Weekend Update

A quick Saturday digest of cybersecurity news articles from other sources.


National Cybersecurity Awareness Month: Cybersecurity at Home

10/02/2018 06:32 AM EDT  Original release date: October 02, 2018

October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month (NCSAM), an annual campaign to raise awareness about cybersecurity. The National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) has published general tips to help you increase your cybersecurity awareness—including whom to contact if you are the victim of cyber crime—and protect your online activities.

NCCIC encourages users and administrators to review NCSA’s guidance for online safety basics and the NCCIC Tip on Avoiding Social Engineering and Phishing Attacks for additional information.


Cybersecurity Threats to Precision Agriculture

10/03/2018 08:04 PM EDT  Original release date: October 03, 2018  (Finally an explanation for crop circles – hijacked tractors! LOL)

DHS has released a report to address cybersecurity threats to new precision agriculture technologies used in crop and livestock production. Precision agriculture employs a variety of embedded and connected technologies to generate data used to enhance agricultural and livestock management. As adoption of precision agriculture technology has increased, vulnerabilities and cyber threat issues have emerged. An attacker could exploit precision agriculture vulnerabilities to access sensitive data, steal resources, and destroy equipment.

NCCIC recommends users and administrators review the DHS report on Threats to Precision Agriculture for more information and apply the recommended mitigations.


FTC Issues Alert on Recent Facebook Breach

10/03/2018 01:30 PM EDT  Original release date: October 03, 2018

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has released an alert to provide Facebook users with recommended precautions against identity theft after the recent breach of the Facebook social media platform.

NCCIC encourages users and administrators to review the FTC Alert and the NCCIC Tip on Preventing and Responding to Identity Theft. If you believe you are a victim of identity theft, visit the FTC’s identity theft website to make a report.


Chinese Manufacture and Embed Spy Chips on Tech Gear.

I’ve been predicting this scenario for over a decade.  Nearly all tech gear is manufactured in China, where they have every opportunity to build in hardware chips that provided remote access, surveillance, and control.  When the cyber world war starts and we finally admit that the Chinese have been chipping technology for decades, and now control all the servers and routers on the Internet, it will be too late.  Some things are better done yourself.  We in the west, in our eternal quest for lower costs and higher profits, have set ourselves up to lose the first cyber world war.  We  should all learn Chinese, we will need to know it soon enough.


Tim Berners-Lee Moves Forward With His Big Plan To Fix The Web By Bringing Back Its Original Decentralized Promise

A ray of hope.  The man who gave us the World Wide Web protocol is trying to fix the Internet, and return it to it’s open-source roots.


 

0

About the Author:

I am a cybersecurity and IT instructor, cybersecurity analyst, pen-tester, trainer, and speaker. I am an owner of the WyzCo Group Inc. In addition to consulting on security products and services, I also conduct security audits, compliance audits, vulnerability assessments and penetration tests. I also teach Cybersecurity Awareness Training classes. I work as an information technology and cybersecurity instructor for several training and certification organizations. I have worked in corporate, military, government, and workforce development training environments I am a frequent speaker at professional conferences such as the Minnesota Bloggers Conference, Secure360 Security Conference in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, the (ISC)2 World Congress 2016, and the ISSA International Conference 2017, and many local community organizations, including Chambers of Commerce, SCORE, and several school districts. I have been blogging on cybersecurity since 2006 at http://wyzguyscybersecurity.com

Add a Comment


This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.