According to the homeland security adviser to the White House, Tom Bossert, international blame for the global WannaCry attack is being directed toward North Korea. Responsibility for the attack that spanned from May 12th to the 15th of 2017 has been firmly placed on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, which Bossert says is in agreement with the conclusions of Australia, Canada, Japan and New Zealand.
No technology lasts forever. Your business will need to replace server hardware or workstations eventually, no matter how well you take care of it. However, what do you do with the hard drive of any device that you have to replace? If you don’t take action to destroy your old hard drive (after moving any data off of it as needed), you could be in violation of various compliance guidelines issued by HIPAA.
It is our hope that you are aware of how much of a risk spyware can pose to your business. Your business generates, collects, and leverages truly considerable amounts of data each day that is intended for your business only. While spyware that is introduced by a hacker is clearly a bad thing, what if the manufacturer of the device installed a program that pulled data from your machine?
In recent years, how-to guides and YouTube videos have brought renewed enthusiasm for the phrase ‘Do It Yourself’. From services that will ship all the ingredients needed for a home-cooked meal right to your front door to a kit that contains all of the building materials one needs to make a fully functioning ‘tiny house’, DIY kits have made it easier for someone who is less than an expert to successfully complete a project or learn a skill. The Dark Web has taken this infatuation with ‘DIY’ to a whole new level with a rising increase in the sale of Ransomware kits.
When considering your business’ security, it is only too easy to overlook how information of any kind might be compromised. Take, for example, the case study that is provided by the fitness application Strava, the jogging app that shares more data than many, including the United States military, would prefer.
It’s no secret that a business relies on its data. Therefore, it only becomes more important that this data is protected, especially in light of the predictions that have been made for the rest of the year concerning ransomware. Read on for a closer examination of these predictions, and suggested actions that you can take to protect your business and its data.
Passwords are everywhere. It seems that every account requires a password, in addition to the devices we use to access these accounts. This is a good thing, as it only helps to increase security - assuming that the password is strong. After all, a password that anyone can guess can hardly be called a password at all.
Email is a solution that needs to be protected, lest you expose important information to any onlookers while messages are in transit. Encryption is one of the key ways you can make sure that your messages are safe, but email hasn’t always used this method to secure messages. In fact, it wasn’t until relatively recently that encryption became a staple of the major email providers.
You are going to inevitably be in the position where using public Wi-Fi is better than not using any Wi-Fi at all. The issue with this is that public Wi-Fi is considerably more dangerous to use than the secured in-house network of your office. How can you maximize the productivity of your business’ staff while on the go, without sacrificing security by allowing them to use public Wi-Fi to access important data?
Does your skin crawl with the thought of what would happen if you lose track of your smartphone? These days, a lot of users keep a plethora of personal information on their mobile devices, which makes a loss all the more dangerous for them. How can you make sure that your mobile device doesn’t accidentally become a treasure trove of information for any hackers or thieves who might try to steal it?
Spam: it’s something that just about every computer user has heard of, and knows is bad. However, how much do you really know about spam? For today’s Tech Term, we’ll slice into the different types of spam, as well as some theories as to where the term itself originated.
Antivirus is one of the simplest means of protecting a computer network, but that doesn't necessarily mean that a business should overlook the benefits of having an antivirus. If a business doesn’t have antivirus on its systems, it’s usually because they really don’t believe they are in any danger. The harsh reality emerges after a data breach. Regardless of its size, any business holds the kind of data that would draw in thieves and rogues. From Social Security numbers to credit card numbers to many other kinds of personally identifiable information, businesses possess plenty of data that can bring in a pretty penny on the black market.
We wish IT security was as simple as setting up a good firewall and installing an antivirus. We talk a lot about security solutions that cover a lot of your bases, such as our Unified Threat Management (UTM) system. While these enterprise-level solutions are important, any investment in protecting your network can be upended by a single act of user error.
The Internet is gaining quite the reputation as a dangerous place. It hosts countless threats, many of which hide behind links that shield their intentions. Considering how much is on the line for your business, you need to make sure that you know which links are safe to click on, and which ones are best left ignored.
Hackers and other security threats are everyday problems for users all over the world. We’re not even talking about just simple phishing emails--you’d be surprised by how many victims are from straight-up hacking attacks. The security sector has been forced to adapt, growing at an astronomical rate. To help your organization get up to speed on the latest threats and hacks, we’ve put together a list of the first half of 2018’s most notorious breaches and statistics related to them.
Internet scams are major threats to individuals and business because all it takes is one wrong click of the mouse and a user is embroiled in an unenviable situation. One such scam that is happening today is designed to catch users with their pants down, so to speak.
You can never be too careful about what you install on your computers. In this most recent example, Google Chrome users are finding themselves targeted by a new type of malware called Nigelthorn.
It’s no secret that a business’ security is one of its most important considerations. It would seem that there is a daily reminder of this unfortunate fact - but it’s even more unfortunate that many people aren’t aware of where many threats can actually come from. Below, we’ll discuss how some threats start on the inside - as well as what you can do to help stop them.
If you subscribe to Murphy’s Law, you understand why it is so crucial for every business to have a backup solution planned, put into place, and prepared for the worst. However, not every business should go about putting their backup strategy together in the same way. After all, their needs will be different, based on their industry, the data they store, and a variety of other factors.
A report by Gartner has provided evidence that security considerations are anticipated to see investments in 2018. So, if you were planning on focusing on your business’ information security this year, you certainly aren’t the only one.
