Electric Vehicles (EVs) have a desperate need for communications, to help them get over “range anxiety.â€Â At a recent Networked Vehicle Association (NVA) Executive Workshop, a few EV factoids leaped out:
- The threat to the power supply of having a nation of EVs is overblown, at least in my mind: if all cars were suddenly converted to electric, they would put no more than a 10 per cent additional demand on the electrical system - and an EV would only cost me $200/year to run!
- Data security is so good on mature systems like OnStar, that it is better than that in the banking system.
- Putting EV charging stations in shopping malls would be worthwhile to the mall owners if the drivers spent only five minutes extra in the mall.
A list of presentations from the event is at the end of this blog; contact me if you want any.
Stratford-Waterloo Does Wireless Development MOU with U.S. Centre
Barry Gander, chair, Networked Vehicle Association
Dan Mathieson, Mayor of Stratford, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to explore joint initiatives for research and development of next-generation vehicles. Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR) and the city and region of Stratford, Ontario, have agreed to exchange information on research programs, share talent pools and facilities, and develop pilot programs, among other initiatives. Stratford/Waterloo is home to some 30,000 IT developers.
First Responders Invited to Join Buyers Group
I would like to invite first responders to join an Advisory Board to assist us in the development of an Emergency Responder Buyers Group (ERBG). We are seeking to hold a full-day planning session in Toronto on Wednesday, March 21 and it is hoped that you will be available to join a select group of 20 executives representing industry, first responder, public safety, and government organizations in the validation of and continued guidance in the development of this important initiative.
Through the leadership of the Greater Toronto Airport Authority, the Canadian Police Research Centre, and the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance, a draft outline of the ERBG has been developed. A copy of a PowerPoint presentation is available which summarizes the main concepts behind this initiative, and I encourage you to listen to this MP3 recording of a recent webinar that was held discussing this proposed platform. Download .
Presentations from NVA Executive Workshop
Wireless Wolfsburg – What e-Mobility Can Learn From A Wireless Testbed
Klauss Schaaf, Program Director, Volkswagen/Wolfsburg AG
- Wireless Wolfsburg provides a city portal in the car, and interconnections for information sharing and fleet management…[but] a tsunami of data traffic caused by the smartphone will pose a real problem for eMobility. Even LTE will not provide enough capacity.
Connected Electric Vehicles
Tom Taylor, Vice President, Advanced Strategies, Hughes Telematics
- Connectivity to the driver is critical for EVs, as charging stations are few and drivers suffer from “range anxietyâ€. Information like in-traffic alerts will be important, to avoid situations where the vehicle could run out of power. Hughes is running tests on presentations of information such as vehicle diagnostics. In Shenzen, China, telematics provides deep information on driving patterns and vehicle histories.
Trusted Mobile Data Services
Bennie Farmer, CEO, Telanon
- “Telematics Anonymous†could be the sub-text for the service being developed, which provides usage-based information on driving habits to insurance companies. The information is under the control of the driver, who can anonymously compare pricing plans before approaching a selected company.
Integration of Electric Vehicles and the Grid:Â What Does This Mean?
Mike Rowland, Director, Advanced Customer Technologies, Duke Energy
- Simplicity, low cost, and open standards are critical to the commercial success of EVs; 80% of the value can be provided by simple transactions. In providing the power to the car, there will be a merger of elements from the Smart Car and the Smart Plug. Multiple communications paths will be used: vehicle telematics, customer networks, and utility networks.
The Electric Vehicle and the Smart Grid
Paul Pebbles, Onstar Global Manager, Electric Vehicle and Smart Grid Services, Onstar
- Onstar allows data sharing and vehicle control, enabling applications that: allow utilities to be aware of the load on the grid due to EVs; provide owners with Time of Use information; control the charging to reduce grid loading; and aggregate demand response over a community or region. Onstar also has a Smart Grid Development Network to facilitate EV application integration
Network Vehicles Innovation:Â Integrated Large Scale Testbed Architecture for Next-Generation Wireless Spectrum Sharing Environment
Rangam Subramanian, Principal Wireless Technology & Business Strategy, DOE
- There is little available spectrum, though at a maximum only 17% of owned spectrum is used at one time. There is a proliferation of wireless devices, amounting to 24-billion by 2020, highlighting the need for the announced spectrum sharing testbed to support government, public safety, and industry vertical such as cellular, energy, transport and medical. .A case study of the Idaho national lab and its 4200 workers described activities in its 890-square mile range.
LinkedIn founder dead wrong about privacy being just for ‘old people’ 
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Botnets and future threats
Botnets and future threats
By Paul Comessotti and Kellman Meghu
(This blog is the continuation of )
Looking at the evolution of the bot threat, the first bot, “GMBot”, was not malicious. In fact, it was created in the late 1980s to emulate a live person in Internet Relay Chat (IRC) sessions.
However, around 1999 bots emerged that were designed with . Thereafter, bots grew more sophisticated, and in some cases, were commercialized as products. The of 2006, for example, originally sold for several thousand dollars. In mid-2011, source code for the Zeus and was leaked, making these powerful botnet creators available to practically anyone that wants to establish their own botnet.Â
Today, botnets are primarily used as a backdoor into your enterprise. Once inside, hackers operate in silence and stay under the radar to steal as much information as possible before their presence is detected. Unfortunately, because bots are so stealthy, many companies aren’t aware of when their computers have been infected and security teams often lack the proper visibility into the threats that botnets create.
The future threat
In the coming years, botnets will continue to evolve using a combination of social engineering, zero-day exploits, as well as the proliferation of mobile computing and social networking.
In the past, it was assumed that most of the popular botnets were running on Windows machines, this is no longer true today are not immune. New botnet variants are cross-platform and the industry should also expect to see more Apple, Android and other mobile based botnets pop up where they communicate to Command and Control servers (C&C) using via 3G or Wi-Fi networks.
A disturbing trend is the use of social networks being used as command and control centres. Social networks and Web based services, like IM, are being used to send instructions to malicious programs installed on victim networks and can give hackers the ability to send encrypted commands. Using social networks such as to set up shop quickly and nimbly shut it down without incurring the expense of managing an entire server.
Leveraging social engineering techniques
In addition, hackers are leveraging new and socially-engineered hacking techniques to drive botnet activity. Social networks also have made it easier to obtain personal and professional information about individuals and create new entry points to execute socially-engineered attacks, botnets and APTs. Check Point research <> has shown the primary motivation of social engineering attacks is financial gain (51 per cent), followed by access to proprietary information (46 per cent), competitive advantage (40 per cent) and revenge (14 per cent) and can cost businesses anywhere from $25,000 to $100,000 per security incident.
In this day and age, hackers can easily get the tools and resources needed to execute successful botnet attacks. Unfortunately, this is a cat and mouse game. Each time new antivirus releases a file signature, malware authors create new variants of the malware. Luckily, law enforcement, large corporations and security experts are starting to take things seriously and stop bots, such as , in their tracks. By bringing down the C&C servers, bot masters lose control over all of the zombie computers and prevent infection from spreading. While thousands of companies have already been targets of bots and APTs, businesses have the responsibility to stop it from spreading.
(Paul Comessotti is Canadian regional director; Kellman Meghu is Canadian security manager, )
Spammers benefit from stock market turmoil
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March 14, 2012
March 13, 2012
Keeping client passwords secure and under control
In today’s world of heightened security, full body scanners at airports and CCTV watching every move, it is remarkable how passwords are still kept in the minds of our engineers, in Excel spreadsheets or in our PSAs. What are you doing to ?
For the past few months I have been working with the team at , introducing IT service providers to the benefits of making sure their clients’ passwords are properly protected. They can also assure their clients that the right checks and measures are in place.
Besides the technical advantages of having a solution such as PASSPORTAL in place, there is an important marketing advantage and sales angle that we can use to separate an MSP who is using PASSPORTAL from those who are not.
One of the concepts I love to use when working with sales professionals is the “wedge selling†concept. A process designed to create separation between the prospect and his existing IT firm. PASSPORTAL is a great advantage for any MSP or IT Service Provider who wants to get at a leg up over her competitors.
Now, as a business owner, the main advantage is that I know who has access to my office and my passwords, and my service provider can prove it. Can you see the opportunity that exists out there?
Corporations and business owners want to know that their information and data are protected. Business continuity solutions, firewalls and a solution such as PASSPORTAL ensure that your clients’ and your future clients’ information is as secure as possible. MSPs and IT VARs who can prove to their clients that their information is secure immediately have an advantage over those who cannot.
Go ahead and create that wedge. Sign up with PASSPORTAL today, and start using it to protect your . Use it in your marketing and sales to set yourself apart in the marketplace.
For only $29.95, the cost of a basic membership in PASSPORTAL, you can immediately gain a competitive advantage over other MSPs out there who are not completely protecting their clients.
Stuart Crawford, president and chief marketing officers, Ulistic Inc. After a 9 year military career which saw Stuart rapidly accelerate through the ranks finishing as a Master Corporal in the Canadian Signal Corp Stuart went to work putting into practice the leadership and character traits he learned through his time with the Canadian Forces. He is a member of Editorial Advisory Board of ITBusiness.ca
Palm pre plus Why my pony tail ain’t my brand
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March 12, 2012
March 09, 2012
The New iPad misses opportunity to woo creators
The New iPad misses opportunity to woo creators
The New iPad by Apple may only be an incremental step up from the iPad 2, but when its already the best tablet on the market, that improvement is all that’s required to stay ahead of the competition.
It’s got the best App Store selection around, the highest screen resolution, and the fastest processor. If it’s not the thinnest and lightest 10-inch tablet on the market, its close enough that you wouldn’t know the difference. It’s got the best selection of accessories available on the market.
But there’s just one more thing that raises a problem with that – doesn’t just have tablets to contend with.
Apple already owns the consumer market with its iPad – there’s just no better device for watching video, looking at photos, or browsing the Web. But, the New iPad misses out on an opportunity to that they are also important to Apple, that this tablet can be used to make things as much as it can be used to consume things.
Brian Jackson, Associate Editor, ITBusiness.ca
Steve Jobs, Apple’s late chairman and former CEO, is famously quoted as describing Apple as sitting at the intersection of liberal arts and technology. When he launched the iPad 2 in 2011, that motto was clearly apparent. Not only was the iPad clearly technologically better than the previous generation – including a camera, and significantly reducing the size – but Apple also had a slate of new apps to make good use of those new toys. Garageband made every iPad owner an instant musician, and iMovie turned the tablet into a portable video editing suite.
With the launch of the New iPad, there is less technological advance. But more significantly, there are also less apps to support creators. Granted, iPhoto for iPad was announced, joining the other iApps released by Apple. But those photo-editing capabilities have already been brought to the iPad by apps including Photogene and Adobe’s PhotoShop Express.
The step up in camera technology is fine, but no amount of megapixels will make a lens this small perform at the level expected by serious photographers. There’s more to photo quality than megapixels, and more to video quality than HD resolution.
Later this year, Windows 8 will come to PCs, tablets, and laptops outfitted with touch screens. These new Ultrabooks, a thin and light laptop standard created by Intel, have potential to win over creators in a way that iPad hasn’t. They will offer both the intuitive user interface that consumers desire, but also the added complexity and available software set to produce content.
There’s no question Apple will stave off tablet competition with the New iPad. But will it withstand Ultrabook competition?
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Growing mobile workforce, cloud computing bring new security threats
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March 08, 2012
4 things the iPad 4 should have
Even though Apple has just unveiled its new never too soon to start thinking about the future: namely the iPad 4.
Â
And that’s why, as as new iPad was in its introduction Wednesday, we’re still left wanting more. Needless to say, while the newest iPad has a lot of great things going for it such as a it doesn’t have absolutely, positively anything we could want out of a top-tier tablet. Here, then, is a simple list of features that we want to see in the next version of the iPad that will likely hit sometime in early 2013.
Lg mobile gs290 Ubuntu Coming Soon for Tablets
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March 07, 2012
A new take on an old scam
A new take on an old scam
Example of a BBB spoofed email
by Paul Wood
Social engineering reared its ugly head in January. The latest intelligence report from Symantec saw businesses being targeted with emails purporting to be from the U.S. Better Business Bureau.
These scammers are re-using a popular form of social engineering first observed in 2007, where an email suggests that a complaint has been filed against the targeted organization with the Better Business Bureau. In the latest wave of attacks, there appears to be two methods used to trick recipients into inadvertently downloading malware: either the email contains the malicious attachment in a file, or the attachment contains a URL that leads to the malware.
The attacks resurfaced in January 2012, where they accounted for 7.3% of all email malware blocked by Symantec.cloud that month.
These kinds of attacks have become more efficient and advanced over time, especially compared with the attacks that were around in 2007. For example, attackers are now using server-side polymorphism, which enables the attacker to generate a unique strain of malware for each use, in order to evade detection by traditional anti-virus security software.
Attackers frequently change their tactics and techniques to avoid detection; Symantec has observed fake emails purporting to be from other well-known organizations, including FedEx, UPS, DHL, and American Airlines.
Protect yourself
As these social engineering techniques continue to evolve, and spammers and malware authors adapt their strategies, it’s important for users to follow best practices and use security solutions from trusted vendors. The February Symantec Intelligence Report outlines some suggestions on how users can keep themselves safe and better protected. But when it comes to social engineering, it’s important to note that antivirus is not enough. Symantec recommends deploying and using a comprehensive endpoint security product that includes additional layers of protection including:
1) Endpoint intrusion prevention that protects against un-patched vulnerabilities from being exploited, protects against social engineering attacks and stops malware from reaching endpoints;
2 ) Browser protection for protection against obfuscated Web-based attacks;
3) Consider cloud-based malware prevention to provide proactive protection against unknown threats;
4) File and Web-based reputation solutions that provide a risk-and-reputation rating of any application and Web site to prevent rapidly mutating and polymorphic malware;
5 ) Behavioral prevention capabilities that look at the behavior of applications and malware and prevent malware;
6) Application control settings that can prevent applications and browser plug-ins from downloading unauthorized malicious content;
7 )Device control settings that prevent and limit the types of USB devices to be used.
Other highlights from the Symantec Intelligence Report: February 2012
1) Spam – 68.5 percent of total email in Canada (a global decrease of 1 percentage point since January 2012)
2) Phishing – One in 427.9 emails identified as phishing in Canada (a global increase of 0.01 percentage points since January 2012)
3) Malware – One in 294.0 emails contained malware (a decrease of 0.03 percentage points since January 2012)
IDC, Microsoft see 70,000 Canadian jobs in the clouds
by Nestor E. Arellano
Forget about silver linings. If predictions of a recent survey pan out, the cloud is one giant .
The analyst firm forecasts that cloud computing will create no less than 14 million new jobs worldwide by 2015. ., which commissioned the survey, also says that IT innovations created by could produce no less than $1.1 trillion a year in new business revenues.
Just over 70,000 of these jobs will be located in Canada. InToronto, new jobs associated with the cloud will increase by an average of 20 per cent annually, resulting in more than 14,500 jobs by 2015.
Â
Last year, according to IDC, cloud computing helped businesses around the globe create in excess of 1.5 million jobs. More than half of those jobs were in the small and medium sized business sector. InToronto, businesses with less than 500 employees will see an increase of more than 6,300 new jobs by 2015 while larger companies will see an increase of more than 8,100 jobs.
But the main message of the survey findings is not job creation alone. Of course if cloud computing delivers on those numbers, it would certainly be great for the economy. But let’s not be dazzled by the mega job projections.
The bigger message behind the survey, I believe, is how cloud computing has grown to encompass every industry and why businesses should determine whether they should be using cloud technology or not.
The same survey said that in 2011, businesses worldwide spent more than $28 billion in cloud services. That same year, cloud services helped businesses around the world generate more than $400 billion in revenue.
“These are not just technology companies we’re talking about, and they are not just large enterprises. Cloud computing has the potential to create an impact on almost any business in any industry,†according to John Weigelt, national technology officer for Microsoft Canada.
He further explains that not all the projected jobs will be in technology. “When companies are able to cut costs on technology through cloud computing, their resources are freed up to explore other projects, develop other products or services. New jobs come up in administration, sales, marketing or other departments.â€
Weigelt sees the cloud as a “revolutionary technologyâ€. He compares it to electricity which radically changed people’s day-to-day lives, how we conducted business and created goods. “The cloud today is transforming how we see business happening, how we manage computer resources and how we manage the market place.â€
I do see how it has been able to aid a lot of organizations to maximize resources, improve processes and even discover new opportunities. However, for all the success stories around how companies have managed to use cloud computing, the technology is far from mature and certainly not for every business. The recurring reports of , , and even the all too many examples of cloud providers’ failure to address , lead me to believe that attaining a universal confidence and faith in the technology is still – up in the clouds.
Weigelt admits “cloud computing may not be for every business.†He is also right when he says that companies should investigate if any cloud service might help out their business.
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Companies need not turn their businesses upside down just to shoehorn cloud technology into their process or network. But if such a large amount of money is being spent today by other businesses in cloud computing and if other businesses (including the competition) are reaping rewards and revenue from it, a sensible entrepreneur would probably find it worthwhile to investigate.
Rather than taking a dive, businesses I believe should move cautiously, taking care to keep their focus on their business needs and goals rather than on the technology.
Is Vic Toews against freedom?
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