Managed IT Support Can Reduce the Risk of Cyber Theft from Miami Businesses

Managed IT Support Can Reduce the Risk of Cyber Theft from Miami Businesses

Network security breaches have been in the news lately.

Hackers have targeted such large organizations as the federal government’s Office of Personnel Management and the Bank of Bangladesh. While security breaches at large institutions make the news, cyber theft from small businesses quietly takes place in the background.

Many of Miami’s small businesses handle more money through their computers and networks than through their cash registers. Credit card credentials, ACH transactions and emailed wire transfer instructions can all be targets for thieves.

Over the past two years, cyber thieves have stolen nearly $800 million dollars from over 8000 small businesses. Regulation E, the federal rule that requires banks to reimburse consumers for unauthorized transactions, does not apply to small business accounts; individual businesses have lost over a million dollars to cyber theft and not been reimbursed.

Managed IT support for Miami businesses can help to reduce your risk of cyber theft. Instead of reacting to an incident after it occurs, your managed IT support vendor can examine and secure your network to reduce the risk of a breach. They can conduct a survey of your network to identify systems that need to be patched, and can look for systems with default passwords that a hacker might be able to guess.

Developing a patch management plan and eliminating systems with default passwords can reduce the risk of a network breach.

Cyber theft is a serious issue for Miami businesses. Companies that import or export goods are especially vulnerable as they often send wire transfers. A fraudulent wire transfer is very difficult to cancel or recall.

For more information about computer and network security, please contact us.

Don’t Leave Your Cyber Security on Autopilot

Don't Leave Your Cyber Security on Autopilot

In 1453, Constantinople fell in one of the first documented uses of massed heavy artillery. When the time came to rethink a thousand year defense strategy, Constantine did not recognize the significant changes to the threat. When it comes to modern cyber security, companies need to rethink their defenses far more often.

But according to the Cyber Ark Global Advanced Threat Landscape Report 2018, companies by and large have stagnant approaches–among the survey findings:

  • A whopping 36 percent of respondents knew of employees storing usernames and passwords for privileged accounts in Word or Excel documents
  • The number of firms granting workers administrative permissions to endpoint devices increased
    • The percent of users in those companies who had admin rights increased 25 percent from 2016
  • Half of the respondents recognized customers’ sensitive private data is at risk due to security controls not going beyond basic legal requirements

I know of one company whose auditors instruct clients doing annual IT compliance certifications that if a security measure is unchanged from the prior audit, just enter “SALY” (same as last year). You won’t find too many experts who believe the threat environment will be the same as last year though. So how does a company break out of the cyber security inertia trap?

Forbes magazine contributor Christie Terrill recommends reviewing and changing your IT security strategy whenever the context of your IT operation changes, including changes in user behavior, paying most attention to devices and nodes that are least in control of the organization. She says Internet of Things nodes are most problematic. While it’s true cyber security core tools such as firewalls, two-person authentication and intrusion prevention systems, are relatively unchanging, how you apply them and how you approach risk management should be reviewed. And that, with the speed of technology evolution, needs very much to be an ongoing endeavor.

Good detective work, when any system fails, usually includes asking the question “what changed”. Reviewing strategy as your IT environment changes can keep you out of the post mortem detective work and better employed focusing on refreshed prevention and risk mitigation efforts instead.

Please contact us at Wheelhouse to talk about a cyber security checkup, or to explore any of our varied managed IT service offerings.

Avoiding The Virtual Attacks

Avoiding The Virtual Attacks

Major businesses and enterprises are not the only ones who face the threats and risks of breaches and cyber attacks. There is a misconception that hackers and cyber attackers are only interested in obtaining information from large businesses in order to gain more money or to capture more confidential and sensitive data. Actually, small businesses are more at risk of security breaches than larger businesses.

Hacking and cyber attacking do not cost a substantial amount of money, so attacking a business will result in a profit, regardless of the size of a business. Hackers and cyber attackers will generally go after the type of systems they are familiar with, so most of the time it is all about undermining a specific technology rather than going after a specific type of business or individual.

As hackers become more sneaky and smarter, the rate of cyber attacks and data breaches will increase. As a small business owner, it is important that you arm yourself with the proper cyber security strategies. You should also make sure you have the right principles and fundamentals in place. What can you do to keep your small business safe from cyber attacks?

Secure Your Network

It is important that your small business monitor the flow of network traffic for any abnormalities like file transfers that have not been authorized or dubious IP addresses. Once the abnormalities have been identified, they can be placed on a block list that will no longer allow them to gain access to the network.

Are You Outsourcing Your Services?

Many companies have discovered that one of the best ways to ensure the safety and security of their business and information technology infrastructure is to outsource some or all of their security operations. Many businesses will find value in the assistance of third-party security expertise to supplement their current security strategies and operations. While using outside security technologies can be essential in helping to secure your sensitive data, it is also important that you combine the technologies with a security monitoring service.

Data Backup

When a hacker places a virus on your computer in order to encrypt files and hold them hostage for money is known as ransomware. Ransomware is one of the major concerns of all businesses and it continues to be a major security threat. This is why it is essentially important that your business backs up your data frequently. It does not matter if you store data on-premise or in the cloud, you will need to keep your data in a safe place. When you store your data in the cloud, you will be able to easily back up your data and maintain security protection.

As a small business, we do not want you to become a target of threats and data breaches. Contact us today if you are ready to protect yourself from virtual attacks.