Silicon Prairie Cyber Services' Blog

The theme for Week 2 of Cybersecurity Awareness Month is Fight the Phish From the Colonial Pipeline to T-Mobile, cybersecurity attacks have been rampant over the last 12-24 months. However, for all the emerging threats and news that are cropping up, phishing continues to quietly wreak havoc, and remains a major threat to individuals and businesses. Don’t overlook phishing as a cyber risk. It’s been a major threat for decades. In fact, 43 percent of cyberattacks in 2020 featured phishing or pre-texting, while 74 percent of US organizations experienced a successful phishing attack last year alone. Phishing is one of the most dangerous and effective attacks methods used against your organization. As a result, you need to know how to fight the phish. 3 TIPS TO HELP YOU FIGHT THAT PHISH AND WIN Know the Red Flags Phishes are masters of making their content and interactions appealing. From content design to language, it's difficult to determine whether the content is genuine or a po...

Cybersecurity Awareness Month begins tomorrow! Are you ready?  This year’s theme is  “Do Your Part. #BeCyberSmart.”. Here’s a rundown of this year’s  weekly themes  that will help you learn how to protect yourself and your business from cyberattacks through actionable steps. Review the schedule below. Oct 4 - 10: Be Cyber Smart Oct 11 - 17: Fight the Phish Oct 18 - 24: Explore. Experience. Share. (Cybersecurity Careers) Oct 25 - 31: Cybersecurity First You can also catch me speaking live at the  Nebraska Cybersecurity Conference  on October 19. The conference is virtual, and there’s still time to register. So no matter where you’re sitting, you’ll have a great seat. In honor of Cybersecurity Awareness month, I’m switching up my email and blog schedule. During October, I’m going to kick off your week by sending you an email every Monday morning all about the week’s cybersecurity awareness theme. Not on my email list? Join now . Also, you'll want to follow me...

Let’s talk about phishing emails and the techniques used by cyber criminals to get you to click. Today, I’m going to focus on the subject line.   The subject line is super important, and that’s why the bad guys are using it against you. Why is the subject line so important? The subject line is the first and only hint at what the email is about. If you can’t reel ‘em in with the subject line they might never open your email. In fact, the subject line is so important that marketers test different subject lines against each other to see which one will get the most opens.   Cyber criminals try to invoke a sense of urgency and emotions to get you to click. That’s why words like ‘URGENT’ and ‘IMPORTANT’ have appeared in their subject lines for years. But now, there’s a new word in the subject line, and that new word is ‘NEW.’   THE NEW WORD IS NEW.   WHY IS ‘NEW’ SUCH A POWERFUL WORD IN PHISHING EMAILS? Legit emails and alerts contain the word ‘new’ The...

  Here’s a tip to help your business stop thinking of cybersecurity as the Department of No.   Help make their life easier!   HOW CAN YOU MAKE EVERYONE’S LIFE EASIER IN THE OFFICE? Give them a password keeper AND teach them how to use it.   HOW PASSWORD KEEPERS MAKE LIFE EASIER No more trying to memorize all the passwords you have No more forgotten passwords No more time wasted resetting passwords No more wasting time trying to think of unique passwords Put an end to tracking your passwords in Excel, post-it notes, and notebooks.   WHY CYBERSECURITY PROS RECOMMEND PASSWORDKEEPERS Passwords stored securely Unique passwords for every account Stronger passwords Secure sharing of passwords Reduce the risk of the business being locked out of an essential app   Help your employees save time and end their frustration by trying to memorize hundreds of passwords. Get them started with a password keeper t...

Suddenly summer is over and pumpkin spice everything is out in full force, and that can only mean one thing…   Cybersecurity Awareness Month is coming.   That’s right, October 1 marks the start of Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2021!! Who else is excited?! This year’s theme is Do Your Part. #BeCyberSmart.  This year’s theme brings four new weekly themes, and provides you with some great opportunities to build relationships in your business.   As you’re churning out lots of awesome content and tips for Cybersecurity Awareness Month, I want to share some tips to keep in mind when your creative juices are flowing.   5 TIPS FOR WRITING CYBERSECURITY AWARENESS INFO Speak the language of business Keep it short and sweet Make your content mobile friendly Avoid technical jargon Don’t get lost in the weeds   Finally, if you need a guest speaker for Cybersecurity Awareness Month or need help planning I still have a few openings availab...

When I say ‘FlyTrap’ what comes to mind? A venus fly trap? ‘The Little Shop of Horrors’? A bug zapper? A strip of sticky tape with a bunch of flies stuck to it? Malware?   I hope you were thinking about malware because there’s some FlyTrap malware taking over Facebook Accounts, and it's been around since March.   How are they doing it? Social Engineering .   The bad guys have placed malicious apps in Google Play and other Android stores to lure you in with offers for free Netflix coupon codes and voting for your favorite soccer player or team. These apps look legit. They are high quality, use great graphics, and are free from grammar and spelling errors.   To get the code or to vote, you have to log in with your Facebook username and password. You are actually using Facebook to login, but unknown to the victim, there is something nefarious going on in the background, and it’s stealing their sensitive info.   WHAT TO DO IF THIS HAS ...

Did you know Bitcoin increased in value by almost 400% between October 2020 and April 2021? Fraudsters follow the money, and with the recent spikes in value and popularity of cryptocurrency it is no surprise that crypto currency email scams are flooding inboxes. HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW… WHAT IS CRYPTOCURRENCY? It’s a digital currency, and it doesn’t exist in a physical form. There's no central control – there isn't a central bank of digital currency. Bitcoin was the first. Ransomware tends to demand payment in Bitcoins. TOP 3 CRYPTOCURRENCY SCAMS TO WATCH OUT FOR Emails from businesses and government agencies asking for payment in cryptocurrency A person, website, or social media ad that only accepts payment via cryptocurrency Cryptocurrency investment opportunities TOP 3 TERMS USED IN CRYPTOCURRENCY SCAMS Urgently today Nearest bitcoin machine Day Runs Have you received any cryptocurrency scam emails? What happened? What did you do? Drop a comment below and share your sto...

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...

  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 ...

I don't know about you, but to me, summer means fun in the sun, lazy days, and ice cream. Summer also means  it's ransomware season . It seems cybercriminals look forward to this season as much as I look forward to ice cream. Have you been keeping up with what ransomware has been up to this summer? If not, here's what you missed... RANSOMWARE ATTACKS SINCE MAY 2021 "DarkSide  ransomware being used to disrupt a major U.S. pipeline that transports almost half of all fuel consumed on the East Coast of the United States The claimed theft of 3 terabytes of sensitive data from part of the Asian operations of a global insurance subsidiary in attacks using  Avaddon  ransomware The shutting down of the IT systems of Ireland’s Health Service Executive — another victim of a  DarkSide  attack — disrupting patient care throughout the country The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) alerting of a spate of  Conti  ransomware attacks targeting American hea...

Today was an exciting day for me because I had my first guest spot on a radio show. If you're following me on   Facebook  or you live in the Rochester, NY area you might have caught me on 98.9 The Buzz. I have to tell you it was a lot of fun, and I was honored to be brought in to talk about Amazon's new sidewalk project, ransomware, and what the average Jane can do to stay safe. If you missed it, you can watch it now. TOP 3 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT AMAZON SIDEWALK Your Amazon devices automatically opted in. If you want out, you have to take action. You'll be sending even more data to Amazon if you're part of the Sidewalk. No, your neighbor can't see what’s happening on your network, nor can you see what's on theirs. Do you have any Amazon devices? Are you opting out of the Sidewalk? Drop your comments below. Are you ready to reduce the risk of Ransomware attacks? Let's chat.  Book a complementary discovery session today.

    Have you noticed that in addition to sharing cybersecurity tips I also spend a like of time talking about spam and email?   Are you wondering why a cybersecurity expert is spending so much time talking about emails and spam?   Here's why...   Email offers TWO enormous opportunities. One for cyber criminals to wreak havoc and another for businesses to reach their clients.   You see, there are over 4 billion emails users across the globe, and 95% of them are checking their email EVERY DAY . This makes email a very effective tool to reach people. If you can get your message into the inbox, there is a prime chance that they will see you a...