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Almost half of people with social media accounts have admitted to falling for shopping scams. So if members of your team are doing a little last minute Christmas shopping from work, how can you be sure your business is protected?

New research shows that a massive 47% of people have clicked on links hoping to get a great deal, and instead ended up giving financial and personal details to cyber criminals.

That could mean they’re not only putting their own data and money at risk, but your device – and even your network – could be exposed, too.

It’s not just shopping scams that are fooling people online. Phishing links have tricked 36% of people into revealing personal data. Phishing is where you get an email that seems to be from a person or brand you trust, but it’s not.

The same number have fallen for gift card scams – that’s where criminals gain victims’ trust and persuade them to buy gift cards or online vouchers.

If an employee clicks a malicious link or downloads an infected file using their work device, the results for a business can be devastating. The risks go beyond the loss of data and reputation. The cost of downtime while you get going again is enough to put many people out of business for good.

So how can you protect your business against this kind of scam – right now, and throughout the year?

As well as having the right cyber security tools in place – such as firewalls, antivirus software, and strong password management – you should stay focused on training your people. Because your best line of defense is a team that recognizes a threat when they see one.

Make sure they’re aware of the latest scams, and that they know the warning signs to look out for. Advise everyone to check that links are genuine, websites are the real deal, and be suspicious of offers that look too good to be true.

And have a strong plan in place that kicks in the moment a security breach is spotted. Employees should all know to report any incidents immediately, and who they should inform. Acting quickly often lessens the impact of a data breach and makes it faster and less expensive to fix.

As always, if you’d like further help or advice, get in touch.

Published with permission from Your Tech Updates.

You think Zoom, you think video calls. For millions around the world, it’s a tool they rely on at work every day.

But for productivity, collaboration and workplace integration (as well as video calls), it’s Microsoft Teams that’s leading the way. Its tight integration with other Microsoft 365 services makes it so easy.

Now Zoom is looking for a piece of that action with the launch of a whole suite of features and services. They’re clearly designed to take on Teams and Slack head-to-head.

These will include email, a calendar app, and a virtual co-working space called Zoom Spots. Meanwhile a bunch of upgrades to the Zoom One platform are aiming to improve collaboration, keep chats flowing, and keep projects moving.

While it feels like a logical step for the video conferencing giant, it remains to be seen how widely adopted the new services will be. And before we recommend it to our clients, we’ll want to know that the levels of support, reliability and security are all bulletproof.

Many businesses are already committed to Microsoft Teams, which releases its own improvements almost on a weekly basis. But this is an interesting new development and we’ll be watching what happens carefully.

If you want to know more about the best tools to keep your team working smoothly together, just get in touch.

Published with permission from Your Tech Updates.

We go to a lot of effort working to protect our clients from online security threats. These could come in the form of key loggers that record you as you enter your login information, or DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks, which overwhelm a service with fake traffic, causing it to crash.

As part of our service, we always advise our clients to install software updates as soon as they become available, and support them through the process where they need help.

But if you visit a website that asks you to install an Adobe Flash update… STOP!

Flash itself was actually discontinued in 2020 and is no longer supported, so you should assume that any Flash update messages will be a security threat.

Currently, fake Flash messages are being used as a cover for a new ‘botnet’ campaign that installs a malicious browser extension, called Cloud9. If you use Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge you could be a target.

A botnet forms a group of infected devices that are controlled as one, without the owners’ knowledge, stealing sensitive data, sending spam, or performing DDoS attacks.

Worse still, the Cloud9 botnet will attempt to install additional malware to your device or network if it’s not stopped in time.

This type of attack is hard to spot because it looks like a genuine request, and just about anyone can become a target.

But there are things you can do to protect your business.

First, make everyone aware of the threat. If your people know what to look out for it’s less likely they’ll install the update in the first place.

Next, make sure everyone’s running the latest version of their browser and that security software is up to date.

Finally, enable Enhanced Protection in your browser’s Privacy and Security settings. This will give you a warning if you stumble upon a risky website or download.

We can help you keep your business protected from cyber criminals. Just get in touch.

Published with permission from Your Tech Updates.

You could be losing a full-time working week for every member of your team, thanks to the hassle of setting up video calls.

Video conferencing has revolutionized team meetings, and saves a huge amount of travel time. But we’re still not getting the full benefit from the new technology, according to new research.

Employees aged between 18 and 24 take up to 10 minutes to get set up for each remote meeting.

Times that by a typical five meetings a week, and it’s suddenly lost you 40 hours every year. That’s a whole working week of wasted time – a figure that gets even higher when you look at older age brackets.

It isn’t necessarily a result of differing technological know-how. The research shows that employees blame the tech itself for the loss of productivity.

Almost a third of people said they didn’t have the right tools for the job, and 23% even said they felt excluded from remote meetings thanks to inadequate tech.

Employees often feel that the audio-visual (AV) technology they’re provided for remote and hybrid working simply isn’t up to the job. That means poor microphones that don’t play ball, jittery webcams that interfere with communication, or the wrong choice of video calling software. All that makes meetings harder to set up and causes them to take longer than they should.

Despite this, businesses that offer remote and hybrid working are reaping the rewards in many other areas, including staff engagement and performance.

But there is a solution.

Assess your employees’ AV technology to make sure their tools are not slowing them down – new webcams and microphones could be a cheap and simple fix.

It’s also a good idea to ask your employees to find out where they see that problems are occurring. If they are finding your existing system difficult to use, or slow to log in to, you should consider alternative options or better training.

If this is something that’s slowing you down, we can help – just get in touch.

Published with permission from Your Tech Updates.

A huge number of small and medium-sized businesses would consider using pirated software to try and save money. A new study has revealed a surprising number of businesses willing to break the law to save costs. Our advice? Think twice before you walk the plank.

Right now, the most popular types of pirated software are project management tools, and marketing and sales software. But a huge 56% of business owners said they’d even think about using illegal cyber security software in an effort to cut costs.

Don’t do it.

Not only is pirated software unsupported – so if you have a problem with it (which you probably will) there’s no help available to rectify the issue – but it can open your business up to bigger problems too.

It’s common for cyber criminals to use pirated software to distribute malware. Some of this is designed to evade firewalls, which means once installed, it can spread malicious files beyond your device to your entire network. That can lead to your sensitive data being compromised or stolen.

The cost of putting things right after this kind of cyber attack can end up costing a fortune, and the pirated software can damage your devices by causing them to slow down or overheat.

We advise our clients to always use genuine software from a reputable source. If the cost of the software seems too good to be true… it probably is.

But there’s more you can do. You should prevent unauthorized employees from downloading software that could be harmful by managing admin rights properly. And you should ensure your whole team has regular cyber security awareness training to make everyone aware of the risks to your business data.

If you’d like help finding genuine software for your business, or creating a cyber security plan, just get in touch.  

Published with permission from Your Tech Updates.

As you may know by now, Facebook announced a massive data breach today affecting at least 50 million (yup you read that right) users. 

It seems that a vulnerability in Facebook’s code for the “ViewAs” feature was exploited allowing the attackers to compromise access tokens which are digital unique identifiers of you and your account and prevents you from having to re-enter your password multiple times which would drive you crazy if you had to.

Facebook states that “there’s no need for anyone to change their passwords” however are you willing to trust your privacy to Facebook? Can those two words even be in the same sentence? Probably not. Be proactive and change your password which will regenerate the access tokens associated to your account assuring your account is safe.

It seems like the vulnerability has been there since July of 2017 and was just recently identified and corrected. So this “leak” has been there for a while.

Here are several links with more technical details on the Facebook breach, should you be interested:

• Facebook breach put data of 50 million users at risk
• Zuckerberg says Facebook working with FBI to investigate
• Everything We Know About Facebook’s Massive Security Breach

So the reality is Facebook and most reputable technology firms go to great legnths to get coding right and keep it secure but it is not uncommon that future modifications of existing code cause changes and vulnerabilities not perceived by the developer making the change. Organizations that have developers working with this kind of code typically have Change Management in place which primary purpose is understanding what effect a change in older code will make. Honestly, it is impossible to cover all scenarios but exposing 50 Million customers private data is not acceptable!

In today’s environment of constant data breaches and privacy compromises you shouldn’t be surprised but at the same time, you should become numb to this issue and protecting your privacy and data should stay high on your priority list. However, it will not protect itself and it has become painfully obvious you can’t rely on the “big players’ either. Be proactive!

What Can I Do Besides Change My Password?

Use Common Sense – First and foremost (and I’m sure you’ve heard if before) common sense should be in play. Be extremely cautious of what you post to social media. Yeah its great to share pics with friends and other interesting items but telling everyone in the world you are on vacation in another country (and that your home is currently empty) is probably not the smartest thing to do. Posting pics is great but consider whats in the picture frame before you take the shot. Are your vehicle tags in the frame? It is way too common to see pics posted on social media that contain things allowing someone to determine locations and identities. Facebook’s face recognition should scare you all by itself and especially your kids.Think ahead.

Use 2-Factor Authentication (also known as 2FA) – 2FA is where you have set up to send an authentication code to mobile devices verifying you are the owner of an account or password. Sure it can be a pain in the butt if you don’t have your phone with you but there are usually ways to do 2FA without your phone. This prevents unauthorized access to your accounts should your password be compromised. Use 2FA when possible!

Use Private Browsing – While certainly not full proof using your browser “private browsing” function, which is not on by default, helps protect the data stream between your computer and the websites you visit.

Use Complex Password – It baffles us how often we see 5-letter super simple passwords that are super simple to compromise. Start using sentences as passwords instead of one word. Most systems limit the minimum number of characters but not the maximum. Recently had a customer whose passwords were her pets name and her account was recently compromised. She couldn’t figure out what happened until we showed her the pics she posted all over Facebook of the pet WITH the pet’s name. Social engineering at its best! Also, we find customers using sentences as passwords are less likely to forget them which is a bonus.

How Do I Keep Up With All These Passwords? – Well, the answer certainly isn’t having everything with the same password! You are making it too easy to compromise. If you find you have too many passwords to track, use a password manager. Not only will it store and auto-enter your passwords, but you can also let it generate a complex password that you don’t have to recall. We highly recommend #LastPass. Shring has done very intensive testing of various password managers and LastPass is the winner. Check it out here.