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Washington Works Blog

Washington Works has been serving the Bethesda area since 2005, providing IT Support such as technical helpdesk support, computer support, and consulting to small and medium-sized businesses.

How Scammers Try and Steal Your Business’ Data

Picture this scenario: while going about your daily routine, an email lands in your inbox, purportedly from a cybersecurity company. The alarming claim is that you've become the target of a hacking attack. Despite lacking IT expertise and being unfamiliar with your security agency's protocols, you trust the message and promptly respond. Little do you know, the email is a cleverly disguised cyberthreat, and you find yourself ensnared in their trap.

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Six of the Worst Data Breaches of 2023

Six of the Worst Data Breaches of 2023

In this blog, we do our best to give people the knowledge they need to protect themselves and their organizations while operating online. With all the digital tools that we all have come to rely on, it’s important to understand the result of a data breach on organizations and their customers. In today’s blog, we go through six of the most devastating data breaches that happened in 2023. 

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Social Media Scams are on the Rise

Social Media Scams are on the Rise

Social media scams are fraudulent schemes or deceptive activities that take place on various social media platforms. Users of Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, and dozens of others have been victims of these attacks. These scams can target users of all ages and backgrounds, and they aim to exploit people's trust, curiosity, or lack of awareness. Social media scams come in various forms, and here are some common ones.

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Hackers are Using AI Too and It is Scary

Hackers are Using AI Too and It is Scary

Maintaining network security has proven to be more difficult for organizations as time has gone on. Like the people trying to keep them out of networks they don’t have access to, hackers are increasingly using artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance their cyberattacks and achieve various malicious objectives. Here are some ways in which hackers are using AI.

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The Reasons Why Hackers Can’t Keep Their Hands Off Healthcare Data

The Reasons Why Hackers Can’t Keep Their Hands Off Healthcare Data

When it comes to valuable data, hackers will go out of their way to try and steal it, placing businesses in dangerous situations. In particular, healthcare data is attractive to hackers, and considering how lucrative the prospect of healthcare data is, companies need to take extra precautions to protect it. But what is it about healthcare data that makes it so attractive, anyway? Let’s dig into the consequences of potential attacks on healthcare data.

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Major Technology Company Barracuda Suffers Zero-Day Vulnerability

Major Technology Company Barracuda Suffers Zero-Day Vulnerability

Even the solutions designed to keep businesses and organizations safe are vulnerable to the threat of a cyberattack, as when it all boils down, these tools are still software solutions, no matter how secure they might be. The company in question today—Barracuda—is a huge name in the cybersecurity industry, and it has become the victim of a zero-day exploit. Let’s go over how you can prevent your business from experiencing the same thing.

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Are You Being Phished? 4 Things to Look Out For

Are You Being Phished? 4 Things to Look Out For

Your business’ computing infrastructure is a pretty resilient system. It has all types of tools added on to keep malicious code, bad actors, and even sabotage from ruining the good thing you have. This reliability has led to hackers changing the way that they go about their business. Nowadays, most of the attacks that affect businesses are phishing attacks. In today’s blog we will go through the elements of a phishing attack and how you can protect your business from them.

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Tomorrow is World Password Day (But Passwords Are Just Half the Battle)

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Did you know that tomorrow is World Password Day, 2023? As the result of a campaign to spread awareness of the importance of sufficiently secure passwords, it has become an annual reminder of how critical sufficient passwords are to proper cybersecurity…despite passwords not being sufficient protection on their own. In light of tomorrow’s observance, let’s take some time to review why passwords are important to get right, and what else you need to have in place.

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The FBI is Looking to Talk to Businesses Affected by Ransomware

The FBI is Looking to Talk to Businesses Affected by Ransomware

This past January, the Federal Bureau of Investigation issued an announcement that they had targeted and taken down the servers for a Dark Web organization responsible for the Hive ransomware group. While there is certainly cause for celebration here, one major statistic is enough reason to continue being concerned.

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Two Ways to Ward off Hackers

Two Ways to Ward off Hackers

Has your business been targeted by hackers? Do you even know? Let’s face it, small businesses don’t typically worry all that much about cybersecurity. To many small business owners, they might see it as a luxury for their perceived risk. Unfortunately, the reality of the situation is that hackers and scammers are targeting small businesses more regularly than they have in the past and without some kind of dedicated cybersecurity strategy, there could be a good chance that your business could run into some problems because of it. 

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What is a Zero-Day Exploit?

What is a Zero-Day Exploit?

While security researchers do their best to find security vulnerabilities in software and systems before they are actively exploited by attackers, they can’t be successful all the time. There are too many threats and too many variables to consider, and zero-day exploits are often discovered well after they are actively being exploited by threats. How can you keep zero-day exploits from impacting your business?

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‘Tis the Season to Be Phished

‘Tis the Season to Be Phished

It’s the holiday season, and you know what that means: lots of gift-giving and online shopping. Regardless of what you and your family celebrate this holiday season, you should be prepared to handle the influx of phishing attacks which always surface around this time every year, including both the usual methods and the more sophisticated ones.

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The Rubber Ducky Hacking Tool is Back

The Rubber Ducky Hacking Tool is Back

For millions of people, the rubber ducky is a benign reminder of childhood. Depending on when you were a child, the rendition of Sesame Street’s Ernie singing “Rubber Duckie, you’re the one,” is ingrained in your mind every time you hear the term. Unfortunately, the Rubber Ducky we are going to tell you about today has only fond recollection for people who are looking to breach networks they aren’t authorized to access or deliver malware payloads that are designed to cause havoc. 

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Who’s Really Hurt the Most by Card Skimmers?

Who’s Really Hurt the Most by Card Skimmers?

It probably isn’t a question you’ve put much thought to, but tell me: who do you think feels the greatest impact from card skimming schemes, where a payment card’s data is captured so a cybercriminal can make use of the card’s associated account? While it isn’t a good situation for anyone, some are impacted more than others.

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Careful! There’s an Infected Version of WhatsApp Out There

Careful! There’s an Infected Version of WhatsApp Out There

WhatsApp is one of the world’s most popular messaging applications. With over 2 billion users, WhatsApp is known for its relative security, as it is one of the few messaging applications that offers end-to-end encryption. A modified version of WhatsApp, called YoWhatsApp, has been reportedly deploying malware.

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Phishing Gets Around Normal Cybersecurity Protection

Phishing Gets Around Normal Cybersecurity Protection

How often do you get emails from individuals claiming to be working with a business who wants to do business with yours or sell you a product, completely unsolicited and even perhaps a bit suspicious? These types of messages can often land small businesses in hot water, as it only takes one phishing email landing in the wrong inbox at the wrong time to put your business in jeopardy.

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Don’t Let Hackers Get the Best of You

Don’t Let Hackers Get the Best of You

How quickly do you think it takes for a hacker to react to the disclosure of bugs and vulnerabilities? According to industry experts, the time for security professionals to react to zero-day threats and vulnerabilities might be decreasing. Is your organization prepared to act when important vulnerabilities like these are disclosed?

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Scams Work More than We’d Like to Admit

Scams Work More than We’d Like to Admit

Anyone who has a mailbox or an email knows all about junk mail. We all receive Publisher’s Clearing House entries, calls about your car’s extended warranty, promotions for items and events that you swore that you discontinued by typing “STOP”, and just needless spam that you waste your time going through and deleting. We receive unsolicited messages every single day.

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Understanding the Vulnerabilities and Exploits You’ll Face

Understanding the Vulnerabilities and Exploits You’ll Face

We understand that cybersecurity can be difficult to think about at times because of the terminology thrown around by industry professionals, but we want to do our part to help clear up some of the confusion. Today, we’re going to discuss the difference between vulnerabilities and exploits, as well as how your organization can do everything it can to ensure that both are minimized on your company network.

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The Geek Squad Phishing Scam is Costing People Lots of Money

The Geek Squad Phishing Scam is Costing People Lots of Money

If you are a frequent reader of our blog, you know all about phishing scams. They are emails and messages sent that are designed to extort money and gain access to computers and networks for nefarious purposes. The popular IT support company Geek Squad, a subsidiary of Best Buy, is the latest company caught up in such a scam. Let’s take a look at how the scam works and how you can avoid becoming its next victim.

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