Tabush Group's Cloud & Managed IT Blog

Phishing emails (emails which appear to be from a legitimate sender, asking for personal or financial information) have been around for many years. However, in the last few months we’ve seen a big rise in spear phishing (scam email specifically targeting a company or person) and ransomware (viruses which encrypt files on your computer and network, and demand a ransom payment to have the files unlocked). These threats are very real for anyone using email.

The Internet is a dangerous place. Unfortunately, due to the lack of central control and ownership, and the fact that the Internet is accessible from anywhere in the world, including many countries without proper law enforcement, there are many fraudulent traps out there looking to steal people’s personal information and money.

While having proper antivirus and anti-malware software is important, it’s also important to always follow safe browsing practices to ensure your data stays private.

Cyberattack = an attempt by hackers to
damage or destroy a computer network or system

Due to several highly publicized data breaches at well-known large brands, cybersecurity has been a hot topic in both tech and main stream media recently. Just because the topic of data protection is currently at the forefront of news reports, it’s important to be aware that it’s in fact always a relevant and important topic. Additionally, it’s just as important for small and midsize businesses (SMBs) as it is for large corporations. A lack of security in your IT infrastructure can lead to an interruption in the ability of your team and business to function.The New York Times recently profiled several small businesses whose operations were put in jeopardy because of cyberattacks.

Your company’s IT system and its performance is at the forefront of your business and the security of your information is of the utmost importance. Whether it is perceived to be relevant to your firm or not, it is important to realize that any organization’s protection is salient.

There are many perceptions, programs and headlines that buzz within the technology industry. Lately, many of those have revolved around one thing: The security of your information and the privacy that it should have.

Technology has been progressing at an amazing rate, especially over the past 20 years. Think back to 1994 and you probably couldn't imagine the Smartphone, DVR, Netflix, Wifi, GPS, or Facebook. Despite these amazing innovations, we seem to be going backwards when it comes to digital security. Viruses, malware, spam, and hacking are much bigger problems than ever before, and it seems to be getting worse. How could this be???

A few months ago I wrote about the Target credit card breach, asking how it could happen. In the past few years it’s also happened to Marshalls/TJ Maxx, the California DMV, Michael’s, PF Chang’s, Neiman Marcus, Sally Beauty, and I'm sure many others that didn’t make the headlines. Then there are the thousands of personal PC's containing years of family photos and videos which may have been maliciously destroyed.

The big IT news lately has been about the Heartbleed SSL vulnerability, however, malware and viruses still are the most prominent threat to small to medium sized businesses.

CryptoLocker, which surfaced in late 2013, is still out there, and its destructiveness hasn’t dwindled. CryptoLocker is malware which encrypts all files it finds on a computer or network, rendering them inaccessible.

Last month we were called in by a business which had been ‘hit’ with this CryptoLocker virus and want to share with you how we battled it.

Unless you've been living in a bubble without access to the news or Internet for the past 3 months, you've heard about the massive security breach that Target suffered. Hackers were able to get into Target's computer system and download over 110 million credit and debit card numbers. While we don't know who these 110 million lucky winners are, you can rest assured that if you weren't in that group, someone very close to you was.

Last week, more details on how the attack occurred were released. Apparently, Fazio Mechanical, a HVAC contractor who does work for Target, had someone hack into one of their PC's through a targeted phishing attempt. Fazio's systems were set up with certain access to Target's system to communicate work orders, invoices, etc. The hackers used that connection to access Target's database containing credit card numbers, and somehow downloaded it all from there. This is shameful at best.

An employee of the Regional Medical Center in Memphis, Tennessee, sent out three unsecure emails that contained the private health information and Social Security numbers of approximately 1,200 patients. The medical center is notifying patients of the HIPAA breach.