Macro Systems Blog

Would you trust a bank that locked its doors for the night but left all its cash in a big pile in the middle of the floor? Probably not— if someone managed to get through the doors, nothing would stop them from helping themselves to the money inside.

This is effectively how cybersecurity once worked, with the presumption that if someone had access to a network, they had permission to access any data on it. Luckily, many businesses have made the switch to a better approach, known as zero-trust security.

Over 25 percent of data breaches target small businesses, and the impact can be significant. To protect your business, you need the right technology and smart strategies. Listed below are some key steps to help safeguard your business from digital threats.

“I don’t need to worry about cyberattacks… my business is too small to be of any interest.”

This brief rationalization is one of the most dangerous fallacies a modern business can make concerning cybersecurity; it shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how modern cyberthreats operate. If this has been your mindset, we urge you to read on so we can help set you on a more realistic path.

Security awareness training is an imperative process for today's businesses to undergo to have any chance of success. Alas, as much as security software or policy can help, it can only do so much. You also need your team members to be on board, knowledgeable about what they need to do, and motivated to do it. 

Listed below are some security awareness training tips.

Sextortion scams are scary. The scammer contacts the victim, claiming to have gotten access to their computer and captured video footage of their target engaging in some private and decidedly adult activities, as well as the content that was onscreen at the time. The threat: pay up, or I send the footage to all of your contacts.

However, lately hackers have added another layer of “proof” to these claims, now referring to victims by name and including pictures of their homes. Listed below are what one of these scams looks like and what you should do if one appears in your inbox.

Data breaches remain a constant threat that cause serious disruptions for businesses and potentially creating widespread issues for customers. Highlighted below are some of the largest and most impactful breaches of 2024.

Businesses have to deal with a variety of different types of problems, but they often don’t see many of the problems that come from within their company. Whether this comes from hackers, disgruntled customers, or unreliable vendors, every business leader constantly deals with some type of issue. Alas, sometimes these problems can come from inside your organization. Listed below is a look at two employee issues that can potentially cause major headaches for business owners.

Remote work has been incredibly useful over the past few years despite many employers having various concerns about its implementation. While these concerns vary, one prevalent one is how remote operations impact cybersecurity.

If you’re utilizing remote operations to any degree and aren’t concerned about cybersecurity, you must adjust this mindset and correct your approach.

Network security is hard, which is why so many businesses struggle to implement the solutions they so desperately need to stay safe and relevant. Below we demystify some of these components and lay out in clear terms what your highest priorities should be for your business’ network security.

Today's businesses cannot and should not operate without robust cybersecurity protections. This is a point we will emphasize at every opportunity. Listed below: why security is so imperative and what steps you need to take to safeguard your business.

Passwords have long been one of the central pillars of account security on the Internet. Combined with a username, they make up the foundation of most login systems. Because of this, they are a hot commodity for hackers who want to steal credentials and infiltrate accounts or networks. However, in recent years, other security measures have exposed the weakness of poor passwords for security, leading to the adoption of other measures.

We obviously won’t tell you to cut down on your cybersecurity. However, it can be easy to overinvest and overreach if you aren’t careful about what you’re implementing. This phenomenon is known as cybersecurity sprawl, and if not prevented, it can easily have serious consequences for your business. Listed below is how to avoid this sprawl.

When you think of a scammer, you probably think of someone looking to take advantage of someone for their own gain. While this isn’t exactly inaccurate, another variety exists to acknowledge… those who aim to scam the scammers. Listed below is the story of one such white-hat scammer, or “scam baiter,” a content creator who uses the alias “Kitboga,” Kit for short.

Cyberattacks will only continue in the weeks, months, and years to come, making it increasingly essential that businesses have access to cybersecurity expertise. Even more unfortunately, professionals with this level of expertise are becoming harder to find. Globally, we’re short almost four million people, and those we have are prone to make mistakes in their first few years. This comes from a report by Kaspersky, entitled “The Portrait of Modern Information Security Professional,” Let’s review what the cybersecurity developer found and what we can take away from these findings.

It was very recently revealed that a global law enforcement effort took down a massive botnet that was in action for almost a decade. In light of this, we wanted to review what a botnet is and how it works, drawing from these events for some context.

The last few weeks have been spent discussing ransomware's impacts on different subsets. First, we discussed how a ransomware attack impacts the customers of the infected business, and then we touched on the infected business itself. To conclude, we want to take a look at ransomware's impacts on society, specifically regarding economic health and geopolitical security, known as third-order harms.

Data is extremely imperative in the way that most businesses conduct themselves. This results in other people wanting that information, too. Listed below is a look at how seemingly everyone online is out for your data. 

Have you heard of the “man-in-the-middle” attack or MitM? It’s a situation where your data is stolen by an onlooker who situates themselves in the right place at the right time. Data interception is a very real thing that your organization should be prepared to fight against. Listed below are some strategies you can use to counter these sneaky attacks.

We recently discussed the many impacts your business being hit by ransomware has on “second-order harm,” downstream businesses, and average, ordinary people. This time, we wanted to return to “first-order harms”… those the impacted business has to deal with itself.

It can be too easy to look at ransomware as a business problem; it does attack businesses, locking down their data for ransom, usually selling it or spreading it, and sometimes altering it for the business if returning it at all. It can be too easy to overlook another impacted target in all the mess.

What happens to the people whose data a business has collected and uses?