In today’s world, we enjoy incredible mobility that our ancestors could only dream of. In a matter of hours or, at most, days, we can go from one continent to another. At the same time, our lives depend on the security of all sorts of our private data: from our credit card information to our browsing habits. But if at our homes we can be sure that we have taken sufficient security measures and protected our systems, things get muddier when we travel.

In 2019, several industry analyst reports confused the threat groups Molerats and APT-C-37 due to their similarity, and this has led to some confusion and inaccuracy of attribution. For example, both groups target the Middle East and North Africa region (with a special emphasis on Palestine territories). And, they both approach victims through the use of phishing emails that contain decoy documents (mostly in Arabic) and contain themes concerning the political situation in the area.

As someone in the technology field I follow the steady stream of new and exciting products and gadgets that come out at least twice a year. I am constantly upgrading my tech and my IT work tools in keeping with what is new. I need to have personal experience with the devices and equipment that clients hire me to manage, upgrade and repair for them in my IT Consulting practice. I often think about the effect that my constant upgrading has on the environment.

Phishing scams remain one of the most widespread cybercrimes. A phishing scam can be as simple as getting someone to click on a link, attachment, or a picture of cute kittens. I recently received a spam email with the message: “Old friends post embarrassing pictures of Jason Nelson online; click here to see.” Seeing my name in the body or subject line of an email is alarming. That is why scammers word these emails this way.

Happy New Year! What a year 2019 was in cybersecurity. It was a great year for informative and interesting blogs. Here were the top performing AT&T Cybersecurity blogs written in 2019.

This blog post provides an overview of the AT&T Alien Labs™ technical analysis of the common malicious implants used by threat actors targeting vulnerable Exim, Confluence, and WebLogic servers. Upon exploitation, malicious implants are deployed on the compromised machine. While most of the attacks described below are historical, we at Alien Labs are continuing to see new attacks, which can be further researched on the Alien Labs Open Threat Exchange™ (OTX).

Digital payments are the future of commerce, but security concerns have created a major barrier to their popularity. A study of businesses conducted by the influential PCI Security Standards Council found that 67% of respondents cited a lack of visible security options as a reason for not adopting a digital payments service.

These days, effective cybersecurity in healthcare is as critical as ever. Last year, more than 32 million patients had their personal and medical information stolen in data breaches across the United States. While moves are being made, the fact remains that healthcare providers still have many holes to plug when it comes to the illegal or accidental outpouring of patient data.

I was watching an interview with an American Congressional member the other night, and I could not help but notice the person’s lack of cybersecurity awareness. As a disclaimer, please note that this is not a piece promoting or denouncing any political party, or view. I do not discuss politics unless it relates to a cybersecurity matter. In two previous posts, I have been misunderstood and thought to be promoting a position, but that isn't my intended purpose - cybersecurity awareness is.

It is that time of year again where we look forward to what cyber goodies the New Year brings. 2019 brought new records in data breaches, a rash of ransomware attacks, and a rise in state-sponsored cyber-attacks. Below is a quick list of what me may expect in the 2020. 2020 also will be the dawn of a new decade that will bring technological transformation that will permeate all aspects of our lives, including cybersecurity.