Cybersecurity is intensely important, so a business owner would think implementing every security feature and defense would be a good idea. However, as research has shown, this can be counterproductive, as only 67% of surveyed security leaders know what led to cybersecurity incidents in their businesses over the past year.
PC PLACE Blog
“I don’t need to worry about cyberattacks… my business is too small to be of any interest.”
This brief rationalization is one of the most dangerous fallacies a modern business can make concerning cybersecurity, and shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how modern cyberthreats operate. If this has been your mindset, we urge you to read on so we can help set you on a more realistic path.
Sextortion scams are scary. The scammer contacts the victim, claiming to have gotten access to their computer and captured video footage of their target partaking in some private and decidedly adult activities, as well as the content that was onscreen at the time. The threat: pay up, or I send the footage to all of your contacts.
Lately, however, hackers have added another layer of “proof” to these claims, now referring to victims by name and including pictures of their homes. Let’s walk through what one of these scams looks like and what you should do if one appears in your inbox.
Data breaches can cripple companies and can come from a lot of different directions. They can be the result of phishing attacks where your staff unwittingly gives hackers access to your business’ resources. It can come from a brute force attack where hackers use innovative tools to break into your network. It can even be the work of disgruntled employees who use their access to steal company data. This month, we want to outline the top three things you can do to keep your business from being hacked.
When you think of a scammer, you probably think of someone looking to take advantage of someone for their own gain. While this isn’t wholly inaccurate, another variety exists to acknowledge… those who aim to scam the scammers. Let’s consider one such white-hat scammer, or “scam baiter,” a content creator who uses the alias “Kitboga,” Kit for short.
The world’s largest ticket retailer is in hot water after their parent company, Live Nation Entertainment filed an 8-K filing with the Security and Exchange commission admitting that they had been hacked to the tune of 1.3 terabytes of information. That amounts to 560 million customers’ personal information that has been stolen from the company’s servers. Today, we take a look at the hack and what it means for consumers.
Have you ever heard of the “man-in-the-middle” attack or MitM? It’s a situation where your data is stolen by an onlooker who situates themselves in the right place at the right time. Data interception is a very real thing that your business should be prepared to fight against. Let’s discuss some strategies you can use to counter these sneaky attacks.
Unsurprisingly, some of the biggest retail days of the year are some of the biggest days for scams, the entire holiday season seeing an increase in threats toward retailers and, as a result, the consumers that are just looking for that perfect gift for their loved ones. Let’s review some statistics and trends to see what insights we can glean.
Social media scams encompass fraudulent activities and deceptive schemes that occur across various social media platforms. These scams target users on platforms like Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, and numerous others, irrespective of their age or background. They exploit individuals' trust, curiosity, or lack of awareness. Social media scams manifest in various forms, and the following are some common examples.
Would you believe it if we told you that the members of Generation X, Millennials, and Generation Z are more likely to fall for online shopping scams than those aged 60 or over? Well, according to the Federal Trade Commission, the numbers aren’t even close. If you’re under age 60, you’re 86 percent more likely to fall prey to scammers.
In December of 2021, Twitter suffered from a vulnerability related to one of its APIs. In July of the following year, 5.4 million users had their data leaked, as a result of this vulnerability, and put on sale through the black market. Another hacker has recently put this data up for sale, proving that these API attacks are quite problematic not just for big social networks like Twitter, but all businesses.
We are beginning to see the terms “artificial intelligence” and “machine learning” popping up in a lot of places recently. They typically are used to describe software that has learning capabilities. With this advancement, many organizations are able to automate more of their business and reduce costs over time. Unfortunately, any good thing also comes with some drawbacks. In today’s blog we will introduce you to a phenomenon called data poisoning and what drawbacks it can have for your business.
If you think there is no way that a hacker could set sights on your business or impact your operations with a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, then you’ve got another thing coming. Even the Vatican’s official website has fallen prey to such an attack, proving that even large organizations can suffer from these types of attacks.