Cyber Threat Update From IT Princess Of Power And Sophos Engineer Ryan Archer

Read This: It Will Scare Your Pants Off

Let me begin with some stats: 30K new websites infected each day, 80% of known infections are at small businesses, and there are about 8 new internet users every second.

I had the opportunity to meet with and discuss the threat landscape with Ryan Archer, Engineer at Security Firm Sophos at an industry event last month. And guess what? It’s worse that even I thought. The threats are becoming better engineered to get into your network, steal your data, hold it for ransom, or just wreak havoc on your business.

Antivirus is so, so, so not enough anymore. As Sophos Engineer Ryan Archer explains, “Today it is vital to have layers of defense on the network from the firewall, web filtering, spam filtering, antivirus, and even staff education. Depending on the business they should also consider application control or data loss prevention solutions.”

People ask me all the time how they get infected. Many times you are browsing a totally legitimate site and find yourself infected. When that happens, we call those “drive-by’s.” You literally just land on the site and malicious code executes and infects your machine.

But there are MANY ways you can get compromised. You know, the crooks are getting really sophisticated and working hard to get into your networks. Here are a few examples of how they lure you in and infect your computers:

~ There are FREE tools out there for hackers to create a honey-pot hacked website. They will simply clone an existing website that has a lot of traffic, they spin up a webserver and publish the site. When you land there it executes the malicious Java payload and infect your computer as well as have your username and password for that site.

~ Hackers sent fake job postings to targeted individuals on LinkedIn through InMail and when the job seekers clicked on the link, the website infected their computers.

~ Spearphishing email attacks to accountants, banks, CFO’s, and controllers are on the rise. Hackers infiltrate the email of a company executive and send emails to the accounting department of the company, or even to the unsuspecting customer’s bank and request money to be wired to the hacker’s account, usually between $15k - $50k. This is successful in many cases!

~ Hackers are getting you to click on infected attachments that will immediately let loose viruses, Trojans, and even ramsonware on your computer. DO NOT click on ANY attachments if they are from people or companies you do not know. Infected attachments come in the form of a .ZIP file, Word .doc, or Excel .xls.

Archer continues, “The fact of the matter is that attacks are getting more and more sophisticated and are outpacing the defenses.” Now, more than ever, it is vital to have an IT partner who understands security and is insistent that you have the right security tools and staff education for your business.

Unethical corporations are even getting in on the cybercrime action. Last year, Russian CEO Pavel Vrublevsky, owner of ChronoPay credit card processing firm, was sentenced for 2.5 years in Russian penal colony for hiring hackers to spam his competitors, taking their business down for several days.

And now with the Internet of Things (IoT) the attack surface is increasing at an exponential rate. From light bulbs to cameras, all devices are becoming connected. Every connected device has an IP address. If it has an IP address it can get hacked or leveraged to get into your network at home or work.

So, what to do?

First, be paranoid. It’s healthy when it comes to cyber threats.

Second, make sure you have the following in place in your business: business-grade antivirus, a web filter, a spam filter, a managed business-class firewall, and regular education for your staff on technology hygiene and security.

Third, if you don’t have any of the above, call me right now to fix that. (its 724.235.8750)

To Your Continued Success,