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News

Is Blockchain Technology Seriously Overvalued?

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Is Blockchain Technology Seriously Overvalued?

What amazes me these days is how people can take an idea and place a value on it, without fully understanding the idea. Then numerous 3rd parties leverage this idea into new ideas and package them into speculative instruments and trade them. When the idea in the first place is really not an idea, but an educated guess, with secrets you get the Bitcoin.

What is Blockchain Technology?

Please it was not invented by Satoshi Nakamoto, this technology has been around since software was invented. There is nothing new or cutting edge with it. In fact I would argue Napster was one of the first to leverage this type of technology in the mainstream, but who remembers that? Just look at the word itself “Block” and “Chain”. For the non-tech people out there which means most of everyone, Blockchain is a chain of blocks that continuously grows. Think of opening a Microsoft Word document, then force your cat or dog to jump up and down on the keyboard, now look at the word document…there you just created a blockchain. The cat and dog is the encryption. Now this chain of blocks is saved across multiple computers (nodes) all over the planet. Each time the cat or dog is forced to jump up and down on the keyboard the block is updated and this chain grows and must be verified on ALL the nodes in the chain at the same time, if one computer fails the process must start all over. Nothing in the Chain of blocks can be deleted it just grows on forever. I am not going to get into the all the bells and whistles of the processes but in a nutshell that’s it.

Cryptocurrencies

This creates major problems when we deal with cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, along with all the other stupid guesses being thrown around right now. As the chain grows it consumes more resources. Each transaction would require more energy than the previous one, because the chain has grown.

There really is no value to Cryptocurrencies when the core technology continues to grow in size. Kicking the can down the road hoping that we technology people will fix it or write temporary fixes hoping that other factors of the industry will create software and hardware systems in the future to keep up with the chain demand is nuts. Does anyone remember Y2K?

What I find very upsetting is that the cryptocurrencies idea was to bring free money transfers to everyone on the planet, and to remove the trusted 3rd party from the transaction. Sadly the trusted 3rd parties that cryptocurrencies where supposed to remove have embraced this technology. Private Blockchains VS Public Blockchains boy sounds like a cloud computing conference. Obviously Blockchain technology was flawed from the beginning when it came to Cryptocurrencies for the individual.

I do agree that fiat currencies are under a lot of pressure, yes the markets appear to be fixed, yes the paper gold and paper silver markets are overleveraged, but I will tell you Blockchain Technology is Seriously Overvalued and it is NOT the answer in the long term. Unless you want to wait 30 to 45 minutes for your Bitcoin mastercard to process your peer to peer transaction block for your lunch or dinner, and have huge amounts of servers consuming huge amounts of energy for your transaction, say goodbye to your bandwidth too. The internet crawls to a stop…

Good luck out there.

We do use Blockchain Technology in systems that track transmission of encryption cycles of network communications between groups of nodes, so this technology is useful. If speed is of no issue, and security is, then this type of Technology is interesting, but then again other technology does a better job. I wouldn’t give huge amounts of value on Blockchain Technology, and have industries be able to borrow large sums of venture capital based solely on this technology, remember the .COM crash?

Good luck out there!

Social Media Disinformation Bots, Sockpuppets and Trolls the new additions to Cyber Security

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The problem for Cyber Security with social media these days is the huge amount of disinformation spread to you by Bots, Sockpuppets and Trolls.

A bot is a computer program that behaves like humans. It performs automated tasks, and were developed to help you feel more comfortable when interacting with automated software systems.

But all too often, automated bots have been built to deceive, especially within the social media software systems. Not only do these bots pretend to be real people, but they spread misinformation, malware and ransomware. These bots are well known for coordinating social media harassment campaigns.

Hacker Software

Not only have individuals been victims to these coordinated bot attacks, but corporations and governments too. In addition to bots, there are two other categories you have to watch out for; sockpuppets and trolls.

A sockpuppet account is created by one individual in order to appear like the account is controlled by a second, distinct individual. The second individual could be a real person, or is a poser that simply masks the identity of the real account creator. What distinguished a sockpuppet from a bot is that the sockpuppets are at least partially controlled by a human, where bots are fully automated via software code. Often a human controls multiple sockpuppet accounts, writing different content from each one, or sending or resending the same content from all of them. There are various tools available to someone who wants to coordinate mass content across multiple accounts.

A troll is an account setup that starts quarrels or just upsets people by posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic content in social media systems.

By leveraging all three of these Cyber Attack account systems, Bots, Sockpuppets and Trolls; one human can overwhelm the information seeking public quit easily.

A good example of this is the Delta Airlines over reaction decision to end their NRA relationship based on what they believed was a main stream demand by the majority of Americans to do it. Their decision cost them $50 million dollars in lost sales tax savings by upsetting the Georgia conservatives. To think that a few people can leverage these Cyber Attack account systems and suddenly your targets (Delta Airlines and others) believe you have every American Citizen on the planet supporting you. These are very valuable cyber attack tools!

FedEx did not follow Delta Airlines because they were obviously protected by very good Cyber Security experts that confirmed the Bots, Sockpuppets and Trolls that attacked them with misinformation and who these human attackers where. Which probably saved Fedex millions of dollars in not upsetting individuals, governments and businesses for unnecessary actions at that time. Information is power.

What can you do when attacked?
Rule number 1 – do not get excited.
Rule number 2 – do not over react.
Rule number 3 – you will need to add protection from Social Media Disinformation Bots, Sockpuppets and Trolls to your Cyber Security Planning and software systems.

Contact us today to see how Adept Secure can help your organization with these problems and many more.

Learn More About Adept Secure

Call us toll free 1-888-392-9623

Adept Workflow A. I. Based Technology

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Adept Workflow is a flexible work management system built into all the Adept Enterprise modules.

Customized workflows allow multiple users to track and manage deadlines, requested inspections and tasks that are automatically assigned based on the type and subtypes of all record activities. Staff can easily monitor action items and task outcomes and track project status, meeting agendas and correspondence that has been sent.

Photographs, documents and other materials are easily linked to individual records so all relevant information is instantly accessible within the system.

Whenever an activity record is generated, a user simply can select workflow options for a particular activity record or the system can be set-up with pre-defined timelines to automatically activate when a record is generated.

Setting-up a customized workflow for an activity record takes 5 easy steps. The workflow is labeled, the main task folders created, specific tasks are outlined in a task sequence, users assigned and lastly, the appropriate status for each task is selected.

Adept Workflow

Adept Workflow Features

 ~ Template designed and attached to projects
 ~ Data is centralized and shared between multiple departments
 ~ Search tasks and workflows by User, Status, Tracking number, Start and End dates
 ~ Changes in a specific task status updates all other member’s tasks in the workflow
 ~ Email directly from the workflow application
 ~ View complete task history
 ~ Alert notifications for task due dates, changes and critical information
 ~ Updates to documents and photograph records which are automatically linked
 ~ Assign user authentication levels for permissions
 ~ Quick search by Pending, Current, Behind Schedule, Stopped and Completed tasks

Bottom Line, the Adept Workflow is an A.I. based system that automatically routes tasks to the person, group, department or division responsible for the completion of the task based upon triggers in the Adept Enterprise system. This saves a huge amount of time in completing mission critical jobs, by the Adept system assigning, routing and alerting tasks to the correct responsible party.

Contact us today toll free 1-888-392-9623 to find out more on how Adept Technologies can save you money by utilizing our technology.

PRESS RELEASE Adept Technologies Announces New Office in Burlington Vermont

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Adept Technologies to Open New Office in Burlington Vermont

New York, NY – 2018 will be another exciting year for the continual growth of Adept Technologies.
Answering the strong demands for its systems and services in North Eastern US States and Canada.

Burlington Vermont Office

“We visited many cities in four states looking for the right fit for our new northern office location. We kept going back to Burlington Vermont, the University of Vermont was a huge deciding factor, based our constant endeavor in finding talented technology professionals, and a healthy environment to grow.” Said Jeffery Moore, Director Human Resources Adept Technologies Inc.

Burlington is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Vermont and the seat of Chittenden County. It is located 45 miles (72 km) south of the Canada–United States border and 94 miles (151 km) south of Canada’s second most populous municipality, Montreal. The city’s population was 42,452 according to a 2015 U.S. census estimate. It is the least populous municipality in the United States to be the most populous incorporated area in a state.

Adept Technologies, Inc. (Adept) is a New York City-based software development company that provides integrated enterprise solutions to corporations and municipalities across the United States. Adept is the leading provider of customizable shoreline permit management software (the Adept Enterprise System) to hydropower project developers, real estate divisions, and issuing agencies. Adept Enterprise enables efficient management of energy resources and provides easy access to centralized data with GIS mapping integration. Available in Web, Windows, and private-cloud-hosted versions, Adept Enterprise is the only application designed to ensure FERC license compliance.

More talent … Less technology

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No one is safe from internet attacks, and A.I. defenses can’t help, Google security veteran says (https://www.cnbc.com)

Technology

A cybersecurity expert who has protected Google’s systems for 15 years said Monday no one is safe from internet attacks and software powered by artificial intelligence can’t help defend them.

Heather Adkins, director of information security and privacy and a founding member of Google’s security team, also advised consumers not to put sensitive personal information in their online communications.

“I delete all the love letters from my husband,” Adkins told several thousand people gathered for TechCrunch Disrupt 2017, a technology conference in San Francisco, after telling them “some stuff” like personal information shouldn’t be put in emails.

Network attacks “can happen to anyone … anywhere,” Adkins said during an onstage interview in which she urged startups to assume they would get hacked eventually and to prepare a response plan.

Google has said that more than 1 billion people use its Gmail program.

Adkins’ remarks came several days after the credit-monitoring firm Equifax revealed what may be the largest data breach to date.

Adkins explained that AI-powered security software is not particularly effective at stopping even 1970s-era attack methods, let alone more recent ones.

“The techniques haven’t changed. We’ve known about these kinds of attacks for a long time,” Adkins told the crowd, pointing to a 1972 research paper by James Anderson.

While AI is very good for launching cyberattacks, it’s not necessarily any better than non-AI systems for defense — because it produces too many false positives.

“AI is good at spotting anomalous behavior, but it will also spot 99 other things that people need to go in and check” out, only to discover it wasn’t an attack, says Adkins.

The problem in applying AI to security is that machine learning requires feedback “to learn what is good and bad … but we’re not sure what good and bad is,” especially when malicious programs mask their true nature, she said.

When asked what advice she would give to businesses to keep their networks safe, Adkins advised “more talent … less technology.”

“Pay some junior engineers and have them do nothing but patch,” she said.

…….Continue reading at https://www.cnbc.com

My Two Cents: I agree to disagree. The future reality is AI is here to stay and expand. Talented humans are needed to maintain, and help design the AI systems. The expansion of the Internet is alarming, and my thoughts right now are out on if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Back in the 1990s I thought it was a good thing when I lead the development of placing mechanical systems on the internet as a way of tracking and increasing productivity. I now believe this was wrong, based on the security risks that have exploded. AI is needed, we just do not have enough talented humans for the tasks at hand….