Office Document Strategies Blog

Printing Parts For 100 Year Old and One Off Cars | Jay Lenno

Posted by Lee Kirkby on Wed, Feb 21, 2018 @ 08:02 AM

Until the development of 3D Printing when someone talked about printing we all understood it was a two dimensional output, black or coloured toner on a flat piece of paper.  

With the development of 3D printing and its rapid advancement into using many different types of raw product for the printing of three dimensional objects the technology has been pretty revolutionary for all kinds of fields.  One of these is the automobile field, especially for the production of one off parts.

In a recent video I saw produced in Jay Leno's garage a famous place to anyone who has an interest in automobiles he describes how they have used 3D printing to produce parts for cars at the extremes of his collection.  In one case it is product for a 100 year old early generation electric car and in another parts for a special one off concept car that they created.

 

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Topics: technology tools, Printer, digital tools

Internet Society Reports 2017 Cyber Incident Trends

Posted by Lee Kirkby on Thu, Feb 8, 2018 @ 07:02 AM

The Online Trust Alliance issued its tenth annual report on cyber incidents and breach readiness in late January 2018.  

A key feature of the report is the amount of impact that ransom type attacks have had in 2017 both in direct malware and other elements like threatened denial of service events.

It summarizes that preparation and constant diligence are key in avoiding cyber threats.  

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Topics: ransomware, malware, it security, cyber security

Professional Mail Room With FP Postbase 130.130D

Posted by Joanna Wallace on Thu, Jan 18, 2018 @ 14:01 PM

Mail room operations can be affected by many things but probably the most challenging for busy ones is the handling of mail runs which has various sizes and weights of items.

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Topics: Postage meter, mailing equipment, Mailing, Postage, mailing machines, meter rentals, postage machine

Chip Vulnerability Affects Almost Every Computing Device

Posted by Lee Kirkby on Fri, Jan 5, 2018 @ 07:01 AM

"Pretty much every PC, laptop, tablet, and smartphone is affected by the security flaw, regardless of which company made the device or what operating system it runs."  

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Topics: Computer, malware, it security

Cyber Security Headlines 2017 Activity

Posted by Lee Kirkby on Wed, Dec 20, 2017 @ 07:12 AM

All of the controversy around the issues of the Russian intervention in the US and other country's elections sometimes covers how important cyber security and the ability of IT networks to be secure is to everyday activity.  If the general media was only focused on the political consequences of hacking of IT systems we would not hear about how some of the daily things we do are affected. 

Some headlines which show Canada is not immune to the issues:

Canadian SMBs hit by ransomware paid out $5.7 million over 12 months: Survey

Interac outlines how it plans to secure Canada's digital identity service

Cyber security a focus of UN Internet governance conference

Canadian firm pays $425,000 to recover from ransomware attack

The costs associated with building systems, acquiring protection software and spending time to keep on top of current threats are all things which we as consumers end up paying for as they get incorporated into the costs of the goods and services which we use.

A recent CNN summary itemizes some of the biggest stories which have occurred including the 145 million accounts from the Equifax hack, the announcement the total of 3 billion Yahoo accounts were hacked in 2013 and closer to home the fact an Ancaster hacker connected to Russians has now pleaded guilty to hacking up to 500 million Yahoo accounts from 2014.

These kinds of events kind of make use glaze over as we figure there is nothing we can do to protect ourselves but we do know that Canadian organizations are forced to spend large amounts to attempt to build protections for us.

We end up having to deal with less convenient systems as things like double authentication security start being applied to our online accounts.  Cumbersome conventions which force us to not be able to directly connect to some financial activity without using fairly difficult security procedures frustrate people and lead them to avoid using electronic systems.

Of course the convenience provided by electronic communications including credit and debit transactions hook most of us into continuing to stay connected and to hope that our information will be held secure by the organizations we buy from.  Every effort which can be made to help secure online transactions (which include most cash register systems) will pay dividends in consumer confidence hopefully.

Looking ahead to 2018 we can only hope that cyber security will remain a high priority for the legitimate IT industry and that break throughs can occur which will frustrate those who seek to illegitimately use electronic data.

Lee K

Small Business Data Protection Backup Criteria

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Photo credit: By ITSveronica (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

 

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Topics: data security, Canadian IT, cyber security

$10,000 Bitcoin Price Means Challenges For IT Security

Posted by Lee Kirkby on Wed, Dec 6, 2017 @ 07:12 AM

Since its creation in 2009/10 bitcoin crypto currency has always had a kind of unreal story.  The concept of a globally exchanged currency without a nation as a sponsor or guarantor which is traded by person to person or company to company transactions without a banking system regulator was unreal until it happened.

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Topics: Canadian IT, malware, it security

Connectivity Means Competitive Advantage

Posted by Lee Kirkby on Wed, Nov 15, 2017 @ 07:11 AM

Virtually every business today has some sort of need for connectivity for its computer and IT needs.  Whether it is using cloud based applications to process data and transactions or using a cloud based data backup strategy the ability to get on line safely and quickly is almost a given.  

Unfortunately not all locations are equal in providing competitive options for businesses to get this needed connectivity.  The greater the need and the more intensive the connected traffic then the more the locational decision for a business can be impacted.

In a couple of articles over the past month ITbusiness.ca has shown how cities and their partners are starting to look at these issues.  The focus of these articles are on Toronto and the announcement about the Google neighbourhood announced for the water front and also on a plan to rate buildings in Toronto on their connectivity capability as a means to build competitive advantage.  

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Topics: IT network, Canadian Pricing, Canadian IT

WPA2 WIFI Security Is Hacked

Posted by Lee Kirkby on Wed, Nov 1, 2017 @ 07:11 AM

Since it became the defacto norm for WIFI network security the WPA2 security setting has been the standard for almost every WIFI network setup. 

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Topics: network security, WiFi, WIFI Security

MFP Service And Maintenance Are Different

Posted by Ian Leppert on Wed, Oct 18, 2017 @ 07:10 AM

What is the difference?  Answer: Who does the work.

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Topics: MFP, Colour printer, Managed Print Services

Online Coverage Of Office Equipment Frustrations Can Be True

Posted by Ian Leppert on Wed, Oct 4, 2017 @ 08:10 AM

People who are fans of the movie "Office Space" remember the scene where three of the players take the printer out to the field and beat it to death because it keeps giving an paper jam error even when there is no paper jam.

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Topics: Multifunction Printer, Printer, Managed Print Services