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  Diversity in the workplace is more than a news headline and has become an increasingly important matter for many businesses. Not only is having an inclusive workforce incredibly beneficial for the staff and customers, it is the right thing to do as a corporate citizen. Working with people that have had different experiences and found new ways to overcome obstacles increases innovation throughout the industry. Lastly, there is no question that technology is global. Inclusion in this space should be a given – not an option. In 1965, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was founded in order to foster diversity in the workplace for women and minority groups. While there has been progress over the last 50 years, there is still much room for improvement. According to the United States Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, out of the thousands of professional workers in the country today,…

Cyberattacks have increased in complexity and sophistication; today, hackers will invest many resources to find different ways of entry into your system. In fact, studies show it takes, on average, 146 days to detect and neutralize an attack in a business environment. This long recover process is bound to place a financial toll on your company. In 2016, the average cost of data breaches increased by $4 million USD. Data protection for the customer and business is absolutely essential! Although the risks of cyberattacks are (and may) always out there, you can start minimizing their impact by instilling good habits internally… specifically, in your employees.     Why? Because there are several ways in which a hacker can attack your company through an employee: identity fraud, use of unapproved equipment or insecure websites and applications. Lack of knowledge, the absence of protocols and even unhappy employees are some of the risks…

The consumer identifies a business by its brand. That brand is more than the logo and a website. It comprises of everything the business stands for. While IT and data management may often be considered the behind the scenes part of the company, they are in fact, the most vital part of the brand.  Why?  Well, if IT fails, the establishment lets its customers down and the reputation of the brand is damaged – sometimes permanently. Choosing the best IT solution means defining needs, but these requirements mean more than size and safety measures. Many businesses look at security only through an online lens in terms of hacking threats and malware being the major threats.  While we have seen the damage these online incidents can deliver to a company, natural disasters can be just as equally devastating. Being unprepared for a natural disaster can do much more than result in…

2018 has started with a bang as two new vulnerabilities hit our screens. Meltdown and Spectre made a show a few weeks ago, and while it caused IT teams across the world a giant headache, it also caused us all to take a look at the way we manage our security protection as a whole. Both Meltdown and Spectre exploit critical vulnerabilities in modern processors which allow other programs to steal data like passwords, photos, emails and business critical data. For a full understanding of the two vulnerabilities, visit https://meltdownattack.com/ Now, while these issues are for the hardware vendors like Intel and Dell to address, it’s crucial to apply the given patches to cover the vulnerability. Patch management is a critical aspect of risk management – and one that we neglect all too often in favor of other needs. The major downside of course to patching lies in the age-old argument…

  With the EU General Data Protection Guidelines (GDPR) coming into force in May 2018, Cogeco Peer 1 is pleased to announce that we have renewed our certification under the EU-US Privacy Shield Program and are publicly committed to complying with its requirements. This certification enables us to legally transfer personal data from the European Union to the United States while meeting EU data protection requirements. Read our privacy policy here: https://cogecopeer1.mystagingwebsite.com/legal/privacy-policy/ The European Commission introduced the EU-US Privacy Shield Framework in August 2016 to address the changing needs of data management and privacy, replacing the previous Safe Harbor Principles which had been deemed no longer robust enough. The Privacy Shield Principles comprise a set of seven commonly recognized privacy principles combined with 16 equally binding supplemental principles, which explain and augment the first seven. Collectively, these 23 Privacy Shield Principles lay out a set of requirements governing participating organizations’ use and treatment of personal data…

With the New Year here, we are all being inundated with hot takes on what happened in 2017 and what we can all expect from the technology industry in 2018. A quick look at some of these lists brings up a few familiar themes: artificial intelligence, cyber security, blockchain, machine learning, mobility, cloud computing. These are the trends that are going to be disrupting industries across the spectrum in 2018. Depending on which column you read, these technologies are either going to completely upend your business right now, or they’re not something to be worried about for a few years. But the bottom line is, whether you think it’s going to be one year or five years from now, your company is going to face disruption. It’s coming for you. Maybe you’re already seeing it, maybe you’ve planned for what you thought was coming. But even if you’re not sure…