When you want to know if what you’re doing to protect your organization from cyber-attack is effective, you should check your security controls with a penetration test (or pen test). A pen test simulates what a real attacker might do to get into your network and capture the credentials and privileges that would give them ultimate power to do anything they want in your IT systems. Discovering if your systems can be compromised is a good thing for you to do if you’re a business leader managing risk. However, the need for a pen test may be dictated by someone […]

Web apps have made it easy for just about anyone to start a service business. All you have to do is buy a subscription to the software and off you go. Along with the latest software, you’ll get access to tutorials and tech support, and you can even join an online forum where you can interact and learn from others in the same business. Sounds great, doesn’t it?  Yes, it’s great except this is not what it seems. This is the cyber-criminal ecosystem and the improvements that have allowed business technology to evolve so quickly are the same kind of […]

An employee gets an email that says their invoice is attached. Opening the attachment downloads a computer virus that encrypts the files on their computer in seconds. The virus spreads to other computers in the company and soon the entire network is taken down and a cyber-criminal is demanding a hefty ransom in return for the encryption key that’s required to release the data. This is what cyber experts call – a cold, dark day. It’s the day when you have a cyber-attack. While cyber-attacks like this ransomware scenario can happen quickly, these days it’s more common for the bad […]

With a Zero Trust strategy for cybersecurity, the presence of an intruder is assumed. That means that tactics are needed to limit exposure and the potential damage that the intruder can do. One of those tactics is the Principle of Least Privilege. Least privilege involves matching up permissions to access data with the job or tasks that need to be done. This starts with determining exactly what data is needed to perform specific functions and then establishing limits. Historically, companies have been quite relaxed when it comes to allocating permissions with user and even administrator accounts because opening up access […]