Musato Technologies Blog

What is Industry 4.0?

Published August 10, 2017 | By Gideon E. M

How can Industry 4.0 help my business grow?

Breakthroughs in information technology, mobile communications and robotics have led to the growing use of digital technologies in businesses around the world. Learn more about Industry 4.0.

Industry 4.0 has received a lot of media attention in recent years, but the concept remains abstract for many entrepreneurs. Beyond the buzz, Industry 4.0 has the potential to significantly boost your productivity, reduce costs and improve the quality of your products.

“The core application of Industry 4.0 is to monitor and control your machinery and equipment in real time by putting sensors at every step of the production process,” says Pierre Cléroux, Vice President, Research, and Chief Economist at BDC.

Continue reading →

Posted in Musato Technologies, Technology | Tagged Digital World, Industry 4.0, Technology

Credit Card Security

Published August 6, 2017 | By Gideon E. M

Latest Threat to Credit Card Security Is Undetectable

When using an ATM to withdraw cash or to check available funds, there’s a number of things you can do to ensure safe access to your account. These include covering the keypad when entering your PIN, checking no one suspicious is standing nearby, and looking the ATM over to see if it has been tampered with. However, none of those steps can help you avoid the latest threat to your card’s security: shimmers.-Credit Card Security

You’ve probably heard of a skimmer before. Skimmers are used to swipe and read the magnetic strip on a card and criminals have found novel ways to add them to ATMs. For example, they construct a new front for an ATM and stick it over the top of the real one. Some even integrate a camera to try and record your PIN (which is why you should always cover your hand when typing it in).

Skimmers work but are bulky and relatively easy to spot. Shimmers are different. They take the form of a very thin card with an embedded microchip and flash storage which is slotted inside the card reader. You cannot tell the shimmer is inserted, and it doesn’t stop cards from being used in the machine as normal. Continue reading →

Posted in Credit Card Security | Tagged Credit Card Security

Cloud for faster software development

Published August 5, 2017 | By Gideon E. M

The use the cloud for faster software development

From low-code/no-code to containers and micro services, expert Tom Nolle outlines how the cloud can dramatically shorten the software development process.

Cloud computing often seems like the universal cure for IT problems, according to various claims. Real IT managers, developers, and architects know that’s not true. But they also know the cloud can help solve a lot of problems and allow faster software development if it’s properly applied. That’s particularly true with application development, where the cloud can build a new kind of development collaboration, incorporate cloud-resident features with minimal coding, facilitate the reuse of components to reduce development effort, create realistic distributed testing for application lifecycle management and move teams toward user-level self-care in application customization.

The most straightforward approach to faster software development with the cloud is to take advantage of cloud agility and flexibility in hosting development tools. Most development tools are cloud-hostable, but some new ones are designed for cloud delivery. Continue reading →

Posted in Application Development, Cloud Computing, cloud network services, IT Services, Musato Technologies | Tagged Cloud, Software Development

.NET programming language

Published August 1, 2017 | By Gideon E. M

Making more with.NET development

Introduction

The .NET developer language has been around a long time and it suffers on occasion from not being “top of mind”in the application development arena. But Microsoft has continued to invest in the platform, updating functionality and giving it features that many say rival Java 8 and other options.

Like any language, though, it helps to know the tips and tricks, and this.NET programming language provides just that. For cloud development, NET can be an obvious choice, thanks to its easy tie-ins to Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform. Microsoft considers .NET to be an open source option, and it has cross-platform support for choices other than Azure. But for developers looking to create for the internet of things (IoT) and the cloud, NET is an easy starting point.

When it comes to modern application development, developers and testers need to understand the strengths and challenges in the .NET platform. Recent changes in .NET has some experts comparing it favorably to Java 8 for programming. Software testers, however, are going to need to think through what’s needed to get beneath the graphical user interface to actually test the code. It can be done, but it helps to have a well-thought-out plan and the right set of tools. Continue reading →

Posted in IT Services | Tagged .NET programming

Mobile App Development

Published August 1, 2017 | By Gideon E. M

User experience shapes the future of mobile app development

Mobile application development trends may come and go, but one thing remains constant: keeping the user at the forefront of the design process.

” Mobility has created a major shift in the consumer and enterprise technology markets, and application development has felt the brunt of it.

As more organizations consider developing and deploying their own apps, the need to keep up with consumer apps poses a significant challenge. To keep up with the future of mobile app development, organizations should take a cue from the consumer market and focus on user experience, said Bob Egan, CEO and founder of Seraphim Group, a mobile analyst firm in Falmouth, Mass.” Continue reading →

Posted in Mobile application, Mobile Apps, Mobility, Musato Technologies, Software Design, Software Designing Tools, Software Development, Software Development Tools | Tagged Mobile App Development, Mobile application development, Software

Google cloud machine learning

Published August 1, 2017 | By Gideon E. M

Google cloud machine learning services

Looking to infuse machine learning into your cloud apps? Use this list of terms to explore which Google cloud services offer features for speech-to-text, image analysis and more.

Artificial intelligence isn’t science fiction anymore. For some enterprises, the technology already provides many benefits. With machine learning algorithms, for example, applications can “learn” from and predict possible outcomes from ever-growing data sets. Top cloud vendors, including Google, now offer various services that bring AI and machine learning to the enterprise.

Continue reading →

Posted in IT Services | Tagged Google cloud, Machine Learning

IT Security And Compliance (I)

Published July 30, 2017 | By Gideon E. M

IT Security and compliance: twin challenges call for unified response

Today, business is digital. Data of all kinds is speeding across worldwide networks to and from data centers and cloud services, even as data quantities steadily increase, fueled by low-cost storage and a burgeoning array of Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices. But as digital business opportunities expand, companies face a number of daunting challenges. Foremost among them is the growing number of cyber attacks, as threat actors proliferate across a variety of attack vectors. In addition, the interdependence of business and data has spawned new regulatory guidelines that span industries and geographic regions. To survive and thrive, businesses must meet the twin challenges of IT security and compliance.

IT Security Challenges: Threat Actors

Today’s IT security threats come from a wide array of perpetrators who are responsible for ever-more dangerous attacks. Continue reading →

Posted in IT Security, Website protection | Tagged IT Security, IT threats

Free anti-virus from Kaspersky Lab

Published July 27, 2017 | By Gideon E. M

Kaspersky Lab hands out free anti-virus

In a bid to ‘secure the whole world’, the Russian security firm, Kaspersky Lab is offering up free anti-virus protection globally. Kaspersky Lab has announced that it will be offering free anti-virus protection for everyone by rolling out the base version of its software globally at no charge.

In a blog post authored by the security firm’s chief, Eugene Kaspersky explains that an increase in the number of installations of Kaspersky Free is expected to positively affect the quality of protection of all users since the “big-data-bases will have more numbers to work with to better hone the machine learning”.

The free version contains the bare essentials, Kaspersky said, which includes file, email, and web antivirus; automatic updates, self-defence; quarantine; and a handful of additional features the blog post does not list. Continue reading →

Posted in Anti-Virus, Computer Security, cyber-security, cyberattack | Tagged Kaspersky, Kaspersky Anti-virus

Wisconsin Company to Microchip Employees

Published July 25, 2017 | By Gideon E. M

A Wisconsin Company to Microchip its Employees

The tiny, implantable RFID Microchip will let employees make purchases in the company’s break room mini market, open doors, login to their computers, use the copy machine, and more.

Constantly misplacing your work badge? Workers at a Wisconsin company called Three Square Market (32M) may never have that problem again.

Because of 32M, which sells vending kiosks for office break rooms, wants to implant microchips into its employees’ bodies. The tiny, implantable RFID chips (which you can in the picture) use near-field communications—the same technology found in contactless credit cards and mobile payment systems—to let employees make purchases in the company’s break room mini market, open doors, log in to their computers, use the copy machine, and more. Continue reading →

Posted in Microchip, RFID chips, Technology, Technology risks | Tagged Microchip, RFID chips

How to build safer software

Published July 22, 2017 | By Gideon E. M

DevSecOps, or how to build safer software so much faster

DevOps can help develop software faster, but that’s not making it any safer. DevSecOps is an effort to bring security into the mix. Here are some ways to get started.

Call it DevSecOps or SecDevOps or security in DevOps, but no matter what you call it your development organization will be tackling it soon.

DevOps is hard to do and security is harder. But at a time when security breaches continue to dominate the headlines, there’s no question that security and DevOps need to come together. The only issues are when and how.

A recent survey by DevOps software supply chain provider Sonatype found that for every 100 developers there is only one security person, and that’s a huge part of the reason breaches continue, said Derek Weeks, vice president and DevOps evangelist at Sonatype. “Those numbers leave you completely outnumbered and that’s not going to change anytime soon,” he said. Continue reading →

Posted in Safe Software | Tagged Application Development, Musato Technologies, safer software, Software Development