cyber attack
News from cyber attack
Cyber Attacks
The plight of SMBs facing cyberattacks has been a predictable story: smaller companies with limited budget, staffing, and expertise rarely fare well when faced with an attack. And, for the longest time, SMBs seemed reluctant to acknowledge that every SMB is a potential target. In 2019, SMBs offer cybercriminals enough potential return on investment to be just as viable a revenue-generating victim as mid-market and More »
Ontario Science Centre Data Breach
The names and email addresses of 174,000 members, donors, and customers of camps and birthday parties at the Ontario Science Centre were exposed in August, according to the company that does email blasts for the provincially owned tourist attraction. The breach was made public Monday evening when the Science Centre alerted its newsletter subscribers, although the Science Centre has been aware of the breach since More »
Pitney Bowes Hit by Ransomware
Pitney Bowes, A US mailing technology company has been hit by ransomware over the past few days, highlighting the continued threat to businesses of all types. Pitney Bowes, provides services to print labels, track parcels and manage expenses. It claimed a third-party attack “encrypted information on some systems and disrupted customer access to our services.” SendPro products, postage refill, and Your Account access have all More »
Hackers have crippled the computer systems of three Ontario hospitals
The malware, known as “Ryuk,” attacks computer networks but remains invisible to average users for weeks or months. During that time, it collects information about the organization and its perceived ability to pay a ransom. Ryuk then locks files, demanding the network owner pay a sum of money to make them accessible again. The impact of the malware attack has been wide-ranging for the three affected More »
Are Insurance Companies Promoting Ransomware?
Ransomware is proliferating across America, disabling computer systems of corporations, city governments, schools and police departments. Recently, attackers seeking millions of dollars encrypted the files of 22 Texas municipalities. Overlooked in the ransomware spree is the role of an industry that is both fueling and benefiting from it: insurance. The FBI and security researchers say paying ransoms contributes to the profitability and spread of cybercrime More »
Beware of Email Spoofing (Case Study)
Recently, a new small business client (under 5 employees) complained that “nasty” emails were being sent to their customers from one of their email addresses. Upon investigation we found a virus on a Workstation who’s mission was to gather all the e-mail addresses stored in their contacts and send it back to the virus creator. Then, using this list of contacts, the bad guys that More »
Hover Test for Emails
I received this email recently – and I thought I would create a post about how to hover on an email to see if it is legitimate. I have a Netflix account so when I first looked at this email, it does look legitimate – the logo looks right, no spelling mistakes. Let us do a hover test on this email to see if there More »
Tokyo Games Conducting Cyber Attack Drills
In the run-up to the Tokyo Olympics next year, the sponsors are speeding up preparations to counter cyberattacks. Hackers hampered the two previous Olympics, taking down a state government website at the Rio Games in 2016 and triggering system failures just before the opening ceremony for the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games in South Korea, making it impossible for spectators to print tickets. At a meeting More »
Don’t Help Hackers
Posting wonderful events about your job on Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites may be great for your friends and relatives, but if you don’t lock down your privacy settings these snippets are also great for hackers. Proof comes from a recent blog on the site Fast Company by Stephanie Carruthers who works for an IBM team hired to test the cyber security of companies. You More »
Bad Guys Exploit CapitalOne Breach
The bad guys are now exploiting news of the CapitalOne breach to push a malicious backdoor trojan via a phishing email purporting to offer a Windows Security Update. See the attached example email. Clicking the link in that email downloads a file named KB3085604.exe — obviously named to resemble Microsoft patch files and security updates. The phishing email itself spoofs the targeted those working in organizations that occasionally ask More »