Cyber security is the hottest news story since the Royal Wedding. Anyone using technology… which is EVERYONE… is a potential target of attack. Beyond being a hot attention-getter for the current news outlet, how have these stories offered real information regarding understanding or protecting our valuables? Not really much.

I aim to change that.

During troubleshooting training sessions I have done for several decades, there is one principle that always holds true… “If you don’t know how something works, you will never know how to fix it.” In this Simple Answers Series, I will walk you through the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How of the dark underworld of Cyber Crime and how protecting business assets and information. Our aim is to give you a proper understanding of the attacks that continue to grow and disrupt the world economy and what is possible to minimize the risk to you, your family, and specifically your business as a whole. You will learn that Cyber Security is important… but not as difficult or costly as is commonly believed.

Before I get started I will give an overview of our journey to learn… and the journey to be confident in your protection measures and practices.

“Cyber Crime” is a big pair of words. We frequently hear stories about data breaches and hacker attacks on the national news and around the water cooler. The stories are frightening and most believe it happens to someone else… until it doesn’t. Following such stories the conversation instantly turns to “Boy, that company dropped the ball!” … or “I hope my information wasn’t in that batch of stolen data!”

The more important conversation should begin with “What can we do to avoid becoming a victim?” The path of least resistance to the answer is to understand what is behind the attack, and the means of protection.

In this series I will outline:

• The Attackers: Who they are, where they attack from, why they attack and more
• The Attacks: What are the threats and how they are executed
• The technology layers of cyber protection
• Common sense clues to recognize attacks
• Easy to understand training for end users

I hope this series will be informative and fun to learn, but more importantly, empowering to understand the real world we live in. Please look for a new chapter each week.

And fair warning… sometimes it ain’t pretty. When I stir up questions, don’t hesitate to contact me for more information.

By David Turner | June 1, 2016

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