Instructions for Windows and Apple home users are listed below the numbers. For organizations, here are 10 Steps To Avoid Incidents Including the Massive Ransomware Attack:

1. The reality is that most organizations are missing critical security patches and there is a very strong likelihood that yours is too.

2. Provide your team with extra time, and perhaps additional personnel, to test and then deploy patches ASAP. Some organizations are adding a new IT professional to their team whose sole responsibility is to manage patches. If the patch fails testing, then time must be invested to resolve the issue or implement compensating controls.

3. Prioritize critical security patches for the operating system, all the browsers, Flash, Java, your PDF Reader, and Microsoft Office. They are usually the easiest to attack and form your first line of defense.

4. Many IT teams are very reluctant to apply patches for fear of breaking your systems that are already running. Help remove their fears by reassuring them that you take on responsibility if the patch causes a problem. Encourage them to follow a procedure that mitigates risks:

5. Test Patches in a test environment that uses the same applications as the rest of your network. For very small companies, your test environment might be a single computer. For larger organizations, and organizations that stand to lose a great deal in the event of an attack, create a separate testing environment that is isolated from the production environment.

6. Have a pre-tested rollback plan so that, if the patch does cause a problem, your IT team will already know what they need to do right away to roll back a patch that causes an unexpected problem. They will then go back to the testing phase.

7. Deploy the patches in stages rather than patching all machines simultaneously. That way, even if the patch does cause a problem, not all your machines will be affected.

8. You may decide to empower your IT team with a patch management tool such as Ninite, LANGuard, Shavlik, or others. Allow them to test and choose a tool, and provide them with the means and time to do so, ASAP.

9. Ask IT, perhaps weekly and at least monthly, to provide you with a list of missing patches, not a pie chart.

10. You must upgrade from older operating systems, any of the ones that Microsoft no longer supports. If some machines cannot be upgraded, then they must be isolated or some other compensating control put into place. Microsoft clearly states when they stop producing patches for old operating systems.  So, there was no patch available for Windows XP and others.

Call me if they are not able to apply patches. Let’s team up to help prevent this.

At home, or if your organization is so small that you do not have an IT team or have an outsourced IT company that takes care of your patches, be sure that the option that provides automatic updates to Microsoft is enabled. The instructions are easy to find – just google the phrase: configure automatic updates site:Microsoft.com

Apple computer users, google: Automatic security updates os x site:apple.com

iPhone and iPad users, google: Automatic security downloads ios site:apple.com

Additionally, manually check for updates in Microsoft Office to be sure those are applied. Be sure that automatic updates are enabled in your browsers. Regularly download and apply patches to, or new versions of, Flash, Java, and your PDF reader.

Please forward this to everyone you care about and want to help stay secure.

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He pointed out that governments and banks are getting much better at tracking wire transfers.  The way ransomware attackers can remain anonymous is through requiring ransomware payments via Bitcoin. But, alas, Bitcoin is not going to go away.

Some people, as controversial as it sounds, feel that ransomware has a bright side. If an organization gets infected with ransomware, at least they know their systems have been compromised. Other successful hacks may not become obvious to the victim for months or even years. When an organization gets infected with Ransomware, then hopefully they will shore up their defenses, and that naturally helps protect them from many other attacks as well.

The security solutions demonstrated here at RSA are very powerful. And, for better or worse, so are the new attack vectors that are almost impossible to protect against.

The conference is exciting and depressing all at the same time. There is a lot of hype, and, when filtered through, a lot of hope. One thing is for sure, if you end up in the cross-hairs of attackers, well, let’s just hope you don’t.

The post If Bitcoin Went Away, would Ransomware be Defeated? appeared first on Foster Institute.

Microsoft has released a series of patches related to the Windows Graphics Component. As IT professionals, we are tempted to think that, since it only applies to graphics, the patch isn’t that important.

Actually, the patch is very important. An attacker can execute code on your computers, perhaps even ransomware, if the patch is not installed.

We are seeing a trend during audits, of these patches being missing.

If you are a home user, be sure you are applying patches too. Chances are that you have your computer configured to auto-update.

And at your organization, be sure to alert your IT team that these patches to the graphics component are important too.

As long as your IT team is provided enough time to keep your system backed up, and to test the patches, then their applying your patches isn’t as ominous as hackers hope they feel it is.

And, as executives, you can help a lot by providing them time to focus on testing and deploying the patches. They are very busy already.

Please forward this to everyone you know whose systems may be missing these seemingly unnecessary patches. It will help stop the attackers!

The post Alert IT to Graphics Component Patches appeared first on Foster Institute.

Yesterday, someone told me their security was good since they only get infected by a few viruses each year.

Even a single infection means there is a possibility that their machines are already infected.

If one virus can get in, other undetectable viruses can too.

Unless security protections are very poor on a network or computer, visible virus infections are rare these days.

People who see virus infections need to act, including patching their Internet facing applications and enabling click-to-play. Those features already come with Windows and applications so there is nothing to buy or download. For more information, see foster institute dot come slash blog.

If you know someone whose computers on their network catch viruses, tell them the viruses are more like chest pain, not like the common cold. Infections are the sign of some greater damage that is about to, or already has, occurred.

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