Category Archives: Cyber Risk

Understanding the Cyber and Privacy Risks of Zoom and Tips For Using It More Securely

CBS 11 DFW interviews Shawn Tuma who explains that when you are given a free service or product to use, you and your data are the real product. By now everyone has now heard of — and likely used — Zoom for staying connected during the COVID-19 pandemic. In what may have been a brilliant strategy …

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Is ransomware the coronavirus of the cyber world?

The coronavirus is an epidemic in the world today. Ransomware is an epidemic in the cyber world today. We are told that, if we start using better personal hygiene — like washing our hands — we can help minimize the risk of the nasty coronavirus. If nothing else positive comes from this epidemic, hopefully, the …

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Is #ShameHacking Coming Next? Hackers Breach Search Engine for Japanese Sex Hotels

Life is short – it is shorter when hackers tell your spouse Shame hacking — the use, or threatened use, of purportedly hacked data for embarrassing or extorting people by threatening to expose such compromising data if they do not comply with the demands made of them — is a thing. A search engine for …

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2 Decades Later: Cyber Risk Isn’t Y2K–It Is An Unsolved Risk That You Must Take Seriously

12/31/19 Two decades ago to the day, I sat right here in my home study and thought about how my career as a cyber incident responder was surely about to blast off. Though I had only been licensed to practice law for under two months, I just knew this subject matter was it — my …

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Was the ransomware attack on 20+ Texas local governments an attack on a single service provider? [UPDATE: YES!]

The Texas local governments attack seems to me to be more akin to the trend we have been seeing in 2019 with attackers targeting one MSP and then using that access and the MSP’s tools to attack / encrypt the MSP’s individual clients. If I’m not mistaken (and, I could be), the Texas DIR often …

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***URGENT*** MEMO TO: “THE IT GUY” RE: #RANSOMWARE / WIPING DATA

***URGENT MEMORANDUM*** TO: “The IT Guy” FROM: Your clients’ Incident Response Coach SUBJECT: Your clients affected by ransomware STOP OVERWRITING / WIPING / DELETING OR OTHERWISE DESTROYING YOUR CLIENTS’ DATA WHEN THEY ARE AFFECTED BY RANSOMWARE!!! PLEASE!!! PRETTY PLEASE!!! PRETTY PLEASE WITH SUGAR ON TOP!!! JUST STOP IT!!! Seriously, everyone understands that ransomware is scary …

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Cyberbullying of Children is a Heartbreaking Problem that Parents Have a Role in Preventing

Cyberbullying — like plain “old fashioned” bullying — is a heartbreaking to see, especially when it is directed at innocent children. There are many things that can lead to it and there are many things that can help minimize it. I do not pretend to have all of the answers and, you can bet, if …

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The Most Important Lesson You Are Not Hearing About Apple’s iOS FaceTime Glitch

 The most important lesson about Apple’s iOS group FaceTime debacle that you are not hearing about should be a wake up call for everyone (Tuma explains this glitch on WFLA in Tampa, FL): If Apple, through a programming glitch, has the ability to allow someone to use your iOS device as a microphone to listen …

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Protect Your Company Against W-2 Business Email Compromise Attacks During Tax Season

The most likely “cyber attack” that your company will face will come in the form of an email. One of the most common forms of email attack is the business email compromise (BEC) and the most popular time of the year for the W-2 version of BEC is right now — tax season. Read the …

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Scientists warn brain implants can be hacked and used to control people (and you thought I was kidding?)

Back in early 2012, I wrote a blog post about whether hacking a human would violate the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Shortly after publishing it, I received a call from a guy in Austin who said: “dude, someone finally gets it, I need your help!” … I responded that I was a lawyer, …

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