Happy Halloween! Tonight, ghosts and goblins will collect candy from door to door. This is to be expected; less expected are the cyberthreats and attacks that darken the doors of today's businesses of all shapes and sizes.
Listed below are things you need to do to keep your business safe, inside and out, every night of the year.
It’s convenient for employees to reuse passwords just to make things easier for themselves; why use different passwords when you have a dozen accounts to remember passwords for? Alas, this habit will come back to bite you, especially if your business is ever involved in a data breach. These credentials could end up for sale on the dark web… and that’s just the beginning of your problems.
Imagine that a small business, maybe even one of your neighbors, just poured thousands of dollars into the latest and greatest security software and firewall system. You’re impressed… until a disgruntled employee walks in one night, nothing to stop them, and takes a hammer to the server they have behind an unlocked door.
Suddenly, there’s one less small business, and there was nothing that expensive security software could do about it.
While still imperative to get right, passwords aren’t nearly as secure as you would expect them to be. They can be guessed (especially if proper password practices haven’t been followed), stolen in data breaches, or phished from a well-meaning employee.
Passwords are essentially the lock built into the front door of a building. They’re enough to keep out honest people, but what about the people who are willing to go to the deep web and 3D print the master key to the type of lock you use?
Did you know that during World War II, Allied codebreakers didn't only crack the German Enigma code with pure math? They also used clever tricks, like baiting the Germans into sending predictable messages, to expose the machine's inner workings. History proves this approach worked then, and, unfortunately, continues to work now.
This art of manipulating a system to reveal its secrets has found a new, high-tech home in the world of artificial intelligence. It's called prompt hacking, and it's basically a form of digital social engineering aimed directly at the AI models businesses are starting to rely on.
It's a familiar challenge for businesses: how do you build customer loyalty and a strong user experience while also ensuring that their data is protected? Sustainable success depends on mastering this delicate balance. Instead of choosing one over the other, the goal is to optimize data protection without hindering your ability to engage customers and drive growth.
Here’s a challenge: go to any cybersecurity news website and see how far you can go before seeing an article about some new type of ransomware attack. It’s everywhere, and it’s scary, but that doesn’t mean your organization has to cower in fear. With the right tools and resources at your disposal, you too can fight back against ransomware. Listed below is how you can protect your business from ransomware and the threats it poses.
All businesses need a little IT assistance from time to time, whether it’s for a simple issue with some software or a full-blown technology emergency. Cybercriminals will often pose as IT support in attempts to capture this low-hanging fruit. Your employees should know how to spot the following warning signs from a fraudulent tech support squad.
A successful business is a secure business. You probably have a good lock on the front door, maybe an alarm system, and secure cabinets for critical documents. You do all of this to protect your business' physical assets from threats. So why wouldn't you do the same for your digital assets?
Just as you have physical security measures, your company also needs strong cybersecurity policies. They help create clear rules for employees to follow and a plan to fall back on if an incident occurs.
Tips are great as long as they actually work. Business owners need more technology tips than just about anything else, whether that is app-specific or general care of technology. Macro Systems tries to do our best to offer useful tips a couple of times a month, but this week we wanted to focus on what is probably the most critical tip we can provide.
Cyber scams can be very well-crafted and dangerous, and a significant portion of this danger stems from the scammer's ability to effectively utilize the psychological triggers that we all possess to some degree. Today's security training tends to focus on what signs we all need to keep an eye out for, but it does little to explore why modern scams are as effective as they are.
Let’s fix that by taking a moment to examine the tricks the scammers play so you can be that much more prepared to stop them by understanding how they work.
Ransomware has become one of the most dangerous modern threats to businesses, and when you consider what’s at stake with a ransomware infection, you’ll realize we’re not exaggerating. The worst variants of ransomware will attempt to extort you through any means necessary, and when you don’t give in so easily, they’ll pull out the big guns: double and triple extortion.
They say a man’s home is his castle. We’d contend that a more apt comparison is that someone’s business is more like their castle, realistically speaking.
As such, it is critical to ensure your security in every way possible. Much like a traditional castle was constructed to keep threats out, your business’ security needs to be approached in a similar way.
While we aren’t suggesting that you literally dig a moat or maintain cauldrons full of boiling oil, you do need to implement security measures that serve the same purpose for your business and its network.
Hope is a powerful force and it constantly propels us forward and can brighten even the darkest days. We hope for good health, happy families, and that winning lottery ticket.
Alas, hope is a terrible cybersecurity strategy.
With so many devices now connecting to the Internet, decreasing your business’ threat surface area is more critical than ever. Your threat surface area consists of any device that connects to your organization’s IT infrastructure, and if you’re not careful or forget a couple of oddball wearables, you could be looking at a data breach. Listed below is how you can prevent that from happening.
Fairly recently, news circulated that a data breach had exposed 16 billion passwords for numerous logins, including social media accounts, virtual private networks, corporate tools, and more. Effectively, every online service imaginable was represented in this breach.
This is very bad… arguably unprecedented.
That being said, this impression is at best misleading. Listed below is a look into the truth of the matter, while still acknowledging that there are some lessons to be learned.
When it comes to cybersecurity, organizations have a lot to keep tabs on, even small organizations. In fact, you wouldn’t believe just how much goes into cybersecurity and why your business needs to make it a priority. Cybersecurity is more than just a buzzword on the Internet; it’s a lifeline that will keep your business secure.
Third-party vendors are essential for today's businesses; they deliver mission-critical resources and tools to the organizations that utilize them, including raw materials, software, and other services. Alas, these vendors can also serve as direct lines into your business for a cyberattack to take advantage of for their own purposes.
Listed below: how you can still lean on your vendors without sacrificing your critically important security.
The constant talk about cybersecurity can really be overwhelming. While some Internet tales may be exaggerated, the reality is that these cybersecurity risks are a serious concern for every organization. Is your business truly prepared to confront the sophisticated digital adversaries of our time? Listed below is a look at three prevalent cyberthreats that could inflict significant damage on a business, and what you can do to keep them from negatively impacting yours.
For all the effort and investment a modern business needs to put into its cybersecurity, it is equally critical to acknowledge each team member's role in an organization’s security protections. Many of your employees, through no inherent fault of their own, are themselves a vulnerability as they allow many cyberthreats into your infrastructure via scams and simple mistakes. That being said, this doesn’t have to be the case.
Listed below: why it is imperative that you train your team to be a cybersecurity asset and how to do so.
