G-Suite and Google Home

Google Home is the new digital assistant offered by Google; it competes with the Amazon Echo lines of products. 

Google Home has a lot of desirable features and - in terms of a comparison between it and the Amazon Echo - this reviewer thought Home was a superior value. I'd tend to agree.

However, one of the most disappointing aspects of this product is that it doesn't work entirely with G-Suite accounts.

Yes, you read that right. It's a terrible bleeding-edge situation with the product right now.

With the right Domain settings, your G-Suite account can be paired to the device for its activation, but Google Home can't interact with your email or calendar. Yet. I get the impression that Google will be resolving that over time.

Okay. If you're not dissuaded, and if you believe that Google will (eventually) remedy that situation with its own backend solution, and, if you have a G-Suite account that you want to pair against the device, there's two settings that you have to enable under your Google Admin Console.

Enable Google Now

1. Login to your Google Admin Console.

2. Access Device Management, under Mobile, Advanced Settings, Other Google Services.

3. Make sure Google Now for iOS and Android is checked.

4. Save your settings.

Enable Web Access to Your Organization

1. Login to your Google Admin Console.

2. Access Apps, Additional Google Services.

3. Look for Web and Web Activity. Make sure it's on for Everyone or the Orgs you select.

4. Save your settings.

These settings will take some time to propagate through Google's servers; allow yourself up to 24 hours for propagation time.

Once this is done, run through pairing (setting up) the Google Home device using the Google Home app on your iOS or Android device. Sign in with your G-Suite account.

If it fails, it'll outright tell you that Google Home can't be paired against the account and to select a standard GMail account.

If it works, it'll tell you that you can continue with the G-Suite account but some of its features will be unavailable. 

Generally, I've staged two Home devices thus far and I'm content to wait Google out for G-Suite connectivity. I understand this is new technology and it'll take them some time to address the product throughout the entire ecosystem. Still, if you're impatient and looking for a work-around, I think this would work if you're not security-conscious:

1. Set yourself up a generic free Gmail account.

2. Setup forwarding from your G-Suite account to the Gmail account.

3. Setup a Send-As alias from the Gmail account that aliases your G-Suite account.

4. Share your G-Suite Calendar to the Gmail account with full control.

5. Pair the Google Home device against the Gmail account, and select the default calendars to use with the device.

Aside from the obvious security implications of routing your crap through a non-commercial account, I understand this will actually work. Myself, I'm not willing to do this - I'll wait under Google resolves the G-Suite connectivity issue on their own.

R

Domain Management and Acquisition

Internet domains are virtual properties on the Internet that reflect our unique brand.

Acquiring, managing, and renewing domains is a normal part of managing your company's presence on the Internet; failing to maintain annual ICANN requests or renew a domain means your website and email would stop working, and you run the risk of losing that intellectual property tied to your marketing.

Because of that, there's a bunch of incentive to interrupt these processes and to seize control of your property. Robot squatters can swoop-in, grab your domain, and extort your company so it can be returned to you. Further, you'll receive fraudulent notices in physical mail telling you that you must renew your domain with another registrar, whose intention is to also extort money from you. Finally, the data surrounding the domain's registration is technical and vulnerable to outside hackers looking to change the way your website works or how email routes. 

I want to protect my clients and ensure no disruptions in their service. This is why I’ve started offering a Domain Management service to my clients this year.

Under this service, I assume administrative and technical responsibility for my client's domain. My services:

• Monitor the domain renewal process on behalf of my client;

• Pass domain renewals through my own invoicing;

• Allow me to become a single point of contact for managing the domain as an asset, to help remove the complexity of technical issues involving the Zone File with web developers and others who rely upon it;

• Allow me to become a gatekeeper so that I can deflect attacks to prey upon my client’s domains and to avoid the risk of DNS scams;

• Setup privacy controls and restrictions that shield the personal private information of my client's from attacks;

• Manage MX, SPF, and DKIM records essential to my client's security and experience with Google Apps;

• Secure the name server to prevent DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks and brute force password attacks against my client’s own accounts.

The big benefit here is that I become a trusted custodian and guardian of my client's Internet presence. 

My pricing is very straight forward: $15/year/domain - annual renewals pass through my invoicing.

That’s it. 

Not bad for a professionally-managed service, and admittedly, not a lot of money it for me. Still, I’m doing this because I have a vested interest in my clients.

I’ve seen when domain Zone Files get hijacked; when companies get extorted out of thousands of dollars; when mail stops routing because of a technical error introduced by a web vendor; when a company’s owner or officer becomes the victim of a fraudster. It’s ugly, and I don’t want it to happen to anybody that I work with. I’m not looking to make a ton of money here; just perform a technical administrative task that’s increasingly at risk.

If you’re interested in this service, just let me know. I can give you a call, talk you through the process, and we can set a date to perform the technical steps necessary to assume control of the domain before it expires. If I do my work right, there’ll be absolutely no impact on your website or email routing. 

Small Business Security Starts with The Business Owner

The number of cyber attacks against small businesses rapidly grew in 2015. This matters because research would suggest that sixty percent of small businesses struck by a cyber attack close within six months. As the World Economic Forum identified cyber crime as a global economic risk, we're expecting even worse numbers in 2016.

Hackers like small businesses because their digital assets are more lucrative than that of a normal consumer, and, the small business likely has less IT staff or IT safeguards than larger corporations. As this infographic would suggest, small business managers often under-estimate the value of their digital assets (believing that they don't have anything worth stealing), and they don't understand the risk of exposure due to their loss.

There are a number of Technical Controls that we can implement to help address the problem:

• Access Controls

• Vulnerability assessments

• System patching

• Encryption

• Data backups

• Mobile Device Management

• 2-Factor Authentication

Still, all of those Technical Controls are meaningless unless their actually used and deployed by a business. Small business owners have a couple of avenues of recourse:

1. Owner/managers must take an interest in managing the problem. That means learning more about the risks and the challenges facing the business, rather than ignoring the risk and hoping something bad doesn't happen to them.
   

2. Create formal policies and procedures regarding computer activities. Administrative Controls like policies, procedures, and work instructions clearly communicates management's intention to staff and stakeholders.
   

3. Train employees and staff on those policies and procedures. Educate everyone - every stakeholder - about your commitment to managing information in the best practice means available.
   

4. Update your software and hardware regularly. Observe when devices, personal computers, or software leaves mainstream OEM support and will no longer receive security updates. Replace obsolete equipment that places your firm at risk.
   

5. Prepare an incident response plan. Unless you have one - actually written down, something you communicate and practice against - you don't have one.

But you notice that it starts with the business owner. It starts with them because - without their commitment - none of these steps could possibly be approached.

If you run a small business, don't become a target by neglecting your responsibility to protect your digital assets. Don't expose yourself by taking no action; don't put yourself at risk because you're the lowest-hanging fruit in an orchard of choices for digital pharmers. 

Take ownership and responsibility for the problem.

R