Bespin labs

The Future of Work? My daughter, Molly, (the Google Home mini expert ) has recently completed her GCSE mock exams. For those who don't know, the GCSE or General Certificate of Secondary Education is a set of exams taken in England, Wales, Northern Ireland by children ages 15-16 and are the final exams before leaving high school. After leaving school next year, Molly will be going to a 6th form college where she will have to decide which 3 subjects she wishes to study for her A-levels, the qualifications required before attending a University. Why do I mention this? Well, a few months ago we had to make the decision on these 3 subjects, which in turn will likely set her on a potential career path. This got me thinking about the future of work, and what jobs our kids may be doing in this future, and which once coveted jobs are likely to disappear? With the rise of Artifical Intelligence (AI), and in particular Machine Learning (ML), "robots" and other new technologi...

Well, that's a headline I long to read. Unfortunately, Google has lagged behind in the personal assistant device game for some time now. In September of this year, Amazon announced a plethora of new Alexa powered devices, which are now hitting stores. The Echo Show, which enables video calling. The Echo Look, which is intended for fashionistas. The Echo Spot, which is like a really fancy alarm clock. The Amazon Tap,  aka portable Echo. We all hoped that the Google announcement a few weeks later would bring something exciting and disruptive to steal the thunder from Amazon, but unfortunately, we got a pebble (Google Home Mini), and large square speaker (Google Home Max), and some new colours for the existing air purifier (aka Google Home). All extremely underwhelming. Sorry Google, but I was expecting video calling, I was expecting Youtube videos, I was hoping to search through my photos, I was at least expecting two-way communication between devices! ...

Over the past few months, I've been speaking to more and more business owners about their concerns regarding GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), which becomes law on 25th May 2018. The concerns appear to come from misinformation and fake news over GDPR. There are the scaremongers, reporting on the increase fines that an organisation could face. While it's true GDPR has increased the levels of fines to 2% of an organisation’s global turnover, and for more severe incidents €20 million or 4% of turnover, whichever is the larger, it's unlikely that fines will rocket. Elizabeth Denham, the information commissioner for the UK, stated in a recent blog , it’s scaremongering to suggest that we’ll be making early examples of organisations for minor infringements or that maximum fines will become the norm. Denham continued to say that; " The ICO’s commitment to guiding, advising and educating organisations about how to comply with the law will not change under the GD...

With Christmas just around the corner, my inbox and messenger have started to fill up with messages from friends and family - not to wish me well, but instead to ask me which personal/home assistant device they should purchase. With both Google and Amazon reducing the price of these devices for Black Friday it seems that everyone is getting on the bandwagon. Having had both Google Home and Amazon Echo for a while I thought it was about time I came off the fence and give my recommendation, but then I realized that there are hundreds of technical reviews out there already, so instead, I've decided to ask my family which device they prefer and why.  So here it is, the Lees' family review of both the Google Home (and mini) and Amazon Echo. But before we begin let me quickly introduce the family. My wife, Lianne and I have two kids, Molly who is 15 and Harry 10. We have several Smart TV's, Chromecast devices and even a Chromebit. The house is also full of IoT ...

As we enter Black Friday week, and the holiday season is well underway, everyone is starting to relax and look forward to a much-needed break.  Don't forget that it's now a prime time for phishing attacks. Criminals will be looking to use the latest tech offers and those must-have gifts for the kids to trick many of us into following suspicious links all aimed at obtaining our login credentials. In order to avoid these holidays phishing attacks, I'd suggest following these simple steps:- It's obvious, but when you're offered that unbelievable deal on an iPhone X or Pixel 2 it's easy to forget, but don't click on any links from unknown people. Don't forget that friends can also be duped into sending links via social media, messenger or email. If a link looks suspicious, don't click on it. Fake websites now look just like the real ones. Check and double-check the webpage is genuine before entering any of your credentials or confidential...

This is something I hear all the time. It is often thought that ransomware is an on-premises threat only affecting old, unpatched Windows PC’s. And on the whole, this is true. We’ve all heard the stories and read the news, “WannaCry infects 230,000 computers in over 150 countries”. In the UK ransomware brought the NHS to its knees affecting over 34% of trusts in England and caused the cancellation of an estimated 19,000 appointments and operations. But what people storing files in the Cloud don’t often realize is that they are far from immune. Apps used to share files and images, such as Google Drive, OneDrive, iCloud, and Dropbox etc are now being specifically targeted by sophisticated attacks. Emails appearing as document requests from these apps are amongst the most effective in generating some of the highest click-through rates. Don’t take my word for it, researchers at Proofpoint found that when it comes to attacks looking to steal your login credentials, a quarter is targeti...