Posted on Monday November 26, 2018
Major companies like Google, Apple, and Microsoft are investing a lot of money in the Internet of Things (IoT). But just like any other technological trend, it comes with minor bugs and setbacks. Because of the diversity in IoT, developers have yet to develop large-scale security solutions. In the meantime, here are some things you can do to keep IoT cyberattacks at bay.
Posted on Saturday November 24, 2018
Standing desks have become trendy in recent years -- so much so that they have been promoted by some health officials as well as some countries. Research, however, suggests that warnings about sitting at work are overblown, and that standing desks are overrated as a way to improve health. From a report: Dr. David Rempel, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, who has written on this issue, said, "Well-meaning safety professionals and some office furniture manufacturers are pushing sit-stand workstations as a way of improving cardiovascular health -- but there is no scientific evidence to support this recommendation." Let's start with what we know about research on sitting, then explain why it can be misleading as it relates to work. A number of studies have found a significant association between prolonged sitting time over a 24-hour period and increased risk for cardiovascular disease. A 2015 study, for instance, followed more than 150,000 older adults -- all of whom were healthy at the start of the study -- for almost seven years on average. Researchers found that those who sat at least 12 hours a day had significantly higher mortality than those who sat for less than five hours per day. For convenience and comfort, it's nice to have options if you have various aches and pains -- "Alternating standing and sitting while using a computer may be useful for some people with low back or neck pain," he said -- but people shouldn't be under the illusion that they're getting exercise. A 2012 study in JAMA Internal Medicine followed more than 220,000 people for 2.8 years on average and found similar results. Prolonged sitting over the course of a day was associated with increased all-cause mortality across sexes, ages and body mass index. So did a smaller but longer (8.6 years on average) study published in 2015 in the Journal of Physical Activity & Health. Another study from 2015, which followed more than 50,000 adults for more than three years, also found this relationship. But it found that context mattered. Prolonged sitting in certain situations -- including when people were at work -- did not have this same effect.
Posted on Friday November 23, 2018
Twenty-four hours seem to pass by in the blink of an eye, especially if you're a small business owner. In order to stand a chance against the competition, the last thing you should do is bury yourself in a pile of endless emails. With the following Gmail tips and tricks, you'll spend less time with your inbox and more time driving business growth.
Posted on Thursday November 22, 2018
Companies such as Apple, Samsung, and others have turned mobile phones into mini-computers that can serve as a substitute for your laptop, or as a storage device. If you're using a smartphone as a communications and storage device, backing up now would be a wise move.
Posted on Wednesday November 21, 2018
When personal and professional information live on one mobile device, a small breach can have huge impacts. As the adoption of bring your own device (BYOD) policies increase, employee awareness of cyberthreats becomes critical. Here are five tips for avoiding common Android-based security risks.
Posted on Tuesday November 20, 2018
Mark Wilson, writing for BetaNews: Having released a series of updates for Office 2010, 2013 and 2016 as part of this month's Patch Tuesday, Microsoft has now pulled two of them and advised sysadmins to uninstall the updates if they have already been installed. In both instances -- KB4461522 and KB2863821 -- Microsoft says that the problematic updates can lead to application crashes. While this is not as serious a problem as, say, data loss, it does little to quieten the fears that have been voiced about the quality control Microsoft has over its updates.