k_Street Consulting, LLC Blog

k_Street Consulting, LLC has been serving the Washington area since 2009, providing IT Support such as technical helpdesk support, computer support, and consulting to small and medium-sized businesses.

The NIST Recommends This 5-Stage Cybersecurity Framework

The NIST Recommends This 5-Stage Cybersecurity Framework

If there’s one thing that helps businesses establish consistent policies and strategy, it’s a good framework. You can use a framework for anything, including network security. Today, we want to walk you through the cybersecurity protection standards as they are outlined by the National Institute of Standards and Technology so you can better protect your business.

0 Comments
Continue reading

How to Keep Your Employees from Being a Cybersecurity Problem

How to Keep Your Employees from Being a Cybersecurity Problem

Cybersecurity has to be a big deal for any business that uses IT, and today, who doesn’t? When your employees don’t follow cybersecurity rules, it can put your business in danger, like getting hacked or losing money. The first step is to figure out why employees aren’t following the rules. This could happen because they don’t know the rules, haven’t been trained enough, or think the rules are too hard or take too much time. 

0 Comments
Continue reading

Pig Butchering is a Serious, Growing Problem

Pig Butchering is a Serious, Growing Problem

Over the past few years, huge scamming operations have operated in Southeast Asia, and now they are spreading. These scams—known as pig butchering scams—cause serious harm, as in an estimated $75 billion worldwide in 2023.

With these sorts of operations spreading, let’s go over what pig butchering is. 

0 Comments
Continue reading

If You See Someone Streaming Funeral Services, You’ve Spotted a Likely Scam

If You See Someone Streaming Funeral Services, You’ve Spotted a Likely Scam

Funerals are never to be taken lightly, which makes it all the worse that there are people out there willing to use these events to scam those in grief. Recently, Facebook has seen many groups that supposedly offer links to streamed funerals in exchange for credit card data, with different events being added more recently.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Password Managers are an Office Worker’s Best Friend

Password Managers are an Office Worker’s Best Friend

Protecting your business’ accounts is something we will advocate for on repeat. You’ll hear us tell you about complex and unique passwords and multi-factor authentication until you’re sick of hearing it. But one tool that our clients sometimes forget is the password manager—an equally useful tool that can help your business keep passwords safe and secure.

0 Comments
Continue reading

What’s Going on With Telegram and the State of Encrypted Communication?

What’s Going on With Telegram and the State of Encrypted Communication?

Sorry for the loaded title. There’s a lot to talk about, even for those of you who don’t use or even know what Telegram is.

We’ll try to sum this up, because we think there is a lot to say about security and the nature of technology in this, and like all things these days, there’s some odd rabble-rousing about this whole series of events. Who’s up for a wild ride?

0 Comments
Continue reading

Make a Complex Password with This Catchy Trick

Make a Complex Password with This Catchy Trick

You should always use strong passwords for each and every account. Cybercriminals don’t need to put much effort into cracking a password these days—it only takes a little software and standard computer hardware to crack millions of passwords in just a second or two.

The more complex and random a password is, the more secure it is.

But coming up with (and memorizing) complex passwords is really difficult. This trick should make it a whole lot easier.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Phishing: What It Is, and How to Avoid It

Phishing: What It Is, and How to Avoid It

Potential data breaches are increasingly problematic for organizations, and the most common way that data is stolen is through phishing attacks. Phishing attacks are currently one of the most pervasive threats on the Internet, and you need to understand them to thwart their effectiveness against your users. Let’s explore what exactly a phishing attack consists of and some best practices you can use to defend your network against them.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Please, Please, PLEASE Don’t Include Sensitive Info in Your Emails

Please, Please, PLEASE Don’t Include Sensitive Info in Your Emails

Email is a great communication tool. However, certain things are just unsafe to communicate via email.

Let’s go through a list of such things. Better safe than sorry, after all.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Let’s Review Your Facebook Privacy Protections

Let’s Review Your Facebook Privacy Protections

Last week we went through some of the issues that Facebook is dealing with in regards to its security and data privacy. Today, we thought it would be helpful to give you the tools you need to protect your privacy on Facebook.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Let’s Remind Ourselves How Meta’s Security Has Failed

Let’s Remind Ourselves How Meta’s Security Has Failed

Facebook remains one of the most visited places on the Internet. Meta (the parent company to Facebook) also features WhatsApp and Instagram on their roster and has faced numerous security and privacy failings over the years. In this week’s blog, we’ll take a brief look at some of the most noteworthy.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Microsoft Defender: An Example of Why Consumer-Grade Security is Not Enough

Microsoft Defender: An Example of Why Consumer-Grade Security is Not Enough

Windows Defender is Microsoft’s own antivirus solution, and it comes bundled with Windows, so it’s confusing to think that a business would need to pay for it, right? Well, there are actually two separate products called Defender, with a big difference between them.

0 Comments
Continue reading

CDK Cybersecurity Incidents Cause Massive Chaos in the Car Industry

CDK Cybersecurity Incidents Cause Massive Chaos in the Car Industry

A popular automotive dealership software platform has recently become the target of a cyberattack, resulting in the solution going down for several days. Any business that has a solution it relies on can sympathize with the situation. After all, if you lose access to your critical business apps for several days, would your operations be able to recover?

0 Comments
Continue reading

Your Email is Insecure - Businesses Need Email Encryption

Your Email is Insecure - Businesses Need Email Encryption

All businesses use email to communicate, but too many organizations haven’t jumped on the encrypted email bandwagon yet. Encryption is incredibly helpful to keep networks and infrastructure secure, and it can do the same for your email solution. In fact, it is likely required to ensure the secure transfer of critical and sensitive information.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Encryption is One of the Most Valuable Tools Against Hackers

Encryption is One of the Most Valuable Tools Against Hackers

Encryption is a powerful weapon against hackers that can prevent them from stealing your data and leveraging it against you. Encryption, in its most basic textbook definition, converts your readable data into an indecipherable jumble that can only be reassembled through the use of an encryption key. Small businesses absolutely must utilize encryption to protect customer information, financial records, and other important or sensitive business data. This ensures that it is as protected as possible against those that might do you harm.

0 Comments
Continue reading

This Cybersecurity Professional is Out to Scam the Scammers

This Cybersecurity Professional is Out to Scam the Scammers

Scammers look to take advantage of someone else for their own gain, but there are some scammers out there who are trying to scam the scammers to teach them a lesson. One such individual is “Kitboga,” a content creator who calls themselves a “scam baiter.”

0 Comments
Continue reading

What You Need to Know About Your Personally Identifiable Information

What You Need to Know About Your Personally Identifiable Information

Hackers are always on the lookout for personally identifiable information, or PII, as it’s an immensely lucrative resource. You’ll need to protect it if you want your business to continue operating safely and efficiently. Let’s go over what PII entails and what kinds of data you might find under this term.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Secure Your Digital Life with Just One Password

Secure Your Digital Life with Just One Password

Safeguarding your online accounts is an important part of maintaining network security. With the increasing number of cyber threats, relying on strong, unique passwords is no longer optional—it's a necessity. Remembering complex passwords for numerous accounts can be challenging, however. This is where password managers come in handy, offering a secure and convenient solution to managing your credentials.

0 Comments
Continue reading

How to Reduce the Risks of Phishing Attacks

How to Reduce the Risks of Phishing Attacks

Phishing is a pervasive threat nowadays, with businesses of any size or industry serving as prime targets. Understanding phishing and implementing effective prevention strategies is crucial for your entire team.

Let's explore how to reduce the effectiveness of phishing schemes against your business—in other words, how to prevent phishing from having an impact.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Your Business Can’t Afford to Forego Security Auditing

Your Business Can’t Afford to Forego Security Auditing

While the word “audit” can easily be a scary thought for businesses, there are certain cases where an audit serves an organization’s direct benefit. Take, for instance, the ones that occur internally to identify and correct security issues and vulnerabilities. These audits are not only a positive endeavor for businesses; they’re extremely important to carry out.

Let’s talk about why this is and review a few standard practices you should prioritize as you go about this process.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Rise Up Against Ransomware

Rise Up Against Ransomware

Like many of the past few years, this year has witnessed a significant surge in high-profile ransomware attacks. If you haven't already strategized how to safeguard your business from these threats, now is the time to act. Fortunately, you can take several proactive measures to mitigate the impact of ransomware attacks, and it all starts with preparation.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Ransomware is Only Getting Worse in 2024

Ransomware is Only Getting Worse in 2024

Since it was first documented in 1989, ransomware has only become far more severe, ruthless, and, most of all, prevalent. Let’s review some important statistics to remember if you are to understand ransomware and, even more importantly, avoid its impact on your business.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Your Users Are Likely Your Biggest Security Threat, But You Can Fix That

Your Users Are Likely Your Biggest Security Threat, But You Can Fix That

Believe it or not, if you were to rank your business’ greatest threats, risk factors, and vulnerabilities, your users would most likely belong somewhere toward the top. Human error is a big challenge to your security simply because cybercriminals understand that your employees are, in fact, human and will, in fact, make mistakes.

Let’s explore how cyberattacks exploit this tendency and how you can better protect your business from the ramifications.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Make Sure You Share These Cybersecurity Tips with Everyone You Know

Make Sure You Share These Cybersecurity Tips with Everyone You Know

Cybersecurity is crucial for everyone to focus on, both in the professional environment and in their personal lives. That’s why I wanted to put together a list of cybersecurity practices you should encourage your team to follow when they aren’t in the office or working remotely, when their time is theirs. 

0 Comments
Continue reading

Don’t Share Sensitive Data in Emails

Don’t Share Sensitive Data in Emails

All it takes is one oversight to potentially undo any benefits your cybersecurity protections and other best practices may deliver. For instance, even if you have things like multifactor authentication in place, a phishing scam or even some malware varieties could potentially give an attacker access to your email… and all the data your messages contain, just sitting in your inbox.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Invest in Your Business’ Future with Security Best Practices

Invest in Your Business’ Future with Security Best Practices

Nowadays, it is crucial that you make security a top priority. With the right approach, it not only saves you massive headaches, but also a considerable amount of capital—particularly if you leverage the appropriate solutions for SMBs. As a managed service provider, we can ensure that you implement the appropriate IT solutions to maximize the return on your security investment.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Here’s What We Recommend for SMB Network Security

Here’s What We Recommend for SMB Network Security

Network security is complicated, and as such, you need to have considerable knowledge of it to ensure that your business is as secure as possible against the plethora of threats out there. Thankfully, you don’t have to do it alone. We want to give you some insight into the dos and don’ts of network security.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Actions to Take When Your Phone Goes Missing

Actions to Take When Your Phone Goes Missing

If you are like many of the rest of us, the thought of losing your phone is a situation that brings on anger and fear. If your phone has been stolen, there are several steps you have to take to mitigate potential risks and increase the chances of recovering your device. Here's a general guide.

0 Comments
Continue reading

As Good as Your Reputation May Be, One Security Incident Can Bring It All Down

As Good as Your Reputation May Be, One Security Incident Can Bring It All Down

Small and medium-sized businesses largely rely on their standing amongst their audience, which means their reputations are critically important to preserve. Unsurprisingly, one of the fastest ways to damage—if not eliminate—their reputation amongst the public is to suffer a cybersecurity event. Let’s examine some statistics, and consider what you need to do to keep your business from becoming one.

0 Comments
Continue reading

6 of the Most Noteworthy Data Breaches from 2023

6 of the Most Noteworthy Data Breaches from 2023

Technology and digital tools are a hot topic on our blog, but where there is technology, there is also data… and where there is data, there will be hackers trying to steal it. Data breaches are a common thread in all industries, and to prove this, we have put together six of the most notable data breaches from 2023. We hope you can learn a thing or two from them!

0 Comments
Continue reading

Spot Dangerous Phishing Links by Examining the URL

Spot Dangerous Phishing Links by Examining the URL

In this blog, we continuously try to caution individuals against clicking on suspicious links, but distinguishing between a genuine URL and a questionable one has become increasingly challenging. Malicious tactics have evolved, making it imperative for everyone to remain vigilant. These threats are pervasive, coming from various directions. This discussion will focus on a single punctuation mark that can help determine whether a link is genuinely safe or potentially perilous.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Scams Are an Everyday Occurrence, Expect More in 2024

Scams Are an Everyday Occurrence, Expect More in 2024

Scams are a scary prospect, and with today’s technology and current events being what they are, it’s all the more important that you remain aware of them so you can avoid them. With a whole year ahead of us, let’s consider some scams and scam-based trends that will likely continue throughout.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Six Steps to Safer Business Data

Six Steps to Safer Business Data

Ensuring the security of your data is extremely important. If you are a frequent reader of this blog, you know that any unauthorized access to sensitive information can result in severe consequences for your business. The problem is that today’s cybercriminal tactics have become increasingly sophisticated, posing a constant challenge to organizational data security. Today, we look at six things you can do to keep your data secure.

0 Comments
Continue reading

With Modern Cybersecurity, Awareness is Everything

With Modern Cybersecurity, Awareness is Everything

Every organization needs to have a certain level of cybersecurity protection in place. That includes firewalls, antivirus, VPNs, encryption, and centrally managed security policies. Even so, many modern cybercriminals know that businesses have these protections in place, and they are working out ways around them.

0 Comments
Continue reading

You Should Avoid Being Scammed, But There’s No Shame In It When It Happens

You Should Avoid Being Scammed, But There’s No Shame In It When It Happens

I recently engaged in a discussion with some of my colleagues about the intersection of cybersecurity and the scams that so many of us deal with every day, like those annoying phone scams. We wound up concluding that it's valuable to examine these phenomena together.

So, let’s do that.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Three Ways to Prioritize Email Security for Your Business

Three Ways to Prioritize Email Security for Your Business

Email is complex, despite all appearances. It’s easy to overlook its complexities when you log into your account and it just works. However, you’ll need to ensure that your email is managed properly, as well as secured with protective measures for the underlying technology. Let’s go over some of the more effective methods you can use to keep your infrastructure secure from all types of threats, whether they are visible or hidden.

0 Comments
Continue reading

State of Maine Hacked, 1.3 Million Citizens’ Information Taken

State of Maine Hacked, 1.3 Million Citizens’ Information Taken

The State of Maine in the United States has been the victim of a cyberattack.

That’s right, the whole state was hacked by a Russian hacking collective. 

The state claims that over 1.3 million people’s personal information was compromised via an already known vulnerability in secure transfer service MOVEit Transfer. Unfortunately for the people of Maine, this vulnerability is known to be used by the Cl0p ransomware gang, based out of Russia.

0 Comments
Continue reading

The Zero-Day Exploit, Explained

The Zero-Day Exploit, Explained

There are malevolent endeavors that happen with the utilization of what are known as "zero-day exploits" that launch attacks on your sensitive data and technological infrastructure. Today, we explain what a zero-day exploit is and why they are such a threat to business. 

0 Comments
Continue reading

Your Facebook Account is Worth More to Cybercriminals than You Might Think

Your Facebook Account is Worth More to Cybercriminals than You Might Think

In both business and personal life, Facebook and other social media platforms have become a pretty fundamental part of how people do things. Not only do we keep in touch with our friends and families, we manage our business’ reputations through these accounts.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Security Might Slow You Down, But It’s Still Necessary

Security Might Slow You Down, But It’s Still Necessary

You might think that adding additional security measures can only benefit your business, and this is true in most circumstances, save one: security exhaustion. If you don’t make it easy for your employees to adhere to your security policies, then you could inadvertently be making them perform slower than usual and your solutions could be getting in the way of their work.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Study Shows the Importance of Cybersecurity Awareness and Training

Study Shows the Importance of Cybersecurity Awareness and Training

Cybersecurity Awareness Month is always a great time to examine your own practices to ensure they are in line with the best practices. We thought we would share some of the most impactful security best practices that you and your employees can keep in mind as you go about your workdays.

0 Comments
Continue reading

A Consortium of AI Companies Have Committed to Risk Reduction

A Consortium of AI Companies Have Committed to Risk Reduction

Back in July, the White House secured commitments from Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Inflection, Meta, Microsoft, and OpenAI to help manage the risks that artificial intelligence potentially poses. More recently, eight more companies—Adobe, Cohere, IBM, Nvidia, Palantir, Salesforce, Scale AI, and Stability—also pledged to maintain “the development of safe, secure, and trustworthy AI,” as a White House brief reported.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Schools are Dangerously Valuable to Cybercriminals

Schools are Dangerously Valuable to Cybercriminals

It’s an unfortunate fact that cybercriminals are motivated to attack places that contain large volumes of sensitive data, but typically lack the budget or in-house skills to sufficiently protect it. It’s even more unfortunate that this description directly applies to many schools and school systems.

Let’s talk about what schools have to offer cybercriminals, and what they need to do as a result.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Social Media Phishing Gets Craftier By the Day

Social Media Phishing Gets Craftier By the Day

It’s borderline impossible to conduct any business online without seeing potential threats abound. It also doesn’t help that threats tend to disguise themselves to avoid being detected. Today, we want to share a social media threat that one of our employees discovered while going about their day, and we think even a cautious user could have been fooled by it.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Don’t Skimp on These 3 Cloud Security Best Practices

Don’t Skimp on These 3 Cloud Security Best Practices

The cloud is an amazing tool for just about any business, allowing for countless benefits that span endless possibilities. However, because it involves the Internet and hosting data in an online environment, there are security challenges that naturally come about as a result of utilizing it. Let’s consider some of the security mistakes that businesses can experience while using the cloud.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Six Tools Every Security-Minded Organization Will Need

Six Tools Every Security-Minded Organization Will Need

For today’s business, there are very few threats that are as pervasive as cyberthreats. For this reason organizations that are willing to invest in their cybersecurity seem to have more control over their data and operations. With cyberthreats constantly evolving and becoming more sophisticated, it is crucial to equip ourselves with the right tools to protect our digital assets. In this week’s blog post, we will explore some of the most important cybersecurity tools that every individual and organization should consider implementing.

0 Comments
Continue reading

The Insane Lengths that Cybercriminals and Con Artists Will Go to Scam You

The Insane Lengths that Cybercriminals and Con Artists Will Go to Scam You

Viruses and malware are bad. Ransomware is crippling. Data breaches in some cases can more or less shut down a business. We talk about these threats all the time, but for most people, they are just scary-sounding buzzwords. Today, we want to talk about the more personalized threats that are much more cunning, and in some ways, much more dangerous.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Blank Emails Could Just Be a Different Type of Threat

Blank Emails Could Just Be a Different Type of Threat

Phishing attacks are the most common attack vector used by hackers, and while it helps to know what a phishing attack looks like, it’s also good to know what they don’t look like. The latest example of a phishing attack takes this to an extreme, utilizing blank messages to confuse recipients in a creative take on phishing attacks.

0 Comments
Continue reading

2 Great Ways You Can Protect Your Business’ Data

2 Great Ways You Can Protect Your Business’ Data

If you have never imagined your business in the crosshairs of enemy hackers, you could be in for a rude awakening. Unauthorized access to important business data could be enough to bring your business’ operations grinding to a halt, among other consequences. You need to focus your efforts on security, including protecting your infrastructure and ensuring its redundancy through data backup systems.

0 Comments
Continue reading

What Really Happens When a Ransomware Attack Strikes?

What Really Happens When a Ransomware Attack Strikes?

Ransomware is perhaps the nastiest threat you can encounter, and the unprepared business could potentially be crippled beyond repair if it suffers from an attack like this. We’re here to demystify the inner machinations of a ransomware attack so you know better how to respond to it.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Using Your Browser’s Password Manager Is Poor Security Protocol

Using Your Browser’s Password Manager Is Poor Security Protocol

Many web browsers, like Google Chrome, have features that allow for convenient password-keeping, but at the cost of considerable cybersecurity risks. We recommend that all businesses utilize a password management tool, but preferably not one that is built into a web browser. Why? We’re glad you asked!

0 Comments
Continue reading

Ransomware is Something That All Businesses Should Avoid

Ransomware is Something That All Businesses Should Avoid

Ransomware is a serious issue for businesses. How serious?

Think “$265 billion in costs by 2031” serious. In light of this, every organization needs to do everything possible to avoid falling victim to ransomware. Let’s touch on a few practices that will help.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Three Ways You Can Immediately Improve Your Cybersecurity

Three Ways You Can Immediately Improve Your Cybersecurity

Cyberattacks are a major issue for everyone and especially for businesses. In fact, if you don’t have a solid handle on the actions you take, your IT may be more exposed than you think. We thought we would go through a few really simple actions you can take to enhance your security posture.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Getting the Right Phishing Awareness Strategy Can Save Your Business From Major Headaches

Getting the Right Phishing Awareness Strategy Can Save Your Business From Major Headaches

As time goes on, businesses are doing more and more to protect their digital assets from theft and corruption. Whether that is deploying tools, providing training, or getting the support you need to successfully secure your business from the myriad of threats coming your way, you need to be deliberate about the way you go about deploying your security resources. Today, we want to touch on security training and the role it plays in your cybersecurity. 

0 Comments
Continue reading

Beware of Phishing Scams Left in Voicemails

Beware of Phishing Scams Left in Voicemails

Phishing attacks are one of the most common security threats to your business, not only because they are effective, but because they can be utilized in many different ways. You can become the victim of a phishing attack through email, instant message, phone, or even your voicemail. These “phoicemail” attacks are quite crafty in their approach, and you should be wary of them.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Are You Equipped to Handle Your Compliance Needs, Regarding Cybersecurity?

Are You Equipped to Handle Your Compliance Needs, Regarding Cybersecurity?

Regulations and compliance standards are in place for effectively every industry to uphold, many of which address cybersecurity in some way or another. Let’s talk for a moment about why compliance to these standards is of the utmost importance for your organization.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Were You Targeted by Ransomware? The FBI Wants to Hear About It

Were You Targeted by Ransomware? The FBI Wants to Hear About It

At the end of January, the Federal Bureau of Investigation went public with an announcement that they had taken down the servers and Dark Web sites utilized by the Hive ransomware gang. This is a major victory, in terms of fighting cybercrime, but a certain statistic from this operation shows a somewhat disconcerting trend.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Tech Giants are Looking to Ditch the Password

Tech Giants are Looking to Ditch the Password

Passwords, as annoying as they are sometimes, are the front line of defense to almost every account and profile your business depends on. That doesn’t stop security professionals from trying to develop better strategies to secure digital systems. Some of the biggest names in tech are searching for ways to forge ahead passwordless. Let’s take a look at one example that has drawn the attention of the tech community.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Are You at Risk of Data Poisoning?

Are You at Risk of Data Poisoning?

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are entering the mainstream technology discourse, and with software developing the ability to learn from datasets, many businesses are using this technology to automate their processes to cut down on costs and better use their current resources. There is a lot of good that comes from this, but only when you look past these benefits can you start to see the drawbacks, including an important one called “data poisoning.”

0 Comments
Continue reading

Why Cyber Insurance is a Smart Investment

Why Cyber Insurance is a Smart Investment

Despite not wanting to think about cybersecurity incidents derailing your operations, it’s important nevertheless to consider them before it’s too late to do anything about them. These days, businesses need to invest considerable capital into protections, including a cyber insurance policy to cover all of their bases.

Let’s discuss some of your options for cybersecurity insurance and what you’ll need to know to make the most informed decisions possible.

0 Comments
Continue reading

How to Avoid Insecure, Ineffective, and Just Plain Bad Passwords

How to Avoid Insecure, Ineffective, and Just Plain Bad Passwords

Password. 123456. Guest. Qwerty. These are just a few examples of passwords that are, in a word, terrible. To help you avoid using passwords like these, let’s go over what a good password is and how to choose one—starting with what you need to avoid.

0 Comments
Continue reading

The Most Fundamental Security Tools Every Business Needs

The Most Fundamental Security Tools Every Business Needs

For quite a while it took an actual disaster to encourage business leaders to allocate any time and money to put towards cybersecurity. Many businesses still don’t, in fact. Those that have, while absolutely prudent in their use of resources to help ward off security problems, may forget that there are still things that need to be done aside from employee training to keep their security up. Let’s go through a few things that every organization should be doing to maintain the security of their information systems. 

0 Comments
Continue reading

Exposing Your Staff to Every Cybersecurity Problem Can Have Problems of Its Own

Exposing Your Staff to Every Cybersecurity Problem Can Have Problems of Its Own

Cybersecurity is one part of your business’ computing that you must prioritize, as the fallout of a data breach could, in many cases, be enough to shutter your business for good. You want to be seen as a company that takes data security seriously, and to this end, you have likely implemented countless security features and measures to protect your organization’s resources and data. However, this all comes at a cost, and it’s not the one you might expect: your employees.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Many Businesses are Adopting Passwordless Authentication—Including Google

Many Businesses are Adopting Passwordless Authentication—Including Google

Passwords used to be the law of the land, but in a world where passwords are more at risk of threats than ever before, people have turned to passwordless solutions. In fact, one of the biggest tech companies out there—Google—recently took steps toward passwordless authentication which we think is pretty darn important.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Nothing Good Comes from Card Skimmers

Nothing Good Comes from Card Skimmers

Card skimming is a very real problem for companies and individuals alike, but there will always be those who are more impacted by these kinds of financial scams—particularly those who rely on prepaid cards provided by the government for food assistance and so on.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Whoops! Microsoft Update Has Been Missing This Critical Security Vulnerability

Whoops! Microsoft Update Has Been Missing This Critical Security Vulnerability

For the most part, Microsoft takes security as seriously as it should, issuing updates and patches to maintain your Windows and Server operating systems. While you can count on receiving these updates for your supported operating systems, what you might not have known is that Microsoft accidentally overlooked a flaw in its own defenses.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Network Segmentation is a Smart Move for Business Cybersecurity

Network Segmentation is a Smart Move for Business Cybersecurity

When it comes to your network and its security, you cannot give all of your users access to all of your assets. It’s just not a good practice, and doing so can potentially put your resources at risk. Let’s discuss how network segmentation can make a world of difference for the integrity of your network and the data found on it.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Why Security Questions are Terrible for Security

Why Security Questions are Terrible for Security

What is your mother’s maiden name? What street did you grow up on? What is your favorite movie?

How about: What good do you really think these questions are going to do to help keep your accounts any more secure?

0 Comments
Continue reading

Everything You Need to Know About Patch Tuesday

Everything You Need to Know About Patch Tuesday

In the technology news sector, you’ve probably noticed a trend where Patch Tuesday makes headlines at least once a month. This is generally the day when Microsoft issues patches and security updates for its many different technologies, and it’s important for your IT department to know when Patch Tuesday falls each month.

0 Comments
Continue reading

These Are the Ways You Get Malware

These Are the Ways You Get Malware

Malware has been a problem for people that rely on technology for decades. Like the security that is designed to mitigate the effect of malware, the malware itself has grown in potency and frequency and is a major problem for businesses. Today, we will take a look at a few ways you can get malware. 

0 Comments
Continue reading

A Few Useful Insights into Online Payment Fraud

A Few Useful Insights into Online Payment Fraud

Financially-focused cyberthreats are no joke, especially considering how digital payments now make up 41.8% of all payments made worldwide. Let’s consider a few statistics that highlight how important it is to ensure that the payment card data your business collects is sufficiently protected.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Multi-Factor Authentication isn’t Infallible, But It Shouldn’t Be Abandoned

Multi-Factor Authentication isn’t Infallible, But It Shouldn’t Be Abandoned

We haven’t been shy about pushing for multi-factor authentication, AKA MFA, and there’s a reason for that: if implemented correctly, it can help prevent many cyberthreats. Having said that, cybercriminals have managed to find a way to undermine MFA. Let’s consider how they’ve managed to do this.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Who’s Sitting at the Other Keyboard While You’re Being Attacked?

Who’s Sitting at the Other Keyboard While You’re Being Attacked?

It can be too easy to think about hackers and cybercriminals in an almost abstract way, diminishing them to little more than a faceless entity at a keyboard. Naturally, this is far from the truth. Let’s examine the reality of the cybercrime industry, which actually does as much harm to the perpetrators as it does to the people they scam...if not more.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Hackers Circumvent Traditional Cybersecurity with Phishing

Hackers Circumvent Traditional Cybersecurity with Phishing

Business owners often get unsolicited emails from individuals who want to sell them goods, services, or products. Depending on the message, they might even come across as a bit suspicious, prompting you to question the authenticity of the email. If you’re not careful, you might accidentally expose your organization by clicking on the wrong link in the wrong email, thus falling victim to the oldest trick in the book: the phishing attack.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Ransomware Has Gone Mobile

Ransomware Has Gone Mobile

Smartphones have managed to hold out against ransomware a bit longer than other hardware and operating systems, but those days are coming to an end. It’s important to remember that the average smartphone is not protected with antivirus software and thus remains threatened by your standard ransomware attacks. It is absolutely critical that your business doubles down on its protection against ransomware, especially in the mobile market.

0 Comments
Continue reading

We Think You Should Know What Social Engineering Is

We Think You Should Know What Social Engineering Is

Social engineering is a dangerous threat that could derail even the most prepared business. Even if you implement the best security solutions on the market, they mean nothing if a cybercriminal tricks you into acting impulsively. Let’s go over specific methods of social engineering that hackers might use to trick you.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Don’t Let Your Guard Down While You Travel

Don’t Let Your Guard Down While You Travel

With so many workers constantly connected to screens and other technology, it is a good idea to disconnect every so often by taking a vacation somewhere. However, it’s not always this easy, especially for a business owner who is still minimally connected to the office even while technically on vacation. We’ve got a couple of tips for how you can make the most of your technology while on your vacation without putting your company at risk in the process.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Securing Every Endpoint is Important to Maintaining Security

Securing Every Endpoint is Important to Maintaining Security

Sometimes it can be easy to take cybersecurity for granted, especially when you consider that built-in security features are more powerful than they have ever been. Unfortunately, if you think that cybersecurity is something that ends with the built-in security of your desktops and laptops, then you’re in for a rude awakening.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Get Your Cybersecurity Answers with Penetration Testing

Get Your Cybersecurity Answers with Penetration Testing

Hacking attacks can be stressful to manage, but when you add in that they can strike when you least expect them to, it gets a lot worse. You’ll never know how you respond to such an event unless you simulate it and replicate it somehow. This is what the penetration test is used for; it provides your business with a way to prepare for cyberattacks.

0 Comments
Continue reading

The RSOCKS Botnet Shows the Dangers of Unsecured IoT

The RSOCKS Botnet Shows the Dangers of Unsecured IoT

Botnets are nefarious entities consisting of countless connected devices, all of which have been infected by hackers to perform malicious deeds. One such botnet, a Russian botnet consisting of millions of infected Internet of Things devices, has been dismantled and taken down by the United States Department of Justice and various law enforcement agencies throughout Germany, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Are You Budgeting Enough for Security?

Are You Budgeting Enough for Security?

Cyberattacks have caused many millions of dollars worth of damage to businesses over the past several years, so it makes sense that your business should invest in its cybersecurity to mitigate these damages. That said, there is only so much you can invest into your cybersecurity budget, as you have to factor in other parts of your business, too. Today, we want to share with you three ways you can invest in cybersecurity initiatives that won’t completely break your bank.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Securing Your Endpoints Can Help Thwart Cybersecurity Troubles

Securing Your Endpoints Can Help Thwart Cybersecurity Troubles

How many devices or points of access do you have for your business’ data infrastructure? Chances are it’s more than you think, at least at first glance. If you count up all the mobile devices, server units, workstations, laptops, and so on that have access to your network, you might suddenly realize how important it is to secure all of these endpoints, as any unsecured device could be a path forward for hackers.

0 Comments
Continue reading

When Working Remotely, Cybersecurity Has to Be a Priority

When Working Remotely, Cybersecurity Has to Be a Priority

Cybersecurity is something that must be reinforced both in the office and out of the office for your remote employees, and it’s unfortunately quite difficult to maintain. Let’s take a look at the unique circumstances surrounding the remote worker and how you should reinforce security best practices for them, even if they are not physically present in the workplace.

0 Comments
Continue reading

4 Surprising Statistics about Network Security

4 Surprising Statistics about Network Security

If you aren’t making cybersecurity a priority for your business, then we urge you to review the following statistics to ensure that you understand the gravity of the consequences. Let’s take a look at some of the ways scammers and hackers are making their way around the carefully-laid defenses placed by businesses and how you can protect your own organization.

0 Comments
Continue reading

How to Know You’re Being Targeted by a Phishing Attack

How to Know You’re Being Targeted by a Phishing Attack

Phishing attacks are serious business, so it is important that your team members know what they are, for one, and know how to spot them. To facilitate this, let’s review the signs of a phishing attack—or ideally, a phishing attempt (because by spotting it, you’re more able to stop it).

0 Comments
Continue reading

Boosting Your Router’s Security in 3 Ways

Boosting Your Router’s Security in 3 Ways

Your wireless router handles a lot of the tough work for your business, and as such, it’s important that it’s protected and secured as best as can be. If you want to secure your router, we recommend that you use the following best practices to make it happen.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Data Scraping Explained

Data Scraping Explained

There are times when you, as a business owner, might receive unsolicited emails from organizations asking you to try a product or asking for your input on something. More likely than not, the one responsible used data scraping to get your contact information. If it’s used appropriately, data scraping can be an effective marketing tool, but it can also be utilized by scammers to make your life miserable.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Tip of the Week: 3 Ways to Improve Your Business Technology’s Security

Tip of the Week: 3 Ways to Improve Your Business Technology’s Security

Businesses largely rely on their information systems and other technology tools, so you need to make sure they stay secure and far from the many threats out there. To this end, we recommend that you implement security systems that prioritize business continuity and data security. Let’s examine three ways you can keep your business’ IT safe and secure.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Are Chrome’s Zero-Day Threats Actually a Good Thing?

Are Chrome’s Zero-Day Threats Actually a Good Thing?

With Google Chrome being one of the most popular web browsers out there, it’s no surprise that threats want to target it and take advantage of its users. However, up until recently, there have not been very many zero-day threats associated with Chrome. Zero-day threats are attacks that have never been seen before, affecting a new and previously unknown vulnerability. We want to remind you that it’s not always a bad thing when vulnerabilities are discovered in a browser or web application—in fact, it can actually be indicative of good monitoring practices.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Businesses Should Consider Partnering with a Security Operations Center (SOC)

Businesses Should Consider Partnering with a Security Operations Center (SOC)

Cybersecurity is incredibly important for any organization that requires IT to remain operational (basically all of them), so it’s time to start thinking about your own strategies and how you can keep threats out of your network. One viable solution your business can implement is a Security Operations Center (SOC). What is a SOC, and how can you use it to keep threats off your network?

0 Comments
Continue reading

Focusing on Access Control Can Make Your Business More Secure

Focusing on Access Control Can Make Your Business More Secure

If you are someone who gets stressed out easily by people having access to resources they shouldn’t, then you probably have heard much about how to keep your data and internal resources safe from external threats. However, access control is much more than just cybersecurity; you also need to take into account the physical space when considering your access controls.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Social Media Conditions People to Let Their Guard Down

Social Media Conditions People to Let Their Guard Down

How often do you check social media only to find your news feed clogged with your friends and family sharing the results of quizzes like, “Which Star Wars character are you,” or “What’s your superhero name based on your birthday.” While these quizzes might seem harmless on the surface, they often hide a far more sinister agenda, one which uses the personally identifiable information provided to them for nefarious purposes.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Where IT Services Meets Physical Security

Where IT Services Meets Physical Security

Data security isn’t the easiest thing in the world to plan for, especially if your organization doesn’t have any dedicated security professionals on-hand. While protecting your data with traditional methods, like passwords, firewalls, and antivirus, is important, what measures are you taking to make sure a thief isn’t just walking into your office and making off with your technology?

0 Comments
Continue reading

How to Get Your People on Board with Your Security Strategy

How to Get Your People on Board with Your Security Strategy

It can be tough to get your staff to care about your business’ network security, especially if they don’t consider it part of their day-to-day tasks or responsibilities. However, network security is not just isolated to your IT department; it matters to everyone, and if you can convince your staff to adhere to best practices, your security will be that much more effective moving forward. Here are seven tips you can use to get your staff to care about network security.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Coinbase’s Super Bowl QR Snafu is Sending Shockwaves Through IT Security Circles

Coinbase’s Super Bowl QR Snafu is Sending Shockwaves Through IT Security Circles

During the first half of the Super Bowl last month, cryptocurrency exchange company Coinbase bought a minute of ad space to broadcast an ad that was just a QR code on the screen, meandering diagonally around the screen like the famous Windows screensaver. Millions of people took out their smartphones and scanned the code and now cybersecurity professionals are publicly decrying the tactic. 

0 Comments
Continue reading

How to Properly Evaluate Your Security

How to Properly Evaluate Your Security

How effective is your cybersecurity? It seems like a simple question, but no less important to consider and determine as the answer could be the difference between a prevented breach and a successful one. In order to keep track of your business’ cybersecurity preparedness, it is important that you regularly evaluate it. Let’s go through the essential steps to performing such an evaluation.

0 Comments
Continue reading

There is No Value in Paying a Ransom

There is No Value in Paying a Ransom

We all know at this point how dangerous ransomware can be for businesses. It can lock down files, threaten operational continuity, and in some cases subject victims to brutal fines as a result of privacy breaches. One place where you might not expect ransomware to hit, however, is customer reviews, and it all stems from the big question: do you pay to resolve a ransomware attack or not?

0 Comments
Continue reading

Malware is Everywhere. Even Your Ads

Malware is Everywhere. Even Your Ads

Do you ever see an advertisement for a free download of a popular Windows application and think, “Wow, this sure sounds too good to be true!”? Well, it most definitely is, and hackers use these malvertisements to infect computers with malware and other threats. Specifically, malvertising is used to download three different types of malware, all of which can cause harm to unwary businesses.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Is it Time to Move Past Passwords?

Is it Time to Move Past Passwords?

Passwords have been a staple in data security and user authentication for many, many years… to the point where the idea of using a password has become nearly synonymous with the concept of security. However, data has increasingly shown that alternative options are in fact more secure. Let’s examine some of these passwordless authentication methods, and their pros and cons.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Some Places Encryption Should Be Used Frequently

Some Places Encryption Should Be Used Frequently

Protecting your organization’s data is a major focus of businesses these days, especially as threats grow more powerful and they better learn to penetrate the countless safeguards put into place. Let’s go over how encryption can help you cover all your bases—especially if hackers do manage to get through your security precautions.

0 Comments
Continue reading

Mobile? Grab this Article!

QR-Code dieser Seite

Blog Archive

2013
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
November