RADIO SHOW
Bottom Line I.T.
with Mike Maddox and Erik Jacobsen
RECORDED at ASK
for
May 7 and May 14, 2019

Segment 1

The Internet Couldn't Handle All the Data From the First Black Hole Photo
https://www.inverse.com/article/54833-m87-black-hole-photo-data-storage-feat

Remember that one time when a company tried to upload images so big it broke the internet? Well, it didn’t really break the internet, but the image was so big that the internet literally couldn’t handle it. So how big was it really? Eight telescopes were placed on 5 continents to take a picture of a black hole, of which was 5 petabytes. How big is 5 petabytes? It is equivalent to 5,000 years of MP3 files, or half a ton of hard drives. Like technology or not, it’s really hard to deny that something of this magnitude is not mind blowing.

Segment 2
Kaspersky: 70 percent of attacks now target Office vulnerabilities
https://www.zdnet.com/article/kaspersky-70-percent-of-attacks-now-target-office-vulnerabilities/

There are misconceptions that Microsoft has all the ducks in a row and that once you have Office you’ll have smooth sailing (maybe there is some sarcasm in that statement…). All jokes aside, there truly is a misconception that Microsoft has all the bells and whistles in place to make sure your data is backed up, secure and always available in the cloud. Listen, we love Microsoft and are avid users of Microsoft 365 and other applications, but it’s not always bundled in a pretty bow ready to go. There are vulnerabilities and weaknesses – some are in the works of being fixed. But what about those that aren’t? Making sure your applications are updated is a basic task that is often overlooked, and if not done, is one of the biggest risks your company runs.

Segment 3
Hackers publish personal data on thousands of US police officers and federal agents
https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/12/police-data-hack/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

Goodness. Just when we thought data breaches couldn’t get any worse, the FBI was breached. This time it was pretty good too. Any by pretty good – we mean pretty bad. Accordingly, to a TechCrunch article, a hacker group breached a number of different FBI websites and uploaded their data to the web. About 4,000 unique records were exposed including personal and government email addresses, postal addresses, phone numbers and job titles. 

Segment 4
Unprotected server exposed data on 80 million US households
https://mashable.com/article/unprotected-server-exposed-data-on-80-million-us-households/?utm_campaign=hp-h-2&utm_source=internal&utm_medium=onsite

Some of these articles just make us want to fall out of our chairs! 80 million personal data was exposed due to an unprotected server run operated by Microsoft. Whoopsie is an understatement. Identity thieves can certainly have a hay day with all this data including household income, whether or not they were a homeowner, date of births, names, etc. This article however put things into perspective. Doesn’t the internet already know all this stuff about us anyways? Google search your own name and a whole slew of directories and articles come up. It’s scary – yes. So while this article about 80 million personal data being exposed is unnerving, it’s something to take with a grain of salt.

Segment 5
Ransomware attack comes with malicious ransom note
http://www.scmagazine.com/home/security-news/ransomware/ransomware-attack-comes-with-malicious-ransom-note/

Ransomware and phishing campaigns go hand-in-hand much of the time. So many companies operate without any sort of cybersecurity plan or don’t have any tools in place to protect their company. Trust us. This happens to big companies, small companies, local companies and big conglomerates. If it didn’t actually happen to local companies, we wouldn’t need to have a dedicated cybersecurity team – right? But the truth is that it does happen and unfortunately (yet fortunately) there is a need for us to have an entire team dedicated to helping correct (and protect) things like ransomware and phishing campaigns. This instance people are being tricked by going to a phishing page claiming to be PayPal. Much doom and gloom is in store for these targets…

Segment 6
How Not to Acknowledge a Data Breach
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2019/04/how-not-to-acknowledge-a-data-breach/

Part of having a cybersecurity plan in place is having (and knowing) the right people to have in your corner should anything happen to your company. People like your lawyer, your IT provider, a law enforcement representative and in some cases the most important person – your communications or PR person. There is a right way, and there is definitely a wrong way, to respond to a cyber incident. The phishing incident at Wipro was a good example of what not to do.
To listen to any (and all) of this episode, please click play on the PodCast shared below!