Is Your NVR a Liability Instead of An Asset?

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For years, advanced video security systems have relied on something called a network video recorder (NVR) to capture video footage. If your organization’s existing security system uses an NVR, you’re probably familiar with it as the central hub that connects dozens of cameras.

 

In fact, it’s possible that you’ve never second-guessed the safety of the NVR running your security system. Most industry leaders consider NVRs reliable and secure, but this reputation is largely unearned.

 

Is your organization’s NRV actually a liability instead of an asset?

 

NVRs and their cousins, digital video recorders (DVRs) become the victims of hackers and attackers far more than you might realize. As a result, they fail to provide even a fraction of the level of protection that most IT professionals expect (and need!).

 

The Origins of the “Secure NVR” Myth

When they are used as actual, air-gapped devices, NVRs are indeed incredibly secure. This makes sense- any device that is cut off from a wider network will automatically be inaccessible to the exploits of eager hackers.

 

However, very few modern companies utilize NVRs in that super secure air-gapped manner. Instead, today’s companies need remote access to their footage as they monitor shoppers, archive incidents, and perform loss prevention. Even more importantly, companies need to access their footage from off-site locations.

 

This requires the NVR to be connected into a network, which immediately creates vulnerabilities and makes the system infinitely more accessible to hackers.

 

NVR Attacks Are All Too Common

This isn’t just a theory. It has translated into clear security breach examples over the years.

 

A hacking initiative titled Peekaboo, for example, was recently created to give cyber criminals access to control the management system of any NUUO brand NVRMini2. According to security research firm Tenable, hackers could access “the credentials for all connected video surveillance cameras. Using root access on the NVRMini2 device, cyber criminals could disconnect the live feeds and tamper with security footage.”

 

That is bad news, and it doesn’t stop at NVRs. Video cameras from many different manufacturers have proven so unreliable that the U.S Senate barred the federal government from using certain brands like Hikvision, Hytera Technologies, and Dahua on the grounds of “public safety…. and other national security purposes.”

 

It they aren’t good enough for the government, they shouldn’t be good enough for your organization, either.

 

A Secure Alternative: The Hybrid Cloud

NVRs and DVRs may be ubiquitous, but they’re certainly not the only option. Cloud-based alternatives are currently redefining how we use and interact with our security systems. In fact, these cloud-based systems have become so advanced that they now offer unprecedented benefits over traditional systems.

 

Want to Learn More About Hybrid Cloud Video Surveillance? Join Our Next Webinar!

 

A few different camera companies utilize the cloud, but nobody does it like Verkada. The Verkada company offers a cloud-based camera system with end-to-end encryption. Since cameras have outbound-only connections, they’re significantly more protected against unauthorized users accessing the network.

 

Cloud-based video also promotes easier firmware and security updates, offers high-level encryption, and encourages an overall culture of risk avoidance, so it’s proving to be an effective way to keep the cameras rolling and trust that your enterprise is as fortified as possible.

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The First and Only Full Lunar Eclipse of 2019

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Every once in a while there’s something more than a dinosaur-shaped cloud in the sky to make you look up in awe, and tonight is one of those occasions. 

Tonight, beginning right around 9:30PM EST, the first and only total lunar eclipse of 2019 will begin. Make sure you’re caught up on the timing, location, and impressive scientific facts you need to know to make the most of this lunar eclipse.

What Is An Eclipse?

It’s the question so many of us wonder, but we’re afraid to ask. An eclipse occurs when one body, like the moon or the Earth, moves into the shadow of another body. We witnessed a major solar eclipse back in August 2017, when the orbiting moon moved between the sun and Earth and blocked the light of the sun from reaching Earth. 

Tonight’s lunar eclipse, on the other hand, will occur when the Earth moves between the sun and the moon. When this happens, Earth blocks the sunlight that normally is reflected by the moon. As a result, the moon looks dark from Earth. 

What You Need To Know About Tonight’s Lunar Eclipse

Tonight’s total lunar eclipse will be the last until May 26, 2012, so take a close look! 

It will last for 5 hours from start to finish. One hour of that time will be the full eclipse when the moon is completely covered by the Earth’s shadow. 

To make tonight’s eclipse even more impressive, it’s also a Super Wolf Blood Moon. In other words, the Full Moon will reach the point on its orbit closest to Earth during the eclipse. You can expect to see the moon turn a dramatic shade of red during totality!

Best of all? You don’t need eye protection for a lunar eclipse! Those fun glasses are only necessary during solar eclipses, so you can enjoy tonight without risking your 20/20 vision. 

Who Can See the Eclipse, and When?

People across the world in North and South America, Europe, and western African will all be able to view the total lunar eclipse. If you’re in Central and eastern Africa and Asia, you’ll still be able to catch a partial eclipse of the moon. 

The very first signs of the eclipse will creep into the sky around 2:36AM UTC (9:36PM EST) and continue becoming more noticeable until the full eclipse begins at 4:41AM UTC (11:41PM EST). 

If you don’t have time to watch the entire eclipse, be sure to run outside right around 5:12AM UTC (12:12AM EST) to catch the maximum full eclipse before it ends at 5:43 AM UTC (12:43AM EST). 

Need more information? This site covers every single detail: https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/map/2019-january-21

We may be an IT solutions company, but we’re space nerds at heart. Our name, Totality Solutions, was inspired by the solar eclipse that took place on August 21, 2017. The totality of that eclipse occurred in our hometown of Charleston, South Carolina, and suddenly our name was born. 

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Is Your Amazon Alexa Spying On You?

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Is Your Amazon Alexa Spying On You?

While it’s true that voice-activated assistants like Amazon Alexa are intriguing uses of artificial intelligence with the potential to provide information and perform tasks efficiently, they also raise vital security and privacy questions. Is your Amazon Alexa spying on you? As Facebook’s recent controversy with its data access proved, our nation is currently facing an unprecedented crossroads as we work to balance the implications of our own inventions with our desire to control our personal information.

Checkmarx, a security firm that provides tools for developers to rest the security of their software before public release, proved that Amazon Alexa isn’t impervious to becoming swept up in the privacy debate. Using nothing more than the features given to developers, researchers at Checkmarx were able to turn Amazon Alexa into a spying device. Yes, you’re reading that right. It has been proven that Alexa can be hacked with relative ease to listen to your every word.

Amazon has since fixed the attack and put safeguards in place, but their updated coding cannot mitigate the larger point that Checkmarx just made: some of our most common household technologies can potentially be used against us to steal our personal information.

 

How Did Checkmarx Turn Amazon Alexa Into a Spying Device?

If you have an Alexa or other virtual assistant, then you are familiar with how it is supposed to work. Alexa “wakes up” and begins listening when it hears “Alexa” and then follows a limited script for the purpose of its activation. Alexa records the user’s interaction with the script and shuts down after executing the necessary tasks. All Checkmarx needed to do was modify the tightly controlled sequence to make Alexa record more than it should.

Checkmarx simply attached their hacking code to a standard Alexa app, like a calculator. The researchers then ensured that Alexa would continue listening, even when it would normally shut down, by preventing a “flag” to end the session. As long as that flag is open, Alexa will keep listening to the user. The researchers also identified how to have Alexa record every word and maintain a transcript.

The end result? Alexa wakes, launches a malicious app, gives the benign response that was requested by the user, and then remains active, listening and recording silently.

 

What Are the Implications for Alexa and Other virtual Assistants?

If you are a loyal Alexa user, there are a few components of reassurance, even though this entire episode is most definitely concerning. First, Checkmarx couldn’t disable the blue light that indicates when Alexa is active. Theoretically, if your Alexa was hacked and listening ten minutes after its last request, you could see the blue light and know something was wrong. The downside there is the minimal chance your Alexa is located somewhere that you look frequently. Most users keep Alexa stored out of site for convenience.

Furthermore, Checkmarx and Amazon have been working together since the hack occurred to make it more difficult for people with bad intentions to follow in Checkmarx’ footsteps. The Alexa app-certification process has also become more stringent to detect and reject all eavesdropping apps. Theoretically, anyway.

How to Protect Yourself

The technology is complex, but the solutions are still fairly simple. Place your Alexa or other virtual assistant in a place where the blue “active” light is immediately noticeable. If it remains on after your Alexa should have gone back to sleep, you’ll know to be suspicious. It will also help to keep yourself informed of technology blogs like this so that any new hacks are on your radar immediately.

If all else fails… unplug your Alexa and start doing the things the old-fashioned way again. We all survived without it before, right?

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What Is the Real Threat of Artificial Intelligence?

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What Is the Real Threat of Artificial Intelligence?

Over the span of just three years, renowned scientists and technology experts have started to warn about the real threat of artificial intelligence. The late cosmologist Stephen Hawking, Tesla architect Elon Musk, and business magnate Bill Gates have all expressed fear regarding the potential for artificial intelligence to harm the human race. Musk even suggested that artificial intelligence could be more dangerous than nuclear bombs. Advanced Artificial intelligence does pose very real threats to the world, but are they as drastic as many say? The real threat of artificial intelligence isn’t necessarily in robots going to war with humans, like the movies portray, but more in the potential to disrupt existing power balances and cause newfound economic inequalities.

What Is Artificial Intelligence?

First, it is important to understand the definition of artificial intelligence. It involves the creation of intelligent machines that can work and function like humans. Modern artificial intelligence can synthesize vast amounts of information about a specific topic and then make decisions based on that information. Apple’s Siri, which responds immediately to questions, and Amazon’s Alexa, which is labeled as an intelligent personal assistant, are both popular applications of artificial intelligence that have become commonplace in American society. Artificial intelligence offers such value because it can perform far faster and more efficiently than any human. Despite the appeal of advanced technology with the ability to make life easier, artificial intelligence jeopardizes the modern world in multiple ways.

The Most Immediate Threat: The Economy

The most immediate threat that artificial intelligence poses to mankind relates to the economy. Machines created with artificial intelligence can- and have already started to- replace countless jobs. For example, self-driving cars will make public transportation drivers obsolete, just like robots will make factory workers unnecessary. Since such a rise in artificial intelligence will steal jobs without creating new ones, millions of people have the potential to find themselves out of work. At the same time, companies that develop and invest in artificial intelligence will reap enormous profits. As explained in the article titled “The Real Threat of Artificial Intelligence” in The New York Times, “We are thus facing two developments that do not sit easily together: enormous wealth concentrated in relatively few hands and enormous numbers of people out of work.” This is a very difficult problem without a clear solution.

Seconar Threat: Dependency on AI

Artificial intelligence is also risky because it allows humans to easily rely on facts and information that they did not personally obtain or confirm. Journalist Bianca Nogrady explains in her article “The Real Risks of Artificial Intelligence” that, “Once trained, [artificial intelligence] is then put to work analysing fresh, unseen data. But when the computer spits out an answer, we are typically unable to see how it got there…. As AIs are rolled out to assess everything… the risks that they will sometimes get it wrong- without us necessarily knowing- get worse.”. Furthermore, people could become so dependent on the information provided by artificial intelligence that they may lose their own high-level thinking skills. This could prove exceedingly dangerous since everything that humans have ever achieved has been based on knowledge!

There’s no doubt artificial intelligence is a unique, fascinating, and unprecedented challenge for modern society. Though it offers significant benefits such as identifying deadly diseases and monitoring financial activities, it also has the potential to cause widespread unemployment and rob humans of their natural thought processes. Experts predict that the true ramifications of artificial intelligence will become clear within this lifetime.

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Drone Crime: Yes, It’s a Real Thing

It wasn’t too long ago that drones were nothing more than playthings for tech enthusiasts and innovative tools for aerial photographers, but today they have taken on a darker and more sinister role in our society. Twenty-five year old Jorge Edwin Rivera knows all about the darker side of drones; he was going to be paid $1,000 to pilot a drone from one side of the US-Mexico border to the other. The catch? The drone had company: a lunchbox filled with 13 pounds of methamphetamine that an accomplice planned to retrieve after Rivera landed the drone.

Rivera is hardly the first criminal to attempt to capitalize on the fact that drones are simply to fly, difficult to detect, and incredibly practical for a variety of purposes. Today, criminals rely on drones to do everything from snooping and smuggling to actively outmaneuvering police actions. In the words of U.S District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel, “Use of drones appears to be on the horizon. The court needs to be clear that these cases present considerable danger to our community.”

Of course, the United States is hardly the only country coping with UAV technology being utilized for immoral purposes. In the United Kingdom, the number of drone incident reports increased threefold between 2015 and 2016. A photographer managed to highlight just how vulnerable the world is to drone-flyers with malicious intentions when he flew his camera drone down aboard Britain’s largest warship, the HMS Queen Elizabeth. As he told the BBC, “I would say my mistake should open their eyes to a glaring gap in security. This was a bit of tomfoolery but it could have been something terrible.”

Criminals in Australia have also been misusing drones in their drug trades, but not to mule the drugs ashore as you might expect. Instead, criminal rings have been caught using drones to counter-surveil the police who monitor them, like one drug ring attempting smuggle $30 million worth of cocaine into the country.   

The good news in all of this is that law enforcement agencies are keeping up with technology as well. Just as the drone industry has enjoyed steady growth, the anti-drone industry is now worth upwards of $1 billion.  The Department of Defense’s Navy Special Warfare Command just signed a $1.5 million contract with SkySafe to develop a vehicle-mounted radio frequency jammer to disable “enemy drones” before they can do harm. Boeing even developed a Compact Laser Weapons System back in 2015 that can burn through a drone in mere seconds.

Stay tuned for this new type of arms race, and just be careful when you go to fly your own drone in your backyard!

Is Your Phone’s Fingerprint Scanner Really Secure?

On the surface, a fingerprint sensor is everything a smartphone user could ever hope to have. Just one touch of a finger makes it possible to unlock anything and everything of value, from online banking to Amazon Prime. It also doesn’t hurt that you feel like you’re living in a Charlie’s Angels movie as you use such futuristic technology. Best of all, that magical fingerprint sensor means you can finally stop trying (unsuccessfully, if you’re like most of us) to remember dozens of passwords, some with special characters, some with capital letters, and some so random that they’re hopelessly lost somewhere within the recesses of your mind.

Smartphone Fingerprint Security: Foolproof or Tomfoolery? 

If you’ve been celebrating your smartphone’s fingerprint sensor as your ultimate liberation from password hell, you may not want to start throwing the confetti just yet. It turns out that this admittedly convenient technological innovation also poses a gaping lapse in security. According to research at New York University and Michigan State University, smartphones can be easily fooled by fake fingerprints. Conniving thieves can actually compose digital fingerprints with many features commonly found in human prints.

You may not want to believe it, but the researchers proved it with their own experiment. They created an artificial set of “MasterPrints” using a computer simulation. Those MasterPrints could match real prints similar to those used by phones up to 65 percent of the time! This problem stems from the fact that the finger scanners on phones are so small that they only read a partial fingerprint. This theoretically would allow hackers and criminals to easily falsify prints since they are not required to match the print of an entire finger.

The Science of Fingerprint Scanners

Think about it this way: If you’ve ever set up fingerprint security on your iPhone or Android, your phone most likely took about 8 to 10 images of your finger. This makes it easier for your phone to match your finger if you apply it to unlock in different positions. You may even have recorded multiple fingers. However, since you- or the thief trying to break into your phone- only need to match one of the multiple images stored as a fingerprint, the system is vulnerable to false matches. It’s no different than if you set up 15 passwords for the same account and an attacker only needed to match one password to gain access.

If you’re feeling disappointed, hope is on the horizon. Smartphone manufacturers and others who use fingerprint security systems are rapidly researching anti-spoofing technologies that would allow users to maintain the convenience of the fingerprint sensor without losing security in the process. Some hope to help the phone detect the presence of a real finger by looking for perspiration or examining patterns in deeper layers of skin. Others want to use ultrasound technology to ensure precision.

Technology never fails to evolve at lightning speed, so by this time next year, who knows, your fingerprint might be the most secure feature on your phone!