Out of Sight…

In this issue:

• 2020: A Look in the Rearview Mirror
• The Cost of Doing IT Yourself
• Tourist Flights Into Space
• Making a List…
• Out of Sight, Peace of Mind!

The holiday season is a great time to organize your homes and offices and start the new year with a clean slate. What better way to do that than by giving the gift of a password manager—a program that allows users to store, generate and manage their passwords for all sorts of online services.

Some may remember Lost in Space, a TV show from the late 1960s. The Robinson family set off to colonize space, and suddenly were thrown off course, stranded in a perilous environment, light years from their desired destination. Luckily, “Robot” would alert the young Robinson boy to hazards by shouting “Danger Will Robinson!”

No one has a safety robot or even a map or GPS device to facilitate safe travels over the world wide web.

We have all heard the question: "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, did it really happen?" That thought raises philosophical issues regarding our powers of observation and perception. When each of us are in our “me” centered world, we sometimes think that if we did not see or hear something, then it was not important, or worse that it did not happen.

Out of Sight…

In this issue:

• What You Don’t See
• Introducing… Zach
• Keep Passwords Out of Sight
• Recycling Benefits
• Warning! Danger Will Robinson!

Confession time! How many of you manage your computer and online passwords in any of the following ways:

Use the same/similar password for everything
Keep all your passwords written on a slip of paper
Change your password by incrementing the number by 1
Keep a spreadsheet with all your passwords on your desktop

We see it all the time and have heard every reason you can think of as to why it’s “fine”. The most common of which is “I don’t have any data a hacker would want”. Nothing could be further from the truth! Have you ever thought about what a hacker could do with just your email password? With just access to your email, a hacker only needs to click the “I forgot my password” button for any of your accounts and will instantly have the keys to the kingdom.

With the explosion of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, the list of things to hack has also exploded. If one takes a moment to consider the potential risks, it can be eye opening and downright scary—just in time for Halloween. Peruse the Internet a bit and you will find real hacking examples that include pacemakers, children’s teddy bears, baby monitors, vehicles, security cameras, and more.

After the kids have finished trick-or-treating on Halloween, it will be time to walk around the house before going to bed and reset the clocks on all your appliances and alarms. Or will it? With so many “smart” devices, manually adjusting your clocks is quickly becoming a thing of the past.

If you have ever wondered when the world would finally begin looking like the futuristic movie Back to the Future 2, then you are in for a treat! Researchers at the Italian Institute of Technology have completed testing on their new humanoid robot named “WALK-MAN.” This robot has been engineered to be lightweight, sturdy, and have hands that are like human hands (it can move its fingers).

Why would it need to have these traits? Because this robot will be going where humans cannot…into disasters! WALK-MAN was tested in a simulated industrial plant that had been damaged by an earthquake.

A mantra of security that the IT professionals at IT Radix recite often is that when it comes to protection of a network and/or of data, layers of security is the answer. Some might say, it is the best answer.

We are fortunate to have one of the area’s most preeminent business and cybersecurity insurance firms as a client.