With the holidays coming up everyone is looking to relax and spend time with their friends and families. They will be able to stop thinking about work for a few days and take the time to really unwind. The downside is that, unfortunately, threat actors do not take a vacation. Networks continue to be vulnerable when no one is watching them. Network security should not be seen as a 9 to 5 job. With attacks coming in from all over the world, no one can predict on what day and at what time an intrusion attempt will take place. How do I…
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Ignoring the people who think that anti-virus software is the end game when it comes to security, when many people think of protecting their border they think of a firewall. They can create rules to permit and/or block certain traffic that enters and leaves their network. Climbing up the ladder of the technologically savvy you may find individuals who understand that a firewall is not enough to protect their network so they implement an intrusion detection system (IDS). While they are getting closer to an effective solution, there is a better technology already broaching the mainstream. Let's start with what's wrong with what we are…
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When most employees think about web content filtering, all they can think about is the frustration of their favorite websites being blocked. They cannot make updates to Facebook, watch videos on YouTube, or access their Dropbox and Google Drive. What's a security team to do? Our recommendation? Tell them to get over it. Does that seem a bit harsh? In all honestly, it IS harsh - but justified. The Internet has united us and impacted our lives in ways that we're only starting to understand. Not the least of these ways is the convergence of our personal and professional lives. These days, many…
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In honor of National Cyber Security Awareness Month this article is going to talk about how you can easily mitigate cyber risks to your work and personal accounts by simply creating and managing good passwords. We as users must remember that we are the biggest problem. But with a few small changes to our habits, we can make it better. In a previous post we talked about how to mitigate account exposure from a hack by using good passwords. And don't reuse them. Reusing your password means that if one of your accounts has been compromised then all of your…
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Throughout 2015, there have been numerous reports regarding different health care companies being compromised and losing personally identifiable information (PII). Over the summer, one particular company reportedly lost data such as names, email addresses, phone numbers and health care subscriber numbers - payment and medical data were not believed to be taken. Unfortunately, we are getting used to this kind of news when we wake up in the morning. As we scan these articles, we peek to see if we are going to receive a new credit card or have to check our statements for fraudulent charges. So no payment information…
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