Technology Addiction is a Problem in Children and Adults
Technology has become so ingrained in society and the workplace that it can be difficult, borderline impossible, to consider a life without it. Hours on end are spent in front of computer screens during the workday, but even after hours in the comfort of your own home, you might notice that you have a hard time putting down your devices.
In the Hands of Hackers Artificial Intelligence Can Be a Major Problem
As much as we personify the items in our life, we should remember that they are just that: items. However, technology has made it so that these items seem to be getting smarter through artificial intelligence. The first computer to play chess against a human opponent was introduced in 1956, and ever since, humanity has strived to make progress in the field of AI. In fact, AI is so valuable that even hackers are trying to take advantage of it.
At a recent technology expo, an experiment examined a competition between a human hacker and a sophisticated machine learning computer, where they both attempted to spear phish potential victims through Twitter. For two hours, a fierce battle waged where they attempted to outdo each other and craft the best phishing message. At about 1.075 tweets a minute, the human made 129 tweets, including 49 successful attempts. The computer made 810 tweets in the two hours, averaging about 6.75 tweets a minute and converting about 275 victims.
Humans might have achieved a higher victim-to-attempt percentage, but the machine managed to achieve five times as many victims in the same amount of time.
A Cylance poll held at ConFab asked attendees if hackers will use AI for meaningful purposes, and the answer might surprise you. 62 percent confirmed that they thought AI would be used by hackers on the offensive. Even if nobody could mention specific incidents, most believe that hackers have already attempted to use AI for their cybercrime. The unfortunate part of this is that AI is an ever-changing existence that has become a global problem. This makes it difficult to develop law enforcement strategies, as it’s difficult to find and prosecute perpetrators. Even if they can find them, it’s a case of whether or not there is legislation put into place to punish those who abuse this technology.
Worse yet, there are arguments among experts about what specifically defines artificial intelligence–especially with so many people using virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa. Some users might not classify these apps as AI, but they would be wrong.
Cybercriminals are always trying to use the most up-to-date technology, and AI is no exception. Hackers are using AI and machine learning to create programs that can personalize phishing emails containing malware attachments. In response to this threat, technology to distinguish real messages from the fake ones are developed. Cybersecurity is all about threats and hackers trying to outdo one another, which is why vulnerabilities are patched.
Would you consider using AI for your business? Let us know in the comments.
Keep Your Best Employee From Becoming Your Worst Problem With Data Management
Chances are that you, like most business owners, have assembled your staff very carefully, looking for people who are the best-in-class, willing to work their hardest for the good of the company. However, this staff will be made up of humans, and will therefore make mistakes. As such, you need to make sure that your data is managed in a way that keeps it safe.
Are you confident that you know where your company’s data is currently stored?
Unfortunately, if you are relying on your eager, diligent staff to allow you to answer “yes” to that question, then you may be answering incorrectly for the right reasons.
The thing about diligent employees is that, well, they’re diligent. They want to get the task at hand done to the best of their ability and as quickly as possible–and if that means they have to work from home, then that’s what they’re going to want to do. Which wouldn’t be a problem, if their home networks were nearly as secure as the ones you have in place at your business.
What’s to be done? You don’t want to discourage your more diligent employees, but you also want to make sure your data is safe.
The easy answer is to meet employees like these halfway. Give them access to a Virtual Private Network to help maximize their security as they access your data remotely. Ask them to have their personal devices checked by IT before they use them to access the network. Ask them if they’re willing to allow IT to remotely wipe their personal device if it should be lost or compromised as a precaution, if they were to be able to use it for work. An established Bring Your Own Device policy will make enforcing this requirement a little easier.
Of course, this does not mean that you should give all employees carte blanche access to all of your data. Network access control solutions are an effective way to restrict your employees from accessing data that is above their pay grade, either intentionally or by accident. Requiring authentication has become the norm in most of society, and so your loyal employees are unlikely to have a problem with it in the workplace. Passwords, PIN access, and other identification factors will prove useful in keeping employees where they are supposed to be, and able to access what they need for their job requirements.
The reason that it is so important to allow your employees to work as they wish is because it will allow them to be productive, without resorting to their own methods outside of company control, which are far less secure than what you have implemented.
For help implementing these features into your IT infrastructure, make sure you give Catalyst Technology Group a call. We have the solutions you need to safely allow your enthusiastic employees to work the way they work best. Give us a call at (317) 705-0333 today.