How to Protect Yourself from a Tax Scam
Tax season can be stressful. From filing to paying taxes, Americans have enough to worry about this time of year without adding identity theft and refund fraud to the equation. Unfortunately, tax scams have become so common in today’s world that not considering ways to protect yourself from tax scams would result in more stress, money and time spent during this busy time of year. An article over on Wired provides some great details on tax scams and what to look for when trying to spot one.
MSPs need to offer their clients security solutions
In an article over at Business Solutions, Ellen Jennings, CEO of BEI, talks about cloud based security services that every MSP should offer.
Ransomware attacks keep growing and are costing businesses $1B
It is no secret that cybercrime has been increasing rapidly, but the statistics may surprise you. According to a report released by PhishMe, 2016 saw a massive increase in ransomware, toppling over 2015 by 600%. An article on TechRepublic explains how PhishMe came up with these statistics and what you can do to protect your company.
Texas Print Shop Hit by Ransomware
Ransomware that crippled Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital made national headlines but ransomware continues to be a major menace for small to midsize businesses.
A print shop in Lubbock, Texas was shut down last week due to ransomware. An employee opened an infected file and ransomware took control of the network.
NYT: No Business Too Small to Be Hacked
The New York Times has a very good article titled: No Business Too Small to Be Hacked. We have been saying for the past few years that businesses of all sizes are vulnerable to cyber-crime. The more examples of real-life, documented cyber-crime the more awareness will be raised. Awareness of risks is critical because many small businesses incorrectly believe they are too small to be a victim of cyber-crime.
FCC fines Cox Communication $595,000 over data breach
According to an article over at The Register, the FCC has fined Cox Communication $595,000 over a 2014 data breach.
Hacker disguised as IT support
The breach in question occurred in August of 2014 when, the FCC says, a hacker called “eviljordie” phoned Cox customer service claiming to be an employee in the company’s IT department. After tricking the call-center staffer into visiting a fake support website and entering their username and password, the hacker used the login details to access Cox’s customer database.
A Case Study on Dridex Banking Malware
A form of malware called Dridex is targeting finance employees at small to midsize companies. The criminals are sending emails with Microsoft Word and Excel attachments. The emails are very targeted and trick the employee into opening the attachment.
Inside an SMB Hack
In a Verizon Data Breach Investigations Study, they found that 71% of breaches occurred in businesses with less than 100 employees. You would think that Small to Midsize Businesses (SMBs) would be very worried about security. And many SMBs might be worried but for the majority they just don’t believe that they need to worry or that they could be a victim. One of the issues is that we typically hear about large corporations experiencing a data breach (Target, Home Depot, Sony, etc.).
Ransomware using Remote Desktop to spread itself
According to an article over at SC Magazine, hackers are using brute force to crack their way into Remote Desktop / Terminal Servers and installing a CryptoLocker type malware that is encrypting the files on the server.
More proof that hackers are going after SMBs
Large scale data breaches such as Target and Home Depot make the news but smaller organizations are victims of data breaches as well. The problem is that most data breaches that happen to small or midsize companies are either not reported or do not make the news headlines. This in turn leads many small to midsize businesses (SMBs) to underestimate the risk that their company may be a victim of a data breach.