Are you getting this error message when connecting to a virtual private network (VPN) from a Windows 8 Machine?
Error connecting to VPN NAME.
Error 850: The Extensible Authentication Protocol type required for authentication of the remote access connection is not installed on your computer.
The Authentication method need to be fix in a view quick steps.
Go to the Control Panel and in the top right corner, set View by: Small Icons
Open Network and Sharing Center
Then Click Change adapter Settings
Right Click the VPN Connectionand click Properties
Click the Security tab
Select the correct authentication protocol. If it is a Microsoft PPTP implementation then try the following configuration. Enable the radio button for Allow these protocols and enable CHAP and CHAP v2:
Click Ok and Try the VPN again.
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Our small business team is here to help.
Call us at: 856-745-9990
A large number of businesses still run Microsoft MSFT-1.71% Windows Server 2003 and it’s unlikely they all will upgrade before Microsoft Corp. ends support on July 14, 2015, say analysts. Companies that don’t upgrade increase their cyber security risks because the company will no longer issue security updates and these systems will be more vulnerable to hackers.
Businesses worldwide run an estimated 23.8 million physical and virtual instances of Windows Server 2003, according to data released by Microsoft in July 2014. Analysts say the technology is more prevalent in industries such as health care, utilities and government. Yet it’s also still used in about 7% of retail point of sale systems, according to a report Thursday by Trend Micro Inc.4704.TO-1.11%
“Microsoft does not plan to extend support for Windows Server 2003 and encourages customers who currently run Windows Server 2003 and have not yet begun migration planning to do so immediately,” said Vivecka Budden, a Microsoft spokesperson, in an email.
“It is going to be difficult to get this done in time,” said David Mayer, practice director of Microsoft Solutions at Insight Enterprises Inc.NSIT-1.12%, a provider of IT hardware, software and services.
Many of these same industries were impacted by the end of service for the Windows XP operating system on April 8. Microsoft broadcasts these sorts of moves years in advance, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. But, the product was stable and for many companies there simply wasn’t incentive to update.
“In general, everyone has been slow to migrate, especially those with servers that are running applications,” said Rob Helm, vice president of research at Directions on Microsoft consulting firm.
The problem in industries such as health care and utilities is that companies run legacy apps written by vendors who still require Windows Server 2003. For example, there are smaller vendors in health care that have not kept up with development and application modernization, said a health-care CIO who asked not to be identified. A hospital may have an inventory of 100 to 500 different applications and many applications will still require Windows Server 2003, he added.
Electric utilities, for example, widely use Windows Server 2003. There hasn’t been much movement to upgrade those systems, said Patrick C. Miller, founder of the nonprofit Energy Sector Security Consortium and a managing partner at The Anfield Group, a security consulting firm. Instead, utilities are working to better secure and isolate those systems.
“I’m concerned about directory services such as application authentication and user permissions,” said Mr. Miller. “If you compromise an Active Directory server, you get access to everything.”
For now, analysts are recommending that companies work out their risk of exposure and make plans to first migrate those applications that will be most difficult. Companies should make plans to harden servers that can’t be updated. That might entail putting those systems on an isolated network, where they’d be less prone to outside attack, said Mr. Helm.
FBI warns against VPNFilter malware that targets over 500,000 routers
If you have a home or office Internet router, the FBI has issued an urgent request for consumers to reboot now to help disrupt a massive foreign-based malware attack.
Foreign cybercriminals have compromised hundreds of thousands of home and office routers and other networked devices worldwide, the FBI said in a May 25 announcement.
How to help defend yourself from VPNFilter malware:
Turn your router off, then back on. This may temporarily disrupt the malware and potentially help identify already-infected devices.
Secure the device with a strong, unique, new password.
Upgrade firmware to the latest available version.
Consider getting the Norton™Core Secure Wi-Fi Router designed to help defend against a variety of possible cyber threats, including the VPNFilter attack, and is also designed to automatically update its knowledge of known viruses and other threats.
We’re on the verge of the biggest change in wireless networking since 2007. Fifth-generation Wi-Fi technology promises to deliver faster-than-cable speed–without the cables.
If your business has kept pace with changes in wireless networking, you’ve deployed dual-band routers and client adapters that can stream encrypted data over the airwaves at speeds greater than 100 megabits per second at relatively close range.
But no good deed goes unpunished. New hardware based on the nearly finished 802.11ac standard is about to debut, and it will make your existing wireless infrastructure feel as though it’s mired in molasses.
Though the standards body responsible for defining 802.11ac hasn’t finished dotting all the i’s and crossing all the t’s yet, semiconductor manufacturers Broadcom and Qualcomm Atheros are already sampling 802.11ac chipsets (Broadcom has labeled its effort “5G Wi-Fi”). Both companies are closely involved in defining the standard, and they promise to deliver firmware updates to correct for any minor changes that may creep into the standard between now and the moment it is ratified (probably later this year or early in 2013).
Wondering how the IEEE moved from 802.11n to 802.11ac? The standards body uses a new letter suffix to identify each new technical paper related to the 802.11 project, so the logical follow-ons to 802.11z were 802.11aa, 802.11ab, and now 802.11ac. The standard is dubbed “fifth-generation Wi-Fi” because it’s the fifth generation of the technology that will be certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance marketing consortium. At the risk of muddying the waters, there is an 802.11ad standard in the works, but it’s not the next step in mainstream wireless networking. WiGig, as that standard is known, is a short-range, line-of-site technology that uses the 60GHz frequency band to stream media.
Unlike 802.11n networking hardware, which can use either the 2.4GHz or the 5GHz frequency bands, 802.11ac devices will operate exclusively on the 5GHz band. The 2.4GHz band delivers better range, but Wi-Fi data streams that use it must compete with a multitude of other devices that operate at the same frequency–everything from microwave ovens to Bluetooth headsets). The 5GHz band contains many more available channels; and in the 802.11ac standard, each of those channels is 80MHz wide, versus the 40MHz width specified for channels under the 802.11n standard.
Trendnet’s TEW-811DR router will support 802.11ac.What’s more, 802.11ac will use a modulation scheme that quadruples the amount of data that will fit on an encoded carrier signal. The maximum bandwidth per spatial stream in 802.11n is 150 mbps, which means that an 802.11n router outfitted with three transmit and three receive antennas can deliver maximum theoretical throughput of 450 mbps. In contrast, the maximum bandwidth in 802.11ac jumps to 433 mbps per spatial stream, and the maximum number of spatial streams increases from three to eight. So the theoretical maximum throughput on an 802.11ac network will eventually be several times that of gigabit ethernet. First-generation devices, however, will be limited to using either two or three transmit and receive antennas to deliver a theoretical throughput maximum of 866 mbps or 1.3 gbps).
As we’ve seen with 802.11n networks, real-world throughput will likely be one-third to one-half as fast as the theoretical maximums. Still, even mobile devices outfitted with 802.11ac chipsets and just one transmit and one receive antenna–think smartphones and tablets–should be able to handle more than twice the bandwidth that today’s devices with 802.11n chipsets can manage. With bandwidth-intensive applications such as videoconferencing and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) moving from the desktop to smartphones and tablets, 802.11ac networks will become essential infrastructure elements for businesses large and small.
One means of overcoming the 5GHz band’s shorter range with 802.11ac chipsets will be to utilize transmit and receive beam-forming technology. Beam forming was an optional and non-standardized element of the 802.11n spec. In the 802.11ac standard, beam-forming will remain an optional feature, but its implementation will be standardized. Most of today’s 802.11n devices use omnidirectional signal transmission and reception. Signals propagate in a series of concentric rings, like the ripples you create by dropping a stone in a pond.
With beam forming, the router and its clients develop an awareness of each other’s relative location, so they can coherently focus their transmission streams at each other. Without beam forming, reflected signals may arrive out-of-phase and cancel each other out, reducing total bandwidth. A beam-forming chipset can adjust the signals’ phase to overcome that problem, thereby substantially increasing usable bandwidth.
The first generation of 802.11ac routers, such as the Trendnet TEW-811DR, will be concurrent dual-band models that support 802.11n clients on the 2.4GHz frequency band and 802.11ac clients on the 5GHz band. These devices are likely to reach the market in the third quarter of this year. Laptops with 802.11ac chipsets should arrive in time for the winter holiday season, with mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets following in early 2013. The Wi-Fi Alliance, which has assumed responsibility for ensuring that wireless networking products interoperate properly, plans to begin its 802.11ac certification program in early 2013.
End of support is sneaking up on enterprise employees running Office on a Mac
Companies that have employees running Office for Mac 2011 have just over 100 days to replace the suite’s applications with those from last year’s upgrade, Office for Mac 2016.
Support ends for Office for Mac 2011 on Oct. 10, a date that Microsoft first stamped on the calendar two years ago, but has not widely publicized since. As of that date, the Redmond, Wash., developer will cease supplying patches for security vulnerabilities or fixes for other bugs.
The individual applications — Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Word — will continue to operate after support ends, but companies will be taking a risk, however small, that malware exploiting an unpatched flaw will surface and compromise systems.
To receive security and non-security updates after Oct. 10, IT administrators must deploy Office for Mac 2016 or instruct workers covered by Office 365 to download and install the newer suite’s applications from the subscription service’s portal.
Office for Mac 2011’s end-of-support deadline was originally slated for January 2016, approximately five years after the productivity package’s release. But in the summer of 2015, when it was clear that 2011’s successor would not be ready by early 2016, Microsoft extended its lifespan by 21 months. At the time, Microsoft cited the long-standing policy of supporting a to-be-retired product for “2 years after the successor product is released” when it added time to 2011.
Mac users: Steerage Class
The impending cutoff for Office for Mac 2011 is an issue only because Microsoft shortchanges Office for Mac users. Unlike the Windows version of Office, which receives 10 years of security support, those that run on macOS are allotted half that. Microsoft has repeatedly classified Office for Mac as a consumer product to justify the half-measure, even for the edition labeled “Home and Business.”
Nor does Microsoft update and service Office for Mac for corporate customers as it does the far more popular Windows SKU (stock-keeping unit). The latter will be upgraded with new features, Microsoft said in April, twice each year for enterprise subscribers to Office 365 ProPlus, with each release supported for 18 months before giving way to a pair of successors.
Mac editions, however, are refreshed with new tools at irregular intervals, often long after the same feature debuts in the same Windows application. (Recently, for example, Microsoft added a delivery-and/or-read receipt option to the Mac version of Outlook; that functionality has been in Outlook on Windows since 2013.) And because there are no regular, large-scale feature upgrades to Office for Mac, support is not curtailed by the release schedule as with Windows.
The difference between Offices — the behemoth Windows on one side, the niche Mac on the other — has been put into even starker relief recently: Microsoft has adopted March and September dates for launching new upgrades to Windows 10, Office 365 ProPlus, and last week, Windows Server, but made no similar promises for Office for Mac 2016.
2) Open a new email message and select Message > Dictate.
3) Wait for the icon to turn red.
4) Start talking. As you talk, text appears in your email message.
5) Speak clearly and conversationally. Insert punctuation, by saying the name of the punctuation mark you want to add.
6) If you make a mistake while dictating, move your cursor to the mistake and fix it with your keyboard. No need to turn off the microphone.
7) When finished, select Dictate again to stop typing.
Troubleshooting
I don’t see Dictate, or it’s not working
If Dictate isn’t working, make sure you’re connected to the Internet.
You can enable or disable Dictate by going to File > Options and look for Office intelligent services on the General tab.
Important information about Dictate
Dictate is one of the Office Intelligent Services, bringing the power of the cloud to Office apps to help save you time and produce better results.
Your speech utterances will be sent to Microsoft to provide you with this service, and may also be used to improve speech recognition services. For more information see, What are Intelligent Services?
Office Dictate is not HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) compliant.
Due to a critical security vulnerability with SSL 3.0 (an 18-year-old, outdated technology), we recommend disabling it on your server. We have instructions on how to do that in the Updating section but recommend reading the entire document to understand the scope of what this does.
What does POODLE do?
In short, it’s a way attackers can compromise SSL certificates if they’re on the same network as the target if (and only if) the server the target is communicating with supports SSL 3.0.
Google has a lot more detail on their security blog here.
Does POODLE affect my server/sites?
Because POODLE is a vulnerability in SSL technology, it only impacts sites using SSL certificates. If your server or your sites don’t use an SSL certificate, you don’t need to update your server. However, we recommend doing it now in case you do end up installing an SSL certificate at a later date.
Updating
How you update your server depends on whether your server uses a Linux® distribution or Windows® and if it uses cPanel.
cPanel
cPanel requires slightly different steps from any other control panel/operating system configuration.
To Configure cPanel to Prevent POODLE Vulnerability on HTTP
1. Log in to your cPanel (more info).
2. In the Service Configuration section, click Apache Configuration.
3. Click Include Editor.
4. In the Pre Main Include section, from the Select an Apache Version menu, select All Versions.
5. In the field that displays, type the following, depending on which version of CentOS you’re using:
CentOS Version
Type this…
Cent OS/RHEL 6.x
SSLHonorCipherOrder On
SSLProtocol -All +TLSv1 +TLSv1.1 +TLSv1.2
Cent OS/RHEL 5.x
SSLHonorCipherOrder On
SSLProtocol -All +TLSv1
If you encounter errors while applying this update, please review this forum post at cPanel that discusses potential fixes.
6. Click Update.
Preventing POODLE on Other Protocols (FTP, etc.)
Right now, only servers using RHEL can protect themselves against POODLE on non-HTTPS protocols. They can do this by updating the latest version of OpenSSL, and then implementing TLS_FALLBACK_SCSV.
Servers using CentOS do not yet have a known fix for the vulnerability on non-HTTPS protocols. However, we will update this article with those instructions as soon as we do.
Linux (Apache)
Modify your Apache configuration to include the following line:
Modify your server’s registry (which removes access SSL 3.0 support from IIS) using Microsoft’s document here. You can jump down to the Disable SSL 3.0 in Windows section.
Even a novice Word user can display page numbers in a document’s header of footer. The process is fundamental. Advancing beyond the basics is easier than you might think, and you might be surprised how many things you can do with a header or footer! In this article, you’ll find eight tips that will move you from basic user to advanced, at least with headers and footers.
1. Display page numbers in shapes
Most documents over a few pages display a page number in the header of footer. If the document warrants a bit of visual appeal, you can display that number in an interesting and colorful shape. First, add the shape to the header using an easy-to-use built in gallery. Next, use the header’s current position property to add the number.
To add the shape, do the following:
Open the footer by double-clicking the footer area. In Word 2003, choose Header and Footer from the View menu.
While in the header, click the Insert tab. In the Illustrations group, click Shapes and choose one, such as the diamond shape in the Flowchart section (Figure A). In Word 2003, use the Drawing toolbar to access shapes. Figure A
Click inside the footer and drag to create the shape. It’s okay if the shape extends beyond the footer border a bit.
With the shape inserted, use the contextual Format tab to format the shape. I used the Shape Fill options to change the color to lettuce green; I used the Shape Outline drop-down to change the outline to dark green; I used the Shape Effects Reflection option to add a full reflection (Figure B) that fades off the bottom edge (which might not be possible to print but works fine for electronic viewing). In Word 2003, choose AutoShape from the Format menu (with the shape selected). Figure B
With the shape inserted and formatted, add the page number as follows:
Right-click the shape and choose Add Text from the resulting submenu. In Word 2003, use the Header and Footer contextual toolbar to insert the page number, and then format as you normally would.
Click the contextual Design tab. In the Header & Footer group, click Page Number.
Choose Current Position from the drop-down.
Choose Plain Number (the first option) from the gallery (Figure C). Figure C
Select the number and format it. I applied black font color (Figure D). Figure D
This simple example shows you how to display the page number in a shape. It’s up to you to determine whether doing so is appropriate for your document.
2. Insert a graphic
A header is a good place to display your organization’s logo or some other branding graphic. To do so, open the header or footer as you normally would and then do the following:
With the document in edit mode, click the Insert tab. In Word 2003, choose Picture | From File from the Insert menu, and then skip to step 3.
In the Illustrations group, click Picture.
Use the Insert Picture dialog to locate the file
Select the file, and then click Insert
You probably didn’t realize how easy that would be! While graphics in the header and footer might sound like a great idea, use them sparingly.
3. Use header graphic as a page tab
You can use the header or footer to display a graphic on every page, but you don’t have to leave it in the header or footer. For instance, you might want to use a graphic as a page tab. To do so, insert the graphic as you normally would (see tip 2). Then, drag it out of the header or footer area as shown in Figure E. If the graphic won’t move, click the Layout Options icon and choose a text wrapping option. The Layout Options icon is new to 2013. In earlier versions, you’ll find these options on the contextual Format tab. You might want to rotate the graphic as well.
Figure E
4. Use sections
A large document might need to change information in the header or footer as the document evolves. The way to implement this requirement is to use section breaks. Simply click inside the document (not inside the header or footer) where you want the new section to begin. Click the Page Layout tab, click Breaks in the Page Setup group, and then choose the best break type for your document. Return to the header or footer of the new section and make the necessary changes. In Word 2003, breaks are on the Insert menu.
For a header that doesn’t repeat information from the previous section, click the Link to Previous option in the Navigation group on the contextual Design tab. Doing so breaks the connection between the two sections. Figure F shows the toggle option linked and not linked. When sections are linked, the option has a dark background and Word displays the Same as Previous tab to the right. When the link is broken, the option has no background and the tab is gone. In Word 2003, this option is on the Header and Footer toolbar (and available only if there’s more than one section).
Figure F
You must break the link between headers and footers separately.
5. Display custom info
The header or footer area is a great place to display custom information about the document or author using fields. To do so, open the document’s header or footer. Then, position the cursor and do the following:
Click the Insert tab. In Word 2003, choose Field from the Insert menu and skip to step 4.
In the Text group, click the Quick Parts option.
From the drop-down, choose Field.
Using the resulting dialog (Figure G), choose a field, such as Author. Set properties, if necessary, and click OK. (You could also use AutoText or Document Property.) Figure G
6. Gallery page number options replace existing header or footer
Be careful when using the Page Number option to display page numbers in the header or footer. If you’ve already created a header or footer, and you add the page number last, use the Current Position option. Other options from the gallery will replace the existing header or footer. (Galleries aren’t available in Word 2003.)
7. Modify the style
Word applies the Header and Footer style to header and footer text, respectively. Both styles are based on Normal. The easiest way to change the appearance of the text for either is to modify the appropriate style. Doing so will impact the entire document, so don’t change the style if you want to change the format for a single section.
8. Reference a content control
Sometimes, you want to repeat information from the body of the document in the header or footer. In later versions of Word, using content controls, this is easily done. First, you add a content control and create a custom style for it. To the header, you add a StyleRef field that references the style you applied to the content control. In this way, you can easily display the contents of the content control in the header. Let’s work through a simple example:
Position the cursor where you want to insert the content control.
Click the Developer tab and then click Rich Text Content Control in the Controls group.
Click Properties in the same group and enter a meaningful name, such as ccName . The cc prefix identifies the object as a content control and Name describes its content.
Check the Use a style to format text typed into the empty control option. Don’t worry about what’s in the Style control at this point.
Click New Style.
Name the new style appropriately, such as Content Control (Figure H). You can change the Style based on setting, but don’t for this example. In this way, you can see how easy it is to set this technique up without making a lot of unnecessary changes. It’s the same style used for the body of the document; it just has a different name. Figure H
Click OK, and Word updates the Style control to reflect the new style you just created (Figure I). Figure I
Click OK.
Open the header and position the cursor where you want to display the contents of the content control you just added.
Click the Insert tab.
In the Text group, click Quick Parts, and choose Field from the drop-down list.
In the resulting dialog, choose StyleRef from the Field names list.
Choose Content Control from the Style name list
Click OK.
Double-click the content control to close the header.
Enter text into the content control, and the field in the header will update accordingly. Although this technique has a lot of steps, it isn’t difficult to implement.
Have questions?
Get help from IT Experts/Microsofts Cloud Solutions Partner
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Takeaway: As adoption of cloud computing services takes off, some argue demand for certain IT jobs will all but disappear.
Just as manual labourers were replaced by the machines of industry in the 19th century so certain IT roles will be swept away by cloud computing services.
That’s the argument put forward by Gartner research director Gregor Petri – who believes that many roles managing IT infrastructure will all but disappear.
Manual management of IT infrastructure – for instance provisioning additional storage, servers or network capacity for a particular application – will increasingly be automated as software layers in the cloud automatically divert IT resources to where they are needed, he said.
“It is very much like industrialisation,” he said.
“Take the very old example given by Adam Smith of the pin makers who used to take a day to make four pins, then a factory is built that can make 10,000 pins in an hour.
“That is what cloud computing services is making possible: you can carry out these computing tasks on an industrial scale.”
Petri said that just as people no longer make pins manually, so in general people won’t perform tasks like monitoring an app’s storage demands and purchasing and installing new storage for it.
“The cloud computing app is already programmed in a way that allows the application to access additional storage when it is needed, as a result nobody is needed to do that anymore,” he said.
“Cloud is allowing the industrialisation of IT, that is why to some people it is very scary.”
While Petri believes that traditional IT infrastructure management roles will become all but defunct, allowing IT systems to be run with fewer people, he said it doesn’t necessarily mean the individuals who carried out those roles will find themselves out of the job.
Instead he sees new roles being created that use that individuals’ technical skills to add value to the business, for instance working with managers in other departments to make company IT systems better fit the needs of staff or customers. “People in those roles need to flexible in the idea of what their role is,” he said.
The changing landscape of computing – for instance real-time big data analytics or the provision of scalable cloud services to always connected mobile computers – will also create new roles, he said.
When will it happen?
While today’s cloud platforms are already automatically provision these resources today, Petri said that the effect of this industrialisation of computing will not be felt until more applications are shifted to the cloud.
That could be some time off. Although adoption of cloud services is growing rapidly – Gartner predicts that the market for cloud compute services will grow 48.7 per cent in 2012 to $5bn, up from $3.4 billion in 2011 – spend on cloud computing services is still only a fraction of global IT spend. However, by 2020 the majority of organisations will rely on the cloud for more than half of their IT services, according to Gartner’s 2011 CIO Agenda Survey.
Will jobs really disappear?
Not everyone is convinced that cloud computing services will have such a profound effect on the IT jobs landscape.
Some believe that while roles will likely transition from in-house IT teams to cloud providers as companies consume more cloud services, the roles and demand for skills will remain.
As a TechRepublic reader who works for a large cloud provider pointed out: “I still deal with the daily hands on from thousands of customers / clients, some pretty huge ones at that. Between dealing with their AD, LDAP, Windows / Linux deployments, configuration and code issues, I can say that server administrators will still be needed in fact more than ever.”
Other readers have pointed out that IT roles tend to endure far longer than expected and certain technical skills remain in demand. Old programming languages never die, as another reader points out:”Back in 1977 I attended a COBOL Summer class in my university. The first thing the instructor told us was that it was dead language, as new technologies were pushing it to extinction… Guess what, early this morning I reviewed (part of my duties as a DBA) some SQL embedded in a COBOL program to run in the z196 Mainframe”.
The breach is the latest targeting of a crucial supply chain and comes three weeks after the Colonial Pipeline hack disrupted fuel operations in the U.S.
Here’s what we know:
What is JBS?
JBS USA is part of JBS Foods, one of the world’s largest food companies. It has operations in 15 countries and has customers in about 100 countries, according to its website. Its customers include supermarkets and fast food outlet McDonald’s and in the US, JBS processes nearly one quarter of the county’s beef and one-fifth of its pork. JBS’s five biggest beef plants are in the US, and the shutdowns have halted a fifth of meat production there, according to Bloomberg.
Its brands include Pilgrim’s, Great Southern and Aberdeen Black. The US headquarters is based in Greeley, Colorado, and it employs more than 66,000 people.
What happened?
Hackers attacked the company’s IT system last weekend, prompting shutdowns at company plants in North America and Australia. IT systems are essential in modern meat processing plants, with computers used at multiple stages including billing and shipping.
JBS hack shuttered nine US beef plants but normal operations to resume Wednesday
The hack, which the White House described Tuesday as ransomware, affected all of JBS’s US meatpacking facilities, according to an official at the United Food and Commercial Workers union that represents JBS employees. The cyberattack resulted in the closure of all nine of the company’s US beef plants, which are located in states including Arizona, Texas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wisconsin, Utah, Michigan and Pennsylvania, the union official said. The company said on Monday that it suspended all affected IT systems as soon as the attack was detected, and that its backup servers were not hacked.
The White House has said that the ransomware attack was likely carried out by a Russia-based criminal organization, and that it is dealing with the Russian government on the matter.
JBS’ operations in Australia were also affected. The Australian Meat Industry Council, a major trade group, said in a statement that “there is no indication whatsoever that this cyberattack will cause a major impact on Australian domestic red meat and pork products supply.”
What is ransomware?
In a ransomware attack, hackers steal an organization’s data and lock its computers. Victims must pay to regain access to their network and prevent the release of sensitive information.
Some sophisticated ransomware hackers, such as the Russian hacker group Darkside, sell their ransomware technology and take a cut of any ransoms paid to their customers.
Experts generally encourage ransomware victims not to pay any ransom. But a company’s ability to get back online without paying hackers may depend on whether it has protected backups of its data. In some cases, hackers can delete their target’s backups before locking its files, leaving the victim organization with no recourse.
JBS did not comment to CNN about details of the ransomware attack, including whether it paid the ransom.
This kind of cyberattack sounds familiar. Where have I heard that?
The hack comes a few weeks after a ransomware attack targeted Colonial Pipeline, which forced a six-day shutdown of one of the United States’ largest fuel pipelines. That May attack resulted in gas shortages, spiking prices and consumer panic. Colonial Pipeline has confirmed it paid a $4.4m (£3.1m) ransom to the cyber-criminal gang responsible.
Similar to JBS, Colonial Pipeline’s systems were hit with ransomware. Once a company has been hit by ransomware, its first course of action is usually to take much or all of its systems offline to isolate the hackers’ access and make sure they can’t move into other parts of the network.
That may be among the reasons why JBS shut down its operations and Colonial shut down its pipeline — to disconnect the companies’ operations from the IT systems that hackers breached. People briefed on the Colonial attack have said that the company halted operations because its billing system was also compromised and feared they wouldn’t be able to determine how much to bill customers for fuel they received.
The pipeline has since returned to normal operations.
Don’t be the next victim of a ransomware attack. Contact South Jersey Techies to discuss how your critical information can be secure.
If you have any questions, please call us at (856) 745-9990.
