Tag Archive for: cybersecurity

St. Anthony to upgrade city cybersecurity after hacking attempt | Local News

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The City of St. Anthony will be upgrading its email and computer system threat protection after an unsuccessful hacking attempt that occurred last month.

“They were knocking at our door,” said City Clerk Patty Parkinson. “They were there trying to get in.”

During the city council meeting on April 22, Parkinson announced to the council that she got a call from the FBIa informing her that hackers were trying to gain access to the city’s online system.

“At first when I got the call I was like ‘yeah right, whoever you are —Mr. FBI’,” Parkinson said. “Here we are in little St. Anthony, Idaho but the thing that’s happening is they’re getting people. That’s how they make their money and they’re busy.”

Ransomware is a type of malicious software or malware, used by hackers, that prevents an individual, agency or business from accessing computer files, systems or networks, according to the FBI. Hackers then demand a ransom for the return of access.

In 2019, the city of Riviera Beach, Florida, paid nearly $600,000 in ransom to hackers who took control of the city’s computer system.

The city has had hackers attack its website before. Parkinson said she once got a call from an anonymous hacker that wanted a ransom payment to give back control to the city’s website in 2016. She did not give in to the ransom and told the hackers the city would handle its business physically, informing them that they could have the website.

Little did the hackers know they had taken control of the website for St. Anthony, Idaho when they were trying to take over the website for St. Anthony, Minnesota, she said.

“I finally drove down to them that we weren’t St. Anthony, Minnesota. The next day everything was fine, up and running. Didn’t cost us a dollar,” Parkinson said.

The hackers were angry at a St. Anthony, Minnesota police officer who shot a black man at a traffic stop and wanted to retaliate against the city and its police department by taking control of the city’s website, Parkinson said. The officer was charged with second-degree manslaughter but was found to be not guilty.

“After that, I walked into…

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The Ultimate Cybersecurity Hack: How VPNs are Helping Businesses fight Cybercriminals

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A study by the University of Maryland reported that hackers attack every 39 seconds, on average 2,244 times a day. In 2016, the NY Times reported that 3 billion Yahoo accounts were hacked in one of the biggest breaches of all time. The activities of cybercriminals are real, and businesses must do all within their power to protect themselves from these attacks, capable of paralyzing their operations.

Cases of cyber-attacks on businesses are on the rise. According to a 2019 report, 68% of business leaders feel their cybersecurity risks are increasing. In reality, most of these businesses are fighting an enemy they are ill-equipped to face. Even businesses with IT departments or third-party IT partners struggle with keeping their data and business operations safe from cybersecurity issues.

Your business is certainly online, whether it is for full operations or merely as an interface for exchanging information with your customers. Any data breach could cost both you and your customers a great deal. Internal cybersecurity processes and procedures are necessary but are not enough without a Virtual Private Network (VPN).

What is a VPN?

A Virtual Private Network (VPN) extends a private network across a public network and enables users to send and receive data across shared or public networks as if their computing devices were directly connected to the private network.

Essentially, a VPN allows people to access the internet securely and remotely. With a VPN, your online actions are virtually untraceable, private, and anonymous. A VPN is a must-have tool for any business that is serious about cybersecurity. VPN is the ultimate cybersecurity hack and below are a few ways VPNs are helping businesses fight cybercriminals.

1) VPN provides additional security infrastructure

One of the easiest ways to stop cybercriminals from gaining access to your systems is by having strong firewall protection installed on each piece of your business infrastructure. With firewall…

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The Cybersecurity 202: Nearly two-thirds of cybersecurity experts think Biden’s response to Russian hack is sufficient

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“The Biden administration responded both forcefully and responsibly, and I assume the Russians know that while the [United States] is not escalatory, we are no longer going to ignore provocation,” said cybersecurity entrepreneur Dave Aitel.

After entering office in January, Biden ordered a sweeping review of the SolarWinds attack and other Russian aggressions, including election interference. The full extent of the damage wrought by the attack is unknown and officials believe there are still many unnamed victims.

“The SolarWinds Orion hacking campaign called for that kind of retaliation combining financial and political punishment,” said Jay Kaplan, co-founder and chief executive of Synack. “The response shows that the Biden administration is not going to sit back and let Russia, China, North Korea or any of our other adversaries continue carrying out damaging cyberattacks that victimize thousands of companies and costs hundreds of millions to clean up.”

Many experts suggested the sanctions were a step in the right direction after years of failing to hold Russia accountable.

“A serious situation received a proportionate response, far beyond what administrations have done in large nation-state cyber espionage cases previously,” said Scott Montgomery, chief technical officer at the Federal Resources Corporation.

Experts often criticized former president Donald Trump for undermining the findings of his own intelligence community about Russia’s election interference. In a December Network survey, a majority of our experts said Trump led the nation in the wrong direction on cybersecurity. 

“The Biden administration‘s response was direct and well coordinated across the interagency, which was a significant departure from the last four years when dealing with Russia,” said Chris Cummiskey, CEO of Cummiskey Strategic Solutions.

“In contrast to President Trump, who actively avoided any effort to hold Russia accountable, the Biden administration‘s actions were a refreshing change and apparently the beginning of a larger plan of signaling, action and potential engagement with Moscow,” said Chris Painter,…

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How Can You Improve Financial Services Cybersecurity?

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It’s common knowledge that threat actors target banks. Not only might these attackers want to directly steal money, by doing this they’re also hitting the customers and the trust in the bank. If a financial institution suffers a loss, even insurance can only go so far to minimize the actual cost to the organization. The cost gets shared and passed on to each stakeholder, and the business model becomes untenable. With the need for security and privacy becoming more apparent, it is up to you to think about how you can improve your financial services cybersecurity posture.

Of course, there are cybersecurity requirements for financial service companies and cyber laws related to banking to ensure the end consumer does not suffer the brunt of the cost when everything is said and done. But banking cybersecurity regulations are not enough. Why? Because even though data may be our most valuable currency today, money is still the next best currency. It’s tangible, it’s needed for trade and without it life comes to a crashing halt. You’ve heard it before and you are going to keep on hearing it: financial cybersecurity is all about risk management.

The Tough Questions for Financial Services Cybersecurity

When it comes to financial services cybersecurity, like any other security, you need to be honest with yourself. You can rely on outside help, but like any improvement, you need to begin and end from within. Before you begin any type of self-assessment, you need to ask yourself these three questions:

  • Are you really willing to change what you’ve been doing?

  • Can you think of a better strategy or idea than the status quo?

  • Can you execute on your chosen solution?

These three questions are core to how you will manage your cybersecurity challenges. For the purposes of this exercise, let’s assume you truthfully answer yes to all three questions. What are the next steps?

Here are five questions that can help guide you. The beauty of these questions is that they are not temporal, so even as financial services cybersecurity evolves, you can ask yourself these questions on a regular basis and they will still apply. They’re also useful questions…

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