Not too long ago, the CryptoLocker ransomware virus was all over the news, infecting over 250,000 computers in its first 100 days of release (at least that’s the number reported – the real numbers are probably MUCH higher). The threat was fairly straightforward: Pay us or we’ll delete all your data.

A phishing e-mail is a bogus e-mail that is carefully designed to trick the end user into looking like a legitimate request for personal information or to get you to click on a malicious attachment from a source you trust.  It is one of the cheapest and most effective ways to compromise end user PCs and accounts.

You have a hard working team who likes to get things done after-hours or on the road – that’s terrific! However, here is something you might not know: you should never access company data, file servers or applications through personal devices and home PCs that are not properly managed by us.

Why?

There are countless hackers who get up every morning with ONE goal in mind: to find a new vulnerability in a commonly installed software (like Adobe Flash Player, Java plug in or Google Chrome) to access your computer. 

Like it or not, device manufacturers and application publishers LOVE to add bloat that you don’t need to their products. This inevitably creates more security risks AND slows down your device.

So you’re in the car on the way home from Starbucks, when you suddenly realize your laptop has gone missing. You drive back frantically hoping you can find it, only to discover it completely missing. What do you do? That depends…

If you’re using FileShare, Dropbox, Box, OneDrive, Google Drive or other file sync and sharing cloud applications, listen up! While these tools can be very productive and effective, they also can represent a potential vector for data breaches, both intentionally and unintentionally.

Connecting to free public WiFi is incredibly convenient, especially when you have to travel or just have an urgent item that requires your attention. 

Whether it’s at the coffee shop, hotel or airport, the temptation to check e-mail and surf the web is just too strong to resist. So BEFORE you connect to any public WiFi where you don't necessarily trust the network, make sure you think about what you are doing, and take some precautions:

(As published in the March/April 2018 issue of MediNews)

Just like every other business on the planet, Medical Practices and other organizations controlling personal health records (PHI) have to deal with personnel changes on a regular basis. New people come in and, for whatever reason, others move on. Many organizations undergo significant shifts. Perhaps the practice expands or contracts. These are all normal things that any manager would anticipate.

You know you’re guilty of it: using the same password for everything. Believe me, I understand how annoying it is to try to remember all those passwords.  If you’re using the same password for sites that don’t share sensitive information, like a site you just read articles on, then it’s generally not a big deal. However, you wouldn’t want someone to exploit your login to NYTimes.com and use it to access your bank account.