Cybersecurity Awareness Blog
Find the best information on how to protect your organization against cyber threats and empower team members to take an active role within your organization.
Securing Canada’s Digital Future Requires Federal Action Now
Earlier this week, Beauceron Security CEO, David Shipley, was invited to speak alongside Dr. Ken Barker, Professor at the Institute for Security, Privacy and Information Insurance at the University of Calgary and Juliette Kayyem, a Belfer Lecturer on International Security for the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, at the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security.
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): What it is and Why We Should Use it
Enabling two-factor authentication or multi-factor authentication is an excellent way to add that extra layer of protection to work or personal accounts. In this blog, you’ll learn about the different forms of authentication and why enabling either two-factor authentication or multi-factor authentication is considered a cybersecurity best practice.
Cyber True Crime: The Affiliate Part 5
Welcome back to Part 5 of the Cyber True Crime series The Affiliate. In past blogs, we covered the history of NetWalker, how a RaaS ransomware gang functions, how Sebastien Vachon Desjardins, or the Affiliate, attempted to hide his criminal activity through international servers and in our last blog the organizations he targeted in his attacks. In this installment, we’ll begin to unravel how the FBI began tracking the Affiliate down through the international servers and his multiple email addresses.
Cyber True Crime: The Affiliate Part 4
Welcome back to Part 4 of the cyber true crime series: The Affiliate. In this installment, we’ll cover the organizations that the Affiliate targeted over the span of a few weeks.
Cyber True Crime: The Affiliate Part 3
Welcome back to Part 3 of the cyber true crime series The Affiliate. In Parts 1 and 2 we went over how a ransomware gang typically operates, how an organization finds out they have been the target of a NetWalker ransomware attack and how one becomes involved in the criminal organization. In this installment, you’ll learn how an international server works and how the Affiliate used them.
In for the Long Haul: The Long-Term Effects of a Data Breach for SMBs
It’s a common belief that cybercriminals target large businesses for data breaches; however, the truth is that in 2021, small and medium businesses (SMBs) were the biggest and most easily accessible targets for data breaches. Sontiq’s Mid-Year 2021 report concluded that 69% of all data breaches for this year so far have been to small businesses.
Cyber True Crime: The Affiliate Part 2
Welcome back to the cyber true crime blog series The Affiliate. Part 1 provided an introduction to ransomware, how RaaS works and where the ransomware gang we’ll be focusing on, NetWalker, fits into the narrative. In this second installment, we unravel how one becomes a member of NetWalker and the sort of malicious activities that the ransomware gang participated in.
Cyber True Crime: The Affiliate
A Canadian man has been charged by the FBI of being one of the world’s top cybercriminals, making tens of millions of dollars as an agent of a shadowy international criminal organization known as NetWalker. This is his story.
5 Things You Can Do to Drive the Ongoing Success of Your Cyber Awareness Program
You’ve successfully started your team on their cyber awareness journey but don’t know how to keep the momentum going? We’ve created a list of the top 5 things you can do to keep your teams interested and engaged when learning about cybersecurity.
New EU Study Proves Employees are an Organization’s Best First Line of Defense
A recent EU study supports Beauceron Security’s position that employees are an organization’s best first line of defense. Keep reading to learn the details of the study and how organizations can benefit from phishing their employees.
How to Foster Positive Behavioral Change
While it may be easy to place the blame on people for data breaches and other cybersecurity incidents, the truth is that people are an organization’s first and best line of defense. Instead of viewing people as the victim, or punishing them for risky cyber behavior, it’s time to change the narrative and instead focus on empowering them through a cybersecurity culture that focuses on positive behavioral change.
Ransomware Basics
Ransomware, or ransom malware locks users out of their device or just certain files which can only be decrypted in exchange for a ransom. Back in the 1980s when ransomware attacks were just beginning to appear, cybercriminals would accept payment by mail. However, today payments are made via cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. In the early days of ransomware, cybercriminals mostly targeted individuals, but gradually shifted to targeting businesses small and large which offered a higher pay out. You don’t even need to be especially technologically talented to become a ransomware attacker now with the growth of ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS).
Zero-Day Vulnerability
A zero-day vulnerability is a software security flaw that is known to the software vendor but doesn’t have a patch in place to fix the flaw and can be exploited by cybercriminals
The Benefits of Enabling SSO
Online services require different usernames, passwords and security questions. Managing all these credentials can be challenging, even for SMBs.
That’s why 70% of Beauceron Platform users prefer Single Sign-On (SSO) as opposed to manually entering their credentials each time they log into the Platform.
SSO speeds up the process of authentication without compromising security measures. Once SSO is enabled – forget about it! The heavy lifting is no longer on SOC’s shoulders and is the responsibility of a third-party authenticator or identity provider.
Phishing for Your Information: Smishing and Vishing Explained
Did you know that 85% of phishing attacks are happening over SMS messaging, gaming, social and productivity apps and over the phone? Continue reading to find out how you can protect yourself from smishing and vishing attacks and what to do if you’ve fallen for one.