● Security & Social Engineering

Are you familiar with social engineering and its ability to gain protected information about your network?  WhatIs.com defines social engineering as “a term that describes a non-technical kind of intrusion that relies heavily on human interaction and often involves tricking other people to break normal security procedures.”  Most users know that they shouldn’t click on the links in a random email from a suspicious address, but what if you received one of those interactive holiday greeting emails that was made to look as if it came from a coworker?  Social engineers are counting on that degree of familiarity and acceptance to get you to click the malware-laden link.  In fact, that’s one of the examples cited in this article from Tech Republic, “Security’s weakest link: Technology no match for social engineering“, which illustrates the scary statistics:

“…it’s important to remember that most break-ins historically, and many still to this day, have nothing to do with technology. In fact they are carried out by people who rely primarily on the human factor, not devious code or malware creation.”

“In the end, what these experiments demonstrate is that social engineering is still a major threat today. Even in the controlled environment of pen-testing agreements, the DEF CON contestants and RSA research team members managed to gain access to most of the information that they needed. This includes the huge amount of private information that can be gathered from simple web queries. The winner of the DEF CON contest was not even a professional social engineer and scored most of her points through extensive information gathering.” – TechRepublic.com

Now that you are aware of the dangers of social engineering, what steps can you take to help prevent it?  As always, caution is of utmost importance when it comes to information about your network!

● Instagram for Windows Phone

For Windows Phone users such as myself, the wait is finally over!  Nokia has announced that the wildly popular photo-sharing app Instagram is coming to Windows Phone within the next few weeks.

Kevin Systrom, CEO and co-founder of Instagram had this to say of the announcement:  “Our ultimate goal is to bring Instagram to everyone who wants to use it…We’re looking forward to watching the Windows Phone community use Instagram to capture and share beautiful moments in the coming weeks.” WPCentral.com

This is great news for us Windows Phone users who have long bemoaned the reluctance of developers to invest time into the third choice mobile platform.  Nokia has consistently raised the bar as far as the cameras on their phones go, and now the most popular photo-sharing app will be available along with that camera.  This is a huge upside for Nokia.  My friends and I almost always use the camera on my Lumia 920 rather than their iPhones or Droids, simply because the picture quality is far superior.  But now we don’t have to go through the rigmarole of taking the photo on my phone and then sending it to my friend’s phone for Instagram editing/uploading.

More from The Verge:

“Either way, Instagram is a big deal for Microsoft and Windows Phone. The software giant has been trying for months to convince Instagram to support Windows Phone, and third-party developers have been taking risks to provide a variety of options to users. It’s only one app, but it opens up Microsoft’s mobile operating system to a community that has largely stayed clear of the platform because of the lack of Instagram support.” The Verge

Whether you’re snapping a pic of your delicious seafood appetizer out at dinner, or capturing a short video of your dog’s amazing Frisbee catch, you’ll soon be able to share the photos of your life straight from your Windows Phone onto Instagram.  And who knows?  Maybe one day you’ll even see us here at Synergistic with an Instagram account!  For now though, you can catch us on Twitter at @SNIConsulting, or on our Facebook page.

Happy Wednesday!

-Rose

• Twitter, Apple, & Windows 8 Links

Hi everyone, Rose here!   I thought it would be fun to make a post with links to a few random but still technology-related items I find interesting.

Are you on Twitter?  Synergistic Networks has a Twitter account (@SNIConsulting), and I tweet regularly as well (@rosebabetski).  Twitter is one of my favorite sites to check when I’m watching a TV show, because you can find out what everyone else is thinking just by checking the hashtags for that show.  Now Nielsen, a global information and media measurement company, is tracking what television shows people tweet about the most.

“It turns out the shows most seen on Twitter aren’t always the shows most seen on TV, and the discrepancy illustrates just how much more there is to learn about what a tweet about a TV show means. It also offers networks and advertisers a way to gauge the relationship between viewership and Twitter traffic, but knowing the volume of tweets is just the beginning, and there’s a lot of data in those tweets that’s still silent.”

“Granted, most of this information is generated in order to give networks and advertisers a better idea of the kind of traction TV shows are getting on social networks, but the metrics are likely going to be interesting to fans as well as ad buyers. Think about it. Joss Whedon’s cult favorite space cowboy show Firefly never got great Nielsen numbers, but if there had been Twitter TV Ratings back when it was on the air, fans could’ve pointed to the show’s presumably significant level of social engagement as a sign of its niche popularity.” – Wired.com

 

I’m not an Apple user myself, preferring my Windows 8 phone, but I did think this was a good move by Apple:  They’ve hired Angela Ahrendts, former CEO of Burberry, as their new Senior Vice President of Retail and Online Stores.

“Ahrendts will be in charge of all of Apple’s retail efforts, online and off. “I have always admired the innovation and impact Apple products and services have on people’s lives and hope in some small way I can help contribute to the company’s continued success and leadership in changing the world,” she said…” – Wired.com

Anybody who loves fashion, as I do, knows Burberry and their beige, red, and blue plaid.  It’s been their signature so long they’ve had it copyrighted, and refer to it as the “Burberry check”.  Ms. Ahrendts helped Burberry’s market value increase greatly during her time there and I think she’ll be a great asset to a company that prides itself on its products’ fashion-forward appearances.  I love it when the sartorial world and the technological world collide.

 

If you’re already using Windows 8, you probably should have downloaded the update, Windows 8.1, by now.  Here’s a great look from Tech Republic about some of the highlights from the update:

One of the prominent complaints against Windows 8 was the steep learning curve. In my opinion, much of the problem was that Microsoft did a terrible job explaining how things work in Windows 8 – especially with regard to the Start Screen.Windows 8.1 includes a Help + tips tile (Figure E) that explains many of the navigation features users should be familiar with when they are using the Start Screen. There is also an explanation of some of the new 8.1 features.” – TechRepublic.com

 

Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter at @SNIConsulting!