Technology
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Don’t take away my administrator privileges
Back in the days of XP, anyone that needed to actually use a computer would have been right in thinking they required administrative access to the local machine to do practically anything on it. So much so, that once you tried using one without, you were all of sudden limited to word processing, the calculator, and maybe Microsoft Paint. It was pretty painful, to say the least. Nowadays though, having administrative rights is by far…
Suggestions for How to Protect Yourself After the Equifax Breach
We focus on providing great direction and advice for how to protect your business, but given the recent breach at Equifax, we felt compelled to share some best practices for you to consider for your own personal protection. An unfortunate reality is that our social security numbers have likely been stolen before the Equifax breach and there’s a strong possibility they will be stolen again. To that end, we offer the following suggestions, many of…
Social Media and Social Engineering: The Perfect Storm
Pause. Think. Act.
In this edition of Pause. Think. Act. we are discussing the topic of social media. Love it or hate it, it’s tough to avoid. Between Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and other platforms, 84 percent of U.S. adults claim to have at least one social media account. A staggering two-thirds of those U.S. adults with a social media account say they have been hacked.
The growing threat of spear phishing…
How to Identify a Spear Phishing Email
Pause. Think. Act.
More than 90% of cyberattacks begin with a spear phishing email. Spear phishing emails aren’t just a generic piece of spam, they’re emails from your boss with your company signature or from your credit card company warning you of some recent activity on your account. Spear phishing attacks are getting more sophisticated and are becoming harder and harder to detect. In this week’s Pause. Think. Act. video, Chief Technology Officer…
Why the White House email spoofing prank scared me, and why it should scare you too
On August 1st, a report was issued that detailed email exchanges between senior-level White House officials and a prankster out of England. It was a simple spoof email in which the officials were duped into communicating openly with someone that was not who they said they were. The officials that were recently tricked included former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci, Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman, and Eric Trump. They were quick to…
Social Engineering: What to Look For and How to Protect Yourself
Pause. Think. Act.
In this week’s Pause. Think. Act. installment, we’ll discuss the broader topic of social engineering. Social engineering is one the most effective types of cyber attacks. No matter how much money you spend on security tools and resources to defend against the bad guys, social engineering can circumvent most of these efforts. In these types of attacks, cyber criminals leverage and manipulate human behavior, and there’s not much security tools…
What does a good password look like?
Pause. Think. Act.
Most people know not to use the password “Password1” to protect their private information at work or online. But, there is a bit more to the story than that. Yes, you want to avoid using very common passwords and simple dictionary words. But, even certain character substitutions have been shown to be ineffective, e.g. “P@ssw0rd1” is no more secure than its “simple character” counterpart. Most brute force attacks and password…