National Cyber Security Awareness Month

 Did you know that October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month? I know the month of October is almost over. It is never to late to take a look and make it tougher to be the result of a successful cyber attack.

Since 2004, the month of October is meant for all of us to take take and evaluation our own cyber security practices. New and diverse threats create the demand that we adjust our practices when it comes to this.

I remember a time when we worked to make a computer network secure from an attack. Today, security professionals work to make the attacker’s job as difficult as possible. We have learned there is not totally security computer or network anymore. 

It wasn’t too long ago when ransomware was encrypting data leaving city governments, hospitals, and business paralyzed for periods of time. We have made progress overcoming those threats.

This year, phishing attacks targeted at specific individuals are the main threat. These attacks require a little different approach in deterring their effectiveness.

For the remainder of this month, I have three questions for you. Take those questions and answers to your IT personnel, and to your mid and upper level managers. This will make an attack on your computer and network more difficult for hackers.

  1. Do you have a Cyber Incident Response Plan?
  2. Does you and your company/family walk through it every six months?
  3. Does everyone in your company/family know what to do when they suspect a cyber incident?

If you noticed in two fo the three questions, I put company/family. It is not just departments, divisions, and whole companies should have their members trained. Every household should have every member aware and know what to do and who to report it to.

I repeat a very important part of keeping the wolf outside is knowing what to do and having the decision makers aware of the incident.

For more information

Go to National Cyber Security Awareness Month you can go to their website by clicking on the link or email me at efcussins@cussinsenterprises.com

How Danagerous is Your Email

The Most Dangerous Place On Your Computer Is Your Email Inbox

If I wanted to put a keylogger, ransomware or any other malware on someone’s computer, send the malware in an email. That email would either have an PDF attachment waiting for you to open it. I might even send you an email where inside it has a link for you to click. Once you click on it the malware is downloaded and installed on your computer.

If I was really ambitious, I would make the email look as if it was from your bank or insurance company. That email would inform you of a data breech and you need to reset your password by clicking on the link.

That link would take you to a look-a-like website. At that website you can enter in your current login user name and password, then prompt you to put in a new secure password. After you were done I would proceed to take over those accounts from you.

I have just given you prime examples of how easy to create “Phishing” emails. Since the second paragraph was more point to the recipient of the email, it could be called a “Spear Phishing” email. Spear Phishing emails take a little more work.

These types of emails are called “Phishing” because they put out something attractive for you to bit into.

I want to give you just three alarming numbers to show you how common these danagerous emails are getting to your email inbox.

  1. The Digital Guardian states that 91% of all cyber attacks start with phishing emails.
  2. In October 2018, Application Threat Intelligence reported phishing fraud jumped 50%
  3. According to the SANS Institute, 95% of all attacks on enterprise networks are the result of successful spear phishing.

What can be done you ask?

  1. Don’t take any email at face value. Call the person or company where the email says it is from. Verify they sent that specific email.
  2. Don’t click on links. Type in the website address yourself. Then verify the website you typed in is what showing in your browsers address bar.
  3. Don’t open email attachments for questionable or unverifiable sources.

You Have Less Than A Year with Windows 7

365 Days and Counting

All the rumors are true. Microsoft is going to discontinue support for our beloved Windows 7. We have less than one year (365 days) before Windows 7 computers will stop receiving security update. The time for free upgrade to Windows 10 is over.

Whatever you decide to do, it is going to cost you money out of your pocket. We are given from Microsoft three options.

  1. If you decide on buying a new computer, it will cost $500 at the very least.
  2. You can upgrade your existing computer to Windows  10 home for  $139, plus professional services to make sure data is no lost and done correctly
  3. Or you can keep you old Windows 7 computer and pray you don’t get infectected with malware.

In all reality, I see a couple other things happening:

  1. PC users are going to take a hard look a the Linux operating system. They will find it meats their needs and switch their computer to Linux Mint or Linux Ubuntu. Both offer the average user some good options.
  2. Instead of upgrading to Windows 10 they are going to switch over to a Mac computer. I really don’t see very many people doing this because is more expensive. Like $1,000 plus time to learn what makes Mac’s so unique.

For myself. I currently have one computer running Windows 10, another one with Windows 7, and two more running different versions of Linux. I most likely will keep the Windows 7 computer around because it has some unique programs on it.

What are you going to do come Janurary 14, 2020 will be put on life support for another three years?

I want to know. Leave you comments below or on my Facebook page or Twitter.

 

Resolutions fo 2019 Part 3

Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS)

KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) is the best advice I have ever gotten. In fact family and friends have to remind me periodically. It is my nature to make things complex.

Yesterday, on the morning news a notable psychologist was asked about the age issue of people making resolutions every year around January 1st. Then by March or April all resolve is gone. The only thing left is feeling of guilt.

I felt real good when I heard him explain the very same thing I have been writing about in these three blog posts. He it all up by saying, “No one will be able to stick to their resolutions until they first deal with the root causes them go only a few days or weeks and give up.”

The third element that keeps me from following through on a New Year’s Resolution is making things complex and very big.

So what is my Nee Year’s Resolution? It is in three parts. I will remind myself through the day.

  1. I do want to have better life.
  2. I will not work myself into the grave. I will get enough sleep and rest.
  3. I will constantly work at keeping my projects simple and not over think them.

What are the root causes that keeps you from following through on your New Year’s?

What are you going to do to overcome your stubbonly block or blocks?

Resolutions for 2019 Part 2

Sleep -

I know for myself, if I don’t get enough sleep my attitude, physical ability, and mental alertness is greatly reduced.

I recently read an article from the New York Times website titled, “New Office Hours Aim for Well Rested, More Productive Workers This article inspired me to think and looking at my own life and how my goals, personal or long range were reduced or did not get accomplished. Bottomline my lack of sleep reduces my energy level throughout the day.

Growing up we were told we needed at least 8 hours of sleep. We were to sleep between 9 pm to 5 am. I submit to you not everybody has an internal clock that makes us want to go to sleep at 9 pm and wake up at 5 am.

For me I start feeling tired about 4 or 5 pm. I wake up around 3 am. Then mid day I need to take a one or two hour nap.

I don’t sleep a full 8 hours at one time period. I sleep in stretches of 3 hours. Around midday, I start to get sleepy to the point my body starts to shut down. I take 2 to 3. Afterwards, I am refreshed and ready to tackle the remainder of the day which takes me to after 9 pm.

Let also consider some other factors the prevent us from accomplishing our goals?

  • Why Change?
  • Do you use the buddy system?

Questions to Think About

  1. What time during the day you start to feel sleepy?
  2. What would be your most productive time during the day?
  3. What times during the day do you get the most rest?