SMB Community Podcast

Topic 1: Does the obvious stupidity in the Crypto-verse help to increase or decrease the adoption of crypo currencies?

A bit of crypto news this week. But on the serious side, what does this activity mean?

Elon Musk makes fun of crypto currencies and the market goes wild (down). Dogecoin created as a joke. Now it's going crazy. Then two winners created a spinoff coin because “people seem to like dogs” and became millionaires.

https://u.today/dogecoin-spin-off-turns-struggling-brothers-into-overnight-millionaires

https://www.vox.com/recode/2021/5/18/22441831/elon-musk-bitcoin-dogecoin-crypto-prices-tesla 

Topic 2: Ann Arbor to Launch Autonomous Shuttle Service October 11th

But there's one already operating in Fairfax, VA. We have some questions about the experience . . . and we send Dave off to do some homework.

https://www.clickondetroit.com/all-about-ann-arbor/2021/05/18/free-a2go-autonomous-shuttle-service-coming-to-ann-arbor-this-fall/ 

https://wtop.com/fairfax-county/2020/07/virginias-1st-self-driving-shuttle-starts-testing-on-fairfax-co-streets/ 

https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/transportation/autonomous-shuttle-pilot 

Topic 3: Lower hash rates, and video cards that aren’t graphics cards.

NVidia is finally making some moves to tackle the shortage of video cards despite the continuing chip shortage. They're designing video cards with lower hash rates, so they're not attractive to crypto-miners. And they're creating cards designed for mining with actual video output.

https://seekingalpha.com/news/3697830-nvidia-lowers-hash-rate-for-new-geforce-graphics-cards-to-thwart-crypto-mining 

We'll see what competitors do, and how quickly this has a visible effect on graphic card availability for plain old gamers.

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Sponsor Memo -

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:-)

Host Karl talks to ASCII CEO Alan Weinberger about his new book - The Doctor's In: Treating America's Greatest Cyber Security Threat. Of course, we also talked about the state of the industry and what's ahead for IT consultants.

Alan book illuminate for the general public how important a Managed Service Provider is in maintaining the health of our economy and our infrastructure itself, in the new cyber security era.

Alan founded The ASCII Group in 1984 in Washington D.C. And, of course, ASCII is one of the premier communities for IT service providers, VARs, MSPs, and technology resellers all over the world. They host a series of virtual and in-person events. You can find out more at www.asciievents.com.

Misc. ASCII Links:

• https://overview.ascii.com/the-doctors-in/
• https://www.ascii.com
• https://twitter.com/asciigroup
• https://www.facebook.com/TheASCIIGroup
• https://www.linkedin.com/company/ascii
• ASCII Events – www.asciievents.com

Alan's Book is available on Amazon: - https://www.amazon.com/Doctors-Treating-Americas-Greatest-Security/dp/1636613438/

(This is not an affiliate link.)

:-)

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Topic 1: Military practices controlling hundreds of robots and drones at once - with AI

Like it or not, AI is coming to military operations. It might be cheaper, but is it safer? But is the reliance on AI a problem?

Links:

• https://www.wired.com/story/pentagon-inches-toward-letting-ai-control-weapons/ 
• https://thenextweb.com/news/military-experts-fear-pentagon-sucked-into-artificial-ai-hype 

Topic 2: What can we learn from the Colonial Pipeline hack?

How should companies respond? And are there real consequences for companies that get hacked?

We discuss.

Topic 3: Proposed law says discriminatory behavior should not be subject to non-disclosure agreements.

Is the NDA … too much?

Ifeoma Ozoma is a technology policy expert with experience leading global public policy efforts at Pinterest, Facebook and Google. When she left Pinterest, she couldn't tell anyone that she left over complaints she had filed about wage discrimination and retaliation. She could not speak out because the company non-disclosure agreement forbid it.

Now she is pushing legislation to make it illegal to include this kind of behavior in NDAs. After all, NDAs are intended to protect intellectual property, not potentially illegal behavior.

Link: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/may/10/pinterest-discrimination-ifeoma-ozoma-nda

:-)

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Sponsor Memo -

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:-)

Host James Kernan interviews Dave Scott from Scott Digital Marketing.

Dave Scott is the Founder, President and CEO of Scott Growth Strategies. Dave has over 20 years of experience working with MSPs, Tech and IT firms and B2B companies. He pours his wealth of marketing knowledge into clients making sure they're seen, heard and valued in the current tech climate. In the end, Dave delivers digital marketing leadership, strategies and tools that lead to client success and prosperity.

Related links:

• https://podnutz.com/ppro332/
• https://www.sweetteasocialmarketing.com/episode191/
• https://www.scottdigitalmarketing.com
• https://www.linkedin.com/company/scott-marketing-llc
• https://www.facebook.com/scottdigmarketing/

As always, if you have any questions or comments, post them here.

:-)

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Topic 1: Burger King diverts McDonalds customers - via Waze

This one is kinda cool because it's so sneaky. With just a taste of big data. When people are close to a McDonalds billboard and headed toward a restaurant, Waze lures them off to a Burger King instead. Just sneaky, or actually immoral?

Link:

https://www.zdnet.com/article/burger-king-quietly-did-something-very-clever-it-may-just-annoy-mcdonalds/#ftag=CAD-03-10abf5f

Topic 2: Girl Scout Cookies by Drone

Not a burrito or pizza. But it's pretty cool to get your cookies by drone. Makes us ponder: Are there things you would actually pay a premium to get via drone? We're thinking yes for cookies, and probably no for a ream of paper.

Link:

https://dronelife.com/2021/05/02/girl-scout-cookies-by-drone-wing-helps-local-troop-deliver-video/

Topic 3: Basecamp Fumbles the Diversity and Inclusion Conversation

Background: Some folks at Basecamp were doing something stupid (keeping a list of customer names to make fun of). That led to a discussion of appropriate behavior. But that discussion was cut off from the top. Some employees were still unhappy, and vocal about it. That led to an offer of a severance package for anyone who didn't like it. Well, about one third of the company decided to leave!

Link:

https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/4/22419799/basecamp-ceo-apologizes-staff-new-post

Sponsor Memo:

PC Matic — Endpoint Security built on a zero trust philosophy, allowing only trusted applications and blocking all the rest. Light weight, simple to deploy, easy to manage, find out about PC Matic's unique lead sharing program for MSPs backed by a prime-time national TV campaign. Together, we bring advanced security solutions combined with more than sales enablement … we bring actual leads. Find out more about PC Matic by visiting PCMatic.com/msp/.

:-)

More and more every day, you need privacy policies on your web site. These requirements change every day. How can you possibly stay legal and up to date? The quick answer: You pretty much can't. That's where Termageddon comes in.

Host Karl interviewed Hans & Donata Skillrud from Termageddon.

Termageddon aggregates privacy policies and generates valid privacy policy text based on your business and location. When the law changes, so do the policies, keeping your company protected and allowing you to focus on more important things.

Find our more at www.termageddon.com.

We dig into the details here.

Guest info:

Donata and Hans are the cofounders of Termageddon. Donata is a licensed attorney and a certified information privacy professional. She also serves as the Vice Chair of the American Bar Association's ePrivacy Committee and has provided insights to governing bodies on how to write privacy laws. Hans is a former small business agency owner, who sold his 12 person company in 2019 to focus all of his attention on Termageddon. Outside of work, you can catch Hans and Donata hiking, gardening, or beekeeping.

Termageddon is a generator of policies for websites and applications.

Web site: https://termageddon.com

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Sponsor Memo:

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Zero Trust access secures RDP and SSH connections with two-factor authentication. There's no need for open ports to the internet, client installs, or VPN. Plus, you'll enjoy audit-friendly access across all types of devices.

Learn more at https://calyptix.com/gatekeeper.

:-)

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Topic 1: Hacked Ice Cream Makers at McDonalds

A very strange right to repair! If you buy an expensive machine, do you have the right to buy a third-party add-on that makes it work better?

https://www.wired.com/story/they-hacked-mcdonalds-ice-cream-makers-started-cold-war/

Topic 2: EU looking to regulate “High-Risk” AI

High risk determined in two steps by considering whether it may cause certain harms and, if so, the severity of the possible harm and the probability of occurrence.

Possible damages include - death of a person - damage of property - systemic adverse impacts for society at large - adverse impact on financial, educational or professional opportunities of persons - adverse impact on the access to public services and any form of public assistance - adverse impact on [European] fundamental rights

https://techcrunch.com/2021/04/14/eu-plan-for-risk-based-ai-rules-to-set-fines-as-high-as-4-of-global-turnover-per-leaked-draft/

Topic 3: Apple Announces AirTags. Do you care?

Apple’s new AirTags just launched with tracking and location data … and they’ve also thought ahead to include an “anti-stalker” feature to protect your privacy.

https://www.tomsguide.com/news/airtag-vs-tile

Sponsor Note:

Want to learn about Trends in Managed Services, increasing sales, governance or winning in Biopharma? How about an MSP peer panel, or CompTIA’s Carolyn April with their latest research in managed services trends? Egnyte’s first annual MSP summit is coming May 11th, keynoted by Karl Palachuk on setting a cloud strategy. The first 300 attendees even get a copy of Karl’s book on becoming a Successful MSP in 30 days! Win prizes, network with peers, all in a half day online event. Register for free right at engyte.com/mspradio

:-)

Host Karl talked to James Norrie from CyberconIQ. CyberconIQ takes a new approach to educating users about security - based on their demonstrated behavior. As we've all seen, pure education has limited success. This program helps users alter their behavior.

Guest Dr. James Norrie is a Professor of Strategy and Cybersecurity and former Dean of the Graham School of Business at York College of Pennsylvania. He is the author of six books, multiple journal articles and is a sought-after expert, frequent media commentator and national newspaper op-ed guest writer.

Internationally known, his areas of research interest delve into the intersection of society and technology and the clash this can create, particularly as cybercrime has become a ferocious problem. In addition to his academic role, he is the Founder and CEO of CyberconIQ, a firm committed to changing the global cybersecurity conversation from fear to hope. He conducts, presents and publishes industry-related research and consults globally to prominent companies concerning cybersecurity, information privacy and security, and economic crime detection and prevention methods. He lives in York, PA.

cyberconIQ mitigates cyber risk by leveraging CYBERology™ – the intersection of cybersecurity and psychology, which is the foundation of our solutions.

Related Links:

• https://cyberconiq.com/
• https://www.facebook.com/cyberconiq
• https://www.instagram.com/cybercon_iq/
• https://www.linkedin.com/company/51683023/admin/

:-)

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Topic 1: Racist (and other offensive) Tech Jargon

Words matter. The most obvious example is "master/slave" but there's plenty of other insensitive terminology around. Remember, these terms might make sense to you, but you clients may hear it and wonder exactly what you're talking about.

Link:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/13/technology/racist-computer-engineering-terms-ietf.html

Topic 2: Facial Recognition Update.

Facial Recognition has evolved considerably in the pandemic. It has been banned in a few places. It has been regulated a bit at the local (not federal) level.

Amateurs are now getting in the game (e.g., Used to identify police during protests). And the police have adopted it for several purposes, including identifying protesters. It is over-used in China, and illegal in Portland.

Big picture: Don’t rely on tech for the answer. Looks to society and local governments.

https://www.wired.com/story/how-face-recognition-destroy-anonymity/

Topic 3: The ethics of geo-location technology.

The "Ethical Geo" web site has posted ten founding principles to begin a worldwide conversation about using geo-location technology from an ethical perspective.

The ten founding principles presented to the public for further input and refinement are:

• Realize opportunities
• Understand impacts
• Do no harm
• Protect the vulnerable
• Address bias
• Minimize intrusion
• Minimize data
• Protect privacy
• Prevent identification of individuals
• Provide accountability

We discuss.

Links:

https://ethicalgeo.org/launching-the-locus-charter/

Launch related video webinar - https://vimeo.com/528738906

Sponsor Memo:

Want to learn about Trends in Managed Services, increasing sales, governance or winning in Biopharma? How about an MSP peer panel, or CompTIA’s Carolyn April with their latest research in managed services trends? Egnyte’s first annual MSP summit is coming May 11th, keynoted by Karl Palachuk on setting a cloud strategy. The first 300 attendees even get a copy of Karl’s book on becoming a Successful MSP in 30 days! Win prizes, network with peers, all in a half day online event. Register for free right at engyte.com/mspradio

:-)

Host Karl interviewed Rom Hendler, CEO of Trustifi Email Encryption Solutions.

We start our discussion discussing what makes Trustifi different from other email security solutions. Trustifi provides email encryption delivered on a software-as-a-service platform. They provide both inbound and outbound email security from a single vendor.

Most email security systems address inbound traffic only. But as compliance expands across geographies and industries, we could see some real problems if we don't also manage the outbound traffit.

SMB MSPs and solution providers should begin to think of email encryption as a way to deliver control of email data back to the user, as opposed to simply screening threats as they arrive at the network gateway. Trustifi's one-click solutions leverage a breakthrough email encryption strategy. Rather than have emails pass through the recipient's gateway and reside on their server, Trustifi's solution encrypts messages before they go through the recipient's gateway.

Sent mail messages therefore reside on Trustifi's proprietary web-based cloud storage platform, as opposed to on the recipient's server. This allows messages to be accessed and recalled or altered as-needed, since they're still officially housed on the vendor's platform. Users can swap or remove attachments or reword text even after messages have initially been read. Similarly, this configuration allows the sender to remove or add recipients to emails after-the-fact—without alerting the other recipients.

When the sender has a greater ability to manipulate messages they've already transmitted, it gives them the opportunity to correct potentially debilitating missteps.

Related Links:

• https://www.trustifi.com
• https://twitter.com/TRUSTIFI
• https://www.linkedin.com/company/trustifi-corporation/
• https://www.facebook.com/trustifi

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Sponsor Memo:

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Visit gozynta.com/mobius for demos and pricing.

:-)

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