Tag Archives: security

What Should You Do If You Think You Have Been Hacked?

Malware, Security, ,
Small business owner upset over being hacked in the workplace. Leaning head on crossed arms over a laptop

Being a small business and being hacked can put you out of business if your not prepared

There are a couple of questions many business owners ask when it comes to hacking, and those two questions are:

  • How can I tell if I have been hacked?
  • What steps do I take if someone has hacked my business?

Unfortunately, many small business owners do not know they have been hacked. Apart from ransomware, there are many cybersecurity events that go unnoticed. Can you believe that many small businesses and medium-sized businesses can have data breaches that go unnoticed for a significant period of time, including several years? The breaches that are noticed are eventually noticed by someone outside the business, including law enforcement officials.

Can you imagine being breached and not knowing this has occurred until a third-party notifies you? If you data breach occurs and it goes undetected for a substantial period of time, you may never identify what actually caused the breach to occur in the first place. When you do not know how, why, or where the data breach took place, you may start questioning if all of your company’s data has been compromised.

How Do You Know If You Have Been Hacked?

When you have a full understanding of the different types of hackers and what their intentions are, you will be able to understand how anyone can be hacked. There are different businesses, small, medium, and large, that can all become a target for hacking. Hackers look for sensitive data that has not been carefully protected.

What Type Of Hacks Are More Common?

It does not matter if a hack is basic or advanced because even a basic hack can cause severe damage to a business. A small or basic hack can result in your computers or any devices doing things that they should not be doing. Some of the common hacker techniques include the following,

  • viruses
  • Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) or Denial-Of-Service attack (DoS attack)
  • fake Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)
  • phishing attacks
  • in-house attacks

What Should You Do After A Hack Takes Place?

Do you have a plan in place if a hack does take place in your workplace? Your employees need to be trained well enough so they will be able to identify an attack on the business. When your employees are trained, they will be able to help your business get back to operating at its normal pace. Your business needs to get back to business as soon as possible after an attack has been identified.

If you have noticed that your system is behaving unusually and if you notice suspicious files that seem to be harmful, an attack has likely taken place. Professional and experienced hackers know how to carefully cover all their tracks. We suggest that you look carefully at your systems’ log files.The hackers also know how to delete those log files as well.

After you have identified you have been hacked, you should make sure the attack has been confirmed. Once there has been confirmation of the attack, you should check your computers, devices, and your networks to determine if anything else has been compromised. You will need to identify how much information the hackers have obtained.

When security breaches occur, critical data and information can be lost when your systems are down, include your network connections and content that is stored in your RAM. You will need to consult a professional so you can fully understand the options you have at this point.

It is extremely critical that you have the proper backups in place. It is also important that you have the right Managed Service Provider (MSP) that will provide you with the tools and resources you need to conduct business as usual after an attack has taken place. Contact us today for more information on how you can protect your business from hackers.

What Malware Is and How to Avoid It

Malware,
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One of the most nefarious types of malware is spyware, which can result in a stolen credit card, or even a stolen identity

Malware can be a bit of a pain, can’t it?  Nobody really likes malware.  It is malicious software, after all.  It comes in many forms, but it doesn’t encompass all viruses.  Generally speaking, malware does one of a few things.

The first type of thing it does is destroy your system.  None of your information will get sent to the people who made the virus, but your computer can’t be used afterwards without a ton of work or, sometimes, an entire re-install of your Operating System.  These tend to be a pain, but are mostly harmless after a couple of weeks.  There are other viruses that aren’t so forgiving, though.

Those types of viruses are Spyware.  These are usually hard to notice, and they gather your information and send it back to the developers of the virus.  These are the kinds that will do lasting damage to you, usually resulting in a stolen credit card, or maybe even a stolen identity.  The damage done by these forms of viruses can be very difficult to repair.

Credit card companies have gotten better about spyware in recent years, and have made it easier to spot when this happens.  This usually comes in the form of a text message to your phone saying that it’s amazing how you went from California to Italy in 5 seconds, and blocking your card’s use until further notice.

In all of these cases, viruses can often be preventable.  Using an advertising blocker on websites you’re not familiar with can stop viruses leaking through advertisements, and running regular virus scans can help remove any unnoticed viruses before they do too much damage.  If you’d like to figure out more, you can contact us.

Protect Your Small Business-Top 7 Anti-Virus Programs

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Choosing the right anti-virus package for your business can be confusing, but there are some top contenders you should definitely

Choosing the right anti-virus package for your business can be confusing, but there are some top contenders you should definitely

Small business owners work very hard to make their company well-known and successful. The amount of work required to successfully run your own business is phenomenal, and you want to protect that work from anything that could damage it. Some people might consider just using the free antivirus software that comes with your machines-why not? After all, it’s free, and being a small business owner also means cutting costs… Some of these free options might provide you with adequate protection, but the hassle of installing it separately on each machine and then trusting users not to fiddle with any of the settings-well, that’s where it becomes a real headache. Most top-notch antivirus programs offer easy installation across your entire network, restrict users from being able to change any settings, and give you enhanced management options. Choosing an anti-virus package can be confusing, but consider the following top contenders during your research:

  1. Bitdefender. Bitdefender continuously tops the list of antivirus software for small businesses. The Small Office Security software boasts fast and easy installation, and can be used to protect multiple devices. Features include protection from  malware, rootkits, viruses, phishing, and data loss, as well as a centralized management dashboard. Bitdefender is always on and automatically updates-for added security, users do not have the option to change the settings or deactivate protection. Bitdefender uses Windows Network Discovery to find all network devices through remote, link, or email deployment options.
  2. Kaspersky. Kaspersky is another top name in network security, receiving very high scores in independent testing. Kaspersky Small Office Security is a less expensive choice than Bitdefender, but it does provide excellent protection for up to 25 on Windows-based machines and Android devices. Features include antivirus protection, secure online banking, backup tools, and mobile device protection.
  3. AVG. AVG Antivirus Business Edition is a highly effective choice for safeguarding your business and customer information. Features include AVG’s award-winning firewall, Smart scanner, network antivirus, file server security, and remote management. AVG’s antivirus package offers greater control by allowing you to remotely manage your protection from a single console. Smart scanner only scans PCs while they are not being used, ensuring efficient operation during work time.
  4. Symantec. Symantec Endpoint Protection Small Business Edition is simple to use, and can be installed on a single machine or across the whole network. Symantec has both cloud-management and on-premise management options, and offers the typical protection against viruses, worms, trojans, and spyware without slowing down performance. In addition, Symantec Insight and SONAR technologies are able to detect new and mutating malware, including unknown threats.
  5. Panda. Panda Cloud Office Protection is one of the more expensive options out there, although independent tests rated it as only fair for network protection.  The package does offer many unique features in addition to antivirus and firewall-features such as device control, which allows you to restrict how different devices are used. The top-notch web-based management system offers many installation options and gives constant reports on security status. The package offers more hands-on management options than other security programs, but isn’t top of the line for core antivirus protection.
  6. Avast!. Avast! Endpoint Protection is a good choice for very small business owners who may not be able to afford all the bells and whistles available in more comprehensive antivirus programs. Avast! is akin to ordering food a la carte-you pick and choose and then pay only for options you want. You can choose the most basic antivirus protection and have a very simple product that offers core antivirus, browsing protection, and remote management.  Upgrading to Endpoint Plus will add a firewall and spam filtering and still be less expensive than most competitors.
  7. VIPRE. VIPRE Antivirus Small Office offers small and home-based business owners an integrated patch management that protects against infections from out-of-date software. VIPRE also offers top notch features such as protection from viruses, spyware, trojans, worms, and adware without slowing down your systems, business-class support, and network defense against bad links.

These are some of the top-rated antivirus packages on the market right now, but if you are still unsure of what your business really needs, please feel free to contact us.

Password Importance and Ones to Avoid

Security, ,

password securityCyber-crime is a common occurrence in the world today. There are countless stories involving passwords that have been cracked or hackers that have broken down security walls.

For example, Zappos.com, a shoe store, was hacked and 24 million customers had their personal details exposed. If we look at the PlayStation Network back in 2011, 77 million passwords were stolen.

The most common type of attack by far is discovering someone’s password and using it to access a computer system or database. We will discuss the importance of a password and the ones to stay away from.

Why is a Password so Important?

To put it simply, it’s the one area where an anti-virus can’t reach. If you know someone’s password, their level of security doesn’t matter. All you have to do is type the password in and you’re through every single security wall in place. It’s the master key, and if someone gains access to it, you’re in trouble.

What Type of Password is the Best?

Deloitte released a report from its Canadian branch that revealed 90% of passwords today are vulnerable in some way to hackers. Now, most hackers aren’t interested in finding out about your latest blog. They want to turn their hacking into a profit, which is why most computers are safe by virtue of being irrelevant to the people behind these major attacks.

A standard eight-character password with numbers and uppercase letters isn’t safe and it will leave you vulnerable. Let’s take a look at some of the passwords you should avoid.

Passwords to Avoid

The problem with secure passwords is they’re often so secure we can’t remember them. This is where hackers start to use psychology. In a bid to remember these passwords, users will choose common subsets of characters, such as the ‘@’ and ‘%’ signs. These can be guessed and narrowed down.

With 6.1 quadrillion combinations on a standard 94-character keyboard, hackers have to spend a year on a fast computer attempting to guess it. If they narrow it down into a subset, this time is cut dramatically.

Passwords to avoid include:

  • Any relation to personal information.
  • Common strings like 12345.
  • Actual English words.

Change Regularly

The real way to get an advantage over the hackers is to change your password once every few months. Most hackers will attempt to break the lock to your computer by using software to guess your password over and over again. It isn’t particularly sophisticated, but it works.

Eventually, they’re going to find your password, but if you change it regularly, the job becomes impossible. Each time you change your password, the potential hackers has to start over again.

Now, they might get unbelievably unlucky and their software does guess your password randomly. There’s little you can do about this, but the odds are so low that it’s not something you should concern yourself over. No password is 100% fool proof, but if you use a strong password and change it regularly there’s no reason why you should ever become the victim of a Cyber-crime password attack.

Contact Us for more information on how we can help your business.