by Felicien | Oct 29, 2018 | Education
Microsoft just made your mobile life and computer life a whole lot easier and fun. If you love your phone, well so does your computer. Finally, you no longer need to dig around for your phone to send a text message while sitting at your Windows desktop. Plus, that extra step of emailing photos from your phone to your computer has ended. Thanks to Microsoft’s new “Your Phone” app for Android phones, 7.0 or later, you can now send text messages right from your PC.
What Should You Know To Get The New Your Phone App?
To get the Your Phone app, you must sign into your Microsoft account. Also, under your account, you can install the app on a maximum of ten Windows 10 devices. And as for installation, the Your Phone app must be installed on your internal hard drive. The size of the app is approximately 13.74 MB.
The Your Phone app does support Android 7.0 phones or later and Google’s newer versions of their mobile operating system. The Your Phone feature became available to every Windows user in October. By early to mid-November, Microsoft will extend support for the function to Apple/Mac devices that use Microsoft’s Edge browser.
Once the software gets installed, you’ll need to accept a connection request from your PC on your phone. That needs repeating for every Windows 10 computer you want to connect to your Android phone. Once you’re connected, there will be a grid of photos on your PC. One thing to note: what you will view will be a square image. To see the whole image, open your choice of photo viewer app or drag the picture onto your PC.
What Can You Do With The Your Phone App?
Microsoft’s new Your Phone app shows you the most recent texts and photos, which came from your Android phone, onto your desktop. From your desktop, you can drag, drop, copy or paste those items to your computer or other compatible applications.
Here’s how it works: with the Your Phone app, go ahead and snap a picture from your Android phone. Then check out your desktop. You’ll see that photo, you just took, right on your computer. The app gives you instant access to your Android phone’s photos, right on your computer. Now that daunting task of emailing yourself pictures can finally stop.
Does your presentation need a photo? What about sprucing up that embarrassing selfie you’ve been hiding from your friends? Then drag and drop it. Texting from your computer is not only possible, but it’s gotten a whole lot easier. The Your Phone app allows you to view and send Android text messages from your computer. You can use your computer’s keyboard to text friends and any group messaging. Now you can save your texting thumbs for online gaming battles.
Just remember you have to link your Android phone to your computer. You can do this by going into your Windows Settings or through Your Phone app. Once that is complete you will receive an app from Microsoft. You are required to download the app on your mobile phone also and follow the setup instructions. At this time the Your Phone app does need Android 7.0 or later to work correctly.
Does The Your Phone App Have Any Enhancements, Limitations or Warnings?
Enhancements – Besides supporting 70 languages, Microsoft also announced some related improvements, which launched in April 2018, to its Windows Timeline, which displays sites and accessible files you’ve recently gone to or used. The Your Phone feature rolled out to all Windows users in October 2018. Currently, emails, websites, and documents you’ve recently viewed on your Android phone will also get included in the Windows Timeline. As for other Windows timelines, Microsoft will notify you through your account.
Limitations – Microsoft’s Your Phone is a UWP app that links to software running on Android 7.0 or later devices to share only the latest 25 pictures on your phone with your PC. At first, the Your Phone app will support Android phones running 7.0 or later. It will also run on newest versions of Google’s mobile operating system. As for iOS users, Microsoft has not stated whether or when it would make the app’s feature available to those users.
Warnings – There is a photosensitive seizure, warning notice, you need to be aware of, especially if certain visual images, flashing lights or patterns trigger an epileptic seizure with you or anyone you know or work with. The photosensitive epileptic seizures have a variety of symptoms.
altered vision
confusion
disorientation
eye or face twitching
jerking
lightheadedness
momentary loss of awareness
shaking of arms or legs
Please be aware; some seizures may cause convulsions and loss of consciousness. That could lead to a head injury from falling or landing on nearby objects.
Did you find this article informative? If you liked this one, check out our other content we think you’ll find interesting.
by Felicien | Oct 29, 2018 | Education
As technology continues to evolve, those people threatening it adapt as well. This is also true in the legal sector where a breach in security can be devastating. Clients are demanding more from law firms by way of protection. Firms are scurrying to respond.
Unfortunately, those offices with even the most advanced IT teams are often deficient. They have weaknesses that they are unaware of. In a few months when cybercrime has made further advances, those vulnerabilities will have multiplied.
Individual law firms generally realize that the plight is not theirs alone. Cybersecurity works better when networks cooperate. Since it is about sharing information, it is essential that offices band together for their common good.
By taking a few small steps, law offices can enhance their organization, and utilize the more affordable security resources available. In this way, they can fight the problem together.
How Will Appointing a Security Leader Benefit a Law Firm?
Appointing a dedicated security leader and the team helps identify cybersecurity goals. It also encourages the development of actionable strategies. This is especially important in a law firm. The consequences of a breach in security here are not only dire and embarrassing, but they could result in charges of noncompliance.
A delegated Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) would run the security team. In addition, he or she would also have the following duties:
Set precise cybersecurity objectives
Assess how data is being used, as well as stored
Identify federal and state compliance requirements
Develop cybersecurity strategies
The CISO and security team are different than the IT department. They are security experts. Their responsibilities will have surpassed the IT department’s general abilities and purpose.
Why Should Law Offices Develop Cooperative Partnerships?
There is safety in numbers. By building strong communication security information-sharing communities, firms are able to divide the challenge of keeping up with potential threats. In this way, they are able to identify and eliminate weaknesses in their systems.
Cybercriminals sniff out vulnerabilities and strike. It is nearly impossible for any single office to remain on top of all of the conceivable problems. This is why it is advisable that they band with organizations that can help.
An important step would be to join the Legal Services Information Sharing and Analysis Organization (LS-ISAO). It is affiliated with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. It acts as a vehicle for announcements, updates, and threat alerts from the U.S. Computer Emergency Response Team, as well as other pertinent agencies.
Joining a strong information-sharing, cooperative partnership better allows firms to identify issues in their systems before it’s too late. Then, they can fortify their security when it needs it most.
How Will Partnering with Outside App Developers Improve Security?
Outside software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications enable law firms to beef up security without depending solely on their internal defenses. This allows them to improve their protection and adapt to ever-evolving technology.
Additionally, working with outside sources increases access to the latest developments. This is something that is difficult to do for even the most technically savvy CISO in a law firm. By working together, they may develop technology that is specific to the needs of the firm and its clients.
What Does a Layered Set of Security Technologies Include?
No longer is a one-layer system sufficient for securing a law office. Cyberspace has gotten complex. Hackers and other cybercriminals have become very sophisticated in their skills and knowledge. This means their approaches are also advanced.
Rather than just having anti-virus software, today, firms require a multi-faceted approach. There are several features that should be included. A comprehensive security plan should, at a minimum, provide the following elements:
Encryption technology
A firewall that includes phishing protection
Intrusion detection systems
Multi-factor authentication
Lastly, offices should invest in measures to improve resiliency, such as micro-segmentation. Even if intruders are able to initially access one or more servers, micro-segmentation puts a stop to it. It increases application visibility so unusual behavior is more quickly detected. This prevents intruders from being able to move laterally through a cloud environment across data centers to access all servers. It helps minimize the impact of a breach.
In Conclusion
Taking proactive measures to prevent clients’ data loss or disclosure is a vital aspect in the field of law. Failure to adequately do so is not only an ethics issue that could adversely affect a firm’s reputation, it could also result in noncompliance.
Unfortunately, the changing landscape of cybersecurity has left many offices vulnerable to attack. By following these small, but important steps, firms are able to fight to defend the data they have been tasked with protecting. Although the criminals might seem to be a few steps ahead of everyone else, by working together with the LS-ISAO and other agencies, the legal profession will prevail.
by Felicien | Oct 26, 2018 | Education
7 Cyberattack Facts
This Halloween we’re celebrating by sharing some scary cyberattack facts. Why? Because, unfortunately, cyber attacks are increasing. The cyber threat landscape is rapidly becoming more of a concern. Not only are businesses seeing an increase in the number of attacks, but these cyber attacks are continuing to evolve.
Here are the scary facts:
Cyberattacks are the third largest global threat this year behind only extreme weather events and natural disasters!
Around the globe, a hacker attacks someone every 39 seconds.
There are nearly 6,000 new viruses released every month.
There are more than 4,000 ransomware attacks a day.
Nearly 1 out of every 100 emails is a phishing attempt.
43 percent of cyber attacks are aimed at small businesses.
The cost of all this cybercrime last year? 600 billion dollars!
Read the details below:
Fact 1. Cyber attacks are the third largest global threat this year behind only extreme weather events and natural disasters.
According to the WEF’s Global Risks Report 2018, in terms of events that are likely to cause disruption in the next five years – cyberattacks rank behind only extreme weather events and natural disasters.
The Report reveals that:
The top five risks to global stability over the next five years are natural disasters, extreme weather, cyber attacks, data fraud, and failure to address climate change.
Cyber attacks are growing in risk as the potential fallout from an attack on connected industrial systems, or critical infrastructure becomes a serious threat.
Cybersecurity risks have grown both in their prevalence and in their disruptive potential.
The good news is that many of these cyber attacks aren’t succeeding. However, increases in their growth and sophistication are troubling. Plus, because nation states are performing cyber attacks, cyberwarfare becomes a real threat.
Fact 2. Around the globe, a hacker attacks someone every 39 seconds.
A study by Clark School study at the University of Maryland quantified the near-constant rate of hacking of computers with internet access to every 39 seconds on average. And for those who use non-secure usernames and passwords, there’s a greater chance that the hackers will succeed.
Michel Cukier of Clark School’s Center for Risk and Reliability and Institute for Systems Research identified these as brute force attacks where hackers use simple software-aided techniques to randomly attack a large number of computers.
The study revealed that once hackers gain access to a computer, they:
quickly determine if it will be of use to them,
check the software configuration,
change the password,
check the hardware and/or software configuration again,
download a file,
install the downloaded program and run it.
Fact 3. There are nearly 6,000 new viruses released every month.
A computer virus is a program or software(malware) that once in your computer multiplies in number and affects areas of the computer according to the codes it’s based on. Computer viruses are growing. With the rise in technology, we’re at increased risk of hackers using viruses to infect our networks. They continue to be a growing threat to organizations of all sizes, across all industries. And today’s free antivirus solutions (and some paid ones) are no match against sophisticated malware. Hackers are now using machine learning technology to circumvent security and infect computers with viruses. They also use AI (artificial intelligence) to launch attacks and infect computers to steal data.
Fact 4. There are more than 4,000 ransomware attacks a day.
The FBI has reported that since January 1, 2016, more than 4,000 ransomware attacks have occurred on a daily basis (on average). This is a 300% increase from 2015 when 1,000 attacks occurred daily. Ransomware is the fastest growing malware threat, and it can result in the temporary or permanent loss of your sensitive or proprietary data. It not only disrupts your operations, but you’ll also likely incur a financial loss to recover your data. Ransomware has the potential to ruin your business’s reputation.
Fact 5. Nearly 1 out of every 100 emails is a phishing attempt.
Researchers (from FireEye) reviewed over half-a-billion emails sent between January and June 2018. They found that one in 101 emails are malicious and sent with the goal of compromising a user or network.
When spam is discounted, only one-third of emails are considered “clean.” Highlights of the report showed that:
There was an increase in phishing attempts during tax season (January – April).
Impersonation attacks are commonly used for CEO fraud.
Hackers rely more on friendly name impersonation today.
The WEF’s Global Risks Report 2018 also revealed that 64 percent of all phishing emails sent during 2017 contained file-encrypting malware.
Fact 6. 43 percent of cyber attacks are aimed at small businesses.
This was reported in Symantec Corporation’s Internet Security Threat Report. They also revealed that 1 in 40 small businesses are at risk of being the victim of a cybercrime. Hackers don’t discriminate when choosing businesses. They are targeting their money. Small businesses are big targets for phishing attacks. Phishers target employees who are responsible for the company’s finances. When the phishing emails are opened, it can result in sensitive financial information being exposed. This is how the cybercriminal gains access to a company’s money.
Fact 7. The cost of all this cybercrime last year? 600 billion dollars! That’s three times the amount spent on Halloween candy.
In the February 2018 report “Economic Impact of Cybercrime – No Slowing Down” it says that cybercrime may now cost the world almost $600 billion, or 0.8% of global GDP. The reasons for this growth are as follows:
Quick adoption of new technologies by cybercriminals
The increased number of new users online (these tend to be from low-income countries with weak cybersecurity)
The increased ease of committing cybercrime with the growth of Cybercrime-as-a-Service
An expanding number of cybercrime “centers” that now include Brazil, India, North Korea, and Vietnam
A growing financial sophistication among top-tier cybercriminals that, among other things, makes monetization easier
Do these facts scare you too? Are you worried about the cybersecurity of your business? If so, contact us, and we’ll help you determine if you are adequately protected.
by Felicien | Oct 26, 2018 | Education
What’s The Remote Access Protocol And Why Should I Worry About It?
The Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) is a means that Microsoft provides for Windows (and Mac) users to access another computer remotely. Remote computer access is often used by IT people to diagnose and repair a problem with a computer. If you’ve ever worked with a company’s Help Desk, then the technician may have asked for remote access to check out your computer. The help desk tech has all the powers and abilities that the user has.
If that user is an administrator (if only one user is authorized on the computer, that user is set up as an administrator by default), they have total control over the remote computer. They may well have total control over the network as well, depending on how the network administrator’s permissions are set up.
So How Does RDP Work?
RDP works by connecting the computer remotely, then controlling it over a local network or the internet. The internet port used for this is 3389. If that port is open in the remote computer’s settings, anyone can potentially connect to it and control it.
The FBI recently warned that hackers are constantly scanning the internet for open RDP ports and selling the access information that they find on the Dark Web. Several types of ransomware and other exploit tools rely on finding open 3389 ports. One security company, Rapid7, found 11 million open 3389 ports on the internet in 2017. There are over 1,000 attempts to find open RDP ports per day.
Obviously, if you don’t know your ports are open, you are not going to be able to protect them. The first step is to make sure that only machines that need remote access are set up for it. Your system administrators can use several methods to make sure that only computers that need remote access have it.
But We’re Covered…Or Are We?
Ah, you say, but we are protected against this kind of attack because we have all our RDP-enabled computers protected by a password. Guess again. If you look, you may well find RDP servers (and servers in general) that are not password protected. Sloppy system administrators (sysadmins) all too often leave the machines they manage unprotected, so they don’t have to remember the passwords to them.
Even if both the servers and the remote machines are protected by usernames with strong passwords, there are two ways that hackers can still access them. One, called a brute-force attack, keeps trying usernames and passwords until it scores a hit. This is known as a dictionary attack.
The other way is to use lists of username/password combinations that are automatically created, bought on the Dark Web, stolen, or some combination of this. The only defenses against this are two-factor authentication or the use of security keys (dongles).
In two-factor authentication, users have to enter a second password, sent by SMS to a smartphone or by email, to log on. When dongles are used, a physical device, such as Google’s Titan security key is used.
Use of biometric identifiers (fingerprints, face scans, retinal scans) is another way of either single-or two-factor authentication (i.e., the user is required to use a password and scan a fingerprint.)
How Bad Is This Problem Really?
Remember, once a hacker gets into your system via RDP, you are probably vulnerable if you do not have two-factor authentication and/or biometric identifiers enabled on all your machines, both Mac and Windows. In any other condition, you are vulnerable. The lists of RDP endpoints being sold on the Dark Web include those stolen from airports, hospitals, nursing homes, and government agencies.
How Bad Could This Get?
So far, the use of RDP as a means of network penetration has been limited to attempts to install ransomware or steal banking, credit card information, and online shopping information.
There is little evidence (remember, we don’t find it unless we look for it or the hackers make a mistake) of any state actors or terrorists using it. But RDP access is really low-hanging fruit for them.
Practically everything runs on computers today, and the vast majority of them communicate over the internet with unencrypted data. Imagine terrorist hackers shutting down first-responder communications systems. They also have the potential to shut down hospital EHR systems or disrupt air traffic control at the airport.
Once we begin to think of the vulnerabilities in our systems, this problem of open RDP ports gets worrisome very quickly. Small wonder that the FBI is warning everyone about it.
In 2017, just one Dark Web site had 85,000 RDP endpoints for sale. It has dozens or hundreds of imitators. We just do not know until the FBI or some other agency finds the Dark Web site and tries to take it down. If you work with a managed IT services company, then it can be worth your while to ask them to check your computers and networks to see whether you have RDP ports open and susceptible.
by Felicien | Oct 25, 2018 | Education
Depending on the age(s) of your child (ren), your response to this topic may be, “She’s too young – she doesn’t even have an identity yet.”
Alas, not so. In our electronic society, kids exist in databases even before they’re born. And they are an attractive target for several kinds of bad actors on the dark web – those who want to exploit their names and other data for identity theft, such as opening credit card accounts, child pornographers looking for images that can be photoshopped, school bullies, and so on. Although this post focuses on identity theft, taking the steps described herein will also protect your children from other bad actors.
What’s So Bad About Social Security Numbers?
As they were originally intended, nothing. The original intent was to use them to associate a specific individual with a specific record of earnings. But over the years, they morphed into the closest thing we have to a national identifier. Many organizations ask for it as a kind of reflex, with no intention of either using it or controlling its use. They have the notion that having an SSN makes your child a “real boy” (as opposed to a wooden one like Pinocchio?).
This leads to the first set of steps.
Get your child a Social Security Number. You will need it for some legitimate things about your child’s identity, including passports. (Try taking the child abroad without one.)
Once you have it, put it in a safe place, like a bank safety deposit box. The same goes for birth certificates and other papers that identify your child. And of course, their passports
Never give anyone an SSN, or a copy of identifying documents, without knowing why they want it, and what the intended use is. If it is just a bureaucratic reflex, ask what you can do instead of handing it over.
Make sure the organization has a policy of destroying documents that are no longer needed. (This will guarantee a lot of comical blank stares.) The only acceptable responses are “we return them” or “we destroy them with a cross-cut shredder.”
Monitoring Your Child’s Financial Existence On The Web
Your child, from the moment of birth, is a thing that businesses highly value – a customer, even if it’s you-by-proxy until your kid starts watching TV or using a computer or tablet. This means that your child will have an online existence from the moment of birth, and perhaps before. Those who exist can be exploited. So, you need to monitor your child’s financial identity. This means:
Check your child’s Social Security Earnings Record every year. You can get this by calling 800-772-1213 or submitting SSA-7050 Form. If you know the child has never worked and you see any earnings, that is a sign of possible identity theft. Contact Social Security immediately. A list of Social Security local offices can be found here.
The same goes for earnings in excess of what you know a child who is working earned. A non-certified copy of the earnings record is free; a certified report is $34.00. There is no reason to get a certified copy just to monitor your child.
Check all three of your child’s credit reports every year. Reports are free once per year. The three large credit bureaus that control most of the records are Equifax, Experian, and Transunion. Their online sites are Equifax, Experian, and Transunion.
Check any packages sent to your child. If you permit them to place orders online, make sure that what they got is what you or they ordered.
All these steps are relatively easy. The hardest part is teaching your child to be cautious (and safe) online. Social media are havens for identity thieves, and worse, predators. Teach your child to reveal private information only to trusted parties you have indicated that you approve of. For anything else, teach the child to respond with something like, “My parents don’t want me telling that.”
And, of course, it is obvious that you should keep your operating system, anti-virus, and anti-malware software updated. If you check every day, you will find that there is almost always an operating system patch, virus and malware definitions updates, or driver updates waiting to be installed.
Check to see if you can configure your OS and virus/malware software to update automatically. This exposes you to potential bugs, of course, but it will give you some peace of mind in the long run. Unless you are a true geek, consider it.
There are lots of other ways to keep your children safe online and this is an important topic you should discuss with them at the earliest time. You just can’t wait until your kids are teenagers anymore to talk about cybersecurity and online predators.
