Data Surveillance During Remote Work Leaves Businesses Vulnerable | Small Business Trends

December 1, 2020November 30, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Remote work has enabled businesses to weather the storm of the pandemic and adapt to new work environments while keeping business going. Yet, with employees now working remotely, the line between personal and professional data has been blurred and that comes with significant risk.

While companies focus on matching productivity and collaboration to that of office times, they can lose focus on the growing concern of data surveillance and misuse. Thanks to GDPR and CCPA regulations, businesses are now held to more stringent standards when it comes to collecting and handling data. However with the pandemic to distract focus, the number of data breaches continues to grow and businesses continue to ignore potential vulnerabilities.

Smart doorbells ‘easy target for hackers’ study finds | BBC News

November 25, 2020November 23, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Major security flaws in popular smart doorbells are putting consumers at risk of being targeted by hackers inside their homes, according to Which.

The consumer group says devices being sold on marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay, could easily be hacked or switched off by criminals.

It is asking the government for new legislation to safeguard consumers.

Amazon has removed at least seven product listings in response to the findings.

‘He used our smart doorbell camera to track me’

Ring logs every doorbell press and app action

The watchdog tested 11 devices which were purchased from popular online marketplaces in the UK. Brands included Qihoo, Ctronics and Victure.

It found that among the most common flaws were weak password policies, and a lack of data encryption.

Netflix commits $1 billion to make New Mexico home to one of the world’s largest studios | TechCrunch

November 24, 2020November 23, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Netflix is committing $1 billion in production spend at its ABQ Studios in Albuquerque, New Mexico, along with plans to expand those studios, the company said.

In an announcement alongside New Mexico’s Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham and Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller, Netflix’s chief executive Ted Sarandos said the company would add 300 acres to its existing space in ABQ Studios, creating one of the largest film production facilities in North America.

That means roughly 1,000 new production jobs in New Mexico over the next 10 years, the company predicted, and an additional 1,467 construction jobs to complete the expansion.

How this family-run cider business is breaking even during a pandemic | CNN

November 19, 2020November 19, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Just surviving will be a huge success for most small businesses this year.

And few expect to break even given all that’s happened as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Yet Meriwether Cider in Boise, Idaho, is on track to meet that mark, thanks in large part to Covid-related federal assistance, according to Ann Leadbetter, who owns the business with her husband and two daughters.

Also helpful: Meriwether Cider makes money a few ways, so while some lines of revenue took a hit, others went up. Sales are down at its two sit-down venues — a cider house in downtown Boise and a smaller tap room at its bottling facility in nearby Garden City. So are its sales to bars and restaurants. But the company has made more from its distribution to grocery stores and the curbside pickup it now offers customers.

Apple to pay $113 million in ‘batterygate’ settlement | CNN

November 19, 2020November 19, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Apple has agreed to pay millions of dollars to 34 states over its controversial previous practice of deliberately slowing down older iPhones to extend their battery life.

The company will pay $113 million to settle an investigation by states including California and Arizona over how Apple wasn’t transparent about its iPhone battery problems that led to unexpected device shutdowns. Instead of disclosing the issue to consumers or replacing the batteries, it pushed a software update in December 2016 that impacted the performance of older iPhone models.

News of the practice upset Apple (AAPL) consumers, igniting what some called “batterygate.” Many believed it was an effort to encourage users to buy new iPhones.

Here’s all the buzz about honeybees | Live Science

November 18, 2020November 17, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The domestic honeybee (Apis mellifera), also frequently spelled “honey bee” and known scientifically as the European or western honeybee, is the most common of the nine species of honey-producing bees. It is native to Africa, Europe and the Middle East, according to the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, but humans have introduced domestic honeybees around the world and it’s the only honeybee in the United States.

Honeybees are social insects. They live in large colonies that include a single adult queen bee and tens of thousands of female worker bees, whose numbers change with the seasons, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The queen bee is the only bee that lays eggs. Male honeybees, called drones, are only seen during the spring mating season and hatch from unfertilized eggs. The female worker bees, on the other hand, hatch from eggs that have been fertilized by drones.

How to get HBO Max on Fire TV devices | Fast Company

November 17, 2020November 16, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Amazon has buried the hatchet with AT&T’s WarnerMedia and will bring HBO Max to Fire TV devices on Tuesday, November 17. Fire TV users can find the app by saying “Alexa, open HBO Max.”

HBO Max launched in late May, with an expanded catalog of movies and shows for the same $15 per month price as HBO alone. But until now, the service hasn’t been available on Fire TV devices. As Variety reported in July, a main point of contention was Amazon’s Prime Video Channels store, which already distributes HBO to roughly five million subscribers. WarnerMedia wanted Amazon to stop selling those subscriptions, while Amazon wanted its existing subscribers to get the broader Max catalog.

CEO Secrets: The dads getting entrepreneurial in lockdown | BBC News

November 11, 2020November 10, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

As part of our CEO Secrets series, which invites business leaders to share their advice, we are focusing on start-ups that have launched during lockdown. Each week we will look at a different type of entrepreneur. This week, we hear from fathers balancing a new business with childcare.

A consignment of 300kg of chocolate in an industrial container arrives at the house of Keith Tiplady, 35, in Leicester.

He moves hundreds of packs of pure chocolate pellets to a dedicated room in his house, where he also stores 1.5km of ribbon.

This is the “new normal” for Keith, who is now a chocolatier

Why Small Businesses Should Ignore California’s Prop 24 | Inc.com

November 11, 2020November 10, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

California’s landmark data privacy law only went into effect this January, but thanks to the will of voters, an entirely new law will soon go into its place.

On Election Day, more than half of the state’s voters approved Proposition 24, a ballot initiative that would create a new state-run data privacy agency tasked with ensuring companies follow the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), a new law that would supersede the state’s existing data privacy law, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). The latest effort was spearheaded by real estate developer Alastair Mactaggart, with input from tech giants like Twitter.

When lawmakers passed the CCPA two years ago, it was hailed as the strictest law in the nation. It was also costly, with California businesses responsible for footing an estimated $55 billion in compliance costs.

How to Watch Apple’s November Mac Laptop Event | WIRED

November 10, 2020November 9, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

WEREN’T WE ALL here just a couple weeks ago? Hanging around on the internet waiting for Apple to show off some new hardware?

Indeed, we were. Apple has already staged two hardware release events this fall: one for the Apple Watch and iPads and one for the four new iPhones. Now the company is inviting us all to join its executives at its corporate headquarters in Cupertino, California, for another big reveal, the third of the season.

We expect this week’s event to center around Mac laptops and desktops. Apple has already announced its plans to gradually transition its computers away from Intel processors and toward its own custom silicon chips, with the first Apple-cored Macs arriving at the end of 2020. So here we are. Which computers will be the first to make the leap? As reported by Bloomberg last week, the 13-inch MacBook Air and a couple of MacBook Pro models will likely be the machines where the new processors make their Mac debut. (Apple’s custom silicon already powers its iPhones and iPads.)