Shane Chambers No Comments

How To: Creating Safe Passwords in 2020

When is the last time your organisation updated its password policy or sent out guidance to employees around creating safe and secure passwords? It’s been a year since we last updated our guidance on creating safe and secure passwords, so we thought it’s about time for our 2020 edition of “how to keep your accounts secure”. Specifcally, we’ll be looking at current best practice for creating passwords & passphrases and how to leverage multi-factor authentication.

Password guidance is constantly changing, so it’s extremely important to stay up-to-date and keep ahead of cyber criminals!
Read more
Shane Chambers No Comments

Users Warned of Major New Phishing Campaign, Using Infected Excel Files

Microsoft has released a statement warning users to stay vigilant of phishing emails, as a malicious campaign has been detected which tricks users into downloading an Excel sheet containing harmful software. The criminals responsible are taking advantage of the confusion around Covid-19, as many others have been doing lately, to convince users that the emails are genuine and to enable macros within Excel once the file has been downloaded to their computer.

Users should be extremely wary of attachments they are not expecting, as many common file types can be injected with malware.
Read more
Shane Chambers No Comments

Tech Guard Tips: How to Work from Home Securely

Just a few months ago, it would be unimaginable that so many of us would be working from home. While more and more companies had been allowing some users to work remotely to some degree, the situation that we now find ourselves in is that a significant chunk of the workforce is now working from their homes, on very short notice.

As the Covid19 pandemic grips the world, cyber criminals have seen this increased online activity and confusion as an opportunity for them to take advantage of, and have stepped up phishing and scam attacks. We’ve already covered some of the main threats to look out for in another article, but now we’d like to share some of our tips on making sure you protect your company and your family’s data while working from home.

Many users are working from home for the first time, without the advanced safety features of their corporate networks to protect them.

Here at Tech Guard, we’ve come up with a handy list of our top security tips for those who find themselves suddenly working from home.

Read more
Shane Chambers No Comments

Irish Businesses Hit by Invoice Redirect Scams, Gardaí Warn

Gardaí have reported a sharp increase in the number of invoice redirect and CEO fraud-style attacks on Irish businesses in the last few months. “We are getting a couple of cases every week now”, according to Detective Superintendent Pat Lordan, who said that both small and large companies are being hit for amounts ranging from €10,000 into the millions.

Staff should be very wary of any requests to change payment details from suppliers, and are advised to pick up the phone and speak to someone they know first.
Read more
Shane Chambers No Comments

281 Arrests Made in Massive Business Email Compromise Ring Bust

In a global sting, named Operation reWired, authorities in the US and around the world have arrested 281 individuals that were involved in a global Business Email Compromise (BEC) scam. The ring had been under investigation for months, during which they were found to have hijacked email accounts belonging to company executives, impersonated staff and ultimately tricked unsuspecting employees into wiring millions in funds into the group’s accounts.

Business Email Compromise is a common tactic by cyber criminals which users social engineering to trick staff into transferring money directly to them
Read more