cybercrime Archives

What is spear phishing and how can my company avoid it?

The average person receives 16 malicious emails per month. A 2018 study of 500,000,000 emails found one out of every 101 emails received were malicious. Are your employees properly educated about this? Or will they click a link that could cost the company millions? Most of the time, the greatest risk to your company’s internet security are the people who work for it (including you). One click on a malicious email—even one that looks like it comes from a friend—could seriously damage your company. New employees are the most at risk for being duped. [1] What is Spear Phishing? Spear phishing is an attack in which hackers trick targeted users into sharing confidential information. It can also involve tricking the recipient into installing malware on their computer or network. Here is how it works: 1. You receive an email with an attachment from what looks like it originated from a ...

Red Level2023-02-16T16:01:31+00:00

You almost became the next Equifax. Did you even know? (Part 1 of 2)

While Equifax made global headlines with their cyber breach, IBM’s research has shown that small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) are the targets of 62% of all cyber attacks. That equates to 4,000 SMBs daily¹ – or in more context, nearly 1 in 4 (24.33%) of U.S. SMBs (excluding nonemployers) annually. While an attack on your organization may not create global headlines, the impact to your organization and its’ employees could be devastating. If it extends to your customers’ information and records, it could negatively impact them and shatter your reputation. How devestating? I’ll share a real-world example. …

Red Level2023-02-16T16:01:42+00:00

CYBERCRIME: 9 Steps to Safeguard Your Organizations Data and Technology

There's a strong argument to be made that "Cybercrime" is more of a threat than a physical crime to most people and organizations. The more you think about the hypothesis, the more alarming it becomes. A physical crime typically depends upon the victim and the perpetrator (or group of perpetrators) being in the same place at the same time. That requirement doesn't hold true for individual hackers, sophisticated crime syndicates, foreign governments, or corporate espionage specialists. Vast underground networks of digital criminals trade information and conspire for purpose of sabotage, theft, and fraud, often working across borders that place them out of reach of law enforcement. For the past decade, security has consistently ranked as a top concern of CIOs. While other issues have come and gone, security has remained a vital issue because the capabilities and sophistication of cybercriminals have often outpaced the measures taken to protect against them. ...

Red Level2023-02-16T16:01:55+00:00

Game-Changing Technologies, Part II: Get Ready to Forget Your Passwords. Forever.

We human beings are creatures of habit. Because something was a certain way yesterday, we expect it to be the same way today and tomorrow. But if you’re like most of us, technological changes in recent years have led you to rethink assumptions as familiar routines have fallen by the wayside: When was the last time you licked a stamp, used a payphone, or wrote a check at the supermarket? In my last blog post, I wrote in general about game-changing technologies that would radically transform the way we work with technology and conduct business. In this post and in weeks to come, I’ll provide some specific examples, beginning with another technological relic we can all say goodbye to soon: Passwords. Even though we’ve depended on them for decades, it’s clear that password protection provides only marginal security, at best. They’re easily lost, forgotten, and stolen. Worst of all, they ...

David King2023-02-16T16:01:59+00:00