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IoT Navégalo

Internet of Things: Automate devices and sensors in your business or home.

By Business

Internet of Things: Automate devices and sensors in your business or home.

In recent years, the term Internet of Things (IoT) has been the buzzword in the business and the technology world, however research in this field began more than 20 years ago.

In simple terms, IoT is the ability to interconnect devices (which usually would not be interconnected) to the web and allow them to be controlled remotely.

IoT transforms those electronic devices that were connected only by a closed circuit (such as cameras, sensors, etc.) to have basically the same connectivity as a cell phone.

For example, old knob microwaves are not candidates. IoT devices must already have built-in hardware (chips and circuits) that accept the internet connection and also schedule specific events based on what is requested.

In fact, we already have assistants that help us control our devices using IoT. Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant are great examples.

How does the Internet of Things work?

Studies in IoT have come a long way. Research, thesis, academic articles and real-life applications have flooded this field. In Costa Rica, Navégalo has built a unique infrastructure with LoRa technology (the most robust in the country).

LoRa technology enables the sending and receiving of information data between various point-to-point devices.

LoRa devices fulfill the same function that Wi-Fi networks can do, but with a great advantage: long-distance broadcasting and lack of interference on the LoRa frequency.

The protocol used in the upper layer of the LoRa structure is LoraWAN. The name LoraWAN refers to “Low Power Wide Area Network” whose initials are LPWAN. LoraWAN determines very important parameters of the solution (such as security, network capacity or battery life).

LoRa has very particular features that are perfect for connecting these devices:

  • Long range: Up to 15 km between sensor nodes with data transfer rates ranging from 300 to 50,000 bits per second.
  • Low power: In general, the sensors consume very little energy and their battery can last between 5 and 10 years.
  • Low cost: Investment in sensors is really low when compared to other technologies.
  • Security: Thanks to its integrated end-to-end AES-128 data encryption, intercepting information is practically impossible.
  • Highly scalable: Billions of sensors can connect to millions of nodes.
  • Geolocation: Allows for indoor / outdoor tracking without GPS.

LoRa has proven to be tremendously useful for companies in sectors such as agriculture, livestock, government institutions, public security, tourism and manufacturing.

And as you can see IoT is not only for devices in our homes, thanks to the development of this technology in the country, companies can now interconnect their devices and have greater remote control of their operations.

Turn air conditioners and lights off and on, open and close doors, track fleet and livestock, etc. – all of this is possible thanks to Internet of Things.

If your company is interested in to adopting this technology, our expert team at Navégalo will advise you on everything you need to get started.

Contact us at [email protected].

See you next week!

Tyson Ennis, MBA
CEO
Navégalo.

VPN

Telecommuting without losing cybersecurity

By Business

When employees use devices outside the office’s protection, sensitive company information can be put at risk. But, at the same time, telecommuting gains more strength every day, companies are aware of the need to reconcile and the benefits of flexible schedules. So, the question is: how do we stimulate telecommuting without jeopardizing business information? The key is in the education in cybersecurity of the employees and in the use of equipment with safety measures incorporated at the factory and designed specifically for teleworking.

In order for companies to access their employees in a secure way, it is essential that there is a protocol that establishes how to act. One of the most common practices is the use of remote desktops and connection to a VPN network. This facilitates that the worker can access his equipment from home and also that he has access to a secure network where all the traffic that is generated maintains the confidentiality of the information. It allows the employee to connect directly with the server of the company in which the information is stored, from which backups are made automatically, avoiding a possible loss of information. But this has to bring the awareness of workers to keep their passwords safe and avoid connecting to Wi-Fi networks (especially if they are open networks).

Another point that workers have to pay attention to is the type of navigation they do on the Web. Especially to suspicious links and fraudulent pages that impersonate official websites to obtain user credentials. This technique, known as phishing, consists of making exact copies of real pages to deceive the user and make him put his personal access data. If you provide your data as a worker to a fraudulent page, you are opening the door of the company’s most sensitive information.

It is also key not to forget the basics: choose and protect access passwords well. It never hurts to remember, since year after year the most used password is still 123456. One of the main threats to a company’s cybersecurity is the bad habits of its workers: having simple passwords or not installing updates are just two examples . Leaving the device on the table without supervision is another.

The research carried out to date highlights the benefits of this trend and ensures that working a day or two a week from home increases the motivation and productivity of employees, in addition to their well-being by reducing stress due to travel to the office and the difficulties to reconcile.

SOURCE: The Retina Country

Teleworking

Taking advantage of telecommuting benefits?

By Business

The emergence of online work platforms in recent years has increased the emergence of new job profiles that, thanks to the development of technology, have made possible the proliferation of innovative professional projects through teleworking.

Technology, and with it hyperconnectivity, are changing the ways of understanding the world, also in the workplace. While the existence of a virtual worker was practically unthinkable a few years ago, today telecommuting has become a practice that many companies already see as usual.

The rupture of the space / time paradigm is undoubtedly one of the factors that enable this type of distance employment, since technology allows a person to attend a meeting or be in charge of an important action from anywhere in the world , without needing to be physically present in the space where the activity takes place.

In this context, the game of crowdemployment or crowdsourcing enters, that is, the use of technology platforms by companies through which projects that are usually managed entirely through the Network are commissioned. One of those tools is Amazon Mechanical Turk, used for simple, low-unit jobs that require a certain level of intelligence that a machine cannot do.

To get it going, organizations demand technology profiles and freelance workers, following the American model. Although at the moment only 3% of workers live solely from digital platforms, the upward trend is visible and the Labor Force 2020 survey states that 83% of managers plan to increase the use of consultants or intermittent employees in the next three years.

The advantages offered by teleworking are immense. The company saves numerous costs related to the rental of a physical space to work and these are redesigned to adapt them to the new template. In addition, there is greater labor flexibility which contributes to the development of employees’ talents and skills and improves productivity.

In this way, an online work culture is generated that implies the frequent use of electronic information processing methods and the permanent use of some telecommunication means for the contact between the teleworker and the company.

In short, the virtual worker adapts to a new environment that is innovative and digital, and that provides numerous advantages for the organizations that apply it, for teleworkers, their family environment and society as a whole.

SOURCE: Next