Bryley Information & Tips • May 2021

Tech News Mixtape

Stories at the intersection of business and technology

Bryley partner Webroot has released its 2021 threat report. Webroot found criminals had shifted their industry focus in 2020, e.g. health care industry attacks were down 41% and manufacturing attacks were up 25%. “Cybercriminals often choose targets based on how easy it is to infiltrate them, i.e, they pick the lowest hanging fruit. Industries like health care, non-profit, entertainment, and education have been big targets for several years, so it’s reasonable to expect that organizations in these industries would have taken steps to improve their security. As such, the definition of lowest hanging fruit has changed, highlighting different industries whose less-secure or aging systems can be exploited” webroot.com, requires sign-up

Microsoft announced that in the July update, its Edge browser will automatically redirect users to a secure HTTPS connection when browsing websites. This change (that follows similar changes in Chrome and Firefox) will help secure Edge users from man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks. MITM attacks intercept data (like passwords and credit card numbers) exchanged over unencrypted HTTP connections … bleepingcomputer.com

Your account has been compromised! A phishing voice, email or text message will often try to make the request seem desperately urgent. This may make you feel you shouldn’t add the extra step of calling the sender to double-check he is who he claims to be. Cnet has some good reminders to stave off the impulse to panic … cnet.com

Ransomware demands are rising. Though it’s easy to get a bit numb to numbers like the 4.4 million dollars paid by Colonial Pipeline, that amount still represents a dramatic upwards trend in what criminals are demanding … theverge.com

^{Note: The Tech News Mixtape section is Bryley’s curated list of external stories – stories on the internet that we found helpful. Bryley does not take credit for the content of these stories, nor does it endorse or imply an affiliation with the authors or publications in which they appear.}