Manage Your Reputation Online

Small business owners are terrified of having their company or brand online smeared. It’s no wonder and it is not surprising that business owners can feel powerless when they are subject to a torrent of online criticism.

You can prevent this from happening by simply controlling your reputation. Companies that are directly hurt by the media are examples of companies who have lost control of their narrative or didn’t pay attention until it was too late. But that doesn’t mean you have to.

Two-step procedure to manage your brand online.

Engage!

When it comes to reputation management, the best and most important thing you can do is simply to be there. If you don’t participate in the conversation, it is impossible to control it. You can connect with customers regularly on all your social media channels. Social media is social. Your customers are not your target audience. Instead, you should be talking with them. This is an important distinction that owners often overlook. You should be prepared to talk with your customers for a while. You’ll have control over the story and be able to guide the conversation.

Rapid Response

Engaging means you have an ear for the ground. If someone leaves a negative review, or any other negative press, it will be obvious quickly. Respond when you see it! Do not respond in anger. Do not lash out or get defensive. Remember, everyone online can see your responses and what you are saying.

You can respond calmly and professionally, try to find the root cause of the problem, then do your best to solve it. Customers will respect you if you show that you are trying and don’t lose your cool.

Management of your reputation sounds more difficult than it really is. It’s all about being involved and connected. Keep your fingers on the pulse of the online community around your business.

Dark Web Scan

There is nothing that can damage a company’s reputation faster than the exposure of their customers’ data to the rest of the world. Are you aware if your data was compromised? SpartanTec Inc provides a free dark-web search. It’s better to be safe than sorry. Contact us today or fill out our simple online form – https://www.spartantec.com/darkweb/

SpartanTec, Inc.
Fayetteville, NC 28304
(910) 745-7776
https://manageditservicesfayetteville.com

What’s the Difference Between a Data Breach and Security Incident?

If you think a data breach can’t happen to you, think again: According to the Ponemon Institute’s Fifth Annual Benchmark Study on Privacy and Security of Healthcare Data, criminal attacks are up 125 percent compared to five years ago. And that’s just in the healthcare sector. Now more than ever, organizations need a primer on how to protect sensitive data. With cybercrime attacks on the rise, it’s critical to understand what a data breach is, how it differs from a security incident and how to plan a data breach response.

Incident vs. Data Breach

 

Think of a security incident as a pesky cold that may sideline you for a couple days, but clears up fairly quickly. It’s any event that violates an organization’s security or privacy policies around sensitive information like Social Security numbers or confidential medical records. This can be anything from a misplaced drive to missing paper files. A data breach, on the other hand, is like the nastiest flu bug ever — a whopper of a virus that will knock you off your feet.  The folks at ID Experts define it as a security incident that meets specific legal definitions per state and federal laws. Specifically, data breaches require notification to the affected individuals, regulatory agencies, and sometimes credit reporting agencies and media.

 

Security Incidents Are Status Quo

 

Security incidents are, sadly, part of the status quo — with 65 percent of healthcare organizations reporting having experienced electronic information-based security incidents over the past two years, according to the Ponemon study. While not all cybersecurity incidents escalate into data breaches, there’s a regulatory obligation to complete an incident risk assessment when PHI (protected health information) or PII (personally identifiable information) is compromised.

 

Responding Effectively

 

When an incident does escalate into a data breach, a quick and effective response is critical. This requires close collaboration across the company or organization, not just IT security. Stakeholders in legal, marketing, public relations, the C-Suite and other functions have to be prepared to own a piece of the incident response and work together in a fairly seamless manner.

The first two, vital steps following a data breach are 1) Quantify the damage; and 2) Determine your response. To address the first, quantifying damage, it helps to know at any point in time what information requires the most protection, where it’s stored and how it’s protected. At SpartanTec, Inc. in Fayetteville NC we recommend performing periodic cyber threat assessments to develop this understanding for:

• managing enterprise risk
• quell fears, especially when the breach is more serious than initially thought
• credit monitoring isn’t enough
• media interest is high.
• It requires data breach agility.

Organizations with high data breach agility are more likely to have cybersecurity platforms that optimize visibility and the sharing of actionable threat intelligence between prevention and detection tools and across endpoints, data centers and the cloud.

This is one of the advantages of the security fabric. Based on open APIs, it links together different security sensors and tools to collect real threat data, enabling technology and people to more effectively coordinate and respond to potential threats.

To ensure your company’s data is secure, Contact the team at SpartanTec, Inc. to learn more.

SpartanTec, Inc.
Fayetteville, NC 28304
(910) 745-7776
http://manageditservicesfayetteville.com

Serving: Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach, Columbia, Wilmington, Fayetteville, Florence, Charleston

Cybersecurity 101: The Top 5 Reasons It Happens

A data breach can spell doom for many businesses. A cybersecurity breach can result in the loss of customer and business information, as well as internal business data like transaction history and inventory lists. This is something that businesses do not want to have to deal with.

The loss of customer trust can have a devastating effect on a business, not only in the immediate financial consequences of fraudulent orders and bank transfers but also the long-term economic impact.

The first step to preventing data breaches is understanding the causes. What are the top causes of data breaches?

Here are some of the most common causes of cybersecurity breaches.

Reason #1: Unpatched Security Vulnerabilities

Data security professionals have been collecting information for years on exploits hackers have used to attack companies in many countries. To identify these exploits for future reference, they are divided into hundreds of Common Vulnerabilities (CVEs).

Many of these security flaws remain unfixed for long time. According to Verizon’s 2015 Data Breach Investigations Report (PDF), “99.9%” of exploited vulnerabilities were compromised within a year following publication of the CVE.

These security holes are still open to hackers, so don’t leave them unfixed.

Cause #2: Human Error

Unfortunately, the greatest source of computer security breaches is not some forgotten security bug or unknown vulnerability, but human error.

Shrm.org cites statistics from CompTIA that show human error is responsible for 52 percent of security breaches. While the exact nature of an error can vary, some scenarios include:

• Use of weak passwords
• Not sending sensitive information to the right recipients
• Sharing password/account information
• Don’t fall for phishing scams.

It is possible to prevent many of these human errors by making sure that employees are familiar with basic data security procedures. According to the SHRM article, experts often recommend that employees receive more training in order to address the “human firewall” issue.

Cause #3: Malware

Malware isn’t just a problem on personal computers, but it can also be a threat to your company’s systems. According to Verizon DBIR 2015, 5 malware events are reported every second.

Although many of these “malware incidents” are minor, they can still be alarming.

There is also a lot of variation among malware samples.

According to the Verizon DBIR, “We found that 70 to 90% of malware samples (depending upon the source and organization), are unique to one organization.”

Many malware programs are not derived from one “family” but a handful of other families. Verizon estimates that 70% of malware activity came from “20 families.”

Why? Why?

Cause #4: Insider Misuse

Although closely related to human error and company data, it is much more dangerous. Human error can be described as an innocent mistake or accident. Insider misuse is, however, the intentional abuse of the company’s systems and data by authorized users, usually for personal gain.

According to Verizon’s DBIR report, “it’s all in the grabbing of some easy Benjamins by these mendacious malefactors with financial gain or convenience being the primary motivators (40%)

This is because the malicious actor could be someone your company has trusted. Even worse, Verizon’s report points out that “catching insider abuse is difficult… In many of the incidents reviewed, the insider abuse occurred during forensic examinations of user devices after individuals had left a company.”

Although it is almost impossible to prevent insider abuse, you can limit damage by compartmentalizing information on your network and cloud. It is more difficult for one user to access files or systems that are not restricted. It can make it more difficult to share the data.

Cause #5: Physical theft of a data-carrying device

The physical theft of sensitive company information is last on the list. These can be laptops, desktops and tablets as well as smartphones, tablets, hard drives and thumb drives.

A stolen device’s data can lead to a serious cyberattack. This is dependent on the type of information on the device. If the device is not wiped, more sensitive information will be considered a data breach.

Verizon reports that “most thefts occurred within the victim’s work area (55% percent of incidents), but employees-owned vehicles (22% incidents) are also common locations for thefts to occur.”

These thefts are often opportunistic and difficult to predict. It is important to limit the chances of data-storing devices being removed from the workplace.

There are many data breach threats, but these are the most serious.

Call SpartanTec, Inc. now if you need the help of experts in securing your network against online threats.

SpartanTec, Inc.
Fayetteville, NC 28304
(910) 745-7776
http://manageditservicesfayetteville.com

Serving: Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach, Columbia, Wilmington, Fayetteville, Florence, Charleston

Managed Firewalls: First Line of Defense Against Cyber Attacks

Managed firewalls can be used to provide protection in depth and visibility by blocking malicious traffic and allowing organizations to block large amounts of it before they reach the network perimeter. We will discuss the reasons why an intelligent, modern firewall is the very best line of cybersecurity layer or defense against various kinds of cyberattacks.

Managed Firewalls : Stopping Inbound Threats

Even though firewall network security could be placed at different locations inside a corporate network, the excellent spot to place the is the network perimeter. A firewall that is placed within the network perimeter will create as well as enforce a boundary between the public internet as well as the internal network protected and safe.

The network firewall could also make the most out of the fact all kinds of traffic coming in and out of the corporate network flows through one point of connection to the public Internet. This location allows for complete visibility of data flows across the network boundary by placing a firewall.

Proactive protection against cyber threats is also possible with a perimeter-based firewall. Next-generation firewalls with threat prevention capabilities can detect and block attempted attacks before they reach the corporate network. This significantly reduces the cyber risk that these attacks could cause for the company and its employees.

Protecting the Depths of Defense

Firewalls can be used to provide protection in depth for threats that cross the network boundary. An organization can use network firewalls to segregate the network to gain greater visibility into its internal traffic and make it harder for malicious insiders or attackers to move laterally within the organization’s network.

A next-generation firewall installed within a corporate network is not only capable of protecting against core threats but also benefits from identity-based inspection and application control. Application control allows a firewall to identify which application is causing a flow of network traffic. This allows the firewall enforce application-specific security policies which reduce risk associated with insecure apps and allow the organization to block unauthorized programs from their network.

An identity-based inspection adds context to an analysis of network flows. A firewall can identify the user who is performing a specific action and enforce access controls based on employee job roles or permissions. It is crucial to have visibility over the actions of these accounts as 74% of data breaches are caused by abuse of them.

Meeting Unique Security Needs

The next-generation firewalls, aside from IT services Fayetteville NC, can also be used to secure an organization’s entire network infrastructure. Corporate networks evolve and include a variety of endpoints. These can include traditional workstations and servers as well as mobile devices and cloud-based infrastructure and Internet of Things devices. It can be very difficult to secure a heterogeneous network that is growing quickly.

Because it protects all devices at an organization’s network level, a firewall is able to do so. Unified Security Management (USM) is a new-generation firewall that integrates all security data within one console. As a result of the current shortage in cybersecurity skills, many organizations are having difficulty finding enough talent to staff their security departments.

A next-generation firewall can also be deployed as a virtual appliance in the cloud. This allows you to provide cloud support, which allows you to secure multi-cloud hybrid cloud environments. This allows organizations to deploy IT support Fayetteville NC wherever they are needed, and take advantage of the flexibility of cloud-based infrastructure. Cloud firewalls are able to grow with the organization’s security needs, unlike hardware-based security appliances that require additional hardware to scale.

Security Individualized

Different sizes of companies have different security needs. While traditional firewalls were “one-size fits all” in the past. Modern firewalls can be tailored to meet specific cybersecurity requirements.

Organizations that operate critical infrastructure and industrial facilities face different threats. They also have different operating environments. Choosing an industrial firewall capable of operating in extreme environments will ensure that cybersecurity is not compromised.

A strong first line of defense

It can be hard to choose a firewall because there are so many options and not all firewalls are the same. Firewalls can be small gateways or large-scale network security solutions. There are many differences between traditional firewalls as well as next-generation firewalls. Understanding these differences and their importance is an important step in the procurement process.

A next-generation firewall must possess a few core capabilities to adequately protect your network from modern cyber threats. This guide will help you to choose the right firewall for your company and provide the required level of network security. To learn more about how a firewall can help improve your organization’s cyber defenses, you can request a demo and contact us.

Call SpartanTec, Inc. now if you are interested in having managed firewalls to improve the cybersecurity of your business.

SpartanTec, Inc.
Fayetteville, NC 28304
(910) 745-7776
http://manageditservicesfayetteville.com

Serving: Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach, Columbia, Wilmington, Fayetteville, Florence, Charleston