IT Security Consultancy

The Shadow IT

October 7, 2014 — Leave a comment

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The big bad and ugly wolf is coming. It is called the EU General Data Protection Regulation. Actually, it is supposed to protect us and save us from the three little pigs, who have mastered some hacking in the meantime. Then, how come the worrying majority of the employees in the EU is not willing to cooperate? Fully.

Nowadays, the IT guys in your company can forget the good old days when they were the Alphas and Omegas in your office. The cloud technology and the absolute abundance of available mobile devices were the fruitful ground for the new phenomena called the “shadow IT”. What in the world is that?

Well, this is a nice way for you to avoid the situation with the EU General Data Protection Regulation way, or the highway. You can still do your thing without worrying about those boring new regulations, including your paranoid IT colleagues. What is so difficult and problematic about the new IT security measures?

It is the similar, if not absolutely the same, situation with the traffic safety regulations. They are supposed to protect you. You can ignore them or even work against them, but at your own risk. The same goes for the IT security measures, rules and policies. Instead of keep asking why, just comply.

Korben’s Report

July 5, 2014 — Leave a comment

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It seems that one French blogger was a busy little bee. He had apparently discovered one, at least to say quite a bizarre security flaw associated with the MediaTek chips. So, let us see what has our friend Korben discovered and why it is so important from the security point of view? Should we hate or adore him for what he had done?

Here is the funny part of this intriguing story. Korben has figured it out, that when you send “=” through an SMS to some smartphones, which uses MediaTek chips, the following happens. Your smartphone restarts automatically after receiving this message. Really disturbing, isn’t it? What can we do about it?

Well, you have two options. Either you will acquire a new smartphone without these chips, or hope that your friends will not kill your phone with these “=” SMS. How can this happen and be possible in the first place, is yet unknown. What we need to know to eliminate this trouble, is also unknown.

We do not have to guess twice what is happening in your head as you read this post, do we? You are probably wondering, what can happen if you try some other symbols for these MediaTek related SMS? How thin is a borderline between restarting and hacking a smartphone? Well, we hope youwillnot be the one to find out.

The Hacker Wars

June 30, 2014 — Leave a comment

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It is really a breathtaking experience. We strongly encourage you to visit the Norse’s websites, which is a company that specializes in Internet security. Choose an option to see a map of hacker’s attacks all over the world in the real time. It is just like you are watching a movie. The difference in this case is that the casualties of these wars are real people and companies.

To be more precise, while watching this map you have a feeling that you are witnessing the WW3 scenario. There is this striking resemblance to the lines left by the nuclear missiles, which are flying from one corner of the world to the other one. You can rest assured that the impact and consequences can be compared to the atomic explosion and immense damages in the cyber world.

Our recommendation is to use Chrome for this live follow-up of an unprecedented cyber war. You do not have to wait too long to see for yourself how the USA is being used mostly as the punching bag for the restless cyber-attacks from the East. Although, it is impossible to present the entire web in one web page, this one can be quite indicative about what is really going on.

If you have not considered the IT security protection and anti-hacking measures, after seeing this “movie” you will definitely change your mind. Our word of advice is to run a security check of your IT infrastructure as soon as possible. The last thing you need is to see your country or your town on this map. Not to mention your company. That is definitely too much for your health.

Watch Out! Godzilla Is On The Road!

June 10, 2014 — Leave a comment

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Here is something you do not hear about it every day, not even in San Francisco. Well, the electronic notification system for drivers in California had a couple of quite unusual announcements for its users. One of them, warned drivers about the Godzilla menace on the road. Some of the drivers accepted this prank quite well by ignoring it. What happened with the others?

Well, for what is worth, we saw some panic on the roads. Do not get us wrong. We are far away from any serious comparison with the notorious radio prank show, which included legendary Orson Welles and “The War of the Worlds”. However, the hackers responsible for these actions have proven themselves of being capable to influence this extremely important system.

Not so long ago, we got one more funny looking notice. This time about the zombies walking around. You do not have to be a rocket scientist to figure out yourself what can happen, if these hackers decide to become more serious for a change. They can easily collapse the entire notification system for drivers. Because things are so serious the government had to interfere, as well.

So, what is the moral of this story? Listen carefully to all notifications you get this way or another while on the road. No matter how strange they may seem at the first glance, but above all, trust only your own eyes and ears, including a reasonable logic. We sure hope there are some hackers out there with enough moral and empathy to know their limits.