Greater Dayton Area Hospital Association
Google Chrome Updates – Is Your Site Secure?
The world’s most popular Internet browser, Google Chrome, is releasing an important update in the coming weeks. Starting with the public and stable release of Chrome update 68, the browser will show a yellow “warning” icon next to the URL of web sites which are not protected by a SSL cert, and when this icon is hovered over a “Not Secure” warning will be displayed. With over 53% of total browser market share, this update is sure to affect a wide swatch of users and websites.
Read the Google blog post here.
Not sure if your website will be affected by this change? Visit your site in a browser, and then look at the URL in the address bar. If your address begins with “HTTP” and not “HTTPS”, your visitors may start to see a warning when this update is released.
To get ahead of the curve on this, give us a call or send us an email – for $175 a year, we can purchase, coordinate, and install a fix for this issue for any DataYard hosting customers. Just another way we are here to help you make IT better.
Just Keep Swinging : DataYard Celebrates 23 Years
This year at DataYard we celebrate 23 years of hard work, ambition, and success. First things first, we want to thank all of our wonderful, loyal clients who have chosen us for 20 years or just over the last year, your trust in us means everything. Secondly, we want to thank our team that is committed to serving our clients day in and day out. Lastly, we wanted to take a minute to thank and recognize, Dave Mezera. Who knew that what three Air Force buddies cooped up out of passion and tinkering would become the finest IT company in the Gem City.
If you’ve had the chance to experience a DataYard award then you know they are all unique and often recognize the most extraordinary to the most nominal achievements. This year while celebrating our 23 years together at a Dragon’s game we wanted to recognize the giver of the most awards at DataYard, Dave Mezera. Without Dave, DataYard would cease to exist the way that it does today. His love and attention have made DataYard great to its clients and its team.
This year, 2018, marks 23 years of business for DataYard, but it is not the first time that 23 years has been a monumental year. In fact, one hundred years ago exactly in 1918, another fine accomplishment was achieved by none other than the great Babe Ruth. The Boston Red Sox were coming off an incredibly successful season where Ruth had played nearly every game due to his affinity for hitting. He mostly played in the outfield in the shortened season of 1918 but would beg to return to his role pitching.
That year the Boston Red Sox faced off with the Chicago Cubs for the pennant. In Game One, Ruth was on the mound and ended up giving the Red Sox their first victory. Prior to Game Four Ruth injured his hand in a fight but still took the mound and pitched the game. Thanks to some outstanding support from his team he was able to get the Sox a victory and a 3-1 series lead. Here’s the thing, before allowing the Cubs to score in that 4th Game, Ruth had pitched twenty-nine and two-thirds consecutive scoreless innings, a record for the World Series that stood for more than 40 years. The next year in 1919, Babe Ruth would go on to have an unprecedented spell of slugging home runs, which gave him much of his notoriety. But, Ruth would reminisce that he was prouder of that record more than any of his jaw-dropping batting feats.
What does a historically spectacular baseball player have to do with DataYard today? Nothing, we have no company baseball team, we don’t have a World Series of I.T., we don’t even host a website that talks about Babe Ruth, but we can celebrate greatness. The last 23 years have been nothing less than incredible for our DataYard family and for Dave, or El Capitan as we call him. Similar to a baseball team there have been people who have come and gone, changed the game and ultimately made this team great, but one thing is constant Dave has been there and he’s invested time, resources and energy into this thing we call DataYard and the clients, community, and staff are all the beneficiaries.
Babe Ruth’s greatest personal feat was throwing some pitches, but his notoriety and fame were seen in his ability to hit the ball. His pitching success proceeded the incredible batting future he would achieve. We too believe that the best years are to come for DataYard. Some of our fondest memories and great accomplishments may be in the past but our greatest feats are still to come. So, we want to say thank you, Dave, and just keep swinging!
Keeping the Internet Safe
Earlier this month was Safer Internet Day, which is a day dedicated to creating awareness around safe internet usage mainly geared towards children and teens. I realized this topic didn’t exist when I was growing up. Think about it for a second. I am in my mid-late twenties and I have had more years with dial-up internet or no Internet at all, than I have with anything close to the high speeds we have today. I’ve grown up with the Internet quite literally. When I was a kid, teachers and parents were just trying to grasp the concept of the Internet and how it was used, let alone talk about how to safely address it. For this reason, I’ve taken it upon myself to catch all of us up on some quick Internet Safety Tips.
Passwords
Creating complex passwords and changing your passwords regularly can go a long way. That means moving past the passwords like ‘Password123’ and ‘Jacob19’, onto more creative phrases and symbols. It is also beneficial to use different passwords for your different accounts and websites, rather than using the same one across the board. For this reason, I would recommend using tools like LastPass, KeePass or 1Password to help keep track of all of your different passwords. These tools can also be set up to remind you to reset your password every couple of months.
Public Network Security
Free public Wi-Fi has essentially become a basic utility, making the internet easily accessible virtually anywhere. This is also making users increasingly vulnerable. The challenge with public Wi-Fi is that it’s often unsecured, making it easy for hackers to access your device. If you want to utilize public Wi-Fi in a secure manner, you can purchase a Virtual Private Network (VPN). A VPN is a software that will provide you with a secure connection to the Internet.
At Home Network Security
Taking a comprehensive look at your home network will allow you to have peace of mind when you are connecting to the Internet at home on your various devices. Changing administrative passwords and implementing a few precautions can make your connection much safer. For a checklist on securing your home network check out our Securing Your Home Network blog.
Safe Browsing
Many times, Internet browsers themselves provide Safe Browsing functions (see Google). However, you can go an extra step and retrain yourself on not giving away personal information, avoiding questionable websites, only downloading software from sites you trust, and increasing your browsers security settings.
- Click Smart – don’t click on sketchy links or ads
- Share Selectively – don’t just share your personal information with anyone
- Shop Safe – when shopping online always make sure to look for https
HTTPS
Keep an eye on the addresses of the sites you are visiting. In the address bar for your website, you will see either HTTP or HTTPS (more about the difference) which represents how data is transferred between a web server and a web browser. With an HTTPS site, the data is encrypted, which keeps your information safe. This is extremely important for any online shopping or banking, and any site taking your personal information. You need to make sure that it has encryption.
Stay Up to Date
Staying up to date on the latest operating systems (OS) and software/application versions will ensure that you have the most up-to-date security measures in place. We recommend turning on auto-update when applicable.
If you have more questions about making your home a safe place please feel free to reach out to us on social media or at [email protected]
Other Resources:
- Safer Internet Day – http://saferinternetday.us/
- Google’s Commitment to a Safer Internet – https://privacy.google.com/safer-internet.html
- Department of Defense (NSA) Recommendations http://dodcio.defense.gov/Portals/0/Documents/Cyber/Slicksheet_BestPracticesForKeepingYourHomeNetworkSecure_Web_update.pdf
Securing Your Home Network
Earlier this month was Safer Internet Day, which is focused on educating and creating awareness for a safer internet. As Dayton’s only local ISP (Internet Service Provider), DataYard knows the importance of internet safety and security. While we do our part to keep the internet safe as a provider, the only one who can keep your home and your family safe on the internet is you. Don’t worry DataYard is here to help you make IT better.
These are all suggestions that we believe to be the best option within reasonable expectations, these are suggestions where economically and technically feasible.
Defining Home Network.
DataYard defines a home network as the primary private network that an individual uses to access the Internet when in their home. Home networks do not include public carrier networks (LTE, 4G, 3G, etc.), public hotspots or public Wi-Fi access points (hotels, coffee shops, airports, etc.) The definition of a home network is limited to private networks typically controlled by you at your residence.
Wireless Security
One of the major considerations of securing a private network is wireless (Wi-Fi) security. DataYard recommends periodically changing SSID names, changing Wi-Fi passwords, and utilizing the current wireless security standard WPA2. WPA2 uses an encryption that encrypts the network with a 256-bit key. As an additional layer of security, you could implement MAC address restrictions to restrict access and further security private network.
Stay Up To Date
On any device that is accessing the internet through your home network it is important to be using the latest Operating System (OS). Keeping the OS updated will ensure you have the most recent security features enabled by default and prevent common attacks. In addition, making sure that all software and applications are up to date will prevent outdated software breaches.
Network Security.
We highly recommend deploying a physical firewall between the internet access connection and the internal network/device(s). This could be accomplished by deploying a router with an integrated firewall (Best Routers in 2018). By default, these devices will filter incoming access to the private network, excluding normal operating protocols for accessing Internet resources. Many internet service providers supply a modem/router combination device, in which case you should ask for administrative privileges to make adjustments where necessary.
Remote Access for Home Networks
It is increasingly common for users to allow remote access into their home networks for various functions, applications, and systems (IOT, Home Security, Media Centers, etc.). In order to provide remote access to these various technologies, users may open various ports/protocols on both the filtering devices and the end devices. In these scenarios, we strongly encourage you to:
- Allow remote access to the system only when required
- Restrict access to IP address, ports and protocols as much as possible
- Perform IP filtering when technically feasible
Additional Security Measures
Additional best practices include regarding securing a private network include the following:
- Keeping all internet capable devices up-to-date with security patches
- Changing the default privileged edge password of all devices on the private network
- Using strong and complex passwords for access to home equipment and devices
- Maintaining active anti-virus and anti-malware on all applicable devices
- Implement Full Disk Encryption (FDE) on Laptops
If you’d like to learn more about securing your home network or how to maximize the security of your online presence please feel free to reach out to us on social media or at [email protected].
5 REASONS WE’RE EXCITED FOR TASTE OF IT
Technology First’s annual event, Taste of IT, is coming next Wednesday and we feel compelled to share with you some of the reasons we’re excited to be joining and sponsoring the event! Not only is it a great Dayton-based trade show focused on IT, but it typically brings in over 300 attendees with exhibitors from all around the industry. The sessions are always interesting and full of knowledge and it’s one of the best times to get caught up on all the advancements in the IT landscape and market. If you haven’t registered yet, check out the reasons were excited below and then go ahead and click to register!
#5: THE SWAG
In the words of Michael Scott, “SWAG! Stuff We All Get! I’ve basically decorated my condo for free with all of my SWAG!” Whether you decorate your space with it or toss it straight into a trash can, there is no doubt that Taste of IT will have plenty of swag available. What we’re excited about is how cool our swag actually is, no gimmicks in booth #35 with DataYard!
#4: THE PUTT PUTT CHALLENGE
That’s right – it’s going to be all fun and games over at the DataYard Booth. We’ll be hanging out with a full cooler while talking about all thing IT. Our booth is a combination of all the things we love about IT in Dayton – having fun and building relationships.
#3: EL CAPITAN IS SPEAKING ON IOT: INTERNET OF TROUBLE
Our fearless leader, Dave Mezera, has been invited to give a presentation on IoT. Most know IoT as Internet of Things, but El Capitan will be taking a different approach looking into the dangers and risks of our IOT future.
#2: WE’RE GIVING AWAY AN IPHONE X
WHAT!?! That’s right we’re giving away an iPhone X because we’re committed to releasing the latest technology to our clients and community! Swing by the DataYard Booth #35 and make sure you enter to win!
#1: WE’RE GOING TO SEE YOU
The thing we are looking forward to is connecting with you at the Taste of IT. We get to hear about what you’re working on and learn more about you while surrounded by some of the coolest folks in town. Swing past and introduce yourself, and let us know if we can help you make IT better!
OKAY! I agree, now I’m excited too. Sign Me Up!
(click to Register)
5 Reasons Why Disney’s Channel Facade is Falling
An article by The Wall Street Journal came out yesterday revealing Disney’s struggles with ratings and viewership decline and honestly, we’re not surprised. As a company that values innovation, we’re not shocked when large companies fail to innovate quickly. As online providers such as Netflix, Amazon and the infamous, endless blackhole of YouTube have garnered more and more viewership, the audiences are drifting from the endless channel surfing to the instant gratification of online video sources. From Joe Flint’s recent article, Disney’s Channels: Children Are Tuning Out, alone we can identify five alarming trends in the media-moguls outlook of their current condition.
1. Ratings Over Reality
Experience is everything and the reality is the ratings don’t reflect the reality of viewership. The measurement for success for the last several decades in media was two-fold; ‘ratings’, and, ‘number of viewers’, but ratings were the leading value driver. If the ratings were high then viewership was up. This perception assumed, for many years correctly, that high ratings meant higher viewership because if the audience liked the show they kept watching.
However, in the digital age things have changed and how media is consumed is becoming the larger measure in the war for viewers. Making the ‘number of viewers’ of equal or more value that the ‘rating’ of the content. Trends like ‘Netflix and Chill’ and ‘Binge-watching’ have challenged traditional television by giving viewers all the content immediately verses waiting week by week for the next show to be aired. The crazy thing is that Disney has identified their challenge but has failed to make the changes needed to stay competitive, leading us to our second point.
2. Failure to Perceive & Pivot
In 2012, Netflix had a considerable amount of viewers at over 23 million, and has grown substantially year-after-year to the point of recently even beating out cable viewers in Q1 of this year according to Leitchman Research Group. (Don’t believe it? Read more about this in Forbes). No one is surprised by this type of growth, especially with the increasingly, On-Demand generation of viewers, yet Disney has failed to pivot quickly to this challenge.
In the WSJ article, Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger said that the company is preparing to offer its channels, in part or whole, directly to consumers online rather than just through costly cable television packages. Preparing! That is quite an alarming statement with the trends moving the way they have been for such a long time. We’re shocked to see that they’re just now considering their options and preparing – clearly they’re feeling the pinch. It’s not uncommon to see these larger corporate conglomerates, challenged in the fast-paced tech world, to fall behind to their smaller more agile counterparts.
3. Preparing Instead of Perceiving
Piggy-backing off the last point, Disney’s cable-entertainment has been challenged just like many other cable based media companies by slowly preparing for change and not perceiving the trends. What makes Amazon so great is their innovation, their ability to perceive new markets and tackle them quickly with purpose. Cable companies and their channel providers have been persistently challenged by the online media movement, without long-standing solutions. They’ve band-aided issues and failed to truly perceive market trends and create valuable end-user solutions.
Sorry cable, your DVR function is just not comparable to our Netflix accounts. Not only do you interrupt our DVR’d shows with commercials but you still make us record and watch each week, and the demand feature isn’t much better. The days of waiting for the next episode have passed away and the longer more grueling waits for instant bulk access to new seasons has taken over. Disney is going to need to look past its currently problems and start perceiving where, how and what the audience wants, and jump to that point if it wants to compete with current online media services.
4. Money Over People
And we quote, “Distributors have said they are wary of too much content being available outside of the pay-TV ecosystem.” Why you might ask? Well this is why, “Online video currently carries fewer ads and generates significantly less revenue than network programming, particularly if it is available to people who don’t subscribe to cable.” Let us summarize, we’ve been choosing the more profitable route instead of pleasing our customers. For example, when Disney first launched its Disney Channel app it came with one full episode and a bunch of clips, sorry Disney, but that was not satisfying to us nor our children, so back to the Netflix app we went and honestly we were hurt that you didn’t give us more of your shows. Netflix wooed us with less production value but an endless amount of content that kids did love and adults are sharing the same experience.
Disney has always been in it for the money, and that’s not inherently wrong, we all need to eat and have the ability to increase profits. However, it is a balance and one that is starting to tip in the wrong direction for Disney and other cable channels. In a “people over profit” generation new tech startups and smaller more agile media providers are seeking to please the individual user rather than just the general population. To take the market back Disney is going to have to start thinking about its end-user experience and not it’s users-for-profit model.
5. Dealing With The What Over The How
Our heads were shaking when we read, “that both Freeform and Disney Channel are confident that their new slate of shows will lift ratings.” Have they really not seen that its not the content they are delivering, but rather the way they are delivering it?! We’re not saying that their new shows have been hits, we haven’t seen them, we’ve been watching Netflix, but they’re not addressing the root issue which is how their content is consumed. The market trend is saying that people want to have access to their media anytime, anywhere, which is the ‘how’ to media delivery. Yet here Disney stands saying that their focus is on the ‘what’ – their content to try and win over viewers in an old model, but unfortunately again, that is only a band-aid to the real issue.
Conclusion.
First of all, we’re not saying that Disney is going to fail, they will be fine and they will eventually adjust and survive, although ESPN isn’t helping either!
Why does DataYard care and write a blog about TV channels? Great question, we care because we’re committed to being informed and informing our audience about trends and shifts in markets. We also want to help provide solutions to our customers who might be feeling the same challenges in a new generation of audience users and consumers. DataYard is committed to:
- Taking a hard look at reality. We take an honest look at our services, products, and innovations, to ensure that we are providing what our clients need, but also keeping our finger on the pulse of what our clients want so we can exceed their expectations.
- Constantly Perceiving and Pivoting. Our goal is to help our clients find the long lasting solution, and in the IT space that means creating solutions that can pivot easily towards never-ending improvement.
- People Over Profit. We’re not looking to lose money and go out of business, but were also not going to choose out dated solutions that might be more profitable over what our customer needs. We’re committed to providing excellence in everything for our clients and their audience.
We see Disney as a corporate giant that has had trouble keeping up with the times and we’re not going to point fingers and say, “Oh, you stink”, but we are going to learn from their challenges and see how we can help our clients facing similar issues, while also making sure that we don’t make the same mistakes. DataYard is committed to helping others overcome the ever-changing landscape of IT, and like we always say, we’re here to Make IT Better!
A Commitment to Radical Privacy
On April 3rd, President Trump signed legislation repealing the FCC’s privacy regulations. As a result, Internet Service Providers (like DataYard, AT&T, Spectrum, etc.) can now quietly gather, store, and sell the Internet histories, communications, and usage patterns of everyone they provide Internet access to. The legislation goes further, by placing restrictions on the types of privacy guidelines the FCC can attempt to institute in the future. If you’re reading this on a screen, this action covers you at this very moment.
I’ve worked at DataYard (and previously DONet) for 11 years, four of those as a Systems Administrator and Data Center Engineer. I know first-hand the level of access that ISPs have to customer data, and the gravity of that access. We have a mantra at DataYard, “with great power comes great responsibility”, attributed to either Voltaire or Ben Parker, depending on who you ask. It is incredibly true in this and many other industries and vocations, but as more and more of our daily lives are driven online…well, ours is a unique business. We at DataYard make it our practice to log only the data we need to maintain our systems and provide the best customer service to our clients. We’ve got a database with your address in it, but so does Trader Joe’s.
If you are a business owner, work with Intellectual Property (IP) or Personally Identifiable Information (PII), are a HIPAA covered entity, or simply don’t want your personal preferences and business browsing data tracked and categorized – this new reality is an uncomfortable one. When ISPs begin to track, store, and replicate this personal data, it exponentially increases the potential attack footprint for malicious access. We’ve all heard about the Target / Yahoo / Verizon / [insert name here] hacks. Can you imagine the fallout if those companies had the last four years of your Internet usage stored and indexed for the taking?
We at DataYard want to publicly voice our disapproval of these legislative actions, undertaken with the sole purpose of opening new profit centers in an exploding industry. We know better than most the implications this decision has. It’s our business to know. Every customer we work with can rest assured that DataYard is not, and will not be, interested in the collection or sale of your communications and activities.
In a time when every move is tracked, every bit is stored forever, and everything is for sale, promising to forgo those profits is a radical move. But it’s a promise we make proudly.
See more: Dayton Daily News story here.
DataYard’s Privacy Policy:
https://www.datayard.us/about/policies/open-internet-compliance-statement/
Roomberry Project v.10
With just one week remaining, we managed to have a successful week tying everything together. Like Owen said last week, we ran into issues with the RFID. We had finally gotten it to work on our makeshift electrical tape track with a few sensors along the way, and decided to move it along to a practical application. However, that’s when we realized that our tags being 3mm, the antenna was too small for the signal to overcome the metal floor tiles. This week we received our color sensor as an alternative. We decided that since we can’t use any form of wave communication, our best bet was to either change back to QR (which we really didn’t want to have to do) or find an alternative. This color sensor has worked wonders thus far. We are able to pick up readings via lux, or lumens, and convert that into a 6 digit RGB hex code. With this we can set it up exactly like our RFID tags. We will be mapping out the data center similar to how we had tags, which is to have a temperature reading taken at the front of a server cabinet. Not only will this allow more precise temperature data, but it will also be a sort of location finder for the roomba. 
With one week remaining, there is still a decent amount to be done, but we feel confident that once we leave, there will be a stable platform for the rest of our peers here to work with and improve upon when necessary. With our downtime on Monday before the color sensor came, we were able to get our preliminary temperature and humidity data uploaded using phant. The link for that, which will be updated real-time once this is permanently running, is here. Next week our main goal is to, well, finish the project. We need to implement our new color tags, fine tune any bugs, and get our data uploading to local servers here for ease of access.
Stay tuned for our final blog post next Friday!
Roomberry Project v.9
Monday was yet another productive start to the week for Jim and I. More testing was done on RFID tags, and we fully ironed out our IR line following. However, on Wednesday tragedy struck.
Ever since we first had started messing around with RFID tags, there have been issues. with our 125kHz reader, we could never find a tag small enough to be used with our floor tiles. To solve the problem, we upgraded to a 13.56MHz reader and nifty little three millimeter tags. However, we were never able to get the reader to properly identify the tags. So instead we bought a different, more widely used version of the reader that came with a pre-made Python library. Once we got that up and running, we thought we were in the clear, but on Wednesday we found that due to the small antenna on the RFID tag it cannot be read if it is within one centimeter of the metal floor tiles.
Because the deadline of the project is drawing near, Jim and I decided to save both money and time and scrap the idea of using RFID in its entirety. Instead, we will be focusing our efforts on two ideas that we had as possible replacements.
The first idea we had was to give QR codes a second chance. If we can minimized the amount of time each poll takes, we would be able to make a track of QR codes along the floor. Our second idea is to use a color-sensitive light sensor in combination with colored tiles to determine the next command.
Next week will be hammering out these new navigation methods, wish us luck!