Ransomware may have been dominating the news cycle over the last couple of months, but data breaches are also occurring at a similar frequency. To this day, we’re still feeling the fallout from the Equifax breach, even though that was all the way back in May of 2017.
While we’re still dealing with the consequences from that, what’s been happening since then? Glad you asked. Let’s take a look. Read more
In one of our previous articles, we talked about three cities in a single week that were held hostage to ransomware — and paid. Another recent, and major, victim is Monroe College in New York City. This time it’s a whopper, as the hackers who attacked the college’s IT system demanded nearly $2 million in Bitcoin. This is a significant increase from previous extortion demands, and experts warn that other institutions are now more vulnerable than ever to similar attacks. Read more
In the course of a single week, three cities in Florida were struck with three separate ransomware attacks. At the time of writing this, two of the three gave in to the ransom demands and the third is still considering it. Almost immediately following these incidents in Florida, Georgia’s state court system was also hit. This was the second time this year for Georgia, following an event which completely crippled Atlanta’s IT network. Officials paid off the attackers with a hefty $400,000 ransom payment, and it is currently unknown if Georgia will be paying the ransom again this time.
Each of these attacks and capitulations have occurred within a worrisome and remarkably short period of time. It’s also worth noting that all of these events take place merely weeks after the announcement of a ransomware attack on Baltimore — an attack that cost the city $18.2 million to recover from. Here is a breakdown of each one as they happened. Read more
In this year alone, data breaches are occurring at such frequency that it’s now become almost commonplace. When we hear it in the news, we simply shrug our shoulders and say, “Oh great, another one.”
The fact that it happens so often should not soften the severity of it. If anything, it should raise our state of alarm even higher. The problem is, we’ve become so fatigued by alarm. How do you remain vigilant despite this fatigue? Read more
We talk about the importance of updating your software all the time — whether it’s applying the dreaded Windows Update patches from Microsoft every “Patch Tuesday” or completely removing depreciated applications. It’s no secret that these updates can cause problems for some people, but unfortunately it doesn’t change the fact that these updates are imperative. How do you manage the sometimes difficult task of keeping your company running during and after applying critical updates — updates that are designed precisely for keeping things running in the first place? Read more
Do you remember WannaCry? Two years ago, it was arguably the most destructive cyberworm in history — shutting down hospitals, banks, transportation and shipping companies. Perhaps one of the most baffling things of all, though, is the fact that WannaCry didn’t exist until two months AFTER Microsoft had already released a patch that would fix the very vulnerability the worm took advantage of.
Now, in 2019, the same thing is happening again with a vulnerability known as BlueKeep. This security risk is so severe that not only did Microsoft update Windows 10, they even went out of their way to patch its depreciated operating systems: Windows 2003, Windows XP and Windows Vista. Read more
Security Information and Event Management, known as SIEM, is a security system that gathers data from a wide variety of sources to monitor, identify, record and analyze security incidents within a real-time IT environment.
SIEM supplies the user with a comprehensive and centralized view of the security scenario of an IT infrastructure.
In other words, a SIEM paints the ultimate “big picture” of your cybersecurity situation, an early warning system that provides everything you need to troubleshoot and secure your IT environment. It’s a search-and-analyze tool that gives you the power to destroy threats. Read more
When you’re trying to keep your networks safe, sometimes it’s handy to have an armed guard at the door as your first line of defense. That’s what a Secure Internet Gateway (SIG) does for you. Read more
A key to protecting against cybersecurity threats is understanding your risks. Vulnerability Management (VM) is a critical tool in your arsenal designed to do just that — to proactively mitigate or prevent saboteurs from exploiting the IT vulnerabilities that exist in any system or organization.
To achieve that, you need a vulnerability assessment system to quickly and easily identify and fix vulnerabilities — including software flaws, missing patches, malware and misconfigurations — across a variety of operating systems, devices and applications. Read more
With potential cybersecurity threats increasing constantly, it’s more essential than ever to protect your business with an internet security system. But making sure you’ve covered all the bases can be difficult.
That’s where a Unified Threat Management (UTM) system comes in. A UTM allows you to integrate key elements of network security into one comprehensive package. This means your business can combine mission-critical security features — such as intrusion detection and prevention, VPN, firewalling, content filtering and anti-phishing/anti-malware filtering — into a single solution designed for small and medium-sized organizations. Read more
