Appalachia Technologies Acquires Cyber Protection Group

Cyber Protection Group is excited to announce that it has been acquired by Appalachia Technologies out of Mechanicsburg, PA.  We are excited about this acquisition because our clients will benefit from deeper resources and expertise from Appalachia Technologies.  Appalachia was founded in 2004 and is a Best Places to Work for in PA for 5 years in a row.  Appalachia has been a Top 50 Fastest Growing Company in PA and named on the Channel Futures MSP 501 and CRN MSP 500 Lists.  They are a SOC2, Type II Audited company that provides services such as: Security Assessments Penetration Testing Vulnerability Scanning Managed Threat Detection and Response Firewall, VPN, and… Read More

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Security Threat - Intentional vs Unintentional

The Biggest Security Threat to an Organization

The Biggest Security Threat to an Organization When we think about threats within an organization we always refer to an outside attacker, or natural disasters such as, fire, flood, earthquake, hurricane, tornadoes, etc. Below we will discuss which group of people are the biggest threats of an organization in more depth. The biggest threat within an organization is the insider; a threat can be intentional and unintentional. The bad news is that you don’t know who can intentionally harm your organization or not. Therefore, it is important to train your employees and give them something called Least Privilege. Least privilege is when you give someone no more and no less… Read More

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Handling Employees To Prevent Corporate Espionage

Handling Employees To Prevent Corporate Espionage Companies today must remain vigilant in order to prevent their trade secrets and other confidential information from being compromised. Such concerns stem from both outside and inside the organization.  Increasingly common, employees often intentionally or unintentionally “leak” confidential information stored on company computers, laptops, or networks. The following is a recommendation list of options for use by companies in an effort to prevent breaches of data made by employees: Preventing Data Breaches Technical Measures Monitoring of all electronic devices used to access information, including company computers, cell phones, and other devices. Outside of the office, monitoring the use of employee postings to social media… Read More

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Facebook Denies Possible Outbreak of Ransomware, LinkedIn Also at Risk!

Ransomware Out of all the possible malware and viruses you can get on your system, ransomware has the potential to be the worst. ransomware is especially nasty due to the damage it can do to your system. This is especially true in enterprise level environments. I can speak from personal experience, that when the IT department finds a possible ransomware infection we take it very seriously.  I have personally witnessed on multiple occasions a company bring an entire department offline to keep an infection from spreading. Ransomware is identifiable through its trademark method of infection. A ransomware program will encrypt your data on your system. After doing this, the program… Read More

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Dumpster Diving = Low Tech Hacking at its Finest

Social Engineering Awareness Part 1: Dumpster Diving Dumpster diving remains a prevalent security risk for almost every organization. Dumpster diving is a form of Social Engineering that takes very little technical knowledge. Further, a potential hacker’s goal while dumpster diving is to look for any information hidden within the trash to help penetrate a network. A quick list of potential targets containing worthwhile information would look something like this. Hard Drives CD Drives Flash Drives SD Cards Floppy Disks Instruction Manuals Receipts Invoices Old Software Old Magazines from vendors like cisco Company Directory page or book Old Business Cards Diagrams of building or Network Anything with signatures Usernames and passwords… Read More

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Replacement Note 7’s Still Exploding Samsung Recall

Samsung’s Ongoing Struggle  In the latest setback for Samsung it has been reported that yet another one of their Galaxy Note 7’s decided to explode during the boarding process of a plane at the Louisville international airport last Wednesday. Samsung has known for a while about its phones dangerous fault in its hardware and has recalled these devices sometime last month. The problem also lies in the fact that the phone happened to be one of the replacement devices. No injuries occurred during this incident. However, smoke from the device caused more than 75 people to evacuate from the plane. Samsung released a statement regarding the incident “Until we are… Read More

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Yahoo’s New Big Breach 500 Million Accounts Hacked

Ever since the security breach in 2014, Yahoo has been having an ongoing investigation into the incident.  Last Thursday Yahoo has released a statement about yet another setback for the internet company. Yahoo admits they are not sure of the specifics of the stolen information. However, there is an estimated 500 million accounts that appear as targets. Among this stolen data is email addresses, phone numbers, birth dates, hashed passwords, and security questions. Is Yahoo to Blame? Talks of the people to blame for the attack were state sponsored actors under the orders of the Russian or Chinese government. Although it’s hard to tell due to the fact that an… Read More

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Cyber Security’s Weakest Link is Human Beings

  The Weak Link In Security Often times when a company looks into becoming more secure / enhance security, they typically look to add devices, software or settings in place to help defend their network. It’s hard to convince them that the weak links in there network is the employees on them. Convincing employers about the importance of user awareness is an ongoing struggle for tech professionals. In the world of Information Security, we like to think that all the firewalls, antivirus and security settings we put in place keep us safe. Last year in 2015 there was an estimated 781 reports of data breaches. These breaches only account for… Read More

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Phishing Attacks Taking Advantage of Tragedy

  The New Scam on the Streets The Federal Trade Commission has issued an alert on a scam that is using the recent floods in Louisiana to its advantage. These scams take the form of a charity that ask readers to donate money to them. They of course keep this money for themselves. They can also send links or attachments that direct users to malware-infected websites. Attacks like these are commonly referred to as “Phishing attacks”. These attacks are sent out in mass to users in hopes that anyone will fall for the bait. Much like when you throw a fishing line out into a lake they often do not… Read More

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PSA – Recent Reports of Battery Explosions

Launching with a Bang (Literally) Recall After a great opening launch and favorable reviews Samsung is being forced to recall its new Galaxy Note 7 phones after a string of incidents. The phone went on sale in the United States on August 19th and has had 35 reported cases of the phones overheating and exploding. The new Note 7 was expected to have similar success to the Galaxy S7 series phones released earlier this year. However, in the aftermath of these explosion incidents the phones future is uncertain. Recalls are on the rise across the country. Not The Only One In a similar incident a man in New South Wales… Read More

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