Can Cyber Criminals Break the Bank?

By Catherine Powell

Image courtesy Microsoft Image Creator

If you're a Rat Pack fan like I am, you'll never forget the 1960 caper flick Oceans 11, where Frank, Dean, Sammie, Peter & Joey take down five Las Vegas casinos on New Year's Eve.  While a work of fiction, it proved to be more a case of life imitating art when several hacking collectives pooled their resources to take down a pair of Vegas casinos last year.  While the hack didn't break the bank at either the MGM or Caesars, it did cost the two companies more than $100 million collectively.  What's worse is that even though the FBI knows the groups responsible for the ransomware attacks, the odds are low that the feds will be able to prosecute many of those involved, since the perpetrators are scattered around the globe.  The repercussions of this brazen cyberattack and the lackluster law enforcement response has not only gotten many corporate CEO's to start quaking in their boots, it's also caused the insurance industry to take a long hard look at whether if can cover the bets of businesses who are likely to be targeted by hacking collectives that can operate with impunity.

Can Small Businesses Defend Themselves from Cyber Attacks?

 By Catherine Powell

Image courtesy pxhere

You read about big businesses being hacked every day.  Either their data has been stolen, their servers have been hit with a denial of service attack, or their computers have been locked down due to ransomware. In 2022 some of the companies that were hit included Twitter, Uber, WhatsApp, MailChimp, and Toyota.  Hacking in the US last year also included targets in the banking, healthcare, government, cryptocurrency, and law enforcement sectors.  While many of these high-profile targets made the news, what most people fail to realize is that more than 80% of hacks were not targeted at large companies but small businesses that had less than 100 employees.  This should come as no surprise.  I mean, if hackers can crack the biggest companies with the most advanced cyber security systems in the world, why wouldn't they target small businesses that are much easier to breach?  While I've covered such things as the 10 Signs of a Cyber Attack and Does Your Business Need Cyber Insurance?, what I"d like to show you today are 10 ways small businesses can defend themselves from cyber attacks.

10 Signs of a Cyberattack

By Catherine Powell

Image courtesy Pixabay

Cyber crime has become a massive problem in this country.  Did you know that there were more than 623 million cyberattacks in 2021 alone?  What's even scarier is not only are those numbers expected to rise in 2022, but all too many consumers and small business owners don't realize their devices are under attack until it's too late.  To help you keep hackers at bay, I thought I'd give you the top-10 warning signs that your device is under attack by hackers.  That's because the earlier you can mitigate an attack, the less damage hackers can do to your system and your life.