Month: November 2020

  • Five Red Flags for Black Friday

    Five Red Flags for Black Friday

    ‘Tis the shopping season!  First up, Black Friday, followed by Shop Local Saturday, Cyber Monday, and all the shopping days that follow. 

    Did you wake up early to stretch out your “add to cart” fingers so you can snag that hard-to-find, hot item of the season at a discounted price? Planning on heading out to that cute little boutique next to your office during lunch? 

    Before you do, there are a few things you need to remember. Most important is that cybergrinches are out there year-round, just waiting for the perfect opportunity to steal your holiday joy. The holiday season is big business for them, and they are waiting for you to drop your guard. (And, no, they don’t care if it lands them on the naughty list.)

    In the video above, I detail five red flags you should look out for on Black Friday — and all the other shopping days of the year. I’m hopeful these tips will help keep you and your company’s network secure this holiday season.

    Let’s review, if you are going to be holiday shopping in the coming weeks, it is imperative you take the proper precautions to keep yourself and your company secure. 

    • Don’t click on links within emails, and be very suspicious of any emails that discuss your credit cards or bank accounts.
    • Be wary of phone calls seeking donations to various charities. Be vigilant, and do your research on the charity. Even then, donate directly, not from the email.
    • If you are out shopping on your lunch break or after work, make sure your work badge is in a protective sleeve to help prevent cloning.
    • Strangers are still strangers in the holiday season. Make sure everyone in your building and anyone trying to get in has the proper credentials to be there – or that they have an escort.
    • Stay vigilant with your security practices, even when your office is short-staffed. When we get busy, it’s easy to skip locking computers and returning sensitive documents to a secure location. Take the extra few seconds to do cybersecurity right.

    Raxis is an elite team of professionals who are paid to attack and assess cybersecurity systems. We can help you pinpoint security threats and find ways to remediate them leaving your company far more secure and giving you additional peace of mind.  

    Ready to find out how secure your network really is? Reach out to us, and let’s discuss your needs and how we can help.

  • Three Reasons Why a Penetration Test Won’t Break Your Network

    Three Reasons Why a Penetration Test Won’t Break Your Network

    Myth: A penetration test breaks your network. 

    Reality: A penetration test helps you find vulnerabilities so someone else doesn’t break your network (and your customers’ confidence in you).

    This is actually a common concern we hear from potential customers. Many are worried that a pen test will damage their network by crashing a server, knocking their website offline, causing an eclipse, or maybe releasing a 5G kraken. 

    In the video above I explain how we work with our customers ahead of testing to make them feel at ease and to help them understand that our profession is hacking but that our business is protecting theirs.

    As I explained in the video, our pen testers aim to make as little noise as possible while they’re slinking around in your network. Our whole goal is to get in, and to not get detected or get blocked. Crashing and breaking things is the opposite of that. And we’re simply not going to perform the kind of attacks that cause actual damage.

    The only scary part of our penetration tests are when you realize what might have happened if a hacker found your vulnerabilities before we did. 

    Be sure to also check out this article from Bonnie Smyre: What to Expect When Expecting a (Raxis) Pen Test?

    If you are ready for Raxis’ elite team of professionals to put your security to the test (did we mention they have successfully breached some of the most sophisticated corporate networks in the US?), then reach out to us here.

    Also, if you liked this video, please be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more videos that can help you improve your security posture.

  • Why you should turn off Cisco Smart Install now

    Why you should turn off Cisco Smart Install now

    In this video, I explain how Cisco Smart Install can leave you and your company vulnerable if it is left on. (Helpful hint: Cisco Smart Install is often on by default, so watch this and then go check your network).

    Network admins are surely familiar with Cisco Smart Install – the handy plug-and-play configuration and management feature that offers zero-touch deployments. 

    And though Cisco is known for security, and the Smart Install feature has some great benefits – such as allowing you to easily deploy network switches in a Cisco environment with no assistance from a network admin – it also can be a security risk if you leave it turned on.  Whether by design or default, I find a lot of cases where it’s left on, but none where it’s actually in use at that time. For a penetration tester, that’s a key finding.

    Have you checked your network to see if Cisco Smart Install is on. It was, wasn’t it? And, you did turn it off, right?

    If so, you closed off a simple but often effective door for hackers. 

    Raxis is an elite team of professionals who are paid to attack and assess cybersecurity systems. We can help you pinpoint security threats and find ways to remediate them leaving your company more secure than we found it.  

    Ready to find out how secure your network really is? Reach out to us and let’s discuss your needs and how we can help.

  • How Bonnie Banished Her Boring Background

    How Bonnie Banished Her Boring Background

    Raxis has always been a remote-work team, even before COVID, so we’re accustomed to spending a lot of time on Zoom. Thus my plain green wall has been an ongoing source of amusement for my colleagues, but I never gave it a lot of thought until I started doing more videos for public consumption. 

    Before: My personal “green monster.”

    That’s when it hit me – the green wall looks like a green screen awaiting a novelty background. It’s boring and bland and very much not my style. So, I decided to change it up for something that is. 

    Of course, it helps that I have an amazing and talented friend, Kasi Reilly, who could take my wall from blah to beautiful. Even more importantly, Kasi understands my individual sense of style, and I trusted her to bring my vision to life. 

    She did not disappoint. 

    I knew I wanted colors and flowers. Kasi agreed and recommended that we make it bright and cheerful while remaining calming and serene. I thought that would be a difficult balance to achieve, yet when “Garden Party” blossomed on my wall, I realized my friend had captured it perfectly.

    After: The “Garden Party” in full bloom.

    So now when you’re watching my Raxis videos on YouTube or social media, you’ll be treated to this beautiful piece of art. And my fallow green wall is now in permanent bloom.

    If you love Kasi’s artwork as much as I do, check out her instagram, @kasirliving and her Facebook page: Kasi Reilly Living.