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All Posts By

Frank Urbanski

Frank worked for 8+ years as a Software and Cyber Security Engineer within the defense industry. At Alpine Cyber Solutions Frank oversees the Security Services line of business. He has his passions set on Incident Response, Automation, and Threat Management.

An Introduction to Crypto Viruses

By Cybersecurity One Comment
Crypto viruses are a type of ransomware that have been very lucrative for cyber criminals around the world lately. Just this week, Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital notably paid $17,000 to their crypto captor to get their files unlocked so they could continue to do business.  In this post we will give some background on what a crypto virus is, how it enters your network, and what we can do to prevent it. Crypto Viruses All crypto viruses fall under the umbrella of ransomware. In general, ransomware works by holding files, servers, or other systems, "hostage" until the victim pays for their release. As…
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Layered Defense – The Benefits of Full Packet Capture

By Cybersecurity No Comments
Continuing our series on layered defense, we are going to take a look at full packet capture. Full packet capture (FPC) is still fairly misunderstood in the IT community. For many, FPC is synonymous with NetFlow, or simply source/destination and metadata information on packets. Others think of it as a beast that is used in conjunction with Wireshark to show a ton of indecipherable data. On the contrary, FPC is one of the most powerful practices that we can employ to give us a full, deep understanding of everything that is coming and going on a network, with the ability to…
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“Good security is too expensive.” The benefit of a good MSSP.

By Cybersecurity No Comments
We've mentioned in numerous blogs that you need to stick with what you are good at and I cannot stress how important this is when it comes to secure network security services. We have seen numerous companies try to handle their own security and they either do it inefficiently or just plain wrong. Using a managed security service provider (MSSP), like an IT managed service provider (MSP), will provide you better results at cheaper costs. Benefits of a MSSP Cheaper cost.  A huge benefit that may not be immediately evident to management is how much cheaper it is to go with…
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“My IT company handles my security.” The importance of verification.

By Cybersecurity No Comments
If you have a managed service provider (MSP) you are already doing the right thing. We have written in the past that in business, it is a good idea to stick with what you are good at and pay someone else for specialties work. You pay for lawyers.  you pay for accountants.  Pay for IT in the same way.  But just as with all of those professions, it pays to periodically check on your MSP to make sure they are doing the job that you are paying them to do. What am I paying for? Many MSPs will help set your…
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Simple Steps to Stay Safe on Cyber Monday

By Cybersecurity No Comments
Today is the biggest Internet shopping day of the year in the United States, Cyber Monday. During this day you will be tempted to visit a plethora of online storefronts, hunting for the huge deal on your next TV, computer, article of clothing, etc. Here are a couple tips to remember to keep you safe on Cyber Monday: Secure Browsing. Many e-commerce websites use SSL (https:// in front of the web address instead of http://) to encrypt the transmission of sensitive data to and from their storefront. The reason for this is that if you are surfing on a public Wi-Fi or hotspot,…
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