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The 5 Biggest Benefits of Managed IT Services
If you are in need of top rated Royal Oak Managed IT Company, please contact JDCTek at (248) 494-7253 for a consultation today! Please click here to see our full list of services or Follow Us on Facebook!
The prospect of selecting a managed service provider might sound like a lot of work, and transferring your system knowledge and tooling to a third party vendor can sound overwhelming. So why should you consider outsourcing?
It’s true that your in-house team may be capable of keeping all systems running and fighting fires as needed. But there are big benefits to taking these responsibilities off their to-do lists:
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1. A More Productive IT Team
Your network and infrastructure demand attention all day and night—and holidays and weekends, and possibly across multiple international time zones, too. Expecting your IT department to provide around-the-clock coverage carries hidden costs in the form of lost time for other projects.
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Managed Services vs. Break Fix Services
If you’re researching managed services options and benefits, you’ve probably come across the term “break-fix.” Whereas a managed services vendor provides continuous support for your IT infrastructure, a break-fix vendor is someone you can call to remediate and fix a specific problem for a one-time fee. Relying on break-fix vendors to support your IT infrastructure lacks the proactive, continuous monitoring that the managed services model provides.
Strategic initiatives, technology adoption and future growth projects will be pushed aside. This can lead to burnout and high turnover as employees depart for more fulfilling or challenging opportunities. Even with a great human resources and recruiting team, IT jobs are challenging to fill.
A trusted managed services partner can ensure coverage while your employees carry a balanced workload. Reducing stress and opening up opportunities for more strategic work translates directly into cost savings in the form of improved employee engagement and retention.
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2. You Get Ahead of Issues Before They Get Out of Hand
In an era of scarce IT talent, many in-house teams have little time to do more than react to a growing volume of user tickets. In contrast, a qualified managed services provider will take a proactive approach with comprehensive monitoring for abnormalities, issues, and more. This reduces call volume and improves end-user satisfaction.
They can also handle time consuming activities like patching and vendor management, creating a more stable environment and freeing your people for higher-level priorities and innovation. For example, vendor management for SD-WAN infrastructure can require extra cycles due to carrier relations and contract management.
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3. Predictable OpEx Cost
One of the biggest benefits of managed services is the predictable spend. MSPs provide services for a fixed monthly or annual cost, depending on the levels of service you select. Pricing is often determined based on the length of your contract (one to three years is a typical duration). A good MSP partner will be completely transparent about the services they will provide and the associated deliverables. This payment structure results in two key benefits to your organization and finance team:
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1.) It eliminates an upfront capital expenditure, enabling you to avoid costly infrastructure purchases and spread costs out over the time in which you are using the service. For example, instead of buying a best-in-class network monitoring tool, engage an MSP that gives you access on a monthly basis.
2.) It helps your finance team forecast operational costs months in advance. The fixed fee nature of a managed services support contract enables you to negotiate nearly all the services and support you’ll require into a single predictable cost per month. Finance will get predictability, and you’ll get the backfill support you need.
If reducing capital expenditures is very important to your business, you should think beyond managed IT services and look for providers that offer As A Service (aaS) solutions. An aaS provider will own not only the monitoring and management, but the infrastructure itself. Most will amortize the cost of the infrastructure over the length of the contract, giving you a fixed monthly bill that includes all costs.
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4. Access to Premium Tools Without the Cost of Ownership
Let’s face it—robust infrastructure monitoring solutions are expensive and are often underutilized because of lack of training, time, or personnel. Many IT teams invest in best-in-class tooling with the best intentions. However, these tools require integration, training and time to get value out of the investment. When other responsibilities arise, tooling ramp-up falls to the bottom of the list.
A good managed services provider assumes the cost of acquiring the most effective infrastructure tools and provides highly experienced talent to deploy and maintain them on your behalf. When you direct your IT budget toward an MSP, that should include access to a tooling suite that works for your infrastructure.
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5. Continuity and Institutional Knowledge of Your Operations
With the increasing upkeep on daily tasks and tickets to maintain, changes and upgrades may be initiated ad-hoc and left undocumented. When an engineer leaves, a knowledge gap occurs, leaving you unsure about the details of the environment. A reliable managed services provider will implement standard procedures and will document your environment and changes along the way, ensuring continuity.
For an experienced and trusted Royal Oak MI Managed IT Company, call JDCTek at (248) 494-7253 for more information.
source: burwood.com
Five Reasons Why Cybersecurity Is Important for Businesses
Royal Oak MI Cybersecurity Service – JDCTek
If you are in need of a Royal Oak MI Cybersecurity Service, please contact JDCTek at (248) 494-7253 to schedule a consultation. Click here to see our full list of services or Follow Us on Facebook!
As the world develops into a digital sphere, business industries globally benefit from the added benefits of the internet. Companies can access big data and analytical tools to complete business operations. However, with the increasing use of the internet, there comes a substantial security threat – cybercrimes. Cyberattacks are becoming more common as hackers become more sophisticated and use technology tools to penetrate sensitive systems. Unfortunately, many of these crimes harmfully impact millions of people, bringing a halt to several high-scale operations and posing a threat to massive databases. Cybersecurity measures are the only real solution to cybercrime which is why cybersecurity is important for businesses.
Cybersecurity is a set of procedures businesses and organizations could carry out to protect their computer systems and data from unauthorized personnel. It is the solution to the ever-growing threat from hackers, privacy violators, virus transmissions, and internet frauds. Businesses are running several digital operations, and it has become crucial for them to ensure cybersecurity against cybercrime. Here are some of the many reasons why cybersecurity is essential for businesses.
Why Cybersecurity is Important for Businesses
1. Improves Productivity
Corporate firms seek talents from different business-related fields to make their workplace more productive, efficient, and effective. Human resource managers are also introducing training and development programs to make their employees more adaptable. With increasing threats, managers can encourage their cybersecurity team members to expand their skills and knowledge. They can opt for masters in cyber security online programs and save their companies from these threats. Virtual education helps them stay focused on the work at hand while flexibly managing their studies and improving their expertise.
Cybersecurity is important for businesses as it is conducive to improving overall productivity. It could only happen if the company recruits suitable workers. For instance, there should be experts who know how to stop viruses from attacking computers. Otherwise, they could lose a lot of critical business hours as a cyberattack could cause the production to come to a halt. It would also waste employees’ time and energy, ultimately leading to inefficiency. Hence, cybersecurity is crucial for the productivity of businesses.
2. One-Stop Solution
The increase in fast-changing technologies and their use in businesses has more benefits than costs. Technology continues to be one of the most significant reasons behind booming businesses. Hence, businesses need a one-stop solution to cyberattacks, and that is cybersecurity. The technology makes computer devices vulnerable to cyberattacks from unauthorized personnel and outsiders. Therefore, it requires strategic cybersecurity for businesses to keep their network safe.
Unfortunately, the improved and enhanced technology is accessed by organizations and comes as a favor for cybercriminals. They are learning new ways of automating cyberattacks through AI and machine learning, which could compromise the security of many systems at once. Thus, businesses have become necessary to hire professionals and take cybersecurity measures in their day-to-day organizational activities. Similarly, companies use cloud computing excessively, especially after the recent lockdown events, and work from home due to COVID-19. It has posed a significant threat to essential data and information stored online. Hence, cybersecurity has become even more crucial.
3. Stable Website Performance
Entrepreneurs realize that they need to make their businesses more adaptable to the modern world. Therefore, most companies actively maintain websites. Online presence helps them retain customers from all over the world and provides easy access to them through a single click. However, one of the rising threats of digital operations is that your website may also shut down if your system becomes corrupted. An infected hosting server will force your webpage to close down and leave your online customers vulnerable in the hands of unsecured networks. It will make your customers lose trust in you and your website and dampen your brand reputation.
It will also create huge losses for your business because restarting the website could be costly, and the trust deficit would lose several customers. A website shutdown would also lead to losing profit from missed transactions and delay in responding to clients. Cybersecurity can help you navigate such issues before they become too challenging to handle. It ensures safe networking between businesses and customers. It will protect your system from lasting damages and viruses and improve the smooth running of online operations.
4. Protects Business from Losses
It is high time that businesses and organizations become aware of cyberattacks and cybercrime. A cybersecurity system can help businesses to stay safe against cybercrimes like hacking, phishing, and fraud. For instance, if there is a theft of a company’s data, sensitive information could fall into the wrong hands. It would lead to excessive fines and strict legislation. As these threats increase, the government has started imposing new laws and regulations to protect consumers. It will hold the business accountable for not implementing cybersecurity measures while dealing with consumers’ private information.
Additionally, in the case of hacking and theft, it could cost a lot to recover the data, money, and time. It could cause huge deficits and losses to businesses and could render bankruptcy quickly. These significant financial losses could take ages to recover from and can be avoided only through cybersecurity. Not only this, but these losses would further cause damage to the company’s reputation, especially to publicly-listed ones. We have several examples of substantial corporate firms that faced a sudden decrease in equity when shareholders sold their stocks right after the systems got hacked.
5. Increases Security
It would be imprudent not to access the analytics and data regarding the customer to market your product efficiently. However, storing crucial information about the public puts the organization at risk of cyberattacks. Fortunately, with the right kind of cyber protection, you can empower your business on a digital platform and allow a safe space for your employees, customers, and other stakeholders. They can trust your business, invest in it and buy from it. And most importantly, cybersecurity would allow them to conduct financial transactions with your business without fear.
Final Thoughts on Why Cybersecurity is Important
In conclusion, there are many significant reasons why cybersecurity is important for businesses. As the use of advancing technology increases, companies and consumers become more vulnerable to being the victim of cyberattacks and cybercrime. However, cybersecurity measures can allow financial transactions and website surfing to function safely. It also helps the business in improving productivity, employee security, and maintaining corporate reputation.
For an experienced and trusted Royal Oak MI Cybersecurity Service, call JDCTek at (248) 494-7253 for more information today!
source: projectcubicle.com
Top 10 Reasons to Choose Managed IT Services
Royal Oak Managed IT Services – JDCTek
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If you are in need of top rated Royal Oak Managed IT Services, please contact JDCTek at (248) 494-7253 to schedule a consultation. Click here to learn more about our full line of services or Follow Us on Facebook!
As technology has increasingly become a must-have, organizations are rapidly moving to managed IT services. The benefits of outsourced IT are becoming a more viable option for businesses around the nation.
Every business must choose their approach to manage their organization’s technology needs, some companies choose to hire in-house staff, and some choose to outsource. There are many reasons why a business chooses to outsource its IT, whether to aid financially or increase productivity. Whatever the case, we will cover the top 10 reasons why a company should choose outsourcing to a managed IT service provider.
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1. Cost Savings
One of the main benefits of choosing managed services is cost savings. Typically, managed IT services help reduce operational costs, decrease their overall capital budgets, lower hosting costs, and lower overall IT operating costs. In-house staff overtime becomes a financial burden for most organizations to carry. On average customers save 50% yearly when outsourcing their IT.
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2. Predictable Costs
Managed services operate on a subscription-based model where the customer pays a contracted monthly fee for services. Usually, this changes only as staff or devices are added or removed from the service contract. When major changes are needed your partner should have a project team available to assist with new solution implementation.
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3. Increase Productivity
Not only are MSPs cost-efficient, but they also effectively managing systems from a proactive mindset. MSPs ensure your office network, end-user systems, and software are kept up to date, secure, and running optimally. They help take the technical work off your staff’s plate, which allows a better user experience within the organization.
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4. Improve Security
Cybersecurity threats are a constant threat to businesses. Here is where managed service providers are staged to help mitigate those risks. The very nature of a proactive IT management strategy is to promote a security-first mindset. By implementing best practice solutions, MSPs can prevent most threats. When more advanced security protections are needed it’s important to partner with a provider that can provide advanced security services.
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5. Supplement Internal IT Staff
You don’t need to remove your internal staff. If your IT staff needs additional resources, managed service providers can provide staff augmentation to assist either for short- or long-term engagements. By taking on certain issues or back-ups, MSPs allow your team to work on their normal day to day activities.
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6. Access to New Technology Solutions
MSPs have access to many technology solutions to fit specific business needs. As they work on many organizations’ IT environments, they are much more versed in handling complex change requests to new systems or solutions. This advanced knowledge in server solutions, cloud solutions, infrastructure solutions, that align with organizational goals and objectives.
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7. Industry Team of Experts
When working with an MSP, you receive a Team of experts in their field. Each member of our team is eager to help our customers solve their problems through technology. When more complex solutions are needed, making sure to partner with the right MSP to take you where you want to go is most important.
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8. Focus on Your Business
Technology management within an organization can take away from the true purpose of the business. By partnering with the right MSP, you will gain a partner who will help you optimize your investment in technology while you focus on your business.
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9. Promote Scalability
The managed services model is optimized to support organizations that need to ramp up or downsize resources. A good MSP will ensure your technology is standardized in a way to allow for scale. It is important to partner with an organization that is staged to grow and evolve with you!
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10. Improve Technology Vendor Management
Whether using a software vendor, internet provider, or printer vendor, managing all those services and relationships can add back time to your staff’s day. It is important to make sure the MSP partner you choose is equipped to manage the technical aspects of your relationship with these vendors to ensure you receive the most from those services.
Technology has become an unavoidable part of running a business. Additionally, it is also one of the most burdensome loads to carry. Investing in an MSP won’t only save you money, but it will almost certainly save you time.
For experienced and trusted Royal Oak Managed IT Services, call JDCTek at (248) 494-7253 today!
source: itondemand.com
10 Benefits of Using Managed IT Services for Your Business
Royal Oak MI Managed IT Service – JDCTek
If your business is in need of a top rated Royal Oak MI Managed IT Service, please contact JDCTek at (248) 494-7254 today to setup a consultation. Click here to learn more about our services or Follow Us on Facebook!
Managed IT services can reduce the strain on your in-house IT staff, permitting your team to focus on matters pertaining to strategic growth rather than day-to-day operations. With less time spent on mundane tasks like daily service and support, they can focus on leveraging the best software solutions for your firm and ways to improve your IT infrastructure to boost productivity across departments.
What are managed IT services?
Managed IT services include any information technology service and support handled by an outside firm through cloud-based software. These information technology solutions often provide round-the-clock monitoring of your systems, along with proactive support, and timely troubleshooting and repair services—often before your in-house team may realize there’s an issue.
Some examples of managed IT support include remote monitoring and management of your network, managed video conferencing solutions and other collaboration tools, server maintenance, cloud-based storage, virtual machine management and cybersecurity measures.
The benefits of managed IT services include cost-savings, round-the-clock IT services and support and reduced strain on your in-house IT staff to become experts in the myriad applications your organization uses on a daily basis. Having one firm manage all such services can reduce costs and increase your peace of mind that your systems will work when you need them.
Benefits of managed IT services
Let’s explore the myriad benefits of IT support services provided remotely for small- to mid-sized business owners.
- Holistic approach streamlines operations. With monitoring, management, data storage and security (to name just a few) under one roof, there is no finger-pointing or blame when something goes wrong. Your managed IT solutions and support team will fix the problem.
– - Centralized applications and servers improve security and stability. With managed services, your data and apps are hosted remotely, usually in a virtual server environment. These facilities usually follow international standards for security and control. Even if a natural disaster, fire or flood strikes your office, your data will be secure in a remote facility. Managed service providers have standards established to help you maintain business continuity if something goes wrong in your office or off-site.
– - Round-the-clock service provides peace of mind. Imagine this scenario. It’s after midnight and you’re putting the final touches on a crucial presentation when the server goes down. Your in-house IT staff has been home for hours. But your managed service provider (MSP) is on the job. In fact, with managed IT support services, there’s a high likelihood the network wouldn’t fail, because the MSP would notice there was a problem before you did.
– - Trained managed IT service professionals can fill roles your in-house staff can’t. Today’s IT infrastructure and software applications often require unique, specialized skill sets. Implementing new software requires learning new skills that are only needed once. You can spend time and money training your in-house team each time you roll out a new program, or you can let your MSP take charge of the situation.
– - In-house IT staff can focus on innovation. With the nuts and bolts of day-to-day operations running on autopilot thanks to your managed IT service provider, your IT team can focus on your company’s core competencies and the innovative ideas that will keep it at the top of your industry.
– - Managed IT support firms can help ensure compliance. From consumer privacy to the security of financial data, compliance rules and standards help protect individual rights. Especially for business owners in the e-commerce, retail, healthcare, education, financial services and legal industries, compliance plays a crucial role in avoiding fines and growing your customer base. Managed IT services can shift the burden of compliance. Trained experts can ensure your technology systems adhere to national and international rules and regulations.
– - Stable costs reduce cash flow burdens. Managed IT services have low start-up costs and steady monthly payments, making it easier for you to budget for your IT expenses.
– - Centralized management simplifies remote or flexible working arrangements. Not only does the centralized management of your IT services reduce overall infrastructure costs, it ensures all employees have the same technology experience. Whether employees work in your office, a satellite office, from home or via another location, they can log in and experience the same speed and security as if they were on-site.
– - Scalability helps conserve resources and control costs. It’s easy to scale up your managed IT services as your business needs grow. With pay-as-you-go service plans, you can even decide to scale up managed IT solutions during your busiest season and scale down again when needed.
– - Future-proof services keep you on the cutting edge of your industry. Your managed IT service provider is continuously learning, training and upgrading systems to ensure leading technology systems. You gain the benefit of their expertise and investments to stay at the cutting edge of technology without having to pay for upgrades or training.
For an experienced and trusted Royal Oak MI Managed IT Service, call JDCTek at (248) 494-7254 to get started!
source: americanexpress.com
12 Types of Phishing Attacks and How to Identify Them
Royal Oak Managed IT Service – JDCTek
If you are in need of an experienced and trusted Royal Oak Managed IT Service, please contact JDCTek at (248) 494-7253 today. Click here to learn more about our services or read our excellent reviews on Google!
Phishing attacks have been around since the early days of the internet. Cybercriminals propagated the first phishing attacks in the mid-1990s, using the America Online (AOL) service to steal passwords and credit card information. While modern attacks use similar social engineering models, cybercriminals use more evolved tactics. At its core, phishing is an attack methodology that uses social engineering tactics to make a person take an action that is against their best interests. With a better understanding of the twelve types of phishing attacks and how to identify them, organizations can protect their users and their data more effectively.
1. Email phishing
Also called “deception phishing,” email phishing is one of the most well-known attack types. Malicious actors send emails to users impersonating a known brand, leverage social engineering tactics to create a heightened sense of immediacy and then lead people to click on a link or download an asset.
The links traditionally go to malicious websites that either steal credentials or install malicious code, known as malware, on a user’s device. The downloads, usually PDFs, have malicious content stored in them that installs the malware once the user opens the document.
How to identify email phishing:
Most people recognize some of the primary indicators of a phishing email. However, for a quick refresher, some traditional things to look for when trying to mitigate risk include:
- Legitimate information: Look for contact information or other legitimate information about the organization being spoofed, then look to identify things like misspellings or a sender email address that has the wrong domain.
- Malicious and benign code: Be aware of anything including code that tries to trick Exchange Online Protection (EOP) such as downloads or links that have misspellings.
- Shortened links: Do not click on any shortened links because these are used to fool Secure Email Gateways.
- Fake brand logo: Review the message for any logos that look real because they may contain fake, malicious HTML attributes.
- Little text: Ignore emails that have only an image and very little text because the image might be hiding malicious code.
2. HTTPS phishing
The hypertext transfer protocol secure (HTTPS) is often considered a “safe” link to click because it uses encryption to increase security. Most legitimate organizations now use HTTPS instead of HTTP because it establishes legitimacy. However, cybercriminals are now leveraging HTTPS in the links that they put into phishing emails.
How to identify HTTPS phishing
While often part of an email phishing attack, this is a slightly nuanced approach. When trying to decide if a link is legitimate or not, consider:
- Shortened link: Make sure that the link is in its original, long-tail format and shows all parts of the URL.
- Hypertext: These are “clickable” links embedded into the text to hide the real URL.
3. Spear phishing
Although spear phishing uses email, it takes a more targeted approach. Cybercriminals start by using open source intelligence (OSINT) to gather information from published or publicly available sources like social media or a company’s website. Then, they target specific individuals within the organization using real names, job functions, or work telephone numbers to make the recipient think the email is from someone else inside the organization. Ultimately, because the recipient believes this is an internal request, the person takes the action mentioned in the email.
How to identify spear phishing:
- Abnormal request: Look out for internal requests that come from people in other departments or seem out of the ordinary considering job function.
- Shared drive links: Be wary of links to documents stored on shared drives like Google Suite, O365, and Dropbox because these can redirect to a fake, malicious website.
- Password-protected documents: Any documents that require a user login ID and password may be an attempt to steal credentials.
4. Whaling/CEO fraud
Another type of corporate phishing that leverages OSINT is whale phishing, also called whaling or CEO fraud. Malicious actors use social media or the corporate website to find the name of the organization’s CEO or another senior leadership member. They then impersonate that person using a similar email address. The email might ask for a money transfer or request that the recipient review a document.
How to identify CEO fraud:
- Abnormal request: If a senior leadership member has never made contact before, be wary of taking the requested action.
- Recipient email: Since many people use email applications that connect all their email addresses, make sure that any request that appears normal is sent to a work email not personal.
5. Vishing
Voice phishing, or “vishing,” happens when a cybercriminal calls a phone number and creates a heightened sense of urgency that makes a person take an action against their best interests. These calls normally occur around stressful times. For example, many people receive fake phone calls from people purporting to be the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) during tax season, indicating that they want to do an audit and need a social security number. Because the call creates a sense of panic and urgency, the recipient can be tricked into giving away personal information.
How to identify vishing:
- Caller number: The number might be from an unusual location or blocked.
- Timing: The call’s timing coincides with a season or event that causes stress.
- Requested action: The call requests personal information that seems unusual for the type of caller.
6. Smishing
Malicious actors often apply similar tactics to different types of technologies. Smishing is sending texts that request a person take an action. These are the next evolution of vishing. Often, the text will include a link that, when clicked, installs malware on the user’s device.
How to identify smishing:
- Delivery status change: A text requesting that the recipient take action to change a delivery will include a link so always look for emails or go directly to the delivery service website to check status.
- Abnormal area code: Review the area code and compare it to your contacts list before responding to a text or taking a suggested action.
7. Angler phishing
As malicious actors move between attack vectors, social media has become another popular location for phishing attacks. Similar to both vishing and smishing, angler phishing is when a cybercriminal uses notifications or direct messaging features in a social media application to entice someone into taking action.
How to identify angler phishing:
- Notifications: Be wary of notifications that indicate being added to a post because these can include links that drive recipients to malicious websites.
- Abnormal direct messages: Be on the lookout for direct messages from people who rarely use the feature since the account might be spoofed, or fraudulently recreated.
- Links to websites: Never click a link in a direct message, even if it looks legitimate, unless the sender regularly shares interesting links this way.
8. Pharming
Pharming is more technical and often more difficult to detect. The malicious actors hijack a Domain Name Server (DNS), the server that translates URLs from natural language into IP addresses. Then, when a user types in the website address, the DNS server redirects the user to a malicious website’s IP address that might look real.
How to identify pharming:
- Insecure website: Look for a website that is HTTP, not HTTPS.
- Website inconsistencies: Be aware of any inconsistencies that indicate a fake website, including mismatched colors, misspellings, or strange fonts.
9. Pop-up phishing
Although most people use pop-up blockers, pop-up phishing is still a risk. Malicious actors can place malicious code in the small notification boxes, called pop-ups, that show up when people go to websites. The newer version of pop-up phishing uses the web browser’s “notifications” feature. For example, when a person visits a website, the browser prompts the person with “www.thisisabadlifechoice.com wants to show notifications.” When the user clicks “Allow,” the pop-up installs malicious code.
How to identify pop-up phishing:
- Irregularities: Review for spelling errors or abnormal color schemes.
- Shift to full-screen mode: Malicious pop-ups can turn a browser to full-screen mode so any automatic change in screen size might be an indicator.
10. Clone phishing
Another targeted email phishing attack, clone phishing, leverages services that someone has previously used to trigger the adverse action. Malicious actors know most of the business applications that require people to click links as part of their daily activities. They will often engage in research to see what types of services an organization uses regularly then send targeted emails that appear to come from these services. For example, many organizations use DocuSign to send and receive electronic contracts, so malicious actors might create fake emails for this service.
How to identify clone phishing:
- Abnormal timing: Be wary of any unexpected email from a service provider, even one that is part of normal daily job function.
- Personal information: Look out for emails requesting personal information that the service provider never asks for.
11. Evil twin
An evil twin phishing attack uses a fake WiFi hotspot, often making it look legitimate, that might intercept data during transfer. If someone uses the fake hotspot, the malicious actors can engage in man-in-the-middle or eavesdropping attacks. This allows them to collect data like login credentials or sensitive information transferred across the connection.
How to identify an evil twin phishing attack:
- “Unsecure”: Be wary of any hotspot that triggers an “unsecure” warning on a device even if it looks familiar.
- Requires login: Any hotspot that normally does not require a login credential but suddenly prompts for one is suspicious.
12. Watering hole phishing
Another sophisticated phishing attack, watering hole phishing starts with malicious actors doing research around the websites a company’s employees visit often, then infecting the IP address with malicious code or downloads. These can be websites that provide industry news or third-party vendors’ websites. When the user visits the website, they download the malicious code.
How to identify watering hole phishing:
- Pay attention to browser alerts: If a browser indicates that a site might have malicious code, do not continue through to the website, even if it’s one normally used.
- Monitor firewall rules: Ensure that firewall rules are continuously updated and monitored to prevent inbound traffic from a compromised website.
How to prevent phishing
Although phishing starts with social engineering tactics, some newer methodologies can be difficult for users to detect. Taking multiple steps to prevent malicious actors from successfully infiltrating systems, networks, and software can mitigate phishing risks.
Train your people
The first line of defense is ensuring that employees have the training necessary to protect information. As malicious actors evolve their methodologies, you should provide training that goes beyond the traditional “phishing emails” approach. Any phishing awareness training should also include newer methodologies, like watering hole phishing attacks.
Use email filters
Although normally associated with “spam filters,” email filters can also scan for additional risks indicating an attempted phishing attack. For example, cybercriminals often hide malicious code in a PDF’s active content or the coding that enables things like readability and editability. Finding the right email filtering solution can help reduce the number of risky phishing emails that make it through to users.
Install website alerts in browsers
Protecting against malicious websites is more important than ever. Recognizing that organizations are filtering emails more purposefully, cybercriminals now target website code. Make sure that end-users’ browsers alert them to potentially risky websites.
Limit access to the internet
Using access control lists (ALCs) is another way to mitigate the risks arising from malicious websites. You can create access controls for your networks that “deny all” access to certain websites and web-based applications.
Require multi-factor authentication
Since malicious actors often look to steal user credentials, requiring multi-factor authentication can mitigate this risk. You want to require users to provide two or more of the following every time they log into your networks, systems, and applications:
- Something they know: a password or passphrase
- Something they have: a device or token (an authentication application on a device, a keycard, or a code texted to a smartphone)
- Something they are: a biometric (a fingerprint or facial ID)
Monitor for and takedown fake websites
Organizations in highly targeted industries, like financial services and healthcare, often use companies who can monitor for and spend time taking down spoofed versions of their websites. This is a way to protect your employees and customers who click on a malicious link from giving cybercriminals their login credentials.
Install security patch updates regularly
Many phishing attacks exploit common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs), or known security weaknesses. To prevent this, make sure to regularly install security updates that respond to these known risks.
Set regular data backup
Often, phishing attacks leave behind malware, which can also include ransomware. To mitigate the impact that ransomware can have on your organization’s productivity, create a robust data backup program that follows the 3-2-1 method of 3 copies of data, on 2 different media, with 1 being offsite.
For a top rated Royal Oak Managed IT Service, call JDCTek at (248) 494-7253 for more information.
source: securityscorecard.com
How To Stop Ransomware and Malware
How To Stop Ransomware and Malware
The answer to modern cybersecurity is a multilayered and comprehensive solution to stop Ransomware and Malware in its tracks at all different entry points. Enter JDCTek Advanced Malware Suite, powered by Sentinel One. Packing the powerful protection of multiple AI engines in a light-weight piece of software that won’t slow down your computer.
Standard Anti-virus solutions are no longer enough to fully protect physical workstation computers. This type of software relies on Virus Signature databases that get updated as new viruses and malware emerge. The newest types of malware attacks use unique, sophisticated methods to slip through and enter your company’s network undetected. The standard anti-virus software can slow down your PC with long scans, taking up precious system resources. Meanwhile, a virus has already slipped through and done significant damage.
Groundbreaking ‘AirGap’ technology protects our clients’ sensitive data by preventing malicious deletion of backups with impressive cybersecurity layers beyond MFA. Ransomware doesn’t stand a chance of reaching the backup data needed to restore your critical systems. Client Backups are stored on extremely secure, private cloud servers in a local datacenter. We configure server backups to run multiple times per day and adjust to your company’s needs. These vital, incremental backups are scheduled to limit interruptions of your internet throughput. Restores can be done locally from the JDCTek provided BDR device, which is 10x faster than cloud restores. In an emergency scenario, servers can be restored in minutes, getting you back in business with minimal downtime.
At JDCTek we provide our customers with the best in Cybersecurity Services, Managed IT Services, VOIP, Disaster Recovery, and Compliance / Auditing. We have seen a major reduction in tickets for customers who have signed up for these services. Empowering your employees to have less downtime associated with their technologies is not only good for business, but easier on your finances in the long term!
Contact Us Today to get started! (248) 494-7253