Globe Business Offers Cyber Security Solutions

 

Good news for businesses and individuals who want their cyber security game to another level as Globe Business is ready to give you cyber security solutions this side of the woods. 

We got to experience their services a few days ago at the CyerHeist 2023 event at The Globe Tower in BGC. It's a three day event to showcase how several of their partner organizations are able to help you and protect your data.

They can start by checking your current systems and help you decide on what road to take and put cybersecurity measures in place, to make sure you put up your defense, lessen security risks, threats, vulnerability in different parts of your organization. This is to put them before they happen, something every IT professional should implement if you're dealing with data. Executuves from Globe Business like KD Dizon, Cocoy Claravall, Marlon Cruz were there to explain how different sectors could be greatly affected if it happens. Protection of digital assets is important, and Globe Business offers solutions to make sure enterprise markets don't get victimized.

Partner organizations that showcased their wares and products included ZScaler, Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet, Checkpoint, CyberArk, Tenable, Dell Technologies, NS Focus, WithSecure, Yondu and Samsung. Yes, even competitors have bonded together to make sure YOU get the best choice when it comes to securing your data.

If you want to know more about it, you can visit their portal via https://www.globe.com.ph/business/enterprise/cybersecurity and get the proper solution you need before it happens.

Winners Bared in Huawei ICT Competition Philippines 2021

Tech giant Huawei has held an ICT Competition annually for over 50 university partners in the Philippines and recently, they have announced the winners for the different categories initiated by the Huawei ICT Academy. This is being done to boost the competitiveness in the job market, to hone home grown skills and help grow the ICT industry in the country. Initially they only had 10 partner universities in 2019 and a few students certified in the past year. There has been exponential growth and Huawei hopes to certify over 5000 individuals within 5 years including trainers from different institutions in the Philippines. 

Their theme this year is "Connection, Glory, Future" which is quite apt. For the Cloud Category, the University of the East was named champs. The team was composed of Professor Alexis John Rubio, Computer Engineering students Jio Vince Chua, Jerwin Samala and Mark Jayson Gutierrez. The warriors have been partners with Huawei since May this year and has been part of the Huawei ICT Academy partners that can do ICT trainings for UE Faculty Members and Students too.  

In Networking, the team from STI College got top prize, while first place went to Mapua University (cloud) and Cebu Institute of Technology- University (networking). The announcement was witnessed by Hon. Prospero De Vera, Chairman of the Commission on Higher Education and Dr. William Torres the "Father of the Philippine Internet". They also shared their insights on technological interventions and practical applications of ICT. Exposing them in these kind of competitions will get them exposed and solve problems in the real world. The teams will get to represent the Philippines in the Asia Pacific round and soon the Huawei ICT Competition Global Finals.

I am so happy for what my fellow Computer Engineers from UE has achieved. Can't wait to see them conquer bigger challenges soon!

Huawei ICT Academy Inks Partnership with 15 Schools in the PH

Huawei just partnered up with 15 Universities and Colleges via Huawei ICT Academy in the Philippines. This comes as they wish to develop, build and strengthen the country's local ICT talent ecosystem. This includes prestigous schools like University of the East, STI College in Alabang, Southville International School and Colleges, Colegio de Muntinlupa, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Muntinlupa, Southern Luzon Technological College Foundation, Angeles University Foundation, Marinduque State College, and the University of the Assumption among others.

In Visayas and Mindanao they've also partnered up with schools like University of the Visayas and Cebu Institute of Technology, Xavier-Ateneo de Cagayan University, Holy Cross of Davao College and Jose Maria College in Davao.

This is part of Huawei's corporate social responsibility programs under the Huawei ICT Academy. They provide certification courses in the fields of AI, big data, cloud computing, storage management, 5G communication, security which would benefit faculty and students alike. They initially laucnhed this in 2018 and was successful in University of Southeastern Philippines. It has spurred growth in the region and has produced competent teachers, students that have had Huawei Certified Network Associate certifications and some of them getting certified as Huawei Academy Instructors.

That's good news!

Microsoft Asks: Is Your Company Compliant with the Data Privacy Act?

Spent the afternoon having lunch and excercising my brain about cloud security and network love. I'm glad I still have the gist taking this in, and making use of my Computer Engineering diploma after a while. This topic really concerns me.

Microsoft has a long standing commitment with the Philippine government regarding the Data Privacy Act to make sure Filipinos have solutions for security, privacy and transparency. If your company has 250 employees and up requires compliancy with the Data Privacy Act. The National Privacy Comission was created as an agency to implement this and you have to do this before September 9, 2017.

Dale Jose the Solutions Specialist of Enterprise Mobility Security of Microsoft Philippines remarks "Microsoft isn't just in the business of security and we're syncing it with the Data Privacy Act. Attacks happen every minute and the mindset should be that you must "assume that you have already been breached". We know companies have invested in firewalls and before, we always had the notion of just building walls, making it thicker and thinking it's secure, but today those permiter security is no longer enough. Attacks happen because of compromised credentials (75%) and it is important to protect your identity. If you read in the dark world people sometimes shop for credentials. Republic Act 10173 includes encryption. We need to protect data while it is stored or if it is in transit. Organizations today should be able to report breach in 72 hours and if you don't you will suffer the penalties of that. It's the same security that we have in Office 365, Windows 10 and Enterprise Mobility+Security. They go through a value chain of protect, detect and respond. Based on studies, it takes over 500 days to detect malware in Asia. There are options today without the need for VPN, Microsoft Azure Active Directory for example detects when there is an unusual login attempt on your directory. You will need to go through verification with Microsoft threat intelligence and we update this in tons of devices. All these events are also monitored in Azure as risk events. You can creat a policy to block access or allow access then challenge them with Azure MFA security. We also have Microsoft Intune to manage mobile devices, applications and PC's for company issues devices so you have the ability to confine data and not on personal emails etc. and do selective or full wipe of the device which can be done remotely. You can also do this on policies on Windows 10 for company owned devices. When you look at the protection of the document, it all starts from the creation of the document. You have to do policy enforcement from the start and choose the audience whom you want the data to be seen. We also have Cloud Application Security which can run and check how many cloud apps are installed and how much risk you are getting with these tools. We also have Microsoft Advanced Threat Analytics that detects, prioritize and investigate advanced attacks and insider threats before they can do damage." 

If you need to know how much time you have left, go to aka.ms/dpaguide. If you are not compliant, there is jail time and penalties involved.  Herns Hermida the Cloud and Enterprise Business Lead of Microsoft Philippines says "When we talk to customers, people ask how to get the infrastructure at par, my suggestion is to MOVE EVERYTHING TO THE CLOUD. It's cheaper, you can run things securely but customers who have done this experience security benefits that they don't have when they use in premise infrastructure. The Microsoft Cloud is something you can trust because it works with Security, privacy and conteol, compliance and security. Go to Youtube and search Cloud Security 101 with my name on it and you'll get a very detailed explanation of what you need to learn in cloud security. Everything that we do starts with security. Every developer starts from that. So if you are asked by your PC to restart your computer no matter how inconvenient that may be, please do because we install patches for security and that is our responsibilty. We want our customers safe and we invest 1 Billion dollars every year for it. Microsoft cannot do this alone so we have partners around the world to deal with attacks now and in the future. Attacks increase in amount and intensity. Using Azure, you can use security propreitary or third party software to protect our customers. We have hundreds of data centers in 38 regions. The Microsoft Cloud is used by 85% of Fortune 500 companies so why shouldn't you? We also use our own Hyper V, we use them on our data centers because we believe in it. We have an internal and external DDOS Defense System, we also do Data Segregation, do Data Protection, multiple options for replicating data and do Data Destruction when they leave Azure as Microsoft follows procedure to make it inaccessible after wiping out. Our defense strategy protect breach and assume breach to make sure we do not encounter problems. We do big data analytics to seek threat detection so if there is imminent attack or attack going on already. These solutions have also gotten certifications and programs including ISO and has the biggest compared with competitors."

Microsoft Azure is the most efficient cloud security solution today. Companies in the Philippines already are using them as we speak so don't discount yourself from acheiving the things that the Data Privacy Act needs to see you comply on that date. What they also need to see is your commitment and understanding this may be a tall order but if you need to secure data in all aspects especially of your customers. You need to be pro active and be aware. It's dangerous to have your date lying around somewhere and waiting to be pounced on by hackers and use it for the not so greater good. 

You can also answer the risk assesment questionaire on the site mentioned above if you want to know if you are in trouble or not, so start from that.

KUMAGCOW

Fresh Blogs Fast!

Palo Alto Networks Introduces Enhancements to Next Generation SecurityPlatform

We've all heard of horror stories of data breach, malware issues and identity theft. The whole network, software and cloud infrastructure are all prone to attacks and what a good IT Manager should do is not just fight back when the problems arise, but make sure to prevent it. The security demands are huge but as long as you're on top of things, you won't need any special work done because you've already prevented trouble by doing total SaaS visibility and control, securing applications and corporate property, prevent customer credit card data theft and control what data goes in and out. This is what should be done in cloud deployments whether private, public or hybrid types. Know when to how to be a hero in the corporate world by securing everything with Palo Alto Networks to start securing with Microsoft Azure,  Office 365, AWS and more. It's really not reliable to just stay with whatever comes with your cloud service. You need to also check if Aperture would be the best solution for Network Administrators in your office too!

The good news is Palo Alto Networks has integrated more than 70 new cloud and SaaS in the Palo Alto Networks platform operating system in the PAN-OS version 8.0, Aperture SaaS Security Service and the new VM-Series virtual firewall models which can protect you now inside your network and outside the cloud which establishes an effective and consistent security system.

Kelvin Chin, the Country Manager for Indonesia, Vietnam and Philippines for Palo Alto Networks says "Trust is a huge concern online and Palo Alto Networks sees what's coming and makes sure we protect applications in the network, the SaaS and the Cloud."

Vincent Oh the Director of Systems Engieering for ASEAN for Palo Alto Networks says "What is the significance of today is that you now know that we have released the 70 new security features in the new PAN-PS 8.0. Palo Alto is here to protect our way of life in the digital age. We can't prevent 100% but it's pretty close. Our innovations address the key gaps in the security industry. We need to make sure we have complete visibility, reduce the attack surface, prevent known threats and the unknown ones. You want to block off apps that your company does not sanction like bittorent and really dangerous sites. We need to make sure to have less risk from things out there especially malware and privacy threats even if we discover new ones every minute. Prevent them from having a foothold on your precious data. Palo Alto Networks now concentrates on Cloud Security, Multi Method Threat Prevention, Management at Scale, Credential Theft Prevention and New Hardware for enterprise. Only Palo Alto Networks has the capability to protect networks around the world once AI automated static analysis has been done and discover new ones, not available elsewhere. Predictive protection, is always best!"

So for those employees who accidentaly email sensitive financial reports and data, or keep terabytes of pirated movies in the company drive, you will be seen! Now is the time to be pro active, prevent those attacks even before they happen in your network, and your cloud. Be that corporate champion by securing your data now! The Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS 8.0 is now available globally for those who have support contracts. Visit PaloAltoNetworks.com/products/platforms.html for more information.

KUMAGCOW

Fresh Blogs Fast!

Sky Launches "Sky On Demand"

We were at the Sky Cable On Demand launch earlier and they were really keeping things from us prior to this day. The invitation was misleading and they were talking about other things on the venue before we heard it from the CEO himself. Finally, it's something like a Netflix/TIVO service by Sky Cable, though you have to have Sky Broadband with it. Aside from that, it also works with the proprietary box intended for it. 

Ross Legaspi of Sky Marketing says "This service is simple, it's like having IWantTV on Sky Cable On Demand. You have your own profile, you can have it customized. You have every show from the most popular network in the country, but now you'll have tons of channels that are exclusive to SkyCable Broadband. You can have a marathon at the comforts of your own home. You can even stop it, then go back and play where you paused the machine when you partially watched it".

It's easy to watch now, you can watch it in your own home as Sky On Demand becomes available in your homes soon. There's a one time fee of 499 and about capacity, it's going to be unlimited because it's going to be in the cloud. It will soon be available by March and the plan is to implement it in the whole country where Sky Broadband is available. They're continuing to populate the channels and even partnered with big outfits so you can be sure you'll have more titles that you can watch over and over again only on SKY On Demand.

Morisette Amon also provided entertainment earlier!

"Sky is headed where the customer will lead us. It now is allowing us to listen to customers and choose their own content if they don't want to pay for it. The whole season of shows are already on cable and it's the currency of the content that can set us apart" Legaspi adds. If you don't have Sky Broadband, and you are a Sky Cable subscriber like me, you won't have the additional movie channels exclusive on their line. If you want to try it out, they told me they can accommodate anyone a 15 day FREE trial so just ask and see if the experience wows you, that's SKY ON DEMAND! 

For more information about their services:

SKY CABLE

Like them on Facebook


Visit their official website

http://www.mysky.com.ph/

Western Digital My Cloud App Reaches 4 Million Downloads

Western Digital just announced a great feat with their 4 millionth download of the WD MyCloud App and their family of mobile apps designed to specifically manage their storage solutions and network peripherals last November 3, 2014. They take the experience a notch higher by making your files, photos and videos accesible remotely with these applications. They continue to enhance the user experience by releasinng the latest installment of the WD MyCloud OS version 1.5, WD My Cloud Firmware plus the WD My Cloud Mobile App. You'll get to take advantage of the new media navigation, viewing and search options which you may have not found in previous versions yet. 

Western Digital Content Solution Business and Worldwide Sales Vice President Jim Welsh says "We recognize the overwhelming task of consumers in organizing digital files in computers and other mobile devices. Our software provides value to our customers and we are hand in hand with them in simplifying their lives and the growing digital content that they have in their own homes. We are also unifying various cloud channels such as Drop Box, One Drive and Google drive in just one app. Best of all, it's free on the App Store so you have no excuse not having it at all. 

The app is free but if you would like to have the hardware, it's available in Iontech Technologies Inc, EA Global Supply Chain Solutions Inc. and selected IT resellers nationwide!

For more information about their products:

Digits Trading

Like them on Facebook


Visit their official website

http://www.yelltowin.com

Western Digital Releases WD TV in the Philippines

I think I've seen one of these in Greenhills a couple of years ago and I know there have been multiple upgrades and advancements in these boxes especially since it is WD TV. I've worked with other brands and cable corporations who have something similar to this but still, WDTV presents more premium functions and features that you won't normally see in other media players. Now, Western Digital just announced the release of the WDTV Personal Edition. This means that any other media whether you have it on your PC, Laptop or USB's. the WDTV Personal Edition would be able to play it as long as you have it on your network. This is also Wifi enabled so you don't need to be connected via ethernet or directly wired to the box itself. For me, that's totally convenient.

Mr. Jim Welsh the Executive Vice President for WD Content Solutions Business and Worldwide Sales says that "The new WDTV Personal Edition would make it seamless for anyone to play in a multitude of screen sizes and get them to play a variety of personal videos, photos and music. The quality will be superb and it can support various video file formats such as MKV, MP4, AVI, WMV, MOV and a whole lot more." You can also use Western Digital's array of external or portable drives like the WD My Cloud - Personal Cloud which I reviewed a few days ago. You can basically take charge with the kind of entertainment you want on your living room, you choose your own applications, you can stream HD videos too via Miracast, Youtube, Hulu Plus, Vudu + a lot more while playing it on your hand held device or HD TV's. 

 

The WD TV is currently sold in the Philippines through its official distributor Iontech Inc and EA Global Supply Chain Solutions Inc. It's suggested retail price is around 4,890 pesos while the WD TV Remote app for smartphones or mobile handsets is free on the App Store and Google Play Store. You should check it out!

For more information about their products:

Digits Trading

Like them on Facebook


Visit their official website

http://www.wdc.com

Unboxing The Western Digital My Cloud - Personal Cloud Storage

The WD My Cloud - Personal Cloud Storage

Storage options in this day and age is but of a necessity and we've kept an eye on most brands that carry them in the Philippines. I for one am in the looks for it because I have tons of photos to keep on archives for copyright's sake. The good news is, they're getting smarter and smarter now. Case in point is the WD My Cloud Personal Cloud Storage. This came out perhaps in the late half of 2013. It's given a whole new meaning on what to expect with today's network storage devices in the lines of SOHO servers. Add to that it's capability to get integrated with cloud storage features that would be perfect for mobile devices. This is one unbelievable device and I'll show you how to install it on Windows 7. Here's our attempt to unbox it!  

Now, you don't have to subscribe to major service providers to get that cloud capability. You can also have less maintenance since you can have this right in the comforts of your own home. It's also a shared storage so you can assign rights to users to have different access restrictions re: Read/Write capability. 

As long as you have internet connection, you can use WD's free apps to upload and share files from different platforms. It can come from your phone, tablet, phablet, PC or Mac. I tried it on my iPhone and it ran without a hitch. It's like your own virtual dropbox where you can assign and create your own folders and set access to it too. I love that you can also check the drive's status and see how your drive performs while connected to the network. 

Just type in the url WDMyCloud/UI and you'll be taken to this user interface. It's got all the nice little things you need to know about your drive. It also indicates the number of cloud devices connected to it. If there are also some updates on the hardware's firmware, you can choose to do it here as well.

It might be simple to some of you but I like the fact that they thought about having attachments like these on the box. It addresses something so simple but you don't have to go out anymore and buy one off the market because they knew you had this in your home.

It's also autovolt, so whether you are in a country who's got 110V or 220V on their outlet, don't worry because you'll have the adapter doing its thing for you.

You've got enough storage as it's got 3TB of space that's perfect for those HD movies you've stored long ago on your hard drive. Please do yourself a favor and transfer it to the Personal Cloud Storage and get everyone else access to the file. I can even see a movie marathon spurning on your own personal rooms, whenever and wherever you may wish to get it. I watched my favorite Hunter X Hunter series on my phone by transferring the file from the laptop to the drive. I want to have separate access restrictions to my parents because they're used to deleting apps on my tablet already, let alone the drive if they had it. We don't mean to do that.

Up close, it's make is surely sturdy. The base won't budge unless an outside force would be too much to handle. It's got one drive inside, but you know what makes it special? The speed. I think if you compare this to my existing 3 TB hard drive, it's like buying a sportscar and leaving the tractor outside your farm. My photos were transferred only in a few minutes, a couple more faster than my previous one. I haven't tested it though to mirror onto another drive but the backup feature on it from this to another drive on my desktop actually works. Where else can you find easy setup with the network drives to back up on multiple locations? It's something that WD can surely be proud of. The cable seen above can run Gigabit rates. That, in less than 200 hundred dollars. I've seen some around 170 bucks and possibly this could be cheaper in the Philippines less tax and duties.

 

 If you've got to save files and want to have instant access to it, the WD My Cloud Personal Storage would be the perfect network storage drive to have in your home. It's not complicated to set up, the unit looks sleek and classy that it won't look like clutter in your office. Best of all, it's available at Astroplus, DigiHub, Digital Arena, Digital Hub, my favorite store Digital Walker, Heima, iGig, Quicksound and other specialty stores nationwide. You may check out https://www.facebook.com/digitstrading and see specials on other items like these in their stores. I'll give it a 4/5 because it's affordable and has got more features than the regular network drive. If you're already using it, can you tell me what other things you are using this for? I'm so psyched I don't have to use remote desktop anymore if I need files off my home. What cool things have you done with it?

For more information about their products:

Digits Trading

Like them on Facebook


Visit their official website

http://www.wdc.com

Infrastructure Matters: IBM's System X

IBM announced today the 6th generation of its enterprise level X-Architecture for System X and PureSystems servers. This sparks a seamless addition to new and improved x86 based systems that would be great for analytics, cloud and large data.

IBM believes that change is inevitable. With a new era of business opportunities and very dynamic data size and sources, it is time to prepare to make use of better structures and framework. Analytics and big data handling is essential to remain competitive. Systems has to have no downtime, faster access and bigger data transfers and having servers that can predict any errors even before it happens without compromising other data uptime. Features like these make the IBM solutions for shared and secured access on a league of its own.

The beauty of it is that every two years they will announce new ones but this will still work. The same concept they are bringing to new ones because you don't need upgrades that much as it won't be cost efficient. This systems are designed for business critical enterprise so that even when you scale up, you won't get compromised and give you about 43% solutions cost. You can host multiple generations of technology in one server so maintenance is extremely easy. IBM's X6 is the fastest, mission critical application deployment in x86 based systems and no hardware vendor can match it. They are the first to do this.

X5 will retire this December. They also said that the Lenovo acquisition will not affect anything but the team that developed this and support for it will be transferred to Lenovo. We'll have to wait for the official announcement on this. With more performance and lower cost plus 4x more memory and higher system availability I couldn't think of any brand yet that could match X6. Will big enterprise use be of a reality soon? We'll have to find out if it applies to the Philippine market so we in turn can reap its benefits.

Note: One of the the local distributors is MSI, and they've assured all else will be okay once the transition starts in transferring x86 to Lenovo.That is reassuring.