ThreeShield Information Security Corporation

🍁 Happy Canada Day! 🍁
In case you missed it, Canada has ordered Hikvision to close Canadian operations over security concerns.

Many of our clients moved from Hikvision security cameras to cloud-based business-class camera systems like Verkada and Rhombus over the last decade because legacy cameras are little computers that don't update security problems fast enough (and the on-premise video recorders are headache after headache).

We kept finding ways that the cameras could be used to attack other computers on our clients' networks. In many cases, our cybersecurity audits also found these vulnerable systems exposed to the Internet, wide open to attackers.

It became such a consistent problem that we ended up partnering with Verkada and Rhombus to provide discounted enterprise-grade solutions to small and medium-sized businesses.

Rhombus's relay and Verkada's Command Connector allow companies to get into cloud monitoring (without requiring Network Video Recorders and the backup headaches that come with them) without ripping and replacing their existing Hikvision cameras.

However, doing so leaves you stuck with the firmware update headaches and vulnerabilities that tend to remain because Hikvision and other legacy camera companies tend to be slow with their updates anyhow.

If you're Canadian, we recommend talking to your managed IT service provider to move your cameras to a modern, managed cloud provider. If you don't have an existing IT provider, we're happy to help connect you.

If your website is down, you aren't alone...

Every time we're brought in to look at a new app or website right before launch, I scream into my pillow, "WHY DIDN'T THEY ASK MONTHS AGO?!"

It's always the same for first-time clients. I mean ALWAYS. Usually, we were able to shift mindsets so their subsequent projects aren't as horrific. However, the first time, it's always the same.

Recently, we've had clients that used three different frameworks -- THAT EACH LOCKED THEIR VICTIM COMPANY INTO WEAK LOGINS before costly overhauls! Each time, we had significant database design issues that required a lot of rework.

One unlucky business hired someone who clearly was very good within their framework, but didn't have a clue about servers or infrastructure and couldn't even do HTTPS because they only knew how to set up a development debugger as a "web server."

This needs to stop. How can we convince people that Cybersecurity needs to start at the requirements definition phase during the initial design then continue through the release process?

My pillow can't take many more tears and screams.