One thing that both fishing and phishing have in common is the use of lures. With the right lure, the chance of successfully catching the target improves. When it comes to the digital lures seen in phishing scams, research shows that social media is the most effective.

What you watch on TV says a lot about you; so much so, that you might be creeped out if we told you there are others who know exactly what you watched, without your consent. Sound too invasive to be true? Well, for the 11 million owners of Vizio televisions, this practice has been going on for some time now.

Has this ever happened to you? You come across a free app online that seems interesting, entertaining, or helpful so you decide to download it? However, as soon as you click the download button you regret it as it begins to install browser toolbars, adware, and other annoying (and potentially dangerous) software onto your device? How can you keep this “crapware” from getting too out of hand, and why is it so popular in the first place?

Hackers are always trying to come up with new ways to steal or corrupt sensitive data. If you don’t take the opportunity to protect your systems, you could be staring down a major data loss incident or security discrepancy. Here are five ways that you can protect your business’s infrastructure from hackers waiting to steal your data.

Disasters are an unfortunate part of doing business in a technology-heavy workplace environment. You need to expect the worst, but it’s often difficult to predict what types of disasters your organization will have to endure. There are a few universal disasters that you’ll encounter, regardless of where in the world your business operates.

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Here are four of the most common ways that your business could lose data, and how disaster recovery thwarts them at every turn.

Natural Disasters
All you have to do is watch the local weather channel to get a glimpse of just how unpredictable and apocalyptic natural disasters can be. One minute the sun could be shining, and the next your business could be assaulted by roaring torrents and flash flood warnings. Or, the earth would quake under your feet and you’d never know until it’s too late to do something about it. An even more common occurrence would be an electrical storm or a power outage, which could threaten to bring down your technology or fry its circuitry. The point is that it’s next to impossible to predict what effect a natural disaster could have on your business, but the fact remains that it’s most certainly nothing good.

Hardware Failures
Another common problem for businesses that rely on technology is the hardware failure. If you have resource-intensive servers that are responsible for the brunt of your network operations, you might already be intimately familiar with the devastating effects of a hardware failure. No technology can last forever, so when an untimely hardware failure claims the lives of your server units or workstations, you’ll need to be prepared.

User Error
In much the same way as hardware failure, user error needs to be expected and planned for. You can’t realistically expect your users to never make mistakes. It’s part of human nature. People might accidentally misplace files or hand over credentials to threatening entities. Regardless of how they do so, user error is one of the primary reasons for data losses and data breaches, so it’s crucial that you prepare for this by educating your team on best practices, and implementing data backup.

Hacking Attacks
You might not expect to become the victim of a hacking attack, but no matter how large your business is, you need to consider yourself a target. As long as you deal with sensitive credentials like credit card numbers, Social Security numbers, and other financial or personally identifiable information, you have something of value to hackers. When a hacker attacks, they can either steal or delete your data, so it’s best to have a backup stored in the event of something like this.

Regardless of how your data is lost, you’ll need a way to recover it. The best way for a SMB is to reach out to Britek Solutions. We can equip your business with the dynamic BDR solution you need to keep your organization afloat, even when you think that your business will sink. Our BDR solution features only the best and brightest features for your data infrastructure, including fast and efficient recovery times, multiple backups taken per day, and off-site, cloud-based storage.

With BDR, you’ll know that your data is safely stored, just in case you need it. To learn more, reach out to us at (954) 560-8145.

Augmented reality is a growing trend in the technology industry, and perhaps one of the best known uses of it today can be found in the extremely popular mobile device app, Pokemon Go. However, hackers have seized the opportunity to infect players who want to “catch ‘em all” with a backdoor called DroidJack - something that certainly won’t help gamers “be the very best.”

Hackers have always gone after industries that are profitable, or hold sensitive information that can be lucrative when sold under the table. As such, retailers that accumulate financial credentials are often hit by hacks. The entertainment industry is no different, and hackers continue to grow craftier in their pursuit of wealth and power. Not even Steam, the PC gamer’s most valuable software solution, is safe from the dangers of hacking attacks.

Administrator privileges. It’s not a flashy IT-related topic that gets reported on a whole lot. Due to the critical role it plays in protecting your network, administrator privileges should be front and center with every company’s network security plan. Especially since a recent study was published relating the majority of Windows operating flaws to mismanaged administrator privileges.

If you are a technician and a network you are responsible for begins to go down because the traffic that is coming into the network is unusually high, there is a good chance you are experiencing a distributed denial of service attack, or DDoS. These attacks, which are extraordinarily difficult to prevent altogether, can be exceedingly costly for a business.

Password security is a common problem that businesses that take their cybersecurity seriously have to deal with on a regular basis. Passwords need to be complex and difficult to guess, but easy to remember at the same time. Unfortunately, these two goals don’t go hand-in-hand, and as such, users often have to sacrifice one for the other. The “passpoem” is a concept born to resolve this issue, though it takes a pretty roundabout path of doing so.

We write about cyber security all of the time, and for good reason. You need to be sure that your organization’s defenses are bulletproof, or at least optimized for maximum security. A recent debacle in the United States serves as a reminder that even high-level, super-secret government accounts can be hacked, like this story from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Mobile exploits are just as common as those found on legitimate operating systems like Windows, but many people just don’t understand this simple fact. However, this hasn’t stopped some folks from being cautious when using their devices. The latest exploit making the rounds, which takes advantage of the iPhone’s Siri or Android’s Google Now, will leave you speechless.

The social media revolution has taken the world by storm, so much in fact that some people are completely at the mercy of their smartphones. However, the dark side of social media, especially Facebook, grows more apparent every day, especially when it comes to both cybersecurity and personal privacy. Are you sure that your Facebook settings aren’t giving away a little too much of your information to the powers that be?

With plenty of new features to throw around, Windows 10 is shaping up to be quite the operating system. One feature that seems to have fallen off of everybody’s radar (so far) is Windows Hello, a brand new way to authenticate your PC login. By taking advantage of biometric scanning, your computer will let you log in just by looking at your face.

When it comes to the security of your company’s network, you need to have a strike plan to get you out of any potentially threatening situations. Essentially, your network needs an email security solution like a spam filter to act as a sheriff for your business.

People use and reuse old passwords time and again, and then they get two-factor authentication to augment their fifteen-character passwords. Wouldn’t it be great if your computer could recognize you just by how well you recognize others?

Just like Silk Road (the illegal online black market designed to smuggle drugs around the world), there exists an online trade for zero-day exploits. Unsurprisingly, hackers find it exceptionally lucrative to sell these exploits for profit. Now, there’s a new marketplace where hackers can get their hands on these vulnerabilities, and it’s all thanks to the anonymity of the Darknet.

Most hacking attacks are the result of a flaw or vulnerability found within the code of a program or operating system, but we rarely take into account the ones that don’t. Hackers often take advantage of the human side of hacking as well, a process known as “social engineering.” This is usually the act of conning users into handing over personal information of their own free will, and it’s surprisingly effective.

Even the most innocent Internet user can fall victim to the stray hacking attack, and it’s all thanks to the manner in which malware reverse-engineers software. This process is how a hacker finds vulnerabilities in software. However, a new security concept might be able to protect software from the reverse-engineering method used by hackers.

The online world is a scary place. Viruses, malware, spyware, adware, and more are all out there trying to get at your network. These threats are almost always prevalent, but compared to each other, some are vastly superior and far more dangerous and advanced than the others. Advanced malware has the potential to disrupt your business’s operations, cause extensive data loss, and more.