United States Improves Critical Infrastructure Security

  United States Improves Critical Infrastructure Security by Passing Five Bills The cyber security incident that recently affected Colonial Pipeline showed the extreme need to protect our critical infrastructure.  Ransomware successfully hindered the delivery of fuel to a large portion of the East Coast.  Colonial Pipelines and other critical infrastructure could prevent cyber security incidents with enhanced security that prepares themselves for the imminent attacks.  Finally, the United States House Committee on Homeland Security recently passed five bills to increase cyber defenses for United State organizations and critical infrastructure.   Why Attack Critical Infrastructure? People and organizations not only depend on critical infrastructure, they need the critical infrastructure.  These organizations… Read More

Continue Reading

Michigan State University (MSU) Faces Credit Card Skimming Attack

  “An unauthorized party gained access to Michigan State University’s online store, shop.msu.edu, and placed malicious code to expose shoppers’ credit card numbers between Oct. 19, 2019 and June 26, 2020.” – MSU   This week, Michigan State University confirms a credit card skimming attack that put over 2,600 customers at risk. With Big Ten football on hold, maybe it’s time to focus strength elsewhere, like the cyber security department.   Michigan State University Before we dive into the attack, let’s establish some background on the victim of the attack, MSU. Michigan State is a university located in, yes you guessed it, the great state of Michigan. This university in… Read More

Continue Reading
bluetooth

Why are my apps asking for Bluetooth access?

  This application would like to access your device’s Bluetooth capabilities. Oh, and also your location, personal information, and the list goes on and on …    Bluetooth Access PLEASE To begin this article, not too long ago, I received an odd pop up on my iPhone (see image below).     The image shown above says that Ulta Beauty would like to use the Bluetooth access on my device. After quickly denying the access, I became quite puzzled.  Now, I thought that this was quite odd. For one, I was scrolling through Instagram at the time of the pop up, not while using the Ulta app. Also, I was not… Read More

Continue Reading

Are Employees the Biggest Threat to an Organization?

  Does your organization have a cyber security policy and procedure in place? Do they even have a cyber security team? If the answers to these questions is no, you may become the biggest threat to your organization.  Curious how? In this article, the topic of how employees become the largest threat to an organization will be broken down and explained.      An Inside Job? To begin, here is an important question. Has your employer, company or organization ever fallen victim to a cyber security attack? With ever evolving technology, criminals continue to create ways to target a business.  Continuing, not all threats are the same in execution or… Read More

Continue Reading
penetration testing

Penetration Testing – The Basics

penetration testing Another Day Another Hack Everyday in the news, you hear about a company trying to pick up the pieces after a data breach. For example, last month, Capital One went through a major data breach. An unauthorized user had the ability to find a way into their systems and access sensitive customer information.    Many ask, how does this happen? Is the hacker just that good that they can bypass any and all security measures? Or, is it the company’s fault for not implementing proper security protocols? All in all, the reason for such data breaches and attacks are due to all of the above and more. The next… Read More

Continue Reading
the number one target for hackers

The Number One Target for Hackers

The Number One Target for Hackers The number one target for hackers. Introduction Currently, hospitals and other healthcare related facilities are the number one target for hackers.  According to CBS News, almost every hospital in the US deals with some kind of cyber threat or attack. Experts say that for as much information that the healthcare field is responsible for, cyber security standards should be a higher priority. Imagine how many patient records one hospital is responsible for. Then to think about the total number of patient files for every medical facility is almost hard to imagine. In hospitals, cyber security is not the main focus. With how cyber criminals… Read More

Continue Reading