Tag Archives: cybersecurity

Become Aware and Prepared During Cybersecurity Awareness Month

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There’s never a bad time to examine your company’s cybersecurity posture, and even improve your strategy. Threats abound, including security incidents resulting from weak passwords, phishing attacks, and the lack of strong authentication. Read on to learn how you can assess and improve your preparedness for security incidents–it’s not if, but when.

 

Preparedness Starts with Awareness 

October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Starting in 2024 the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) theme is “Secure Your World.” Cybersecurity Awareness month is a time for understanding the threats that face all businesses, and perhaps especially small to medium-sized companies. The good news is, you can learn more about what threats affect your network, applications and data, and how to protect your business.

 

Protect Your Business from Common Threats 

 

Common threats include phishing as well as the ransome ware that can infect your network and steal your data. If your data isn’t stolen, it can be encrypted away from you via a ransomware attack. Security incidents can occur as a result of weak authentication of account access (weak passwords and lack of multi-factor authentication). Mishandled operating system updates can lead to not having the latest security updates and bug fixes. 

 

Phishing threats are growing in frequency and sophistication, and can come in through emails designed to trick recipients into giving up security credentials, which can then be used to gain access to a company’s network and data. Phishing attempts, along with variants like “smishing” (attacks via text messaging) and “vishing” (attacks by phone and voicemail) rely on fear and a sense of urgency to trick the recipient into action. Such attacks may include malicious links. Knowing how to recognize and deal with a possible phishing attack includes knowing how to report the email before deleting it, and knowing not to click links. If in doubt about the sender’s address, the recipient can point their mouse arrow at the URL to determine if the address is legitimate. 

 

Weak authentication can also put your company’s network at risk. Security incidents can occur when a password is guessed and the attacker penetrates the network. Examining your company’s password best practices and making sure workers know the practices, can help defend against intrusion. By creating strong passwords (e.g. twelve characters, with a variety of numbers, letters and special characters) individual workers can protect the company’s network. A password management system can help generate and store passwords, and only the password to that system needs to be remembered.

 

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) adds an extra layer of protection. To verify identity, a one-time code or even biometric like fingerprint recognition can determine that the request to access your network is legitimate. Even if a bad actor guesses and uses a password, they can’t access the network. 

 

Keep Current on Operating System Updates

 

On the company level, updating operating systems and applications can help protect your network and data. Operating system updates often include bug fixes and updated security features. Managed updates keeps them happening on schedule and compatible with your network environment. 

 

With its “secure your world” theme, CISA’s cybersecurity awareness campaign can be a template for your company’s efforts to prepare for possible attack. For further assistance, contact your trusted technology advisor today.

Protecting Your Business from an Evolving Threat Landscape

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Whether man-made or natural, threats to the security of your company’s network are on the rise. Not only do effects of climate change (such as wildfires and floods) pose threats to businesses, but cyberattacks including ransomware via phishing emails, jeopardize your network and data. Read on to learn more about threats and how to overcome them.

 

Common Risks For Businesses

 

Risk management professionals have their hands full! Natural disasters like floods or wildfires can damage, even destroy, security operations data centers, homes and businesses, and infrastructure like power lines. Even a winter storm can keep workers from accessing work systems, and break the connection between a technical problem and its solution. At the very least, natural disasters can result in costly downtime.  According to a CSO Online article, the number of climate change-related incidents with damage exceeding $1 billion dollars had occurred by October 2023. 

 

As if the consequences of natural disasters aren’t serious enough, bad actors are seeking access to business networks to steal data, infect the networks with malware, or both. These cybercriminals might also use a natural disaster to take advantage of a company’s vulnerability. Data breaches are also very much in the news. According to a 2021 cybersecurity threat trends report, phishing emails are responsible for roughly 90% of data breaches. These data breaches come from unsuspecting recipients giving up confidential information when they are tricked into doing so.  

 

Phishing schemes are becoming more sophisticated, too. Another threat is escalating cyberattacks using the same artificial intelligence tools your business might be using to automate processes and make work more efficient. If your company is using the tools, so are the bad actors. Cyber criminals can create more sophisticated phishing schemes, drafting emails lacking the usual spelling and grammatical errors in social engineering messages. Not only that, criminals can create videos (“deep fakes”) that mimic the voice and/or image of someone the recipient knows. 

 

How You Can Protect Your Business

 

It’s said that the question is not if your business is attacked, but when. You may know what your business is up against, but how do you protect yourself? You need a plan. A good place to start is taking inventory of technological assets, including data. Taking a risk management approach by assessing the most likely threats first helps prioritize your response. Partnering with a provider for Managed Detection and Response (MDR) and mobile device management can protect your network and its connected devices.

 

Tools for Protecting Your Network 

 

Two solutions for protecting your network include managed detection and response and mobile device management. Managed detection and response is a cybersecurity service that proactively protects organizations from cyber threats with a combination of technology and human expertise. The provider serves as a partner, taking on time-consuming tasks and using human expertise to hunt down and destroy threats. The end result is the preservation of your company’s reputation and brand. Mobile device management provides visibility across multiple devices and applications, protecting the devices with security features, in accordance with company policies.

 

Threats are escalating, including malware that takes advantage of unprotected devices as well as sophisticated phishing schemes involving artificial intelligence. For advice on shielding your company’s network, contact your trusted technology advisor today. 

 

Guarding Your Network Against Ransomware

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Hybrid workforce is here to stay, and some businesses are entirely remote. With the benefits remote employees bring, it also introduces dangers like unprotected network access and greater exposure to ransomware. Over the last several years, ransomware has increased and can have disastrous consequences to businesses of all sizes. Read on to learn more about the ransomware landscape and how to protect your company from attacks that steal data.

 

Ransomware’s Prevalence and Danger

 

Ransomware, a type of malware that introduces malicious code that can encrypt your data and make it unusable for your company, is nothing new. Even with some progress by law-enforcement groups in taking down some of the infrastructure, it is still prevalent. It can cause data breaches, downtime from inaccessible data, and financial consequences from lost revenue. If your data is stolen or leaked, not only do you not have access to it, but it can damage your company’s reputation because customers no longer trust you to protect confidential information. According to a 2023 report by Verizon regarding data breaches, ransomware affected 66% of organizations; 24% of data breaches occurred as a result of ransomware infection. Aside from lost data, your network could also become a hub, spreading ransomware to others such as customers or vendors. 

 

How Ransomware Enters Networks and How to Keep it Out

 

Points of entry are various, though the primary source is social engineering (phishing) emails. Many attacks come by way of an email containing a link which, when clicked on, downloads malicious software. Malicious actors use urgent calls to action and appeals to fear to get unsuspecting users to give up confidential information. Not that phishing emails are the only way for ransomware to enter. Ransomware can also get in through attacks on vendors, workers using unsecured Wi-Fi, or even an application update.

 

How, then, can you protect against it? Like preventing any cyberattacks, the solution can include tools, policies and people. Tools like network monitoring and updated patches can help detect and block ransomware. Firewalls can also analyze activity between your network and other points and block ransomware. Policies can include having separate computers for business and personal use, as in the case of remote workers. Training workers to recognize a phishing email and report it, and refraining from clicking any links needs to be a regular practice. 

 

With technological innovation comes risk. To learn how to minimize your risk of being a ransomware victim, contact your trusted technology advisor today.

Lessons from a Global Technology Outage

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As we saw two weeks ago, our entire world is dependent on technology. The global technology outage precipitated by a faulty software update rollout by Crowdstrike illustrates how a small problem can have enormous repercussions. The recovery will likely be difficult and expensive for many companies but especially for small to medium-size businesses. Read on to learn about how a technology advisor can help your company mitigate damage from and even prevent technical issues

 

The Outage and its Impact

 

On July 19, 2024, a global technology outage resulted from a faulty software update from technology firm CrowdStrike upended operations across multiple industries. Flights were canceled and delayed, medical care interrupted, and businesses large and small were unable to operate. Large businesses will have a difficult time recovering, but what about small to medium-size businesses with less technical support? Smaller businesses dealt with missed deadlines, possible loss of customers and the inability to pay workers. What lessons can companies learn from what happened? 

 

How a Technology Advisor Helps

 

Although some incidents are out of a company’s control, they still need to be prepared for the consequences of technology problems. A technology advisor is an expert in their field who advises, guides and supports businesses needing help with technology-related decisions. These decisions can include strategic ones, such as how to implement automation and develop a framework for cybersecurity. Or the advisor can assist in planning and navigating software updates to smooth the rollout process. Training and support of workers to give them the knowledge and skills to effectively and safely use technology tools.  

 

The software update responsible for the outage was believed to have not undergone rigorous testing–including for compatibility with common software systems. Technology advisors can help a company develop a framework for rigorous testing of updates to prevent problems that can spread to stakeholders; this includes cybersecurity issues. 

 

What Your Company Can Do

 

Of course, a technology advisor doesn’t do all the work. A collaborative approach in your company, where the IT department works with other business units, contributes to the knowledge of all. For example, while some departments may be enthusiastic about automation of processes, another can provide needed caution–no technology is infallible.  A  technology advisor can help  the company plan an automation strategy. Not to mention, the advisor can remind the company of the need for human oversight of automation.

 

July’s global technology outage has shown us all how digital transformation can introduce risks. Small to medium-size businesses may need a technology advisor to help them with a plan to mitigate these risks. For further assistance, contact your trusted technology advisor today.

Password Best Practices Keep Your Business Secure

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According to an article in the HIPAA Journal, May 2nd was “National Password Day.” You didn’t know there was such a day? National Password Day was declared in 2013 to bring awareness of both the importance of passwords in keeping personal and company data safe, but also about  password risks and best practices to mitigate those risks. Read on to learn about the state of thinking about passwords, and how to better manage login credentials.

 

A Brief History of Passwords

 

Even with biometric methods of identification, and single sign-on technology, passwords are still relevant as the most common way to secure personal and business accounts. Passwords were first developed in the 1960s at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to guard accounts against unauthorized access. Incidentally, the first password breach occurred there, too.  More recently, a survey of 2400 respondents in the U.S. and other countries revealed some sobering statistics about password practices.

 

Common Password Practices

 

Using the same password for multiple accounts was a common practice, with 84% of respondents admitting to using the same password for multiple accounts. If a hacker can steal the password to just one account, they can easily gain access to others.

 

54% of respondents relied on memory for passwords, and because of this the passwords can be too short and weak.

 

36% incorporated personal information (family names or birthdays, for example) in passwords to make remembering easier. 

 

33% used only a password, rather than two- or multi-factor authentication, to access their accounts. 

 

Moreover, even when changing passwords, users didn’t change them sufficiently. Instead, they only changed a few characters, with the idea of keeping them easy to remember.  All of these practices can facilitate the theft of passwords by social engineering (email “phishing” or text-message “SMiShing”) attacks, or even brute force attacks. How can thinking on passwords be changed?

 

Best Practices for Password Management

 

First, the article suggests thinking not in terms of passwords but passphrases, multi-character combinations of upper- and lower-case letters, numbers and symbols, that are more difficult to guess. Also, the article suggests using password management systems where the list of passphrases is itself protected by a passphrase of at least fourteen characters. Companies can develop clear, enforceable policies for password management, which might then influence how workers handle passwords outside of work, too. 

 

Passwords are still necessary to secure business and personal accounts, and thus need to be unique and strong. For help developing your company’s password policy, contact your trusted technology advisor today.

Cybersecurity Challenges for Small to Medium-Sized Businesses

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Cybersecurity, ever a topic for businesses of all sizes, poses special challenges for small to medium-size businesses. Not only can they be special targets for bad actors, but they also deal with tight budgets and at times a lack of understanding of what cybersecurity means. Read on to learn how a small business can meet cybersecurity challenges and build strong defenses.

 

A number of cybersecurity issues are challenging for smaller businesses, according to a CompTIA article. First, just getting started with a cybersecurity plan can seem like a huge task. And what does cybersecurity mean for your business? What mission-critical data and applications need protection? Once your company has decided on your goals, how will you reach them? 

 

Another issue is spending. Often, a small organization’s cybersecurity budget is tight, and the business cannot spend very much on an IT team, or the training to upskill current workers. How much will a third-party solution cost? These and other costs can seem daunting. 

 

Knowledge and understanding of the threat landscape is another challenge. Small or medium-size businesses might think that, being small, they are “under the radar” of cybercriminals. However, they are likely to be the victims of a cyberattack. According to the FBI, small businesses comprised the majority of victims in 2021. Even if the bad actors don’t specifically target a small company, they may use the small company to target larger businesses. Often, the criminals are looking to steal data – credit card and bank account information, customer data, even proprietary business information–from anyone they can. 

 

One of the challenges is complacency; small companies may think they don’t need to learn new skills. On the contrary, they need to adapt to an ever-changing threat landscape. Cyber attacks are becoming more frequent and more sophisticated, with  attackers banding together. Previously, hackers may have worked on their own, trying to execute brute force attacks or use bots to take down a website with a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack.   

 

Cybersecurity Help for Small Businesses

 

So, what’s the solution? The good news is, though cybercriminals are banding together, small to medium-sized companies can do the same. Technology service providers  can help small businesses access threat intelligence and learn from organizations that have been attacked and have recovered. And with help from the Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and its various resources, businesses can get information and start acting on that information to develop their cybersecurity plan. What’s more, a company might seek out third-party partners that can help supply the IT talent to improve their cybersecurity posture.

 

Cybersecurity, especially for smaller businesses, can seem like a huge challenge. However, help is out there. To learn more about developing a security plan, contact your trusted technology advisor today. 

Protect Passwords to Safeguard Personally Identifiable Information

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Businesses large and small deal every day with personally identifiable information from customers, employees and additional stakeholders. How do they protect it? While passwords alone are not considered personally identifiable information, they help keep it safe. Read on to learn more about how to manage passwords and keep data safe

 

The Role of Passwords in Safeguarding PII

 

Personally identifiable information (PII) is defined as data that can be linked with or traced to an individual. Such PII includes names, date of birth, address, Social Security numbers and other specific information about a person. Some of it is n-sensitive, part of public records or easily found online. Sensitive PII can include biometrics (used as part of multi-factor authentication, employment and financial records, and bank account credentials. Every business owner handles a great deal of personally identifiable information in the course of doing business. How can they protect it?

 

Passwords authenticate a user’s access to websites (including company websites) that hold personally identifiable, often sensitive, data on employees, customers and more. Employees properly trained in password management can be helpful in safeguarding a company’s data. One key practice, along with developing strong passwords, is refraining from sharing these passwords with others. 

 

Keeping Passwords Private Benefits Your Business

 

The reasons for keeping passwords secret may seem obvious–no one else can get into your accounts, or change your data, or leave it in danger of falling into the wrong hands. If your workers keep their passwords secret, they prevent sensitive information from being leaked to those who can misuse it. Individual workers (and your business as a whole) avoid penalties associated with regulatory non-compliance. By keeping passwords confidential, they avoid being held responsible for misuse. What’s more, with a strong password, they can always access the resources they need to succeed in their work. Even companies with strong controls and policies need to train their workers in password maintenance, making the practices part of the organization’s culture.

 

While passwords may or may not fall under the category of personally identifiable information, they definitely serve to protect it. For help in developing your company’s password policy, contact your trusted technology advisor today. 

From Cybersecurity to Cyber-Resilience

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Cybersecurity is an ever-present issue, especially in these times of rapid innovation. With this innovation, companies need to remember the importance of protecting systems, devices, networks and data from cyber attack. But what if we all went a few steps beyond, thinking of what to do to deal with an incident while it’s occurring and after it happens. Read on to learn how to work toward making your organization cyber resilient in the face of today’s threat landscape.

Cybersecurity and Cyber-Resilience

The two concepts sound similar, but the difference between cybersecurity and cyber-resilience is the focus. Cybersecurity refers to protecting systems, networks and data from cyberattack, whereas cyber-resilience is about an organization’s ability to withstand and recover from an attack while and after it happens. Both are important, and both contribute to business resiliency. An attack happens about every 39 seconds, according to some sources. Common types include malware attacks, ransomware, and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS), and these attacks can steal data or access to it, or even stall your system. And the effect on your business is potentially devastating; even a short power outage can result in costly downtime. How will your organization not just prevent these hazards, but deal with and recover from them, and stay running and resilient?

Benefits of Cyber-Resilience

The threat landscape continues to expand, with more attacks and the attacks becoming more sophisticated. Considering the rate of cyberattacks already occurring, the probability of one striking any one organization is high. Protecting yourself, as well as having a plan to respond to an attack when it happens, benefits your company in numerous ways. For one, you can continue operating during the disaster and avoid lost revenue. Second, the ability to protect customers’ personally identifiable information increases their trust in your organization. Third, you avoid fines for failure to comply with data-protection regulations. Finally, your business can even achieve a competitive advantage in staying open when others have to close.

Elements of a Cyber-Resilience Strategy

According to a CompTIA article, a strategy will prepare you to respond to attacks and mitigate their damage. A cyber-resilience strategy starts with assessment and prevention, a deep knowledge of your technological assets, and any possibility of gaps that attackers can exploit. Actively implementing preventive measures can help you look out for threats before they become problems. Plans for response and recovery position your company to respond quickly and mitigate damage. Adaptation and flexibility involves knowing that each attack is different and being able to respond at the moment. Finally, education and ongoing training can acquaint workers with possible threats and how to respond. Practice through attack simulations is very helpful as part of training.

Cybersecurity, of course, is still important. Cyber-resilience goes beyond that, to recovering from an attack and keeping the business running. For help with your strategy, contact your trusted technology advisor today.

What’s Coming Up: Technological Trends in 2024 and Beyond

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With cutting-edge technology and digital innovation continuing to take center stage, technology spending is expected to continue expanding. With digital innovation like artificial intelligence, cloud computing and even the Internet of Things also comes a greater potential of cyber threats. Read on to learn more about technology trends and how they may affect businesses in 2024 and beyond

 

Tech Spending to Increase in 2024

 

In general, worldwide technology spending is expected to increase by 8%, according to a Gartner article in October of 2023. The key sectors expecting growth include software at 13.8% IT services at 10.4%. Data privacy spending is expected to jump from 18.5% in 2023 to nearly 25% in 2024, and even network security equipment is expected to grow but more modestly, from 12.9% to 13.9%. Main business drivers are digital innovation, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity, according to a Telarus report for 2023. Businesses are expecting to think about moving legacy systems for business operations to the cloud, when previously most of the cloud applications used were for customer-facing services. This has the possibility of driving managed services spending as well. Along with digital innovation comes cybersecurity concerns, propelling information security and risk management spending to $215 billion, a 24% increase from 2023. 

 

Harnessing Artificial Intelligence

 

An IDC blog post forecasts global IT spending to expand to over $500 billion by 2027, with more spend allocated to AI implementation and adoption of AI-enhanced products and services. Technology providers anticipate investing money along with time and  brainpower in incorporating AI into the core of their business. Although AI is a major turning point–with ChatGPT’s 3.5 series released nearly a year ago– generative AI is not expected to come to the fore until about 2025. Artificial Intelligence is still expected to be in the background, improving processes. For example, it works with Microsoft’s Copilot to aid collaboration by combining the power of large language models with users’ data. It can operate with common MS applications like Word and Excel, offering assistance in real time. While primarily for businesses of 300 workers or more, it has potential to serve smaller businesses as well. 

 

Applications of Internet of Things

 

Internet of things (IoT) involves connecting devices to networks, with applications  in the energy and security sectors, including video surveillance. With more cloud use, data centers need physical security protection. A “smart” (connected) surveillance camera can be connected to other devices like alarms, to alert security professionals to potential threats. Artificial intelligence might operate with IoT to produce close-to-human image analysis.

 

The Internet of Things has much to offer the energy sector, too. Connected devices can monitor energy usage, helping reduce cost by scheduling appliances to be on and off at different times, shutting off some during peak times. Customers can partner with utility providers to make energy use more efficient and less expensive. 

 

Cybersecurity Considerations

 

Because digital innovation also leads to more threats, businesses looking to move customer service and back-office work to the cloud must pay attention to (and possibly spend more on) cybersecurity. Protections are needed for data, applications and infrastructure against escalating cyberthreats. The software sector also needs to pay attention to cybersecurity, with AI creating security fears like loss of data control. According to Gartner, double-digit growth is expected in all segments of enterprise security spending in 2024.

Taking a Proactive Approach to Cybersecurity

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The state of cybersecurity seems to be getting better, though there’s always room for improvement. According to a recent report by CompTIA, “The State of Cybersecurity 2024”, more companies see the need to take a proactive approach and look at cybersecurity from a risk management standpoint. Read on to learn what this might mean to your efforts to protect technological assets.

 

Encouraging Signs, with Room for Greater Improvement

 

In recent years, businesses have made strides in adopting a proactive stance toward cybersecurity, according to the CompTIA report. Of the small to medium-size businesses surveyed, solid percentages have formal frameworks for cybersecurity (45% for small businesses, and 63% for medium-size companies. Many small companies are assessing their risk, but without a formal framework. Over the last year or so, general satisfaction about the state of cybersecurity has increased, as well as satisfaction of respondents with their own company’s cybersecurity. Even with these modest increases, progress is still somewhat slow.

 

In spite of said progress, data breaches still occur. The global average cost of a data breach is $4.45 million! In 2022,  96% of organizations had at least one breach, according to a report cited by CompTIA. The top of mind question is quite naturally “What is the cost of a cybersecurity incident?” What if organizations could also ask what the cost is not just in terms of money but in time and effort taken to prevent an incident? 

 

Constructing a Risk-Management Plan

 

Cybersecurity has often been considered a secondary factor in the past, but businesses are now shifting from a defensive posture to a proactive one. Risk management involves identifying the risks that come with doing business; assigning probabilities to specific risks relevant to the company; and proposing mitigation plans. A formal framework is helpful in considering all risks, including ones not normally connected with IT. One such risk comes from phishing schemes, where individuals are targeted with email containing links to ransomware. Many workers posting on social media sites could make their employers targets for these social engineering attacks. One concern cited by the cybersecurity report was whether new technology a company buys can introduce new cybersecurity concerns. 

 

Many factors need to be considered when analyzing and managing cybersecurity risks. For help with your company’s efforts, contact your trusted technology advisor today.