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.

How Managed Security Services Can Benefit a Business

How Managed Security Services Can Benefit a Business

Having a quality and reliable network is a requirement in order for any business to be successful today. Managed security services can help.

For those organizations that have a network established, making sure that it is properly secured is very important as it will help to protect company and customer data.

For those that are looking to improve the security of their network and IT systems, hiring a managed security services provider would be very beneficial. A managed IT security services provider can provide your organization with a range of services to help protect your data.

Establishment of Security System

When you hire a managed IT security services provider, the first thing that the company will do is help you to establish a new security system. The security services provider will be able to enhance your existing network to ensure it is as secure as possible.

This part of the process will include establishing a multi-layered security service, creating a variety of access controls, and creating a system that will be very difficult for an unauthorized individual to access.

This will greatly enhance the overall protection that you have in place, which will reduce the risks of being hacked by an outside threat.

Monitoring

Beyond establishing a new security system on your network, a managed IT security service will also help by monitoring your network.

The company will be able to complete 24/7 real-time monitoring to identify who is accessing your network or if any suspicious activity is taking place.

The organization will also be able to continue to update your security systems in place based on changes in technology and outside hacking threats.

If you are interested in improving the security of your network, you should contact us to learn more about the products and services we provide as well as how we can help your organization.

What’s the True Cost of Downtime for Small Businesses?

What's the True Cost of Downtime for Small Businesses?

Downtime is expensive. Whether your business is online or offline, even an hour without internet access can hurt your business’s bottom line.

In 2016, small businesses with 50 million or less in annual revenue put the price tag of an hour-long outage at $8,600. Different businesses have different metrics, but it’s almost always going to be bigger than you think.

Why is Downtime So Expensive?

First, you face several direct losses in revenue. An hour without an online store is an hour without sales. A lot of outages are caused by too much traffic that your site and servers weren’t ready for. That means you’re not just losing an hour of regular business; you’re losing an hour of peak, jam packed business.

Not only is there lost revenue, but you incur expenses, too. Getting your website back online with the help of a traditional IT support technician, who has an hourly rate, will rack up quickly. The total cost will go up if you need new equipment, your network goes out, or you pay extra for a faster response time.

There are also several indirect costs. New leads have a low tolerance for 404 errors. If you attract a new visitor’s interest (which is harder and harder to do) but your site doesn’t work, they are unlikely to come back later. You lose sales, lead conversion, and potential return business.

All of these elements combined lead to that total price of $8,600 for even a single hour of downtime. Avoid outages in the first place with a managed IT support subscription that monitors your network for problems before they start.

Managed Security Services: Don’t Be a Victim of Search Engine Hacking

Managed Security Services: Don't Be a Victim of Search Engine Hacking

Search engines such as Google are useful tools for quickly finding web pages that best match the searcher’s needs, but managed security services will save you from getting hacked.

Search engines are highly versatile in that they aren’t limited to finding web pages. By using the right search operators in a search query, documents such as PDF files and spreadsheets can be found and downloaded.

This makes search engines ideal for the hacker looking for easy access to sensitive information or to gather general information about potential hacking targets.

Any type of file with Internet exposure can be accessed provided it has been indexed by the search engines. It’s a simple matter of using the file type search operator followed by a file extension that corresponds to an Excel spreadsheet, OpenOffice spreadsheet, word document, text file, backup file, database file, and so forth.

If the hacker is after passwords, his search query would include any words that would likely be found in such a file including the words “username” and “password.”

A good file type for finding sensitive information might be an Excel spreadsheet, since businesses and individuals make extensive use of them for information records, including passwords.

Many camera devices are controlled from web browsers. These can be found by searching for words commonly used on these pages, or URL strings commonly used for specific camera devices. Controlling the camera amounts to visiting the web page and using the controls to view the area that’s surveilled.

A hacker with good tech knowledge can contrive hundreds of search queries targeting files and web pages containing sensitive data or information that reveals easily exploited vulnerabilities.

Protecting Your Website From Search Engine Hacking

  • Use the robots.txt file. Use the robots.txt file to request that search engines not crawl portions of your website. Search engines should honor this request but you shouldn’t completely count on it.
  • Don’t expose sensitive information to the Internet. Don’t store sensitive information on servers accessible by the Internet. This includes cloud services that lack strong security procedures. Vet your cloud service provider carefully.
  • Password protect web pages not meant for public viewing as well as your spreadsheets and other documents. If such protection isn’t available for a particular document type, don’t use it.
  • Use a modern website. Some of the earlier websites stored login passwords in unencrypted form in text files.

Finally, get help from professional security experts such as those at WheelHouse IT. To learn more about keeping your data safe and about our managed security services, contact us.