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What Do We Do About Social Engineering?

What Do We Do About Social Engineering?

We hear about ransomware schemes all the time, from the Colonial Pipeline attack to personal PC breaches[1]. These attacks involve an unauthorized party slipping into a secure system and locking users out of their data. Imagine that you stroll into the office one day and can’t get to work until your company pulls together thousands of dollars. The popular image of a hacker prying their way into a system involves rapidly striking a keyboard and slipping in through a digital backdoor. The truth, however, is often much more clever and sophisticated. 

Social Engineering Basics 

Social engineering takes the digital security fight offline. Hackers operate similarly to con artists. They take time to research their targets. Social media accounts are combed through for hints. They compile employment rosters, gather contact information, and learn everything they can about a company’s standard operating procedure[2].  

Social engineering has become an intricate process these days. Hackers have the opportunity to falsify credibility in ways we haven’t seen in the past. The ability to “spoof” a phone number is the ability to make it seem like they’re calling from a phone number that belongs to another person or organization. Spoofing is a powerful tool in the hacker’s kit. By spoofing the right number, they can convincingly pose as the representative of a client, a colleague in a distant department, or authority figures like the police or government officials[3]. 

Many social engineering tactics rely on following breadcrumbs until they can dig up login credentials, but a majority of them leverage fear and urgency in their information gathering excursions. These attempts to get information out of people can come in the form of false subpoenas, investigative claims, or bank phone calls. 

Businesses that deal in online spaces need to be particularly careful when it comes to social engineering. If your cybersecurity is robust and your digital hygiene is pristine, social engineering attacks may be the final opening in your armor.  

Protect Your Secrets 

Social media posts about work may, in most cases, be harmless, but with enough employees making enough posts about privileged information will lay bare the secrets of a workplace. Tweets complaining about the email services or storage solutions can turn into ammunition for a clever hacker. Photos of office spaces can be a peek into the hardware and internet infrastructure of an office, giving an innovative way in for the hackers. Workplace policies that prohibit social media posts about internal processes go a long way when it comes to preventing hacking attempts. 

If your business involves exchanging personal information with clients via the phone or email, social engineers will, with time, work out who those clients are. Once a social engineer works out who your common points of contact are, they will often opt to pose as tertiary collaborators. With a handful of details, a hacker can create a convincing profile of a person that never existed. Be wary at work when a “new employee” calls for information your clients already have.  

Disengage and Verify 

When phone calls come from a number you recognize, but the caller’s behavior seems incongruent, take a minute to gather information of your own. If the police call and they’re demanding login information to “investigate a case,” gather information of your own before handing anything over. Badge numbers, and officer names are pieces of information you’re entitled to. Ask to call back and contact the police on your own. Contacting the organization a spoofed number claims to be from on your own is one of the best ways to verify the legitimacy of a call or text message. Bank scams and IRS fraud will similarly fall apart under his degree of scrutiny. This also works to break apart social engineering attempts when the culprit poses as a representative of your clients. Any request for sensitive information should be verified ahead of compliance.  

Practice Password Security 

If a successful social engineering attack happens in your workplace, a diverse pool of passwords will protect the office from widespread damage. Successful data breaches thrive when a single password grants access to more than one security system. Diversity in passwords will save you a ton of time and headache in the event something goes work. We also recommend never storing a password [4] in a document on your computer. If a hacker gets access to your machine and finds that, then your security breach’s damage will quickly spill out onto other corners.  

Decentralize Your Workplace 

The end goal of any social engineering is to steal private information or otherwise disrupt a business’s ability to continue work without paying a ransom. Decentralized storage is, by far, one of the best ways to keep this from happening altogether. Data backups stored offsite in decentralized servers are going to be secure in the face of a data breach in the workplace.  

Let AXEL Help 

AXEL is a decentralized storage solution for all of your storage and file-sharing needs.  

You can try AXEL Go Premium with all features unlocked free for 14 days. Sign up today and see how AXEL Go can improve your workflow and supplement your organization’s cybersecurity. 

References

[1] Touro College. “The 10 Biggest Ransomware Attacks of 2021.” Touro College Illinois. Touro College, November 12, 2021. https://illinois.touro.edu/news/the-10-biggest-ransomware-attacks-of-2021.php 

[2] Kaspersky. “What Is Social Engineering?” usa.kaspersky.com, March 9, 2022. https://usa.kaspersky.com/resource-center/definitions/what-is-social-engineering 

[3] 29, Ray March, JamminJ March 29, The Sunshine State March 29, Gary March 29, Hal March 29, Ferdinand March 29, Nope March 31, et al. “Hackers Gaining Power of Subpoena via Fake ‘Emergency Data Requests.’” Krebs on Security, March 29, 2022. https://krebsonsecurity.com/2022/03/hackers-gaining-power-of-subpoena-via-fake-emergency-data-requests/ 

[4] “Password Safety.” Technology Safety. Accessed April 27, 2022. https://www.techsafety.org/passwordincreasesecurity 

Five Simple Security Tricks

Security in 2022 is simultaneously an incredibly simple and precarious balancing act. We are surrounded by technology that improves, simplifies, and rules our lives. Our phones have access to our credit cards, desktops are filled to the brim with family photo albums, and our workplaces are bound together by networks of servers humming away in silent corners of our offices. As ransomware attacks and other unfortunate data breaches become cheaper and easier for bad actors to execute, we have a duty to take actions that secure our privacy online.

Updates

The simplest security tactic you can implement is regularly updating your software. We understand the frustration of sitting down to work only to be greeted by requests to shut down your machine in service of an update. It intrudes on workflow and often seems frivolous, but that could not be further from the truth. More often than not, software updates are done to patch out exploits. Software engineers have a personal and professional stake in keeping their products secure for their customers. Nobody wants to release the app that costs them millions in lawsuits or has their name tied to weeks of negative press[1]. 

If you think of security as an arms race, we can begin to see why updates are crucial to the continued digital safety of your workplace. Hackers rely on back doors, loose locks, and dropped keys. Software updates shut those doors tight and continue to provide digital safety. Every security breach acts as a teaching moment for developers. When a single customer loses their data, developers are presented with the opportunity to address a new security issue. Updates are an effortless asset in the security toolbox, and while they may put a brief pause on work, the time spent is well worth the benefits received

Phishing Scams and Spam

Emails have been around for decades. They’re the default mode of communication in professional settings, they’ve become the mailbox of the modern world, and a world without email is one without effective communication. That doesn’t mean that emails are flawless. Brad Tempelton, founder and CEO of ClariNet Communications, the first company founded to engage in commercial activity over the early Internet notes that email scams and spam have existed nearly as long as email itself has existed[2].

Like anything, we need to employ our critical thinking and best judgment. Phone scams and pyramid schemes are met with skepticism, and emails need to be treated with equal scrutiny in the workplace. When we receive emails that ask for information or take us to unfamiliar webpages, it’s always better to be safe than sorry. Follow up with someone if an email address seems suspiciously similar, risk seeming over-cautious rather than clicking blindly on a convincing scam. 

Securing credentials

Movies have given us a popular, if flawed, perception of hackers. We tend to overlook one of the hacker’s preferred methods of entry, the login screen. Of course, passwords are often brute force cracked by algorithms tirelessly testing out common letter combinations, and workarounds are found for systems every day, but if a bad actor can pluck a password out of a recycling basket or talk an unsuspecting coworker out of private information over the phone, then that saves them time and resources.

We need to remember that our security online doesn’t stop at the computer screen. Avoid writing passwords in unsecured emails or texting them to untrustworthy recipients. If “IT” asks for an administrative password, insist on entering it yourself rather than sharing it. Change them early and often, and establish office-wide best practices that generate uncommon passwords that are easy to remember to deter coworkers from writing them in easy-to-lose places.

Encrypting your files 

In many workplaces, sensitive information is exchanged hundreds of times per day. Internal communication, social security numbers scrawled on contracts, and scans of driver’s licenses are piped from system to system to keep work happening smoothly. If a hacker is able to “wiretap” your file transfers, then they can pluck your unencrypted files out of a stream of data and lay bare their contents. Unsecured or public wireless networks are points of entry often overlooked by remote employees, and hackers love dipping into these streams of naked information to see what they can find.

End-to-end encryption is the process of obscuring that data while it’s in transit. Encrypted data can only be read when unlocked by a randomly generated key, meaning intercepted data is effectively useless to an unauthorized third party. File sharing services that offer simple end-to-end encryption and secure file retrieval are an easy way to secure your business’s everyday dealings.

Education

By reading this piece, you’re already setting yourself apart from the competition. By far, the weakest link in security infrastructure is the lack of information[3]. The three most common points of entry for ransomware attacks — phishing, poor practices, and training —  boil down to gulfs in education. We need to keep our workplaces well-informed if we want to protect our businesses from bad actors. Taking a little time out of our schedules each quarter to update colleagues will pay off dozens of times over. 

When it comes to online security, knowledge is power.

Join AXEL

We creature secure ecosystems for your sensitive data. Our end-to-end encryption, secure fetch, and dedication to privacy easily slot into any workplace. AXEL is the industry leader in private and secure file storage. 

You can try AXEL Go Premium with all features unlocked free for 14-days. Sign up today and see how AXEL Go can improve your workflow and supplement your organization’s cybersecurity

References

[1] “5 Reasons Why It’s Important to Update Your Systems Regularly.” Datek Solutions. Accessed April 21, 2022. https://www.datek.co.uk/blog/software-update#:~:text=Increased%20efficiency,giving%20greater%20efficiency%20to%20users. 

[2] Reaction to the DEC spam of 1978. Accessed April 21, 2022. https://www.templetons.com/brad/spamreact.html.

[3] Johnson, Joseph. “Leading Cause of Ransomware Infection 2020.” Statista, February 16, 2021. https://www.statista.com/statistics/700965/leading-cause-of-ransomware-infection/.

IPFS: The InterPlanetary Solution to Small Business Problems 

The InterPlanetary File System is a protocol used online to distribute and access data. Anything from websites and chat clients to tax forms and email inboxes take advantage of this decentralized technology. We wanted to dive deeper into the technology to examine its nascent days, its future, and the impact it currently has on the technology landscape. How does decentralization benefit small businesses, and how does it protect us as individuals from Big Tech companies like Google and Meta? 

This week, we are revisiting a blog from 2019 in which we asked AXEL’s own developers about IPFS. One of our AXEL developers that will be answering our questions is Rick Stiles, a veteran of AXEL, SVP of Products and IP, and a veritable encyclopedia of blockchain information. 

Q: In the previous blog, we asked, “What inspired you to develop AXEL IPFS”? And you answered that the next evolution of computing is distributed. IPFS or something very similar is going to be the basis of distributed storage. With so many advancements that have taken place, is this still the correct answer in 2022? 

Yes. Decentralized and distributed computing is absolutely still the answer. But decentralization itself isn’t just about getting the equipment spread out and closer to the users; it’s also about decentralizing the control of the network. Blockchain networks sit at the very heart of the decentralization initiative. These networks are democratized through the use of consensus mechanisms. The AXEL network uses Masternodes to perform transactions and achieve consensus. Since these Masternodes are owned and operated independently, the network’s power and control are governed by the network, not by an individual or a corporation. IPFS is the perfect complement to a decentralized network as it is an open-source file storage and management operating system designed to enable interoperability across networks and domains. By combining these two powerful technologies, true decentralization of network resources and control can begin to grow.

Q: What are we talking about when we talk about IPFS?

IPFS (Interplanetary File System) is a protocol. It’s designed specifically for storing and sharing data in distributed and decentralized file systems. IPFS is open-source, meaning anyone wishing to participate in the network is welcome to do so. Unlike typical file storage protocols deployed independently by cloud providers, IPFS creates interoperability across networks and domains, expanding the reach of file access beyond typical localized cloud solutions.

Q: What are some benefits of decentralizing your storage over a centralized method like Google Drive? 

Decentralized storage puts your files closer to where you need them. In a typical decentralized networking configuration, your access point to your files will be geographically closer to you in most cases. Decentralization also means that the traffic on the network isn’t all being routed through a centralized hub. This enables faster access and dramatically reduces the upload/download and access times during peak traffic hours. Yet another benefit of decentralization is in file security. It’s far more challenging to hack into a file if you don’t know where it resides. Larger companies hosting file services are routinely targeted by nefarious entities seeking to gain access to private data.

Q: How does the decentralized nature of IPFS benefit small businesses?

As I shared previously, decentralization brings your content closer to you, giving you faster access times and more flexibility with file storage. Another significant advantage is file privacy and security. In a typical cloud storage configuration, encryption is offered as an added measure of protection to prevent unauthorized file access. The problem with this approach is that the companies providing the encryption are also holding all the encryption/decryption keys. This means that unauthorized people can still access your files since you (the file owner) are not directly in control of your encryption/decryption keys. Decentralized networks (like AXEL) don’t hold the keys to files stored within the IPFS repositories. These keys are tied directly to you, the users. So, you are in complete control of the privacy and security of your digital content.

We see in 2022 that IPFS technology has become more widespread over the last three years. As a storage solution, IPFS has been placed in the hands of the everyman. Anyone seeking end-to-end encryption can find it with a click and drag rather than seeking a bespoke solution or an in-house developer.

Q: AXEL IPFS will allow our users to immediately and securely distribute their data worldwide for personal or business use. Is this still the most exciting aspect of IPFS?

For the user, that’s a very exciting aspect of IPFS. As a developer, the migration of business networking from a centralized to a decentralized configuration, combined with interoperability across networks, is the most exciting aspect of IPFS.  

Decentralization of resources also means decentralization of control. By decentralizing control of these global networks, users have more options. For example, there used to be just a single telephone company in the USA. “Bell Telephone” was the company. If you wanted to make a phone call, you did it through Bell Telephone. Then came divestiture. Divestiture broke the telephone companies into much smaller groups with much smaller service areas. This meant that those companies had to battle for customers and focus on better products and better service to gain users, even though they were all providing access to the same network. If everyone uses IPFS to store their digital content, then you have far more choices in how you manage your content and the gateways you use to access your content. This goes a long way in the unification of global storage and networking.

Q: In 2019, we initially asked if there is a future for IPFS and what industries will adopt it first. Were you right in your answer?

Yes. The technology researchers and developers focused on Web 3.0 are still working diligently towards integrating and expanding IPFS networking and storage services. As expected, others have also joined the journey of IPFS storage. Largely, these industries and disciplines have a much greater need for privacy and security. The old saying “necessity is the mother of invention” is true in the case of IPFS. Companies and individuals are becoming far savvier regarding the privacy and security of their files and personal data. So they seek out more private and secure networks to facilitate the management of their data. IPFS fosters both interoperability and enhanced privacy and security. 

Q: We previously talked about IPFS storage as “an evolution” of cybersecurity. What are some strides in cybersecurity you’ve seen over the past three years that IPFS has had a hand in?

Transport encryption is probably one of the top advances in IPFS. Encryption itself provides privacy and security for contents at rest (while being stored). An example of this would be a spreadsheet to which you’ve assigned a password. To open that file, you would need the password. As would anyone you shared that file with. Transport encryption protects the file while being sent from one IPFS node to another. This prevents a third party from viewing the contents of a file while it is in transit—pretty cool stuff.

Q: We often hear champions of Web 3 tell their audiences that decentralization is the future. Why is that?

As I shared earlier, decentralization isn’t just about geographically distributing the network elements across a wide area, making transaction times faster. It’s also about the decentralization of the control of these networks. That’s where the real excitement lies. Taking the control out of the hands of a single governing entity or group and putting that control into a democratized network makes IPFS more of a public utility. One that is owned and operated by the public. This keeps access and availability very high while also keeping the costs of services low.

Q: What makes IPFS storage an integral stepping stone to establishing Web 3?

Web 3.0 is all about the decentralization of network control. IPFS being open source and bringing interoperability across networks and devices gets us closer to establishing Web 3.0. When the internet first appeared, it was free access and free information for everyone. It was indeed a public utility. Now the internet is very much controlled by a handful of major corporations that monetize users’ personal information to grow their power and reach of these corporations. Web 3.0 is a movement towards returning the power and control of user information to the user, preventing it from being monetized without our approval. If Web 3.0 were a highway, it would be free, open, and winding. The current global internet system is more like a toll road. Which would you rather drive on?

Early adopters of IPFS  infrastructure have been quietly building Web 3.0  spaces in ways that don’t rely on cryptocurrencies or buzzwords. IPFS is a structure that uses blockchain networks and heavy encryption in a practical manner as we speak. Web 3.0 has found its true footing in storage solutions and remote work initiatives. 

How does AXEL use IPFS to shore up its digital defenses?

By design, IPFS is far more robust from a security standpoint than centralized storage. Every year, we see more and more news stories about massive data breaches affecting millions of lives. The problem lies in the fact that these massive data repositories are centralized. They store all user/client data in the same place(s). This makes them easier for hacker targets because they know all the data is stored in the same repository. So you can attack a large storage target and get massive amounts of information for your efforts. IPFS is specifically designed to support decentralized and distributed storage. So all of the information is not in the same place. By breaking up the files and storing them across a network swarm instead of a localized storage repository, IPFS is far more secure simply because it’s more difficult for a nefarious actor to target the stored content because it’s spread out.

Q: Are there any thoughts you’d like to leave us with?

Web 3.0 is coming. Decentralization of networking control and distribution of network storage and resources will bring us closer to a new web experience that puts everyone in control of their content, their identity, and their privacy and security. AXEL is keenly focused on bringing Web 3.0 to the forefront. We welcome you to join us on our journey as we work with other pioneers to bring us closer to Web 3.0

IPFS isn’t just a storage solution for small businesses. It’s a technology that acts as the modern crowbar, prying centralized control away from tech companies that ask us to put our faith in them. The decentralized storage and in-transit encryption IPFS provides is indeed the future of security. Still, the real utility lies in the fact that it gives digital privacy and security back to consumers and business owners.

Join AXEL

You can try AXEL Go Premium with all features unlocked free for 14-days. Sign up today and see how AXEL Go can improve your workflow, bulwark your organization’s cybersecurity, and pave the road to a better internet.

Schools: Our Cybersecurity Blindspot

When we send our students off to school, we trust that they are being protected by teachers and curriculum to the administration and infrastructure. Education is one of the greatest institutions civilization has, so when we find gaps in the structure, they should be taken seriously. American schools have been experiencing several data leaks in the recent past. We want to talk about where they’re happening, how they’ve taken place, and what we can do to protect our student’s data once it’s been handed off to our education system. 

How Did This Happen?

Most cyberattacks are a product of neglect. Phishing scams, ransomware attacks, and social engineering schemes rely on finding a hole in an organization’s cybersecurity plan. Many businesses fail to take a preventative stance when it comes to defending their digital assets, preferring instead to save in the short term. When it comes to business, this decision is often motivated by profit, but when it comes to public schools and their lagging technology, it’s more likely an act of necessity.

In The United States, public schools get overwhelming funding through property taxes and local budgetary expenditures. This, unfortunately, leaves many districts underfunded if located in an area where tax revenue is more scarce. This creates a tight budget for a system that requires a lot of money to run. Across the board, less than 13 percent of a public school’s funding comes from federal sources[1]. 

With tight budgets and a lack of support from federal coffers, public schools have to choose. Understandably, money is spent on the physical needs of the students. Keeping the lights on, feeding children, and giving them a comfortable environment to learn in tends to take top priority. However, this means hackers are discovering vulnerable and unattended storage solutions ripe for the picking. Since 2005 nearly two thousand data cyberattacks have taken place on public schools in America, hemorrhaging 28.6 million student records[2].

What Data Are We Losing?

If you’ve never registered a student in school, it’s easy to think that schools are just losing grades or detention records. If it were that trivial, we wouldn’t be seeing the loss of millions of student records. In a cyberattack that took place in January of 2022, a breach of Illuminate Education, a software company the New York City’s Department of Education uses to track grades and attendance, gave a hacker access to students’ names, birthdays, ethnicities along with their English-speaking, special-education and free-lunch statuses[3]. In the case of this high-profile breach, no social security numbers or bank information was lost, but 820,000 individuals had their personal information flung to the wind through no fault of their own.

In the case of New York City’s cyberattack, students and their families got away without losing anything ruinous, and, in some cases, a security breach ends up being a district-wide perfectly synchronized Rickroll at the hands of a savvy senior[4]. Those stories are in the minority. We see millions of students losing their social security numbers along with every single piece of identifying information before they’re even old enough to drive[5], and these attacks cost school districts well over $6 billion of their already limited budgets[6].

Taking a Proactive Stance

Protecting data in school systems will require work. In the modern age, there’s no way around that. Encrypting data, decentralizing storage systems, and protecting storage solutions with more than a password written on a stray sticky note is the key to the fight against school data breaches. With a coordinated push and a little investment, American schools can reclaim the billions of dollars they’ve lost to data breaches and redirect those funds back into the education system. We here at AXEL have been building a platform that protects the security and privacy of any student, teacher, or small business.

You can try AXEL Go Premium with all features unlocked free for 14-days. Sign up today and see how AXEL Go can improve your workflow and harden your organization’s cybersecurity.

References

[1] “Public School Revenue Sources – National Center for Education Statistics” Accessed April 7, 2022. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/pdf/coe_cma.pdf.

[2], [5] “US Schools Leaked 28.6 Million Records in 1,851 Data Breaches since 2005.” Comparitech, January 21, 2022. https://www.comparitech.com/blog/vpn-privacy/us-schools-data-breaches/#:~:text=US%20schools%20leaked%2028.6%20million%20records%20in%201%2C851%20data%20breaches%20since%202005,-Sam%20Cook%20Data&text=Since%202005%2C%20K%E2%80%9312%20school,more%20than%2028.6%20million%20records.

[3] Bamberger, Cayla, and Jesse O’Neill. “Personal Data of 820,000 NYC Students Compromised in Hack.” New York Post. New York Post, March 27, 2022. https://nypost.com/2022/03/26/nyc-students-have-personal-data-hacked/. 

[4] Hanson, Melanie, and Fact Checked. “U.S. Public Education Spending Statistics [2022]: Per Pupil + Total.” Education Data Initiative, March 21, 2022. https://educationdata.org/public-education-spending-statistics#:~:text=States%20contribute%20a%20total%20of,funding%20is%20equivalent%20to%202.62%25. 

[4] Tangermann, Victor. “Teen Hacks School Computer System, Rickrolls Entire School District.” Futurism. Futurism, October 14, 2021. https://futurism.com/the-byte/teen-hacks-school-computer-system-rickrolls-entire-school-district

[6] Blacher, Mitch. “Despite Billions in Federal Money, American Schools Remain Vulnerable to Cyberattacks.” WJLA. WJLA, March 7, 2022. https://wjla.com/features/i-team/school-cyber-attacks-hacks-records-federal-money-vulnerable-america-us-dc-maryland-virginia.

The State of Privacy Laws in 2022

In the age of the internet, we’ve seen the importance of protecting the privacy of regular citizens online. Big Tech companies have proven they’re willing to take advantage of lax legislation. Facebook has faced lawsuits for collecting biometric data without permission[1], Google uses so-called Dark Patterns to make opting out of data collection nearly impossible[2], and Amazon’s Echo is essentially a privacy leak right in the middle of our homes[3]. In light of this privacy faux pas, we would like to take some time to audit the current privacy landscape. 

Gaps in Privacy Law

Since May of 2018 when the European Union created the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), private citizens around the world have had their eyes opened to the potential that privacy laws have to protect them. The United States has been slowly but surely piecing together similar privacy protections from the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act[5] to the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020[6]. Unfortunately, these have been coming from individual states, creating a digital protection patchwork quilt. The internet, however, doesn’t respect the borders of the 50 states. The patchy approach of United States legislation is insufficient to protect private citizens on the internet.

Congress should be looking to recreate what California has done with the California Consumer Protection Act (CCPA) on a federal level. This bill passed in 2018 intended to pass along several digital privacy rights to California citizens, including the right to discover what data these businesses have collected.

The CCPA requires businesses subject to its jurisdiction to give customers the ability to say no to the sale of their data. You may have noticed a “do not sell my personal information” link on more websites in recent memory. You have the CCPA to thank for that. 

The act in California and the GDPR has been an essential foundation when discussing the future of privacy online. Yet, the United States hasn’t seen a similar provision passed on the federal level, such as when they voted no on a bill that would have allowed the FCC to institute more stringent privacy protections [6]. If we dig a little deeper into this glaring Congressional oversight, perhaps the root cause of this federal reluctance is money. According to the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, federalizing a bill like the California Consumer Protection Act would carve $122 billion out of the US GDP every year[7]. 

These costs come in the form of compliance costs to businesses that handle or sell private data. When bills that affect private data go into effect, businesses need to hire on customer data stewards and they become subject to time-consuming privacy audits. These additional hires and audits require redirected capital to maintain secure storage solutions and dedicated labor forces for resources to fulfilling customer data requests.

Big Tech’s Loopholes

Big Tech companies like Apple, Google, and Microsoft, or smaller companies like Ring (before they were acquired by Amazon) have undoubtedly brought us creature comforts previously unheard of every year. Online shops that predict our needs, smart home devices that automate our morning routines, and photo albums that automatically organize your shots based on object and facial detection streamline our lives like never before. These companies tend to make these technological strides while trampling — time and again — on our reasonable expectation of privacy. Big Tech has been delving deeper into the world of facial recognition software and using our faces to do it. Social media sites tend to be where the average user saves their vacation photos and other precious memories. In the last few years, these photos have become algorithm food. Data that users assumed would be housed safely on social platforms without being monetized and meticulously annotated in the name of research or profit has been used to create an ever more accurate database bought and sold to third parties without our say in the matter. 

Google is currently facing scrutiny from the Attorneys General in Washington D.C. and Texas for using “dark patterns” to extract location data from users that would have otherwise opted out of such tracking. Dark patterns are design tricks that use social engineering or deceptive interface design to push users towards harmful decisions they otherwise would not have made. The suit in question cites the fact that users unwilling to have their location data tracked and sold by Google are effectively boxed out of services provided by non-Google companies like Uber until they give Google permission to collect their data[8]. These suits are claiming that Google violates D.C.’s Consumer Protection Procedures Act and Texas’ Deceptive Trade Practices Consumer Protection Act. It is worth noting that Google would have a more challenging time extracting data from customers if these protection acts had been implemented on a federal level.

Privacy Without Compromise

We believe in an internet that doesn’t take advantage of its users. To that end, we’ve built our business on minding our own business. Our decentralized file-sharing servers create a space online for your data that won’t be sold to a third party or glimpsed by prying eyes. While we advocate for privacy laws that give citizens their privacy back, we’ll work to keep your data private as best we can.

You can try AXEL Go Premium with all features unlocked free for 14-days. Sign up today and see how AXEL Go can improve your workflow and harden your organization’s cybersecurity.

References

[1] “How to Avoid Unwanted Photos on Social Media.” The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company, January 23, 2022. https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-to-avoid-unwanted-photos-on-social-media-11642933804. 

[2] [8] DeGeurin, Mack. “Google Illegally Used Dark Patterns to Trick Users Into Handing Over Location Data, State AGs Say.” Gizmodo. Gizmodo, January 24, 2022. https://gizmodo.com/google-lawsuit-location-data-attorneys-general-1848410222. 

[3] Garfield Benjamin Postdoctoral Researcher. “Amazon Echo’s Privacy Issues Go Way beyond Voice Recordings.” The Conversation, April 8, 2021. https://theconversation.com/amazon-echos-privacy-issues-go-way-beyond-voice-recordings-130016. 

[4] Ashley Johnson and Daniel Castro. “Why Congress Should Pass Data Privacy Legislation in 2022.” The Hill. The Hill, January 24, 2022. https://thehill.com/opinion/cybersecurity/591022-why-congress-should-pass-data-privacy-legislation-in-2022/. 

[5] “Virginia Passes Comprehensive Privacy Law.” Gibson Dunn, March 8, 2021. https://www.gibsondunn.com/virginia-passes-comprehensive-privacy-law/. 

[6] “California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).” State of California – Department of Justice – Office of the Attorney General, March 28, 2022. https://oag.ca.gov/privacy/ccpa. 

[7] Fung, Brian. “The House Just Voted to Wipe Away the FCC’s Landmark Internet Privacy Protections.” The Washington Post. WP Company, December 5, 2021. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/03/28/the-house-just-voted-to-wipe-out-the-fccs-landmark-internet-privacy-protections/. 

The Great Return (Back to the Office)

The most critical tool in any business belt is the ability to quickly react to unforeseen circumstances — second to that is the ability to learn from them. Offices all across America had to learn how to deal with a workforce scattered to the winds during unprecedented times. Guest rooms across the nation became offices, Zoom was the water cooler, and keeping internal documents safe on the internet suddenly became a much sharper priority. As we slowly, but surely, return to the office one thing is for sure: we’ll be returning with a drastically altered view of the workplace.

Tools Obtained by Working from Home

Working from home, initially, was a contentious topic. How would employees fare working ten feet away from their couches? What was going to keep them out of their pajamas and in the right mindset? Would productivity plummet in service of the family’s cat and dog? 

A few years of embracing remote work has shown quite a precipitous increase in productivity. The workforce is filled to the brim with people that understand their own natural rhythms, people that are driven to do good work for the sake of their own pride[1]. When remote work swept the nation, a wide majority of employees reported increased satisfaction with their workplaces to go along with the increased rate of work they were producing from their home offices. 

Additionally, workplaces suddenly had access to a deeper well of talent. With remote work, the most qualified candidates were no longer pulling themselves from the pile of applicants because of a long commute. Businesses operating out of an expensive business park were able to drastically decrease overhead by relocating to less expensive areas — no longer needing a city center to consolidate their talent — or by closing their offices altogether[2].

Reports of increased job satisfaction, higher output, and depressed overhead have been convincing evidence for some of the tech giants, you know, some of the most valuable companies in the modern world. Remote work is taking a permanent spot in their workplaces[3]. 

Benefits of the Office

Remote work is all well and good, but the reality of returning to the office is still upon us for a good reason in many cases. The truth is, some businesses and their work culture thrive in person. A good brainstorm in the writer’s room, an in-person negotiation with rapidly building rapport and lively handshakes, the joy of seeing your work friends after a weekend apart. These are all aspects of the office many of us crave.

Something as simple as laying your hands on a hard copy of a document is enough to dramatically change your relationship to your work. Abstract deals jotted down on paper hold a weight that digital backups never will[4].

Not every business has the luxury of remote offices. Some of them need tightly-knit groups of employees with their heads together in real time, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Some offices have become expensive storage units, begging to be warmed with heated exchanges and feverish work. If that’s your business, then the return to the office is most likely a welcome one[5].

How we can merge the two and Axel’s role

Now that so many workplaces have discovered the benefits of working remotely, these will be difficult to turn a blind eye to, even during The Great Return. Workplaces can still benefit from the lessons learned from remote work. Contracts can be negotiated with remote work provisions to net some of the best talent in the world, saving money and retaining crucial employees. Your bottom line can rest easy knowing that startups or small businesses are more than capable of thriving on a foundation of remote work. Most importantly, however, the strategies employed to keep businesses safe and effective through the internet can be effortlessly folded into central work models.

We can work with secure shared drives. We can work with decentralized servers that are easily accessed. We can work without worrying that one bad link will bring the office to its knees. With cloud-based file-sharing software increasingly intermingling with office life, the days of lost backups and forgotten thumb drives are about as relevant as floppy disk anxiety.

By keeping the same vigilance and flexibility remote work required of businesses in 2020 and beyond, we create offices that are smarter, work harder, and, most importantly, they become more private and secure.

About AXEL

Using a secure file storage system is the key to protecting your data from breaches and ransomware attacks. That’s where AXEL Go comes in. Offering military-grade encryption and decentralized blockchain technology, AXEL Go is the best way to protect yourself and your business from unauthorized cybercriminals. With privacy concerns not going away anytime soon, secure file-sharing is a necessity for businesses and individuals. If you’re ready to try the best protection, try two free weeks of AXEL Go here.

References

[1] https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/7/20/15821560/basic-income-critiques-cost-work-negative-income-tax

[2] https://www.chicagobooth.edu/review/are-we-really-more-productive-working-home 

[3] https://www.wsj.com/articles/mark-zuckerberg-and-metas-leadership-take-remote-work-to-the-extreme-11648040580?st=wvg8xkwmhcb9sme&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

[4] https://www.protocol.com/newsletters/protocol-workplace/official-return-to-office?rebelltitem=5#rebelltitem5

[5] https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/08/return-to-office-why-executives-are-eager-for-workers-to-come-back.html