Today’s Topics: Prayer for our Leaders | 1080P Webcams | Top 5 Reasons You Need a Firewall | News to Start Your Day
Happy Thursday!
January 21st is “Get to Know Your Customer” Day, but it is also National Hugging Day (I guess that is gone with social distancing now) and National Squirrel Appreciation Day. Who knew?!?
I thought we would pause our usual content this morning and take a minute to just be in the moment. I’m praying for our country and our leaders, and I would love for you to join me.
First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
1 Timothy 2:1-4
Product Spotlights & Updates:
Today I am bringing back up a product we talked about last week, our brand new 1080P HD Webcam! This webcam was recently added to our product catalog and it has been a hit! This is perfect for all of your video conferencing needs! It works seamlessly with Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Facetime, Skype, YouTube and more! It seriously has it all!
- 1080P Full HD quality for a clear, crisp, lifelike picture
- Built-in Noise Reducing Microphone to cut out the unwanted distractions from background noise
- 90° Wide View Angle to give you the wide view you’re looking for
- Plug & Play to make it easy to use! Ready to go in less than 1 minute!
Top 5 Reasons Why Your Network Needs a Firewall – CK Learning Center
It takes a lot to truly secure a business network. If your business is notably successful, then this is doubly true. Nefarious people will want to infiltrate your tech in order to steal money or just wreak havoc. Stopping them isn’t easy, but the first step is to set up a firewall. In fact, there are five specific ways a firewall can help your business.
The First and Best Defense
It’s no secret that bad things exist within the space of the internet. Viruses, phishing software and a whole slew of things you want nowhere near your business are all lurking in dark corners of the great wide web. The primary purpose of a firewall is to defend against these threats. By monitoring both incoming and outgoing traffic through your network, the firewall can identify most threats and shut them down before and damage occurs.
Some Threats Are Internal
It’s not polite to admit it, but a lot of times we know the origin of the malicious software. Employees or guests aren’t trying to cause trouble when they get caught up in the process. The most successful viruses are ones we don’t see coming. Regardless, the best way to enhance network security is to just plain block access to known dangerous sites. A firewall can do this, and it can do it without slowing your network or creating any drama. It simply blacklists sites that are known to cause trouble.
Hackers Are Bad Too
Malicious software is the more common threat, but it isn’t the worst thing on the internet. You’ve seen enough news stories about businesses being hacked to know it’s a threat to everyone. While a firewall alone can’t guarantee safety from hackers, it’s impossible to be secure without it. Hacker defense only grows more essential as your business becomes more prominent.
You Can Control Bandwidth
Secure networks are great. They’re also not the limit to what a good firewall can do. One of the coolest features is controlling bandwidth and assigning priorities. If you have multiple people on a network, they might have to fight for bandwidth to do their jobs. With a firewall, you can automatically give more access to the most important functions and throttle stuff that’s eating data for less value. Here’s an example. You can throttle bandwidth to YouTube or social media and leave more available for business-critical functions.
Set up a VPN
The last great benefit of a firewall is the opportunity to have a VPN. If you aren’t familiar with the term, a VPN is a virtual private network. Basically, it is a way for people outside of the office to securely connect to the office network. It’s amazing for traveling employees or remote workers to stay in sync with everyone else without skipping a beat. It’s also an extra layer of security which is something we all love.
Security, control, and efficiency. These are great buzzwords, and they all apply to your firewall. Talk to your IT team. If you don’t already have a firewall, it’s time to invest. Even if you do, it might be time to check for upgrades. You never want your first line of defense to fall behind the times.
This article is one of many from the CK Learning Center.
Today’s News to Start Your Day:
- As of this morning, in the US, there are 9,614,365 active COVID cases, 14,968,716 have recovered and there have been 415,894 deaths.
- California public health officials have paused the administration of about 330,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine as they investigate reports of a “higher-than-usual number” of severe allergic reactions to the drug.
- Amanda Gorman made history Wednesday when she became the youngest inaugural poet during President Joe Biden’s swearing-in ceremony in Washington. The 22-year-old Los Angeles resident, youth poet laureate of Los Angeles, first national youth poet laureate and Harvard graduate was invited to speak at the event by First Lady Jill Biden, who had previously seen the poet do a reading at the Library of Congress. You can read the poem here.
- President Joe Biden released details of his Covid response plan, including 10 executive orders and his intent to use the Defense Production Act. The 23-page plan expands on initiatives outlined last week and details how Biden plans to bring the pandemic under control and help the country recover. A full list and reading of the executive orders can be found here.
- Twitter on Wednesday confirmed that it has transitioned institutional White House accounts from the Trump administration to the Biden administration. The accounts include @WhiteHouse, @POTUS, @VP, @FLOTUS and @PressSec. Twitter said it has also created a new account, @SecondGentleman, for Douglas Emhoff, Harris’ husband.
- Amazon on Wednesday offered to help with the national effort to distribute the Covid-19 vaccine, according to a letter addressed to President Joe Biden, which was obtained by CNBC. “As you begin your work leading the country out of the Covid-19 crisis, Amazon stands ready to assist you in reaching your goal of vaccinating 100 million Americans in the first 100 days of your administration,” Dave Clark, CEO of Amazon’s worldwide consumer business, wrote in the letter, which was first reported on by Reuters.
- The price of bitcoin slipped over 6% to fall below the $33,000 level for the first time since Jan. 13. The total market value of all cryptocurrencies shed more than $100 billion in the last 48 hours.
- Netflix’s subscribers surpassed 200 million as the company closed out 2020, a milestone further cementing Netflix as the world’s biggest subscription streaming video service of its kind. By comparison, Disney Plus — which has been the breakout hit in the so-called streaming wars, when a parade of new Netflix rivals launched — ramped up to 86.8 million subscribers in its first year. Disney’s Hulu service, which has been streaming as long as Netflix but operates only in the US, has 38.8 million subscribers. HBO Max has only 12.6 million active accounts.