How to Charge your Phone for $107 Million
It's as Easy as This... Sometime in late 2019, an employee with the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) plugged a personal device into their work computer to charge it. The device had a file infected with the Ryuk ransomware package. While connected, they opened a...
Lessons from the US Treasury Cyberattack
On December 13, 2020, the US Government announced a major cyberattack on the US Treasury and Commerce departments. When you are a US government department, smaller hackers don't stand a chance against the routine security procedures of these organizations. These were...
Using a Tabletop Exercise to Plan in These Uncertain Times
With Canada solidly in a "second wave" situation and Alberta's infection rates soaring, businesses have good reason to be concerned. Do you know how your business will survive if a key person on your team needs to quarantine for 2 weeks or worse? Does your business...
What Can You Do With an Old Computer?
There comes a time when every computer has lived out its usefulness. What to do with old hardware? Manage Your Risks First of all, consider the risks. Running any Windows version earlier than Windows 10 is a huge risk. Older versions of Windows including: 7, Vista,...
Google Meet moving to compete with Zoom
Early in the pandemic, all the virtual meeting platforms: Google Meet, GoToMeeting, Microsoft Teams, Cisco Webex, and Zoom, found themselves in a gold rush. Zoom was the early leader--in part because of price: a freemium version allowed group meetings of up to 40...
New Facebook Phishing Attack Could Fool Many
I just received a Facebook Messenger message from a good friend yesterday. He apparently saw me in a video and thought I'd be interested in watching it. He's a friend who does send me interesting stuff once in a while and there was no reason not to click through....
Can You Trust Your Lawyer?
Law firms and lawyers are a profession we sometimes need to rely upon. We depend upon them to manage family matters, custody issues, contract disputes, and criminal matters. Many times, these issues are personally, professionally, or economically sensitive. For this...
“G-Suite” is Changing to “Google Workspace”: What Does This Mean?
Google is rebranding "G-Suite" to "Google Workspace." It's about time. When Atlas became a G-Suite Reseller, we decided to call our offering a "Digital Workspace Solution." It was G-Suite bundled with an optional backup solution. We're glad Google listened to...
Have You Been Owned/Pwned?
The term "Pwned" comes from video game culture and means "owned" (since the "o" and "p" characters are beside each other on a keyboard). Pwned implies domination, humiliation and ownership by an opponent. It is a taunt that you have been soundly defeated. "Pwned" has...
A Ransomware Attack that Turned into a Horror Story
October is Cybersecurity Month and the Canadian CyberSecurity Conference, MapleSEC, is running October 5 - 7. On Monday, Terry Cutler of Cyology Labs in Montreal shared a case study of a major Canadian company hit by ransomware. “IT guys are always asking for money,”...