Datalyst Blog

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but when it comes to cybersecurity threats it’s kind of hard not to be. I used to look at it from two sides; one side is fascinated at the innovation and intensely brutal ways that high-end cyberattacks work, and the other side of me loses sleep at night worrying about these risks affecting our clients, prospects, and even my own business. This one particular classification of cyberattack, however, takes the cake for being especially frightening.

I was talking to some colleagues the other day about cybersecurity and its relationship with modern everyday scams, like phone scams and similar things. In my opinion, it’s worth bundling these two topics together, and we found some interesting statistics that we’d like to share.

Accounting firms need strong cybersecurity measures. In an industry where accuracy and accountability are the name of the game, falling victim to cyberattacks can do catastrophic harm to your credibility. With sensitive financial information and personal data at stake, accounting firms must prioritize cybersecurity to protect their clients and their own business. In this article, we will explore why Massachusetts accounting firms in particular need to take cybersecurity seriously and the steps they can take to ensure their cyber defense is as strong as it needs to be to weather modern-day threats.

Every organization has a lot of things that could go wrong in the course of doing business. They can run into supply chain issues, employee turnover and poor performance, natural disasters interrupting your “business as usual”, but one of the most unassuming, yet worrisome threats to your business is the cyberattack. This month, we go into a few ways cyberattacks threaten your business and how they play out to give you an idea of how to prepare.

Social media scams are fraudulent schemes or deceptive activities that take place on various social media platforms. Users of Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, and dozens of others have been victims of these attacks. These scams can target users of all ages and backgrounds, and they aim to exploit people's trust, curiosity, or lack of awareness. Social media scams come in various forms, and here are some common ones.

I want to pull back the curtains and be honest about something. As an IT professional, I never thought we’d see the day where business owners come to us to ask about the security of their business. For years and years, throughout most of my career, the role of bringing up cybersecurity has been on us, which is fine, but it sort of puts cybersecurity in this sort of “luxury” category. Cybersecurity always seemed to be a “let's put it on the docket for next year” sort of thing for a lot of business owners until just very recently.

Digital security cameras have revolutionized surveillance, supplanting their analog counterparts due to their myriad advantages. Let’s outline three key benefits of deploying digital security cameras.

As the threat landscape gets more concentrated with serious cyberthreats, new next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) have been developed to help stem the tide of negative outcomes that result from cyberattacks. An NGFW is an advanced network security device or software solution that combines traditional firewall capabilities with additional features and functionalities designed to provide enhanced protection and visibility into network traffic. NGFWs are designed to address the evolving and sophisticated nature of cyberthreats, including malware, intrusion attempts, and other malicious activities.

Maintaining network security has proven to be more difficult for organizations as time has gone on. Like the people trying to keep them out of networks they don’t have access to, hackers are increasingly using artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance their cyberattacks and achieve various malicious objectives. Here are some ways in which hackers are using AI.

Ransomware has rapidly climbed to be one of the most dangerous and feared malware attacks that is used nowadays. It’s gotten to the point that, if you wish they would just stop, we can hardly blame you.

Unfortunately, there is no reason to believe that ransomware is going anywhere.

It is so important to keep your business secure nowadays. Statistics show this to be the case. Don’t believe us? We can share a few of these stats and explore what they mean, just to prove it.

How much does your business rely on its Wi-Fi connectivity? If it’s like most, the answer is almost certainly quite a bit. There is no denying that Wi-Fi is a staple in modern workplace processes, but at the same time, it can also prove to be a major security liability if the proper steps are not taken. Therefore, it’s beneficial that you take these steps.

Passwords are one of the most important parts of keeping any account secure, and if you were to gain access to these accounts, you’d have access to personal data, subscriptions, money, and even the victim’s identity. Today, we want to show you just how easy it is to steal a password and gain access to an account.

We have not been shy about expounding upon the benefits of the cloud for businesses, as these benefits are both considerable and accessible. That being said, not even the cloud is completely perfect, and there are security errors that can easily be made.

Let’s go through these security errors to see if any sound familiar to your situation.

When it comes to security, it can be challenging to keep up with shifting best practices. For instance, the use of a virtual private network has long been a staple to secure remote operations, and any decent IT service provider would recommend its use. However, this advice is changing with the growth of zero-trust access protocols.

Cybersecurity is important. Scroll through a few pages of our blog and you’ll see article after article talking about threats and ways to make yourself and your business less vulnerable to cyberthreats. As an IT professional, however, I’d be so much happier if the state of the world didn’t require such a massive effort just to protect oneself and we could just talk about cool stuff you can do with modern technology all the time!

But alas, strong cybersecurity is crucial to virtually any organization, and it’s becoming even more important by the month.

Cybercriminals have been resorting to clever scams to steal personal information and gain access to company networks. They also use these types of social-engineered scams to distribute malware and cause other problems for organizations. We encourage you to take this blog post and share it around your office, or even print it out to help your employees and colleagues prevent dangerous threats and embarrassing mistakes from happening.

When I was a kid, there was a Tex Avery cartoon where Droopy Dog was chasing down a crook who escaped from jail. There was a particular scene where the crook (I think it was a wolf in a black-and-white striped jumpsuit) takes a bus, a plane, a ship, and a taxi to a secluded cabin, and then closes a series of increasingly complex doors with a large number of locks, in order to hide away from the pursuing cartoon basset hound. 

Of course, when he turns around, exhausted by all the effort he puts in, he realizes that Droopy is standing right behind him, and greets him with a monotone “hello.”

I haven’t seen this cartoon since I was 7 years old, but I almost always think about it when I am using multi-factor authentication. 

Business doesn’t always go the way you want it to, so many will turn to technology. Unfortunately, without the right strategies in place, organizations can run into problems integrating the right technology. This month, we take a look at some of the biggest IT pain points your business can face. 

When it comes to valuable data, hackers will go out of their way to try and steal it, placing businesses in dangerous situations. In particular, healthcare data is attractive to hackers, and considering how lucrative the prospect of healthcare data is, companies need to take extra precautions to protect it. But what is it about healthcare data that makes it so attractive, anyway? Let’s dig into the consequences of potential attacks on healthcare data.