Nexus Digital Solutions

Wyndham Hotels Hacked Again
February 28, 2010 by V3.co.uk

Finland: Hackers Get Data on 10's of Thousands of Payment Cards
February 19, 2010 by YLE, Finland

Protecting You and Your Family Online - What Most People Miss
June 10, 2009 by Nick Call

The complexity, intelligence, and cunning of today's hackers and scammers should not be underestimated or ignored. These days they have banded into organized groups, and some are well funded crime syndicates. What these people are usually after is personal information they can use to do the following:

Email you, pose as an old friend or business acquaintance and gain your trust to sway you into giving them more information or sway you into doing something.
Pose as you to gain control of an account, such as an email account, a bank account, or credit card account. Once they have access to one account, they can usually find ways to get into others by gathering more information from your account profile.
Pose as you to open new credit accounts at various places.

Most people have grown accustomed to better passwords with numbers and special characters in them, changing these passwords often, and other front line defenses. But what most people miss, and what i want to talk about today is the recent explosion in social networking online. These sites are a goldmine of personal information about you and your family, and these scammers can commonly click right into your profiles and read all about you. Here's some things I want you to consider doing TODAY, as in RIGHT NOW

Lock your MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, family Blog sites, or other social networking profiles. Make sure people have to be your friends before they can access your entire profile. If you have kids, make sure they are not using social networking sites, but if you do allow it, monitor it heavily and discuss the dangers with them. Kids are a favorite target because they are trusting and full of information. Why do this? For example, I have seen social networking profiles with pictures of the kids and spouses, their names, ages, birthdates, anniversaries, where they go to school, their occupation, where they work, where they live, what they drive, their favorite colors, foods, activities, and more. Do you want just anyone having a picture of your kid and knowing where they go to school? It's easy to overlook the idea that someone would use this information in that manner, but do yourself a favor and take a minute to protect yourself and your family.
Browsers these days allow you to store usernames and passwords to individual sites. These can be your banking website, your credit card website, etc. DO NOT STORE YOUR PASSWORDS IN YOUR BROWSERS. Although rare, there are hackers that have found ways to get into these encrypted stored password lists within your browser. How do they do this? Well, they have to get their specific hacker program installed onto your computer first. How do they do this? Spyware, tricky popups on websites that say "your computer has been infected!" and other underhanded tricks. Once their program is hidden on your computer, it is free to hunt for these password lists and silently send them to the hacker.

If you find this article, or other information I have posted here useful, please take a moment to let me know by emailing nick.call@gmail.com. I won't waste my time or yours by posting articles that aren't relevant. Your feedback is welcome and encouraged. I also encourage you to recommend me on Twitter if you like these posts. Thank you. ~Nick

Five Common Mistakes to Avoid in your Small Business Security
May 28, 2009 Original Article by Cisco Systems

1. Being too generous with wireless network access
Guests expect wireless access, but it can be secured with the right approach. Every day I see businesses exposed by improper wireless configurations.

2. Expecting super-hero performance from a familiar duo.
It's fantasy that just a network router and free anti-virus software can do it all. It will only get you so far. Hackers are better organized and groups of well-funded talented hackers are operating overseas with the focus on getting their hands on your data. These days you need a real firewall and real anti-virus.

3. Letting employees connect too freely from home or the road
Employees who connect from home or public hotspots can have their transmissions intercepted or leave behind information that can be used to break into the company network. Remote access should be limited to sessions with SSL or secured VPN.

4. Using leaky pipes to connect other sites and partners
It's easy to use the Internet to link remote offices to your central network. But how can you secure the connections? Again, connection options should be investigated and SSL or secured VPN should be used if possible.

5. Being lured off course by a siren song
Just about everyone has opinions on security, including your Uncle Fred and the 18 year old blogger down the street. For advice based on businesses like yours, discuss your needs with a professional technology partner who has security expertise and experience serving small businesses. Such a partner can provide solutions appropriate for your environment, ideas for minimizing costs, assistance with security policies, and other technical support and services you may need.

Next Steps to protect your business
Find a partner with expertise in security and experience working with small businesses. Set up a meeting to discuss your needs and review your current configuration. Nexus Digital has been doing this for businesses of all sizes since 2002, give us a call 801-288-8835.

Google Groups Spam
May 27, 2009 by Nick Call

The latest trick used by spammers is to utilize Google Groups to distribute their message. Recipients will receive a legitimate email from Google Groups. Since Google Groups is legitimate, spam filters will allow it through, guaranteeing the spammer excellent distribution. However, the link contained within the email will lead to the spammer's illegitimate Google Group post, which will link you over to the spammer's website. These are usually for adult sites, pharmaceutical sites, and other sites intended to separate you from your hard earned money. The "red flag" that this is illegitimate is that if you may receive these emails even though you are not following any topics in any Google Group. To play it safe, delete any emails coming from Google Groups. If you are following a topic on a Google Group, go to Google and read the posts online, avoid the email. - Nick