About Alvaka-Admin

This author has not yet filled in any details.
So far Alvaka-Admin has created 663 blog entries.

A three bullet summary of your current e-mail threats

Proofpoint Threat Operations and Research recently published their quarterly threat report for July - September 2016, which includes key findings such as: 

  • Volume of malicious emails rose to their highest levels ever
    New campaigns bearing varied attachment types broke volume records set in Q2, peaking at hundreds of millions of messages per day. JavaScript attachments continued to lead these very large email campaigns, growing 69% this quarter.
  • Ransomware variants grew tenfold
    In particular, 97% of messages with malicious document attachments featured the popular ransomware strain Locky, while CryptXXX was the dominant ransomware delivered by exploit kit (EK).

Download the full report. Please let us know if you have any questions related to this report or how Alvaka Networks can protect your people and data from attacks.

2026-04-15T04:55:26-07:00October 24th, 2016|

Beware of this new domain name and SEO registration scam

Orange County, CA - I want to thank Alvaka network engineer Alex Estevez for bringing the e-mail below to my attention. One of his clients got this bogus message from GoDaddy. The scams on the internet know no ends for creativity and treachery.

This message looks so authentic and it can be so easy to go ahead and pay for a scam renewal and give up your domain login credentials too. Once you give up those credentials the thief(s) can potentially sell your domain name. For many businesses that would be devastating even if it only lasted a short time while the theft gets corrected. On top of the charge on your card they could potentially sell your credit card information as well.

Alex said, “What made me suspicious was the fact that the email came from a company called “Intranetregistrarnetwork.com” which just sounded bogus to me.“ That site is now shutdown, but count on another one to pop-up soon.

Here is what the e-mail looked like. As you can see it looks quite legitimate. It does not contain the spelling errors and poor grammar associated with so many e-mail scams....

2024-04-21T19:41:30-07:00October 20th, 2016|

Cracking your passwords just got faster and easier than ever, here’s how….

Orange County, CA – I just read about a new product announcement, New version of L0phtCrack makes cracking Windows passwords easier than ever. At Alvaka we used to do a hacking demo during a lunch and learn. Rex Frank would usually do the demo by doing a SQL Injection attack and bumping out to the command prompt. From there he would download the SAM (Security Access Manager) file and then use L0phtCrack to decode a password right in front of the eyes of everyone. Nearly everyone was shocked beyond compare. Of course that approach is now a bit dated, but it showed our guests just how vulnerable unpatched and inadequately secured systems can be. From the start of the demo to the revelation of an account password would only take five o

2024-04-21T19:41:48-07:00September 15th, 2016|

Is password length more important than complexity? A guideline for password creation policy.

Orange County, CA - I just read a summary of research on secure passwords vs. weak ones that get hacked. If you are looking to create your own secret password or if you are a network administrator looking to enforce secure password policy then read on. These results are from a study on 10 million passwords that have been breached in recent years.

In summary, if you want a weak password, then use:

  • Words
  • Names
  • Verbs
  • Colors
  • Animals
  • Fruits
  • “Love” phrases
  • Superheroes
  • And days of the week
  • Leet speak, the act of using informal language or code in which standard letters are often replaced by numerals or special characters such as “n00b” or “gue55able”
  • Most importantly, don’t use patterns on your keyboard or phone dialer pad. Those are at the very top of the list of quickly decoded passwords....
2024-04-21T19:42:03-07:00August 17th, 2016|

An experienced cyber insurance broker’s reply to my blog

This reply to my blog, Should I buy cyber insurance? is written by David McNeil, principal, of EPIC Insurance Brokers & Agents. He brings 20+ years of professional industry experience to the topic on cyber insurance. Some of Alvaka Networks' clients have been utilizing Dave's services for many years.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Oli,

Always enjoy your insights and thoughts on Tech-related subjects.   Lately, the plethora of headlines regarding cyber-related issues has meant the interest in cyber-insurance has reached a new level. This is a huge topic and this comment can only scratch the surface.

That said, a bit of an insider-view may be helpful…

Currently, cyber-insurance coverage forms are NOT standard (ISO) forms.  As a result, insurance carriers forms differ greatly.  Many parts, definitions, limits and coverage triggers are negotiable.

Definition negotiations are critical.  It is important to know what to look for and how to modify a particular carriers form to best suit the needs of a specific client/insured.

EXAMPLE:  Trigger for Notification of a Breach - (A hypothetical…. Sort of)....

2018-08-09T11:15:46-07:00July 12th, 2016|

The coming of the Strategic Service Provider

Orange County, CA - “Robert Faletra, CEO of The Channel Company, which publishes CRN, said the evolution toward the Strategic Service Provider model marks the fourth major shift in channel nomenclature since the publication's founding in 1982. When the channel was born its constituents were known as Resellers, a business model CRN declared essentially dead in 1990 in favor of VARs (value-added resellers). VARs evolved into Solution Providers, a term that incorporates both Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and Cloud Service Providers (CSPs). And now CRN heralds the dawn of the Strategic Service Provider era.”

That is what Steven Burke wrote recently in a story titled, The New Channel Model: Rise Of The Strategic Service Provider.

What is the “channel” and who is CRN? The channel is a term coined long ago by the folks at computer industry publication CRN back in the early 1980s when they were known as Computer Reseller News. The channel, as it is known, is the group of players that brings to you, the end-user, all the PCs, servers, monitors, Microsoft Windows, Adobe products, network cables, printers, scanners, et al that you buy constantly. The channel is your computer dealer and the...

2016-06-15T23:27:37-07:00June 15th, 2016|

Ransomware and Phishing Awareness Training for your end-users

If you don’t treat network security as important, don’t expect your users to treat security as important. Irvine, CA - Ransomware and phishing threats are the most prevalent cyber-risk problem facing your organization today. Securing your system is a layered [...]

2019-09-08T21:59:01-07:00May 23rd, 2016|