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 …

Healthcare Providers – Are You Prepared for Hackers to Tell Your Patients About Your Ransomware and Data Breach?

If you are a healthcare provider, you need to prepare yourself now for the new reality that, when hackers get into your network, they will contact your patients to put pressure on you to pay their ransom demands — usually after they have encrypted your network. Here is an example from a recent case that …

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 …

Ransomware + Publicize Victim Companies + Expose Stolen Data = Bad Cyber Extortion Trifecta

Cybercriminals are using a bad cyber extortion trifecta of (1) using ransomware to encrypt victim companies’ data, (2) publicizing the names of those companies that don’t pay up, and (3) then exposing the data they stole from the companies. This is bad stuff and companies had better be ready to protect themselves. Read more: Ransomware …

Sharing the Load: What are Chief Privacy Officers, Chief Information Security Officers, and General Counsel Doing in Real Life to Divide Up Roles and Responsibilities? (conference panel discussion)

Business leaders are beginning to understand that cyber is not just an IT issue, a legal issue, or any other silo-ed issue, but that it is an overall business risk issue and that makes managing cyber risk a team sport. This week I had the privilege of moderating a panel discussion that was titled “Sharing …

***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 …

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 …

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 …

Key Lesson All Business Leaders Can Learn From the Anthem Data Breach Case

The 2015 Anthem data breach affected 79 million people and was the largest health-care data breach in U.S. history. The affected consumers sued Anthem in a case that settled for a record $115 million. Now the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services’ Office of Civil Rights has reached a settlement with Anthem for a record …

Trump and Kanye West Bring Emphasis to #CyberAware Cybersecurity Awareness Month With Password Example

October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month in the United States. There is excellent cyber awareness content available by going to #CyberAware and #CyberAvengers hashtags on Twitter and visiting The #CyberAvengers Website for free resources, including this free Good Cyber Hygiene Checklist. President Trump and Kanye West put a big ‘ole Texas-sized exclamation point on the [need for?] #CyberAware campaign with Kanye’s password demonstration …