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FAFSA Data Breach May Have Exposed 100,000 People to Tax Fraud
The Internal Revenue Service said, on Thursday, that the personal data of as many as 100,000 taxpayers could have been compromised through a scheme in which hackers posed as students using an online tool to apply for financial aid. According to The New York Times, the breach has the potential of being the most extensive since the 2015 tax return incident when info on over 300,000 taxpayers was used to file false claims. The IRS later increased that estimate to potentially affect 700,000 people.
Alexa, Are You Recording Me?
Over the past year, several clients have asked me ‘how exactly does the Amazon Echo work’? More specifically, “is the Echo recording everything it hears, all the time?” This was a really great question. With millions of consumers purchasing these devices, and bringing them into their homes, workplaces – it could be a privacy nightmare. So I did what any cyber security consultant would do, I built a mini-lab to validate Amazon’s assertions and statements.
The Disturbing Cyber Threat Targeting Medical Devices
Hackers have found another way to extort the medical community and their patients. There’s a disturbing trend of cyber-thieves targeting medical devices in doctors’ offices and hospitals. The very medical devices that provide life saving treatment are now being targeted by hackers – for profit.
Is Your IT Company a Cyber Risk?
Over the past 10 years, we’ve seen a progressive commoditization of the IT industry. Help desk services are now rolled into unlimited flat-rate agreements, hardware replacement is more streamlined, and automated management and monitoring tools have evolved to provide useful proactive remediation services.
The value MSP’s (Managed Service Providers) have brought to the average business is undoubtedly beneficial. But at what cost? When considering value, you generally evaluate three critical metrics: cost, efficiency/time, and quality. I’ve often told customers that no matter the vendor, you only get two of the three. As a CEO or business owner, understanding what you’re sacrificing is key to navigating your organization’s IT Strategy.
Cost of cybersecurity incidents to increase by nearly 400%
A report by Juniper Research predicts that data breaches will be responsible for $2.1 trillion in losses by 2019.
As our lives and business data continue to become more connected to the internet, Juniper Research predicts that cyber security incidents will become more expensive for businesses by nearly 400% between the years 2015 and 2019. While it is expected that attacks against mobile devices and the Internet of Things (IoT) devices are going to increase, the data currently supports that traditional IT and network infrastructure are the medium utilized for most breaches.
How to Keep Smart Hackers out of your Smart Home
Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night, frustrated that you’ve been fumbling around for that darn toilet handle? Have you ever been appalled that you had to actually use your own hands to push down the toilet handle, instead of just saying, “Okay Google, flush the toilet.”
Neither have we, but apparently someone has felt this way because there is a new wave of Smart Toilets hitting the market.
