Our Thinking

They say that wise people surround themselves with those who are smarter than they are.  Every day I get to work with people that are truly brilliant. While I’m not sure this makes me “wise”, I know that the highly technical engineers on our team are very smart and I know that I’m lucky to be a part of the team with them.

In the first part of this blog series we took a look at the the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) that is coming into effect in January 2020. The implications of being off side with the new regulations are not trivial and apply to more than 500,000 US businesses according to the IAPP - not to mention any business around the world that has the personal data of California businesses and meet the relevant threshold. That is A LOT of businesses. Now how is that possible you ask? Let’s take a closer look at the businesses who will fall under the CCPA’s umbrella come 2020. 

On July 19, Visa posted an important and timely security alert regarding“Chatbots”. In a nutshell, Visa says that due to the rise in online and mobile commerce, AI and chatbots (both text and voice) have become increasingly important to payment system companies to handle increasing call volumes. With that said, Visa goes on to say that they have become aware of attackers targeting these online chat service providers and distributing malware to intercept payment card data.

Privacy and protection of personal information has almost always seemed like it should be a basic human right everywhere in the world, not only in the European Union where it has long been acknowledged as such. Within the last 10 years, however, that notion has been blurred by social media, the rise of online shopping, and subsequently the hacking of just about everything that lives on the Internet. For the longest time people have sort of just accepted this overreach and misuse of their personal information as the price you pay for using the Internet. Sure, maybe they delete Facebook for a while or change their passwords, but now that is starting to seem like it is not enough and governments from around the world are beginning to step in, in a big way.

Hi folks, my name is Tim McCreight and I’m a new member of the Risk, Security & Privacy practice here at Online. I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce myself to a new audience and write about one of my favourite topics in the security industry – Risk!

Over the course of the last decade business owners and entrepreneurs have found themselves dealing with a set of problems that they have never had to address in the past.

By now, most of the world has heard about the alarm pertaining to a zombie alert in Lake Worth, Florida.  Do we think that zombies were getting their day in the sun, or could it possibly be that whomever was responsible for writing the power alert application (or for testing it) was in some sort of zombie state at the time?

Is your organization aligned and positioned for success? According to author and speaker

Simon Sinek (www.startwithwhy.com), organizations that inspire have at their cores an understanding of why they exist. This understanding of purpose or cause manifests itself in how these organizations operate and is front and center when they and their leaders communicate.

Neighbors, babysitters, handymen, even family members; your backyard, upstairs deck, even your own front door…

Statistics show the vast majority of burglaries and theft, especially identity theft, are perpetrated by a household acquaintance or family member. The US Department of Justice says that “Offenders were known to their victims in 65% of violent burglaries; offenders were strangers in 28%.” Similarly, any Google search yields countless articles listing front doors, backyards, and ground floor windows as the most common points of entry for burglars. 

Artificial intelligence (AI) is disrupting how companies operate. AI represents a foundational change in the way systems will be architected and delivered, and ultimately is a trend that is rapidly becoming a priority for Online’s clients and for Online.

Creating a foundation in artificial intelligence allows businesses to truly transform their partner ecosystems, business models, and customer experiences. Organizations that can uniquely combine architecture and technical innovation will play a major role in leap-frogging the competition, gaining true market advantage. But creating this foundation requires having the right skills at your disposal – and you need to get access to those skills now.