If you don’t where it is, you can’t protect it.
Do you know where ALL your organisation’s data is – not physically, but on which web and cloud services?
Here’s the problem. If you don’t where it is, then you can’t protect it. The secondary problem is finding out, because not everyone in your organisation will be onboard. It is common for people to sign up to web services because they offer something useful that helps them do their job.
They sign up using their email address and creating a password. There is the first headache – how does anyone track what has been signed up to across your organisation, let alone who has access to it? If that person leaves, no one will change the account credentials if they don’t know about it, but your ex-colleague still has access.
Secondly, what data do they upload? Is that data that you have a legal or moral responsibility for?
There’s nothing noble about Nobelium.
This isn’t theory – it’s real. USAID is a pretty important US organisation – promoting democracy and human rights around the world. Turns out, someone there was using a well-known email database tool called Constant Contact. But their account wasn’t well protected. Worse still, their account had a huge mailing set up, and of course, it had all the official USAID templates.
So, these Nobelium people, allegedly a Russian state-sponsored hacker group, compromised the Constant Contact account and sent a bulletin out. The bulletin contained malware that allowed the hackers to take command and control over victims computers. Ironically the fake email alleged interference in the US federal elections.
So, what can you do?
The first step is knowing what SaaS tools your people are using. We call this SHADOW IT and it is inevitable. Rather than stopping it, the job IT has is to identify it and manage it. The second step is to secure those platforms. That’s why our KARE for Security S2 plan contains a useful tool to help you identify what services your people are using.
Refer : What We Know About The Apparent Russian Hack Exploiting USAID : NPR
Obligations to the firm’s Partners and Management
Are you meeting your obligations to your firm's stakeholders? Until relatively recently a law firm's management committee typically only got involved with IT when the management wanted to proceed with a major capital investment - a system refresh, new practice...
2021 Trend Reports confirms cyber-security advice
How many people DON’T report ransomware attacks? It’s too early to see the Q42021 results from CertNZ but their Q3 report tells there were 2,072 incidents that they responded to in Q3 and fraud/scam’s were up 25%. Their report confirms that the very risks we have been...
Hackers Caught! Millions Seized
Crime doesn’t always pay. The FSB reports (if you can read Russian) that they have taken down the “Revil” band of hackers. These are the people that have caused absolute havoc, from disrupting the US oil pipelines, to the Kaseya attack that took out businesses all...
Kinetics COVID Policy
Our Covid-19 approach. A number of clients and partners are asking us about our Covid-19 policy, so we thought we'd share it! Like many workplaces, we've extensively consulted our team and worked through their range of views. Our workplace requires all visitors...
5 quick tips to help you save time every day in 2022
Who knows what 2022 will bring. We’re as happy as the next person to make predictions but we’d just predict we’d be wrong! About the only certain guess is that we’ll be under more pressure and with that, it makes sense to share a few everyday IT tips. 5...
Do you need to worry about the “Log4J” Cyber Security Zero-Day breach?
Mainstream media is abuzz with the latest software vulnerability. It is in a commonly used component called Log4J 2. This component is in widespread use and the risk is real. This is a fast paced and quickly changing alert. At the time of writing, the immediate...
What’s worse than having to pay Ransomware?
The answer : Having to pay it twice - (or even more). Your Cyber-Security is under more pressure than ever. According to Infosecurity magazine, "double" extortion ransomware victims are up a massive 935% - thats a ten-fold increase year-on-year. This is driven by the...
“Phishmas” – its not that punny
Whatever it takes to draw your attention to Cyber Security is worth it. Just because we take time off at Christmas doesn't mean the hackers do. They have taken a lot of heart from the way we have all embraced home-delivery for our shopping and are doubling down with...
Is your Fingerprint effective security?
Straight out of the movies We are all used to the idea of using our fingerprints to log into our cell phones and, for some of us, our laptops. We’ve been told fingerprints are secure, and effective for ‘biometric authentication’ In the movies, we see finger prints...
Have you been vished?
What is vishing? Vishing is scamming via phone calls, effectively "phishing" by voice, hence the name, Voice phishing - Wikipedia Unfortunately, like many other cyber-attacks, incidents are on the rise. Because the damage is done over a phone call, they are even...