Appalachia Technologies Blog

As I’m sitting in my office looking at the wintry precipitation fall, it makes me long for a warmer climate. Well, I happen to be in luck, as next week I will be attending the Zero Trust World Conference, presented by ThreatLocker; which takes place in sunny and warm Orlando, Florida. In the midst of packing, making lists of things to take along, and making sure I’m TSA compliant, I have had my ear to the wire about the events being announced for the conference.  Here is a preview of what is to come!

I sat in the parking lot watching employees walk in the corporate office.  Ready with my five dozen donuts, I waited until the perfect moment to see if I could infiltrate.  It’s like the start of a great superhero movie - except starring Kevin James and not Christian Bale.

I had been hired by the company for a physical social engineering assessment.  Only a few people (stakeholders and managers) within the company knew that this was occurring that day.  The goal was to see if I could gain entry into the building unnoticed and once in, what I could access.

Ransomware – The What, Where, and Why

Everyone has heard stories by now of an organization getting hit by ransomware.  From individuals to small and enterprise-level organizations, it can pop up anywhere and cause havoc.  What is it?  Where does it come from? Why isn’t it going away?  Today we’re going to break it down.

Not a single day goes by that we don’t either hear the word security or read the word security.  See?  You’ve already read it twice!  The internet is full of so much noise that it sometimes can be hard to filter out information that pertains to you and your organization, as well as what is credible.  Today I thought I’d take a moment to give you some great sources for security news.  These are sources that are very accurate and trustworthy.

Humans are the smartest beings on earth.  So why is it that they are the number one cause for breaches that cost millions of dollars?  It’s because they are kind.

Because of the kindness of human beings, they are easily manipulated by bad actors to give up private information or even hold a door.  This is the foundation of Social Engineering.

Let’s face it.  Security is expensive.  Many organizations think of security as an unwanted expense when budgeting for the next fiscal year.  However, no matter what industry an organization is in, security IS its business too.