Introduction

When you hear about the Red Cross, what first comes to mind? Is it donating blood and plasma? Is it disaster relief and recovery? Do you have some kind of personal story that goes along with the organization?

So in many ways, it makes sense that a threat actor who relies on social engineering techniques would try to capitalize on the Red Cross’s good reputation to trick victims into sharing personal information.

Introduction

Private health information, better known as PHI, refers to all of that confidential patient data stored within health organizations’ physical and digital systems. Although PHI laws initially referred to verbal communication and physical
documents, the onset of the digital age guaranteed swift legislation aimed at covering that digital gap—for instance, the widely recognized Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) law of 1996.

If you work for a healthcare organization, or even occasionally contract with one (as a lawyer or tech support might), then you know just how important and confidential the data on your systems really is!

PHI on the Dark Web

PHI is one of the most valuable types of data on the dark web.

Introduction

If you’ve been following this blog for awhile, then you’ve probably heard about the dangers of ransomware a lot. Hopefully, you’ve even picked up a few tips about how to recognize, handle and report ransomware schemes.

Just how bad can these attacks really get, though?

That’s exactly what we’re going to explore here.

Introduction

The internet is a vast and ever-changing landscape, and with that comes both good and bad. One of the downsides of the internet is the prevalence of scams. Scammers are constantly coming up with new ways to trick people into giving them
their money or personal information.

Have you started business planning for 2024? The last few months of the year can get hectic, between trying to close out the end of the quarter strong and mapping out your plan to ramp things up in the new year. One area that small business owners often skip over when creating their new year strategy is cyber security planning.

The holiday season is in full swing, which means so are the cybercriminals! While you’re making holiday gift lists, they’re plotting and scheming new ways to take advantage of unsuspecting online shoppers. Holiday phishing scams have become an all-too-common threat, targeting customers to steal personal information, financial data and even identities.

One of the most common questions we get from new prospective clients calling our office is “What do you guys charge for your IT services?”

While price certainly needs to be one consideration, it’s extremely important you make an informed decision and choose the right IT services company instead of using price as the main deciding factor.

“That won’t happen to me” is something many business owners say when discussing cyberscams and the need for adequate protections for their business, but these days it’s getting to be a really, really stupid statement that you definitely don’t want your clients, employees and banker to hear.

What if you discovered that all of the hard work, investments and time you’ve put into growing your business is at risk due to a failure of your outsourced IT company, or possibly even your well-meaning (but overburdened) IT department? If you were exposed to that level of risk, wouldn’t you want someone to tell you about it?

This article is that wake-up call.

There is one extremely common threat to our security that nearly everyone has witnessed but hardly anyone talks about – bad bots. These silent attackers are often thought of as annoying spam accounts posting computer-generated comments online. They are so common that most of us tend to scroll by them without noticing, but in reality, bad bots are much more dangerous, particularly for business owners.