Category: Social Media

“That won’t happen to me” is something many business owners say when discussing cyber-scams and the need for adequate protections for their business, but these days it’s getting to be a really, really stupid statement that you definitely don’t want your clients, employees and banker to hear.  

Generative AI (artificial intelligence) tools are allowing scammers to produce deep fakes to defraud their targets. Earlier this year, Clive Kabatznik, an investor in Florida, called his local Bank of America representative to discuss a big money transfer he was planning to make.  

Immediately after this legitimate call, a scammer called the bank back using an AI-generated deepfake voice of “Clive” to convince the banker to transfer the money to another account. Fortunately, the banker was suspicious enough that no money was transferred, but not everyone is as lucky. 

According to a report titled The Artificial Imposter by McAfee, a well-established cyber security firm, 77% of AI voice scams were successful in securing money from their target. Even scarier, AI tools can clone a voice from just three seconds of audio.  

A UK-based energy firm’s CEO was the victim of a voice scam when he thought he was talking to his boss, the CEO of the parent company based in Germany. The voice on the other end of the line instructed him to send the equivalent of $233,000 to a Hungarian supplier. The voice was so convincing, down to the slight German accent, that the CEO complied without hesitation. By the time they realized what had happened, the money had already been transferred to Mexico and distributed to other locations that weren’t traceable.   

But big businesses aren’t the only ones targeted.  

Jennifer DeStefano, a mother of a 15-year-old daughter, recounted during a US Senate hearing her terrifying encounter with an AI scammer who used the voice of her daughter to attempt to convince her that the girl had been kidnapped. Fortunately, her daughter was in her bed sleeping at the time, and Jennifer was able to realize it was a scam. Many others aren’t as lucky as Jennifer and are getting scammed by AI voices of grandchildren, children and other loved ones who “urgently need money.” 

This approach is still so new that there’s no comprehensive accounting of how often it’s happening, but the CEO of Pindrop, a security company that monitors audio traffic for many of the largest US banks, said he had seen a jump in its prevalence this year – and in the sophistication of scammers’ voice-fraud attempts. Another large voice-authentication vendor, Nuance, saw its first successful deepfake attack on a financial services client late last year. 

With the rapid advancement of AI technology and its wider availability as costs come down, coupled with the broad availability of recordings of people’s voices on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, the perfect conditions have been created for voice-related AI scams. 

What do you need to do to protect yourself?  

For starters, share this article to make sure your staff is aware of these types of scams. Next, instruct them to ALWAYS check with you via a text message or other means BEFORE transferring money. If you’re not a business owner, you can do the same with your family, using a code word or other means of verifying the caller’s legitimacy.  

Also, check the caller ID. If it’s something you don’t recognize, or it’s a blocked number, that’s a BIG red flag that it’s a scam. Even if it sounds like them on the other end of the line, hang up and call their phone direct or the place they’re supposed to be (school, office, etc.).  

If the person calling has on-fire urgency and wants money wire-transferred or a Bitcoin payment, that’s another huge red flag. Real emergencies don’t come with highly skeptical payment demands.   

In business, you’ve clawed and climbed your way to the top, dodging all sorts of pitfalls and predators that have tried to make you their meal. Such threats are everywhere, and the higher you climb, the more you’ll find hiding behind every tree, every rock and every step. No matter how small and insignificant you might think you are, you ARE a target for someone, and being casual about cyber security and the threats they pose is an absolute surefire way to be robbed. 

If you don’t want this to happen to you, click here to request a free Cyber Security Risk Assessment to see just how protected your organization is against known predators. If you haven’t had an independent third party conduct this audit in the last 6 months, you’re due.  

It’s completely free and confidential, without obligation. Voice scams are just the latest in a tsunami of threats aimed at small business owners, with the most susceptible being the ones who never “check the locks” to ensure their current IT company is doing what they should. Claim your complimentary Risk Assessment today. 

There is one extremely common threat to our security that nearly everyone has witnessed but hardly anyone talks about – bad bots. These silent attackers are often thought of as annoying spam accounts posting computer-generated comments online. They are so common that most of us tend to scroll by them without noticing, but in reality, bad bots are much more dangerous, particularly for business owners.

What Are Bad Bots?

Bad bots are software applications that are programmed to run automated tasks with malicious intent, such as brute force attacks, data mining, ad fraud and more. These stealthy assailants are the tireless, automated “employees” of cybercriminals that help them wreak havoc at scale. And they are everywhere. A study by Imperva revealed that of all Internet traffic in 2022, 47.4% was made up of these automated bots.

The activities of these bad bots can range from annoying to outright malicious. The most common ones we see that can affect any business are:

Reputation Attacks: Bots can be configured to leave comments on your social media or website with malicious codes and links, post provocative or spammy comments, leave scathing reviews and so on, all of which affect consumer trust.

Web Scraping: Bad bots can scrape your website for valuable data, such as pricing information or customer reviews, which they might use for various purposes, including undercutting your prices or selling your data to competitors. They could also use it to duplicate your website and set up phishing scams to trick visitors.

This can be particularly dangerous for industries with sensitive data, like health care. Bots can scrape sensitive health information, such as patient records, medical history and insurance information, which is often later sold on the dark web for profit.

Brute Force Attacks: These bots attempt to gain unauthorized access to your systems by repeatedly guessing passwords, making your accounts vulnerable to breaches. This is a popular tactic against financial services companies. If cybercriminals get access to accounts that contain sensitive financial information, they can open up new credit card accounts.

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attacks: Bad bots can be used to launch DDoS attacks, overwhelming your website or online services with traffic and causing downtime.

Ad Fraud: Some bots engage in click fraud, repeatedly clicking on online ads to deplete your advertising budget without delivering real human engagement. This will skew analytics and often lead to poor decision-making for the marketing department.

Detecting bad bots can be challenging since they often mimic human behavior. The hardest ones to identify are evasive bots, which get their name from their ability to sidestep security by cycling through random IPs, rapidly changing their identities, mimicking human behavior and defeating CAPTCHA challenges. However, there are a few methods to help you identify bad bot attacks:

Watch Traffic Patterns: Monitor website traffic patterns for irregularities, such as high traffic from a single IP address or a single region.

Monitor All Comments Sections: Check in regularly on social media sites for spam comments or fake bad reviews and delete them.

Use CAPTCHA Challenges: Implement CAPTCHA challenges or bot detection tools to filter out automated traffic automatically.

Implement Anomaly Detection: Use anomaly detection algorithms to spot unusual behavior, like rapid data scraping or suspicious login attempts.

Track Bot Signatures: Maintain a list of known bot signatures and compare incoming traffic against it.

If you notice repeated issues, there are a few actions you can take, such as:

Educate Your Team: Train your employees to recognize and report suspicious activities, as humans are often the first line of defense. Create a process that includes who to notify and what steps to take when each issue is noticed.

Use Bot Detection Solutions: Invest in bot detection software or services that can help identify and block bad bot traffic.

Maintain Regular Updates: Keep your software and security systems updated to patch vulnerabilities that bots may exploit.

Implement Rate Limiting: Limit the number of requests an IP address can make in a given time frame to thwart scraping attempts.

Hire An IT Professional: Bots are tricky. IT companies deal with them regularly and have advanced solutions that can help eliminate these annoying and dangerous issues for you.

The impact of bad bots on business owners can be significant and lead to financial losses, reputational damage and legal complications. If you’re worried about bad bots causing a problem for your organization, schedule a FREE 10-Minute Discovery Call and we’ll help figure out where your company is vulnerable and how you can protect yourself and your business today. Click here to book now.

When you run your own business, it feels like there are never enough hours in the day. Even when you start early and end late, there’s always something else, another e-mail or task, nagging for your attention. If you want to be productive, and ultimately successful, it’s important to prioritize what tasks you’ll allow to fill your schedule. Not everything needs to be or should be done by you.  

Easier said than done. One of the issues we frequently see business owners struggle with is to delegate the tasks they don’t need to be doing. “It’s faster if I just do it” and “They won’t do it like I do” are two statements we often hear. For some tasks, that’s probably true, and those should stay on your plate, but when it comes to IT and technology, there are always several tasks business owners are doing themselves that they could and should hand off to someone else.  

Some are obvious, like security. Quality cyber security requires 24/7 monitoring, and it’s unrealistic for busy business owners to be able to handle that effectively. They simply have too much to do! Another mistake is when they hand it off to an employee, family member or friend to do for them. These people are typically not qualified to protect you correctly.  

However, there are dozens of other to-dos that you might not realize you can hand off to your IT team Here are 10 tasks you can delegate to your IT team so you can focus on running your business. 

1. Fix or Optimize Wi-Fi – Whether your Wi-Fi is down, you need to extend coverage area or something else, you don’t have to crawl around unplugging and plugging your router. Your IT team can handle it. 
2. Install and Set Up Microsoft Teams – If you’re using tools like Zoom, Slack and project management software, moving to Microsoft Teams can enhance productivity. It facilitates direct communication, project management and collaboration and has over 1,900 applications you can use. IT professionals can set all this up for you and train your team how to use it properly.
3. Manage User Access Permissions and Credentials – Your IT team can handle getting new employees their correct user access, immediately revoking access for fired employees or those who quit and everything in between. 
4. Procuring and Provisioning Devices – If you need laptops, desktops, tablets, mobile devices, etc., sourced for the best price and configured for use, that’s a tech team task. 
5. Providing Tech Support To Employees – No more troubleshooting questions for you! Your team can submit tech tickets for a quick, efficient response from support. 
6. Set Up Dual Monitors – Want to increase productivity and efficiency? IT can set up dual monitors, correctly hooking everything up, so your team can come in and start working instead of trying to DIY it. 
7. Speed Up Computers To Run Efficiently – If your computer is running slow, don’t go to Google looking for tips. Call your IT team. They can help you improve your computer speed.
8. Install E-mail/Spam Protection – No more filtering out dangerous or annoying spam e-mails; IT will do it for you. 
9. Configure Office Equipment – New printer? No problem. IT can help set it up.
10. Employee Screen Monitoring – Are your employees working when they say they are? We can help you find out by setting up software to track activity.   

And the list goes on. IT providers can also aid with HIPAA, CMMC and PCI compliance, file sharing for external/remote access users, data loss recovery plans, office relocation, cabling and so much more. Most business owners we consult with are surprised by the number of responsibilities a tech team can take on beyond cyber security. 

The best thing to do is book a FREE Network Assessment. During this assessment, our team will look at your entire system for areas of opportunity and improvement. We’ll conduct a full audit, provide you with a plan of action to optimize your business for productivity, efficiency and security, and answer any questions you have. Click here to book your Assessment now.

The Norton LifeLock Email Scam Unveiled

In today’s digital age, our personal information is more vulnerable than ever. Cybercriminals are constantly devising new and sophisticated methods to exploit unsuspecting individuals. One such threat is the Norton LifeLock email scam, a deceptive scheme that targets its victims with the promise of renewing your security while actually compromising information and safety. See sample image below.

The Norton LifeLock email scam operates under the guise of a you as a user renewing your subscription to their service, leveraging the trusted reputation of the Norton brand. Victims receive emails claiming to be from Norton LifeLock, stating that your Norton Internet Security has been successful renewed for a certain amount.

The scam normally preys on the account holders fear that their account had already been charged. Yes, these emails often contain urgent language, playing on fears of a large chunk of money has been charged on their account thus coercing recipients into taking immediate action. If you got really got charged with $353, you would certainly have it disputed with Norton as who they claim to be. Whoever you end up talking on the phone with you, they would try their best to get as much information from you to try to get the money for real.

Lo and behold, the alleged Refund Team is not Norton’s phone number. It is the number of the people scamming you.

Recognizing the signs of a email scam is crucial for protecting yourself and your personal information:

• Unsolicited Emails: Be wary of emails you didn’t expect or didn’t sign up for, especially those requesting personal information, payments, refunds or immediate action.
• Spelling and Grammar Errors: Scammers often make mistakes in language that a legitimate company would not. Pay attention to typos, awkward phrasing, or inconsistent formatting.
• Urgency and Pressure Tactics: Scammers often create a sense of urgency to pressure victims into making hasty decisions. Be cautious of emails that demand immediate action.
• Suspicious Links or Attachments: Avoid clicking on links or downloading attachments from unfamiliar sources. Hover over links to view the actual URL before clicking. (some scam campaigns variants do not include website links or attachments)
• Check the Sender’s Email Address: Verify that the email address matches the official domain of Norton LifeLock. Scammers often use slightly altered domain names to deceive recipients.

Always be Cautious with Personal Information: Avoid sharing sensitive information via phone, email or on unsecured websites. Legitimate companies typically request such information through secure channels.

These email scams get recycled and updated to suit the scammers needs, today it is Norton, tomorrow they might pretend to be Bank of America, Chase, FedEx, DHL, PayPal or something else.

College has changed since many of us were students. Years ago, we’d be shuffling from class to class, holding a single notebook and a pencil for scribbling down notes. There wasn’t as big a risk of photos or data being stolen online. 

That’s no longer the case. Students today have at least one – usually two or three – devices readily available. The scary part is, most college-age students think of themselves as tech-savvy “digital natives”; however, a study by Atlas VPN showed that Gen-Zers and millennials are the age groups most likely to fall for phishing scams. 

In fact, according to the National Cybersecurity Alliance, 20% of Gen-Zers have had their identity stolen at least once. 

Here are just a few of the terrifying ways cybercriminals attack this young crowd: 

• Unpaid tuition notifications – scammers will send fake e-mails to students claiming they owe a certain amount of money or it’ll affect their enrollment.
   
• Fake financial aid, grant or scholarship websites that, when clicked, either steal their information or install malware on their computer.
   
• Fake Wi-Fi accounts set up by hackers in public places to steal passwords and private data when their device connects.
   
• Social media scams used to gather private information to either hack accounts or set up new ones.
  

• Hacking phones or social media accounts to steal photos and blackmail students into payment so they don’t release them publicly. 

Sadly, the list goes on and on! 

How can kids raised on technology fall for so many scams? Here are just a few of the big reasons why: 

• Hackers know most students aren’t properly educated on cyberthreats because they’ve always worked on computers that were secured by the school or their parents
• They grew up using social media and feel comfortable divulging private information about themselves (that thieves can harvest and later use to initiate an attack).
• This is a big one – they have no or very little credit, giving cyberscammers a smoother path to opening accounts in their name.
• They have multiple connected devices like phones, laptops, tablets and watches that give criminals more avenues to attack. 
  
• College kids are distracted. They’re focused on school and making friends, and NOT cyber security, making it easy to let a cybercriminal slip by undetected until it’s too late. 

What can you do? 

We have robust cyber security solutions and 24-hour monitoring to protect the businesses that we work with and can even recommend at-home security software, but what about when your kids go off to school, away from your watchful eye? 

You certainly can’t pack up and camp out at college to make sure they’re following cyber security best practices. But you can make sure they know what to look out for and give them the tools and resources to stay as safe as possible. 

Here are 14 actions your child can take to prevent being a victim of cybercrime when they’re off at college: 

1. Invest in strong, trusted virus and spyware protection and run scans once a week.
2. Never click “Remind Me Tomorrow” when a phone or computer wants to update. Turn on automatic updates when possible.
3. Keep all browsers, extensions and operating systems updated.
4. Back up the computer to the cloud regularly to avoid losing data if there is an attack.
5. Do not visit or enter credit card information on websites that aren’t secure (HTTPS:// only!).
6. Don’t connect to public Wi-Fi. Use a personal hotspot or VPN when on the go.
7. Beware of phishing scams. Do not click links or open attachments in e-mails, especially from unknown senders. Google websites and search instead of clicking links.
8. Use strong, unique passwords and use a password manager.
9. Regularly delete cookies. These can create “loopholes” for hackers to get into a network.
10. Only install software and apps from trusted sources.
11. Use multifactor authentication.
12. Lock all devices and don’t share passwords, even with your new best friend.
13. Cover all webcams – there are stickers for purchase online, but tape and paper will work.
14. Register devices with the school in the event they are stolen. 

Run through this list with your children! When students leave for college, cyber security is not a priority for them, but unfortunately, if they’re targeted it could negatively impact their lives at a time when they’re just getting started. 

Cyber security takes just a few minutes of conscious effort but is a critical lesson to learn in this age when nearly everything we do involves technology. The risks of cybercrime will only continue to grow. 

If your organization could benefit from cyber security training similar to this but more in-depth for employees, so they know the risks and best practices of cyber security, we can help. Start with a completely FREE Cybersecurity Risk Assessment by clicking here.

Cybercriminals know the easiest way to sneak under your radar is to pretend to be a brand you know and trust. These large companies have spent years on marketing, customer service, branding and consistency to build a trustworthy reputation, and hackers leverage this to go after you. 

 The most common method is to use phishing attacks. These thieves set up URLs that look scarily similar to the real company’s website. To slip by your watchful eye, here are some of the simple switches hackers make that can go unnoticed: 

1. Switching out a zero for the letter “O” or a capital “i” for a lowercase “L.” If you’re quickly reading an e-mail, it might look legit.
2. Adding in a word that seems like it could be a subdomain of the real company, like “info@googleservice.com.”
3. Using a different domain extension, like “info@google.io.” 

Some criminals will take it a step further and set up a web page that looks identical to that of the real website. When you click the link – via e-mail, SMS or even through social media – several dangerous results can occur. 

The first is that malware can be installed on your computer. Clicking a bad link can set off an automatic malware download that contains malicious files with the ability to collect personally identifiable information from your device, like usernames, credit card or bank account numbers and more. 

The second is the fake website will have a form to harvest your information. This could be login credentials, passwords and, in some cases, your credit or bank information. 

The third most common issue is an open redirect. The link might look legit, but when you click on it, you’re redirected to a malicious website where the intent is to steal your information. 

What brand impersonations do you need to look out for? Well, all of them, but according to Check Point’s latest Brand Phishing Report, there are 10 companies that top the chart in overall appearance in brand phishing attempts. 

Here Are The Top 10 Most Frequently Impersonated Brands In Phishing Attempts In Q2 Of 2023: 

1. Microsoft (29%) 
2. Google (19.5%) 
3. Apple (5.2%) 
4. Wells Fargo (4.2%) 
5. Amazon (4%) 
6. Walmart (3.9%) 
7. Roblox (3.8%) 
8. LinkedIn (3%) 
9. Home Depot (2.5%) 
10. Facebook (2.1%) 

Take a minute and ask yourself how many of the companies on this list send you regular e-mail communications. Even just one puts you at risk. 

Cybercriminals go the full mile with these scams. They know what types of messages work best for each company to get your attention. 

Here are three common phishing attacks cybercriminals have used under these brands’ good names to gain access to your private information. 

1. Unusual Activity – These types of e-mails will suggest that someone gained access to your account and you need to change your password quickly. They leverage fear so people will click without thinking, hurrying to change their password before they’re a victim of the attack.They usually have buttons that say, “Review Recent Activity” or “Click Here To Change Your Password.”

   These e-mails can go as far as to show fake login information detailing the region, IP address, time of sign-in and more, like real messages from the companies do to convince you to click.
     

2. Fake Gift Cards – These e-mails suggest that someone sent you an e-gift card. When you open the e-mail, they either redirect you to a website to “claim your gift card” or have a button to “redeem now.”
    
3. Account Verification Required – These e-mails suggest that your account has been disconnected, and they need you to verify your information. As soon as you enter your login credentials, the hacker has access.

These scams are happening every single day. You’re a target, but so are the unsuspecting employees in your company. Without proper training, they might not know what to look for, panic and try to resolve these “issues” under the radar, ultimately causing the problem. 

There are multiple steps to making sure your network is secure. One would be getting e-mail monitoring to help reduce the likelihood of these phishing e-mails ending up in your inbox. It’s also important to make sure employees know what to look for so that if an e-mail does get by the phishing detection system, they can still keep your company safe. 

The best thing to do is to start here with your FREE Cybersecurity Risk Assessment. We’ll evaluate your network and provide a full report on areas where you are vulnerable and what to do to fix them. There’s no obligation, but you should know where you’re at risk. Click here to schedule your assessment now. 

Back in May, the company MOVEit, a file transfer platform made by Progress Software, was compromised by a Russian ransomware operation called Cl0p. They used a vulnerability in Progress’s software that was unknown to exist at the time. Shortly after the attack was noticed, a patch was issued. However, some users continued to be attacked because they didn’t install it.  

The software is used by thousands of governments and financial institutions and hundreds of other public and private companies from around the world, and it’s been estimated that at least 455 organizations and over 23 MILLION individuals who were customers of MOVEit have had their information stolen. 

Some of the organizations compromised include: 

• The US Department of Energy 

• New York City Department of Education 
• UCLA 
• Shell 
• Ernst & Young 
• Northwest Mutual 

• Pacific Premier Bank 
• TransAmerica Life Insurance  
• Honeywell 
• Bristol Myers Squibb 
• Gen/Norton LifeLock 

• Radisson Hotel 
• BBC 
• British Airways 

The majority of those organizations (73%) are based in the US, while the rest are international, with the most heavily impacted sectors being finance, professional services and educational institutions. 

Cl0p is a type of ransomware that has been used in cyber-attacks since 2019. Data stolen is published to a site on the dark web – a section of the worldwide web where cybercriminals sell and trade information without having to reveal themselves. The ransomware and website have been linked to FIN11, a financially motivated cybercrime operation that has been connected to both Russia and Ukraine and is believed to be part of a larger umbrella operation known as TA505. 

What makes this attack so terrible is that many of the organizations compromised provide services to many other companies and government entities, which means it’s very likely their customers, patients, taxpayers and students were compromised by association. And yes, you’re probably one of them.  

The big question is, were you notified? 

For some reason, this breach didn’t make mainstream headlines, but when a company is compromised, they are obligated to tell you if your data was stolen. This can come in the form of an e-mail or snail mail letter. However, due to spam filters, e-mail delivery is clearly not a reliable way to ensure an important message is received, and organizing a letter for over 36 million people can take time. 

If you use the software, you need to ensure that all your passwords and PINs are changed ASAP and you must be on the lookout for any strange activity. Don’t use the same passwords and make sure they are at least 12 characters long, using uppercase and lowercase letters, as well as special characters and numbers.  

You should also ensure that MFA, or multi-factor authentication, is turned on for all critical software applications and websites you use, such as Microsoft Office, QuickBooks, banking and payroll software, your credit card processor, etc. 

Want to know if your company’s information is on the dark web? Click here to request a free Dark Web Vulnerability Scan for your organization (sorry, we don’t offer this for individuals). Simply let us know your domain name and we’ll conduct the search for free and contact you to discuss what was found via a confidential review (NOT via e-mail). Questions? Call us local at 480-464-0202 or toll-free 1-800 984-5204.

In June a popular file-sharing software amongst big-name companies likes Shell, Siemens Energy, Sony, several large law firms, a number of US federal agencies such as the Department of Health and more was hacked by Russia-linked cybercrime group Cl0p. Security Magazine reported that, to date, there are 138 known companies impacted by the breach, resulting in the personal information of more than 15 million people being compromised. More are expected to emerge as the investigation continues. 

If you’re reading that list of company names thinking, “I’m just a small business compared to these big guys – that won’t happen to me,” we’ve got news for you. Many of these companies have cyber security budgets in the millions, and it still happened to them, not because they were ignoring the importance of cyber security, but because of a piece of software they use to run their business.  

Progress Software’s MOVEit, ironically advertised as a tool you can use to “securely share files across the enterprise and globally,” “reduce the risk of data loss” and “assure regulatory compliance,” was exploited by a tactic called a zero-day attack. This occurs when there is a flaw in the application that creates a gap in security and has no available patch or defense because the software maker doesn’t know it exists. Cybercriminals quickly release malware to exploit the vulnerability before the software maker can patch it, essentially giving them “zero days” to respond.  

These attacks are dangerous because they are difficult to prevent and can quickly and easily ruin smaller businesses.  

Depending on the organization’s motives, the stolen data can be deleted, held for ransom or sold on the dark web. Or, if you are lucky enough to recover your data, you might still end up paying out thousands or more in fines and lawsuits, losing money from downtime and coming out on the other end with a damaged reputation that causes clients to leave anyway. In MOVEit’s case, the cybercrime agency Cl0p has claimed on their website that their motivation is purely financial and has allegedly deleted data obtained from government agencies as they were not the intended targets.  

What does this mean for small businesses?  

For starters, it underlines the harsh reality that cyber security isn’t just the concern of big businesses and government agencies. In fact, small businesses can be more vulnerable to cyber-attacks, as they often dedicate fewer resources to protection.  

It also means that even if your organization is secure, the third-party vendors you work with and the tools you choose to use in your business still pose potential risks. Most of MOVEit’s customers that were affected likely had strong cyber security measures in place. Even though it was no direct fault of their own, at the end of the day, those companies still must go back to their clients, disclose what happened and take the verbal, legal and financial beating that comes with a data breach.  

The MOVEit hack serves as a grim reminder of the critical importance of cyber security for businesses of all sizes. In the face of an increasingly sophisticated and fast-moving cyberthreat landscape, businesses cannot afford to ignore these risks. Cyber security must be an ongoing effort, involving regular assessments, updates, monitoring, training and more. As this terrible incident shows, a single vulnerability can lead to a catastrophic breach with severe implications for the business and its customers. 

In the digital age, cyber security isn’t just a technical issue – it’s a business imperative. 

If you have ANY concerns about your own business or simply want to have a second set of eyes examine your network for vulnerabilities, we offer a FREE Cyber Security Risk Assessment.  

Click here to schedule a quick consultation to discuss your current situation and get an assessment on the schedule.  

As a business owner, you know that continuous, steady growth is an essential part of success. When you’re ready to get serious about scaling your organization, several vital activities must happen. Documented workflows and processes, streamlined hiring, onboarding and training, well-oiled marketing systems and more top the list. One key but often overlooked element of scaling success that can make or break your efforts is leveraging technology to enhance operations quickly, efficiently and cost-effectively.  

One resource necessary for growth is the cloud. The cloud, which now integrates with numerous AI tools, giving it more capabilities than ever before, allows you to streamline and automate your operations without large, unnecessary investments. 

In this article we’ll cover what the cloud is, the major benefits you should take advantage of and how you can use it to grow your organization without overspending.  

The cloud is simply a global infrastructure of servers that gives you remote, on-demand access to computer system resources, including data storage, over the Internet instead of on your computer’s hard drive. With these capabilities, your business doesn’t need to invest in its own hardware or software licenses, allowing you to pay only for what you use when you use it. Software and hardware can be expensive, making this is a great solution for businesses in growth mode without unlimited budgets. 

How can the cloud help your organization? Here are 5 benefits to consider: 

1. Economies of Scale – As mentioned, with most cloud-based programs you can expand the services as your business grows. When revenue increases and you take on more clients, you can choose to upgrade your services or invest in new features or capabilities, so you never pay for more than you need at the time. It takes only a few clicks from an administrator.
2. Enhanced Collaboration – In a digital world, we need real-time access to tools for collaboration, no matter where our employees are. Cloud-based programs can typically be accessed anywhere in the world on any device by multiple members of the team simultaneously. This allows for colleagues to work on projects together even if they aren’t in a physical office or are in different time zones, increasing productivity all around.
3. Increased Automation – You can save money and your employees’ time by having cloud-based programs automate certain repeatable tasks such as regular backups, logging and monitoring networks, resource allocation and much more. Most business owners don’t know how many tasks they can automate or how much money and time they can save until they have an IT professional review their network.
4. Faster Access to Resources – With the cloud, your employees no longer have to wait for extensive downloads or installations. Most tools are readily available instantly, making it easier and faster to get work done.
5. Reduced Disaster Recovery Costs – Disasters rarely damage cloud-based data and assets that are hosted virtually on servers, not on hardware in the office. Your IT professional should have multiple backups of your data, so if something goes wrong, it will be easy to get it back up and running.  

Cloud-based programs are a great resource for business owners who want scale. They are easy to use, simple and flexible to expand, cost-effective, great for collaboration, more secure than other programs and much more.  

If you think you’re not harnessing all the power that cloud tools provide, you’re probably not. The best next step is to have an IT professional do an in-depth review of your current network to find the areas of opportunity in your business.  

We offer a FREE Network Assessment, where we’ll extensively review your network and sit down with you to review what should be done differently to save you money and enhance your business operations. If you’re serious about scaling and want to do it the right way, click here to book a Network Assessment with our team or call our office (local) 480-464-0202  (toll-free) 1-(800) 984-5204 to get a meeting on the schedule.  

You’ve all heard the stats – small businesses are the #1 target for cybercriminals because they’re easy targets, with a recent article in Security Magazine reporting that nearly two-thirds (63%) of small businesses have experienced a cyber-attack and 58% an actual breach. But what many still don’t understand (or simply don’t appreciate) is how much a cyber-attack can cost you. 

That’s why one of the fastest-growing categories in insurance is cyber liability. Cyber liability covers the massive costs associated with a breach, which may include the following, depending on your policy: 

• Legal fees to handle any number of lawsuits, including class action litigation against your organization, as well as fines and penalties incurred by a regulatory investigation by government and law enforcement agencies.
• Negotiation and payment of a ransomware demand.
• Data restoration and emergency IT fees to recover your network and get it operational again.
• Customer notifications and credit and identity theft monitoring for clients and employees.
• Public relations expertise and call center costs for taking inbound calls and questions.
• Loss of revenue related to being unable to transact; if your operations and data are frozen, you might not be able to process sales and deliver goods and services for days or weeks.
• Errors and omissions to cover liability related to a failure to perform and deliver services to customers, as well as allegations of negligence in protecting your customers’ data.

If you want to make sure you don’t lose everything you worked so hard for to a cyber scumbag, cyber liability is a very important part of protecting your assets.  

But here’s what you need to know: In order to get coverage, businesses are required by insurance companies to implement much more robust and comprehensive cyberprotections. Obviously, the insurers want the companies they are underwriting to reduce the chances and the overall financial impact of a devastating cyber-attack so they don’t have to pay out – and this is where you need to pay attention. 

MANY business owners are signing (verifying) that they DO have such policies and protections in place, such as 2FA, a strength of password requirement, employee awareness training and data recovery and backups, but aren’t actually implementing them, because they assume their IT company or person knows this and is doing what is outlined in the policy. Not so in many cases. 

Unless cyber security is your area of expertise, it’s very easy for you to misrepresent and make false statements in the application for insurance, which can lead to your being denied coverage in the event of an attack and having your policy rescinded.  

If you have cyber liability or similar insurance policies in place, I urge you to revisit the application you completed with your IT person or company to make absolutely certain they are doing everything you represented and affirmed you are doing. Your insurance agent or broker should be willing to assist you with this process since your IT company or person cannot be expected to be insurance professionals who know how to interpret the legal requirements outlined.  

What’s critical here is that you work with your IT company or person to ensure 100% compliance with the security standards, protocols and protections you agreed to and verified having in place when you applied for coverage. IF A BREACH HAPPENS, your insurance provider will NOT just cut you a check. They will conduct an investigation to determine what happened and what caused the breach. They will want to see tangible evidence and documentation that proves the preventative measures you had in place to ward off cyberthreats. If it’s discovered that you failed to put in place the adequate preventative measures that you affirmed you had in place and would continue to maintain on your insurance application, your insurance company has every reason to deny your claim and coverage.  

If you have ANY concerns over this – including whether or not you need coverage, whether your coverage is sufficient and whether you are doing what you need to do to avoid an insurance denial, click here to schedule a quick consultation to discuss your current situation and to receive a referral to a cyber insurance expert we recommend. 

Further, if you would like us to conduct a FREE cyber security risk assessment to show just how secure and prepared you are for ransomware or a cyber-attack, we can discuss that too! Just click here to schedule a phone consultation.