The ransomware state of the union

ransomware

From January through March of this year, Sophos, a cybersecurity-as-a-service provider that specializes in managed detection and response, commissioned an extensive survey of IT and technology leaders to find out what’s really going on inside organizations with regards to cybersecurity (and specifically ransomware). The report for 2023 revealed some shocking findings we thought worth breaking down for our audience and … Read More

Dallas ransomware attack: A wake-up call for cybersecurity

Dallas Ransomware

Dallas, our home and one of the busiest cities in America, is still grappling with a ransomware attack that occurred earlier this month. The Dallas ransomware attack forced our municipal court system to shut down — no court hearings, trials or jury duty, no ability to accept payments for tickets, etc. etc. This is obviously not the first time a … Read More

5 biggest cybersecurity threats facing small businesses today

cybersecurity threats

There’s a reason large enterprises not only have IT departments, but increasingly now have entire cybersecurity teams as well. But as small businesses increasingly rely on digital systems themselves, they become more vulnerable to cyber threats. Small businesses also tend to be easier targets for hackers because they often lack the resources or expertise to secure their systems independently. While … Read More

The state of cybersecurity in 2023

State of Cybersecurity

Jen Easterly is the director for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). Recently, she gave a speech at CES that functioned sort of like a State of the Union, but for cybersecurity. Her comments reflect that the state of cybersecurity, most unfortunately, is “unsafe.” “We live in a world…of massive connections where that critical infrastructure that we rely upon … Read More

Child nearly dies because of ransomware attack on hospital chain

Hospital Ransomware

Ransomware attacks can often feel distant, or impersonal. A shipping company has some logistics problems, or a regional publishing company loses access to its computers for a bit. While we know these can be devastating financially for businesses (especially for small- or medium-sized businesses who may not carry cyber insurance), it’s still… just business. But a recent story from NBC News shows how ransomware … Read More

Ransomware (mostly) isn’t costly because of the ransom

ransomware remediation

When you think about ransomware, I have to imagine you envision the ignominy of paying millions of dollars out of pocket to get access to your data back. The scary part is right there in the name: ransomware. The ransom is the nightmare scenario. While there is certainly a built-in, deep-seeded personal affront to being the victim of a ransom … Read More

The ransomware protection checklist

ransomware

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) recently released a detailed report about the ransomware-du-jour, BlackMatter. Similar to other Ransomware-as-a-Service threat vectors (which we’ve written about before), it’s cheap and easy to deploy, utterly devastating to infected systems, and cause for real concern in the IT community. I wish this wasn’t such a tired story, but this is life in … Read More

Ransomware-as-a-Service — the darker side of the Colonial Pipeline hack

Ransomware-as-a-service

It would have been pretty hard to miss the news of the Colonial Pipeline hack. We wrote about it here to advise our enterprise clients what they needed to know about, and what it meant for their collective futures. It got play in outlets the media world over, and for good reason — when the pipeline that feeds the entire … Read More

Colonial Pipeline hack — what your business needs to know

Colonial pipeline

About two weeks ago, one of the largest physical infrastructure cyberattacks perpetrated against the United States hit the Colonial Pipeline. That pipeline, responsible for nearly 50% of the East Coast’s fuel, had to be shut down for a significant period of time before the company capitulated and paid the ransom demand to regain access to their critical files. It was … Read More

What to know about new malware if your company runs on Mac

Mac lovers have touted multiple advantages over Windows-based machines for years. These claims haven’t always been substantiated by real data, sure… but folks love Apple computers and have for a while now. One of the advantages claimed for years and years is that Macs are less vulnerable to hacking, ransomware, malware, etc. While that may have been true a decade … Read More