Silicon Prairie Cyber Services' Blog

Have you heard about the UC San Diego Health data breach?   It started with a phishing attack back in December, and now the personal info of patients, students, and employees could be in the hands of cybercriminals. The victims could face identity theft at any time.   A CLASSIC EXAMPLE OF AN EMPLOYEE DOING THE EVIL BIDDING OF THE BAD GUY. Employee(s) took action as directed in the phishing email. Those actions gave the hackers access to employee email accounts. The hackers could access everything in the employee email accounts.   WHY IT’S BAD FOR BUSINESS The hackers can access any password reset links that arrive via email. The hackers can access any multi factor authentication codes that arrive via email. The hackers can send emails directly from your email account and message your contacts requesting information or even changing payment instructions.   WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW Sometimes maliciou...

The evolution of spam has been an interesting one. SPAM has gone from a wartime necessity to Hawaiian delicacy to electronic junk mail. Here's 5 facts about both types of spam. SPAM IN A CAN They invented SPAM in 1937 to use pork shoulder and provide meat with an unlimited shelf life. The name SPAM came from the combination of the words Spice and Ham. Hawaiians consume 7 million pounds of SPAM every year. Richard LeFevre holds the world record for eating SPAM by eating 6 pounds in 12 minutes. Hormel doesn’t use the term spam to describe any emails. Instead, they use the term unwanted emails. SPAM – ELECTRONIC JUNK MAIL The first spam email was sent in 1978 over APARNET. Bill Gates was the most spammed person in the world with over 4 million emails per day. Never unsubscribe from spam. It tells the spammer your email is valid, and you’ll get even more spam. 48% of email sent today is spam. Only 19% of people check their spam folder daily. Do you have an email list? With 48% of today...

I thought it'd fun (and a little embarrassing) to share a story about the first time I testified in federal court for an FBI case. I had never been a courtroom before, and I really wasn’t into any of the shows that took place in one either. I didn’t really know what to expect. The Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA) told me they’d call me into the courtroom, then I would be sworn in, and sit down in the witness stand. Sounds simple enough. Then once in the witness stand the fun would begin… They’d  ask me many questions about my background to get me brought in as an expert witness, I'd have to do a whole song and dance to see my notes when I didn’t recall the answer to something, and I'd have to speak to the jury like they have a 5 th  grade education (from the 1950s and know nothing about computers) with analogies aplenty. In this story, there’s a bad guy who did some nasty stuff to a woman and then tried to blackmail her. This how I remember the day... The ...

  What do you think? Are the bad guys winning?   If you’ve been watching the news lately you might think, yes, the bad guys are prevailing over cybersecurity. In under a week over 1,500 businesses got hit with Ransomware thanks to a vulnerability in Kaseya VSA and the cyber gang REvil. Then there’s another cyber gang launching Trojan attacks against the Indian Military.   Sounds bad, right?   Let’s talk about some victories for the good guys . They arrested the suspected hacker Dr HeX for many cyber crimes, including financial fraud that affected thousands. Microsoft finally issues a patch to put an end to the PrintNightMare bug.   Don’t let the news overwhelm you . Businesses of any size can implement a successful cybersecurity strategy that can reduce your risk of cyber attack by 80%. But how...   FIVE TIPS TO PROTECT YOUR BUSINESS Beware of phishing emails Stop and think before you click Protect your accounts Secure your devices ...