How To Stay Safe From Cybersecurity Threats

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June 25  1:00 EST

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Cyberattacks has become a growing threat for small firms as well as the U.S. economy. The FBI’s Internet Crime Report revealed that in 2018, the cost of cybercrimes reached a whopping $2.7 billion. Cybercriminals target small businesses because they have the information they need and in most cases, they don’t have the security infrastructure that’s commonly found in larger businesses.

A recent survey conducted by SBA, showed that 88% of the owners of small businesses believed that their business may be at risk of a cyberattack. However, many of them cannot afford to pay for professional IT services. They also don’t have much time to spend on cybersecurity or they have no idea where to start.

Begin by learning about the most common cyberthreats, figuring out where your company is vulnerable, and setting up measures to improve your firm’s cybersecurity.

What Are The Common Cybersecurity Threats?

Cyberattacks have evolved throughout the years however, business owners must be aware of the most common threats that their company may be facing.

Malware

Malicious software or malware is an umbrella term that used for a software that is made to cause extensive damage to a server, client, computer, or a computer network. Ransomware and viruses are some examples of malware.

Viruses

Viruses are programs that are harmful to your business. They intend to spread from one computer to another as well as other devices that are connected to the infected system. Viruses have a tendency to give hackers access to your system.

Ransomware

It is a specific kind of malware that will infect as well as restrict access to your computer until you pay the ransom. Ransomware is commonly delivered through phishing campaigns. It will exploit vulnerabilities in your software that you forgot or neglected to patch.

Phishing

Phishing is a kind of cyberattack that use a malicious website or email to infect your system with a malware or gather your confidential information. Phishing emails tend to appear as if they have been sent by a legitimate company or a well known individual. These emails commonly encourage users to open an attachment or click on a link that contains a malicious code. Once the code is run, your system will become infected with the malware.

Evaluate The Risk Of Your Business

When it comes to improving your cybersecurity, the first thing you need to do is know your risk of an attack and in what areas can significant improvements be made. Through a cybersecurity risk assessment, you will determine if your business is vulnerable and it will also help you in creating an appropriate plan of action. This should include assistance when getting email platforms, user training, and recommendation on how to protect the information assets of your business.

Planning and Assessment Tools

Having a dedicated IT support, whether an external IT consultant or an IT employee, is the best solution. However, companies with limited resources can still take some measures to strengthen their cybersecurity.

FCC Planning Tool

The FCC or FederalCommunications Commission provides a cybersecurity planning tool to assist you in building a strategy that is based on your unique business requirements.

Cyber Resilience Review

DHS or the Department of Homeland Security is non-technical evaluation to assess operational resilience as well as overall cybersecurity practices. You could either perform the assessment yourself or ask for a facilitated assessment by the DHS cybersecurity expert.

Cyber Hygiene Vulnerability Scanning

DHS also provided a free cyber hygiene vulnerability scanning for smaller firms. This particular service could help protect your internet-facing units from common vulnerabilities and weak configuration. You will get a report for your action on a weekly basis.

Best Cybersecurity Practices

You should train your employees. Your workers and emails are the main cause of data breaches and hacks for small businesses since they are a direct method into your company’s systems. Training employees about the fundamentals of internet best practices could go a long way when it comes to the prevention of cyberattacks.

It is important to maintain a good cyber hygiene. You should install and update your antivirus and antispyware software. You can get them from different vendors. You should install updates and patches regularly to fix security problems and boost its functionality. You can set the updates to be installed automatically.

Securing your network is also crucial. You can do this by using a firewall. Secure and hide your Wi-Fi network. Your wireless access point or router must be set up in a way that it won’t broadcast its network name, also known as service set identifier or SSID.

You should also use strong passwords and use different ones for your accounts. Your passwords should include at least 10 characters, at least one uppercase letters, lower case letters, number, and special character. Use multifactor authentication and back up your data on all of your computers.  

Call SpartanTec, Inc. now and let us help keep your business safe from today’s cybersecurity threats.

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

Cities Served:
Fayetteville, Spring Lake, Hope Mills, Dunn, Aberdeen, Southern Pines, Pinehurst, Sanford, Clinto

Cybercriminals Are Targeting Your Business And Your Employees Are In Cahoots With Them

Protect Your Company Data
Webinar June 25 1:00 EST
Register Here

Once you receive a ransomware email, this could spell disaster for your business. Do you believe this won’t happen to you? You should think again!

Cybersecurity measures projected cybercrime to cost the world around $6 trillion by 2021. Additionally, cybercriminals have a special target in mind – small businesses.

About 58% of the victims of cyberattacks were small businesses according to the 2018 Verizon DataBreach Investigations Report. This might appear counterintuitive for two main reasons. First of all, the huge payoff will appear to be had by targeting large organizations. Secondly, the news has been filled with headlines regarding cyberattacks on huge companies, not the smaller ones. One good example is the hack at Target wherein credit card details of millions of people have been stolen. But, here’s something that most people don’t know about it. The hackers managed to get access to the network of Target by infiltrating a small HVAC firm. Then they stole the company’s credentials to the network of Target.

A cyberattack can easily put out of businesses due to what you need to pay to clean up after the breach. As a matter of fact, Malwarebytes, which is the provider of malware remediation and prevention solutions, said that ransomware attacks has caused almost a quarter of small and medium sized companies hit by them back in 2017 to totally halt their operations. Recent figures show that about 60% of SMBs were forced to stop their operations after a cyberattack and they never reopened their business. The lost in revenue due to the downtime, the money spent trying to remediate the breach and the damage to their reputation could really add up.

Despite all these, many small business owners are not prepared to detect, prevent, or respond to any cyberattack. So how are your workers in cahoots with these hackers? 

Because the most common way cybercriminals get access to the network of small businesses is when somebody on that network clicks on an attachment or a link in an infected email. When they get inside your network, the hackers will do things like encrypt or steal your data.

Small businesses make the mistake of assuming that they won’t be targeted by hackers. They don’t give any cybersecurity training to their employees.

Cybersecurity Tips For Small Business Owners

1.    Change the culture and the mindset of the organization. Always assume that you can be a target.

2.    Provide training to your employees to boost their level of awareness and vigilance against potential threats and risks that exist.

3.    In case you don’t have the tech resources, hire a managed IT service provider that could help you with the risk assessment, identification of cyberthreats to your company, developing an incident response plan, and the implementation of countermeasures to eliminate high probability threats.

Make cybersecurity planning a crucial part of your business planning. If you fail to do this, your business may face an existential threat one day, something that you could have prevented.

Call SpartanTec, Inc. now and let our IT team help you set up the most effective cybersecurity measures that will protect your small business from hackers.

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

Cities Served:
Fayetteville, Spring Lake, Hope Mills, Dunn, Aberdeen, Southern Pines, Pinehurst, Sanford, Clinto

New Data Breach Affected Some Bank Of America Loan Applicants

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In this 30 minute webinar learn how to protect your company from phishing attacks.

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If you're like many business owners, you may have recently applied for a loan through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) which was one of the COVID-19 relief funds established by the Federal government in response to the global pandemic.

If you applied for that loan through Bank of America, be advised that the company recently disclosed a security incident that impacted its online platform for processing those loan requests. The company says that it is possible that other lenders or organizations may have temporarily had access to significant portions of your application data.

The breached data included, but was not limited to:

• Your business' name and physical address
• Designated company contact officials
• Your firm's Tax Identification Number
• The name of the company owner
• The Social Security Number of the company owner, as well as the owner's email address, phone number and citizenship

Based on the initial findings of an investigation into the matter, Bank of America says that an SBA test server was at the root of the problem.

Per a company spokesman, "...this platform was designed to allow authorized lenders to test the process for submitting PPP applications to the SBA prior to the actual submission process."

The company's official words on the matter makes the issue seem rather insignificant, but there's more. Some business owners have reported that when they logged back into the system to check the status of their loan application, they could see the details of other loan applicants in their dashboard. That means that potentially, many more people than just 'authorized lenders' may have seen the details of your loan application.

The investigation is still ongoing, and so far, Bank of America has declined to comment on the growing number of reports described above, or offered any additional information. If you submitted your application to the PPP loan program by way of Bank of America, just be advised that for a brief period of time, others may have gained access to your application details, and that the problem that caused it has now been solved.

Monitoring the Dark Web for stolen credentials is critical for MSPs who want to provide comprehensive security to their customers. BullPhish ID complements that data with simulated phishing attacks and security awareness training campaigns to educate employees, making them the best defense against cybercrime.

SpartanTec, Inc. is a local BullPhish agent. Contact us today for details.

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

Cities Served:
Fayetteville, Spring Lake, Hope Mills, Dunn, Aberdeen, Southern Pines, Pinehurst, Sanford, Clinto

Spear Phishing: Best Protection and Practices

Better Email Security

Organizations need an email security solution that automatically detects and blocks advanced targeted spear phishing campaigns. AppRiver’s Advanced Email Security delivers a unique email security solution that is more effective than standard solutions, and which proactively protects organizations from email-based cybercrime by merging advanced big data security, dynamic rules and security analystexpertise in order to anticipate the next wave of spear phishing techniques. It is imperative for full content inspection to be implemented and that every aspect of the email be evaluated using a multitude of techniques.

Multi-layered Security

Securing a network with a multi-layered approach is a best practice. Your organization should protect all security fronts by combining email and web security solutions with an endpoint AV protection layer. Web security platforms, such as AppRiver’s Web Protection, will complement email security and AV endpoints by not only blocking malware at the source, but also by scanning networks in search of resident malware that went untraced in the past that could potentially be calling home under the right circumstances.

By deploying the right combination of email protection, endpoint AV and web security, your business can close the security gaps present in each network and gain inbound and outbound traffic monitoring.

Audit your Security

Every business, including yours, has valuable IT assets such as computers, networks, and data. Providing adequate and effective protection of those assets requires that companies of all sizes conduct IT security audits to get a clear picture of the status of their network, become aware of the security holes they face and learn how to best deal with those threats. Contact us for a tailored security audit and threat analysis report that will provide you with critical information on the health of your email or network and also provide our recommendations on the best ways you can plug any identified security holes.

Limit User Rights

Some malware can be installed unknowingly by employees at the same time as other programs are downloaded. This may include software from third-party websites or files shared through peer-to-peer networks. Therefore, it is important to limit user rights as they pertain to the installation of software.

Security Tips for employees

With the popularity of spear phishing on the rise, it is always good advice to provide some tips and best practices to keep your employees aware of security threats.

Password complexity

Never stick to one single password for all your services! Instead, use different combinations for each service, use passwords with at least 8 characters, although 12 or more is recommended. Passwords should also be a random combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols. A password manager can also help by managing multiple accounts and suggest strong password options.

Stay alert for suspicious links

Only click web links within emails you know to be authentic. If an organization, such as your bank, asks you to perform any activity that involves clicking links and entering credentials, either launch your browser and go directly to the bank’s site or just call them up to double check on it. Hovering your mouse over a link will always give some insight on whether the link could be spoofed and be fraudulent. However, some attackers try to obfuscate link destinations by using anchor text trying to look as a legitimate URL or URL shorteners to disguise the ultimate link destination. It’s best to always assume the worst when it comes to following links.

Employee Training Programs

Implement a course on security awareness and social engineering techniques that will help your users make better judgments about the content they download from the internet, receive through communications and access through the Web.

Security awareness training will also help users to be more careful about what they view, what they open and the links on which they click. While training by itself will not completely solve an organization’s security-related problems, it adds to the overall defense strategy by increasing the layers of security for the weakest element – humans. It will bolster the ability for users – the LAST (not first) line of defense in any security infrastructure to be more aware of malicious attacks against themselves and the organization.

Search yourself online

Be extra cautious when sharing data on social networks and limit what types of personal information you post on the internet: Review your online profiles and ask yourself how much personal information is available for cyber criminals to view? If there is anything that you do not want a potential scammer to see, do not post it – you should also consider reviewing your privacy settings on sites such as Facebook and Twitter to limit what information is left open for others to see.

Read and download the original article here.

Call SpartanTec, Inc. now and let our team of IT experts help protect your company from spear phishing. 

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

Cities Served:
Fayetteville, Spring Lake, Hope Mills, Dunn, Aberdeen, Southern Pines, Pinehurst, Sanford, Clinto

Cities Served:
Fayetteville, Spring Lake, Hope Mills, Dunn, Aberdeen, Southern Pines, Pinehurst, Sanford, Clinto

Hackers Are Demanding Extra Ransomware Payments From Victims

Free Dark Web Report

Hackers who use ransomware to conduct their attacks have a new trick up their sleeves. A ransomware family has begun employing the tactic of not only demanding payment to unlock infected systems, but also demanding an additional payment.
They're demanding an extra payment to keep them from publishing copies of the files they stole before encrypting everything.

Hackers have been making the claim for years that they were doing more than just encrypting files, but actually exfiltrating data too. It wasn't until recently, though (November 2019) that a group actually published stolen data as proof that this was, in fact, occurring.

Although this tactic is only currently in use by a hackers deploying the Ako Ransomware, you can bet that the idea will spread like wildfire. After all, there's no real downside as far as the hackers are concerned, and they can coax a bit more money out of the companies, individuals, and organizations they successfully attack.

Bleeping Computers recently interviewed an Ako operator, who confirmed that the tactic was in use and had been successful. The operator said that the tactic was only used on certain victims, depending on the size of the company and the type of data that was stolen. They were very upfront and matter of fact about it.

This underscores two important points:

First, ransomware attacks are data breaches. The hackers aren't just encrypting your files, they're making off with copies too.

Second, backups are incredibly important! Having up to date backups won't prevent a hacker who successfully breaches your system from releasing the data they stole if you don't pay. At the very least, however, you can get your company up and running again in short order without having to pay to have your files decrypted. Sadly, too many companies still don't have a robust backup plan in place. If that describes your company, it's well past time to change that.

The risks are tremendous, and they are growing.

What Happens When Victims Pay Up After A Ransomware Attack?

For several hackers all over the globe, one of the most lucrative business is ransomware. Even though these kinds of malware samples have existed for several years, they have continued to provide several attackers extremely high monetary profits.

As a matter of fact, a statement from the U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein back in 2017 during the Cambridge Cyber Summit that ransomware attacks have affected more than 100,000 end points every day. The complexity and severity of these cyberattacks as well as how frequent at which victims pay the ransom demands has let hackers earn almost $1 billion. But you need to know that not all cyberattacks are the same, and even in some instances when the victims pay the demands of the hackers, the promised access to the data isn’t always given or returned.

Should You Pay or Not?

If you see a ransomware notification on your screen, you will have a lot of questions and there will be a lot of things that need to be considered. How will the firm proceed with the day to day operations? How will the users get access to crucial data and files? Are there any backups set in place?

One of the most important questions you need to ask is if you should pay the ransom or not. According to the FBI, victims on ransomware should not give in to the demands of the hackers. Data from Kaspersky Labs’ revealed that one in every five firms that fall prey to a cyberattack and pay off the ransom don’t get the decryption key that was promised to them. That means, companies lost a lot of cash and they have not regained access to their critical data, files, and applications.

Indiana Hospital Pays Ransom After SamSam Infection

Hancock Health, a hospital based in Indiana, decided to pay $55,000 after its systems were infected by a ransomware called SamSam. However, even with the quick notification and awareness by employee end users, the IT team of the hospital was still unable to prevent the spread of the ransomware sample.

All of the essential IT systems of the hospital was infected and users can no longer access their email. The electronic health record system was locked as well as other crucial internal platforms. Their access to 1,400 files were blocked. The hackers encrypted the files and had it renamed to “I’m Sorry.” But the hospital managed to regain control of their system and access to their files after paying the ransom.

Kansas Hospital Hacked Again After Paying Ransom

Unlike the Indiana hospital, Kansas Heart Hospital in Wichita suffered a ransomware attack back in 2016. The hospital offices opted to pay the ransom even if patient data and daily operations were not affected.

However, compared to what happened to the Hancock Health case, the access to the data and files wasn’t returned even if they paid the small ransom amount. Instead, the cybercriminals demanded another ransom and the systems that were affected in the first infection remained encrypted.

This situation isn’t unique. There are many hackers who ask for a small ransom amount during the first attack but then demand another payment, which is much higher, after the second attack.

The demands of hackers are increasing and the problem is that many organizations are willing to pay.

Call SpartanTec, Inc. now and let our team set up effective cybersecurity measures to prevent this from happening to your business.

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

Cities Served:
Fayetteville, Spring Lake, Hope Mills, Dunn, Aberdeen, Southern Pines, Pinehurst, Sanford, Clinto

What You Need To Do If You’re A Victim Of Malware

Learn T Protect Your Company

The internet has evolved over the past twenty years. What was once a novelty, has become an integral part of the everyday life of consumers and the daily operations of businesses. The internet has totally changed everything from how consumers shop, how people learn, socialize, and communicate. It has come to a point where it will be hard to imagine life without it.

Even if the internet has become an indispensable tool, using it leaves you vulnerable to all kinds of online threats. These include ransomware, adware, bots, Trojan horses, spyware, macro viruses, rogueware, phishing attacks and worms that target users of internet on a daily basis. Crimeware attacks as well as identity fraud can happen to anybody at any given time. The more you use the internet, the more vulnerable you become to these threats.

There are different kinds of computer security measures that you can set in place to reduce the risk of malicious attacks. In case you’ve fallen victim to it, here are the steps you need to do.

Crimeware

Disconnect

If you have suffered a crimeware attack, you have to disconnect from the Internet right away. In case you are connected through an Ethernet cable, phone, or Wi-Fi, you have to disable the connection right away to stop data from being transferred back to the criminal. Breaking the internet connection is an excellent way to stop an attack.

Disconnect your internet by unplugging the connection physically from the network connection or the router. You can also disable your device’s connection to the internet through these steps:

• -       Click on the start menu
• -       Choose settings
• -       Choose network connections

-       Right click and choose the disable option

In case an attack takes place while you are still at work, you must get in touch with an IT department right away. The IT experts of your company must be informed about the infection so they could stop it from compromising or spreading your company and personal data. Your IT department will do what needs to be done to deal with the damages incurred. In case an attack happens on your personal device, you have to get in touch with your internet service provider.

Scan Your Device

Having an anti-virus installed will be helpful during this kind of situation. Anti-virus and anti-spyware software help protect against crimeware. You should perform periodic scans using your software; schedule automated scans regularly to provide further protection to your device.

Aside from being able to detect crimeware threats from your device, which may be unnoticeable on your part, antispyware and antivirus can often get rid of the threats, too.

In some cases, the software may even detect the crimeware by may not be able to get rid of it. When this happens, you can refer to the removal tool listings of Symantec for you to see if there is a dedicated tool to remove that threat.

Create a Backup

You have to create regular backups of your folders and files. You can use a backup software, a removable media, or hard drive.

Track Your Online Behavior

Make sure that you know what you are clicking on. Don’t click on suspicious adverts and websites. Also, if something looks too good to be true then it probably is. It’s better to avoid it than to get yourself into bigger problems.

Reinstall Your Operating System

Depending on how severe the attack is, you may have to reinstall your computer’s operating system. Some online threats are complex and have the ability to conceal themselves in your system through rootkit techniques. You may still be able to recover your files by reinstalling your operating system.

Online Fraud

Close all your accounts

If you have been a victim of identity theft or online fraud, you need to close all the accounts that have been affected right away. If you move immediately, you can close your accounts even before the hacker tries to access them. Freezing or closing your accounts can save you time and stress when the time comes that you have to dispute any fraudulent purchases.

Set up fraud alerts

There are three consumer reporting agencies and you can set up fraud alerts so that creditors will get in touch with your right away before they make any changes to your accounts or before letting you open new ones.

Monitor your credit report

Keep track of your credit reports from all the credit reporting agencies. It may take some time for fraudulent activities to appear on your reports and that is why you need to monitor them regularly.

Watch out for signs of identity theft

You should be extra vigilant especially if you have become a victim of identitytheft. Be wary of things you get that you haven’t applied for like a new credit card and get in touch with your vendor right away.

Additional steps and precautions

It’s also a good practice to avoid using unsecured networks, create strong passwords, and stop oversharing on social media platforms. Install a good internetsecurity software, and backup your data regularly.

Call SpartanTec, Inc. if you need help in setting up effective cybersecurity measures to protect your company and client information from online threats.

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

Cities Served:
Fayetteville, Spring Lake, Hope Mills, Dunn, Aberdeen, Southern Pines, Pinehurst, Sanford, Clinto

GODADDY BREACH HIGHLIGHTS THE IMPORTANCE OF CREDENTIAL SECURITY

Web domain and hosting provider GoDaddy is in the news again for a breach. The latest incident involves the compromise of account credentials for approximately 28,000 web hosting customers. The company’s security team discovered an altered SSH file in GoDaddy’s hosting environment and suspicious activity on several servers. The breach occurred in October 2019 and users were notified in April 2020.

 After a string of similar incidents in 2019, strengthening cybersecurity should have been GoDaddy’s top priority, an oversight that may hamper them from attracting new business. These days, your clients and partners aren’t going to want to do business with you if they can’t trust you to keep sensitive data and credentials safe. These smart cybersecurity choices can help demonstrate your commitment. 

Multifactor authentication is one reason why employing a secure identity and access management solution like Passly is the ideal choice to quickly, effectively, and affordably throw up a barrier between your data and cybercriminals and it’s easy to see why: 

• Use a secure way to secure passwords and other credentials. A central, secure password and login storage vault that comes with a secure access and identity management solution like Passly not only gathers all those valuable credentials in one easy-to-defend place, it makes life easier for your IT staffers too, which is a win for everyone. 
• Strengthen your login security to mitigate potential compromise. It’s far too easy for even novice cybercriminals to get their hands on password cracking software these days. Improving your password security by building better passwords and adding multifactor authentication to the login process quickly nets security gains.  
• Always stay on guard for potential and growing threats. If you’re not using Dark Web monitoring, you’re not getting the intelligence that you need to be ready to respond to trouble. The continuous monitoring and analysis provided by Dark Web ID makes sure that you’re alerted if your company’s data, passwords, or other vital information hits the Dark Web. 

Don’t put yourself in the position of having to apologize to your clients and partners after a credential compromise incident. Or worse, having to try to salvage your relationships and your reputation after an even more serious cybersecurity disaster. Make sure that your credentials are protected by strong security and ask an expert for advice on how you can make it even better. 

Read original article here. 

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

Cities Served:
Fayetteville, Spring Lake, Hope Mills, Dunn, Aberdeen, Southern Pines, Pinehurst, Sanford, Clinto