A DHS data breach was detected on May 2017 during a DHS Office of the Inspector General criminal investigation. A former employee had unauthorized access to a copy of the department’s case management system. The exposure was made public on January 3, 2018; a total of 246,167 federal government employees’ PII was stolen. The stolen…
Article that appeared recently in the VoyageMIA Magazine: Today we’d like to introduce you to Scott Johnston. Scott, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today? JohnsTek Inc was initially established in 2003 as a consulting firm, meant only to allow just myself to take on extra information security consulting…
November is Critical Infrastructure Protection Month, with that in mind; it is pertinent to talk about the use of Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (SUAV´s) in support of Critical Infrastructure protection, Management and Maintenance. This blog is aimed towards local and federal governments as well as those contracting firms hired to provide protection, management and maintenance…
Consumer Fraud and Theft Rampant During Holiday Season! According to Javelin Strategy and Research, $16 Billion was stolen from consumers in 2016! Most of that was perpetrated using New Account Fraud, where the thief uses stolen identities to open new store accounts and make purchases at same time. With the onset of the Holiday…
Equifax, one the Nation’s largest credit reporting agencies, was breached and over 143 million Americans personal information were exposed to criminals intent on stealing identities. The best advice that can be given is, take precautions: For Companies with hosted web services, the breach was achieved through a vulnerability in Apache Struts, a commonly…
The role of social media in helping emergency managers mitigate, prepare, respond and recover from disasters is increasingly evident. During hurricanes Harvey and Irma, the power of social media to save lives during a disaster was undeniably demonstrated. For example, Twitter hashtags resulted in emergency help when 911 or other critical communications infrastructure was damaged…
Firmware is everywhere; from the largest data center to the smallest networked LED light bulb. It is the most powerful code on any system because it controls how devices operate. Compromised firmware can be used to corrupt or steal data, spy on your environment or even destroy the system it is controlling. Firmware is powerful code that…
Emergency Response during a natural or man-made disaster could be rated as one of the most stressful and dangerous activities a professional could face in his or her lifetime. There are thousands of brave men and women that, besides their normal day to day jobs, offer their services as rescuer. Every emergency is unique and…
JohnsTek was recently awarded the Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Relief and Disaster Preparedness (HAP) contract for the US Southern Command Area of Responsibility, the Americas. With this contract JohnsTek will provide Assessments, Logistics and Training that will benefit Partner Nations in preparation for Crisis Management, Emergency Management Systems integration, and training of First Responders and Emergency Management…
A shooting and mass casualty incident in San Francisco, interdiction of narco traffickers entering the country, and attacks in a casino resort. Repeatedly we are provided examples for the requirement of integrated communications. Gruesome as the real life examples may be, we see in the nightly news how first responder organizations with sophisticated and comprehensive support…