Insights For Success

Strategy, Innovation, Leadership and Security

Best URL shorteners

GeneralEdward Kiledjian

URL shorteners are something you either use a lot or never. Google launched it's own URL shortening service in 2009 with unique (at the time) features like third-party API access, QR code generation, ability to use easily on mobile. 

But Google is retiring this public facing service and replacing it with Firebase Dynamic Links (FDL) accessible by developers only. 

This is not surprising since Twitter retired Deck.ly when it acquired TweetDeck.

If you have links, Google is giving you until March 30, 2019, to figure out what you are going to do (even though you will lose the ability to create new short links on April 13). 

What are the best Goo.gl alternatives?

1 - Bit.ly

The first alternative has to be Bit.ly which is one of the most popular URL shortening services on the internet and one of the oldest. You create an account and then generate short links as required (you can also choose a tag to group your URL). 

Bitly allows you to create custom branded short URLs, which is excellent for marketing. 

2 - Ow.ly

Hootsuite runs a service called Ow.ly. Ow.ly offers all of the features of Bit.ly but integrates with HootSuite. So if you use Hootsuite to manage your social media presence, this could be the best option for you.

The big difference is that Bit.ly allows you to quickly shorten a link from their main webpage without having to sign-up whereas Ow.ly does not.

3 - rebrandly.com

Many lists include Firebase from Google but I am omitting it since it is only designed for use by developers in apps (not useful for the average Joe). My last recommendation is Rebrandly.com which offers custom URL shorteners. Many large cloud companies are Rebrandly customers (such as Microsoft, Dropbox, etc).

Before you get scared and look away, they offer a free tier that will meet the needs of most users.

Conclusion

A URL shortener is a service that you will rely on for years, and I have presented the companies (services) that look to be the most stable. Remeber that when the service disappears's your links break which could wreak havoc on your social strategy.

Quebec to change tax collection rules for foreign tech companies

GeneralEdward Kiledjian

Montreal's La Presse newspaper is reporting that "two high-level government sources" have confirmed that the upcoming Quebec budget (March 27, 2018) will include new sales taxes levied on foreign tech companies like Netflix, Amazon, Google, and Apple, that do not have a Quebec presence. 

As it currently stands, these non-resident foreign companies are not expected to collect sales taxes from consumers. Under current regulations, the government expects consumers to auto-report these purchases and submit the necessary taxes. 

Based on a November report, the Quebec government believes it lost 270M$ during the previous fiscal year because of this collection model. 

Additionally, the government believes local merchants selling online are disadvantaged by the extra tax burden

The intent will be to:

  • collect sales tax on products and services (intangible) coming from outside of Canada
  • collect sales tax on physical goods physical goods coming from outside of  Canada
  • collect sales tax on goods (tangible or intangible) coming from the rest of Canada

La Presse reports that these new tax rules will be implemented regardless of Ottawa's position or opinion. 

What makes a good Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)

GeneralEdward Kiledjian

Only five years ago, the title of Chief Information Security Officer was likely awarded to an employee that had worked hard and was dedicated to the company. It was an honorific title often given as a reward. Times have changed and companies need a new breed of CISO.

The number, severity, and impacts of cyber threats are continually increasing. Companies now rely on complex highly integrated IT systems whose confidentiality, availability and integrity are paramount. 

The WannaCry ransomware was a good example of how poorly managed security can cripple an organization. The National Health Service in the United Kingdom had up to 70,000 infected devices and was forced to turn away non-emergency patients. (1)

The CISO is now a senior-level business executive who can directly impact the profitability and viability of an entire organization. Instead of being a technical specialist, the CISO must now be a seasoned business leader that can become a trusted advisor to other executives within the organization. 

CISOs can help maintain your brand value, help build relationships with various stakeholders, and are charged with protecting an organization's most important assets (the digital ones).

The job of a true modern CISO is getting harder by the day, and organizations need to ensure they have the best CISO they can find & afford, to guiding them. 

If we agree that the nature of the CISO's role has changed and that the modern CISO is a very different creature than his predecessor, what makes a good CISO?

1 - Problem solvers

A modern-day CISO can solve complex rapidly changing problems under stress and high pressure. A CISO must enjoy solving complex puzzles while being able to juggle day-to-day tasks and driving the organization's long-term vision. The CISO must understand that every decision made today can have dramatic repercussions tomorrow. 

2- The CISO must be a people person

The modern CISO is often a front-line representative of the organization to shareholders, customers, partners, and regulators. They must have the ability to build strong relationships based on trust and respect. The CISO must have the ability to communicate complex security issues to stakeholders that may not understand even basic IT. The modern CISO must be a people person. The modern CISO must lead his team with fervor and engender commitment from the security team. 

3 - The CISO is a citizen of the world

Information flows without respective national boundaries, but companies are being asked to navigate complex global regulations that sometimes contradict each other. The only way a CISO can manage this increasingly complex regulatory environment is with non-traditional skills (for an IT person) that include law, business, compliance and governmental relations. 

4 - The CISO must be business minded

The CISO must make security decisions based on how it impacts the organization or enables the organization to perform its primary business functions. The CISO must weight security decisions against profitability, efficiency and must build a competitive advantage for the organization. A CISO must be obsessed with efficiency and must be resource conscious (people, time and money). Gone are the days when a CISO makes purely technical decisions based on technical need. 

5- CISOs tend to be workaholics

Even if work-life balance is all the rage, a CISO is always on call. Unfortunately, the bad guys never take a break and often neither does the CISO. It is common for a CISO to work long hours and weekends while guiding the organization to where it needs to go. The modern CISO is humble and respects the capabilities of his/her adversaries. A CISO must always be vigilant. A CISO is continually thinking about how he/she will keep the organization one step ahead of threat actors.

6 - Strong team building skills

CISOs work long and hard but so do their teams. A CISO must be self-confident enough to hire the highly skilled professionals the organization needs to succeed. I have met many CISOs who refused to hire employees that were more technically competent than them for fear of being replaced. This is the reflex of a "bad" CISO that doesn't understand his/her new role. A good CISO will hire the best resources he/she can find and them coach them to grow and become exceptional. The stronger the team, the better the CISO.

7 - Your CISO doesn't need to be certified 

Full disclosure, I do not currently hold any security certifications but I believe I can challenge anyone that does. The CISO is a business professional with security experience, not a security professional with business experience. 

You should rely on the proven track record.

Conclusion

The role of CISO is constantly changing, and the ideal candidate must also be constantly evolving.  I have been a security executive since 2001 and have seen the role of CISO morph from a backroom function performed by geeks, to a font of the house leader that can communicate with clients and regulators. The right CISO can drive business growth while the wrong one can sink your entire organization. 

Invest the time, energy and resources required to hire the right CISO for your company. If you have a CISO already, make sure he/she is the right one your organization needs right now. 

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(1) Ungoed-Thomas, Jon; Henry, Robin; Gadher, Dipesh (14 May 2017). "Cyber-attack guides promoted on YouTube"The Sunday Times. Retrieved 14 May2017.

Canadians can find out what data a company stores about them

GeneralEdward Kiledjian

The average consumer is starting to realize how much personal data companies collect about them. 

RELATEDHow Target knows you are pregnant through data analytics

Consumers should be concerned about what data is collected, how is is used and who it is shared with. 

Canadian privacy laws ( like Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act) allow consumers to access their information (aka companies must respond to a request for personal information held by the company).

Principle 4.9: Upon request, an individual shall be informed of the existence, use, and disclosure of his or her personal information and be given access to that information. An individual shall be able to challenge the accuracy and completeness of the information and have it amended as appropriate.
— PIPEDA

PIPEDA section 4.9 mandates that companies respond to Data Access Requests within 30 days of receipt. The information must be made available for free or at a reasonable cost.

Principle 4.9.4: An organization shall respond to an individual’s request within a reasonable time and at minimal or no cost to the individual.
— PIPEDA

Some companies use legally complex wording and vague statements in their privacy policies to hide the level of detail collected and to obfuscate how it is used. The Data Access Request allows any individual to understand (and see) what has been collected and what is being done with their information. 

What is a Data Access Request?

Toronto based Citizen Lab has created and operated a site called Access My Info. The site was created to simplify how Canadian's create and submit Data Access Requests using templates. 

Testing it

I will submit a couple of test requests and see how companies respond. If you are a Canadian, I encourage you to try this as well.

OPSEC : Backup Strategy for the Security Conscious

GeneralEdward Kiledjian

RELATED: The best way to protect your data - images, music, documents

Even with all of the technological advancements we have made, backups are usually overlooked by the "average Joe" until something significant occurs (causing a massive shift in paradigm). 

Why backup

Traditionally we backed up our information in case the physical media we used (hard drive, DVD, ZIP Drive cartridge, Bernoulli Box, etc.) had a catastrophic incident. 

Modern headaches that we add to the justification list now include malware and cryptoware data modification, seizure at a border crossing or shutdown of a cloud service. 

When thinking about backups (as a security conscious individual), you are concerned about:

  • Recovering your files in their original format (not some compressed low-quality version of your precious originals)
  • Ensuring that only YOU can access your backed up information 

Know thyself

Before we can discuss how to protect your information, we need to know what and where that information is

Inventorying your information is not as simple as it first appears... Think of everywhere you have stored digital data. 

  • You have one or more email accounts possibly with various providers (Hotmail, Outlook, GMAIL, Yahoo Mail, your ISP, etc)
  • You could have contact information on Google, iCloud, Samsung Contacts, etc
  • You may have documents in Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, various 3rd party apps (diaries, note taking apps, etc)
  • You may have information (sometimes even forgotten) on USB keys, SD cards, CD/DVD disks, etc
  • This blog has information (articles) going back 7+ years

You get the picture. What first seems like a basic easy to answer question could quickly turn into a monstrous inventory activity. 

Once you know what you have, you then need to figure out which of these sources is the "master" copy. It is not uncommon for people to knowingly or unknowingly load duplicate information across multiple different storage mediums. This of the master as the version that you are likely to keep the most up to date. 

As an example, I recently did a photo duplicate cleanup and realized 15% of my total 1.5TB photo storage was duplicate files I had accumulated over the years. 

RELATED: OPSEC - How to securely delete files

It's time to strategize

In a previous article, I talked about the 3-2-1 backup strategy. The exact entry from my previous article was:

This is a simple way to remember the right way to backup and protect your data. 

  • You should always have 3 copies of your important data. This means one primary (aka the one you use on a daily basis) and 2 copies as backups.
  • You should always have your backups on 2 different types of media (one of your backups can be to an external hard disk while the other one should be to another type of media like DVD disk or to an online service).
  • You should always store 1 copy of your data to "somewhere else". This is to ensure recoverability in case your house or business experience a natural disaster. Now in most cases, this can be one of the popular online backup services or it can simply be you manually storing the media in another location like your office, a bank vault or leaving it in a friends house. To be extra careful, it is recommended to built-in some distance between you and the offsite backup in case a natural disaster eats a good part of your city. 

The reason we create the information inventory in the previous step is so that you can also backup your application datasets. As an example, if you use Google contacts, maybe export the file monthly in CSV format and make sure it is backed up (don't rely on the goodwill of the provider since they always cap their liability in the event of a catastrophic incident). If you use a journaling application, maybe export your entries in PDF and back that up. If you have pictures sitting on your smartphone, make sure a copy is taken and added to your backup strategy (Google Photos is good but it stored an "optimized" version which is not original). 

People often forget to back up basic information like their emails. To do this, you may need to install a "fat" email client on your computer and pull all the emails (or copies of them) from your mail provider then backup the local program database. Google isn't going away but there have been countless tales of users "losing" access to their accounts for months because Google made an arbitrary decision. Unless you are running your own infrastructure, assume the provider can stop your service and hijack your data at any time. 

A couple of years ago, I spent weeks scanning all my paper documents so that I could have digital easy to move, easy to backup versions. You will likely have to do the same.

Where to store your backups

Back to my 3-2-1 backup model, you should have 2 copies of the data you physically control and one up in the heavens we call "the cloud".

The size of your backup will dictate what kind of physical media you store it on. When backups were small, many users could get away with storing them on CD/DVD/Tape drives but these aren't practical for most modern users.

Most of you will likely store your local copies on some type of large local storage medium such as a USB key and/or hard-drive. If possible, store your local copies on 2 different mediums (USB key AND hard drive) or Spinning hard drive and SSD drives. 

You need one copy in the cloud. Local copies are great because you can restore access almost instantly, but if a major incident occurs, you may lose both of your physical copies. That is when your backup of last resort comes in (aka cloud backup). Remember to protect your cloud backups. You can do this by pre-encrypting the information before uploading it (which works if your backup is small and you are uploading to a service like Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive or Dropbox). The other option is to use a backup service that lets you hold on to the encryption/decryption keys like Carbonite and Backblaze.

Make sure your backup provider has version control enabled. This means they store multiple versions of files. This is useful if you are infected with cryptolocker like malware that encrypts your files, you can go back to a version pre-encryption. This is also useful if you delete a file by mistake and want to go back in time and bring it back.

It's a process

Once you figure out what your backup strategy will be, you need to ensure it is "run" regularly. Nothing is worse than having a plan and then losing six months of data because you forgot to backup. Most cloud services offer near-line backups which is a nice set it and forget it model. 

You will have to ensure your local copies are regularly updated also. On my mac, I use the built-in and free RSYNC command in the terminal to synchronize via a scheduled task. There are also a tone of reasonably priced on device backup apps (if you don't want to fiddle with the terminal). These are examples but not endorsements: