On Wednesday, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina’s most populous county, announced it has bet big on the Microsoft platform by selecting Microsoft Office 365 as its communications and collaboration platform, Windows Azure as its cloud storage solution, and Microsoft Surface Pro for its mobility needs.

Together, the seamless mobility, productivity and flexibility aspects of these solutions have already helped various departments within the county collaborate better with staff, integrate across a number of crucial systems, and streamline and improve daily responsibilities. For instance, the county’s Youth and Family Services department is reporting $3.2 million in productivity savings per year due to Mecklenburg’s Surface Pro pilot launch. Meanwhile, by switching to Windows Azure, the county’s cloud storage costs have reduced dramatically.

“With the mobility factor of Surface Pro and Office 365, we are able to do so much more,” said Cliff DuPuy, technical services director at Mecklenburg County. “Not only do our Youth and Family Services folks love the devices for the flexibility and productivity the combination provides to them, but they appreciate the toughness of the devices, the touch aspects and the ability to document benefits while they are visiting clients. We are working toward ensuring that all our employees have their own device, and we can’t keep up with the demand we’re receiving from excited workers. It really has helped to increase their enthusiasm around how they do their jobs.”

Just as important, the county’s technical services director, Cliff Dupuy, acknowledged that these modern devices and services have increased employee productivity and excitement. In addition, the investment in Microsoft technology enables the county to reap all the benefits of the cloud while maintaining its commitment to privacy and security.

In addition to the Department of Youth and Family Services, a number of other departments within the county have recognized the value and mobility benefits provided by the Surface devices when combined with Office 365 and custom-built apps specific to each line of business. For example, the county’s Food Services Department has used these solutions to ensure Food and Restaurant Inspectors can utilize state applications, while the county’s Medical Examiners are benefitting from the note-taking abilities with their tablets. Meanwhile, Mecklenburg County’s Parks and Recreation employees, all of whom are moving to Surface 2 devices, are using these solutions to help them collect payments, book venues easily and tie seamlessly into the county’s financial system. In addition, due to an overwhelming demand for more devices, the county will increase the number of Surface Pro devices it is using to more than 1,000 by Aug. 1, 2014.

With 1.6 million emails sent per day by county employees, the cloud storage that Office 365 provides and the ability for employees to use Office on up to five devices has proved beneficial to all levels of employees within the organization. The emphasis on privacy and security in the cloud was a driving factor for the county to select the Microsoft solution. Similarly, the ability to use Surface Pro tablets with Office 365 has been a killer combination for the county: The Youth and Family Services Department is reporting $3.2 million in productivity savings per year after participating in the county’s Surface Pro pilot launch.

Selecting Windows Azure for its cloud storage was a natural fit for the county — its interoperation with Office 365 and Surface makes the user experience seamless. In addition, with key disaster recovery capabilities, Windows Azure makes more sense from a planning perspective, but also from a cost savings point of view. For instance, the county can ramp up quickly and take significant workloads out of its local datacenters, saving significant dollars.

“The cost savings with Windows Azure are tremendous,” DuPuy said. “Our storage costs used to be $21 per GB; now, with Windows Azure, we are around 30 cents per GB.”

“Mecklenburg County is leading the way in harnessing the power of the cloud and new mobile device form factors to deliver better government services to citizens, while at the same time lowering costs,” said Michael Donlan, vice president of Microsoft’s State and Local Government business. “Whether it’s field inspection, delivering better services to youth and families, or making it easier for business and citizens to enjoy the county’s parks and venues, Mecklenburg is using Office 365, Windows Azure and Surface to transform the business of government all within a solution that best meets their requirements for security and privacy.”

Across the board, county employees have embraced the switch to the cloud, and they have been vocal in their support.

“We have people telling us on a consistent basis that these mobile and flexible solutions, tightly tied together, have collectively changed their working lives,” DuPuy said. “Whether they have used these tools in the past, or they are just learning the breadth of Microsoft’s capabilities, we’ve consistently heard that our teams are really enjoying the new lease on productivity and efficiencies that they now have. That’s really humbling for us IT folks.”

Across the nation, state and local governments are constantly pressured to deliver more services with fewer resources. They are tasked with finding and investing in modern and secure solutions that help them save time and money, while ensuring employees can use these tools in the office and on the go. With Microsoft’s suite of solutions, Mecklenburg County is helping address these challenges.

This very unsuspecting phone charger is actually a Spy Device that was built to sniff out all the keystrokes off your wireless keyboard.  Yes this little tricky fake charger is known as a Key Sweeper and its whole purpose is to find out your private personal information like email, password, social security and credit card numbers.  Obviously the list can go on and on when put in the hands of a maleficent being.  Currently it can only be used on Microsoft Wireless keyboard that specifically use 2.4 ghz.

This charger lights up if you plug a usb device into it and it will charge whatever usb device you’ve plugged into it.  However, if you unplug the charger from the wall it is still capable of recording keystrokes.  That’s because inside of the wall unit is a rechargeable battery.  It will record every single keystroke on a memory card inside the charger or for a little extra money it will actually send alerted phrases via SMS or text messages to wherever in the world.

This sophisticated type of invention could be used to potentially cause high levels of chaos in this new age of technology so its best to properly educated yourself and be more aware of the situations, people and objects around you.  Keep that in mind next time you see a lonely charger or someone walking around with an old school pager

(Reuters) – The U.S. Secret Service refused to provide data on its computer security systems to the Department of Homeland Security in 2014, preventing it from being able to verify if it was complying with security policies, an inspector general’s report said on Monday.

The service, which has faced withering criticism after several security lapses including a White House breach in September, “refused to comply with mandated computer security policies,” according to the report by the DHS inspector general.

The review also said DHS agencies were not doing enough to protect computer systems from such high-risk bugs as Heartbleed, which allowed hackers to spy on computers but not take control of them.

The report said FEMA and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service still use the Microsoft Windows XP operating system, which may be vulnerable to hackers and that Microsoft stopped providing software updates for in April.

“DHS has worked to improve and secure its vast IT resources,” said Inspector General John Roth. “But those improvements can only be effective if component agencies fully adhere to the rules and DHS management vigorously enforces compliance.

“Failure to do so will pose a serious threat to DHS and its Homeland Security missions.”

The inspector general’s office said the Secret Service has agreed to begin providing the required data to the DHS chief information officer. It made six recommendations to improve security, which the department accepted.

Homeland Security combined 22 different federal departments and agencies into one when it was established in 2002.

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Andrew Hay)

Photo Courtesy of: http://www.flickr.com/photos/instantvantage/