Tag Archives: Technology Tips

Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

It May Be Time To Update Your Business Logo

Corporate branding can be worth its weight in gold and certain images are absolutely iconic.  The Golden Arches, the Nike “swoosh,” and Apple’s Apple all come to mind.

Logo images give companies the means of offering a consistent brand image over time, and that  can be a very good thing.

Over time, tastes and styles change.  If your company presents itself as being on the bleeding edge of the technological curve, then your logo should almost certainly change with the times.  If you go back and look at Apple’s logo over the years, you’ll see that while it’s fundamentally the same, the company has made a few subtle modifications and adjustments over the years.

Changing your brand’s logo can be an expensive proposition so it’s not something you want to do at the drop of a hat. However, if you feel that it’s beginning to look a bit stale or dated, then there can be some real and tangible advantages to giving it an update. That is especially if you time the update with the release of a new product that offers tangible proof that your firm is headed off in some new and exciting direction.

The best brands tell a story and engage their customers.  Pictures are worth a thousand words, so branding images are  a big part of telling your brand’s story.  Ultimately then, the decision of if or whether to update your logo comes down to the following.

What kind of story do you want to tell your customers?  Do you want to offer them a tale of stability and rock-steady performance?  If so, then you’ll probably only want to update your logo rarely.  On the other hand, if you want to tell a story of momentum and velocity, the updating your logo more often would be a worthwhile endeavor.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Ransomware Hackers Have Set Their Sights On Exchange Servers

Microsoft Exchange servers are once more in the crosshairs of hackers around the world.  Most recently, hacking groups have been specifically targeting them to deploy BlackCat ransomware.

As is common among ransomware attacks, the hackers here first rifle through an infected network, looking for login credentials, proprietary information, and other sensitive files that they can copy and exfiltrate.  They exploit a target organization in two ways. They ultimately encrypt a target’s files and demand payment to unlock them and then ransom the copied files for additional payment.

This should be regarded as a serious threat.  Although Microsoft tries gamely to keep Exchange servers secure, there are several vulnerabilities in the code. An organization that doesn’t apply security patches as soon as they are available is incredibly vulnerable to these attacks.

It’s a sufficiently significant threat that in April, the FBI issued a Flash Alert about BlackCat, warning that the recent surge in attacks have compromised more than sixty different organizations worldwide.

Their alert reads, in part as follows:

“Many of the developers and money launderers for BlackCat/ALPHV are linked to Darkside/Blackmatter, indicating they have extensive networks and experience with ransomware operations.”

The FBI has also requested the assistance of any organization that becomes compromised so they can track the attacks back to their source and take action against them.

Again, per the recent FBI Flash Alert, the specific information they’re looking for is as follows:

“IP logs showing callbacks from foreign IP addresses, Bitcoin or Monero addresses and transaction IDs, communications with the threat actors, the decryptor file, and/or a benign sample of an encrypted file.”

Here’s hoping your organization doesn’t wind up in the crosshairs of the hackers. If you happen to, give the FBI a hand so they can shut these miscreants down.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

New Panchan Botnet Targets Linux Servers

If you’re involved with IT Security at any level and if your network includes Linux servers, keep a watchful eye out for the new Panchan botnet.

It first appeared in the wilds on March of this year (2022) and its main focus seems to be targeting Linux servers in the education sector and enslaving them to mine for cryptocurrency.

Panchan has several wormlike features that allow it to replicate quickly and spread laterally once it gets inside a network.  Additionally, the hackers behind the botnet have given it a raft of detection avoidance capabilities. That includes the fact that it uses memory-mapped miners and dynamic detection capabilities that allows it to stop all mining operations automatically if it detects that anomalous activities are being scanned for.

Panchan was written in Golang, which is both versatile and powerful.  Once it infects a target network, it creates a hidden folder inside itself under the name “xinetd.”

Once that’s done, it initiates an HTTPS POST operation to allow it to communicate with Discord, which is likely how the hackers monitor their new victim.

In terms of communicating back to its command-and-control server, Panchan utilizes port 1919 and note that these communications are not encrypted.

Researchers at Akamai first discovered this new threat and have mapped out its spread to this point.  They have discovered 209 compromised systems with more than 40 currently active infections.  The USA seems to be the botnet’s primary target with China as a distant second. Russia, Japan, India, and Brazil account for most of the rest.

Although the education sector seems to be the group’s primary focus for now, anyone running a Linux server should consider themselves at risk.  While this botnet isn’t as damaging as some, it is nonetheless a threat to be avoided.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

How To Protect Your Company With Cybersecurity Awareness

These days, companies spend significant sums of money to protect themselves from cyber criminals.  The threat matrix is vast, and attacks can come from almost any quarter. That is why many companies not only spend heavily on antivirus software, but also on a wide range of tools that IT security professionals can leverage to intercept attacks “at the gates” and prevent attackers from ever breaching their defenses.

Further, many companies will engage with third-party specialists to provide round the clock monitoring.  Managers invest even more money to ensure that regular backups are taken. This is so that if the worst happens, the process of recovery will be relatively quick and the company can get back to the business of its business with as little downtime as possible.

All of that is commendable, but the unfortunate reality is that even the most elaborate and expensive systems designed to defend your corporate network can be reduced to nothing by one moment of carelessness by one of your firm’s employees.

If you want to increase the return on your IT Security investment, the very best thing you can do is educate your workforce to the dangers that are lurking on the ‘net.  Teach them security best practices so that they become part of your network security solution rather than being yet another risk factor you have to guard against.

A few examples of the way your employees may be unwittingly putting your firm at risk include the following:

  • They use simple, easy to guess passwords that any hacker could guess with minimal effort
  • They seldom change their passwords unless forced to
  • When traveling, many will connect to your company’s network using free, unsecured WiFi hotspots
  • A disturbing percentage of people use the same easily guessed passwords across multiple web properties
  • They fail to use multi-factor authentication paradigms, even when and where you make them available
  • Far too many people will automatically assume that any attachment that lands in their work email inbox is safe, and will open it without thinking twice
  • And there is very little cross-checking done when someone reaches out to them via corporate channels to ensure that the person contacting them is who they claim to be

All of these pose a very real risk to the security of your company.  Make sure your employees get the training they need to keep both themselves and your corporate network safe.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Simple Ways To Hire The Perfect Candidate The First Time

Top quality talent can be difficult to find in any field, if you have spent any time looking for and hiring people, you know the challenge can be an especially daunting one.  There’s tremendous competition for talented folks. Given the cost of hiring and training new people, it’s something you want to get right the first time as often as possible.

The question is: how?

The good news is that there are multiple things you can do to take the guesswork out of the equation.

The most pivotal steps are these:

First, if you’re not already plugged into the best online recruiting platforms, that should be your first stop.  This is far and away superior to placing an ad in your local paper or other more traditional means of hiring.

It isn’t that you can’t find plenty of good people in most any good-sized city, but you gain access to a much broader and deeper pool of talent if you shop globally for your new hires.

In the old days, that usually meant paying a premium to try and get a new hire to relocate. However, managers are increasingly embracing the notion of letting many of their staff members work from home, wherever that might be.  If you’re willing to do that, you can find top talent anywhere in the world and put them to work for you in short order.

Second, you’ll want to hold at least three interviews.  One should be over the phone to get a general sense of the employee. Next would be a second interview where you introduce the prospective new hire to the people they’ll actually be working with to ensure that he or she is a good fit. Finally as a last step, do a written or practical interview that serves the same function as a university exam.

This last bit is key, because it gives you a chance to see how they work and how they think. That can generally tell you how efficient and effective they’ll be in the position you have in mind for them.

If you do all of these things every time you hire, you’ll almost never mis-step when bringing a new employee onboard.

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