Two Easy Ways To Breach Company Networks

Bad news – your small business network is easy for an attacker to access, and for most of you there are two or more exploitable attacker vectors.  A recent report from Positive Technologies analyzed the results of 22 penetration tests on companies from finance, transportation, retail, and even information technology.  All of the companies were breached with little difficulty.  The two easiest methods of unauthorized network access were not terribly surprising:  Wi-Fi networks, and company employees.

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15
AUG
0

Computers and Internet, cybersecurity, Phishing, social engineering, Wi-Fi, wireless

Phishing on Facebook – Angler Phishing

Cyber-criminals are masquerading as customer service sites on Facebook, luring disgruntled customers to their Facebook page in order to trick them into divulging their user name, password, and other personal information.  This is called “angler phishing.”

The way this usually works is this.  Let’s say you have a bad experience with your bank.  Then you write and post a negative comment on Facebook or Twitter about bad service you received at your bank, for example.  A cyber-crime crew will be searching ...

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13
JUL
0

cybersecurity, Facebook, Identity Theft, passwords, Phishing, social engineering, social networks

Protect Your Business from Cyber-Scams

Two weeks ago we reported on the most common cyber-scams targeting individuals like you and me.  But businesses are also in the cross-hairs of scammers.  A recent effort by the Federal Trade Commission and the Better Business Bureau has created some resources to help small business owners and managers learn how to protect themselves from these scams.

It is important to ...

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11
JUL
0

Computers and Internet, cybersecurity, social engineering

Protect Yourself From Cyber Scams – Part 2

In our last post we looked at common web and phone based scams that I have seen personally, or have been targeted at a client.  Today we will examine other scams that are popular with cyber-criminals.

Some of these are targeted at specific industries or at people in positions of leadership or ownership of an organization or business.

  • Charity scams – ...
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29
JUN
0

Computers and Internet, cybersecurity, Identity Theft, social engineering

How I Got Your Password – Part 2

Did you know that the easiest way for me to get your password is just to ask for it? This is one way that cyber-criminals can get one of your passwords. In  our last post we focused on password cracking.  Today we will look at all the other ways that an clever attacker can compromise your password.

  • Social Engineering – Sometimes the easiest way to get password information is just to ask for it.  Social engineering is a type of con ...
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18
JUN
0

Computers and Internet, cybersecurity, Identity Theft, passwords, Phishing, social engineering

How I Got Your Password – Part 1

In our last post we looked at the frighteningly short amount of time that it takes to crack a typical password.  Today we will look at all the different password cracking methods that a clever attacker can use to compromise your password, and how to defend against these attacks.

Password cracking

There are several types of automated password attacks that can be combined to make the process quicker, or to configure for a certain type of password attack.

  • Dictionary attack – This is ...
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15
JUN
0

Computers and Internet, cybersecurity, passwords, Phishing, Security, social engineering

The FBI Releases the IC3 2017 Internet Crime Report

On May 7, the FBI announced the release of the 2017 edition of the Internet Crime Report, published by the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).   This 29 page report outlines what cyber-crimes are most popular and most profitable for the perpetrators.  Don’t miss the extensive list of cyber-crimes and definitions in Appendix A.  Seriously, I found them kind of interesting.  Anyway, these crimes led to $1.42 billion in losses last ...

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30
MAY
0

cybersecurity, law and policy, Phishing, social engineering

Credit Card Fraud Hit 33 Million Americans in 2017

If you were hit with credit card fraud this year, you are not alone.  15% of Americans surveyed by CompareCards, a LendingTree subsidiary, reported they had been victimized in 2017.  Fraud can happen without losing your card.  While card companies and banks are more alert to fraud than ever, cardholders are often the first to discover the fraudulent use of their card.

The two main types of card fraud ...

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11
MAY
0

cybersecurity, Identity Theft, Security, social engineering

Password Spraying is a New Type of Brute Force Attack

Password spraying is a new password exploit that is being used effectively against larger networks.  It’s become enough of a problem to merit an alert from US-CERT entitled TA18-086A: Brute Force Attacks Conducted by Cyber Actors. Here’s how it works.

Typically, in a traditional brute-force password attack, the password cracking software runs a long list of every possible password against a system.  In ...

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30
APR
0

authentication, Computers and Internet, cybersecurity, passwords, Security, social engineering, Software vulnerability

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