A New Level of Scary A healthy dose of skepticism regarding emails urging action by you is not a bad thing.
O
Robert McDermott
n Friday, April 22, the ADA fell victim to a cybersecurity incident that caused a disruption to certain systems, including Aptify and ADA email, telephone and web chat. Upon discovery, the ADA immediately responded by taking affected systems offline and commenced an investigation into the nature and scope of the disruption. At the time of this writing, there was no indication any member information and other data had been compromised; however, the investigation was still underway. The FBI and ADA recently warned that cybercriminals exploit events like the crisis in Ukraine in order to steal personal information and money. One of the most successful ways to target and succeed is through your email. While the nature of the ADA attack had not been released when this article was written, there are a couple of primary ways you can be targeted. You may be familiar with the term “phishing.” This is the general term for a broad-stroke email approach. Typically, these emails arrive in your inbox looking somewhat generic and usually without personal information about you. These emails often contain poor grammar, misspelled words and other nuances that, upon a closer look, reveal a possible threat. Spear phishing, on the other hand, takes email targeting to an entirely new level of scary. Hackers are hyper-targeting you by personalizing the content specifically to you, a group or an organization with which you might have a connection. Cyber attackers are now collecting information from across the internet and social sites about industries, professional relationships and even personal details. This level of personalization and familiar tone blur the lines of what’s real and what’s a sophisticated fake. Sometimes you may be asked to click a link or attachment, or to respond to the email. If it’s spear phishing, you’ve opened the door for malware to get into your practice management system, accounting and other important applications. CONTINUED ON PAGE 13
NEWS
1
4
