Petronella Cybersecurity News

Well, it’s here!  Black Friday shopping week has officially begun.  The lure of door busting sales will bring online shoppers in droves worldwide.  That means Christmas candy for cybercriminals that take advantage of that rush with Trojan sites used to intercept users’ credentials, or phishing pages designed to capture website logins. Captured web credentials sell […]

A new government agency is on its way after the House of Representatives passed a bill paving the way for its creation. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA (you’ve got to love how they added the extra “security” in there so they wouldn’t have an acronym conflict with the Central Intelligence Agency), will […]

Apple’s operating systems are no longer bulletproof.  Regardless of end users perceptions of invincibility, a recent study has demonstrated that ransomware attacks have increased by 500% on Macs and iOS devices, despite their locked down architecture.  The difference is in the criminal tactics.  Cybercriminals today utilize OS- Specific ransomware to obtain trust, access, or Intel […]

The city of West Haven, Connecticut was hit by a ransomware attack that ran for twenty-three minutes on Tuesday, October 16th and infected 23 servers. The city managed to contain the attack by 5:30pm the following day.  With the help of MS-ISAC, a division of Homeland Security, police were able to determine the attack came […]

Security is a necessity when it comes to information technology. Everything from hacking to malware to theft is a potential threat. While there is nothing that guarantees 100% protection, there are a few basics that go a long way toward protection. Here are five best practices for keeping your system safe. 1. Pick Your Battles […]

Cybercrime is projected to cost the global economy more than $2 trillion a year by 2019 according to market analysts Juniper Research, yet a simple overlooked solution exists—changing your domain name system (DNS). Changing your DNS server is quick, easy and an effective trick to not just save you money but also boost your security, […]

Biohax, a passive near field communications device has been inserted in thousands of people in Sweeden.  Certified biohackers insert the 2x12mm tubular microchip under your skin, usually in the area between your thumb and forefinger.  The chip contains no tracking capabilities, no GPS capabilities, and no batteries, and the device itself is Chinese, with German […]

This is something I’ve been contemplating for a good 20 years. I hate to see my suspicions borne out. As it turns out, China has been putting rice-sized surveillance chips on motherboards manufactured in the country. Since the chips are so small they don’t contain a lot of information, but it’s enough to allow Chinese […]

Security expert Craig Petronella of Petronella Technology Group said you shouldn’t just take a camera out of the box and use it with its factory settings intact. “You have to configure it,’’ he said. “It has a default user name and password and after you get it all set up, you want to change the password to something […]

The biggest concern with the looming storm with regards to electrical equipment is flooding. The simplest way to protect your equipment is to ensure it is reasonably higher than possible flood levels and ensure it is turned OFF. We advise all of our customers to turn off all electronics when leaving the office for the […]

Your home internet connection could be leaving you vulnerable to an attack from criminals. The internet connection that goes into your house may be via a tiny wire —but it’s got big vulnerabilities which get larger all the time. And many of us don’t realize the router may be our weakest link. All of our devices – […]

Online hotel bookings happen every day.  More and more consumers are utilizing the web to reserve their hotel accommodations.   But what if you arrived, only to find you had no reservation despite the charge to your card? Travel fraud is on the rise, with recent estimates as high as 25% of consumers being scammed.  Cybercriminals […]

The largest ever recorded data breach class action lawsuit was settled against Anthem this week. California US District Judge Lucy Koh has approved a $115 million settlement. Anthem reached the deal June 23 without admitting any wrongdoing. The data breach affected 79 million Anthem members, exposing their social security numbers, names, date of birth, addresses […]

What does CCPA Compliance mean for your business? The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA), a consumer privacy law that establishes guidelines on collecting personal information and post-data-acquisition usage goes into effect January 1, 2020. The new law will apply to any business that operates in California and has annual gross revenues in excess […]

Everyone hears about big the big data breaches, the ones involving retail giants or healthcare companies. Not as many people pay attention to smaller data breaches, however, despite the fact that there are a lot of vulnerable small businesses out there. Take two recent cases. The first involved Unixiz, a small business that ran a […]

Cybersecurity experts have long warned of the dangers of hackers gaining access to the power grid. It turns out that Russian hackers have gained access to the control rooms of US power companies and that the attack is likely still ongoing, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The attack, by a state-sponsored hacker group […]

The most popular web browser is getting an update today, and it might scare visitors away from your website. Starting with today’s release of Chrome 68, Google’s web browser will mark websites as not secure if the site is not secured with an SSL certificate. What’s so great about an SSL certificate? If your site […]

“Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” That could be the motto of a Virginia bank that was hacked two times in less than a year, costing the bank $2.4 million. The National Bank of Blacksburg suffered its first cyberattack in May of 2016 when an employee was tricked by a […]

LabCorp, the place you probably visited for your employer’s drug test, suffered from a ransomware attack last week, but they’ve been scant with the details. LabCorp released a statement that told the date of the attack, that suspicious activity had occurred, and that it was from some new variant of ransomware. A report from CSO, however, […]

In July 2018, Google will publish release 68 of its Chrome web browser. Unlike prior releases of Chrome, this version can significantly affect your website traffic and possibly affect your company’s reputation. Chrome 68 will include a security check to detect whether your website is encrypted. If it is not, Chrome will immediately display a […]