Archive for 2017

How You Can Shut-Off Cybercrime

Monday, July 10th, 2017

The subprime auto industry is notorious for predatory sales practices. That’s not to say that all sub-prime auto dealers take advantage of people, but when someone has to choose between accepting a high interest rate on a car or not being able to go to work there’s the opportunity. In fact, subprime auto dealers sell […]

Hackers Targeting Nuke Facilities

Friday, July 7th, 2017

The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security issued a code amber warning, the second-highest threat level, discussing the hackers targeting a number of companies that run energy facilities, including nuclear power facilities. It’s not known whether the hackers were attempting to steal industrial secrets or if they’re trying to cause damage to the systems […]

Ransomware Prevention

Thursday, July 6th, 2017

If you’ve read the news in the last year or two, you’ve heard of ransomware. The nefarious malware infects systems, locks away data and doesn’t release it until you’ve paid a ransom in Bitcoins, often a few hundred dollars. This can be a major annoyance for an individual, personal computer user, but it can be disastrous […]

Hackers Have Found a New Way to Hide Malware Thanks to The U.S. Government

Thursday, July 6th, 2017

We’ve all seen kids throw tantrums in stores before. No matter how many times their parents shush them or threaten them with timeout, the kid is going to let the entire world know how badly they want that Nerf gun or doll. What if a kid wanted a toy so badly that instead of throwing […]

Mistakes Will Happen, But They Don’t Have to Be Disasters

Thursday, July 6th, 2017

Jason Pierre-Paul had it good. He was drafted by the New York Giants in the first round of the NFL draft and agreed to a 5 year $20.5 million deal. He lived up to his expectations and was a key player for the Giants until 2015. Pierre –Paul plays defensive end, which means he uses […]

Why NotPetya Hitting Law Firm Matters

Friday, June 30th, 2017

The big news of the week in the cybersecurity world was the NotPetya ransomware pandemic, which hit lots of sectors in lots of countries. One of the victims was DLA Piper, a global corporate lawyer. DLA Piper has thousands of lawyers around the world and represents a number of large corporations, so having their system […]

NotPetya Hits US Hospitals

Thursday, June 29th, 2017

You’ve surely heard of the most recent worldwide ransomware pandemic by now. While it seems to have hit Ukraine the hardest, infecting government and utility networks, it’s still going strong. US hospitals are the most recent victims. If you think it’s not a big deal to have a computer system held for ransom, tell that […]

Cyber World War

Tuesday, June 27th, 2017

It feels like a cyber world war has begun today as computers around the world, including Russia, the UK, Ukraine, the US, and more have been hacked. Victims include the pharmaceutical company Merck, Rosneft (a major Russian oil and gas company), and Ukranian government agencies, including the infamous Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Some cybersecurity firms […]

Don’t Cry for WannaCry

Monday, June 26th, 2017

Remember a month or two ago when everyone was talking about WannaCry? The ransomware shut down hospitals and telecoms all over the world and caused all kinds of chaos, but we haven’t heard a whole lot about it since then. Did it go away? Did WannaCry die? In fact, it did not. WannaCry is alive […]

Why Are We Still Paying for Enron’s Mistakes?

Monday, June 26th, 2017

Whether you’re five years old or have kids that are too old to trick-or-treat, you’ve probably heard about poisoned Halloween candy. Maybe you were told that people put razor blades in apples, or maybe it was cyanide-laced Jolly Ranchers but no matter what you were told you’ve probably completely unwrapped a few pieces of Halloween […]

4 Reasons Why Non-Profits Should Beef Up Their Cybersecurity

Tuesday, June 20th, 2017

If there’s one thing you should never doubt, it’s that hackers have no boundaries. These people use human lives as leverage in cyber-attacks on hospitals. Do you think they would leave a company alone just because they’re a non-profit? Non-profits don’t get a pass from hackers because of the work they do. In fact, it’s […]

Russia Can Hack the US Power Grid

Monday, June 12th, 2017

We reported a few months ago that Russian hackers were able to shut down a Ukrainian power grid, leaving over 200,000 people without electricity. That malware, named CrashOverride, can be modified to attack the US power grid. Malware designed specifically to disrupt power is rare. CrashOverride is actually only the second such malware, the first […]

How to Make Connected Cars Safe

Monday, June 12th, 2017

Realizing how connected every device is is like taking the red pill in the Matrix, nothing will ever look the same again. Every time a family member or friend tells you about their thermostat that automatically adjusts settings based on the weather or the doll they got their child that connects to a database of […]

What Do Auto Dealerships, Hospitals, and Viruses Have in Common?

Thursday, June 8th, 2017

When you think about it, hospitals are pretty dangerous places. Everyone one with a serious illness is gathered in one place and are frequently visited by healthy people who go back into the regular world. Even if a healthy person doesn’t have someone to visit at the hospital, they’ll have to go at some point […]

20% of Networks Infected with Chinese Malware

Friday, June 2nd, 2017

Corporate computers and networks beware! Fireball, a new Chinese malware, has already infected 20% of corporate networks and 250 million computers around the world. Fireball is a browser hijacker. It can reset your homepage and change your default search engine. That may sound like nothing more than an annoyance, but it includes a tracking pixel […]

Superworm Causes Cybersecurity Insurance to Rise

Friday, June 2nd, 2017

WannaCry is aptly named; after the release of this super ransomworm, it is likely that many companies wept. However, one company’s bane is another company’s treasure. The purchase of cybersecurity insurance policies is on the rise; considering the fact that WannaCry has caused over a billion dollars in damages in the short amount of time […]

But Wait, There’s More!

Thursday, June 1st, 2017

Just yesterday we reported on the $155 million fine eClinicalWorks was given for skirting certification criteria. If you look at the fine print though, there’s more to their punishment than money, and it could be even worse. The first stipulation is that eCW has to have an independent review organization. Their job will be to […]

Second Kmart Breach in Three Years

Thursday, June 1st, 2017

It’s a sequel nobody wanted to see. A few years ago, Kmart was one of the big names that suffered from a malware infection that stole customer credit card information. Last week, news started trickling in that it was happening again. As usually happens in these cases, financial institutions started seeing a pattern in stolen […]

Frightening Medical Device Testing Numbers

Wednesday, May 31st, 2017

Despite an overall lack of confidence in the security of medical devices, less than 10 percent of manufacturers and only five percent of users actually test the security of their devices each year.  And even though both the providers and the manufacturers voice concern over this issue, it does not appear that an increase in […]

Threats from a Seven-Year-Old Flaw

Wednesday, May 31st, 2017

Samba is open-source networking software that runs on the vast majority of today’s operating systems (OS), including such giants as Windows and Linux.  One reason for its popularity is that it allows non-Windows OS’s to share with Windows OS’s that are on the same network, such as files, folders, and printers. This was very helpful […]