A home network usually refers to one that is used to connect devices to the internet usually within someone’s residence, a home network is usually small and for the most part is made up of a Router, Wi-Fi, and in some cases a small switch. Many startup companies or small businesses also have what would be considered a home network architecture.

These networks are usually used to connect all sorts of devices, primarily media consumption and smart things that are designed to improve our quality of life. Unfortunately, this convenience comes at the cost of security.

This should not be the case, after all, we expect that the internet providers have our best interests in mind and will do what is necessary to protect us from harm. Well, that is wishful thinking, the reality is that in the same way that when you buy an appliance or computer from a store and need to replace it because it is faulty, and the store often points you to the manufacturer to deal with the return on your own; internet providers pretty can pretty much wash their hands if your home network fall victim to a network attack. …

As a security professional, I have always been an advocate for strong credentials security. I have spent a considerable amount of time coaching others how to handle password management, what a strong password should look like, and of course strategies for using and being able to remember different and random passwords.

The guidelines are not that difficult:

• Use a password that contains at minimum 8 characters ( 10 or more would be better, and this number will continue to increase as computational power increases and with it a hacker’s ability to forcefully break a password ).
• Use lower and uppercase letter characters. …

Today, hacks, data breaches, and cyberattacks are more common than ever before. Here is a list of some of the organizations and/or government entities who have had a recent breach where consumer data has been exposed.

U.S. Army, P.R Dept. of Health, Ohio State University, JP Morgan Chase, AT&T, Tricare, Steam, Sony, Sega, NHS, Morgan Stanley, Memorial Health Systems, Citigroup, Countrywide Financial Group, TD Bank, Yahoo, Medicare & Medicaid, Dropbox, Blizzard, Twitter, Ubisoft, Target, Snapchat, Facebook, Evernote, Apple, Adobe, UPS, Uber, Google, Domino’s Pizza, Wendy’s, Walmart, Slack, Scottrade, Hyatt Hotels, CVS, Ancestry, Dept. …

There are about 30 million small businesses in the United States, which accounts for over 99 percent of all the U.S businesses (SBA, 2019). Small business companies create approximately 1.5 million jobs annually, about 64% of new jobs created in the U.S.

Digital transformation is changing the way those businesses can interact with their customers. Whether you want it or not, if you a Small business owner you will have to, at some point embrace it. Across the landscape, companies are making considerable investments in Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Mobile Interaction Technologies, Cloud Services, and Internet of Things technologies (IoT).

RPA reduces the number of human interactions required for completing tasks such as data entry, data extraction, payroll, and order processing. By automating redundant tasks, a business can do more with less. People already open most of their emails on handheld devices, a substantial amount of e-commerce, and interactions with vendors are conducted through mobile apps. Here is an interesting stat, 60% of companies think that they are providing a good mobile experience, but only 22% of customers feel that they are getting a good mobile experience. Opportunities are out there. …

The preamble.

The need to secure the home network is more important than ever. Enterprise networks with cloud-assisted and machine learning-enabled security features, as well as constant ongoing employee security awareness training are becoming harder to compromise.

The most sophisticated hackers are those that live of the land.

Ever heard the term, take what the defense gives you? It is a term commonly used in the NFL. It refers to the offense not forcing plays that have a low success rate but instead focusing on easier plays that have a higher chance of being successful. …

What is network segmentation?

Network segmentation is a network architecture approach that divides a network into multiple segments often referred to as subnets, each acting as its own smaller network. This allows administrators or owners to control the flow of traffic between these subnets based on policies. Organizations use segmentation to improve monitoring, boost performance, localize technical issues, and most importantly, enhance security. For a long time, segmentation has been used in enterprise and even small businesses to limit the reach of anyone device that is connected to the large network.

English, please?

Let’s say that you go to Starbucks and connect to their Wi-Fi, if you had a scanning device and started to scan the network for other devices, you shouldn’t be able to see Starbucks point on sales devices in your scan even though those devices may also be connected using Wi-Fi. …

Over the past few days, I have been doing a fair amount of research on the subject. I wanted to include in my apps articles that users could find interesting and useful about procrastination.

Contrary to my simple belief that procrastination is just another word for being lazy, there seems to be a whole lot of complexity surrounding procrastination. I read this article on the Washington Post (included below for all users to read — you’re welcome WP for the free advertisement), which I found profoundly interesting and funny. The article talks about the fear or anxiety about an upcoming important task, that leads a person to just focus their attention on something else to get rid of the negative feeling. …

Making anything from scratch is hard enough, but to have something you’ve made visible to everyone can be very scary.

When I was in school I was always thought to be intelligent, in retrospect I think I was more of a hard worker than a gifted student. Some of that came from the pressure that resulted from the expectations that I should do well because “I was smart”. Fortunately for me, I always had a thirst for knowledge. I handled the pressure well and worked hard, thus achieving above-average grades.

I recently undertook the task of creating an application from scratch and publishing it to the world to see what other people would think. I must admit that as is the case with every matter of perspective, my evaluation of my work was vastly different from reality. That’s why it is always good to have your work checked by another party. …