future needs. Properly using your data to generate such analytics has been shown to provide businesses with considerable benefits to various aspects of these organizations, including their productivity and profitability, among others. Many of your resources can be considered a gold mine for data: your CRM solution, your line of business applications, your marketing statistics, your sales opportunities, and of course, your website. Many solutions are available to help you collect and leverage the analytics that will most assist your business’ operations. SRS Networks can help you put them to use with our proactive support services. Give us a call at (831) 758-3636 to find out how we can help your business accomplish more.
Does a Clean Workstation Make that Much of a Difference? Yes! A computer collects a surprising amount of junk and grime, not to mention germs. Maintaining it can help ensure it doesn’t overheat. Plus, it just looks better, anyway. Therefore, you need to make a regular habit out of tidying up your workstation. Let’s touch on a few best practices for cleaning the major components. How Often Do I Have to Clean My Computer? That all depends on a few variables, but you should make sure that you’re cleaning your computer at least once a year. Other factors will render it necessary to tidy up more often. Take, for instance, the computer’s location. Its environment may introduce specific kinds of debris that make more regular cleanings a prudent course of action. So, if your computer spends its time… In an industrial environment In the presence of pets Around carpeting …it is probably best to clean it more frequently. Who it is that typically uses the computer is also an important factor. Younger people (especially children) are a leading cause of sticky fingers on a keyboard and a smudged monitor. Either way, if your computer hasn’t been cleaned within the past 12 months, now is probably the time to do it. How to Properly Clean Your Workstation’s Components The different parts of your workstation need to be cleaned differently. Otherwise, they could become damaged in your attempt to keep them shipshape. Keep in mind, we’re focusing on desktop workstations here, as the process of cleaning a laptop is somewhat different. For starters, here are a few general best practices: Do not spray any liquid directly into the computer. Spray a cloth and wipe instead. Do not use a vacuum, as it can create a damaging static charge. Use compressed air to blow away any debris. Don’t allow fans to spin freely as you are cleaning them, as it could actually damage them. Always turn off the computer before you attempt to clean it. The Case Cleaning the exterior of your workstation can help to improve its ventilation, as well as make it look more presentable. You can remove any dust built up with a few swipes of a lint-free cloth. The Interior Also helping to keep the device’s temperature in check, it pays off to clean the inside of any dust and debris. Use compressed air to do this so that you don’t risk damaging the internal components. The Peripherals Finally, it makes sense that things like the keyboard and mouse would get a little grimy over time. A bit of diluted rubbing alcohol or disinfectant and compressed air can remove this grime and any germs it may have housed. As for your monitor, dusting it off with a lint-free cloth will naturally improve the visibility of your display. For more assistance in cleaning your computing infrastructure, or any other technology maintenance, give SRS Networks a call at (831) 758-3636. Our expert technicians are ready to help.
What It Means to Be Proactive A lot of business is preventing major swaths of downtime. Seriously, the more downtime you have, the less you get done. There are plenty of risks inherent in doing business, so being more proactive allows you to mitigate them more effectively. Think about it, a problem pops up in your business, you immediately stop what you are doing to fix the problem, which takes you away from the productive endeavor you were working on. By being proactive, however, you ensure that no problem exists, making certain that your time is used productively. If the effectiveness of your business comes down to the amount of time you can focus on it, being interrupted with constant problems to fix destroys that focus. Avoiding Downtime Your business isn’t some publicly-traded, multi-national company. If the most lucrative businesses faced even an hour of downtime, they are wasting six, sometimes, seven figures worth of capital. That’s why they routinely write proactive measures into their processes. For your business, the amount of wasted capital will be substantially less, but it might just be a larger percentage of revenue lost or capital spent. This can sink your business; and, it doesn’t just come from having to stop what you are doing. Downtime can be problematic in these ways as well: Customer frustration – Your relationships are extremely important. Too much downtime can have a major negative impact on your customer relations. Not only will customers be inconvenienced, they will let you know it. This time spent smoothing everything over can get extremely expensive, especially for the small business that needs their people to be productive, not engaging in costly support roles. Staff frustration – As hinted at in the previous paragraph, many small businesses rely on their staff to do more than one job. One of those jobs isn’t always fun. That is a customer service representative. Many employees–especially if they were hired for a specific purpose–tend to get fed up when they have to spend a large chunk of their work life supporting a faulty product. Exorbitant cost – Cost will always come with downtime. If you are paying people who should be building your product or service to sit around dealing with downtime, you are wasting valuable capital. By being proactive you are effectively controlling the amount of downtime your organization has to deal with. Being Proactive! At SRS Networks, we offer a couple proactive services that could really make a difference in the profitability and efficiency of your business. They include. Remote monitoring – Your hardware and network need to be in tip-top shape for your staff to be as productive as they can be. By remotely monitoring your entire IT infrastructure, our knowledgeable technicians can find even the smallest incongruency. Doing so before downtime has a chance to rear its head and affect your business works to keep downtime to a minimum and productivity high. Cloud computing – Moving some of your IT to the cloud is a proactive move as public cloud resources are typically managed by the provider. Having a cloud provider take on the comprehensive management of your IT, while also gaining anytime, anywhere access, is a sound strategy for any-sized business. Patch management – Software vulnerabilities can be a major problem for your […]