With the clock ticking towards Windows 7 end-of-life (EOL) on Jan. 14, 2020, Microsoft recently announced that it will offer paid Extended Security Updates on a per-device basis through January 2023. The key word here is “paid.” Windows Enterprise and Microsoft 365 customers will have to cough up $25 per device for the first year, [...]
The number of successful endpoint attacks is up, the number of unknown threats is up, and the financial consequences of these attacks are more severe, according to the 2018 State of Endpoint Security Risk survey from Ponemon Institute. To make matters worse, organizations aren’t particularly confident in their ability to detect, prevent and respond to [...]
Wired magazine recently reported on the months-long struggles of a large East Coast animal shelter that had its Facebook page hacked. Using social engineering and phishing links, the hacker repeatedly accessed the account of the organization’s director, wreaking havoc on the organization. Despite exhaustive efforts to control access by implementing two-factor authentication, new antivirus software, [...]
Given that large enterprises with the most advanced IT security defenses in the world suffer major data breaches, no organization should assume it could never happen to them. Sure, these are high-value targets, but a growing number of hackers are going after smaller companies with weaker defenses. Organizations should always operate under the assumption that [...]
You wouldn’t ask Anne in accounting or Sam in sales to configure your firewalls, install an encryption solution or apply security patches. Yet most companies consistently make regular employees responsible for one of the most critical pieces of security — the password. Spoiler alert: It doesn’t work very well. Despite greater focus on improving security [...]
Some people might think warnings about IT security threats are overblown. That’s how they justify their “it will never happen to me” mentality. But what about the Equifax breach last year that exposed the personal data of nearly half of the U.S. population? What about the WannaCry ransomware attack that affected more than 200,000 computers [...]
Cybersecurity professionals tend to lose sleep over hackers from every corner of the globe who try to steal data and disrupt business operations. However, insider threats have also become a growing problem. And those threats that exist right under your nose are difficult to detect and costly to manage. Research from the Ponemon Institute found [...]
Just how frequently are cyberattacks happening? According to a new Osterman Research study, U.S.-based organizations experienced an average of 1.8 very serious security events in 2017, more than twice the global average (0.8 percent). These are events that disrupted normal operations or completely shut down an organization’s IT infrastructure for at least one day. Just [...]
Although Wi-Fi is now integral to the operations of many businesses, it is inherently less secure than wired networks. The WPA2 (Wi-Fi Protected Access 2) security protocol helps protect Wi-Fi communications by encrypting data traveling over the network. However, a vulnerability discovered in October 2017 has spurred the development of a new protocol that provides [...]
It’s no secret that today’s hackers take a more sophisticated approach to cybercrime than the stereotypical 20-year-old living in his parents’ basement. Hackers do a lot of research to learn about their targets and find vulnerabilities. They develop advanced solutions and look for help on the dark web. They’re master impersonators and manipulators. Most importantly, [...]
