ATECH MSP Blog

Cybercriminals and hackers aren’t exactly examples of the most trustworthy people online, so it should come as no surprise that they are willing to exploit each other for their own benefit. We recently saw an example of this phenomenon with the Cobain botnet.

Have you ever thought about what would happen if your IT administrator were to go rogue and create redirects on your website that take your visitors to inappropriate content? Well, it happened to one unfortunate company in Arizona, and it ended poorly for both parties involved. What started as a ransom ended up as four years of probation and a huge sum of cash paid in restitution.

By now, you’ve heard all about the Equifax data breach, which exposed sensitive information of 143 million individuals. To keep this from leading to identity theft and other challenges for these users, many professionals are encouraging them to freeze their credit lines. To do so, a PIN is required, which is something that a hacker can easily take advantage of.

Since many modern businesses rely on technology, it becomes mandatory that they have an idea on how to best protect themselves against the myriad of threats that can be found online. Knowing what kind of threats that you may encounter is key to concocting a thorough cybersecurity strategy.

Did you know that a surprising number of data breaches are the result of insider threats? Insider threats are defined as data exposure, either malicious by nature or unintentional, that results from the actions of an employee in your workforce. With so many threats out there, it’s easy to forget that some of the most dangerous are right within your walls. How can you keep insider threats from becoming a major problem for your organization?

With so many breaches showing up in the headlines and their impact being felt across the world, one would think that businesses of all sizes would do more to protect their data against cybersecurity threats. A recent study has shown that this is unfortunately not the case.

How often have you started to read something you thought may be valuable to you, only to put it down a few moments later, completely lost because of the use of technical language and industry jargon? The IT industry can be especially guilty of this. However, since this is need-to-know information, we’ve decided to go over a few crucial security concepts by representing your business security with a locked door.

If you think about it, password security is an interesting phenomenon. The odds are that a user knows the importance of using a strong password, as well as the potential consequences of using weak ones. Yet, time after time, people would rather go with passwords that are easy to type and remember, as opposed to adding a few simple security measures.

Intel has had publicity problems in the past, but now things are getting critical. An issue was reported that could potentially cause the processing power of their chips to diminish. What are being known as the Meltdown or Spectre vulnerabilities, have businesses scrambling around looking for ways to protect their data and infrastructure from what is seemingly an oversight that affects most of today’s CPU architectures; namely those that rely on virtual memory.

A report by Gartner has provided evidence that security considerations are anticipated to see investments in 2018. So, if you were planning on focusing on your business’ information security this year, you certainly aren’t the only one.

When considering your business’ security, it is only too easy to overlook how information of any kind might be compromised. Take, for example, the case study that is provided by the fitness application Strava, the jogging app that shares more data than many, including the United States military, would prefer.

Passwords are everywhere. It seems that every account requires a password, in addition to the devices we use to access these accounts. This is a good thing, as it only helps to increase security - assuming that the password is strong. After all, a password that anyone can guess can hardly be called a password at all.

We wish IT security was as simple as setting up a good firewall and installing an antivirus. We talk a lot about security solutions that cover a lot of your bases, such as our Unified Threat Management (UTM) system. While these enterprise-level solutions are important, any investment in protecting your network can be upended by a single act of user error.

The Internet is gaining quite the reputation as a dangerous place. It hosts countless threats, many of which hide behind links that shield their intentions. Considering how much is on the line for your business, you need to make sure that you know which links are safe to click on, and which ones are best left ignored.

Ransomware exploded in 2017, and after a year with as much success as these attacks saw, it is no wonder that 2018 is expected to see more. However, in order to remain successful, ransomware will have to change and improve. In today’s blog, we explore a few predictions as to how this threat will do so.

IT is important for more than just businesses. Governments and other similar organizations that handle top-secret information or important operations should also dedicate considerable resources to guaranteeing security and efficiency to the best of their ability. In the wake of so many dangerous entities, governments are having trouble keeping up with the latest trends, often at their own expense. What can your business learn from this development?

The world is unfortunately familiar with the concept of terrorism, the use of fear and menace to intimidate those opposed to your views, beliefs, or goals. However, others may not be as familiar with the concept of cyberterrorism, beyond seeing it on television. For today’s blog, we’ll examine cyberterrorism to gain a better understanding of its methods, and how to protect yourself from it.

Data security isn’t a matter to be taken lightly, as too many businesses have found out the hard way. Unfortunately, there are far too many simple ways to correct common security issues - enough that it’s foolish not to do so. We’ll review a few ways to fix security issues, after discussing one of, if not the, most egregious security failings in modern history.

Have you ever heard the phrase zero-day threat? Basically, they are the scariest threats out there, because they are unaddressed and unresolved by the software developer, all while being actively exploited in the wild. This effectively gives the developer zero days to address the issue before it becomes a problem. Today, one of the most dangerous threats of the zero-day variety takes advantage of a weakness in Internet Explorer - but there is now a patch for it.

Internet scams are major threats to individuals and business because all it takes is one wrong click of the mouse and a user is embroiled in an unenviable situation. One such scam that is happening today is designed to catch users with their pants down, so to speak.