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!
Urgent Security Warning – Nitro PDF
CERT NZ have issued a warning about Nitro PDF. It’s a common PDF tool that users log into to share documents. Unfortunately, there are reports that hackers have breached their database We’re being told that “Nitro PDF, a PDF enterprise document creation and sharing...
Keeping our Security tools up to speed
Cyber-crime is estimated to earn criminals US$7 Trillion a year That sort of money buys cyber criminals a lot of resources. It’s no surprise then that cybercrime has its own support industries. You don’t need to access the "Darknet" to purchase hacker tools. Many...
GOOD PROCESS WASN’T GOOD ENOUGH – SCAMMERS STILL WON
In August we all heard about Team NZ falling prey to a $2.8 million invoice payment fraud. It was the now-familiar story of a fake or hacked email, asking for payment to go to a different bank account. We should all be familiar with these tales by now. I’m sure that...
Hacking the hackers (aka what goes around, comes around)
Even hackers can be hacked! Isn't that serendipitous? There is a website, Cit0Day.in, which hosts 23,000 hacked databases. Access is available at a cost, daily or monthly subscription. Hackers mine this data for passwords and other information. They then use this...
40 years of the IBM PC
For our working generation, desktop computers have been a mainstay of our work life. Its a very different world to the generation before us. In fact this month marks 40 years since IBM signed two young men from a new business called 'Microsoft' to write the operating...
When imitation isn’t flattery!
According to CheckPoint, Microsoft is THE most imitated brand on the internet. We all know that criminals like to pretend to be Microsoft for their phishing attempts, and in the last quarter, misuse of the Microsoft brand for this jumped dramatically – 19% of all...
Webinar: is your IT Partner missing the point?
Most IT support partners miss the most important task of all. ie what does it really take to be a valued IT Partner All IT partners will talk to you about tickets, capacity planning and life cycle replacements, cloud migrations and cyber security. But that’s...
Plucking the low-hanging fruit!
We recently moved our phones to Microsoft Teams. It’s an increasingly common configuration and means we have a single programme for our real-time collaboration. Less is more! There’s nothing like a project that removes infrastructure and risk. We have less to...
What is Double Key Encryption and why should you care?
Double Key Encryption (DKE) is coming soon to Microsoft 365 (E5 plans required) Like the name suggests, this is even MORE secure than the levels of encryption previously seen. Microsoft are saying that you need it if: You want to ensure that only you can ever decrypt...
Our FIVE favourite new features in Teams – which ones did you know about?
Its hard to imagine working through the lockdown without fast fibre internet connections and tools like Microsoft Teams. There is nothing like an imperative to help us drive change and we have seen that with Teams evolving rapidly to meet market needs. Here are our...