Heart of Texas Network Consultants Blog

The Disney brand has long cultivated an image of magic and wonder. However, this image has yet to materialize any magical effects in reality. For example, people still suffer from food allergies while visiting Disney’s various parks.

This makes it especially dangerous that a former Disney employee was allegedly still able to access a specialized menu-planning app and make alterations, like changing prices, adding language that Disney certainly would not approve of, switching text to the unintelligible “Wingdings” font, and worst of all… changing menu information.

Rebooting your device presents several benefits. If you ever experience an issue with your device, rebooting it will likely improve it. Heck, even the National Security Agency (NSA) recommends you do this… but why?

In June of this year, publisher Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, best known for its book series of the same name, filed for Chapter 7 and Chapter 11 bankruptcy and had many of its assets liquidated. One of these assets was the movie rental service Redbox and its eponymous scarlet rental kiosks, rendering the service defunct.

However, many kiosks remain standing outside businesses even now, which makes us wonder… what about all the data they collected while they were in use?

A well-structured framework is essential for establishing effective, consistent policies and strategies. This applies to many areas—including network security. Today, we’re diving into the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) cybersecurity framework, which outlines steps to help safeguard your business.

Let’s have a little fun today. Today’s blog post is written in the format of a daytime soap opera. Please make sure you read all of the dialogue as if being whispered by extremely attractive television stars and starlets!

Life goes on in the small town of Oak Falls, deep woods surrounding the little hamlet nestled on the coast of Cape Seguridad. Let’s follow the lives of some of the residents, their lives Of Vice… and Vulnerability.

There’s never been a more dangerous time to run a business. Okay, maybe that’s not necessarily true, but hear me out. With digital technology taking on a greater importance for businesses than ever before, companies have to contend with countless threats—including the ever-popular phishing scams—regardless of their geographical location.

Let me ask you something: would you trust a bank that locked its doors for the night but left all its cash in a big pile in the middle of the floor? Probably not—after all, if someone managed to get through the doors, nothing would stop them from helping themselves to the funds inside.

This is effectively how cybersecurity once worked, with the presumption that if someone had access to a network, they had permission to access any data on it. Fortunately, many businesses have made the switch to a better approach, known as zero-trust security.

Over 25 percent of data breaches target small businesses, and the impact can be huge. To protect your business, you need the right technology and smart strategies. In today’s blog, we go through some key steps to help safeguard your business from digital threats.

Security awareness training is a critical process for modern businesses to undergo to have any chance of success. Unfortunately, as much as security software or policy can help, it can only do so much. You also need your team members to be on board, knowledgeable about what they need to do, and motivated to do it. 

In light of this, let’s talk about security awareness training and what it needs to involve.

Sextortion scams are scary. The scammer contacts the victim, claiming to have gotten access to their computer and captured video footage of their target partaking in some private and decidedly adult activities, as well as the content that was onscreen at the time. The threat: pay up, or I send the footage to all of your contacts.

Lately, however, hackers have added another layer of “proof” to these claims, now referring to victims by name and including pictures of their homes. Let’s walk through what one of these scams looks like and what you should do if one appears in your inbox.

Data breaches remain a constant threat, capable of causing serious disruptions for businesses and potentially creating widespread issues for customers. In today’s blog, we’ll highlight some of the largest and most impactful breaches of 2024.

Being scammed—in either the professional or personal sense—is a scary thought. To avoid this outcome, we must be vigilant all the time now.

Of course, it also helps to know what to look for.

Let’s take a few minutes to go over a few warning signs and red flags that something is likely a scam.

Remote work has proven incredibly useful over the past few years despite many employers having various concerns about its implementation. While these concerns vary, one prevalent one is how remote operations impact cybersecurity.

If you’re utilizing remote operations to any degree and aren’t concerned about cybersecurity, you must adjust this mindset and correct your approach.

Network security is hard. That’s why so many businesses struggle to implement the solutions they so desperately need to stay safe and relevant. Today, we want to demystify some of these components and lay out in clear terms what your highest priorities should be for your business’ network security.

Modern businesses—just like yours—cannot and should not operate without robust cybersecurity protections. This is a point we will emphasize at every opportunity. Let’s explore why security is so crucial and what steps you need to take to safeguard your business.

You can do everything in your power to secure your social media accounts and lock down your privacy settings. Still, at the end of the day, social media users expose themselves to a torrent of information and content every time they log on. As a civilization, we’ve never really had something like this before. These platforms curate content that the user wants to see to keep the user coming back and staying longer. It’s inherently designed to be enticing and addicting, which is dangerous for certain individuals.

Then, there are scams and an endless stream of grifts that pose a wide range of additional problems for users.

Let’s talk about ways you and those you care about can be safer on social media.

Social media is constantly evolving, and if the big social networks had it their way, it would be the only place people go when they log onto the Internet. Whether you have strong feelings for or against social media, or perhaps you are indifferent, it’s important to understand how to protect yourself when using social media.

Obviously, we won’t tell you to cut down on your cybersecurity. That said, it can be easy to overinvest and overreach if you aren’t careful about what you’re implementing. This phenomenon is known as cybersecurity sprawl, and if not prevented, it can easily have serious consequences for your business. Let’s go into how to avoid this sprawl.

When you think of a scammer, you probably think of someone looking to take advantage of someone for their own gain. While this isn’t wholly inaccurate, another variety exists to acknowledge… those who aim to scam the scammers. Let’s consider one such white-hat scammer, or “scam baiter,” a content creator who uses the alias “Kitboga,” Kit for short.

The world’s largest ticket retailer is in hot water after their parent company, Live Nation Entertainment filed an 8-K filing with the Security and Exchange commission admitting that they had been hacked to the tune of 1.3 terabytes of information. That amounts to 560 million customers’ personal information that has been stolen from the company’s servers. Today, we take a look at the hack and what it means for consumers.