September - 2019

washingtoncybercenter.com

Cybersecurity, SMBs and Ransomware

It seems that no business is too small to be a target of ransomware. Ponemon Institute, a research company that focuses on information management topics, conducted a survey of small and mid-size businesses regarding ransomware attacks. The survey, sponsored by Carbonite, a cloud back-up company, found that 51% of the responding SMBs were attacked. Of the survey respondents, 30% of them had 200 or fewer employees. And most cybersecurity experts expect ransomware attacks to con

The Holiday Seasons will be here shortly!

Be ready for seasonal cyber scams The holiday season is a prime opportunity for cybercriminals to target people and businesses. Employees are more apt to be shopping using employee equipment. Businesses are buying gifts for staff, clients, and business partners. Vigilance and a strong measure of skepticism can help reduce the chances of being a victim. Eight scams to be ready for include: 1. Social Media Scams with fake offers or discounts Everyone loves a deal. Unfortu

Cybersecurity, PayPal and Android Phones

Of the different phones available, android phones clearly are targeted more often, due to many reasons. These malware examples are regularly detected and reverse engineered. One of the recent examples focused on stealing the user’s PayPal funds. Latest Example This latest excursion into malware was discovered in November 2018 by ESET. The malware is presented as a battery enhancement application. This naturally would attract people to download the app, as most want longer bat

Cybersecurity and the Jungle

For better or worse, InfoSec researchers are seemingly always seeking new methods to attack systems. There’s always something new for targets, methods, and data on the target. This industry is not static by any means due to this and also the new publications and journals showing the techniques used. This may even be termed as being dynamic. This attribute can both be a positive, and negative. Tool There is a new ransomware variant in the wild. This began to be noted in Novemb

Cybersecurity and Educational Institutions

CYBERSECURITY: High School to Colleges and University Settings. Introduction Cybersecurity is currently a guaranteed benchmark for data and information transmission and communication in global digital community. Unfortunately, collaborative cybersecurity from high school to college is only a stand-alone accelerated road map to mitigate every minute and everyday cybersecurity threats. There is virtually zero unemployment among cybersecurity professions and within the next ten

Cybersecurity and Capital One

There is a saying that we are our own worst enemy. While we may have the best intentions, at times we may create our own issues which act to our own detriment. This has been notable with a single use case. The focal point has been with AWS and misconfigured servers. This has created so many issues for the data owners and managers. The latest victim is Capital One due to its misconfigured AWS. This certainly won’t be the last incident through the industry. Breach To note this

Cybersecurity and NASA

From a young age, we become acquainted with NASA through its missions to the Moon, Mars, Saturn, Pluto, and it’s other missions. The iconic astronauts in their suits have been etched into our minds. In short, space exploration is their mission. While this is their primary focus, and their engineers are very good at this, the organization still needs the other work groups to support this. One of these pertinent workgroups is Info- or Cyber-security. Without this in place with

Cybersecurity and Research

When academics and students are writing papers, research is required. At times this research can be massive, depending on the subject. The more technical the more references may be used. These act as support for the researcher’s thoughts, ideas, applications, and work in general. For these references to be useful, they have to be from peer reviewed journals. These peer reviewed works indicate the work is not a sole person’s opinion, but is accepted by the researcher’s peers.

Cybersecurity and Municipalities

Cities are being targeted at greater levels. Atlanta, Albany in New York, Baltimore, and Flint are merely a few of the recent examples. These successful attacks are not inexpensive, as the costs for the consultants, forensic cybersecurity subject matter experts, hardware, and other costs add up. While a portion or majority of the costs may be recouped by the insurance company, the direct labor to re-enter data or apply the prior back-ups affect also the operations for a varie

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