Join the Massachusetts Apprentice Network for a virtual panel discussion exploring how employers are leveraging the power of apprenticeships.
03/26/2025
2:00pm - 3:00pm
Virtual
Join us for the first BIMA thought leadership event of the year, featuring industry experts on TikTok's future and YouTube Shorts.
03/27/2025
5:30pm - 7:30pm
Digitas
Join us to hear from two influential leaders as they discuss how the Commonwealth can lead the AI Revolution.
04/02/2025
9:30am - 11:00am
Slalom Consulting
Go deeper than basic DEI training to achieve higher productivity, satisfaction, and revenue growth with our new corporate workshop.
This program is in redevelopment. Click this page for DEI resources.
Our Women’s Leadership Program enables you to take your leadership to the next level by arming you with the most in-demand leadership toolkit.
Our Boston’s Future Leaders (BFL) program provides emerging leaders with a socially conscious and civically engaged leadership toolkit, as well as the opportunity to apply their knowledge through experiential assignments.
City Awake empowers young professionals in a variety of ways that encourages these rising leaders to stay invested in the region’s future success.
We are developing an ecosystem of corporations and partners with the influence and buying power to transform economic inclusion for minority business enterprises (MBEs).
This event offers buyers and diverse businesses an opportunity to explore the challenges MBEs face and the benefits of partnering with them.
03/24/2025
4:00pm - 5:30pm
The Urban Grape
Small businesses are the backbone of the Boston economy. Learn more about the resources available through the Chamber.
BIMA (the Boston Interactive Media Association) serves a vibrant community of like-minded professionals from agencies, brands, publishers, and ad-tech companies with business interests in the New England market.
For over 30 years, the Chamber’s Women’s Network has connected female professionals of all background and career levels. Today, our Women’s Network is the largest in New England, strengthening the professional networks of women each year.
The Massachusetts Apprentice Network convenes employers, training providers, and talent sources interested in developing and implementing apprenticeship programs in occupations across industries and statewide in fields such as tech, advanced manufacturing, healthcare, financial services, and more.
Explore our mission and values to better understand how we are leading the business community forward.
Our member directory is your resource to discover, connect, and engage with Boston’s businesses from every industry and sector.
If you’ve been to the Common recently you might have thought you were on-set at an episode of the Walking Dead. Hundreds of people, ambling around with their arms outstretched, seemingly possessed. They’re not zombies, they’re playing Pokémon Go! Few mobile apps have gone viral as quickly as this game. Niantic, Inc., the developers, have pulled off an ingenious feat that blends augmented reality (adding on virtual elements to the real world), physical activity, and a form of captive marketing where business owners can pay to turn their stores into “PokéStops” to attract highly distracted customers.
Unfortunately, there have been some missteps along the way. The first version of Pokémon Go requested full access to your Google account, which granted the developers free reign over your Gmail, photos, calendar, Google Maps location history, and every other Google product you might use. Google says, “full account access’ privilege should only be granted to applications you fully trust.” The developers offered a mea culpa once the news broke and promised the issue would be resolved eventually.
Even if we assume it was a genuine mistake, we should take it as a teachable moment. Smartphones have become an integral part of our lives. We use our phones to conduct banking, keep in touch with loved ones, and stay on top of work, among many other activities. Because of this, smartphones have become a target of hackers. By some estimates, 1 in every 5 smartphones has some form of malware installed. Android devices have long been the favorite target of malware makers. Because of the fragmentation of the Android platform, with each manufacturer, like Samsung, Motorola, HTC, and others, free to create their own variations, it becomes very difficult for Google to get Android users on the latest version of the software, which often includes many security updates. The most they can do is give the latest software to their partners and wait for them to push the software to their customers. What’s worse, Motorola recently announced they won’t commit to making monthly security patches available to their customers’ phones. In a statement, they said “because of the amount of testing and approvals that are necessary to deploy them, it’s difficult to do this on a monthly basis.” If I owned a Motorola phone, it would have just gone in the trash. These problems aren’t just limited to Androids either. Windows Phone has long been vulnerable (but statistically irrelevant) and this past year has seen malware with names like XCodeGhost and AceDeceiver released for Apple’s iOS platform.
Where does this leave us? Vulnerable. We have to pay attention to what we’re installing. We have to buy phones from providers that are committed to mobile security. And from an enterprise perspective, we need to ensure mobile security is part of our risk assessment process.
Let’s focus on mobile security so the phrase “Catch ‘em all!” continues to refer to Pokémon, not malware.
Nick DeLena is a Senior Manager of IT Audit & Security at OCD Tech, a Division of O’Connor & Drew, P.C., one of the most well-respected regional accounting, tax and business/IT consulting firms in New England.
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