Decoding Technology

Practical perspective for businesses

Security

Posts about information security, including data security, network security, operational security, and best practices.

Suspicious Email Red Flags

03 May 2023 by mikevarian Security

Emails are inherently untrustworthy, and even if your own security is strong, vulnerability among others you communicate with still leave you at risk. While difficult to be careful with every single Read more

An Example Framework for an Information Security Policy

22 October 2021 by mikevarian Security

Introduction It has long been good practice for organizations to establish and maintain an Information Security Policy, and with each passing year they become increasingly important. As technology Read more

Office365 MFA Setup Guide

15 October 2021 by mikevarian Security

Initial Setup Multifactor Authentication is a security measure to help protect your account against even if someone knows your password. On your computer, log in at https://aka.ms/mfasetup with your Read more

Zoom and Security - Should you be concerned?

28 April 2020 by mikevarian Security

The Headlines In December 2019, Zoom had 10 million users. In April 2020, they surpassed 300 million! (Incredibly, they scaled 30x in 4 months without a single major service interruption - a headline Read more

Beware COVID-19 / Coronavirus Scams

16 March 2020 by mikevarian Security

With the high volume of legitimate urgent emails regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, please think before you click! It is a disgusting practice, but unfortunately, like clockwork, when there is a large Read more

Warning: New trend may bypass spam filters

04 March 2020 by mikevarian Security

Please be advised that we have observed attackers leveraging vulnerabilities in public web services this week to successfully bypass spam and phishing email protections. This has resulted in numerous Read more

Open Redirect Vulnerability in Slack

04 March 2020 by mikevarian Security

Background The morning of March 2nd, 2020, we were surprised to see obvious phishing emails deliver right into our inbox. This means they bypassed a multi-layered set of anti-phishing and anti-spam Read more

Passwords get a new lease on life!

01 August 2019 by mikevarian Security

At NorthSky Technology, we’ve long been hesitant to recommend strict password expiration policies to clients. Until relatively recently our hands have been tied on this issue, as most security Read more

Simple Tips for Improving Email Security

04 March 2019 by mikevarian Security

The risk of email compromise is a constant, attackers more efficient than ever at finding ways to break in and gain access to your account. The two most common threats are: A) Attackers find Read more

Meltdown and Spectre Vulnerabilities: What they mean for you

16 January 2018 by mikevarian Security

You may have seen a recent news headline about critical vulnerabilities being found in just about every modern CPU (computer processor) manufactured in the last decade. These fall into two Read more