Real Estate Professionals are Increasing Targeted by Hackers By Carolyn Schrader Real estate related cyber-crime is increased, according to cyber security experts. In many geographic markets, real estate inventory is slim, so purchasers want to move quickly so they don’t lose the deal. Buyer stress is frequently high. With prices high, large dollars are being moved among real estate transaction accounts. This is all leading to great opportunities for cyber criminals to try to

Phishing’s Latest Attack Message: Traffic Tickets By Charles Parker II Phishing campaigns, unfortunately, have grown in prominence. There have been many successful attacks over the years. In order to continue to be successful, as measured by the number of compromised systems and revenue generated, the attackers are looking for new topics for the phishing campaigns. The prior, tired themes no longer work with an acceptable successful success rate. These have historically con

Bug Bounty Programs: Vehicle Specialty Often Difficult to Fill The need for bug bounty programs began years ago as a void formed. The manufacturers were producing their goods and services, as to be expected. An issue experienced was the manufacturers had the “first to market” mentality in place. There was and continues to be in certain markets, a hurry to design, engineer, and manufacture the product. The product needs to be the first in the marketplace for the consumer to pu

Be Careful What You Share on Social Media People are focused on posting their daily lives on the various social media sites. This may include vacation photos and updates, birthday parties, sporting events, business trips, dinner parties, and virtually any other activity. The users do this without any reservation or concerns. The persons don’t appreciate the reach of the internet into their data. Unfortunately too many people don’t secure their social media accounts. Without

Who is Responsible when the Smart Cities Crash? By Charles Parker II Society is becoming ever-more connected on a daily basis. Consumers are able to check email from virtually anywhere, including the home, other’s homes, work, when getting coffee, when driving, etc. The portals (Wi Fi) are present in the person’s homes, office building, grocery stores, coffees shops, vehicles, and many other types of locations. This rather not exhaustive list does not even include the person’

Your TV is not even secure these days! By Charles Parker II There are a few devices that are as well-known and seen virtually everywhere. They are located throughout our bedrooms, living rooms, kitchens, and recreation rooms. In a commercial environment, these devices are in conference rooms and hallways on the business or news channels. In retail there may be a bank of them on a wall, all showing the same thing. As time has passed, technology has improved significantly. Th

Churches: Large and Small as Targets By Charles Parker II As with so many other non-profits, churches likewise have been listed as a target for attackers. This issue has been exasperated due to churches, along with other non-profits, having issues with cash flow and budgetary constraints. For the church’s management structure, purchases of tangible assets may be a much less daunting task. With cybersecurity having such a new focus in mainstream IT and industry, describing wha

Self-Signed Certificates: What Makes This an Issue By Charles Parker II We have all come across this message.....ALERT! THE SITE'S SECURITY CERTIFICATE IS NOT TRUSTED! For a website to be secure, there needs to be a certificate associated with the website. The user will see this as the locked padlock and https (emphasis on the “s”, referring to website being secure) in the URL area of the browser. This certificate indicates a third party has taken the time and effort to ver

Phishing Continues to be Expensive By Charles Parker II Attackers are often motivated by money. The focus has been the cash flow for their nefarious operation. One area that receives significant attention as an attack method is social engineering or phishing. With either active or passive attacks, the effects can be substantially expensive and costly in terms of expense and hours spent fixing this issue. A sub-attack along this same idea is spear phishing or a targeted phishi

Employee data sharing is still a cybersecurity weak link at small businesses By Carolyn Schrader The statistics from a recent survey tell us businesses still have a challenge with cybersecurity behavior of their employees. The survey revealed that: 54% of employees connected to public Wi-Fi to access confidential work 68% used personal email accounts for confidential work 22% lost a company-issued work device All these behaviors can cause cybersecurity breaches for a small