What are the effects of phishing on business?

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In today’s modern time, companies need to have robust cybersecurity measures because they have become the primary targets of many criminals. Different attack methods are used but the easiest and most successful one to undertake is phishing.

Companies must be able to defend themselves against phishing and other types of online threats. In order to do that, you need to have a good understanding of how it works and how it affects your business.

What is phishing?

Phishing is a cyberattack that uses fraudulent websites and email to deceive individuals into downloading malware or giving away sensitive and confidential information, or both. It relies on the complacency and carelessness of people. A phishing attack is usually classified as a social attack or social engineering. Employees are being targeted by all sorts of phishing attacks everyday.

Phishing attacks continue to rise all over the world and they become more complicated. Even the largest firms in the world are not immune to such attacks and experience over 1,000 phishing attacks every month. Here are a few things you need to know.

• -       64% of companies have faced a phishing attack last year
• -       30% of messages used for phishing attacks were opened by targeted users
• -       32% of data breaches in the year 2018
• -       78% of cyberespionage incidents involved phishing
• -       51% of the phishing attacks had links to malware

How does phishing work?

Becoming a victim of a phishing campaign is easy. The “You have a FedEx package” is a good example. A person will get a message that appears to be from the legitimate email address of FedEx. In itself, the email is a customized message that instructs recipient to click on a link that says “package tracking,” but it will actually launch a malware. A lot of phishing attacks follow this same technique or pattern.

Spoofing is another method of phishing. In this hacking technique, there is a link in the email message that leads to a website that has been “spoofed.” The website is fraudulent as it is made to appear like the true website of a legitimate company. It will trick the careless or busy employee to key in the credentials into this spoofed website. When they enter the fake page, the phisher will then load the malware into the device of the user without the knowledge of the latter.

What are the costs?

Several data breaches have been caused by phishing attacks. A data breach costs an average of $3.86 million, as per the figures released by IBM. But these numbers alone is not enough to demonstrate the results of a phishing attack. So, here are a few things you need to know.

Reputation

Companies need trust in order to establish trust. The brand can be tarnished if it has been involved with a serious breach. It will greatly alter the brand’s perception into one that is unreliable for customers, partners, and employees. The foundation of the market capitalization of your company is your brand. Millions in market capitalization can be sabotaged because of the negative effects of a phishing attack.

Intellectual property

Intellectualproperty theft can be devastating. Phishing could compromise recipes, customer lists, research, formulas, and trade secrets. For companies in technology, food, pharmaceuticals, and manufacturing, one patent or design that is stolen amounts to hundreds of millions in wasted research investment.

Direct Costs

The direct costs from phishing are well reported and documented. A 2018 Internet Crime report from the FBI said phishing as well as other types of email fraud come first in internet crimes in terms of the cost.

• -       BEC or business email compromise attacks has cost businesses in the United States more than $1.2 billion
• -       Gift card scams have cost the country $70 million
• -       Direct deposit phishing cost US companies more than $100 million

You also have to pay fines if your company suffers phishing attacks. You’ll have to pay to regulatory bodies like the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability. Checking the incident and giving compensation to victims whose data have been stolen can reach millions.

Call SpartanTec, Inc. and let us help you protect your business, staff, and clients from phishing attacks.

SpartanTec, Inc.
Wilmington, NC 28412
(910) 218-9255
http://manageditserviceswilmington.com

Cities Served:
Wilmington, Silver Lake, Sea Breeze, Carolina Beach, Eagle Island, Leland, Wrightsboro

Monetary Demands Are Skyrocketing For Ransomware Decryptions

Ransomware attacks have evolved quite a lot over the course of the past year, and have become one of the most visible threats organizations of all sizes face.

That is, based on recently published research conducted by Group-IB, which analyzed the rapidly changing threat landscape. Their findings should disturb every business owner.

Here's a quick overview:

First and foremost, ransomware attacks have become much more commonplace. The year 2019 saw a 40 percent increase over 2018, which is a clear indication that hackers around the world are increasingly seeing ransomware strains as their preferred vehicle for attacking organizations.

Second, the average size of the ransom demanded has been steadily increasing, moving from just $6,000 to a staggering $84,000. The focus is on large corporations and government agencies being the driving factor behind the dramatic increase.

In terms of tactics, far and away, the most common means of gaining an initial foothold onto a corporate or government network is RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol). RDP serves as the point of entry for 70 percent-80 percent of the attacks.

Aside from this, incident response teams report that exploit kits and spear phishing campaigns were also used regularly, though these were vastly overshadowed by RDP. The teams responding to Group-IB's information requests also noted that more advanced ransomware actors relied on advanced methods that gave them access to more valuable targets.

The methods the hackers used include:

• Compromising MSP's (Managed Service Providers)
• Exploiting un-patched vulnerabilities in applications
• Compromising supply chains

The bottom line is that no one is safe, and the price of a successful breach has increased dramatically. Worse, an increasing percentage of hackers are now demanding not one, but two ransoms from each target they hit. The initial payment to unlock encrypted files and a second payment to delete their copies of stolen files, rather than publishing them for all to see.

The best way to keep your company safe from this particular threat is to minimize your reliance on RDP and to make sure you've got a robust backup plan in place. If you haven't yet taken both steps, the time to do so is now.

Call SpartanTec, Inc. now and let our IT team help keep your company safe by setting up the most effective cybersecurity strategies to protect your business against online threats. 

SpartanTec, Inc.
Wilmington, NC 28412
(910) 218-9255
http://manageditserviceswilmington.com

Cities Served:
Wilmington, Silver Lake, Sea Breeze, Carolina Beach, Eagle Island, Leland, Wrightsboro

Phishing Attacks Increase As Pandemic Scams Flourish

Phishing attacks increase around the world as scammers exploit COVID-19 uncertainty. 

Pandemic scammers are pulling out all the stops as phishing attacks increase in both frequency and creativity. In the wake of COVID-19 and the changes that it wrought including an increasing reliance on a remote workforce and virtual meetings plus cloud-based operations and storage, bad actors are scrambling to profit.

Get tips to help secure a remote workforce fast and insight into the unexpected risks that remote operations bring in our Remote Working Cybersecurity resource package.

With an over 600% increase, phishing attacks are a plague on cybersecurity teams around the world. UN cybersecurity officials estimate that a new phishing attack happens every 39 seconds. Most people are aware of phishing and know that they should be suspicious of fake-looking email. But they’re still falling for them. What can businesses do to combat this phishing attack increase and keep their data and systems safe?

One word: training. It’s something you hear about frequently in cybersecurity circles, and it’s always at the forefront of the conversation because it works. As cybersecurity professionals including CISA  sound the alarm about the precipitous increase in phishing, companies should immediately start refreshing their phishing training. Well-trained staffers are the first and best line of defense that an organization can deploy to stop phishing attacks.

Download our eBook “One Phish, Two Phish” to get the facts on phishing and actionable intelligence about steps that companies can take immediately to defend against phishing attacks.

We’re passionate about the training and testing tools that we’ve created for BullPhish ID. We know that frequent, up-to-date training and testing works, and we want to help companies resist phishing attacks and protect their data. We never stop innovating to make sure that every staffer is ready to face the latest threats.

Take a look at what BullPhish ID has to offer by the numbers:

• Over 80 phishing kits (including test email, related landing page, and reply email) 
• 50 security video campaigns (short animated video with test and reply email)  
• 27 training videos in 8 languages 
• Training and testing materials available in 8 languages: English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish (Iberian/European), and Spanish (Latin) 
• 6 new kits and 4 new courses added every month including COVID-19 scam kits 
• Take a look at BullPhish ID’s state-of-the-art training and testing in this 10-minute video demo. 

It’s clear that we’ve created a dynamic phishing training and testing solution that’s ready to address the complexities of today’s phishing attacks – at a price that fits into any cybersecurity budget. And beefing up phishing defense training is always going to be more affordable than cleaning up the mess after a data breach or ransomware disaster.

As cybercriminals have pursued exceedingly more sophisticated vectors of attack, we’ve matched them by providing increasingly more sophisticated training to empower staffers at any organization to stay vigilant against their tricks. Contact ID Agent to get started with BullPhish ID now and save headaches later.

THIS IS THE DARK WEB

And we help to keep you out of it.

Our Dark Web monitoring platform provides the most validated credential exposure data available.  SpartanTec , Inc. and ID Agent's sophisticated intelligence allows companies to focus on their business with peace of mind.

Call SpartanTec Inc. today for a review of your companies security.

SpartanTec, Inc.
Wilmington, NC 28412
(910) 218-9255
http://manageditserviceswilmington.com

Cities Served:
Wilmington, Silver Lake, Sea Breeze, Carolina Beach, Eagle Island, Leland, Wrightsboro

Cybersecurity Tips For Small Businesses

In terms of cybersecurity, businesses must know what their weaknesses are so they could fix it. That is why you have to invest in the very best security software for your company and continuous digital education for you staff.

One of the common reasons why cybercriminals target small businesses is intelligence gathering. Data breach is among the possible results of a successful cyberattack. They can involve different kinds of information like intellectual property, documents, financial details, and credit card information. There are instances when cybercriminals mine information about your employees and clients.

Best Cybersecurity Practices For Small Businesses

It all starts with digital security best practices training and education. You have to educate all your staff with the same cybersecurity best practices. In case you have new employees and the best practices have been updated then you should offer refresher training courses.

You need to teach your employees on how they can make digital safety a habit. Here are a few important things that they need to remember.

Software updates – hackers can gain access to your computer network through apps that are outdated and with known vulnerabilities. Be sure that your staff know how to install software patches and updates for operating systems and applications as soon as they are made available.

Password – you have to teach your employees how to create secure passwords. A great solution when it comes to using and remembering strong passwords is by having a reliable password management app. This application will store all of your passwords in a single place and lets you create strong, random, and complex passwords that you don’t have to memorize. They only have to remember the password for the application. You should require your employees to create strong passwords that contain at least 10 characters with symbols, numbers, lower, and uppercase letters. Remind them not to write down their passwords to keep on their workstations or laptop.

Virtual Private Networks – also called VPNs, virtual private networks can help secure your business information. In case someone manages to get your information, what they have is an encrypted data.

Importance of Cybersecurity Awareness

You need to create a culture of cybersecurity awareness in your small business if you don’t want for all the training and education to go to waste. Here are some tips to encourage your staff to protect the information of your business.

Compliance programs – changing passwords must be a regular task and everyone must be doing it.

Rewards programs – you should consider offering rewards for staff who can find ways to enhance cybersecurity around your office like by reporting phishing emails.

Accountability programs – you should encourage your employees to hold one another accountable to make sure that they all comply to the best cybersecurity practices. You should create a system for anonymous reporting or encourage staff to have an open discussion about the topic of cybersecurity with one another.

Call SpartanTec, Inc. if you need the assistance of an IT team to strengthen or setup only the best cybersecurity measures for you company.

SpartanTec, Inc.
Wilmington, NC 28412
(910) 218-9255
http://manageditserviceswilmington.com
Cities Served:
Wilmington, Silver Lake, Sea Breeze, Carolina Beach, Eagle Island, Leland, Wrightsboro

How Can Malware Impact Your Business?

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Malware or malicious software affects businesses everyday. It will disrupt computer and IT processes and during extreme cases can hold to ransom, steal, or even delete ransom valuable personal and business data.

Firewalls and cybersecurity could thwart malware but if you stay vigilant and understand how the various kinds of malware work, it could help you prevent your network and computer becoming infected. Here is a list of the most common forms of malware so you can understand what these terms mean.

Types of Malware

Virus

A virus computer will infect parts or your entire computer system when the file where they have been attached to has been opened. They will spread through email or by downloading the attachments from the internet. They differ on how they function. There are viruses that do little like just changing the desktop wallpaper while others can make your operating system useless.

Worms

Worms are comparable to viruses. Their difference can be seen on how they are spread. They could replicate themselves, which means they don’t need human interaction to be passed from a computer to another. The get this done by entering the email address book of the user and sending out emails that are infected, which pretend as the user of the computer. This could lead to different networks becoming infected in a shorter amount of time.

Ransomware

A kind of malware that is almost always one the news and is on the rise. Ransomware is a kind of software that holds a part, if not all, of your files hostage. It demands a fee from the victim. If they want to have their files back then they should pay the hacker. There is no other way to get the data back other than paying the ransomware.

Trojans

Trojans are put into the files that user like to download online. In most cases, the program you have downloaded has a genuine purpose and tend to work normally. However, during the download, additional malicious files have been tucked away and has become active when it is one the computer. Trojans could be used in different ways like creating back doors around the security processes, sending spam emails, and even deleting data.

Phishing

Phishing is a scam where emails or websites pretend like they are a legitimate source like your bank. They will use false links that would fool you into giving out important financial or personal details like your bank account, which the hackers will exploit. Usually they appear within the emails that come with suspicious links or content.

Call SpartanTec, Inc. now if you need the help an IT company that can provide you with a range of solutions to mitigate risk and make sure that your data is secure and safe.

SpartanTec, Inc.
Wilmington, NC 28412
(910) 218-9255
http://manageditserviceswilmington.com

Cities Served:
Wilmington, Silver Lake, Sea Breeze, Carolina Beach, Eagle Island, Leland, Wrightsboro

Cybersecurity Threats To Watch Out For In 2020

Are You At Risk?

Various evolving and new cybersecurity threats has put the information security sector on high alert. Cyberattacks including malware, phishing, ransomware, and cryptocurrency have put the assets and data of governments, corporations, as well as individuals at risk all the time.

The sector continues to face a shortage of IT experts and industry professionals warn that the stakes have grown higher than ever. Moreover, cybercrime is shaking the faith of the public in many of their cherished ideals like personal privacy, democracy, as well capitalism.

Top Threats To Cybersecurity

More Sophisticated Phishing Campaigns

Phishing attacks are becoming much more sophisticated. Hackers are doing what they can to up the ante especially now that employees of companies are becoming more aware of the dangers of this kind of attack.

Ransomware Strategies Evolve

Victims of ransomware attacks face billions of dollars worth of losses every year while hackers use technologies that allow them to kidnap someone or the databases of an organization while holding all of the details for ransom. The increase of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin is credited with assisting in fueling ransomware attacks by letting anonymous payments be made to answer ransom demands.

Cyprtojacking

The movement of cryptocurrency have various effect on cybersecurity. In cryptojacking, cybercriminals hijack third party work or home computers so they could mine them for cryptocurrency. Since cryptocurrency mining needs immense power for computer processing, cybercriminals can make a lot of cash by piggybacking secretly on the system of someone else. Cryptojacked systems for businesses can lead to major performance problems and expensive downtime as IT experts do what they can to monitor and fix the issue.

Cyber-physical Attacks

Technology has allowed consumers to computerize and modernize important infrastructure however, it also poses risks. The continuous threat of hacking that target electrical grids, water treatment facilities, as well as transportation systems shows vulnerability moving forward.

State-sponsored attacks

Aside from hackers who want to make a quick profit through stealing corporate and individual data, states are also using their cyber skills to get access to and even attack other state’s infrastructure. Today’s cybercrime has become a major threat for individuals, the private sector, as well as the government, and the entire nation in general. This year, state sponsored cyberattacks will increase and the most prevalent ones are those that are directed toward critical infrastructure.

IoT Attacks

The Internetof Things have started to become more common as the day goes by. IoT includes tablets and laptops, webcams, routers, smart watches, household appliances, automobiles, manufacturing equipment, home security systems, and medical devices.

These devices are handy for many consumers and companies as it could save them cash by gathering a lot of insightful data and making business processes more streamlined. 

However, an increased number in connected device also means much greater risks, which makes IoT Networks more vulnerable to cyber invasions as well as infections. IoT devices, when controlled by cybercriminals, can be utilized to wreak havoc, lock down important equipment, and even overload networks.

Shortage of Cybersecurity Professionals

The number of cybercrimes have increased over the past few years while governments and companies have had a hard time hiring enough qualified ITexperts to help curb the threat. The trend is expected to continue this year and beyond. Estimates revealed that about one million positions in the IT sector will remain unfilled across the world.

Call SpartanTec,Inc. if you need the help of IT experts in making sure that your business is secured and protected against the common online threats this year.

SpartanTec, Inc.
Wilmington, NC 28412
(910) 218-9255
https://spartantec-wilmingtonnc.business.site/

Cities Served:
Wilmington, Silver Lake, Sea Breeze, Carolina Beach, Eagle Island, Leland, Wrightsboro

Why Now Is The Best Time To Prioritize Cybersecurity?

Small businesses is responsible for 44% of the nation’s GDP. Given that, it’s important for small businesses to improve their defenses to make sure that they are protected not only from cyber risks but also from internal and external factors. This is crucial since cybersecurity threats has continued to rise.

Small businesses have consumer and transactional data, which are both exposed to more risks thanks to the new and improved technologies and digital capabilities in the office. Data breaches has made small businesses look like unreliable partners and consumers are forced to find a different provider to work with.

All businesses, whether they’re big or small, are at risk. Breaches happen because these small businesses commit the mistake of assuming that it will not happen to them, they forget about basic preventative measures, and they do everything by themselves, and not investing in a dependablesecurity system.

Common Mistakes Committed By Small Businesses

Wire transfer problems – small businesses always fall victim to fraudulent wire transfers over the years. You can avoid this by checking all payments carefully before sending them. The payee details should also be verified including the account information and the location. One single number that’s incorrect means it’s going to a different receiver.

Ignoring Admin Account Access

Small businesses have a tendency to give access to essential information and services to too many employees through admin accounts. These accounts can easily be hacked and they are the favorite target of many hackers. You can lower your risk by giving access only to a few people.

Smart Phone Vulnerability

Your employees may agree with you or not but it remains a fact that work tablets or phones remain as high risks targets. Making purchase or doing businesses while using public WiFi could place a business or person they work for at risk. These malware threats also hide behind third-party sites since cybercriminals find it easy to convince people into downloading spoof applications.

Ransomware Attacks

Ransomware attacks have risen by almost 350% over the past few years. These attacks commonly appear as mobile notifications or emails, denying access to the computer of the employee. In case you receive an unusual email, don’t open it.

When trying to address these issues, it is important for small businesses to make significant investments in cybersecurity training and set up an in depth cyber policy that can be accessed by all of your employees. By being proactive and prepared, you can prevent these cybersecurity threats well before they happen, protecting small businesses from a possible loss of income, client data, and network security as well as privacy lawsuits.

A cyberattack could negatively affect the reputation and bottom line of a company, and diminish customer trust. The best defense is having good defense, and businesses must be aggressive in looking for IT services that strengthen their security.

Call SpartanTec, Inc. if you need help in boosting your cybersecurity.

SpartanTec, Inc.
Wilmington, NC 28412
(910) 218-9255
https://spartantec-wilmingtonnc.business.site/

Cities Served:
Wilmington, Silver Lake, Sea Breeze, Carolina Beach, Eagle Island, Leland, Wrightsboro