"Cloud Security Report 2015: What You Need to Know"

While most organizations are realizing that they need to protect their employees’ mobile devices in order to protect confidential corporate data, some companies try to remain blissfully naive to the hacking opportunities smartphones and tablets present. Given the ever-growing use of mobile devices and the number of mobile cyberattacks, companies can no longer plead ignorance to these mobile threats.

Attackers are targeting Active Directory in nearly every type of attack, especially ransomware attacks. Unfortunately, organizations struggle with where to begin to secure AD, as well as what should be emphasized. The end result is a weak AD security posture that is easily attacked and exploited by attackers. There is a solution to securing AD to disrupt attackers. By prioritizing the most exploited settings, the attack surface of AD can be dramatically reduced. This approach of securing AD gives every organization a clear starting and ending point to get through a first wave of securing their AD environment.

This attempt went on to ask why the sender wouldn’t pay an “invoice” attached to the email. Our IT staff later confirmed this attachment carried a ransomware payload. Like the confusing influx of different Oreo flavors in recent years (cotton candy Oreos, really?), the variety of phishing email attempts has blossomed. The “shock and awe” method described above is not a new tactic, though the use of vulgarity seems to be a relatively new variation. Fake shipping confirmations. Tax-related W-2 requests. Emails requesting password resets for social media accounts, online banking, you name it. These are just a few ways scammers use social engineering to bypass technological safeguards and compromise sensitive data.

As organizations are relying more and more on cloud collaboration tools to store and share sensitive customer data, security concerns abound. Failure to comply with regulation is not a risk worth taking, and the financial cost, time lost and reputation damage from even one data breach can jeopardize an entire company. After all, it is the people behind the files and sensitive data that you need to protect.