Shadow Brokers April Exploit Release

Disclaimer: We are not attempting to place blame or accuse any government organization.  This post mentions The Equation Group. This group is supposedly associated with the NSA, but we have no way of verifying this information.

The Shadow Brokers is a well-known hacking group. They released another bundle of exploits that it offered to sell back in January of this year. The offered it anyone willing to meet their bid.  These exploits said to be from the Equation Group that has been noted in other releases in the last couple years.  The vast majority of the 12 updates were already patched in previous Microsoft updates.

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Network Monitoring Methods

Network monitoring is an essential responsibility for businesses of all sizes.  Medium-sized and large companies typically have a network monitoring system in place either onsite or offsite in the cloud but what about small businesses?  This is exactly what hackers are asking when they are seeking to breach a network.

In the last few years small businesses have become (more…)

How Hackers Use Backdoors to Access a Network

Backdoors are a method that hackers use to establish unauthorized access to a network from a remote location.  Hackers use backdoors as a means of gaining repeated access to a network without being logged by the systems administrator.  This type of network intrusion hides its presence while the hacker is actually using the network without the knowledge of others.

How Backdoors Work

Hackers gain access to a network by (more…)

Critical Steps to Improving Network Security

Proper enterprise network security is of vital importance to data protection and the ongoing productivity of an organization.  With the increased use of technology that helps enterprises to maintain the competitive edge, most businesses are required to employ IT security personnel full-time to ensure networks are protected from the rapidly growing industry of cyber crime.

IT security professionals are responsible for monitoring the network for security vulnerabilities on a daily basis.  Vulnerabilities are holes in the network that hackers can use to perform exploits.  An exploit can potentially cripple a network and bring down an organization for an indefinite period of time.  To protect a network against unauthorized access you must use (more…)

Small Business Security – Protecting Information

As many of you have probably noticed, the number of network security breaches in the news has been on the rise.  Some of you are probably thinking “thank goodness I am at a small company”.   The unfortunate truth though is you are just as likely, if not more likely to be a target of online hackers.

As the Wall Street Journal recently pointed out in their July 21st article “Hackers Shift Attacks to Small Firms”, small businesses end up being very lucrative for (more…)

Tips on Choosing a Strong Password

Passwords are a method of security. Whether you want to protect your computer, network or your social account, password protection is necessary. Installing a password is not as simple as people think. There are millions of hackers having password cracking tools which can crack thousands of passwords within seconds. There are several tips on how to choose a strong password.

First of all, it is advised that you do not use passwords like (more…)