Thursday, so far today, going a little bit better than it was for Verizon customers yesterday
because I don't know if you saw it, but there were tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands
of Verizon customers who were without service yesterday. They kind of got that SOS satellite bar on their phones
It was a disaster. I mean, a real problem. People were outside. They couldn't make their phone calls
Kids got out of school. They couldn't use their watches to call their parents. You know, you sort of get a real sense of how connected we all are and how much we rely
on technology. We wanted to dig in a little further with this. So we've brought in the COO
and founder of IC Real Time, a data security company. Talk to us, Bob, talk to us a little
bit about who you are and what your company is. Sure. IC Real Time is a manufacturer of security
and surveillance equipment. We come at these things with a layered approach. The Verizon
thing is a perfect example of how people buy smart security systems and they don't really
have a layered plan of how to have and being connected all the time, even when there's outages
We know in this current day and environment, all these networks are being attacked by malware
and by upgrades and things of this nature. It's always important when you have a security system or any type of system, we look at it
as a layered approach, having both an internet connected line and a cellular connected line
allowing you always to have critical infrastructure as well as your home
because to you, your home is what matters to you. So it very important that when these internet outages happen that you have a backup plan And you know we believe consulting with a security consultant that can help you have a professional plan for these type of events will really give you peace of mind
because when it happens, everybody goes into chaos right away. They get very nervous
They don't know what's going on. So having a layered approach and a plan and having backups
and redundancies to these things allow your smart system to continue to be smart, even in an event
like this. And Bob, yesterday, you know, this outage kind of happened pretty quickly. I mean
what did you see in terms of those numbers? And what were you hearing kind of as it was happening
I mean, this is your field. You're right in this tech kind of zone. You know, a panic sets out
immediately. People all of a sudden, you know, they don't know if it's just them or it's others
And, you know, it sends people on other networks because they're getting into their loved ones
Think about calling your wife or daughter and the phone not working or not getting connected or checking on a camera or your alarm system that may not be working and you have something critical that you need to protect your home or your business or whatever it may be
So these things create chaos right away. Our phone systems start to light up immediately the second any carrier goes down
We start to get immediate inbound calls. So we're kind of on the pulse of it. But again, you know, a layered approach, having backup and having professional security and professional smart home advisors telling you how to protect your home and how to get the thing in is always the way
And that's how we believe, you know, just going to the store and buying a system is not going to really get you what you need
You need to have a layered approach. So that way, when things like this happen, we can go ahead and get you, you know, you're always connected and you're always there
And I see real time Obviously you guys focus on making sure that a home is protected So how does if I have a house I mean aren I using like a Wi system to sort of make sure that that connected Or like how does it sometimes work And how can an outage like this disrupt that
Yeah, so that's the biggest problem. So when the outages like this happen, and if you only have a single connection
mostly of these Wi-Fi cameras that you purchase from the store have a single connection
They connect through the Wi-Fi, and the recording is done off-premises. So if you don't have a backup plan where you're recording on-premise and off-premise
when something like this happens, very easily the security that you rely on becomes non-existent
So having that layered approach where you have both a hard line connection and a wireless connection, a cellular type connection
And I highly recommend two different service providers. So if you have Verizon in the house, you get AT&T or Starlink for the cellular
If you have AT&T in the house, maybe you get Starlink or Verizon or T-Mobile for your cellular connection
So that way you're always relying on two different networks and it provides a good form of redundancy so that you never have to worry about not only your cameras
You know, a lot of the homes now have locks and access control and businesses that rely on the Internet as well
And power. You need to have backup power. You can't just rely on commercial power from your local provider
You need to have battery backup systems or generator systems to power these systems in the event of an outage or an Internet attack like we've seen yesterday
Bob just just amazing I mean you right It amazing when something like this happens You can see it just sort of like creates this domino effect People were worried maybe it was a cyber attack Doesn look like it was Right I mean from everything that you seen and sort of talk to some of your sources there
We don't know. Right. It could have been somebody who just uploaded some bad code. I mean, that's sometimes it seems like it's the worst. And then
But we can't say one way or the other yet. Right. Yeah. You know, we these companies have thousands and thousands of people working on the network all the time, making it better and upgrading it
One simple thing can cause some sort of thing like this, where all of a sudden a million plus customers go down and it creates havoc
And people rely on it. They don't, you know, it's like being healthy. You don't recognize how easy it is to do things until you don't have it anymore
So when the Internet connection goes out, you know, having a secondary plan and a redundant plan allows you to live seamless in your life
Because the last thing you want is that fear, you know, because that's what goes through a lot of people's minds
Is it fear? Is it me? is somebody attacking me, is my family member, why can't I touch my family member, something
happening at my home. You know, a lot of thoughts go through their mind right away. And having a
redundant and having a good plan allows them not to worry about that. Bob, thank you very much
We're kind of out of time here. So just if somebody wanted to find out more about IC
Realtime, how do they do that? You go to icrealtime.com. We're a nationwide provider of
electronic and AI security systems. We have both businesses, homes, and we cover the gamut from
everything from your basic system all the way to a fully secured critical infrastructure
All right. AI security system. I may have to do a follow-up story on that one. Bob, thank you very much. Thank you
COO and founder of IC Realtime. We appreciate your time