Buckeye IT blog

What has proven to be one of the more effective ways of preventing phishing attacks may be under fire from more advanced threats designed specifically to penetrate the defenses of two-factor authentication. This means that users need to be more cognizant of avoiding these attacks, but how can you help them make educated decisions about this? Let’s start by discussing the phishing attacks that can beat 2FA.

Earlier this week, you may have seen the first part of this article, where we discussed how robocallers collect your information. Today, we continue our discussion on data privacy and what you can do to keep your organization and personal data safe.

Protecting your business’ data is no simple task. To make it as secure as possible, you’ll have to understand how personal data flows through online channels. We’re digging pretty deep with this one, so get ready for an informative and, if nothing else, interesting read. This topic is especially important in an age where Facebook and Google exist, but there are countless other threats to data privacy out there that we all experience on a regular basis--business or not.

If you have an internal IT administrator, they might be pretty stressed about your business’ security. Why? Simple - there’s a good chance that they feel trapped in a few common situations. Let’s review some stresses that influence IT employees, negatively affecting your security.

The Internet of Things is currently one of the most promising, yet risk-laden, information technology trends that we have today. The combination of the push for more connected devices with the lack of the security they need to remain protected, presents a considerable issue for a business’ network security. Here, we’ll examine some of the IoT’s latest trends, and how they could impact your business.

It wasn’t so long ago when your business could get away with protecting your computer with a simple installation of antivirus software. There were only around 50,000 known computer viruses in the year 2000, but that number has since skyrocketed to an astounding 185 million unique variants of threats.

Let’s face it; the office isn’t the most engaging place at all times. Repetitive tasks can make attention to detail difficult to maintain. While this might throw a wrench into operational plans, it’s not the end of the world. A major threat like ransomware, on the other hand, could be a business-ender. When a lack of engagement meets security issues, you create a whole other monster that could strike your business when you least expect it.

Data security isn’t the easiest thing in the world to plan for, especially if your organization doesn’t have any dedicated security professionals on-hand. While protecting your data with traditional methods, like passwords, firewalls, and antivirus, is important, what measures are you taking to make sure a thief or hacker isn’t just walking into your office and making off with your technology?

Your Google account is one of your most important assets, regardless of whether you’re a business professional or a casual user. The tricky part of using Google, however, is to make sure that you’re using this asset safely. By securing your account and valuing your Google account credentials, you can make sure your account stays safe.

Antivirus is a crucial component to any network security platform, but do you know how it works? Below, we’ll go over how your security is improved by an antivirus solution.

While you may not consider it at first, your mobile device has a sizeable amount of personally identifiable data on it - far more than should be left on an unsecured phone at any time. Fortunately, Google has added a considerable layer of protections to Android to assist users with their security. All a user has to do is know how to use them to their fullest potential.

If you’re not tech-oriented, the mere sight of a server room might be a lot to take in. With wires everywhere and mechanical boxes filled with moving parts, you’re looking at the life’s blood of your business and the heart that pumps it through your business’ veins. While proxy servers are a little different from your standard server, this doesn’t change the fact that you probably shouldn’t mess with it. What is a proxy server, and what does it do?

Due to the popularity of email in the business world, it’s an extremely popular method of attack for hackers. They can easily send countless messages to targets all over the world with the click of a mouse. Therefore, you have to take email security very seriously. The repercussions of not doing so could be swift and severe. This week’s tip is dedicated to informing your employees of email best practices for the office environment.

Every business (and every individual, for that matter) needs to be wary of Internet scams and other online tricks. This is because those scammers are wily and have many means of finding a user in a compromising position… or so they claim in a recent scam.

Are your employees putting your organization’s security at risk due to poor email practices? This is a question that all business owners need to consider--especially if you deal in sensitive information. We recommend that all businesses utilize a two-pronged approach to email security, including both technology measures to secure communications on the technical side and training to secure on the human side.

Regardless of the policies your company sets, your employees are going to have their mobile devices on them; and, depending on their circumstances, they may be tempted to use them to further their work processes. While this may have been cause for concern at one point, there are now methods, collectively known as Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), that allow you to leverage these tendencies.

If you’re like its over 2.19 billion other active users, Facebook has quite a bit of your personal information stored in it, and the risks that this implies only grow if your business is also represented on the social network. If your account isn’t protected as much as it could be, you could find yourself at risk of identity theft or other crimes. This is why we recommend activating two-factor authentication on Facebook.

At the time of this writing, it has only been about a half a year since the Meltdown and Spectre exploits became public knowledge. Fortunately, patches were swiftly rolled out to mitigate the problems that these exploits could cause, but that doesn’t mean that these exploits are dead and buried. Let’s look back at Meltdown and Spectre to help us establish where we stand today.

Blockchain has been an especially hot topic as of late, especially with the recent meteoric rise in the value of most cryptocurrencies. With all the focus directed to Bitcoin, it is easy to forget that the blockchain has other uses - uses that are geared toward increased cybersecurity, transparency, and privacy.

Secrets need to be protected. That’s why humans created cryptography. Cryptography can be traced back to around the time the pharaohs ruled Egypt, but today’s cryptography is a lot different than simple hieroglyph replacement. Cryptography used in the computing systems today is called encryption. For this week’s tech term we will look back at the history of encryption and how it is used today to facilitate data security and personal privacy.