CYBER ALERT: DHS Warns Of Iran’s Cybersecurity Threat
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) just recently issued a warning to businesses in the United States of possible looming cyberattacks from the nation state of Iran.
The State Of Iran—Will They Attack YOU?
Iran’s reputation for skilled cybercriminals and hackers is of top of mind for leaders in the US intelligent and cybersecurity communities going forward. Iran’s cybercrime is one of the world’s most aggressive, with potential to target public and private sectors (thing full-blown ransomware attacks shutting down entire networks).
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Phishing is the number one way ransomware is transmitted, and according to the Department of Homeland Security, businesses should be on high alert.
What can you do? What do you need to know to avoid being phished?
One way or another, data breaches or ransomware attacks begin with one common denominator.
Human Error.
Whether it is someone clicking on an email. OR misconfiguring a router or server. Or even using a default or easy-to-crack password. Or it’s not having patched a computer. When a ransomware attack occurs, it’s certain that someone made a mistake.
What’s worrisome to me about 2020 is that hackers are going to greater lengths to get into your systems.
They are specifically targeting you and your company like a well-targeted marketing campaign. They are scanning your network from the outside for very commonly misconfigured pieces (mistakes that someone on your IT team could have easily made without noticing much).
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The holidays are a Bonanza for cybercriminals. With the joy of the season in all of our hearts, our normal skepticism tends to wane at least a little. Even though Black Friday and Cyber sales are almost at an end, and we (hopefully) have completed most of our holiday shopping by this point, we want to be extra careful as we end out the year.
With the last minute bargain hunting in full force for Christmas, criminals are out in force to make big paydays at the end of 2019.
They are stealing passwords and credentials in force this holiday season.
How do I know this?
As a cybersecurity expert, I spend a lot of my time monitoring and keeping track of what is out on the Dark Web (I also do a lot of Dark Web monitoring for clients). Let me be frank with you—there is a lot of new material out there! And a lot of it comes in at the end of the year every year.
Act NOW!
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It’s incredible how technology has evolved over the past 20 years.
When I started in IT over 20 years ago at this point, IT teams were concerned about much different concerns than they are today.
Way back when I was starting up Dynamic Edge, my team was focused on fixing computer problems. When it came to data security, we might have worried about a rogue employee here or there, maybe thought briefly in our days about risk management or compliance, but by and large, we were NOT a security-focused IT company.
My main job was to innovate on ways to implement new technologies to make the lives of my clients better.
But as we have gotten into an era where we all rely on technology more and more, criminals have moved from more traditional means of stealing and ransoming to locking down your entire networks and extorting your business’ sensitive information.
Today, attacks are more targeted.
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Microsoft has a security update for Windows 7 machines.
A few months ago when Microsoft shared that Windows 7 was no longer going to be supported as of January 14, 2020, it announced that its enterprise clients would still be able to get security updates and patches on the older platform for an extended period of time.
The Windows 7 Extended Security Updates (ESU) is a paid service offered by Microsoft that will deliver updates to computers still running Windows 7.
These updates will be pushed out past the January deadline into 2023. The problem?
There is a substantial price tag to these security licenses.
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