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Directive Blogs

Directive has been serving the Oneonta area since 1993, providing IT Support such as technical helpdesk support, computer support, and consulting to small and medium-sized businesses.

Pig Butchering is a Serious, Growing Problem

Over the past few years, huge scamming operations have operated in Southeast Asia, and now they are spreading. These scams—known as pig butchering scams—cause serious harm, as in an estimated $75 billion worldwide in 2023.

With these sorts of operations spreading, let’s go over what pig butchering is. 

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If You See Someone Streaming Funeral Services, You’ve Spotted a Likely Scam

Funerals are never to be taken lightly, which makes it all the worse that there are people out there willing to use these events to scam those in grief. Recently, Facebook has seen many groups that supposedly offer links to streamed funerals in exchange for credit card data, with different events being added more recently.

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Password Managers are an Office Worker’s Best Friend

Protecting your business’ accounts is something we will advocate for on repeat. You’ll hear us tell you about complex and unique passwords and multi-factor authentication until you’re sick of hearing it. But one tool that our clients sometimes forget is the password manager—an equally useful tool that can help your business keep passwords safe and secure.

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It Pays to Invest in Security Awareness Training… Here’s What to Include

Security awareness training is a critical process for modern businesses to undergo to have any chance of success. Unfortunately, as much as security software or policy can help, it can only do so much. You also need your team members to be on board, knowledgeable about what they need to do, and motivated to do it. 

In light of this, let’s talk about security awareness training and what it needs to involve.

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Sextortion Scammers are Going So Far as to Show You Your House

Sextortion scams are scary. The scammer contacts the victim, claiming to have gotten access to their computer and captured video footage of their target partaking in some private and decidedly adult activities, as well as the content that was onscreen at the time. The threat: pay up, or I send the footage to all of your contacts.

Lately, however, hackers have added another layer of “proof” to these claims, now referring to victims by name and including pictures of their homes. Let’s walk through what one of these scams looks like and what you should do if one appears in your inbox.

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What’s Going on With Telegram and the State of Encrypted Communication?

Sorry for the loaded title. There’s a lot to talk about, even for those of you who don’t use or even know what Telegram is.

We’ll try to sum this up, because we think there is a lot to say about security and the nature of technology in this, and like all things these days, there’s some odd rabble-rousing about this whole series of events. Who’s up for a wild ride?

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Five of the Largest Data Breaches of 2024 Thus Far

Data breaches remain a constant threat, capable of causing serious disruptions for businesses and potentially creating widespread issues for customers. In today’s blog, we’ll highlight some of the largest and most impactful breaches of 2024.

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Sabotage Isn’t Just About Theft

Businesses have to deal with a lot of different types of problems, but they often don’t see many of the issues that come from within their company. Whether this comes from hackers, disgruntled customers, or unreliable vendors, every business leader constantly deals with some type of issue. Unfortunately, sometimes these problems can come from inside your company. Today, we look at two employee issues that can potentially cause major headaches for business owners.

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You Can Embrace Remote Operations Without Sacrificing Cybersecurity… It Just Needs to Be Done Right

Remote work has proven incredibly useful over the past few years despite many employers having various concerns about its implementation. While these concerns vary, one prevalent one is how remote operations impact cybersecurity.

If you’re utilizing remote operations to any degree and aren’t concerned about cybersecurity, you must adjust this mindset and correct your approach.

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Make a Complex Password with This Catchy Trick

You should always use strong passwords for each and every account. Cybercriminals don’t need to put much effort into cracking a password these days—it only takes a little software and standard computer hardware to crack millions of passwords in just a second or two.

The more complex and random a password is, the more secure it is.

But coming up with (and memorizing) complex passwords is really difficult. This trick should make it a whole lot easier.

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Network Security Made Simple in 3 Easy Ways

Network security is hard. That’s why so many businesses struggle to implement the solutions they so desperately need to stay safe and relevant. Today, we want to demystify some of these components and lay out in clear terms what your highest priorities should be for your business’ network security.

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Phishing: What It Is, and How to Avoid It

Potential data breaches are increasingly problematic for organizations, and the most common way that data is stolen is through phishing attacks. Phishing attacks are currently one of the most pervasive threats on the Internet, and you need to understand them to thwart their effectiveness against your users. Let’s explore what exactly a phishing attack consists of and some best practices you can use to defend your network against them.

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Cybersecurity Isn’t a Product, It’s a Strategy

Modern businesses—just like yours—cannot and should not operate without robust cybersecurity protections. This is a point we will emphasize at every opportunity. Let’s explore why security is so crucial and what steps you need to take to safeguard your business.

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Please, Please, PLEASE Don’t Include Sensitive Info in Your Emails

Email is a great communication tool. However, certain things are just unsafe to communicate via email.

Let’s go through a list of such things. Better safe than sorry, after all.

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The Office Printer: Your Overlooked Cybersecurity Risk

When it comes to cybersecurity, office printers often fly under the radar. They're seen as simple, innocuous devices. It’s easy to have the mindset that there’s not much at risk—what, are the hackers going to waste some of my paper?

But here's the truth: your office printer is a potential cybersecurity risk, and a serious one at that.

Just like your computers and smartphones, printers are connected to your network. This makes them vulnerable to the same cyberthreats.

An unsecured printer can be an open door for hackers. They can use it to sneak into your business network.

In this article, we'll shed light on the overlooked aspect of office printer security. We'll also provide actionable advice on how to fortify your office printers against cyberthreats.

So, let's dive in and explore the world of office printer cybersecurity.

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Let’s Review Your Facebook Privacy Protections

Last week we went through some of the issues that Facebook is dealing with in regards to its security and data privacy. Today, we thought it would be helpful to give you the tools you need to protect your privacy on Facebook.

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Let’s Remind Ourselves How Meta’s Security Has Failed

Facebook remains one of the most visited places on the Internet. Meta (the parent company to Facebook) also features WhatsApp and Instagram on their roster and has faced numerous security and privacy failings over the years. In this week’s blog, we’ll take a brief look at some of the most noteworthy.

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Microsoft Defender: An Example of Why Consumer-Grade Security is Not Enough

Windows Defender is Microsoft’s own antivirus solution, and it comes bundled with Windows, so it’s confusing to think that a business would need to pay for it, right? Well, there are actually two separate products called Defender, with a big difference between them.

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Five Password Best Practices You Must Keep in Mind for 2024

Passwords have long been one of the central pillars of account security on the Internet. Combined with a username, they make up the foundation of most login systems. Because of this, they are a hot commodity for hackers who want to steal credentials and infiltrate accounts or networks. In recent years, however, other security measures have exposed the weakness of poor passwords for security, leading to the adoption of other measures.

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Encryption is One of the Most Valuable Tools Against Hackers

Encryption is a powerful weapon against hackers that can prevent them from stealing your data and leveraging it against you. Encryption, in its most basic textbook definition, converts your readable data into an indecipherable jumble that can only be reassembled through the use of an encryption key. Small businesses absolutely must utilize encryption to protect customer information, financial records, and other important or sensitive business data. This ensures that it is as protected as possible against those that might do you harm.

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This Cybersecurity Professional is Out to Scam the Scammers

Scammers look to take advantage of someone else for their own gain, but there are some scammers out there who are trying to scam the scammers to teach them a lesson. One such individual is “Kitboga,” a content creator who calls themselves a “scam baiter.”

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How to Minimize Cybersecurity Sprawl

Obviously, we won’t tell you to cut down on your cybersecurity. That said, it can be easy to overinvest and overreach if you aren’t careful about what you’re implementing. This phenomenon is known as cybersecurity sprawl, and if not prevented, it can easily have serious consequences for your business. Let’s go into how to avoid this sprawl.

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This Guy Scams the Scammers for a Living

When you think of a scammer, you probably think of someone looking to take advantage of someone for their own gain. While this isn’t wholly inaccurate, another variety exists to acknowledge… those who aim to scam the scammers. Let’s consider one such white-hat scammer, or “scam baiter,” a content creator who uses the alias “Kitboga,” Kit for short.

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Research Shows Many New Cybersecurity Professionals are Doomed to Make Blunders

Unfortunately, cyberattacks will only continue in the weeks, months, and years to come, making it increasingly essential that businesses have access to cybersecurity expertise. Even more unfortunately, professionals with this level of expertise are becoming harder to find. Globally, we’re short almost four million people, and those we have are prone to make mistakes in their first few years. This comes from a report by Kaspersky, entitled “The Portrait of Modern Information Security Professional,” Let’s review what the cybersecurity developer found and what we can take away from these findings.

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With a Massive Botnet Recently Disrupted, Let’s Review What a Botnet Is

It was very recently revealed that a global law enforcement effort took down a massive botnet that was in action for almost a decade. In light of this, we wanted to review what a botnet is and how it works, drawing from these events for some context.

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The Impact Ransomware Has on All of Us

We’ve spent the last few weeks discussing ransomware's impacts on different subsets. First, we discussed how a ransomware attack impacts the customers of the infected business, and then we touched on the infected business itself. To end, we want to touch on ransomware's impacts on society, specifically regarding economic health and geopolitical security, known as third-order harms.

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You May Not Think You’re Popular, but Your Data Certainly Is

Data is extremely important in the way that most businesses conduct themselves. This results in other people wanting that information, too. Today’s blog will look at how seemingly everyone online is out for your data. 

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A Man-in-the-Middle Attack is Not to Be Underestimated

Have you ever heard of the “man-in-the-middle” attack or MitM? It’s a situation where your data is stolen by an onlooker who situates themselves in the right place at the right time. Data interception is a very real thing that your business should be prepared to fight against. Let’s discuss some strategies you can use to counter these sneaky attacks.

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Have You Ever Considered What a Ransomware Attack Actually Does to Your Business?

Last week, we discussed the many impacts your business suffering from ransomware has on “second-order harm,” downstream businesses, and average, ordinary people. This time, we wanted to return to “first-order harms”… those the impacted business has to deal with itself.

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What You Need to Know About Your Personally Identifiable Information

Hackers are always on the lookout for personally identifiable information, or PII, as it’s an immensely lucrative resource. You’ll need to protect it if you want your business to continue operating safely and efficiently. Let’s go over what PII entails and what kinds of data you might find under this term.

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It’s a Bad Time for Central NY Businesses to Be Lax on Cybersecurity

Local small and medium-sized organizations are commonly targeted by cybercriminals simply because they let their guard down. A lot of local business owners seem to think “Hey, I’m just an accountant in Oneonta, or I’m just an insurance company in Sidney, or I’m just a realtor in Cooperstown, why would hackers want to target me?”

And the answer is right there. On top of that, the sheer number of avenues that cybercriminals have to cause damage to a business is staggering. Let’s take a look at some of the more recent threats we’ve been seeing over the past two months.

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Have You Ever Considered What a Ransomware Attack Would Do to Your Customers?

It can be too easy to look at ransomware as a business problem. After all, it attacks businesses, locking down their data for ransom, often selling it or spreading it, and sometimes altering it for the business if returning it at all. It can be too easy to overlook another impacted target in all the mess.

What happens to the people whose data a business has collected and uses?

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Secure Your Digital Life with Just One Password

Safeguarding your online accounts is an important part of maintaining network security. With the increasing number of cyber threats, relying on strong, unique passwords is no longer optional—it's a necessity. Remembering complex passwords for numerous accounts can be challenging, however. This is where password managers come in handy, offering a secure and convenient solution to managing your credentials.

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The Easiest Way to Commit to Strong, Secure Passwords

In order to protect your personal information, as well as your company information, you need to put a lot of effort and brainpower into your passwords. They are supposed to be long and complex, they are supposed to be random. You are supposed to use a different password on each account… 

If you are thinking to yourself, man that’s a lot of work, you aren’t wrong. We’re on your side.

There’s an easier way, and it’s something that businesses can implement for their entire staff that solves a lot of headaches and goes a long way toward keeping data safe.

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How to Reduce the Risks of Phishing Attacks

Phishing is a pervasive threat nowadays, with businesses of any size or industry serving as prime targets. Understanding phishing and implementing effective prevention strategies is crucial for your entire team.

Let's explore how to reduce the effectiveness of phishing schemes against your business—in other words, how to prevent phishing from having an impact.

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Your Business Can’t Afford to Forego Security Auditing

While the word “audit” can easily be a scary thought for businesses, there are certain cases where an audit serves an organization’s direct benefit. Take, for instance, the ones that occur internally to identify and correct security issues and vulnerabilities. These audits are not only a positive endeavor for businesses; they’re extremely important to carry out.

Let’s talk about why this is and review a few standard practices you should prioritize as you go about this process.

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Prevent the Majority of Threats with Endpoint Security

There are many parts of running a business where you cannot be too careful, one of which is the realm of cybersecurity. Many of the preventative measures you can implement aim to keep issues from making their way to your infrastructure in the first place, which makes sense from an operational standpoint. With an endpoint detection and response solution—or EDR—you’ll take an important step toward keeping most threats off your infrastructure.

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Rise Up Against Ransomware

Like many of the past few years, this year has witnessed a significant surge in high-profile ransomware attacks. If you haven't already strategized how to safeguard your business from these threats, now is the time to act. Fortunately, you can take several proactive measures to mitigate the impact of ransomware attacks, and it all starts with preparation.

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Apple Users Hit with Rare Cyberattack: What Can We Learn?

On Wednesday, April 10, 2024, Apple deemed it necessary to send a rare alert to certain users via email, spread out across 92 nations. As Apple’s website states, these threat notifications “are designed to inform and assist users who may have been individually targeted by mercenary spyware attacks.” Let’s review these attacks so we all understand this threat better.

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Ransomware is Only Getting Worse in 2024

Since it was first documented in 1989, ransomware has only become far more severe, ruthless, and, most of all, prevalent. Let’s review some important statistics to remember if you are to understand ransomware and, even more importantly, avoid its impact on your business.

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Your Users Are Likely Your Biggest Security Threat, But You Can Fix That

Believe it or not, if you were to rank your business’ greatest threats, risk factors, and vulnerabilities, your users would most likely belong somewhere toward the top. Human error is a big challenge to your security simply because cybercriminals understand that your employees are, in fact, human and will, in fact, make mistakes.

Let’s explore how cyberattacks exploit this tendency and how you can better protect your business from the ramifications.

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4 Essential Cybersecurity Mistakes You Can't Afford to Make

When considering your company’s cybersecurity, it is important not to lose sight of the forest for the trees… or, in other words, not to forget the basics around which the rest of your protections are built.

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Three of the Biggest Security Solutions You Might Not Be Using

Your typical IT professional might suggest some common methods of network security like implementing better preventative measures, like firewalls and antivirus. However, there is more that goes into network security—far more. If you’re not careful, you could accidentally miss some of these three security solutions and expose your business to potential threats. But we’re not about to let that happen!

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XLoader Android Malware Runs in the Background and Steals Your Data

Mobile malware isn’t common, but it’s growing increasingly more so. You may have heard of a malware called XLoader, which has been used to victimize people in over seven countries. This mobile threat has seen various iterations over the past several years, but you should be especially concerned these days.

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Make Sure You Share These Cybersecurity Tips with Everyone You Know

Cybersecurity is crucial for everyone to focus on, both in the professional environment and in their personal lives. That’s why I wanted to put together a list of cybersecurity practices you should encourage your team to follow when they aren’t in the office or working remotely, when their time is theirs. 

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Invest in Your Business’ Future with Security Best Practices

Nowadays, it is crucial that you make security a top priority. With the right approach, it not only saves you massive headaches, but also a considerable amount of capital—particularly if you leverage the appropriate solutions for SMBs. As a managed service provider, we can ensure that you implement the appropriate IT solutions to maximize the return on your security investment.

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The Best Way to Protect Your Business’ Reputation is to Protect Your Data

SMBs tend to rely on their longstanding clients to bring in the majority of their revenue, so what happens when clients suddenly cannot trust your business’ reputation? Look no further than if you were to suffer from a cyberattack for an answer. It turns out that being careless with your clients’ data is one of the best ways to sink your reputation.

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You Have to Prioritize IT Training

For the IT administrator and the small business owner, it can be a bewildering experience when your company comes under siege from employee-induced cyberthreats; especially if you, like many other companies, have started prioritizing security training. Even if the threat is thwarted early and the effect on the business is negligible, it is important that you trust the people who have access to your organization’s digital resources. Let’s look at some of the reasons some of your staff take cybersecurity initiatives worse than others. 

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Don’t Share Sensitive Data in Emails

All it takes is one oversight to potentially undo any benefits your cybersecurity protections and other best practices may deliver. For instance, even if you have things like multifactor authentication in place, a phishing scam or even some malware varieties could potentially give an attacker access to your email… and all the data your messages contain, just sitting in your inbox.

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Unfortunately, Scams Are Commonplace

The constant fear of falling victim to scams has become a harsh reality and is far from ideal. However, the good news is that there is always time to acquire the skills needed to avoid such scams. Let's explore ways to enhance awareness regarding the challenges posed by scams, not only in a business context but also in everyday life.

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Oversharing on Social Media Can Have Grave Effects

Maintaining data security is an important consideration, and most people try to do what they must to secure their personal data. They verify emails; they roll out antivirus and antimalware; they take vigilant steps to avoid the myriad of threats and active attacks we all deal with from one day to the next. 

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Six of the Worst Data Breaches of 2023

In this blog, we do our best to give people the knowledge they need to protect themselves and their organizations while operating online. With all the digital tools that we all have come to rely on, it’s important to understand the result of a data breach on organizations and their customers. In today’s blog, we go through six of the most devastating data breaches that happened in 2023. 

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Understanding URLs Can Help You Avoid Being Hacked

We often advise people to steer clear of clicking on suspicious links, but distinguishing between a legitimate URL and a dubious one has become increasingly challenging. Not only have malicious tactics evolved to the point where everyone has to stay on top of their game to not be fooled, these threats are almost pervasive so they are coming at people from all types of directions. We thought we would focus on a single punctuation mark that can make all the difference in whether a link is legitimately safe or potentially dangerous.

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6 Examples of Phishing Attacks Area Businesses Need to Prepare For

Phishing is one of the most prevalent forms of cyberattacks out there today, taking many forms and affecting everyone from individuals to entire organizations. Any business operating today needs to be aware of the numerous shapes that phishing can take. 

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AI Was the Hot Tech of 2023, But in 2024 It’s the Next Big Security Threat

2023 was definitely the year that AI became a household name. We’ve barely seen what artificial intelligence is capable of, and while industries are still coming up with more ways to use the technology, we’ve already seen countless examples of how people want to take advantage of AI for less savory purposes. 2024 is already shaping up to be the year that businesses need to protect themselves from AI-generated cybersecurity threats. Let’s take a look at everything you need to know as a business owner.

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What You Need to Look for in a Cyber Insurance Policy

Perhaps predictably, the word “insure” has roots that tie it closely to “ensure,” as it is meant to ensure a level of security after some form of loss. Nowadays, that loss often pertains to data, making cyber insurance an extremely valuable investment for the modern business to make.

However, in order to obtain this kind of insurance, businesses commonly need to meet some basic requirements. Let’s go over some of these requirements now.

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Is Free Antivirus Good Enough?

If you are old enough to remember when antivirus (like most computer software) came in a great big textbook-sized box at the store, then you probably remember a time when that was the only protection you really needed.

Today, there are countless free versions of antivirus out there. Let’s talk about how much protection these actually bring, and when and where they might be a good fit.

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Think Before You Scan That QR Code; It Could Be Dangerous

Businesses have embraced QR codes as a convenient means of sharing information with clients and customers. Unfortunately, this convenience is also enjoyed by cybercriminals who have decided to use QR codes for their own ends. QR code-based scams against businesses are on the rise, which is precisely why it is so important for organizations of all sizes to appreciate the risks that QR codes can present and know what they need to do to protect themselves.

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Your Organization Has Been Infected with Ransomware; Here’s What To Do Right Now

We’re hoping that you are actually reading this post to prepare yourself if your business were to face a ransomware attack, but if you are suffering from one right now, we encourage you to reach out to us immediately, whether you are a client or not. Ransomware spreads quickly, and once it has infected a system, there really isn’t much you can do to stop it. However, there are steps you need to take to come back from this gracefully.

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The NY State of Health Enrollment Period Presents the Opportunity for Scams

With the end of the year upon us, New York State’s health insurance markets and assorted health plans are open. Current enrollees received renewal reminders a few weeks ago, prompting them to act before their coverage lapses.

Unfortunately, as is often the case in such situations, this urgency has given scammers the opportunity to target New Yorkers trying to maintain their insurance coverage.

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This Malware Targets Your Facebook Business Accounts

Chances are your business has a social media presence in at least some capacity, as it’s a good way to drive traffic to your business. However, hackers want to leverage this benefit against you. A new malware specifically targets Facebook business accounts to launch malicious advertisement campaigns using your own money against you.

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This Year’s Big Shopping Days Reveal a Lot About Cyberattacks

Unsurprisingly, some of the biggest retail days of the year are some of the biggest days for scams, the entire holiday season seeing an increase in threats toward retailers and, as a result, the consumers that are just looking for that perfect gift for their loved ones. Let’s review some statistics and trends to see what insights we can glean.

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Six Tips to Stay Safe Online This Holiday Season

The holidays are a time of love and giving, but they are also a time when hackers run rampant. If you don’t want to get a stolen identity in your stocking this year, we recommend you practice the following safe shopping security measures.

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Implement Zero Trust Policies to Combat Ransomware

With ransomware becoming one of the single most dangerous threats out there for small businesses, it’s more important than ever to know how to protect your company from its influence. Thankfully, there are measures you can take, including some very powerful ones like zero-trust policies that can thwart attempted ransomware attacks.

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As if We All Didn’t Have Enough to Worry About: Let’s Look At Killware

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but when it comes to cybersecurity threats it’s kind of hard not to be. I used to look at it from two sides; one side is fascinated at the innovation and intensely brutal ways that high-end cyberattacks work, and the other side of me loses sleep at night worrying about these risks affecting our clients, prospects, and even my own business. This one particular classification of cyberattack, however, takes the cake for being especially frightening.

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There’s No Shame in Being Scammed

I was talking to some colleagues the other day about cybersecurity and its relationship with modern everyday scams, like phone scams and similar things. In my opinion, it’s worth bundling these two topics together, and we found some interesting statistics that we’d like to share.

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Ransomware is Still a Major Threat for All Businesses and Individuals Alike

You don’t need us to tell you that ransomware is a problem (or maybe you do–we mean, it’s a huge problem). It’s dangerous to both businesses and individuals, and it has become such a common threat that all organizations need to have a plan in place to address it with their staff. Today, we want to highlight a three-part strategy that you can use to approach ransomware in the most secure way possible.

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4 Ways Hackers Can Take Advantage of Your Business Technology

Cybercriminals fight dirty, whether it’s attacking small businesses, large enterprises, or individuals who just want to watch Netflix. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you do for the community; you’ll always be a target for hacking attacks. To save time and effort, hackers will use low-tech attacks and social engineering attacks to target individuals. Hackers aren’t developing new threats all the time; if anything, they largely use existing exploits, purchasable software, and social engineering to take advantage of people.

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Four Technologies You Can Use to Better Protect Your Data in Transit

A lot of business is done over the Internet, so securing transactions is crucial to protect sensitive information and prevent unauthorized access or even fraud. There are multiple things you can do to improve your data while it is in transit; and, today, we take a look at four. 

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Browser Hijacking Attacks are a Serious Threat

With technology being an integral part of our lives and society at large, cyberthreats continue to evolve and pose significant risks. One such threat that is on the rise is browser hijacking attacks. Let’s explore the dangers of these attacks, including the techniques employed by hackers, and how small and medium-sized businesses can protect themselves.

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The Problems that Cybercrime Can Pose for Business

Unfortunately for small businesses, cyberthreats aren't limited to large corporations and enterprises. Even small businesses and local shops face the constant risk of cyberattacks. Let's take a look into some concerning statistics regarding one of the fastest-growing cyberthreats.

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The Insecurity of IoT Devices is a Serious Concern… So Why Aren’t Businesses Worried?

The IoT, or Internet of Things, is everywhere. There’s a relatively good chance that a device that would be part of the IoT is within your reach right now, perhaps even on your person. Businesses of all kinds use the IoT for various purposes as well, but behind this usage lies significant risk from cyberthreats, and a shocking number of businesses seem to accept this risk without much concern… as in, the vast majority of surveyed businesses utilizing the IoT demonstrated a lack of protection, but seemed not to be bothered by it.

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Physical Security is Spearheaded by Good Surveillance

Digital security cameras have revolutionized surveillance, supplanting their analog counterparts due to their myriad advantages. Let’s outline three key benefits of deploying digital security cameras.

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Protecting Your Users From Self-Inflicted Cybersecurity Threats

You know the old idiom, “you are your own worst enemy?” 

That can be the case when it comes to cybersecurity, especially in a business environment. In fact, most cybersecurity threats these days happen because of user error, mistakes, or missteps.

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It’s Time to Upgrade Your Firewall

As the threat landscape gets more concentrated with serious cyberthreats, new next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) have been developed to help stem the tide of negative outcomes that result from cyberattacks. An NGFW is an advanced network security device or software solution that combines traditional firewall capabilities with additional features and functionalities designed to provide enhanced protection and visibility into network traffic. NGFWs are designed to address the evolving and sophisticated nature of cyberthreats, including malware, intrusion attempts, and other malicious activities.

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Three Benefits of Digital Security Cameras

Digital security cameras offer numerous advantages over their analog counterparts, making them a popular choice for enhancing security in various settings. Here are three key benefits of using digital security cameras.

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Hackers are Using AI Too and It is Scary

Maintaining network security has proven to be more difficult for organizations as time has gone on. Like the people trying to keep them out of networks they don’t have access to, hackers are increasingly using artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance their cyberattacks and achieve various malicious objectives. Here are some ways in which hackers are using AI.

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National Student Clearinghouse Data Breach Exposes Personal Information of Over 50,000 Individuals

One major nonprofit has become the victim of a disclosed major data breach, affecting 890 schools all across the US: the National Student Clearinghouse, or NSC. The organization has announced that they have experienced a considerable data breach that has put their clients’ data at risk. What does this mean for affected organizations and their clientele?

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Just Wish Ransomware Would Go Away? We Have Bad News…

Ransomware has rapidly climbed to be one of the most dangerous and feared malware attacks that is used nowadays. It’s gotten to the point that, if you wish they would just stop, we can hardly blame you.

Unfortunately, there is no reason to believe that ransomware is going anywhere.

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Important Statistics to Keep in Mind Concerning Your Cybersecurity

It is so important to keep your business secure nowadays. Statistics show this to be the case. Don’t believe us? We can share a few of these stats and explore what they mean, just to prove it.

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Critical Security Measures for Data Privacy

These days, data privacy is absolutely critical in both a business and individual context. In some locations, governments have introduced legislation to protect consumers, and in others, there is significant pushback in favor of fewer regulations on business. How does data privacy factor into your business’ operations?

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Ransomware is One Problem that Leads to Many More

There are a lot of threats to businesses nowadays, but ransomware seems to be the worst… or at least, the most feared. It seems as though we can’t mention cyberthreats anymore without mentioning ransomware. Unfortunately, we’re right to do so, and the reason for this is a simple one.

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Encryption is a Tool All Businesses Should Use

You might see encryption as a major benefit to your cybersecurity strategy, but it’s often used in a way that might have you guessing whether you really understand it. Let’s take a closer look into what encryption does to your data, as well as why it is essential for any business to ensure maximum privacy and security.

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Cybersecurity Needs to Be a Priority for Everyone… Especially Your Business

How often does your company take it upon itself to ensure that those working for its success—your employees—are kept up to speed on cybersecurity? If your approach is to have your team sit in a room and watch a presentation once a year, it’s time to reconsider your training strategy. Let’s talk about the impact that proper cybersecurity training can have, and who tends to have access to it.

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Want to Learn How to Steal a Password? It’s Easier Than You Think

Passwords are one of the most important parts of keeping any account secure, and if you were to gain access to these accounts, you’d have access to personal data, subscriptions, money, and even the victim’s identity. Today, we want to show you just how easy it is to steal a password and gain access to an account.

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The Cloud is Only Helpful if It’s Secure

We have not been shy about expounding upon the benefits of the cloud for businesses, as these benefits are both considerable and accessible. That being said, not even the cloud is completely perfect, and there are security errors that can easily be made.

Let’s go through these security errors to see if any sound familiar to your situation.

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Could Zero-Trust Make the VPN Obsolete? Experts Suggest So

When it comes to security, it can be challenging to keep up with shifting best practices. For instance, the use of a virtual private network has long been a staple to secure remote operations, and any decent IT service provider would recommend its use. However, this advice is changing with the growth of zero-trust access protocols.

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That False Sense of Security is Going to Bite You

Cybersecurity is important. Scroll through a few pages of our blog and you’ll see article after article talking about threats and ways to make yourself and your business less vulnerable to cyberthreats. As an IT professional, however, I’d be so much happier if the state of the world didn’t require such a massive effort just to protect oneself and we could just talk about cool stuff you can do with modern technology all the time!

But alas, strong cybersecurity is crucial to virtually any organization, and it’s becoming even more important by the month.

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Won’t More IT Security Just Slow Me Down?

When I was a kid, there was a Tex Avery cartoon where Droopy Dog was chasing down a crook who escaped from jail. There was a particular scene where the crook (I think it was a wolf in a black-and-white striped jumpsuit) takes a bus, a plane, a ship, and a taxi to a secluded cabin, and then closes a series of increasingly complex doors with a large number of locks, in order to hide away from the pursuing cartoon basset hound. 

Of course, when he turns around, exhausted by all the effort he puts in, he realizes that Droopy is standing right behind him, and greets him with a monotone “hello.”

I haven’t seen this cartoon since I was 7 years old, but I almost always think about it when I am using multi-factor authentication. 

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Smishing: A Variety of Phishing Attacks Utilizing SMS

We discuss phishing often on this blog, and one method that often flies under the radar is smishing, or phishing that is conducted through SMS messages. Although email phishing is perhaps the most common method of conducting these scams, you should also be prepared to take on smishing, as it comes with its own share of unique challenges and dangers.

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How Good is Consumer Reports’ Scam Prevention Advice?

Scams are everywhere in our highly digitized world, which makes it especially important that everyone is prepared to deal with them—both personally and professionally. The publication Consumer Reports’ cover feature for its August 2023 edition is dedicated to exactly this goal: helping its readers avoid the various scams and threats out there. Let’s look at some of the advice shared in the article, and compare it to the best practices we recommend.

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What We Can All Learn from the VirusTotal Data Leak

In 2004, a service called VirusTotal was launched and swiftly became a popular antivirus and malware scanner to help detect threats in various files and URLs. It became popular enough that it was officially acquired by Google in 2012 and ultimately assimilated into Chronicle, a cloud-based security operations suite for enterprise businesses. Despite this impressive pedigree, however, we find ourselves able to look to VirusTotal as a sobering reminder of how fickle cybersecurity can be, with the service being the source of some limited data exposure.

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Dissecting the Lessons from a Recent Amazon Scam Warning Email

Amazon Prime subscribers recently received an email from the online marketplace, warning them of the prevalence of scams that took advantage of their offerings and brand recognition. Let’s go through the advice that this email shared, and compare it to the best practices we recommend for avoiding scams.

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The Reasons Why Hackers Can’t Keep Their Hands Off Healthcare Data

When it comes to valuable data, hackers will go out of their way to try and steal it, placing businesses in dangerous situations. In particular, healthcare data is attractive to hackers, and considering how lucrative the prospect of healthcare data is, companies need to take extra precautions to protect it. But what is it about healthcare data that makes it so attractive, anyway? Let’s dig into the consequences of potential attacks on healthcare data.

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Do You Know How Much You Should Be Spending on Cybersecurity?

Nowadays, you can’t afford not to have some portion of your business’ budget set aside for cybersecurity. The question is, how much do you need, and what should you be spending it on first? Let’s take a few moments to dig a little deeper into this question and examine a few cybersecurity protections you should establish as your business’ baseline defenses.

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Steps You Need to Take If You Are the Victim of a Network Breach

The threats for businesses to get hacked or deal with data breaches of some type are more pressing now than at any other time in the digital age. It’s as if there are thousands of cat burglars on the prowl looking for a way into your business. If one of them is successful, it can bring some severe consequences for your business including financial loss, reputational damage, and even legal issues. In this week’s blog we will go through some of the actions you need to take in the case of a network breach. 

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Blank Emails are a Sign of Dangerous Spam

We talk a lot about phishing. What it is, what it does, and perhaps most critically, what it looks like. However, have you ever expected a phishing email to look like… nothing? As in, a completely blank message?

If you answered, “no,” that’s exactly what today’s cybercriminals are counting on.

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3 Scary Things About Ransomware That You Should be Wary Of

Ransomware is one of the more dangerous threats out there for businesses of all industries and sizes. To help emphasize just how dangerous it is, however, you have to look past the initial threat of having to pay a ransom and look at the other risks associated with it. We’re here to try to get the point across that ransomware is something your business should absolutely be taking seriously.

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Ask a Tech: All Your Questions About Ransomware, Decrypted

Ransomware is such a common occurrence these days that it has entered the public discourse, but we also want to note that it’s such an important topic to discuss with your team that you can never talk about it enough. We want to address some of the most common questions we get asked about ransomware and what can be done about it.

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What is It About the IoT that Makes It an Appealing Target for Cybercrime?

The IoT—the Internet of Things—is a fascinating technology, as it exemplifies just how much can be accomplished when Internet connectivity is used to augment the capabilities of otherwise “dumb” devices. Unfortunately, as fascinating as it is, the IoT is also infamous for its security issues…a reputation that attackers have been perpetuating as these devices grow more common.

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