Hackers' methods continue to evolve. That means your security must evolve. 

To adequately protect your firm, you need:

At Innovative Computing Systems, we promote a cybersecurity perspective called “defense-in-depth.” Essentially, we believe law firms, legal departments and individuals need more than one or two layers of information security. Users and clients must be confident that even if one defense fails, another will stand up and attempt to prevent or mitigate an attack. We have long recommended that clients utilize two-factor authentication as one of those layers of defense.

We wanted to inform you of a serious security breach at Yahoo!

Earlier today, Yahoo! issued a press release stating that 500 million users' accounts were breached in a 2014 hack of their systems. Account information accessed includes usernames and passwords, security questions and answers and other confidential user information. 

Yahoo! said in the press release that: 

A recent investigation by Yahoo! Inc. has confirmed that a copy of certain user account information was stolen from the company's network in late 2014 by what it believes is a state-sponsored actor. The account information may have included names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, hashed passwords (the vast majority with bcrypt) and, in some cases, encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers. The ongoing investigation suggests that stolen information did not include unprotected passwords, payment card data, or bank account information; payment card data and bank account information are not stored in the system that the investigation has found to be affected. Based on the ongoing investigation, Yahoo! believes that information associated with at least 500 million user accounts was stolen and the investigation has found no evidence that the state-sponsored actor is currently in Yahoo's network.

If you were a victim of the attack, we encourage you to review these steps you can take to file a report and help protect yourself from identity theft. 

Yahoo! also recommends – as we do, too – that users take advantage of two-factor authentication to provide an extra layer of security to their Yahoo! accounts. 

Yahoo! is not what we would consider a best-of-breed solution for email or other business matters. If you would like to discuss more enterprise-level, law firm standard solutions, please email sales@innovativecomp.com or call 1.800.541.0450, and one of our professional Account Executives will be happy to discuss security and file sharing with you in-depth.

We wanted to inform you of a serious security breach at Yahoo!

Earlier today, Yahoo! issued a press release stating that 500 million users' accounts were breached. Account information accessed includes usernames and passwords, security questions and answers and other confidential user information. 

Yahoo! said in the press release that: 

A recent investigation by Yahoo! Inc. has confirmed that a copy of certain user account information was stolen from the company's network in late 2014 by what it believes is a state-sponsored actor. The account information may have included names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, hashed passwords (the vast majority with bcrypt) and, in some cases, encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers. The ongoing investigation suggests that stolen information did not include unprotected passwords, payment card data, or bank account information; payment card data and bank account information are not stored in the system that the investigation has found to be affected. Based on the ongoing investigation, Yahoo! believes that information associated with at least 500 million user accounts was stolen and the investigation has found no evidence that the state-sponsored actor is currently in Yahoo's network.

If you were a victim of the attack, we encourage you to review these steps you can take to file a report and help protect yourself from identity theft. 

Yahoo! also recommends – as we do, too – that users take advantage of two-factor authentication to provide an extra layer of security to their Yahoo! accounts. 

Yahoo! is not what we would consider a best-of-breed solution for email or other business matters. If you would like to discuss more enterprise-level, law firm standard solutions, please email sales@innovativecomp.com or call 1.800.541.0450, and one of our professional Account Executives will be happy to discuss security and file sharing with you in-depth.

Let’s talk about passwords.

Most people’s idea of a good password is one which is easy to remember, and which meets the absolute minimum requirements of their business systems and IT policy. Over the years, between constant reminders from the information technology community and constant news reports about major security breaches, we have all begrudgingly accepted that our passwords need to be a little longer, a little more complex and a little more inconvenient for us to use.

The technology used by cybercriminals to crack passwords is always improving, however, and even a 52-character password made up of obscure words and phrases, such as “Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn1.” can be brute-force cracked in an ever-shrinking amount of time.