Ways to ward off hackers: Oklahoma cyber security expert shares advice

A recent attempt to illegally install Malware into computers at SSM St. Anthony’s Hospital has landed Jeffrey Bowie in jail.  

It happened back in August when Bowie was seen by an employee using a computer designated for employees only.

CEO Ashley Coffey of Coffey & Consult, A tech consulting firm, said these hacks are becoming more common in Oklahoma City.  

RELATED: Oklahoma City man arrested for installing malware onto hospital computers

Why are these attacks becoming more common? 

Coffey said that because Oklahoma City is becoming more innovative, it is attracting predators to target different businesses. 

“AI is making things more sophisticated with generative images, generative voice notes, generative lots of things. it's making it difficult to understand what's real and what's not,” said Coffey.  

How do predators know which companies to target? 

Cybersecurity criminals have access to freely available information on how much money companies are spending on their IT budgets.  

Coffey said this kind of access provides them insight into how much money a company might have and is willing to spend to protect its assets.  

How do predators target people? 

Social engineering is a concept that cybersecurity hackers use to gain trust and gain access to their information. 

You might see this through a DM and Instagram saying, “Hey, I need you to follow my account and send me a code.”

Double-check links before opening them 

Right-clicking, copying the link, and searching in a malicious URL detector to see if that URL has been detected by anything suspicious. 

What are predators after? 

1. 401K 
2. Social Security Numbers 
3. Health Information 
4. Anything of value 

What are some protective measures for companies and individuals? 

Train your team to consider implementing multi-factor authentication or stronger password protections. 

Keep a human in the loop process to make sure that your systems are in place and you have someone who knows what they are doing.

Keep your software up to date

Consider using two-factor authentication 

Power cycle your phone every now and then.