Do you suspect some of your employees are accessing adult websites, social media, or blogs while at work? Have you caught some of your employees wasting time or sending inappropriate emails? Do you suspect certain employees are harassing another member of your team? If you answered yes to any of these questions, it might be time to start monitoring employees while they’re at work. It’s true that employee monitoring can have adverse side effects, but it also offers a handful of benefits. We’ll take a look at the pros and cons of employee monitoring, and then give you a few tips on conducting ethical surveillance in the workplace. But first, let’s define employee monitoring and see why it’s so important. What Is … [Read more...] about Monitoring Employees Is Good and Bad: Here’s How to Do It Right
risk mitigation
Firmware Security Vulnerabilities and How to Prevent Them
Did you know that hackers can bypass your antivirus scans by embedding malware into the firmware of your machine? Firmware security isn’t as secure as it should be, especially in the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) of most computers. According to Xeno Kovah and Corey Kallenberg in a report from Wired, many BIOS share some of the same code, which allowed these 2 researchers to uncover vulnerabilities in 80 percent of the PCs they examined, including ones from Dell, Lenovo, and HP. Xeno Kovah subsequently went on to work with Trammell Hudson to develop a worm that could infect Mac PC’s effortlessly, according to another report from Wired. In the study “Firmware Security Risks and Mitigation, Enterprise Practices and … [Read more...] about Firmware Security Vulnerabilities and How to Prevent Them
How to Protect Against Ransomware: 7 Ways to Stop the Worst Cyberthreat
Global ransomware damage costs predicted to exceed $5 billion in 2017, up from $325 million in 2015, according to Cybersecurity Ventures. And it gets worse... Steve Morgan, founder and Editor-In-Chief at Cybersecurity Ventures said in the same report, “While the percentage of ransom victims who pay Bitcoin to hackers in hopes of reclaiming their data appears to be on the decline, the total damage costs in connection to ransomware attacks is skyrocketing. We believe ransom payouts are the least of all damage cost contributors.” Mike Fey, president and COO of Symantec, said, “The ‘clean up’ for companies who were impacted by WannaCry will be enormous, including months of recovery time for IT departments and multi-millions in cost for … [Read more...] about How to Protect Against Ransomware: 7 Ways to Stop the Worst Cyberthreat
How to Prevent Data Loss: 7 Ways to Safeguard Your Company
Companies in the United States experienced 1,093 breaches in 2016, according to a study from Statista, which resulted in 36 million records exposed. What is the actual cost of these attacks? According to this study, the average cost of cybercrime in the U.S. during 2016 was over $17 million. And here’s the kicker: 39 percent - the bulk of the total costs of a cyberattack - were attributed to data loss, according to this survey. Bottom line: If you can’t prevent data loss during a cyber attack or natural disaster, you’re going to lose a lot of money. To help you protect your company from such a catastrophe, we’ll show you how most organizations lose their data in the first place, and how you can prevent data loss … [Read more...] about How to Prevent Data Loss: 7 Ways to Safeguard Your Company
How to Prevent Phishing: 10 Tips
With a single click of your mouse, you could lose your identity, your savings, and your business - hook, line, and sinker. If you’d rather keep those things, then you need to learn how to prevent phishing. Today, anyone can be deceived by “phishers,” and no industry or organization is immune, regardless of its size. According to the Anti-Phishing Work Group (APGW), the total number of phishing attacks in 2016 was 1,220,523, a 65% increase over 2015. To help put that into perspective, the total number of phishing attacks per month in the 4th quarter of 2004 was 1,609. In the 4th quarter of 2016, APGW saw an average of 92,564 phishing attacks per month. That’s a 5,753% increase in phishing over 12 years. Phishers are … [Read more...] about How to Prevent Phishing: 10 Tips