Privacy, securing data, and providing end-to-end security are unquestionably important components of doing business with clients online. The dynamically changing expectations and habits of online customers’ demands adoption of the best practices of securing user data and guaranteeing seamless user journeys. Some of the ways by which online businesses can secure their customer information are:

1. Tell the customer how the business uses their personal information - Customers may be cautious to share personal information with brands, owing to a lack of transparency between businesses and customers over how their data is handled. Transparency may go against traditional business practices. But being transparent brings genuine value to products and services while boosting brand loyalty in the current business-consumer connection. Customers can understand and subscribe to the wider picture if you are honest about how you use their data.
2. Check the IT environment for vulnerabilities and patch them - Businesses, particularly eCommerce sites, should test their sites on a regular basis to find vulnerabilities that aren't detected by their current security measures. Businesses must hire cybersecurity specialists or ethical hackers to identify code vulnerabilities. Running daily scans to ensure that malware hasn't been planted on the site is a basic check to be done. Businesses are also advised to invest in more powerful security programs as well.
3. Monitor and control the access to customers’ data - Software to assist the integration of devices into IT infrastructures provides extra security layers for login processes. It also provides tools to encrypt emails. While these tools can help prevent unwarranted attacks, they don't address the source of the problem. Human employees and their unpredictable behavior is the most concerning factor. The greatest strategy to reduce the risk to your data is to educate your employees about your company's data protection policies. No amount of technology innovation can insulate a business from human error and oversight. Employees must be educated about the ways to handle sensitive customer information. They must also undergo specific courses that train them in preventing classified corporate information from falling into the wrong hands. The staff must be made to think twice about sending sensitive information over email. Also, the IT teams must ensure that passwords are changed and updated on a regular basis.
4. Encryption is the need of the hour - Less than half of firms say they encrypt critical data, indicating that it is still a serious flaw. Payment processors such as Visa and MasterCard require retailers to encrypt card information by default during transactions. If the personal data is saved on corporate servers, there is a substantially higher danger of getting it hacked. The data has to be safeguarded with rigorous industry-standard security and the newest encryption technology.
5. Proactively prepare for a disaster and be resilient - Most businesses have a disaster recovery strategy in place to deal with human error, data center outages, and natural disasters, but cyber-attacks are sometimes overlooked. It's critical to put protections in place to ensure business continuity even after facing a data breach. Care must be taken to ensure cyber-attacks must not be able to disrupt day-to-day business operations.

It makes sense to invest the time and resources necessary to protect sensitive customer data. Businesses must build a culture of joint responsibility for securing data. Data breaches are on the rise, and their impact is expected to be seen for years to come. As a result, criminals are getting wiser about hacking their target networks. Companies are advised to prioritize customer data protection now more than ever.

Centex Technologies provides computer networking, IT security and Cybersecurity solution to businesses. For more information, contact Centex Technologies at (972) 375-9654.

Business IT alignment refers to the correspondence between business objectives and IT requirements of an organization. As the use of technology has become eminent for achieving business goals, it has become necessary to bridge the gap between the business units and IT department.

Before understanding more about business IT alignment, it is first important to know the reasons that have led to the progress in this direction. Here are some problems faced by organizations that keep IT department separate from other business units:

• Under performance leading to limited success
• Expensive investments with low ROI
• Slow or faulty deployments resulting in bottlenecks that hinder service delivery
• Lack of coordination between processes and solutions
• Poor communication and support for end users and potential customers

In order to achieve business IT alignment, it is important to acquire a well-planned strategy. Following an iterative process by defining one change, putting it in place, analyzing the results, and making required changes can help an organization in achieving effective alignment between business operations and IT processes. This strategy can be defined as Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle.

Plan:

• Analyze current problem & conditions
• Establish change objectives
• Create processes to achieve solution

Do: 

• Implement plan
• Test small changes
• Gather data on effectiveness of change

Check: 

• Evaluate data
• Identify deviations between goals & outcomes

Act:

• Standardize the solution
• Review & define next issues
• Repeat the cycle

For aligning IT & business, consider these best practices:

• Include all business teams along with IT team in continuous strategic loop so that all teams understand each other to function better.
• View IT as a support to transform business results; so, add IT to other business units to offer solutions to address their problems and improve business efficiency.
• Aligning all the business teams under common language and goals makes it easier to integrate the business and IT units. The main goal of the teams should be improve customer experience.
• Implement equal level of transparency for all business teams and make them aware of what are the good investments the company is making, what are the problems being faced, what decisions need to be re-evaluated, etc.

Benefits Of Business-IT Alignment:

• Reduce IT expenses by making only those IT investments that aim at business goals
• Increase collaboration between the teams
• Gain visibility into problem areas across the business units
• Improve ROI
• Speed up delivery time
• Up-skill industry and employee knowledge

For more information on strategies and solutions for IT infrastructure management and IT alignment with business operations, call Centex Technologies at (972) 375 - 9654.

Deepfake is a type of artificial intelligence created by combining the phrases deep learning and fake that facilitates in developing videos that have been fabricated via using deep learning techniques. It is a subset of AI that refers to algorithms that can learn and make intelligent judgments without human intervention. A deep-learning system can create convincing impersonations by examining images and videos of a target person from various perspectives and then copying their behavior and voice patterns. Once a prototype fake has been created, GANs (Generative Adversarial Networks) are used to make it more credible. The GANs method aims to find faults in the system and make adjustments to fix them.

How can you stay away from deepfake videos?

1. Deepfake videos are much simpler to spot than deepfake photographs. And you may accomplish so with the assistance of two factors. When a deepfake video of a person is created, for example, there is little difference between the person and the backdrop. However, you may spot a false video if the attention is solely on the face in the video and the surrounding is purposefully obscured.
2. Deepfake can be easily avoided by restricting personal images on social media and avoiding close-up photos of your face as much as possible.
3. Advanced artificial intelligence algorithms are under development which can swiftly identify deepfake videos thereby preventing people from falling prey to fake news and fake films.

When and where did deepfake start?

Deep Fake was a user on Reddit in 2017 who began employing face modification technology for pornography. It was from here that the term Deepfake was coined, and videos like this were known as Deepfake Videos. 

Deepfake as a boon to technology

MyHeritage, a software program, has been in the headlines for transforming any image into a 10-second movie. With this app, you may also breathe new life into old images using this program. With the use of this program, images of prominent personalities from past were transformed into movies. And these films show that if Artificial Intelligence is applied correctly, this approach may be beneficial to humans.

Deepfake as a threat to humanity

A.  Deepfakes were used to subvert democracy in the United States 

Facebook decided to prohibit the use of deep fakes after fake videos of politicians began spreading on social media. They allowed a few loopholes, such as the ability to keep sarcastic films and photos, but distinguishing between satire and agenda-driven content is difficult.

B.  Deepfakes began to be exploited by internet predators 

People began leveraging the ability to substitute anyone's face in an image or video to make pornographic content without their consent. As the deep fake technology allows them to do so by replacing face and expressions; all cybercriminals need is a profile photograph on social media to produce fake material to produce fake videos.

C.  Deepfake to tarnishing reputation of individuals 

A Pennsylvania mom, for example, was prosecuted for harassing cheerleaders at her daughter's school by employing deep fakes. The mother used manipulated recordings to carry out a cyberbullying campaign against girls she viewed as competitors to her daughter.

Deepfakes still continues pushing the digital media envelope where researchers suggest using NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) is the most effective strategy to combat deep fake. But NFTs, on the other hand, are still far away from being the standard on blockchains like Ethereum.

To know more about various cyber threats and methods to prevent them, contact Centex Technologies at (972) 375-9654.

The capacity to tap into enormous volumes of data to enable real-time, intelligent decision-making is of crucial importance for any smart building. Builders need a dependable and adaptable communications infrastructure that can serve both current and future use cases. Security is paramount to all digital technologies as traditional WiFi deployment architecture has become vulnerable. Builders and contractors must consider addressing these constraints to improve the experience of residents using WiFi in smart buildings.

Constraints over deploying WiFi in smart buildings: -

1. Leave no blind-spot - Someone might require network access in lobbies, meeting rooms, and other common areas. Physical security management teams increasingly require comprehensive coverage. Wireless IoT sensors could be deployed at elevator shafts, maintenance rooms, roofs, & parking garages. 
   
2. Cabling and installation - Twisted pair cabling improves the WiFi 6 and 6E performance. Category 6A cable should be installed as PoE (Power over Ethernet) devices get more complex, and frequently require more power to function. Ensure safe delivery of high electric watt supply to WiFi APs (Access Points), UHD (Ultra-HD) security cameras, IoT sensors, and PoEs.
   
3. Antenna and Radar - Antenna types such as yagi, panel, and parabolic are better alternatives for coverage and performance in regions with concrete or plaster walls or huge metal machinery. The interior-exterior environment such as office spaces, atriums, parking garages, maintenance, or engineering floors often decides the type of antenna to be deployed. WiFi access points with built-in antennas must be created for conventional office area deployments. This will bypass the physical obstacles such as drywall, cubicle barriers, office-grade doors, and glass panes.
4. Network subnetting - Strict WiFi access controls must be implemented by employing micro-segmentation to mitigate malware outbreaks and service disruptions. LPWAN (Low-Power-Wide-Area Networks) provides ease of deployment, and ultra-low power consumption is required to scale with low-computing, battery-operated IoT sensor devices. LPWAN system requires a single base station to link thousands of scattered endpoints across the building utilizing the basic star topology. LPWAN utilizes sub-GHz frequencies. This helps to avoid excessive interference from old wireless systems functioning in the building at 2.4 GHz range. This ensures long-term network dependability. At the end of the day, the robustness and reliability of your WiFi systems will determine whether your smart building architecture succeeds or fails.

The range of smart building applications is enormous, and it's developing all the time. As a result, in order to take advantage of everything that this transition has to offer, both existing broadband networks and future low-power IoT connections will need to coexist in the wireless architecture.

WiFi deployment in smart buildings helps in: -

1. Occupancy and damage detection - Integrating different systems over WiFi in smart buildings can help in regulation of safe distance measure and sanitation operations. It can also detect faults in time and prevent avoidable maintenance and energy expenditures.
2. HVAC and access control systems - Smart building systems can reduce utility expenditures, carbon emissions and increase tenant satisfaction by installing AI-enabled HVAC (Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning) systems. Smoke detectors, window/door sensors, intrusion, and fire alarm systems can also integrate with HVAC and the system can identify irregularities proactively to resolve them early on.
3. Monitoring of the environment & consumables - Smart building systems can monitor IAQ (Indoor Air Quality) conditions to enhance the health, comfort, and well-being of building occupants and to lower the risk of respiratory complaints. The WiFi enabled system can also monitor in real-time how much hand sanitizer, soap, paper towels, and toilet paper is being used in the building. To guarantee timely refills and the health and safety of tenants, receive notifications when products are running short.

Centex Technologies provide IT and networking solutions for establishments. For more information on deployment of WiFi for smart buildings, call Centex Technologies at (972) 375 - 9654.

What Is Multi-Cloud?

Multi-cloud means utilization of two or more public cloud service providers to serve the needs of IT services and infrastructure of an organization. The organizations may choose the best services from different cloud service providers based on multiple factors such as cost, technical requirements, geographic availability, security, etc. A simple example is where an organization uses one cloud service provider for development/test, one for disaster recovery, and another to process business analytics data.

Alternatively, an organization may leverage multiple public clouds in combination with private cloud deployments and traditional on-premise infrastructure.

What Is The Purpose Of Multi-Cloud Approach?

Here are the reasons why an organization should adopt a multi-cloud approach:

• Overcoming Data Gravity: Data gravity refers to the idea that it is difficult to move or migrate large data sets and thus, it is important to store the data in proximity with applications and services used to analyze them. Using a cloud-attached storage solution that connects to multiple clouds simultaneously can help in overcoming data gravity. Efficient solutions help in reducing latency by hosting data in close proximity to cloud data centers.
• Optimizing Work Loads: Every cloud service provider offers its own set of physical infrastructure components and application services, while releasing new features on a regular basis. Thus, no cloud service provider can provide cost-optimized services. By adopting multi-cloud approach, organizations have an option to select most suitable provider for every workload leading to enhanced application performance.
• Avoiding Vendor Lock-In: Vendor lock-in refers to a situation where it becomes difficult for an organization to transfer its business away from one service provider to another service provider or back to on-premise infrastructure. However, by adopting multi-cloud approach, an organization has the flexibility to transfer its application to any cloud service provider which allows the organization to take advantage of new technologies.
• Additional Benefits: Multi-cloud approach serves the purpose of enhancing disaster recovery capabilities, meeting regulatory compliance, curbing shadow IT, elevating application performance, etc.

How To Monitor Multi-Cloud Strategy?

• Use monitoring tools designed specifically for multi-cloud environment.
• Leverage a configuration management database.
• Adopt a mechanism that can sense, analyze, adapt, and visualize to help admins resolve outages.
• Use monitoring tools that support automation.

For more information on implementation of multi-cloud for organization, call Centex Technologies at (972) 375 - 9654.    

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Voice over Internet Protocol or VoIP is also known as IP Telephony. It is a method of delivering voice communications and multimedia messages over Internet Protocol networks. The technology converts the voice signals into digital signals allowing the user to make a call directly from a computer, VoIP phone, smartphone or any other digital device with an internet connection and VoIP application.

Switching to a VoIP telecommunication system offers an array of benefits for businesses:

• Low Cost-Per-Call: A VoIP telecommunication system converts the communication data into packets and sends it over the IP network as opposed to the traditional telephonic communication channels. In case of traditional methods, calls are placed using phone lines which means a line is taken up by two callers. Since there is a limit to number of phone lines, the calls are expensive, specifically if they are long distance. On the other hand, in case of VoIP, the use of office internet connection to relay communication data makes domestic as well as international calls cheaper.
• Service Mobility: In case of traditional phone system, a line that runs to a business is assigned its own phone number. This results in limited mobility as user is required to remember right codes for accessing the messages sent to that phone number (when receiving messages on a separate device outside the office). However, VoIP system eliminates the physical limitations and the users can move freely as per the business requirements and avail the communication services on any device equipped with an internet connection and the VoIP application.
• Efficient Client Interaction: Business needs may require employees to travel which may result in missing important client calls or communications, if using traditional phone systems that are wired to the employee desk inside the office. On the contrary, when using a VoIP system, employees can choose where the call rings and how. For example, the system settings can be made in a way that first few rings are sent to the office. If the employee doesn’t answer, further rings can be forwarded to another device, say a mobile phone or laptop. This helps employees to attend important calls irrespective of their location which improves the efficiency of client interactions.
• Multi-Functionality: VoIP systems offer an array of additional communication services like instant messaging, presence status, teleconferencing, video conferencing, etc. The systems also allow the users to receive voicemail and faxes over their email. These services enhance the efficiency of business communication within and across the teams.

For more information on why a business needs VoIP, call Centex Technologies at (972) 375 - 9654.          

Pirated versions of popular games such as Grand Theft Auto V, NBA 2K19 and Pro Evolution Soccer 2018 attract a large number of gamers as they can download these versions free from different forums. However, there might be a hidden cost associated with these pirated versions of popular games. It has been reported that threat artists are using the cracked or pirated versions of popular games to distribute malware. This malware aims at secretly mining cryptocurrency using the infected systems.

The threat has been identified as Crackonosh and has been found to be active since June 2018. The malware wipes out the antivirus programs installed on the target system and uses the system for mining cryptocurrency.

Understanding Crackonosh

The main aim of Crackonosh is to install XMRig on the infected system. XMRig is a coin miner which is then used by the threat actors to secretly mine Monero cryptocurrency using the cracked software downloaded on the infected machine. Reports suggest that the threat actors have mined over $2 Million, or 9000 XMR in total. As of May 2021, the malware was reported to be still getting about 1000 hits a day.

Here is a brief account of how the malware operates:

Disabling Antivirus

Crackonosh caught the eyes of researchers when a large number of people reported that Avast Antivirus programs were removed from their systems. The malware has the capability to remove antivirus software and disabling security software & updates in addition to the use of other anti-analysis techniques. This makes it harder to discover, detect and remove the malware. Crackonosh can delete antivirus programs that use the command - rd <AV directory> /s /q; where <AV directory> is the default directory name that specific antivirus product uses, for example Adaware, Bitdefender, Escan, F-secure, Kaspersky, McAfee (scanner only), Norton and Panda.

Infection Chain

Here is the brief infection process:

• The target downloads and installs the cracked or pirated software.
• The installer runs maintenance vbs and starts the installation process using msi.
• msi registers and runs the main malware executable serviceinstaller.exe.
• The executable installs a file titled DLL, which extracts winlogui.exe and downloads winscomrssrv.dll and winrmsrv.exe.
• These files are contained, decrypted and placed in the folder.

Disabling Windows Defender

The malware deletes Windows Defender and Windows Update by deleting a list of registry entries. The motive is to stop Windows Defender and turn off automatic updates. Later, it installs its own MSASCuiL.exe instead of Windows Defender, which adds a Windows Security icon to the system tray. This tricks the user and prevents him from discovering the removal of original Windows Defender.

Conclusion:

Crackonosh attack re-emphasizes on the fact ‘when you try to steal a software, chances are someone is trying to steal from you.’ Such attacks can be prevented by steering away from downloading and using pirated or cracked software. Also, stay cautious and download software from authentic developer.

Centex Technologies has a team of cyber security professionals who help clients in understanding latest cyber security threats and formulate an effective defense strategy. To know more about latest malware attacks, call Centex Technologies at (972) 375 - 9654.

“Disaster Recovery As A Service” or DRaaS can be defined as a cloud computing service model which allows an organization to back-up its data and IT infrastructure on a third party cloud computing environment. It also provides disaster recovery through a SaaS solution to help an organization regain access and functionality to IT infrastructure after a disaster.

Benefits of DRaaS:

Cost Efficiency:

The most important components of disaster recovery include:

• Preventive measures that reduce the risk of man-made disasters
• Detective measures aimed at identifying disasters at the earliest
• Corrective measures to restore lost data and allow affected organization to resume business operations at the earliest, in case a disaster occurs
• Disaster recovery planning includes using innovative hardware, software and performing on-time updates.

In order to achieve these goals, organizations need to run regular analysis of potential threats, maintain IT systems in optimal conditions, and seek innovative solutions focused on cybersecurity. DRaaS providers take care of these requirements with high efficiency. They also include cloud-based data management where resources are replicated to many different sites to ensure continuous backup even if one site is not available. This helps in reducing the risk of disaster and reduces the cost incurred due to downtime after disaster.

Increased Employee Productivity: In order to execute a disaster recovery plan, it is important that employees should know their roles and responsibilities. When specific roles and responsibilities are assigned in advance, it will increase effectiveness and productivity of the plan. It is important for organizations to have at least two employees who can perform one task. This allows the organization to implement disaster recovery plan even if one of the employees is not available.  Opting for DRaaS allows the organization’s employees to focus on their own tasks as the disaster recovery is managed by the well-trained team of the service provider. Most managed service providers also train employees of the client to handle disaster recovery plan.

Scalability: When a disaster recovery plan is designed, organizations also take scalability into account. The recovery plan should be able to manage increased organizational resources resulting from business growth. Opting for DRaaS allows easy scalability as organizations are just required to convey increased requirements to the service provider and pay accordingly.

Centex Technologies offers an array of managed services to its clients. The services are aimed at ensuring smooth operations and security of clients. To know more about Disaster Recover As A Service (DRaaS), call Centex Technologies at (972) 375 - 9654.

DevOps methodology has significantly improved software development by breaking down the traditional barrier between development & IT teams. This collaboration of distributed teams helps in reducing the timeline of software development. However, the ultimate goal of DevOps – which is 100% automation across Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) – remains unachieved. Some business organizations still seem to be struggling with how to integrate DevOps in overall business processes.

These challenges can be maneuvered by adopting AI. The highly distributed nature of AI toolsets helps in reducing operational complexities of DevOps methodology. AI also improves the accuracy, quality and reliability of DevOps by streamlining and accelerating different phases of software development.

Ways in which AI transforms DevoPS:

• Testing: DevOps includes a number of testing processes such as unit testing, regression testing, functional testing, and user acceptance testing. These testing processes generate a large amount of data and analyzing this data can be overwhelming for the DevOps team. AI implements pattern recognition to make it easier to analyze and categorize the data. After analyzing, it also provides insights on poor coding practices and errors to help code developers identify areas for better performance.
• Data Access: The productivity and efficiency of DevOps team is highly stalled by lack of adequate access to data. This hinders the team’s ability to leverage data for decision-making. AI-powered data mapping technologies integrate a myriad of data from different sources & streamline it for consistent & repeatable analysis. It helps teams uncover valuable insights for decision-making.
• Real-Time Alerts: Prompt alerts are helpful in promoting rapid response. However, when DevOps teams receive multiple alerts with same level of severity, it becomes difficult for them to react effectively. In such situations, AI helps in prioritizing most critical issues by collecting diagnostic information pertaining to every issue. In addition to prioritizing the issues, AI also suggests prospective solution based on magnitude of alert, past behavior, & source of alert. This facilitates faster remediation of the issue.
• Automation: Integration of AI with DevOps significantly improves the automation quotient by eliminating or reducing the need for human intervention across processes from code changes to deployment.
• Security: DevSecOps is an extension of DevOps that ingrains security into DevOps workflow. It automates core security tasks across software development lifecycle. AI based anomaly detection techniques help teams to accurately spot threats to their system and secure it proactively.
• Collaboration: AI plays an important role in improving collaboration between DevOps teams by facilitating a single, unified view into system issues across DevOps toolchain.
• Software Quality: AI improves the quality of software by auto-generating and auto-running test cases on the code. AI-based testing tools eliminate test coverage overlaps and fasten the process from bug detection to bug prevention.

Centex Technologies offers software development services for organizations. To discuss your software requirements, call Centex Technologies at (972) 375 - 9654.