By Jennifer Henderson, PS LIGHTWAVE Communications Manager

At PS Lightwave, we use the DISC Assessment as a tool toward a better understanding of, and better communication with one another. DISC is the most widely used tool of its kind, and offers a comprehensive overview of the way people interact with one another, and process information from those interactions. “DISC” is an acronym for: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness, the four behavior types identified in the assessment.

To HTTP or to HTTPS

No need to debate this age-old question any longer, the evidence out there definitely says you should use HTTPS on all your websites, even if they don’t handle sensitive communications. Not only is HTTPS becoming a requirement for many of the new web browsers and progressive web apps, it provides security and data integrity for both your websites and your users' personal information.

Swen Wulf joined PS Lightwave as Network Architect and Security Manager in 2014 after working for Phonoscope Enterprises Group as Network Security Manager since 2002. With over 20 years in the IT world, Swen has extensive experience and knowledge of IP networks. Having worked at Solid Systems and Network Oil, Swen knows both sides of the Information Technology relationship and has a personal understanding how important it is that the customers’ servers are running and their network is secure.

During the recent presidential inauguration, heavy demand was placed on the PS LIGHTWAVE IP network. Customers were streaming video and audio and data from tablets, phones, laptops, desktops and IPTV devices across our market. January 20, 2017 was also the best day ever. It was proof that our engineering and our concepts worked. We delivered twice the amount of traffic over a three-hour period. There were no network issues and no problems for our customers. The Switched Layer 2 network routed all traffic beautifully. 

PS LIGHTWAVE is pleased to announce that John Lambert, former Vice President of Technical Operations for enTouch Systems, has joined the PS LIGHTWAVE management team as the new Vice President of Operations. Former VP of Operations, David Caddle, was promoted to the position of Chief Revenue Officer, where he will be responsible for all revenue generation processes at PS LIGHTWAVE.

Password security as a topic comes up from time to time. The most important thing you need to know about password security is to use complex passwords. Typically, people create a complex password, but then the same password is used on multiple sites. The problem with this is that if your account on Website A is compromised and you used the same email and password on Website B, you are going to be exposed and busy for a while changing passwords everywhere.

PS LIGHTWAVE’s private network uses industry best practices and standards to ensure the safety of your data and mission-critical applications. It starts with the security awareness of our own staff, the training we use, our configuration management, the maintenance procedures, outage handling and secure and limited access to our infrastructure. We are a facilities-based network, which means we manage the network from A to Z. Our goal is to provide our customers with quality service, and security plays a large part in achieving this goal.

Kevin Kane, senior project manager for PS LIGHTWAVE, was recently selected to head the five-member PS LIGHTWAVE project management group. "With his project experience, especially dealing with carriers and carrier backhaul, he is bringing that knowledge to coach and manage new project managers to handle our growth," said David Caddle, PS LIGHTWAVE CRO.

Ransomware is on the rise, and the FBI is asking organizations to report the crime to provide a better understanding of the threat. Ransomware encrypts files and documents on hard drives and servers so that the documents cannot be opened without paying a ransom for an encryption key.

Each year, the Houston Chronicle and Workplace Dynamics select 150 Top Workplaces in Houston. The Top Workplace award winners are chosen to participate from a pool of 280,000 businesses in the Greater Houston Area.