News Stories from Q4 2020 that Prove You Need Better IT Support
Beyond the daily new updates that we’re all tired of hearing about, there are a number of other headlines from the final quarter of 2020 that organizations need to heed – those that are relevant to your existing IT systems and overall infrastructure. Let’s review!
Top Headlines from the Fourth Quarter of 2020 That Show the Importance of Securing Better IT Services in 2021
Journalists Targeted by Hackers
We predicted this just two weeks ago when we named the media and broadcasting industry on our list of Top Phishing Targets for Hackers in 2021, although this particular instance came to fruition a little early. On December 20 Tech Crunch reported that a number of journalists joined the thousands of others (in their field) who have been targeted by cybercriminals over the year.
Al Jazeera news agency producers and executives were targeted via a unique “zero-click” attack that exploited an Apple iMessage vulnerability. Unlike typical SMS phishing (or SMiShing) campaigns the attack compromised smartphones without having to trick the victims into opening a malicious link. Reports indicate that the spyware may have been able to secretly record conversations, access passwords, track device locations, and more. The implications of such compromise in the news media sector are clear. Once again we see why broadcasters must secure better IT support in 2021, cyber security included.
U.S. Government Hacked (again)
It seems that the top IT stories from 2020 continue to roll in during the final days of the year. Over the second to last weekend of December the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency confirmed that the U.S. government sustained an attack to their IT systems via an “advanced persistent threat actor” and that the threat “poses a grave risk to the federal government.”.
As an organization, you may feel that your IT systems have been secured enough for your needs, but when you consider that the U.S. government, who is armed to the teeth with cybersecurity, continues to fall prey – you must admit that more can be done to secure your own infrastructure. This is true of any industry and any size of company, from SMB to enterprise. Seek IT support right away.
Google Down
This is starting to feel redundant, but yet again we look to this December for another headline that tops the charts for IT events that businesses need to be aware of.
The seemingly invulnerable Google and ALL of its services (including Gmail, YouTube, and all Workspace services) experienced a global outage on December 14th. That’s right, you couldn’t even “Google” what was happening. While most of the tech giant’s services returned to normal that day, for an hour or so Google service dependent organizations (and there are millions!) were very concerned. This event shows why you need to backup all cloud-based software-as-a-services, including Google Workspace and/or MS Office 365, even when you think you don’t.
AWS Down Too
Need another example of why your business must seek IT support for cloud-to-cloud backup services? How about the headline from November which reported on a prolonged Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage. For the uninitiated, Amazon’s internet infrastructure service is the backbone of thousands of U.S. and Canada based websites and apps. Those dependent upon AWS experienced a multi-hour outage in November that affected a large portion of the internet and IT services. Don’t become vulnerable to the same sort of scenario. Learn more about our cloud servers here.
That’s a lot for one fiscal quarter to endure! And the above is just the top of the iceberg when it comes to IT events that have shaken-up organizations around the country, continent, and world. Make sure your company is prepared (view IT services) for the year ahead by scheduling a consultation with SAV Technology today.