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The madness has started, March Madness that is, with a tournament to decide the top college basketball team. So, what does this have to do with network security? If you are a hacker, plenty, this is the time when networks will be flooded with people streaming games and overloading resources. Many networks will not be able to handle the traffic and crash. Then unsuspecting people join online contests where to pit their tournament prognostications against the rest of the world. Again, sounds innocuous but what if the bracket you just downloaded contains malware.
There is a craziness that goes with the tournament and cyber-criminals know this and may be poised to take advantage of it. There are a couple of things you can do to maintain network sanity during the madness.
- Make sure your firewall is set up to reserve bandwidth for mission critical apps while throttling streaming video.
- Recognize that when you are streaming, you need to more wary of what site you go to and doubly aware of streaming using public WiFi.
- Use trusted sources when you go on the web but recognize that even the most trusted sites can be compromised.
- Be on the lookout for suspicious activity on a website, when you go to sites look at the URL is it what you think it is?
- Avoid offers that sound too good to be true, they are not.
- Consider manually entering web addresses rather than clicking on a link.
- Choose mobile apps from legitimate sources – read the reviews and check its ratings
I know I will be following the tournament closely and using the web in enhance the experience. It does not take much to keep you out of the compromised bracket. If you are looking to understand more about network sanity and March madness, check out my webinar at: https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/1745/102747
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