ZR Systems Blog

If you panic in the event of a hacking attack, imagine how the National Security Agency (NSA) feels knowing that some of its exploits are for sale on the black market. While there isn’t any proof that the NSA has been breached, there’s evidence to suspect that their exploits are available for purchase on the black market. This means that a willing hacker could get their hands on government-grade hacking tools--a dangerous concept.

Ransomware is a particularly nasty strain of malware that continues to pop up in unexpected forms. In the case of a new variant of called Cerber, it targets users of Microsoft Outlook using a zero-day vulnerability via phishing messages. To make matters worse, Cerber can also utilize DDoS attacks, which is a major cause for concern.

Businesses need to take security into account and make it a priority. In fact, security is so important that Verizon has compiled a report of the various types of attacks and data breaches that occurred in the past year. This is Verizon’s Data Breach Investigations Report, or DBIR, and it offers insights into how you can protect your business and secure your assets.

Microsoft recently issued security patches to fix 27 vulnerabilities, many of which are critical in nature. The vulnerabilities are significant and popular titles are affected like Windows, Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer, and the new Edge browser. Microsoft users that ignore these security patches are putting their system at unnecessary risk.

There’s a new augmented reality game on the market these days. Perhaps you’ve heard of it - a title called Pokemon Go, which lets you capture virtual monsters that “appear” on your smartphone’s camera. However, hackers have seized this opportunity to infect players’ mobile devices with a backdoor called DroidJack, which uses the mobile app’s immense popularity to its advantage.

One of the main ways to keep an account’s credentials secure is by changing them consistently. However, we ran across an article recently that plays “devil’s advocate” on the password security issue, and they made some fair points about how changing passwords too frequently can lead to decreased security as a whole.

A vulnerability has been discovered that affects all versions of Microsoft’s Windows operating system, including the long-unsupported Windows XP, going all the way back to Windows 95. The vulnerability, called BadTunnel, allows attackers to directly bypass system defenses and initiate a man-in-the-middle attack. The vulnerability isn’t limited to just Windows, either; it also affects Internet Explorer, Edge, and other Microsoft software.

In a recent hack attack, Twitter had 33 million user login credentials stolen. This is unfortunate, but not surprising; an incident like this routinely makes the headlines. Although, what is surprising is what this hack reveals about people’s poor password security habits.

When it comes to cybersecurity, maintenance is key. Whether you choose human-based security or an automated security solution, running into shortcomings is still possible. Human security tends to rely on the word of experts, and anything that doesn’t fit into the guidelines is missed and may therefore get through and wreak havoc. Network security can be a touch overzealous, in a way “crying wolf,” with an excess of false positives that ultimately require human analysis, leading to human frustration.

If you’re like every other small business out there, you know that the more employees you hire, the more technology that you have to procure. However, when you have more end-users, you provide more avenues for threats to slip into your network infrastructure unnoticed. When all it takes is one simple mistake from a single end-user, how can you minimize the chances of falling victim to an untimely hacking attack?

We’ve put together ten honest mistakes that any end-user can make, and how they can be prevented.

• Clicking on malicious links: With so much information on the Internet, it’s easy for an employee to search through countless pages without any regard to the sites and links that they’re clicking on. You need to emphasize the importance of safe browsing, including double-checking the destination of a link before clicking on it. You can do so by hovering over the link and looking in the bottom-left corner of your browser.
• Using weak passwords: Employees frequently use passwords that aren’t strong enough to keep hackers out. Often times, they’ll simply use something of personal significance, like the name of their pet or a specific date. This isn’t the right way to approach password security. Instead, users should attempt to put together passwords that are private, randomized strings of numbers, letters, and symbols.
• Ignoring mobile security: Even if your company has the latest and greatest security solutions installed on its desktops, you should also be thinking of your mobile devices, like smartphones and tablets. It’s arguably more important that your mobile devices have solid security solutions implemented on them, as they are often on the road, connecting to potentially dangerous hotspots. You need to make sure that security is a top priority in your Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy.
• Accessing sensitive data through unsecured connections: If your employees are using the local café’s free wireless Internet to get some work done on their lunch break, it could be a dangerous gambit. Public Wi-Fi hotspots are notorious for being cesspools of online threats. Implementing a virtual private network (VPN) can be a handy investment that can encrypt data while it’s in transit, mitigating this risk somewhat.
• Losing unencrypted devices: It’s not unheard of for an employee to use company devices in public places. If they accidentally leave their smartphone on the bus, or their tablet on a park bench, there’s always the risk that it can be stolen. Unless you practice proper encryption protocol, any information available on the device can be accessed by the person who finds it, be it a good samaritan or a tech-savvy thief.
• Implementing unapproved solutions: Some employees simply prefer to use solutions that aren’t provided by the company to get their work done. The problem here is that the employee is moving forward without consulting IT about it, and that your data is being used in a solution that you can’t control. Plus, if the employee is using free or open-source software, these often come bundled with unwanted malware that can put your data in even greater peril.
• Targeted business email scams: Phishing and spear-phishing attacks are growing more common. One example of this is an HR employee checking their inbox to find what looks like a job application or employment inquiry. All of the right information is there and nothing appears out of the ordinary; that is, until a malicious link contained within it starts to download malware or other nasty threats to your infrastructure. Other types of phishing attacks will ask end-users to confirm personally identifiable information or sensitive account credentials. Educating your team on how best to identify phony email messages is imperative to keeping your network secure.
• Personal email use: It’s one thing to check your personal email account while at work, but another entirely to use your personal email account to perform work purposes. As the recent debacle with Hillary Clinton shows, people don’t take kindly to sensitive information being leaked via an unsecured email server that their organization has no control over. Add in the fact that personal email accounts are often not as secure as those in a professional productivity suite, and you have a recipe for disaster. You need to reinforce that your team should keep their work and personal email separate.
• Leaving workstations unattended: Besides the fact that some tech-savvy employees are practical jokers, it’s a security risk to leave a workstation unlocked and unattended for long periods of time. Imagine if someone from outside of your organization walked into your office and accessed confidential files without authorization; that’s on the employee who got up and left the device unattended. Encourage your employees to always log off of their workstations, or at least lock them, before stepping away from their computer.
• Using external storage devices: Your organization should only be using IT-provided USB devices and external storage. Otherwise, anyone with a random flash drive can connect it to your network, unleashing a horde of who-knows-what into your infrastructure.

User error is a primary cause for concern among businesses, but it can be mostly avoided by providing your staff with the training required to do their jobs properly. For more information about IT best practices, give us a call at (808) 369-1000.

Modern ransomware is exceptionally dangerous, even by malware standards. Ransomware is capable of locking down important files on a victim’s computer, displaying a massive threat to both business professionals and their networks, as well as the average PC user. While other types of ransomware like CryptoLocker and CryptoWall are somewhat manageable, a new variant called CryptoJoker makes it borderline impossible to recover your files.

2015 saw a significant increase in high-profile hacking attacks in organizations of all disciplines: healthcare, government, and even large entertainment companies all fell victim to data breaches. In light of these attacks, valuable lessons can be learned through analyzing the types of records that were stolen. In 2015, over half of all records exposed to hackers were passwords and email addresses.

It’s clear that your IT department should have administrator privileges with your business’s technology, but the average employee is another story altogether. Administrator privileges provide users with the ability to do many things, such as install programs and access admin settings. Administrator privileges are exactly what you want to keep users away from, and it turns out that the majority of flaws in the Windows operating system depend on these privileges.

The fact that so many businesses are rushing to take advantage of two-factor authentication displays how the password has lost its edge as a security credential. Passwords simply aren’t good enough anymore, and hackers are always finding ways to crack even the most complex passwords. This is why many businesses are looking to improve security through alternative means.

Bad news for users still running outdated versions of Internet Explorer - Microsoft has ended support for its legacy web browser. What this means is that Internet Explorer 8, 9, and 10, will no longer be issued critical patches and security updates, making its continued use a security risk.

The average small and medium-sized business has trouble with the implementation of comprehensive IT solutions, mainly due to these organizations having fewer resources to allocate towards these solutions. This often leads to end-users implementing their own solutions, which can be dangerous under the wrong circumstances. By allowing this “shadow IT” to run rampant in your office, you’re putting business continuity, data storage compliance, and security on the line.

Direct denial of service attacks are a major problem for businesses. On one hand, they’re difficult to prevent entirely, incredibly annoying, and costly. Hackers are realizing just how annoying DDoS attacks can be, and are capitalizing on them in order to both make a quick buck, and to take jabs at organizations that aren’t necessarily doing anything wrong.

We all know that hackers are never good news. All they want to do is ruin someone’s day by planting a threat in an innocent person’s PC or steal some data from a business. However, some hackers could potentially have much more dangerous (and deadly) agendas, like sabotaging hospital equipment.

Cloud computing started out as a trend, but it’s become a staple in the modern business environment. A recent poll of IT and business executives by Harvard Business Review and Verizon shows that 84 percent of respondents have increased their use of cloud services in the past year, 39 percent of which “increased significantly.” The issue that comes from such an increase is the idea of employees accessing information that they aren’t supposed to.

Password security is quite the conundrum. We want our passwords to be easy to remember, but the problem is that passwords that are easy to remember are often simple and insecure. Therefore, it becomes a best practice to use complicated passwords with both upper and lower-case letters, numbers, and symbols to compensate. The “passpoem” might resolve this issue in the most obvious way.