On December 13, 2020, Reuters and other news organizations reported that the U.S. Treasury Department had been hacked. Related news reports revealed that as many as 18,000 other government organizations and large private companies such as Microsoft, Cisco, Intel and FireEye were similarly breached.
There are a variety of reasons that companies continue to run outdated software and equipment, not the least of which is that upgrading IT equipment and the software that runs on it takes time, interrupts the work being done, requires that staff learn how to run the new systems, and costs money that the businesses choose not to spend.
Data security company Sophos published a report called "The State Of Ransomware 2020" with the results of a 5,000-company survey of IT managers. If you only get through the Executive Summary, the information is stunning. It begins with the statistic that 51% of all companies have suffered a Ransomware attack.
We’ve written many times about the dangers of Phishing and the need for every business to protect itself from Phishing attacks. But if you’ve never been a Phishing victim, it may seem like Phishing is some remote danger that is not worthy of your immediate attention and worry.
"The Cloud" is as mysterious to most people as brain surgery or rocket science...we know it exists, we know some people understand it, and we know that we aren’t those people. But just as we make assumptions about everything else we don’t fully understand, we make assumptions about cloud computing.
We’re all concerned about protecting our business with strong Cybersecurity. If you already have your cybersecurity handled, what kind do you have? Is yours more of the “Set It And Forget It” variety or is your cybersecurity more fluid and active? If you haven’t talked with your cybersecurity team in over a month, or if you’ve installed some antivirus software on your computers last year, and in either case believe that you’re protected, then you’ve got "Set It And Forget It cybersecurity.
How Much Should Good Cybersecurity Cost? Business owners and CEOs are very familiar with the financial ratios they use to run and monitor their businesses. Good Inventory turnover often varies between 2 and 10 depending on the type of business. A 2-to-1 “Current Ratio” of assets over liabilities can indicate a healthy business.
Imagine this email subject line: “Click Here To Claim Your Two Night Stay at Marriott Hotels.” Would you read an email because of a subject line like this? It’s pretty attractive, and a similar message was sent to millions of people via email with a similar offer.
Uber was hacked in 2016, revealing the personal information of 600,000 Uber drivers and 57 million Uber passengers. If you joined Uber in or prior to 2016, there’s a good chance your data was exposed in the Uber Data Breach. Why are you learning about this now? Because on August 20, 2020, the Federal Trade Commission filed a criminal complaint against Joseph Sullivan, Uber’s former Chief Security Officer, because he not only didn’t report the crime, he actively worked to “conceal, deflect, and mislead the Federal Trade Commission about the breach,” according to the FTC.
About the Uber Data Breach
This wasn’t even the first time that Uber had been hacked: Uber had been breached in 2014, and Sullivan was selected by Uber to respond to the FTC’s inquiries into that data breach.
Sometimes cyber-attacks enter your company network when an employee stumbles upon a virus-filled web page. Other times the cyber-attack begins when an employee falls victim to a phishing attack, or is tricked into downloading a virus-filled file. Other times it’s a brute force attack on your network.
