There are few things more important than network security for businesses, and all it takes is one or two mistakes to completely derail all of your efforts. Let’s take a look at network security faux pas, as well as how you can address these issues in an effective way. Here are some mistakes your business might be making in terms of network security and how they can be addressed.
A data breach is no joke, and it can take many forms. Whether it’s a case of confidential data being viewed, copied, stolen, or destroyed, a data breach cannot be ignored. Let’s take a look at some of the various causes of business data breaches and what you can do to prevent them from sinking your organization.
Shadow IT is a considerable problem for businesses that rely on IT in their operations. Let’s take a quick look at what shadow IT really is and how it can impact your business. We’ll also discuss ways you can avoid it.
The idea of digital transformation can be an exciting one, especially for a small business. Let’s go over how you can make the transformative power of technology work for your company’s benefit, as well as how you can go about implementing some of these innovative new solutions.
When people talk about network security, it’s just like they are talking about any other subject, the most terrible and devastating of the bunch is all that is spoken about. In the case of malware, there is a lot of information about ransomware going around out there because it is largely the worst type of ransomware there is for any organization. Unfortunately, malware is a vast and largely misunderstood thing. Today, we thought we would briefly go through modern malware so you can identify if you are a victim or not.
All businesses must make securing their infrastructures and reinforcing cybersecurity practices a priority, especially as we move into the new year. This is a concept that involves securing the network, infrastructure, and data from the countless threats out there. Here are three of the most important issues to keep in mind when building your cybersecurity strategy for the new year.
Businesses and their employees ultimately need a lot of different online accounts, which means there are a lot of passwords that need to be sorted. To assist with this, many have turned to using password managers—applications that store passwords in an encrypted vault. There are a lot of reasons that these password managers are a popular choice. Let’s go over a few of them.
These days, if you are not taking cybersecurity seriously, then you are waiting for something bad to happen that could potentially destroy your business for good. While the number of threats out there has increased significantly over the past couple of decades, so too has the number of powerful security options out there. In fact, one way that you can leverage these solutions to your advantage is to use “self-healing” security software, the concept for which is pretty neat.
Phishing attacks are a major problem that all businesses must be prepared to handle. Sometimes it comes in the form of messages or web pages designed to steal information from your employees, but other times it might come in the form of phone calls asking for IP addresses or network credentials under the guise of your IT department. It’s especially important that your staff members understand how to identify these tricks, and it all starts with phishing training.
Ransomware has been a scourge to businesses for years now, with it unfortunately experiencing a renaissance of sorts as the COVID-19 pandemic came to the fore. With increased phishing attacks and other means of spreading ransomware now taking advantage of the ongoing situation, it is all the more important that these attempts can be identified and mitigated.
Your organization’s network security is dictated in part by your security solutions, but your employees also play a large role in maintaining it. If you want to make sure that your employees are not inadvertently putting your organization at risk, you need to ensure they are getting the proper security training. Here are a couple of ways you can make security training less like pulling teeth and more engaging for your employees.
There are countless aspects of running a business that demand your attention on a daily basis, but one of the most important that can often go by the wayside is cybersecurity. No matter the size of your business, cybersecurity can make all the difference in preserving your organization’s future. While we recommend implementing technology solutions to make cybersecurity easier to manage, without an established culture of cybersecurity, your business will remain at risk regardless of the measure you take to protect it.
In what sounds like a positive shift, cybersecurity experts have announced their research has found that cyberattacks are spending less time on the networks they infiltrate. Unfortunately, this isn’t such a clear-cut positive. Today, we’ll discuss “dwell time” and how less of it is a problem.
Cyberattacks have been carried out by nations for decades, but for whatever reason, our minds still build the hoodie-wearing cyberpunk sitting at a laptop in a dimly-lit room. This often isn’t the case. Today, we thought we would shine a light on state-sponsored hacking, starting with the attack carried out recently against the U.S.-based cybersecurity company FireEye.
Despite all the attention we try to direct toward cybercrime and awareness of the risks out there today, hacks and scams are still impacting businesses. With so many professional duties and activities carried out online, your business’ cybersecurity needs to be considered paramount. Here, we’ve listed six things to prioritize in your business to help protect it from such activities.
Honestly, it shouldn’t be surprising that 2020 has come to an end with news of a massive cyberespionage attack—the biggest ever, as a matter of fact. Let’s dive into what we know, and what it signifies.
Network security is paramount to a business’ success with the number of security incidents and data breaches that could potentially upend it. While this sounds like a task of marginally epic proportions, managing your security can be greatly simplified via a few basic activities. Let’s go over four such security-boosting actions that you should direct your attention to.
While businesses have always needed to focus on their data security, the COVID-19 pandemic has only made this more of a challenge. Let’s go over why this is, and how many industries (especially the healthcare industry) have had to adjust as a result.
Quick Marty! Hop into the DeLorean! Let’s time travel back to a simpler time, back in the late 90’s!
Back then, you could walk into any store that sold software and you’d see two types of antivirus protection - orange boxes that said Norton, and red boxes that said McAfee.
Today, like most things, life isn’t as simple. There are a lot of choices, and… well, you shouldn’t be going to a store to buy your antivirus these days. Let’s discuss!
The COVID-19 pandemic has put a lot of stress on people. Nowhere is this more true than in the small business arena. Small businesses, many of which were forced to suspend or severely alter their operations, are also dealing with cyberattacks. Let’s take a look at the effects COVID-19 has on small businesses regarding cybersecurity.
As statewide stay-at-home orders lapse, more and more businesses aim to reopen. For a fair share of these businesses, remote technology has been a godsend. For the businesses that cannot reopen yet, being able to monitor your IT infrastructure while you are out of the office is extremely important to the sustainability of your remote access solutions. Today, we’ll discuss monitoring your infrastructure.
When it comes to protecting your business, cybersecurity is a huge consideration that must be kept in mind. However, it isn’t the only consideration. Some of the biggest threats to your business can actually come from your own team. Let’s go over the three kinds of insider threats that you need to be on your guard against, and how to avoid them.
In many ways, explaining why sufficient cybersecurity is important for your business has become redundant - especially when it is much more important to understand how this cybersecurity needs to protect you. The threats to data and privacy are known, but no less potent. In order to counter them, you need to make sure you have what you need to protect your business - starting with a few key considerations.
If you have a bank account or a credit card, chances are you’ve been made aware of a hack or a data breach. Big organizations are more frequently being breached, forcing them to run damage control for the often millions of customers affected. News coverage often bashes these big organizations, but what about smaller ones? The truth is, smaller businesses are breached just as often, with the consequences being just as severe.
The modern threat landscape is filled with horror stories of people that have been the victim of software vulnerabilities, hackers, and situations that could have been managed differently. Today, we will go over some of the best ways to keep your business from being a victim of a data breach, data theft, or malware attack.
Ransom: a sum of money is demanded in order for the release of goods.
Software: the programs and other operating information used by a computer.
What do you get when you combine the two? Ransomware.
People’s exposure to cybercrime has been increasing for some time. Today, people with very little coding experience can infiltrate systems and steal data. There is demand for data, and now there is a supply of low-cost--or even free--hacking tools available on the dark web that allows people to get closer to that data. In fact, according to a report by Deloitte entitled Black Market Ecosystem: Estimating the Cost of “Pwnership”, there is a complete economy built around these readily-available hacking tools that are relatively easy to use.
The man in the middle has a lot of power and influence over the end result, and this is true even in the technological world. In fact, there are attacks dedicated to this vector, twisting and turning something that your organization needs into what amounts to a threat. We’ll discuss what a Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) attack is, as well as what you can do to combat these threats.
It wasn’t so long ago when your business could get away with protecting your computer with a simple installation of antivirus software. There were only around 50,000 known computer viruses in the year 2000, but that number has since skyrocketed to an astounding 185 million unique variants of threats.
It’s nice to get away every now and then, but if you have stayed at any property under the Marriott umbrella, including St. Regis, Westin, Sheraton, or W hotel since 2014, there is a good chance that your personal information has been leaked, a spokesperson from parent company Marriott has said. They said the multinational hotel corporation will begin emailing users impacted by the leak in the coming days.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year… for scammers, that is. These kinds of criminals love to take advantage of the gift-giving season. With the right tools for the job, hackers can have a field day stealing sensitive information, like credit card numbers, due to the sheer amount of stuff being purchased by consumers. It’s up to you to stay vigilant and make sure you’re not being scammed, but we have a couple of tricks you can use to stay as safe as possible.
Your Google account is one of your most important assets, regardless of whether you’re a business professional or a casual user. The tricky part of using Google, however, is to make sure that you’re using this asset safely. By securing your account and valuing your Google account credentials, you can make sure your account stays safe.
Did you know that almost 90 percent of small business owners feel they are completely safe from attack? It’s unfortunate, but the truth of the matter is that half of these businesses will eventually be proven wrong--they too can suffer from a cyberattack. Are you going to risk becoming one of them? You should know now that there is no reason to.
It’s fair to say that today's organizations are faced with more online threats than ever before. To properly manage the information systems that they depend on for productivity, redundancy, and operational management, they need to ensure that they are doing what they need to do to mitigate problems stemming from the continuous flow of threats.
Sports are a very popular thing around the world, which means that these athletic contests gather many fans to them. In turn, this means that these events are chock full of potential targets for a hacking attack. Today, we’ll examine the assortment of hacks that have taken place around sporting events.
If your business hasn’t put protections in place for your technology infrastructure, that needs to be moved to the top of your to-do list, yesterday. It isn’t as though the increasing number of threats are going to avoid you until your network is prepared to deflect them. Therefore, you need to take action now. To help, we’ll review some of the most important security considerations to make for your organization.
There’s one major reason why email is the preferred method of spreading threats like ransomware and other types of malicious software. The sheer number of messages that can be sent through email on its own increases the odds that a user will click on the wrong link or download the wrong attachment. How can you know the legitimacy of any message you receive in your email inbox?
Here’s the thing about IT security: it requires a little more than a decent firewall and a reasonably-strong password. We talk a lot about how to ensure that your business’ network stays a top priority, and the best way to do that is to implement what we call a Unified Threat Management (UTM) solution. An enterprise security system like a UTM can provide a considerable improvement for the way you protect your organization, but even something as simple as a little bit of user error could bypass these protocols.
The Internal Revenue Service has declared to tax professionals that they must take extra steps toward protecting the information of taxpayers. Certified Public Accountant (CPA) firms, whether they are large organizations or small businesses, hold much information that could be used by hackers and identity thieves, which makes them major targets during tax season.
If you were considering increasing your investment into your information security in 2018, you certainly aren’t alone. Gartner released a report that indicated a considerable rise in plans to invest in key security considerations.
Your business might have a limited budget, but this shouldn’t hold you back from implementing the best and strongest security solutions. However, security is a complicated process for any business. This is problematic, especially since common threats and vulnerabilities show up frequently in the business environment. We’ll walk you through some security basics so that you can optimize your organization's protection.
After 143 million people had their personal information put at risk in the Equifax data breach, it comes as no surprise that data security is an even hotter topic than usual. As much as you’d like to think that a breach like that would never happen to your business, this is an unrealistic hope that won’t do you any good if the threat of a data breach does come around. It is much better to be prepared.
Network security is more than just a conscientious attempt by your staff to protect your organization’s digital assets. It’s making sure that your employees know how to handle dangerous situations, implementing preventative IT measures to eliminate potential issues entirely, and having the right technology experts on-hand to handle tough problems that can’t be solved by a few pieces of technology.
Security is an incredibly important part of running any business, but unless you’re a professional IT technician, you may run into a couple of roadblocks while implementing a solution. Chief among these is not knowing exactly what you’re protecting your business from. Keep the following tips in mind to reinforce your security strategy and preserve your business infrastructure’s integrity.
Every user on your network adds an additional level of risk, whether it be risk of user error, making a mistake that causes a data breach, or worse. One would assume that a company’s biggest risk would come from an untrained employee that disregards security policies, but surprisingly, that’s not always the case. Research has shown that a company’s CEO along with the rest of its C-level executives are the greatest security risk.
You might spend a significant amount of time thinking about your business’s security practices, but the same can’t be said for your organization’s employees. Unless you give them a reason to care about security, they likely won’t. The resulting apathy could eventually become serious problems that could hinder operations in the long run, or worse, expose your business to threats that could put your employees and your clients in danger.
The popularity of security software has required malware distributors to be clever with their delivery methods. This is why rogue security software exists, and why you need to be absolutely certain that your network doesn’t have these fraudulent programs installed.
It’s a tough lesson to learn, but almost any company is susceptible to cyber-attacks that take advantage of any security setup’s weakest link: the people involved. This lesson was most recently learned the hard way by two unnamed tech companies that fell victim to a phishing campaign that was allegedly run by Evaldas Rimasauskas, a Lithuanian man accused of stealing $100 million from them.
Every consumer-grade PC comes with a basic firewall. Enterprise environments, however, require that the base infrastructure has a stronger security solution that provides greater controls, above and beyond the basic firewall. One solution that provides enhanced firewall capabilities is the Unified Threat Management system.
As we hear news about large-scale hacks and data breaches, there’s a temptation to picture attacks like those in television shows and films like Mr. Robot, Live Free or Die Hard and other works of fiction. These attacks are often carried out by criminal geniuses or nefarious nation-states, utilizing of a crippling zero-day vulnerability or superbug to bring society to its knees.
While it’s not particularly common for hackers to attack physical infrastructure, the few that have occurred have been known to be quite catastrophic. For example, the Ukrainian power infrastructure was taken out by hackers just last year, leaving hundreds of thousands of citizens without power for several hours. In fact, now western countries are believed to be threatened by similar attacks.
Ransomware is so common in the world of online threats that even the FBI has labeled it a massive threat to businesses of all kinds. Unlike other types of malware, ransomware has a unique return on investment that’s measurable and highly lucrative for hackers. A new variant of ransomware called Maktub Locker lures victims into a false sense of security by tailoring phishing emails to match their street address.
Security is a primary concern for businesses that take advantage of the cloud, but the industry often dictates to what extent a business is concerned about cloud security. Yet, despite the varying cloud needs of industries, there are several variables that should be addressed when thinking about cloud security, including data permissions, account compromisation, and, of course, malware and other common online threats.
Network security is more important today than it’s ever been before, especially in light of several concerning developments in targeted hacking attacks. Unfortunately, many employees (and even some employers) don’t know or understand how to follow various security best practices. By ensuring that every single one of your employees understands the importance of cybersecurity, you can exponentially increase your organization's network security.
Most devices that are being produced these days are aiming for the “connectivity” angle, be it simply connecting to the Internet, or allowing you to stay connected to something specific through the cloud. While this does wonders for productivity and online interaction, some users approach these devices without considering the state of online security. October is Cybersecurity Month, so there’s no time like the present to ask yourself how trends in Internet of Things security can affect your organization.
