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!
Don’t be in the 67,500
It might be our nearest neighbour, rather than us, but its still a good indicator of the trends that we're also seeing in New Zealand. We have to remember that much cyber-crime is still not reported. Whether it's out of embarrassment or commercial sensitivity, we...
Urgent – “Zero Day” exploit 9 Sept 2021
Today's news is full of stories about increased cyber-threats in NZ - Cyber attacks against Kiwibank, ANZ, NZ Post, MetService - experts see lockdown link - NZ Herald We've seen several days of issues caused by these "DDOS" attacks. Overnight, another...
Real world Cyber-Security stories from the battlefront.
Every day we’re seeing more and more hacking attempts against clients. Cyber security attacks are getting more frequent, more threatening, and much more sophisticated. But for all that, and for all the associated risks, we’re astounded by the number of organisations...
Have you heard about “typosquatting”?
"Typosquatting" is the name given to criminals pretending to be someone they aren't - taking a domain name that uses a clever combination of legitimate-looking original sender email addresses, with spoofed display sender addresses that contain the target usernames and...
Preparing for a sudden Covid19 Delta Lockdown in New Zealand
Every week that we don't go into lockdown seems like a blessing. It can only be a matter of time before NZ is thrown back to a tight, restrictive lockdown. If, as we read yesterday, every Covid case coming in through the New Zealand border right now is infected with...
Cyber-war Seminar
Stories from the Cyber-war The simple reality is that cyber-crime is now a mega-business. The cost and effort to combat it grows all the time. "Is it worth it?" Good question. Every organisation needs to choose a level of security and resulting cost, effort and...
What you need to know about the massive global ransomware cyber-attack over the weekend
The Risk Is Real. Over the weekend, thousands of businesses were caught up in a global cyber-attack that is being blamed on a Russian hacker group called Revil. It is disappointing when geo-politics impacts everyday business, and the reports talk about President Biden...
(yet) another reason Why paying ransomware demands hurts. (The FBI agrees)
We don't negotiate with terrorists Recently, we asked the question if organisations should pay ransomware demands. There is a balance between desperation and the uneasy knowledge that you might be funding further criminal attacks on the community. We’ve just read a...
Pretending to be you or your colleagues
Just because it seems safe, doesn't mean it is. On some emails, you might see a warning that marks them as being ‘external’. This gets added as the email comes into your organisation. The idea is a simple one – if you see an email marked as external, then you will be...
Avoiding ad trackers when you browse the ‘net
Your own personalised stalker It always seemed slightly creepy that your computer shows advertising that is strangely accurately targeted at things you might have been interested in. On the surface, that seems quite useful. If you have to tolerate ads on your...