In a conversation with ChannelPro, CEO Vince Crisler (pictured left) described the dangers of putting consumer-grade devices from China on SMB networks, and actions that can help mitigate those risks.

Thomas Wolfe wrote You Can’t Go Home Again but perhaps Tom Brady didn’t read that novel, because he went home to Gillette Stadium in Foxboro Massachusetts to play the New England Patriots, his team for two decades.

Because technology for the Internet of Things (IoT) is relatively new, it is being deployed at massive scale. The risks of trust being misplaced are extremely high while building trust in the IoT devices and ecosystems is challenging.

It’s been a couple of weeks since Hurricane Ida flooded most of Louisiana, so now it’s time for Tropical Storm Nicholas to dump a half-foot or more of rain across parts of Texas and most of The Soaked State. Luckily, these newsbits are waterproof.

Can some smart programmers stop the if-then snow loop soon? The Northeast gets a double shot on Monday and Tuesday. The snow in Texas is gone but it left behind an impressive amount of damage. Under the snowmelt we found some newsbits, so enjoy.

Finally, finally, we've reached the last week of 2020. The best thing to be said for 2020, according to Dave Barry's always hysterical Year in Review, is no one got killed by the murder hornets. Biggest joy? Buying toilet paper.

This is Christmas week for many people around the world, and thanks to 2020, few places in America will have a snowy white Christmas, but many will be in the deep freeze. Cleveland, being Cleveland, may get some snow along with a temperature around 20 degrees.

Baseball fans, of at least two teams, are happy now that the World Series is set. Congrats to the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Tampa Bay Rays (although for 2020, we really need the "Devil" Rays name back).

Sorry, football fans, but the record your team has now, after six games, does not lie. If your guys are constantly winning (New England and San Francisco) the season will continue into the playoffs.

Lots of grown-up glum faces as football fans have a second week of preseason games to help lower their expectations. Smaller faces slump glum for another reason: schools all over the country are now in session or counting down the days.