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,...
Business
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....
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,”...
As of September 1, Multi-year SSL Certificates Will No Longer Be Trusted
What is an SSL Certificate? SSL certificates verify that the website you are visiting: Is proven to belong to who they say they are (for example, an SSL certificate signed for www.rbcroyalbank.com won't work for www.rbcroyalbank.cn) cannot be read or deciphered by...
Can Remote Work Reduce Your Business’ Operating Costs?
Remote work is a new reality for many businesses. Perhaps you feel it was forced upon you and is a challenge to manage and monitor. Like any change, remote work models are unsettling. But as a change, it can also be a disruption in a good way. Having workers show up...
Work from Home May Be Here to Stay
Out of 3.4 million Canadians were told to work from home early in the Corona virus lockdown. 3/4 of those were still working from home in August according to Statistics Canada's latest Labour Force Survey. Having hired back workers over the 5 months since April,...
Malware Email is on the Increase: Protect Your Business with Email Quarantines
Google is a security conscious company. I almost never get unfiltered spam or phishing attacks in my regular inbox.* By default, Google sends suspicious mail to the Junk E-mail folder (if it looks like spam but doesn't seem to contain anything harmful), or Google...
Google? No Thanks; We Use Microsoft (Part-1)
Someone recently said this to me and it got me thinking. Some people are loyal to a particular brand. Some families and even entire communities won't buy any truck if it isn't a GMC and no one can convince them otherwise. I get that some people don't like using...
QNAP NAS appliances at risk of malware
Does your business use a QNAP Network Attached Storage (NAS) device? If so, the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) urges you to update the firmware to the latest release level. Hackers released a malware known as QSnatch in 2019 targeting QNAP...
3 Things to Watch for in Preventing Business Email Compromises (BEC)
Cyber crime is up during a pandemic and one of the easiest tricks for criminals is to fake or spoof business emails that appear to come from your company. One common technique is known as Business Email Compromise or BEC. The FBI estimates that BEC scams have cost organizations $26 Billion in losses over the past 3 years.
What is BEC? BEC occurs when a cybercriminal is able to use a compromised business email account with the goal of transacting fraud with an unsuspecting employee or vendor. Companies can lose millions with only a few clicks.
DNS Firewalls: A New Tool to Protect your Business
If your computer connected to a DNS Firewall instead of a regular DNS and you typed in “yotube.com” (note the missing “u” from “you”), the attack will be thwarted. Yotube.com is a known phishing site that tries to download malware (viruses, worms, ransomware, botnets, etc.) to anyone who mistakenly tries to visit it.