Insights For Success

Strategy, Innovation, Leadership and Security

Best collapsible water bottle

GeneralEdward Kiledjian

The right gear makes travelling so much better.In 2014, I wrote an article about (my then) favourite foldable water bottle. At the time, it was the best foldable (small form factor) bottle money could buy but recently I discovered a new collapsible water bottle that puts the Vapur to shame. 

Why?

With tighter and tighter airport security screenings, bringing your own water became a taboo. Most people just fork over the $5-7 a bottle and buy it at the airport convenience store but no more. 

What is it?

The Nomader Collapsible water bottle is small, lightweight and easy to carry. Once you pass through all the security checkpoints, you unfold it, fill it and relish the thought that you just saved $5.

The Nomader is a leakproof bottle made of food grade silicone (BPA free) that holds 22 ounces. When fully extended and filled, it feels as close to a solid bottle as a collapsible bottle can.  The Vapur became giggly and you often ended up splashing water on yourself. This was a major complaint I had with the Vapur. 

The other issue with the Vapur is that after 12 months of use, my bottle sometimes leaked water from the top cap. Not so with the Nomader.

Water Filter

If you follow my blog, you have undoubtedly read my undying love for the Grayl water filter and purifier. If not, you should immediately read my post about it here, You can carry both (if going to an area with clean water concerns), and fill the Nomader once you filter the water with The Grayl. These 2 make a wonderful combo for travel.

Locky Ransomware is king of SPAM emails

GeneralEdward Kiledjian

Image by Yuri Samoilov used under creative commons license

We had lower than normal SPAM numbers for the last couple of quarters but the evil scourge of the internet is back with a vengeance. Company CISOs and personal users probably noticed a rise recently of emails containing variants of the locky ransomware (encrypting) malware.

The number of SPAM emails containing malware reached an all time high, according to Proofpoints Q3 2016 report. 

Proofpoint Q3 email badware statistics

Proofpoint said Locky was found in 96.8% of all malicious SPAM attachments. The vast majority contained a ZIP file containing a JavaScript file. We also saw Office documents containing malicious scripts, HTA files and WSF files.

Definitions:

  • HTA : HTML Application
  • WSF: Windows Scripting File

Other "fun" things found in these malware bundles included:

  • Pony Infostealer
  • Vawtrack banking Trojan
  • Tordal malware dropper
  • Panda Banker banking Trojan
  • CryptFile2
  • MarsJoke
  • Cerber

It's not all bad.... exploit kit activity is down 93% compares to the start of 2016. 

Samsung offering in-airport smartphone exchange

GeneralEdward Kiledjian

Image by Sergio Quntana via Twitter

The US FAA has officially barred all Note 7s from flying on any US airline and Samsung has started an airport exchange program. CNET is reporting that:

"After setting up exchange booths in South Korea's Incheon airport , Samsung is now spreading the initiative across the world, announcing trade-in booths in airports across Australia. The customer service booths will allow passengers to switch out their recalled Galaxy Note 7 (along with the data on it) to another Samsung device.

The booths will be open 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. local time at "high-traffic" terminals:

  • Sydney Airport (Kingsford Smith)
  • Melbourne Airport (Tullamarine)
  • Brisbane Airport
  • Adelaide Airport
  • Perth Airport
  • Gold Coast Airport
  • Canberra Airport (open 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.)"

ABC 7 News is reporting that exchange booths have been seen in San Francisco airport.  This airport exchange is a good idea as some of their customers may not be aware of the FAA prohibition.

Photo by Sergio Quintana

Australian carrier ships Google Pixel a week early

GeneralEdward Kiledjian

While everyone is waiting for the new Google branded Pixel to finally launch, a reddit user in Australia claims to have received his Pixel from Telstra early. 

And this doesn't seem to be an isolated case. There are a handful of Reddit threads talking about users receiving their units and backing up the claims with pictures.  Going through the information, we gleam the following :

Google Assistant welcomes you when you open the box 

Google's free unlimited full resolution storage option is automatic and available as soon as you sign in to the device. The app/service detects all Pixel images and videos. I am wondering if we will be able to game the system by playing with EXIF information.

Also and Duo are pre-loaded and the default apps. 

29.75GB of storage is available (out of the 32GB shown in this model).

The LED notification light is near the earpiece.

On a funnier note, people claiming to be Telstra employees commented on some posts and one said he bought his Pixel from Google because it offered a better warranty.