Debunqed

Tag: email

  • Digital vulnerabilities

    Digital vulnerabilities

    Global security breaches are on the rise and no one or country is safe. The acceleration of certain technologies has been rapid since the pandemic engulfed the world last year. But unfortunately, we’ve also become slack in the process.

    Once again, it has become apparent just how ‘at-risk’ our data is.

    Data hacks have been frantic and are now getting major press attention. It’s hard to know who each unwanted visitor is in each case but fingers are being pointed in perhaps familiar directions.

    Russian invaders back at it again

    In fact, throughout June, Russians have been blamed for a slew of hacks around the world.

    Microsoft in late May said a wave of Russian cyber-attacks had targeted government agencies and human rights groups in 24 countries, mostly in the US.

    It claimed that around 3000 email accounts of more than 150 different organizations, some of them international, were attacked in just one week.

    Allegedly, the group responsible was the same one that carried out 2020’s SolarWinds attacks, which the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) was accused of orchestrating.

    But the Kremlin denied having any knowledge or anything to do with any cyber-attacks. It challenged Microsoft to how these attacks were linked to the European attacks.

    Nevertheless, authorities are now aggressively investigating cybercrime. In the first week of June, the US Justice Department recovered around $2.3m in cryptocurrency ransom money.

    Webscanner

    This was part of the funds paid by the Colonial Pipeline Company to Russian hackers in the most disruptive cyberattack on record in the country.

    The US deputy attorney general Lisa Monaco said investigators had seized 63.7 Bitcoins which was paid by the company after its systems were hacked, leading to massive shortages of petrol along the US’s East Coast. The department said it founded and recaptured the majority of the ransom.

    The hackers are believed to be a group called DarkSide, whose menace caused a multi-day shutdown in certain petrol stations and a spike in gas prices.

    The attack made international news and prompted the US’s White House to encourage business executives to improve security measures to avoid future cyberattacks whatever their nature, ransomware or otherwise.

    The FBI said DarkSide had also disrupted operations at a meatpacking company. As no one tends to be spared in the spillover effects, it is always a good idea to protect your company’s digital assets as a preventative measure.

    Not so sophisticated

    The attackers rather proved to be quite ‘amatuerish’ because they sent the Bitcoins to an online platform to convert it to fiat money – and that is how they got nabbed. Server-hosted (Online) crypto exchanges are obliged to keep customer data for compliance and anti-money laundering practices. So while your Crypto digital wallet does not reveal your identity, pairing it with an exchange will link it to all the other particulars you needed to provide to use the exchange.

    As long as you need cash to pay for things you will always need to switch your crypto in some way or another – unless your recipient agreed to take payment in Crypto as well. Keeping your digital assets on a hard-wallet or on your hard-drive keeps them “off-the-grid”. But also means you can’t actually spend them.

    Although the initial cyberattack was a smart manuever, the attackers proved to be rookies at the robbing game in the end.

    On a positive note: the ability to retrieve Bitcoins actually reinforces the need for a Blockchain-based financial system. This made it easier for the authorities to track movements of the ‘ransom-paid’ Bitcoins.

    Cuban for a bruising

    But politicians aren’t the only people who are urging businesses, civil society organizations, and other groups to improve security systems and be cognisant of an often-dark future.

    US Dollar billionaire Mark Cuban has also called for stricter cryptocurrency regulations.

    The owner of the Dallas Mavericks who has been investing in trading Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum said the world was in dire need of regulation for the burgeoning decentralized finance (DeFi) space.

    —READ MORE ABOUT DEFI HERE —

    Cuban said in an interview with Bloomberg that there “should be regulation to define what a Stablecoin is” in order for DeFi to be reliable and to prevent total collapses in investments.

    This comes after he saw his investments in a particular Stablecoin ‘went to zero’. Cuban claimed he had been scammed.

    Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency that is pegged to an underlying asset, or currency – usually the US dollar. They are the earliest forms of DeFi and the largest Stablecoin, Tether, is currently worth more than $62bn.

    DeFi has helped the price of Ethereum, the blockchain on which most DeFi projects are built, to also soar. But they can be highly risky investments.

    Investors try to create arbitrage opportunities and liquidity between coins but such a scheme collapsed for Cuban.

    “There should be regulation to define what a stable coin is and what collateralization is acceptable,” he said.

    trade cryptos
    Buy, Stake, and Trade Cryptos

    Strong words of caution

    Cuban hasn’t revealed how much money he lost but told a fellow DeFi investor via Twitter that regulation must be implemented- and quickly.

    It had been suggested that Cuban was “rugged” which refers to when a project’s liquidity dries up and investors cannot withdraw their cash.

    Mark Cuban is alleged to have 60% of his crypto holdings in Bitcoin, 30% in Ethereum, and 10% held in other coins. He likes to experiment with new financial tech investments.

    He added further in a recent blog post that banks should be scared of unregulated DeFi technology.

    All crypto-based investments remain highly risky as the technology around them develops. But there certainly needs to be global laws to prevent people from losing hefty amounts of their wealth/investment. Cryptocurrency is without a doubt a very lucrative investment vehicle that could make you an overnight millionaire. But that also makes it a perfect vehicle for scammers to clone projects to make away with your hard-earned cash.

    You must, therefore, be extra vigilant and scrutinize offers for instant riches. But more so, you would be quite negligent these days to navigate the Internet without any form of cyber-protection.

  • The startup tech kit

    The startup tech kit

    New business? You’re going to need some basic software!

    In this modern-day and age, it may seem that small businesses do not require a plethora of technological tools in order to succeed, but it’s worth investigating which technologies can give you an edge. This is especially crucial if you are not offering a niche product or service and have to compete with an army of existing players in your industry.

    Accounting, CRM, marketing, analytics, taxation and other useful software may have just levelled the playing field between small and big businesses. The challenge is to choose the right one to help you grow quickly at the least expense.

    You will, nevertheless, if you are even to make a first impression, need some basic software regardless of your trade.

     HERE IS WHAT YOU WILL NEED 

    Almost everybody needs some kind of online presence. You’re a business and while social media is helpful (more on that later), a website is where you will be found by prospective clients or business partners. You can build one easily these days via a paid content manager provider such as WordPress or Wix.

    They will even provide and host your domain if you don’t have one.

    If you do not, however, have the time nor the energy to create one yourself, there are cost-effective alternatives such as outsourcing the building to a web-designer. They can do it remotely and the safest way  would be through a regulated marketplace such as Fiverr* or Upwork.

    *Debunqed can recommend a designer known as aceholder on Fiverr.

    Email

    You need to be contactable. In the old days, you got away with Yahoo or Google email but now you need an email service that can host a domain. The free emails are also not secure and subjected to heaps of spam.

    Email hosting is a service in which your email messages and associated files are all stored on a server. When you receive an email to your website’s domain address, that email is routed across the Internet and stored on the recipient server.

    A hosting service stores the files that make up a website on a data server which then uploads them directly to the web.

    This gives you an Internet connection and way for your customers to access the site through a domain name.

    Web hosting services often come with a slew of options for designing sites. These include the one-click installation of supported applications such as a service mailbox.  Wix partners with Microsoft’s Office 365 for mail hosting whilst WordPress works seamlessly with Gmail/GSuite.

    Task Management System/ Job Manager

    Being organised from the beginning isn’t a good idea; it’s a great idea! Get yourself a system which tracks your sales and logs the deliverables that each employee completes.

    There are an array of CRM solutions focusing on different tasks from customer services or sales to project management and full-on finance and back office (ERP) operations (more on this later).

    The key is to start small many of these offer trials but also some even offer a free package naturally with limited functionality. Figure out which tasks are important in order to choose the right package to handle your scheduling, sales and tasks. A simple calendar/scheduler via MS Outlook and Office 365 (Microsoft Bookings) can be a good place to start for a paid but fully functional service.

    Payroll and Accounting Systems

    You need to keep accurate books and not to rip off your employees. You’re a start-up; play the numbers by the books. And a word of caution: don’t ever cook the books!

    There is a huge choice of accounting (and back office) systems to choose from. The big names are probably out of reach so like a CRM system, you might want to shop around and start with smaller but a reputable brand like Quickbooks.

    But if you go for an Office 365 solution, you might as well look into something like Dynamics 365. One of their entry-level finance packages (Business Central) has all the ‘bells and whistles’ for a Startup to help get your books up to date for the taxman/audit.

    You also need to monitor your payroll – this service can be added by upgrading to a bigger package under Microsoft Dynamics family. You could also shop around for payroll software if you are on a tight budget.

    Project management and support logging system

    Once you build up a workable database of existing and potential clients, you will require some kind of logging system to handle customer queries.

    This will help you keep tags of what customers are having issues with. If they are repeated issues, then you know there is a recurring problem with your operations or an aspect of your business.

    A good ticketing system will allow you to keep a knowledge base with instructions to help your staff with how to deal with recurring issues quickly.

    Shopping cart software

    If your products are sold online or does not come from a physical store, this is the mandatory software that enables you sell goods online. It is designed to quickly process debit and credit cards transactions but also allows your customers to use their PayPal and other payment methods – even Cryptocurrency.

    A good shopping cart package also does inventory management, calculates packaging costs, shipping costs and taxes.

    Security and Anti-Virus software

    Always protect your Internet connection and your sensitive data against viruses, spyware, malware, worms and Trojans.

    Most of the packages mentioned before come with in-built security measures such as sign-in authentication.

    But these are not enough and you will need to source software to prevent a hack if you are dealing with extra sensitive data like patents, medical and financial records/accounts.  Read our feature on Online Threats for more on this.

    Cloud storage

    This is a place where you can store large files as well askeep backups of files. Hardware can break. You could drop your 2-terabyte portable flash drive but at least your work will be safe in the cloud. 

    Once in the cloud, things can get disorganised (many files and folders) and sorting them can become a pain. The top file storage providers include, Microsoft’s SharePoint Online and OneDrive; Google’s Drive, Amazon’s S- series and Dropbox.   

    There are some really great add-ons like a Digital Asset Management (DAM) tool for those dealing daily with tons of documents and images by Pic.io. This software works specifically with GoogleDrive.

    Social media

    We have by now affirmed that you need a CRM system. With many choices of companies to buy products from for example,  treating individual customers’ needs is very important.

    A good CRM system will help you reach out to your customers where ever they are – online or offline. This is known as Social Engagement.

    That, coupled with a powerful Business Intelligence tool, can help you leapfrog over your competitors with useful insights such as peak traffic times on your website, purchase habits and other characteristics of your client that will help you accurately predict potential revenues.

    Find the best CRM platform that allows for social engagement, then set up whatever social network accounts that suit your business.

    Webinar services

    Remember you are doing business with groups from around the world.

    Online communication tools, therefore, enable you conduct presentations and meetings over the Internet. This saves time and money associated with travelling costs whilst giving you access to markets outside your area, city or country.

    Some of the most popular/effective communication tools includes those included in the Microsoft (Skype and Teams) and Google (Hangouts & Voice) bundles. There are also free standalones like Zoom.

    Depending on your frequency of calls and audience size needs you can stick with the free version and then scale up to a paid subscription later.  You can also run training sessions and product demonstrations and even replace your whole phone system with them. 

    Online Surveys and other Marketing Tools

    Marketing is is the lifeblood of a company. It’s a key sales-driver and if you aren’t selling, you’re going out of business! Conduct market research using online tools such as SurveyMonkey and collect emails through opt-in forms. These valuable insights can be used  in targeted email marketing campaigns.

    The most advanced and widely recognised mail marketing tool is Mailchimp. It starts with a free version with 7 marketing channels and goes up to $299 per month for large companies with 200000-plus contacts. Most bundled Office solutions will allow you to add Mailchimp as a plug-in to your existing mailbox.

    Conclusion

    Technology constantly changes and it’s hard to keep up – so don’t. Get the basics right first and add technological services and tools as you grow. Rather understand what each button does first before you spend money on a whole super system.

  • Ethical hacking

    Ethical hacking

    Maybe you should encourage your kids to become hackers. When you open Twitter handles and Linkedin profiles, it’s not unlikely that you’ll find people listing hacking as a skill.

    Parents used to tell their kids to become doctors, lawyers, and accountants. Later, they advised them to learn about computers. These kids have now grown to become hardware specialists and then software specialists today.

    In the past 10 to twelve years, we have seen ourselves thrown into the fourth industrial revolution. In it, technology affects our lives through social media and augmented reality.

    We share a lot of our personal information with more people, companies, and institutions every day, willingly and are often blasé about it. This has tempted people to steal this information by hacking it. 

    Hacking background

    Since the advent of personal computers in the 1980s hackers have become prolific, initially in ‘first-world’ countries that had an advanced infrastructure. There were numerous cases in the US but as computer technology permeated the world, hackers followed suit. 

    A hacking group called MOD, Masters of Deception, in the 1980s allegedly stole passwords and technical data from Nynex, and other telephone companies as well as several big credit agencies and two major universities.

    The damage caused was extensive and one company, Southwestern Bell said it suffered losses of $370,000 alone. These days the damages, though not always publically announced, can run into a few millions of dollars.

    READ MORE about the Online Threats hackers use here

    All this has paved the way for a special information technology (IT) vocation. A security hacker is someone who explores methods for breaching defenses and exploiting weaknesses in a computer system and networks. They break into systems they aren’t authorized to, and tend to break seamlessly into email and banking systems.

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    Hacking as a career

    Ben Wilson works as an ethical hacker. He has more than ten years of experience and worked in London where he received on-the-job training. He now works remotely in South Africa servicing UK clients.

    “I test websites for clients and look for vulnerabilities in the systems. I have done a lot of work for banks lately but my work is across industries.” 

    “Energy companies are using my services more and more,” he says.

    Wilson says he worked in a permanent position for six years. Right now he contracts for five clients regularly.

    Ethical hackers are the knights who test how permeable these systems are.

     

    “The majority of my work is for British clients. The UK pound is strong and I like to earn pounds. I’d say the best computer security consultants in the world are in the UK. The US is strong too but the UK consultants are sophisticated and the best.”

    Vulnerabilities

    The most common way in which people hack information is through email contacts; especially personal Gmail accounts.

    People think that their information is safe because it sits with one of the largest companies in the world. But this is exactly why it isn’t safe.

    Gmail and other third-party free email accounts are regularly hacked. If you want to protect especially valuable information you should either upgrade it to the business/enterprise level, use a different email service, or perhaps the one connected to your employer. 

    Nowadays companies use services to protect themselves against hacks and unauthorized access. These monthly or annual service providers might employ ethical hackers to check the companies’ systems.

    Hacking, however, isn’t just something that happens to big companies or in blockbuster movies. Here are some reality checks:

    • All websites are under threat;
    • So are applications (Apps) on your phone;
    • People can also program artificial intelligence (AI) to hack into systems. This has become a big concern and theme for security experts.

    Ways to proactively prevent a hack 

    Fortunately, there are several ways of protecting yourself and your information from hacking; starting with your emails. Be wary of “phishing” emails asking you to update your information, especially for bogus databases that you have never heard of.

    Use a spam filter – Avoid opening attachments from senders you don’t know – Update your passwords regularly – It helps to have authentication methods, such as a smartphone-linked and email-linked authentication (2FA) or security keys like Yubico – Do not click on any ad – period! Back up your files regularly – it’s always a good idea – Don’t allow ransomware bullies to bully you.

    • If you get sent communication saying that people have your files and want money or they’ll release the files; ignore them.
    • They can’t threaten you forever and might eventually move onto another target especially if your information loses its value over time.

    Anti-hacking software

    As a business, use tools like those from cybersecurity experts Acunetix. More than 4 000 companies protect their web applications from vulnerabilities using its powerful web scanner.

    Its penetration testing software prevents potential attacks by identifying holes in your websites’ coding. This is where hackers usually plant their complex code which allows them to extract data such as contact details, credit card details, and in worse cases, company-sensitive data like patents and blueprints.

    Naturally, it also scans networks to find gateway loopholes that could lead to crashes and downtime-related losses. A bank’s website going down for a few hours can cost it several thousand or even millions in lost revenue.

    Despite having firewalls, VPNs, and other Internet security systems in place, your websites and apps being developed are still vulnerable to cyber-attacks or a hack.

    The most commonly known hack used is a DDoS attack. Basically, it works like a traffic jam clogging up a highway, preventing regular traffic from arriving at its desired destination. Incidentally, only a few days ago, Amazon was hit by a DDoS Attack.

    So, how would you know or find out if you are vulnerable?  By conducting regular scans on your websites and apps to see where vulnerabilities lie.

    Avoiding a hack requires common sense

    Be aware and don’t fall into scams. It’s unlikely you’ve won 120-million Euros in a lottery. You should know by now that you are not the descendant of a king!

    In addition, if someone says they have a sex tape with you in it and they want your salary, unless you know you made a sex tape, they’re probably lying.

    Unless of course, a scorned lover of yours tricked you – but you can’t blame technology or a hacker for that.

     

  • Cloud-hosted services square up

    Cloud-hosted services square up

    Running your business requires choosing the right tools for you and your employees. In order to streamline work-related productivity, many organizations are migrating to cloud-based office suites. Specifically, Microsoft’s Office 365 and Google’s GSuite (now known as Google Workspace).

    Both products boast a variety of helpful productivity tools and the latest remote collaboration technologies. While it’s impossible to say which one is “better”. This head-to-head comparison can help you decide which office suite is a better fit for your business.

    What is Workspace & Office 365?

    Office 365 and Workspace (previously GSuite) are packages, of powerful business tools that facilitate your day-to-day tasks using the cloud. They even provide business emails along with apps for creating documents, spreadsheets, presentations, video conference calls, shared calendars, and notes.  

    In addition, storing information on Google or Microsoft servers, rather than your own via these suites, can also save your business a lot of money.  

    Plans and Pricing

    First, let’s look at plans and prices. It’s important to note that Microsoft requires an annual commitment, while Google offers you the option to make monthly payments if you prefer.

    Contact us to get a formal quote for your business
    GooglevsMicrosoftSuites
    Cloud packages head-to-head

    Email

    While both Office 365 and Workspace offer web and mobile apps (Outlook and Gmail, respectively) for email. There are, however, some subtle differences.

    One advantage to Office 365 is the desktop version of Outlook, which is incredibly feature-rich and lets you sort and group emails with ease. Gmail, on the other hand, is widely used throughout the world. For this reason, a variety of third-party app options (e.g. WordPress) can be linked to it to enhance its capabilities.

    Cloud Data Storage

    For the entry-level plans, Office 365 Business Essentials wins out with 1 TB (terabyte) of storage per user, while the Workspace ‘Basic’ plan only offers 30 GB. GSuite includes emails in this storage limit, whereas Office 365 provides extra storage for email files with added archiving.

    However, Workspace’s upgraded plans beat out most of Microsoft’s storage offerings. So long as your business has more than five employees, Workspace Business and Enterprise provides unlimited cloud storage. Although, businesses with less than 5 employees on the “Business” plan are capped at 1 TB. Only Microsoft’s E3 plan and higher offer the same unlimited cloud storage.

    Applications

    Applications are the cornerstones of a suite’s functionality. Workspace and Office 365 offer you a variety of comparable apps for word processing, creating spreadsheets and presentations, all on the cloud!

    This means every user gets a free desktop version of the Office suite (i.e. Microsoft Word, Excel) to download.

    These feature-rich apps expand far beyond the capabilities of the mobile and online versions, and are available on every plan except the ‘Business Essentials’.

    While both services offer mobile and online apps, one major benefit of Office 365 are its desktop applications.

    Collaboration

    These online applications make both suites ideal for remote collaboration. Microsoft Teams lets facilitate this with tools like real-time co-authoring, mentioning users by name and chat capabilities while working on OneDrive. Microsoft now lets you collaborate using its desktop apps, too, although the updates to shared files are a bit sluggish compared to its online apps.

    Similarly, GSuite offers Hangouts for chats and Google Drive for real-time collaboration. Google’s online and mobile apps were created with cloud collaboration in mind, so some might find them a bit more user-friendly.

    For remote meetings, GSuite and Office 365 both offer group video conference calls. If you plan on large-scale video conferences, then Office 365 offers far more for your money: most plans have a 250-participant limit, while the E3 plan increases to an astounding 10,000-person limit.

    Meanwhile, GSuite’s Google Meet allows up to 25 participants on the “Basic” plan, 50 on the “Business” plan, and 100 on the “Enterprise” plan.  

    Security

    Cloud services are running into a variety of security issues, and these suites are no exception.

    A 2019 Barracuda Networks’ report found that a large percent of ATO (account takeover) attacks were targeted at Microsoft Office 365 accounts after businesses migrated emails to the service.

    These attacks prompted the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to issue a set of best practices. The aim was to help organizations migrate their email services while avoiding risks and vulnerabilities.

    Meanwhile, Google recently announced that a cloud storage feature for encrypted passwords on its “Enterprise” plans was faulty. As a result, some user passwords were stored in plaintext on Google’s servers!

    While cloud computing has its risks, the two suites do have impressive security features. GSuite is comparable to Google’s own level of security and offers AI detection of suspicious activity, Two-Factor authentication, and data leak protection—in which admins can block outgoing communication determined by set keywords.

    On the other hand, Office 365 has the option of Multiple Factor Authentication (MFA), along with the detection of malware, viruses, and suspicious activities. Microsoft also provides data loss protection, and admins can restrict access to company-issued devices only.

    Ease of Use

    So, which is easier to use? Well, it depends on who you are, and your ability to grasp software quickly.

    If you’re accustomed to working with MS Word or Excel documents, and edit them for work on a regular basis, then Office 365 and its desktop-to-online formatting compatibility will probably be your best bet. This is especially true if your company solely computes with Windows PCs.

    However, new users might find GSuite apps easier to learn, as the tools are a bit simpler and straightforward.

    So, which is best for you?

    Firstly, Office 365 offers feature-rich apps, and most of its plans come with a desktop version of MS Office applications. This is a definite advantage over its competitors.

    Its entry-level plan is far more generous in terms of data storage than GSuite’s “Basic” plan. In addition, businesses that already exclusively use Windows technology are likely to find Office 365 better-suited for their needs.

    With that said, GSuite was originally designed as a cloud collaborative productivity tool. Therefore, its features might be easier for collaboration and can be used among a wider variety of Windows and Mac devices. In addition, GSuite’s Business’ plans and above outdoes Microsoft when it comes to unlimited cloud file storage. <- This has changed since the article was first published.

    Unfortunately, I can’t tell you which of the two is “best.” But, with this knowledge in mind, you can make an informed decision to choose the best cloud suite for you.

  • Get a vault for your data!

    Get a vault for your data!

    It’s not often that we readily endorse a product or company. However, when the nature of work they engage in is considered ground-breaking and has a positive impact on our lives – it most certainly warrants a mention.

    The rationale for considering such tech-driven projects as highly significant is neither due to ‘gut feeling’. Nor that it is simply because it is fascinating and therefore must be an excellent product. This project actually has a value proposition for you!

    We are indeed well into the information age and while we have written extensively about data, its importance to marketers, and its fragility when used and abused by unscrupulous third-parties for their financial gain.

    The issue of data security is, however, quite a serious one. You just need to pay attention to the news to become even more aware.

    Data breach incidents

    In Europe, where security is supposedly more advanced, we have seen the likes of renowned airline British Airways, being hacked. Several hundreds of thousands of customers’ personal data compromised.

    These were followed by hacks on other major airlines such as Cathay Pacific.  Aside from airlines, other business outfits have suffered a similar fate.

    The perpetrators are getting a lot more brazen and very recently, a cable car, used as public transport in Moscow was hacked. This left vulnerable passengers terrified and stuck high up in the air. And all this happened probably to the amusement of the pranksters (hackers).  

    Can you imagine the chaos and commotion that would be caused if their control systems of driverless cars were to be hacked? 

    The digital intrusion gets even more sophisticated...

    This time affecting the very wealthy:  private yachts are now being hacked and taken into the pirate waters, all via uniquely coded signals, reading data from their antennas!

    Data security 

    On the issue of data security, you often hear about extra protection but not just anti-virus and anti-phishing software. The more secure and heavily encrypted Blockchain technology is, however, making waves in the digital sphere.

    It is mainly for the escalation of its once shining star by-product designed for discreet transacting – Bitcoin.

    Blockchain technology has also triggered several other technologies based on its digital cryptology technology. The aim is to ensure that your information is kept safe from prying eyes while stored, used, or transferred online.

    Blockchain products such as cryptocurrencies, however, are not completely safe from hackers.

    A solution

    Zortrex400x400

    The company we chose to highlight uses a unique vault system and is called Zortrex. It has adopted one of such Blockchain technologies dubbed tokenization. It will be using it to ensure that your highly sensitive data online is kept safe.

    “Our tokenised solution would have protected their customers’ personal identification information (PII) details. Instead the hackers ran off with the date of birth; passport numbers; financial data etc,” says Susan Brown, Chairperson of Zortrex – relating to the British Airways incident.

    Tokenization is the process of converting rights to real-world assets into a digital token on a blockchain.

    Brown’s background in data privacy systems as well as her devoted passion for the protection of PII, financial and healthcare data led her to start up and chair Zortrex. 

    The law on data

    Thanks to new laws like the European GDPR law, which enforces the protection of data, breaches are now met with hefty financial penalties.

    “Companies have disrespected your data for over 25 years, and if left unattended, there will be nothing left to protect,” Browns says.

    Companies now have to think twice about getting your consent and how to use and share your data digitally. But is it enough? The simple answer is no.  

    The authorities just do not have the resources to investigate every complaint nor to actively enforce all data breaches.

    We have ingeniously invented systems that automatically align with financial messaging, payments and securing information. All of which require data. 

    “However, we need to go a step further to secure all the PII details with tokenization. This is so that in the event of a hack, the cookies and trackers will only be following a ‘useless’ token will be no real identification on it,” Brown explains.

    Zortrex would naturally like to tokenize all healthcare data. This way, vulnerable those of you living outside of major cities can also feel assured that your privacy is protected.

    Using Blockchain

    The application of the all-powerful blockchain is not limited to use in the financial sector and will be applied via the supply chain to all industries that deal with your data – especially the most sensitive ones.

    A business angel or any investor for that matter looking to get onto the next best thing since Amazon would therefore be unwise to pass up the opportunity to back the Zortrex venture given its scope.

    Furthermore, regulations are currently being implemented primarily in the pharmaceutical sector.

    A tokenized supply chain such as what Zortrex offers would be ideal for this new law which is planned to be implemented by 2023.  A judiciary blockchain, for instance, would allow the police to “talk” to the prison service. They,  in turn, will communicate with the legal sector or public health institutions (NHS).

    Forensic evidence would in such instances be tokenized and kept secure (away from tampering) during legal hearings.  In another practical scenario, Smart Contracts (which could replace some lawyers) can spark off legal aid assistance to you.

    Your court cases will be heard quicker and be more efficient.  Protection registers can also be guarded using tokenization – rendering them more secure.

    Blockchain technology offers quality assurance making sure that no shortcuts are taken.

    This will enable the monitoring and tracking if any of your data is shared with third parties once tokenized. The third-party apps would only gain access to your data once the trigger has been activated.

    Like other pioneers and visionaries, Brown’s futuristic hope that every child being born will have their name, date of birth, blood type data being tokenized, might seem far-fetched.

    Zortrex wants to use its technology to put the hackers out of business! 

    Tokenisation cannot be mathematically reversed and thus it will least it will keep the hackers busy for a while.

    Scalability

    For such high ambitions, the creators of Zortrex’s software have adequately ensured that the technology used is fully scalable. One stumbling block many Blockchain projects now face is what is referred to as scalability. This is the ability of a network or software to grow and manage increased usage.

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    Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum specifically – which is used to build a lot of Distributed Applications, however, have massive scalability issues.

    The growth in demand for DApps is also crippling (slowing down) those systems. They need to investigate the incorporation of alternative technologies, upgrade or split their platforms to cope with such high demand.

    Someone must take the first step in securing this data forever. You should be able to purchase what you want without being harassed by trackers and cookies.

    The need for tokenization is endless and further, down the line, celebrities and government official’s PII can be secured by it to protect them from damaging schemes, ‘bad press’, and scandals.

    In a previous blog, we “prophesized” that data is the new commodity – like gold or oil. However, the actual value with that data will lie in its privacy, the ability to store it securely and unlock it only with legal permission by its rightful owner.

  • Get a vault for your data!

    Get a vault for your data!

    It’s not often that we readily endorse a product or company. However, when the type of work they engage in is considered groundbreaking – and one with the potential to have a massively, positive impact on our livelihoods, it most certainly warrants a mention.

    The rationale for considering such tech-driven projects as highly significant is neither due to ‘gut feeling’ nor that it is cutting-edge/fascinating and therefore must be an excellent product – it actually has a value proposition for everyday people!

    We are indeed well into the information age and while we have written extensively about data, its importance to marketers and its fragility when used and abused by unscrupulous third-parties for their financial gain, the issue of data security is quite a serious issue – we must just pay attention to the news to become even more aware.

    In Europe, the where security is supposedly more advanced, we have seen the likes of renowned airline British Airways, being hacked – with several hundreds of thousands of customers’ personal data compromised. This was followed by hacks on other major airlines such as Cathay Pacific.  Aside from airlines, other business outfits have suffered a similar fate.

    The perpetrators are getting a lot more brazen and very recently, a cable car, used as public transport in Moscow was hacked, leaving vulnerable passengers terrified and stuck high up in the air – probably to the amusement of the pranksters (hackers).  We all know about driverless buses and cars coming to the market soon.

    Can you imagine the chaos and commotion that would be caused if their control systems were to be hacked?  The hacks get even more sophisticated: this time, affecting the very wealthy –  private yachts are being hacked and taken into the pirate waters, all via uniquely coded signals, reading data from their antennas!

    On the issue of data security (with almost full anonymity); we have also heard about extra protection (and not just anti-virus and anti-phishing software) but the more secure and heavily encrypted Blockchain technology that is making waves in the digital sphere. Mainly for the escalation of its once shining star by-product designed for discreet transacting – the Bitcoin.

    It has also triggered several other technologies based on its digital cryptology technology to ensure that information is kept safe from prying eyes while stored, used or transferred online.

    Zortrex400x400The company we chose to highlight uses a unique vault system and is called Zortrex. It has adopted one of such Blockchain technologies dubbed tokenization – and will be using it to initially ensure that highly sensitive data online is kept safe.

    “Our tokenised solution would have protected their customers’ personal identification information (PII) details, instead the hackers ran off with the date of birth, passport numbers, financial data etc,” says Susan Brown, Chairperson of Zortrex – relating to the British Airways incident.

    “Tokenization is the process of converting rights to real-world assets into a digital token on a blockchain.”

    The establishment of this start-up company was due to Brown’s background in data privacy systems as well as her devoted passion for the protection of PII and financial/healthcare data.  In her view, companies have disrespected their customer data for over 25 years, and if left unattended, there will be nothing left to protect.

    Thanks to new laws like the European GDPR law which is now imposing the data protection; data breaches and abuse of customer data is now met with hefty financial penalties. Companies now think twice about consent and how to use and share customer’s data digitally – but is it enough? The simple answer is a no.  The authorities just do not have the resources to investigate every complaint nor to actively enforce all data breaches – yet.

    “We have ingeniously invented systems that automatically align with financial messaging, payments and securing information, all of which require data. However, we should and need to go a step further to secure all the PII details with tokenisation so that in the event of a hack, the cookies and trackers will only be following a useless token as there is no real identification on it,” Brown explains.

    Zortrex would naturally like to tokenise all healthcare data so that vulnerable people living outside of major cities can also feel assured that their privacy is protected. In a previous blog, we wrote about the new Internet of things (IoT). For all those devices being built for it, their IP addresses and the serial numbers can be tokenised to avoid the terrifying thought of the whole Internet being compromised.

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    The application of the all-powerful Blockchain is not limited to use in the financial sector and will be applied via the supply chain to all industries that deal with customer data – especially the most sensitive ones.

    An angel investor or any investor for that matter looking to get onto the next best thing since Amazon would therefore be unwise to pass up the opportunity to back the Zortrex venture given its scope!

    Furthermore, regulations are currently being implemented primarily in the pharmaceutical sector and a tokenised supply chain such as what Zortrex offers would be ideal for this new law which is planned to be implemented by 2023.  A judiciary blockchain, for instance, would enable the police to “talk” to the prison service,  who in turn, will communicate with the legal sector and public health institutions such as the UK’s NHS.

    Forensic evidence would in such instances be tokenised and kept secure (away from tampering) during legal hearings.  In another practical scenario, Smart Contracts (which are touted to replace lawyers) can spark off legal aid assistance, so that court cases can be heard quicker, more efficient than currently pertains.  Protection registers can also be protected with tokenisation rendering it more secure.

    Blockchain technology offers quality assurance with every process being undertaken making sure that no shortcuts happen; as the smart contracts trigger any possible malfeasance. This will enable the monitoring/tracking of any data sharing to third parties once it is tokenised. The third party apps would only gain access to the data once the trigger has been activated.

    The company will be providing numerous business blockchain platforms; Asset Chain, Supply Chain, Accountancy Chain, Debt Chain, Life Cycle Management Chain, Outsourced Worker Chain; the list is endless, and all will be adequately secured.

    Like other pioneers and visionaries, Brown’s futuristic hope that every child being born will have their name, date of birth, blood type data being tokenised, might seem farfetched – but may we remind you of the need for data protection taking into consideration the growth rate of massive data breaches.

    Zortrex is aiming high and wants to use their technology to put the hackers out of business!  Tokenisation cannot be mathematically reversed and thus it will least it will stop the hackers for a while.

    Brown explains further that as they move with their education; other information can be added on to the token, as with all their healthcare; any allergies tokenised; what injections they have had right through their life cycle until the day no more data can be tokenised.

    For such high ambitions, the creators of Zortrex’s software have adequately ensured that the technology used is fully scalable. One stumbling block many Blockchain projects now face is what is referred to as scalability – which in tech terms, is the ability of a network or software to grow and manage increased demand.

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    Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum specifically – which is used to build a lot of Distributed Applications, has massive scalability issues. The growth in demand for DApps is crippling those systems and they are having to investigate the incorporation of alternative technologies, upgrade or split their platforms and accompanying cryptocurrencies to cope with such high demand.

    Someone must take the first step in securing this data forever. Citizens should be able to purchase what they want without being harassed by trackers and cookies. The need for tokenisation is endless and further, down the line, celebrities and government official’s PII can also be secured to protect them from damaging schemes, ‘bad press’ and scandals.

    In another previous blog, we “prophesized” that data is the new commodity – like gold or oil. However, the actual value with that data will lie in its privacy, the ability to store it securely and unlock it only with legal permission by its rightful owner.

  • Get more organised digitally!

    Get more organised digitally!

    One often hears the phrase “technology is your friend” To what extent the friendliness/support is, in being a most effective “companion” to assist you to cope with your daily activities or business plans depends on how you embrace it.

    Read more via Get more organised digitally!

  • Get more organised digitally!

    Get more organised digitally!

    We often hear the phrase “technology is your friend” To what extent this friendliness is, to help you to cope with your daily activities or business plans depends on how you embrace it.

    Life can be chaotic. Which so much to do it is easy to frequently miss important appointments. Delays often come from having to wait till you get to a PC to respond or not remembering contact details. The worst is having to ask someone repeatedly for their number or business cards.


    If you often experience that, you are getting it all wrong and definitely need this friend!

    The need for emails

    Emails are on a progressive, disruptive path to eliminate postal services. They even facilitate and encourage the acceptance of digitally signed documents.
    Most financial companies and legal institutions in many developed countries already accept digitally signed documents.

    Your digital signature confirms that the information originated from you and has not been altered through encryption. This makes it legally binding.

    Naturally, you need special software or Adobe Sign, to digitally sign and attach as a PDF to an email.

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    Thanks to emails, we can now also easily store and get in touch with our contacts. It could be in the office, lounging around a park, watching your children play; even onboard/at the underground train station.

    Additional email tools

    Calendar and contacts syncing is a simple tool which is not offered entirely by all domain host providers. It works wonders along with your calendar and scheduler.


    If you need a simple CRM tool to just help with email contacts and plug into an existing sales app, you can do so with a useful add-on like Outlook Customer Manager.


    There are certainly advantages of decluttering your emails. This helps to alleviate the frustration of unimportant mails getting in the way of the ones you need to access frequently. For that, there is a clutter service offered by Office 365.


    Additionally, to avoid retaining important attachments, and clogging up space on your mailbox, you can with a click, save large file attachments directly to your cloud storage.


    With all that relevance of emails, it is critical that you source the best one – even if it costs a bit more than the (free) webmail services provided by Outlook (Hotmail), Gmail and Yahoo.


    Naturally, with a paid service, you will almost be freed from the scourge of spam and malicious items embedded in documents. In some cases, they are screened even before landing in your mailbox.

    More advanced features


    Other perks like a ‘catch-all service’, data loss prevention, in place-hold (compliance features), and advanced threat protection. You can add them as essential services to give you an even more peaceful emailing experience.


    You can, for instance, use In-Place Hold (Litigation Hold) to place user mailboxes ‘on hold’ and preserve mailbox items permanently.

    This feature is especially crucial for those in the financial and legal sectors – requiring emails and its contents to be preserved for a minimum of seven years typically. Security is the central factor that has kept the postal service in business – well at least for now.

    Your checklist when shopping for a good email solution:

    • A decent-sized mailbox – with archiving ability – 50GB is the new standard size (don’t get short-changed!).


    • Should allow you to sync emails, calendars, and contacts onto multiple devices – and it must always work!


    • SMTP is now the standard and preferred Email protocol. If you are still on POP3 or even IMAP – run away!


    • Customizable domain (a .com or .net or any other you have bought), with the option to add more domains and email aliases. (info@ …sales@ etc).


    • Sync to an active directory – to keep your user-profile and allow for ease of single sign-on or extra security features like two-factor authentication. (Prevents unauthorized people from accessing your emails by pairing to your phone via an SMS code).


    • Your mailbox (since you are storing contact details or using it along with a CRM or ERP solution) must be GDPR-compatible.

    Final thoughts

    Finally, a good email hosting service should provide the ability to add innovative features in the future. These include extra archiving space, advanced threat protection, and enterprise voicemail. These are characteristics of a good email solution.

    Preparing to use an email solution can be effortless if you have the time. Most software suppliers like Microsoft (Office 365), have support sites with primary training material and “how-tos”.

    Check out Microsoft’s Support page to upskill your Office, email, and overall cloud-software aptitude.

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