If you will be in Vegas, leave your laptop and phone at home – lest you end up on the infamous wall of shame for being hacked. The website is defcon dot org

The post Hacker Convention Starts Later This Week appeared first on Foster Institute.

With computers, you can be up and running ASAP. Unless there is something broken with the computer’s hardware, a broken computer can be revived in just a few minutes.

In order for this to happen, ask your IT department (if they haven’t already) to create a golden image.

First they will set up a computer and configure it exactly the way it needs to be for your business – and you could do this for home computers too. Second, make an image backup of the computer. Recommended tools are below.

Now, you have a golden image, configured in the way you like with all the right software installed, etc., that can be restored to a computer to reset the computer to be like new again.

From now on, whenever you suspect that a computer is infected with a virus, has been hacked, or is just malfunctioning in general, do not troubleshoot it. Dump a golden image back onto the computer and refresh it to be like new.

Note: All the data will be overwritten when you restore the image. So, for personal computers, be sure to back up the data prior to restoring an image. At the office, all users store their data files on servers, not on workstations, right?

You may find that your IT team can create a single golden image that can be used on different models of computers, or they may need to make separate images for each model. If you use a technology called VDI, this is even easier. VDI is a different topic though.

Image backup tools include Shadow Protect Desktop from Storage Craft, and Acronis True Image. For Macs, use Carbon Copy Cloner.

Please forward this to everyone you know who troubleshoots a computer if it is acting up. There is another way, and troubleshooting may not be able to completely remove a virus if the computer is infected anyway.

The post Fix A Computer in Minutes and It Works Almost Every Time appeared first on Foster Institute.

Regular backups, including file backups, can do a great job of protecting your documents, pictures, and other files. But a full restore of a computer after an attack can take a very long time, and often requires you to reset the computer to factory defaults and spend hours reloading your programs.

If you need to restore after an attack, restoring an entire image is much faster than starting a re-installation from scratch. Disk images are a one-to-one copy of everything on your computer’s internal hard drive. Most often, you will replicate your drives to an external USB hard drive.

Image backup tools include Shadow Protect Desktop from Storage Craft, and Acronis True Image. For Macs, use Carbon Copy Cloner.

Keep using whatever backup method you already use for backup too. Image backup is an addition, not a replacement.

Please forward this to everyone you know who would like to be able to recover their computer quickly in the event of a ransomware attack.

The post Recover Quickly if Ransomware Attacks at Remote Worker and Home Computers appeared first on Foster Institute.

Sir Michael Fallon, the UK’s defense secretary, warned attackers that the UK will hunt them down, and respond not just in cyber-space, but also using air, land, and sea forces.

Imagine soldiers, drones, and even missiles directed at anyone the UK identifies as a cyber-criminal.

Will attackers receive this as a deterrent? Or will attackers respond: “You realize, of course… This means war!” (Bugs Bunny cartoons).

You can read more details at www.bbc dot com/news/uk-politics-40423164

The post The UK Is Preparing to Attack Hackers with Army, Navy and Air Force. appeared first on Foster Institute.

1. Apply the most recent security patches including the ones for Flash and Java.
2. Use click-to-play in your browsers to stop them from automatically running scripts.
3. Be sure all users are local standard users.

Find more details at https://www.fosterinstitute dot com/blog/patching-10-steps-to-seal-the-holes-in-your-armor/

Please forward this to your friends and business associates so they can be sure that they are protected too.

The post Protect Yourself and Your Organization – New Ransomware Outbreak with Added Poison appeared first on Foster Institute.

The most important thing about the OneLogin breach: It affects you and everyone else, not just the 2000 customers of OneLogin.

If you store information in the cloud, including information your customers entrust to you, and if your cloud provider uses OneLogin internally, then your sensitive information could possibly be accessible as well. Cloud based service providers you use every day might use identity management.

This is another example of how someone else’s breach can hurt you, including exposing your customers’ sensitive information.

The big question is: How long have attackers had access? Thank goodness OneLogin at least identified that they’d been breached. Are any other identity management firms breached and don’t yet realize it? What are attackers accessing around the world using stolen passwords?

Please forward this to anyone you know who may not realize that these single points of failure, holding login information for many services that even your service providers may use internally, are very attractive targets for attackers. One successful attack results in a goldmine of information, including yours.

The post Online Password Warehouse, OneLogin, Discovers Massive Breach appeared first on Foster Institute.

This involves going to a computer you trust that is well protected, and downloading the installation files for the anti-virus program that you will install on your new computer.

Then you can copy the anti-virus installation files to the new machine, install anti-virus, and then connect to the Internet so your new computer can get patches, etc.

Of course, if the old computer that you use to download the files is infected, there is a good chance that the new computer will catch that virus too – so be sure you trust the old computer.

Please forward this to everyone you know who might otherwise be tempted to connect a new computer to the internet before installing anti-virus first.

The post Protect Yourself: Do Not Connect a New Computer to the Internet appeared first on Foster Institute.

Last weekend, I asked my daughter to tell me a fairy tale. She chose The Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf. As she told the story, it became so clear that organizations use straw, sticks, or brick to build their cyber-security protection. See which you are, and how to improve:

Security built with straw, is weak, and too common. It is when executives say:
1. “We moved everything to the cloud so we no longer need to be concerned with security.”
2. “Everybody is getting ransomware, so it is no big deal if we do too.”
3. “We encrypt our data, so it is safe.”

Security built with sticks is common too, and better, but will not stand up against attackers. They think they need only three things and can stop there:
1. Anti-virus
2. Firewalls
3. Strong passwords

Security built with bricks is very rare. You still need the “sticks” combination, and the rest of making a home out of brick is achieved by doing the hard things that attackers are counting on organizations not doing:
1. Ensure no programs or scripts can run unless approved
2. Keep patches current without crashing systems
3. Constantly measure to make sure the right things get done. Support your IT Professionals generously by truly listening to them and supporting them as they accomplish these difficult tasks

Past, and future, blog entries explain how to implement the brick solutions above.

Please forward this to everyone you know who may have built their cyber security out of straw or sticks. Encourage them to get out the bricks ASAP.

The post Straw, Sticks, or Brick: How to Tell Which Your Network Is, and How to Improve It appeared first on Foster Institute.