Ransomware is malicious software that encrypts files, locks the computer, and retains control until the user pays a certain amount of money. Ransomware can appear in two forms — either by locking your screen with a full-screen image or
webpage to prevent you from accessing your PC, or by encrypting your files so they can’t be opened. 1

While each ransomware variant has its own twist, there are a few key components that most ransomware types follow:

Two weeks ago, we predicted that distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks using Internet of Things Botnet armies would become more frequent and more severe. Unfortunately, these predications are quickly coming true. On October 21^st, a massive DDoS attack was launched against New Hampshire-based DNS provider, Dyn. Hackers used a publicly available Mirai source code to create a Botnet army and infect an estimated 500,000 or more devices, overwhelming Dyn with enormous amounts of junk traffic. Major websites who use Dyn, like Amazon, Twitter, Spotify, and Netflix, were brought down for hours. What’s worse, these compromised devices remain accessible to hackers. An IoT device could be anything from a CCTV camera to a printer. The devices often have weak passwords, as most manufacturers and users are not concerned with securing their products. Many of the devices used in the attack were products of the Hangzhou Xiongmai Technology of China, and the company is now recalling some of its devices, and issuing patches for others.

Windows 10 and MORE Security

Well October is Cyber Security Month, and we are going to try and write as many stories as we can to help celebrate this extremely important topic for Technology.

To start off the month our first story is about a program that one of our Help Desk Engineers created.  For some background into the story  NSK Inc helped a client get through a planned security audit to find better ways to keep their networks, employees and clients secure.  As part of the follow up they asked NSK to create a patch that would lock down the user accounts and restrict them from running certain applications that were not deemed acceptable for work, or that could pose a security threat.  NSK’s Help Desk Engineer Nick Seratt took to the challenge and created this specific patch for our client.  Below is an interview with Nick on how he created this small patch for our client to help them with cyber security.

A SOC 3 report is designed to meet the needs of organizations that want assurance for their Clients on the controls the organization uses in relation to security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, or privacy. The Report is an easily publicly distributed report and is designed to attest to the Organization’s successful completion of a SOC 2.