Hacked Website: Myth Versus Reality

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Yes, a hacked website can happen to your school. Here, the myths, misinformation, and truths. Plus, tips for protecting yourself.

If you surfed the Internet in 1994, you could probably have gone to all 3,000 websites. (And back then, a hacked website was rare.) Today, you’d be hard pressed to visit even a tiny fraction of the billion-plus sites out there.

Exponential growth has come at a price: About one percent—or ten million—of these websites are hacked or infected.

While your ...

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Dirty, Rotten Phish

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Email phishing scams are flooding the Internet: How not to get lured in.

Nearly 85 percent of American and British organizations have been victims of phishing attacks, most delivered by email (other popular vehicles include mobile devices, social media, and phone calls).

Financial loss, productivity slowdown, and reputation damage are just some of the consequences companies like Seagate, Snapchat, and (ironically) the web-security company KnowBe4 have suffered after a strike.

Schools are juicy prey, too. And all it takes is one—just ...

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Ransomware: It Can Happen to You

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An old cybercrime that first surfaced in the late ‘80s, ransomware has re-emerged as a sinister plague.

It can infect school networks—and pretty much everyone else on the planet who has access to a computer and the Internet.

According to the FBI, ransomware victims in the U.S. doled out $209 million in first quarter 2016, compared to $24 million for all of 2015.

Ransomware sites are propagating like mad, reports Infoblox,with a 3,500 percent increase in first quarter 2016 over ...

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Social-Engineering Attacks. You’re More Vulnerable Than You Think.

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Are your endusers vulnerable to social engineering? The scammers are counting on it.

You’ve gone to great lengths to protect your school network with firewalls, filters, and anti-virus software. But you’ve still got a weak link (or hundreds). It’s called your end-user. Any one of staff members or students could fall for a social-engineering scam that devastates your entire system.

Hackers are increasingly clever and sophisticated as they “socially engineer” their victims into taking some sort of ...

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Protect Your Network From Hackers

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Could your school district be next? Here’s how to protect your network from hackers.

Hack jobs are on the rise. Every week, it seems, we hear stories about someone infiltrating a K–12 network. Sure, you do your best to protect your network from hackers. But it’s not so simple.

Among these hackers are crafty scammers, ranging from sophisticated evildoers to casual pranksters.

Cyber criminals are the big villains—they might plant malware, hijack networks, steal identity, or seize a hard drive for ransom. Then ...

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