You probably don’t think about cybersecurity every day, but that’s ok, most people don’t. That’s where we can help!
If you’re currently managing your information technology needs in-house or if your business is using a managed IT services company to do the hard work for you, it’s always beneficial to brush up on new cybersecurity trends, threats, and alerts.
From financial data to personal employee records, every company has sensitive data it needs to protect.
Unfortunately, now more than ever, there are more threats to your business from experienced hackers and other cybercriminals who want to take over all of your important and confidential files.
You don’t have to go far to see the headlines and results of the latest company that was hacked or had its customers’ data compromised. It’s all you can do to make sure you are ready for online threats.
Besides the online threat of cyber attacks, what about a standard hardware or server failure, or even a natural disaster? Time is money when a catastrophic disaster happens to your technology, communications, data, and network.
There are two significant concerns for your business when this happens:
1. How long does it take for you to get up and running again, and,
2. How much data did you lose?
You wouldn’t want your company and employees to be left stranded if something like this were to happen.
Related Article: Better Together: Cybersecurity And Fraud Prevention.
You or your IT staff probably don’t have the time or experienced technical knowledge to continually monitor and protect your business from these specific threats or instances, and this is where you’d benefit from utilizing managed IT services.
When you outsource to a managed IT services provider that is familiar with security compliance standards, you minimize the risk related to someone accessing your important information, such as credit card numbers, client or employee data, and any other sensitive business information. They can also provide business continuity and disaster recovery plans.
Managed IT services implement security strategies to keep your firewall and other security measures up-to-date so that you don’t have to take the time to worry about it yourself.
Backing up your data, technology, and systems is essential to any business, and focusing on this should be one of your highest priorities.
5 Of the Most Common Online Scams
Here are some of the most common online scams that a great managed IT services provider can help prevent from attacking your business.
1. Hacking
Hacking or a breach is when someone gains unauthorized access to your computer and personal files stored on your drive, the network, or the cloud. Nowadays, it’s pretty easy for hackers to access your files, even if you think you keep your data secure.
There is a plethora of tools and techniques online and offline that make it easy for malicious activities to take place. You must be extra cautious when it comes to protecting and securing your documents and files, as well as keeping your staff updated on the latest threats.
Hackers can find weaknesses in your security settings, and once they do, they can gain control over your passwords, allowing them to access all your information.
Make sure to change all your passwords frequently, about every three months. This includes your computer login, email, apps, company instant messaging, and your network drive.
Don’t forget you should incorporate uppercase letters, lowercase letters, and special characters in your passwords, and no two passwords should be the same.
2. Malware
Malware is one of the more common ways to infiltrate or damage your computer. Malware is malicious software that infects your computer. The most common types include viruses, trojans, spyware, ransomware, adware, and botnets. Here’s a more in-depth description of these common types of malware:
• Virus: Similar to a virus you can contract from another person, computer viruses attach themselves to clean files and infect other clean files, spreading uncontrollably and damaging a system’s core functionality, and deleting or corrupting files. Viruses typically appear as an executable file.
• Trojans: Trojans disguise themselves as legitimate software but act discreetly to create backdoors in your security, allowing in malware. The tricky thing about Trojans is that they can also infect your computer by tampering with clean or new software, without your knowledge.
• Spyware: Spyware is pretty self-explanatory— it’s malware designed to spy on you. Spyware hides in the background and tracks your online activities, including passwords, credit card numbers, and browsing habits. You can think of spyware as a virtual way of watching you and then robbing you.
• Worms: Using network interfaces, worms infect entire networks of devices, either locally or across the Internet. Once infecting one machine, worms can travel and infect other machines. They call them worms because these types of software burrow from one machine or network to another.
• Ransomware: Ransomware is a type of malware that can lock down your computer, preventing you from accessing your machine. Ransomware can threaten to erase every single document and piece of information on your machine unless a ransom is paid to the owner.
• Adware: Adware is a type of advertising software that can compromise your security to serve you targeted ads, such as pop-ups. Adware often brings in other malware as it enters your computer. Most of the time, Adware is a nuisance more than creating harm, but if you get enough on your device, it can slow it down to a crawl.
• Botnets: Botnets are networks of infected computers, made to work together under the control of an attacker. These are very sophisticated programs with an overall goal of interrupting your network or systems, allowing different types of software to break into your hardware, software, or systems.
3. Phishing
Cybercriminals most often use phishing, which is a relatively easy method. Cybercriminals phish to produce the results they’re looking for with minimal effort and time. Fake emails, text messages, and websites are created to look like they’re coming from an official company or source, or even someone you regularly communicate with.
Cybercriminals send these fake communicative messages to steal or gain personal and financial information from you.
For phishing to happen, the cybercriminal tricks you into giving them information by asking you to either update, validate, or confirm certain pieces of information about particular accounts you frequently use. These scams are typically presented in a way that makes you feel they are official and valid, encouraging you to take the requested action.
Once your information is confirmed or validated, the scam provides your username and password to cybercriminals, allowing them to access your accounts and steal your private and financial information.
4. Spam
As you’ve probably heard before, spam is one of the most common methods of not just sending out unsecured messages, but collecting them as well.
Spam is the mass distribution of unsolicited messages or advertisements to email addresses (typically) that hackers can easily find on the Internet through social networking sites, company websites, and personal blogs.
Spam can bombard your inbox with unwanted junk mail, creating a burden for communication services providers and businesses to filter electronic messages. It can also be used as the delivery method for many other types of cyber threats.
5. Wi-Fi Eavesdropping
Wi-Fi eavesdropping is another dangerous method used by cybercriminals to attack and obtain your personal and financial information. Unfortunately, Wi-Fi is not always a secure connection.
On private networks, you can enable encryption to prevent unauthorized people from connecting and reading the traffic as it travels through the airwaves. However, depending on the security mode you use, connected users may still be able to eavesdrop on each other’s traffic.
Although public networks may use web-based authentication, such as captive portals or websites, most don’t use actual encryption, and anyone nearby can easily eavesdrop on the hotspot traffic.
The Final Say: Managed IT and Avoiding Digital Scams
Cybersecurity is one of the most vital things you can implement and monitor for the success of your company. The more time you put into protecting your personal and financial files, the more secure your business will be.
Anytime is a good time to think about cybersecurity and threats, but the most critical time is now.
AIS continues to learn about cybersecurity threats and the best ways to prevent these issues from occurring in the first place. If you think your business is at risk of cybersecurity attacks or you’re looking for preventive ways to stay safe, reach out to us here. Managed IT services can significantly keep your business secure while continually monitoring your networks to make sure you’re not in the direct path of a cyber attack.
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