People are the weakest link
This sounds like a nightmare too impossible to happen. US soldiers putting sensitive information online in non-secure third party websites. It defies belief, yet we’re reading that it happened. The story popped up on ‘Gizmodo’
It is alleged that US Soldiers were saving sensitive information on a couple of common flashcard sites, presumably of things they were trying to memorise and learn. Even worse, their settings were on ‘public’ not ‘private’
It’s a classic warning about the risk of people, however well intentioned, saving critical data online in places the organisation is unaware of, and can’t control. That’s why our new KARE for Security S2 plan helps identify use of these sites in your organisation.
US Soldiers Accidentally Leaked Nuclear Weapons Secrets: Report (gizmodo.com)
Shadow IT
Shadow IT is one of the largest threats to data privacy in organisations today.
It’s not necessarily because these sites are going to be hacked, although that’s always possible, but just because if you don’t know the tools are in use, then there is no way that you can manage them!
The first step to maintaining this data is to identify it! That’s why you need new tools that are cloud focused. If you’re still using the same old security tools that you used to use prior to the cloud, then you are not keeping up and we need to talk!
Beware – Social Engineering! The number one security threat to business is your people!
Every business collects data, from sales leads to financial transactions and everything in between. Increasingly data is the new ‘gold’. The problem is, unlike actual gold that you can put in a vault, data is weightless, and your staff need access to your data to get...
Dodging dodgy websites
Not too long ago, (some) businesses tried to limit websites that people could visit during working hours. They blocked social sites and Trademe and so forth. The logic was that people should be working, not surfing the net. Luckily this seems to have faded – staff are...
What will the Microsoft annual/monthly licensing changes mean for you?
A few weeks ago, we warned you about changes to Microsoft 365 pricing coming in at March 2022. We still don't know the exact prices. Microsoft have published some USD numbers and we have used those to base an estimate on, but we don't know for certain what the final...
Does the new Chinese PIPL law apply to you?
If you do business in China, you need to know about the “PIPL” It’s the Chinese equivalent of the GDPR from the EU – and your responsibility to protect the data privacy of the Chinese. The law came into being relatively quickly and has already taken effect as at...
Security Training and Awareness offer
We are deploying some new tools for our KARE for Security clients. For a limited time we can share these with all our clients to give you and your colleagues some great e-security awareness training. The holiday season is targeted by scammers, they know that employees...
Zero-Trust Networking for real business?
Zero-trust sounds extreme Humans like to trust. We trust everyday as we drive down the street that the people coming the other way will stay in their lane. We trust that the restaurants we visit prepare our food properly and hygienically. We trust that our doctor...
Fact or Fiction? My files are in the cloud, I don’t need to worry about security any more!
If only life were so simple! We have some clients that ask us about file security in the cloud as if the answer is an absolute. Of course it isn't. The cloud is more secure than an on-premise system Assuming we’re talking about a reputable mainstream cloud, the...
Are your back ups keeping up?
Why do we need offsite, air-gapped backups? About ten years ago the age of the tape ended. USB 3 was the nail in the coffin for tapes. Finally we had something that was just as fast, but supported random access. At about the same time, we moved from data backups, to...
Deepscan Antivirus and AntiMalware
We've warned before about vulnerabilities like Spectre and Meltdown. The basic precautions are to keep your Windows, Office and other software completely up to date, and of course keeping your anti-virus current. That’s going to stop most things but lately we’ve seen...
One charging cable to rule them all?
How many old phone chargers do you have tucked away at the back of cupboards? It is such a waste of resources to have all those plastic and metal boxes that you don’t want to throw way, but can’t be sure you will ever use again. Just to make things slightly worse,...