If you use the internet, security should concern you. Hackers can easily intercept your personal communications and even monitor what websites you visit.
When you consider the use of your computer for work or business, online threats become even more disconcerting. When family members, including children, become involved, you start to understand that security matters.
With so much at stake every time you go online, shouldn’t you take some precautions? Although online security may at first seem complicated, you can quickly enhance your safety by using a Virtual Private Network (VPN). Continue reading to learn what a VPN can do for you.
Anonymity :
A VPN service creates a secure, encrypted tunnel between your computer and a VPN service. This prevents your ISP and hackers from seeing what websites you visit. Also, when using a VPN, web servers log your VPN’s IP address, not yours, allowing you to anonymously use online resources.
Additionally, your ISP sees only that you’ve connected to your VPN service. If you choose a VPN provider that doesn’t keep user logs, you can defend yourself against government surveillance, advertisers and third-party subpoenas.
Security :
Have you ever connected to a “free” Wi-Fi network at a coffee shop, library, airport or store? Every time you do, anyone else connected to that network has a chance to hack your phone or computer. Also, they can monitor your plain-text data such as emails and URLs sent from your device to the internet.
A VPN tunnel allows you to safely use public Wi-Fi without fear. Sure, the owner of the Wi-Fi network as well as any snoopers and hackers can see that you’re using the network. However, they can’t see any of your data or what websites you visit while connected via your VPN service.
Freedom :
Some Wi-Fi operators, such as schools, employers and businesses restrict the type of websites that users can access through their network. They may do this for one or more reasons:
• Conserve bandwidth.
• Prevent distractions.
• Maintain standards.
• Manage liability.
Common content restrictions may include social media, video, pornography and file downloads.
In such settings, you can still freely access the internet by first connecting to a VPN service. When you do, network administrators can see that you’ve connected to an internet resource. However, since all data goes through your VPN tunnel, no one can analyze your activities.
In summary, a VPN gives you an affordable, easy to use way to increase your anonymity, security and freedom online. Stop taking risks with your personal, family and business. Always connect to a VPN before using the internet.
The General Data Protection Regulation enacted by the European Union is scheduled to go into effect on May 25. The effect of this regulatory framework will differ across European jurisdictions; in the United Kingdom, for example, companies will only have to follow GDPR guidelines until Brexit is formalized. As for Ireland and other EU member states, the GDPR is not exactly a rigid proposition.
The Seanad opted to adopt some of the flexibility offered by the GDPR when it passed the Irish Data Protection Bill earlier this year. This new law is filled with complexities for government and public entities, but the situation is not as strict for private companies.
Article 37 of the new law directs certain companies to appoint a data protection officer; specifically, business enterprises that collect, store and process large amounts of sensitive data will be expected to appoint a DPO. Some examples of sensitive digital information include: health records and data that can reveal the political and religious inclinations of Irish or European citizens. With this in mind, it is safe to assume that certain barristers and solicitors offices will have to abide by this article; moreover, private hospitals, insurance offices, and psychologists may have to do so as well. Banks and private funds can also expect to be subject to GDPR compliance.
Larger business enterprises in Ireland have more at stake under the new laws, but small companies should not believe that they will be impervious to the expensive penalties that can be imposed under GDPR. The reality of personal information stored in digital records these days is that it must be protected, and not just because of GDPR. If anything, the enactment of the Irish Data Protection Bill should prompt company owners to look at how their office network is protected.
Any company that has been managing its own server on premises should strongly consider migrating its data infrastructure to the cloud. The security advantage in this regard is that cloud technology has become very competitive, which means that providers are mindful about using secure and GDPR compliant options. There is more than compliance to consider when choosing cloud solutions; the ability to automate the data backup process and ease of recovery should also be factored in.
In the end, GDPR may become a wake-up call for Irish companies that have neglected the overall security of their office networks and the integrity of their data.
Did you know that over 13% of Irish internet users have experienced fraud of some description, while 16% of them had reported having their social media or email accounts hacked? The Irish Times surveyed over 1,000 Irish men and women and found that anti-virus use in Ireland is well below the EU’s 61%.
If you manage a website using the popular WordPress software, you are a sitting duck waiting for hackers to breach your site if you do not follow these simple tips.
1. Keep your WordPress installation up-to-date.
WordPress powers over 50% of the websites on the internet, which makes it a prime target for hackers to exploit vulnerabilities. Automattic, the company that develops WordPress, works tirelessly to fix any identified exploits by issuing updates with fixes frequently. If you are not keeping your WordPress installation up-to-date, then you are not getting these critical fixes.
2. Don’t use extensions unless you trust the author.
It can be tempting to customize your WordPress installation with thousands of plugins available on the WordPress Plugins page, but unless you trust the author, you should think twice about installing these extensions.
Popular extensions can introduce vulnerabilities that can be identified by hackers that will then target any websites or blogs that use the same installation. This common vulnerability allows hackers to focus on targetting thousands of different blogs with the extension installed.
3. Change your default login details.
When setting up your WordPress installation, you are provided with a default account with the username ‘admin.’ Because WordPress is so used by thousands of websites all over the globe, hackers will try to guess the admin password to be admitted access to your site.
Change this immediately to something more secure that you have never used on another site to prevent this standard method of attack.
4. Know the tell-tale signs of hacking.
You should maintain constant vigilance with your WordPress installation so you can quickly identify signs of hacking. Most hackers will not take your site offline immediately. Instead, they will insert malicious links to their content, or they will attempt to steal the personal information of your site’s visitors.
If you conduct sales on your site, you should take extra steps to remain aware of your site’s security.
5. Set up website lockdown to prevent brute force attacks.
Sometimes your moderators or other admins get careless and re-use login details or only change one or two characters in their passwords. To prevent brute force attacks on these accounts, you should enable the WordPress feature that locks out users after a certain number of wrong attempts.
Allowing three to five attempts to get a password correct is generous and should prevent you from running into problems with people who have legitimately forgotten their password.
Conclusion
If you follow this small handful of tips for your WordPress blog, you should be reasonably safe from hackers looking to exploit your site. The most important tip is to keep your site and any plugins you use up-to-date, since most updates are to fix known security issues that have been discovered.
A recent warning issued by An Garda Síochána about a callback scam targeting Irish users of WhatsApp should serve as a reminder to company owners that their business networks, including their mobile messaging platforms, face a variety of risks.
In early March 2018, a news story published by the Mirror explained that Gardai received many complaints from WhatsApp users who received a message from an unknown number and the subject line “Martineilli.” Users who opened the message were later targeted by missed VoIP calls from numbers starting with the 087 country code, which would suggest calls originated within Ireland. The idea is to ensnare WhatsApp users into a callback scam.
Gardai detectives have determined that the 087 numbers are spoofed, and that the calls are actually made from Bosnia. When the callers return the call, they unknowingly activate a special charge to their monthly bill. Some callers report that this has happened to them various times in a single month.
The lesson for business owners to learn in this case is that their mobile messaging apps can be vulnerable to external attacks. Even dedicated business messaging networks such as Slack are not as safe as many people wish for; furthermore, micro-companies that decide to use WhatsApp for business use just because it is already installed in the personal smartphones of most employees are opening their companies to greater risk.
In the past, information security researchers combing through code posted on the popular online development platform known as GitHub have discovered Slack tokens with login credentials that could be used to spy on corporate chats, projects and conversation threads.
Companies that choose to implement mobile messaging apps as part of their networks should first conduct a security audit. Even though apps such as Telegram offer strong end-to-end data encryption, company owners should not assume that they will be impervious to phishing attacks or social engineering.
A mobile messaging app can only be as secure as the business network and security policies of the company. Any digital communications solution can be hacked; the idea is to enact preventive measures to avoid data breaches and network intrusion situations.
Mozilla Corporation has implemented new technology by creating a Firefox extension in an effort to isolate specific social media data collection and improve the security of web browsing users.
The well-known browser maker has launched the Firefox Container as a consequence of the recent Cambridge Analytica incident and ongoing investigations of Facebook’s data mishandling aspersions. In response to the security breaches and controversy surrounding the misuse of Facebook user data, Mozilla accelerated the release of the Facebook Container add-on technology, which was previously in the development process with other plugins.
Data analysis firm, Cambridge Analytica, purportedly collected millions of Facebook user data without consent, leading to a potential value for the Trump presidential campaign. As a result, Facebook’s CEO made a public commitment to implement limitations on developer access to user data. Unsatisfied by these limitations, Mozilla has removed advertisements from Facebook as an additional response to Facebook’s data collection practices.
As Facebook’s default privacy setting remained problematic, Mozilla expedited the premiere of the Facebook Container extensions, empowering its web browser users to maintain and increase the regulation of their online privacy and security features.
Further examples of Mozilla’s ongoing commitment to security and usability can be noted through their Extended Support Release of Java Plugins this year. In 2017, Mozilla Firefox announced the removal of the Java Plugin support from its latest version of the web browser. Bank of Ireland addressed this impediment of access to their business clients concerning the Business On Line feature. As a result, Mozilla ensured functionality for older versions of the web browser for such issues while developing a solution towards future plugin support and integration as promised and executed in 2018.
As Irish businesses increase their use of online advertisements through Facebook, concerns were taken into consideration by Mozilla and other web browsing pioneers, despite their own removal of ads in protest of negative data practices. This is highlighted through ongoing developments made by Mozilla to improve usability, the security of plugins, and extensions for business users in Ireland and various locations in Europe.
As noted in the Facebook data security breach and Bank of Ireland inconvenience, Mozilla Corporation demonstrates a continuous development of technology towards user privacy and usability, with an involved interest of their users alongside their corporate responsibility and focus on technology improvements.
The 2018 update of the Oxford English Dictionary will include ransomware as a new entry, and this announcement just happens to coincide with a new zero-day exploit that bypasses security measures of popular cloud computing services such as Office 365 and Google Drive.
“Shurl0ckr” is the name of the new ransomware strain detected on February 7 by cyber security experts at Bitglass Threat Research Team. Out of 67 antivirus software suites, only five of them identified Shurl0ckr as a threat.
Ransomware attacks are very much on the minds of Irish information security specialists. In May 2017, IT administrators at the Health Service Executive moved quickly to protect its vast network from the WannaCry ransomware attack that greatly impacted the operations of the NHS in the United Kingdom. At the time, the HSE operated 2,350 servers and more than 25,000 clients, many of them running Windows XP. Technicians rushed to install emergency patches and update antivirus software on all machines; three instances of WannaCry were initially detected but later dismissed when found to be vestiges of a previous infection by different malware.
In the end, HSE was not targeted by the hackers behind the WannaCry ransomware; however, an internal assessment published in January 2018 indicated that the Executive lacks a defined strategy for business continuity in case of future attacks. HSE is not certainly not alone in this predicament; in June 2017, Irish broadcasting giant Kantar Media was dealt an embarrassing blow as its servers were came under a ransomware attack at a time when the company was negotiating an important merger.
Ransomware attacks are particularly devastating due to their particular mechanism; once a system is infected, malicious code proceeds to apply a layer of encryption to all data it can find with the exception of system files it needs to display a ransom demand, which typically directs victims to transfer cryptocurrency or enter a bank card number so that a key can be received to remove the encryption and access files. The Garda Cyber Crime Bureau tells business owners to not pay these ransom demands; however, this is often the only way to unlock sensitive data needed to unlock information. In America, more than $206 million in ransomware payments were made just in the first quarter of 2016; in the most critical cases, business owners have had to bite the bullet and reformat their hard drives or reset their servers and start over, thereby losing crucial company information.
While keeping antivirus software and operating systems up-to-date can certainly help to protect against ransomware, the best strategy will always be to install and maintain a solid data backup system that adheres to business continuity guidelines. In case of a severe ransomware attack, servers or clients can be completely restored without having to meet any ransom demands. Comprehensive data backup strategies will completely workstations; another option is to mirror virtual workstations in the cloud so that they can be booted from just about anywhere in Ireland or even abroad.
Proper data backup systems are also crucial for disaster recovery planning, and they may be a matter of compliance for businesses operating in certain sectors. Business owners who install reliable backup solutions for their company networks will always have peace of mind in terms of never having to worry about ransomware attacks.
Over past few weeks we have been inundated with calls in relation to search not working.
After trying all these updates:
- Rebuilt the index
- Deleted the index file and rebuilt
- renamed and copied the .pst file
- Tried a lot of “solutions” from forums
Ms have finally fixed issue:
Check for Windows update to see if there are any improvements. Please go to Start > Setting icon > Update and Security >Windows Update