breach

Is your data safe?

December 3, 2018 by securewebsite

The basics of data protection from monitoring to backup and recovery

You’re at work getting things done when it happens. Your computer crashes and everything you were working on is gone. How long does it take to recover that data before you can get back to work? Or can it even be recovered at all?

Data is what keeps business moving which makes this scenario incredibly scary yet it is repeated day after day, year after year. Despite the fact that data is a business’s most valuable asset, this disaster situation and others like it keep playing out. That’s where proper data monitoring, backup, and recovery come in to help modern business.

Data Monitoring
A crucial component of business is to have data monitoring in place. This allows your data to be regularly checked against quality control rules to ensure data meets or exceeds established standards for formatting, consistency, and usage. With data monitoring, data is quality checked as it is created and used.

How It Works
Every piece of information serves a purpose. Data monitoring is a proactive approach to checking and evaluating data to certify that it meets quality standards and achieves its purpose. Businesses and organizations establish data quality metrics or criteria that are tied directly to its goals and objectives. Once the quality guidelines are established, monitoring allows data to be checked over time, allowing informed improvements to be made in data systems. It also allows companies to best use the data they have available.

Each time data is created or accessed, the data monitoring software kicks in to measure and track information. Such software uses dashboards, alerts, and reports so you can watch what is happening with valuable data. Some of the attributes many organizations monitor data for include:

• Completeness
• Uniformity
• Accuracy
• Uniqueness

With such monitoring, problems with inaccuracies and unusual data behaviors can be detected immediately. If there are data quality issues, an administrator is sent an alert with information about the problems detected. This allows system administrators to check the data and prevent issues before they can become a real problem. It also lets business leaders determine where to focus data quality initiatives.

Additionally, data monitoring can save time and money by making it easier to change quality regulations to adapt to the company’s changing needs. With consistent data monitoring, businesses can also implement new initiatives regarding data without a preparation phase as well. That means fresh data initiatives can be put into place immediately with no wait time.

Backup Monitoring
The next step to the best in information management is data backup. This is where files and folders containing important business data are copied and/or archived so they can be restored in the event of a data loss. Recall the scenario at the beginning of this piece where your computer shut down. Without backup monitoring, you may have lost your work permanently.

Data loss can occur for a number of reasons from computer viruses and breaches to flood or file corruption. With a data monitoring system in place, you’ll be able to replace your lost data, thanks to backup services that occur automatically without any further thought from you or your staff.

While you may already have a backup in place, a single system is not enough should a failure occur. Additional backup systems are necessary in case of natural or man-made disasters or even to keep you covered in the event of data corruption in your original backup. Other reasons for employing a data backup system include:

• Tax Audits
• Client and Investor Relations
• Archiving
• Competitive Advantage
• Improved Productivity and Processes
• Peace of Mind

Data Recovery
Whether natural or man-made, disasters happen. From floods and breaches to ransomware and file corruption, all organizations need a plan in place to recover their data.

Just a few days ago, Anchorage, Ala., suffered an earthquake that hit 7.0 on the Richter scale. Such a major earthquake can cause serious damage including the loss of data. This is just one example of where disaster recovery can come in handy.

In addition to such natural disasters, the number of breaches each year continues to climb. In the first half of this year, breaches have led to 4.5 billion records being comprised, according to the latest findings of the Breach Level Index.

Thanks to data backup software, today’s businesses are able to overcome the loss of important or proprietary information. In the event of an emergency, system administrators can quickly recover from such data loss. Rather than a permanent loss of information, businesses can experience a short-term, temporary loss that can be rectified in a short time. With the right backups in place, data recovery allows you to retrieve everything from documents in Word or Excel to images and video.

If you would like more information about data monitoring, backup, or recovery software and services, contact Oram online or call us directly at (617) 933-5060. Our experts are here to help your business ensure continuity in the event of a breach or disaster.

Personal Identity Management: What You Need to Know About Protecting Yourself Online

November 20, 2018 by securewebsite

We’ve all heard the nightmare stories. Someone had their bank account breached, their social media was spoofed, or, worse, their identity was stolen. Cleanup of such issues can wreak havoc on our credit, personal, and professional lives at a cost of billions of dollars each year in the United States alone. That’s why identity management is so imperative. Here are some facts, stats, and pointers to keep you and your family members better protected online.

Identity Management & Theft
Identity management is the digital security of your identity online. It encompasses your personally identifiable information (PII) such as your birthdate, address, and banking information. Your online identity also encompasses other information found about you online from your social media accounts including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to your credit card accounts. Identity management, or IdM as it is known in IT circles, authenticates the identity of a user, information about them online, and who is allowed to access or modify that information.

There are several ways that cybercriminals can steal your identity online with just a bit of your PII. Here’s just a sample of what identity theft can look like:

• Applying for credit cards or loans in your name
• Withdrawing funds from your savings or checking account
• Using health insurance to obtain medical care
• Employing your social security number to steal your tax refund
• Selling your PII on the dark web to other criminals

The Cost of Theft
Time and money are two huge costs affiliated with identity theft. Anyone who has had their identity stolen, their credit card credentials lifted, or their social media breached can tell you how much time it requires to play cleanup. According to a blog by LifeLock, the average time it takes to fix an identity theft issue is seven hours. The same online article reports that in extreme cases, people may spend up to 1,200 hours over the course of a year working to resolve such issues.

The sad truth is you may personally end up investing hundreds or even thousands of dollars to repair your good name and credit. Some of the common costs for repairing identity theft can include:

• Printing fees
• Sending documents by certified mail
• Lost time at work
• Hiring an attorney
• Gas
• Police report fees

The Emotional & Physical Toll
In addition to the time and financial costs of identity theft, there are other costs as well. The Aftermath study by the Identity Theft Resource Center found, “The emotional ramifications of identity crimes continue to leave victims negatively impacted well beyond the initial incident, impacting how they manage their daily lives in perpetuity.”

Identity theft victims interviewed for the study reported long-term feelings of anger and frustration (85.7 percent), and 83.7 percent reported that they felt violated. Another 69.4 percent said they couldn’t trust others and felt unsafe as a result of being victimized online.

The negative emotional impacts left people physically ill as well. According to The Aftermath report, 84 percent of the individuals who participated in the research said they had sleep issues as a result of the identity theft they experienced. More than 77 percent reported an increase in stress levels, 63 percent had problems concentrating, and nearly 57 percent said they experienced persistent aches, pains, headaches, and stomach issues. Another 54.5 percent reported increased fatigue and decreased energy while 50 percent of people lost interest in hobbies and activities.

The Socio-Economic Impact
The Aftermath study also looked at the socio-economic impact of identity theft as well. Nearly 30 percent of victims who participated in the research reported they had to go “to family or friends to ask for financial assistance while remediating their case. For those that could not find a way to get their other needs met, 37 percent went without whatever that need was.”

Respondents in the study reported employment and educational opportunities were also impacted. More than 30 percent of victims in the study said the incident caused problems for them at their place of employment while eight percent reported issues with school as a result of identity theft. Some victims said they lost employment opportunities, benefits, or their jobs because of what happened to them.

To make matters worse, almost 39 percent of respondents said they tapped their savings to address financial needs during remediation of their case. Some even had to dip into their retirement accounts or got into debt they otherwise would not have had.

“An alarming 42.8 percent of respondents noted that as a result of their identity theft incident, they are in debt and 40.5 percent said they could not pay their bills,” reported The Aftermath study.

New Account Fraud
When it comes to identity theft, new account fraud is the most expensive, according to an online piece by LifeLock. This occurs when someone other than you opens a new account, typically a credit card, in your name with stolen PII. The article reported that in 2011, the average cost of resolving this type of theft was $354 and 12 hours of time. Today, the number of fraudulent cases has only increased and the costs have also climbed.

Child Identity Theft
Though your children may not even be old enough to spell their own name, that doesn’t stop criminals from trying to steal their information, too. According to the 2018 Child Identity Fraud Study by Javelin Strategy and Research, more than one million children were the victims of identity fraud in 2017. The fraud of children’s identity led to $2.6 billion in total losses and more than $540 million in out-of-pocket costs to families, according to the same report.

One of the most disturbing trends found in the study by Javelin is that minors who are bullied online are at an even greater risk of identity theft. The research found that victims of online bullying are nine times more likely to be the victims of fraud than those not bullied online.

Here are some great tips to help concerned parents better protect their children’s identity online:

• Train your children to protect their identity in the digital age. For example, teach them not to share login and password information.
• Pay attention to children who may be being bullied online. Children seeking friendship online are more vulnerable to becoming victims of fraud by sharing their personal information.
• Check and freeze their credit. New account fraud is the most pervasive type of fraud against children. This is the most effective method for preventing new accounts from being opened in their name.
• Monitor their accounts. Parents and guardians must actively monitor financial accounts from child savings to credit cards. Review statements online and sign up for account alerts.
• Protect physical documents. Keep sensitive documents such as birth certificates, social security cards, and passports under lock and key.
• Take notifications seriously. If you receive a notification that someone has stolen your child’s identity or that unauthorized activity has taken place on one of their accounts, move quickly to rectify the situation.
• Ask for help. If you find your child’s accounts have been breached or their identity stolen, contact banks and credit bureaus directly. This is the quickest way to close unauthorized accounts and clear their credit history.
• Sign them up for coverage. Just as you can sign yourself and your spouse up for credit monitoring, you can sign your children up for the same protection as well.

More to Chew On
A 2017 study by Javelin Strategy gives us even more information to digest. Here are some more facts and figures from their research:

• There was a 16 percent increase in identity fraud over the previous year; a record high since Javelin began tracking the issue in 2003.
• Identity fraud increased by two million victims in the 2017 study over the 2016 study.
• That increase in identity fraud meant cybercriminals stole roughly $16 billion in 2017.
• Account takeover incidents and losses rose in the 2017 report to $2.3 billion, a 61 percent increase over the previous year.
• People on social media face a 46 percent greater risk in account takeover fraud than those who shun social media.
• Being an American puts you at higher risk. According to a 2018 Internet Security Threat Report by Symantec, more than 791 million identities were stolen in the U.S. in 2016 while France came in at a distant second place with 85 million identities stolen.

What You Can Do
To protect yourself from becoming the victim of identity theft or fraud, the first step is to protect yourself with an identity monitoring program such as ID Agent, which is what we recommend here at Oram. The program monitors the dark web for your information and notifies you if your PII is found there for sale so you can be proactive about blocking thieves. The great thing about ID agent that we love is that it also monitors social media and alerts you if someone is actively targeting you. It also monitors your credit through all three major credit bureaus to let you know of any new accounts or major changes.

Should the worst happen and you do experience an identity theft or fraud, ID Agent has certified restoration specialists that will work on your behalf to completely restore your identity, even if the issue started before you enrolled. When you enroll, you get $1 million in identity insurance to cover related restoration costs.

Here are some other things you can do on your own as well if you are victimized by cybercriminals:

• Review credit card and bank statements for unusual charges. Report any that you didn’t make.
• Notify your bank(s) and creditors. Send them a copy of your ID theft report.
• Place a fraud alert on your credit files and monitor your credit reports regularly. This requires that you contact all three of the major credit reporting firms: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.
• Put a credit freeze on your reports.
• Close accounts you know were not opened by you or those that have been tampered with.
• File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission.
• Contact your local police department or the police in the area where the theft took place and file a report. Make sure you get a copy.
• Change all of your account passwords and PIN numbers. Do not reuse old ones or those from other accounts.
• Contact the social security fraud hotline and request a copy of your personal earnings and benefits statement.
• Check with your local department of motor vehicles to see about getting a new driver’s license number and license.
• Contact your utility companies so thieves can’t open a new account using a utility bill.
• Ensure you are using multifactor authentication on all of your accounts.
• Sign up for credit monitoring if you haven’t already done so.

If you need help securing your personal identity online or remediating an identity theft or fraud, Oram is here to help. Call us now at (617) 933-5060 or visit us online.

‘Tis the season for being victimized

November 13, 2018 by securewebsite

Tips for staying safe online this holiday season

Whether you’re sharing plans for your upcoming vacation on Facebook, you’re knocking out holiday shopping online, or you’re a retailer ready to strike while the iron is hot through a virtual store, the holidays can be risky business. Hackers connive year-round to steal important data that can leave you broke or your organization in shambles, but the holidays are an especially profitable time for them.

With modern technology, information is always at our fingertips. What you don’t want is your information being shared as it can put you at risk online and off both as an individual and as a business leader. Here are some things to think about before sharing, shopping, and selling online this season.

Beware & Don’t Overshare
It is hard not to get wrapped up in all the excitement of the holidays and want to share it with others. After all, who wouldn’t want to read about all of the visitors, gifts, and fun from your seasonal gatherings? While you may wish to share photos of your family, talk about your travel plans, and show off your new gifts, you must be wary of sharing too much.

Just as your friends and family enjoy your posts cybercriminals, cyber criminals could be as well. The information you share on social media accounts, especially when your privacy settings are public, can be seen by everyone. Criminals can use this information to misrepresent themselves as someone you know, use the information to crack your account passwords, or even learn when you’re out of town to rob your home or business.

Put a Lock On It
Analysts project that there will be more than three billion active social media users by 2021, according to Statista, a compilation of statistics and studies from more than 22,500 sources. That equates to about 40 percent of the world’s population. Be sure to set your accounts to maximum privacy and carefully choose who you give access to your social media. Here are a few tips to keep you socially savvy during the holiday season:

• Set the privacy settings to be as secure as possible.
• Don’t accept friend or connection requests from people you don’t know.
• Be careful not to overshare on your social media.
• Never announce when you have plans to be out of town on social media.

Online Shopping Set to Boom
When it comes to online shopping during the months of November and December, this year promises to see the largest online holiday sales yet. According to a piece by Shopify, worldwide online holiday sales reached $94.4 billion in 2016 but that jumped to $108.15 billion in 2017. Online purchases peak between Black Friday and Cyber Monday but the entire week of Thanksgiving is one big shop ‘til you drop event for consumers. According to the Shopify article, online spending is set to jump again this year with an estimated $3.35 billion in expected sales on Thanksgiving and $5.8 billion in sales for Black Friday which means people are learning to love shopping from the comfort of home.

Safer Shopping
The thought of dragging yourself to the store, fighting holiday crowds, standing in long lines, and dealing with traffic can make the holiday elf in all of us quickly turn into the Grinch. Avoiding all of that while easily finding the best deals on the gifts we want to give (and get) has become irresistible. Criminals can put a huge dent in your holiday budget though, if you aren’t careful.

To best protect yourself while shopping online, stick to retail websites you already know and trust. Avoid shopping through links on social media and email as they can take you to legitimate-looking sites that are actually fraudulent. If you do find a must-have gift on an unfamiliar site, do some investigative work before handing over your credit card number. Check the company out online, see if they have a social media following, and read customer reviews. You can even contact the business directly and call the Better Business Bureau for more information.

You will also want to ensure that when you sign up for new accounts that you use strong passwords that are unique to each site. You can use a password manager to help you keep track of new accounts. Be sure to use a complex set of lowercase and uppercase letters, numerals, and special characters when creating your passwords.

Be On Alert
Regardless of when you do your holiday shopping online, there are some precautions you should be taking. There is an easy acronym (ALERT) to help you shop smart and stay safer online:

• A– Activate two-factor authentication on all banking transactions. This means that you need to input a one-time password (OTP) which is sent by your bank (via SMS or email) to confirm the transaction. This provides an added level of security as anyone trying to use your cards would also have to have access to your mobile phone or email.
• L– Look for signs that the site you are shopping on is secure. Before you type your card details into a website, look for a small padlock symbol in the address bar and a web address beginning with https:// (the s stands for ‘secure’).
• E– Enter a web address yourself and don’t access it through links. Links in email messages, text, instant messages and pop-up ads can take you to websites that look legitimate but are not.
• R– Review all transactions, check your statements, and SMS notifications to ensure that all debits from your account are familiar. Use credit cards, not debit cards, for online shopping. Credit cards offer better fraud prevention and consumer protection.
• T– Treat your details with care. Don’t save your card details on your computer or in your browser. Be selective as to where you input your details, avoid shared devices, and always make sure your security software is up to date.

If You’re the Store
If your business allows people to shop, pay, or schedule appointments online, then it has a responsibility to protect client data at all times. This is especially true during the holidays when hackers are even more likely to attempt to swipe credit card data or personally identifiable information (PII). To ensure the privacy and protection of your clients, you will want to employ the CIA Triad:

• Confidentiality– Ensure the privacy of data so it can’t be accessed by unauthorized parties.
• Integrity– Ensure the accuracy of data in a manner that guarantees the data is reliable.
• Availability– Ensure data is available and cannot be destroyed either maliciously or accidentally.

This triad provides a structured approach to helping businesses appropriately store, transfer, and protect client data as well as their own. In order to do a thorough job of protecting vital, proprietary data, we need to consider data privacy from all angles and the CIA Triad allows us to do just that by encouraging us to think before we click, verify sources of information and requests, ensuring accuracy, and following data security policies.

Keep It Updated
Whether you are an individual or a business, ensure your devices from mobile phones and tablets to laptops and desktops are kept up-to-date. You don’t want to miss any security patches that address vulnerabilities that might make you an easier target for the bad guys. You also want to keep updated on the latest cyber threats, so you know what to watch for and protect yourself against.

Wi-Fi Wisdom
According to Cisco, experts estimate by 2020 there will be 432.5 million public Wi-Fi hotspots. While this relieves your data use when you’re out and about, cybercriminals love them because they can use such public networks to capture PII, credit card credentials, and other profitable data.

Avoid Email Scams
We have all seen them. Those incredible sales and deals that pique your shopping interest, especially during the holidays when we are looking for the perfect gift. Email security is particularly important during the holidays when email scams seem to multiply.

While it’s tempting to click away and open those emails, be careful. Those special offers can lead to computer viruses, malware, and much worse. Play it safe by deleting emails from unknown sources. If you don’t know the company or person sending you an email, simply trash it and definitely don’t open any attachments from unfamiliar businesses or individuals.

Extra Safety Tips for Holiday Shopping, Sharing, and Selling
Here are a few other professional tips to keep your data safer this holiday season:

• You are likely to find yourself in more crowds this time of year. Be careful not to discuss sensitive personal information or business in places such as stores, at parties, or on public transportation.
• Lock your computer screen whenever you walk away from your desk during the workday. When you leave for the evening, log out and shut your computer off as most companies run updates and security scans in off-business hours.
• Don’t disclose sensitive personal or business information on social media.
• Be sure to pick up printed documents immediately from the office printer and clear your desk before leaving it. Don’t leave papers lingering as data can fall into the wrong hands.

Get even more smart security tips online with the Pause, Think and Act security awareness video. You can also contact Oram at any time for extra assistance with ensuring a safe, smart, and successful holiday season for your business. Visit us online or call us now at (617) 933-5060.

Password managers: What you need to know about generating and securing passwords that work

October 26, 2018 by securewebsite

By Ryan O’Ramsay Barrett

Being in IT, we hear about it all of the time. A client calls us in distress because they used the same password on multiple websites, social media platforms, and their email and now they’ve been hacked. The bad guys have access to several of their digital platforms, if not all of them, and things are a mess. The worst part is, the entire scenario could have been easily avoided.

One of the simplest and most commonly recommended cybersecurity practices promoted by experts to prevent problems like the one above is for people to use a password manager. Some are free and others cost a small annual fee but all of them are highly recommended over not using one at all.

What is a Password Manager?
A password manager is a type of software that assists in generating and retrieving complex passwords with the goal of improving your cybersecurity. One of the greatest issues is that most people either use the same password on multiple accounts or their passwords as just too simple. Using the same password for multiple sites can increase the risk that you will be hacked or that your business will experience a data breach. Overly simple passwords also make people more susceptible to being victimized by cyber criminals who would love to get their hands into our bank accounts, business data, and personally identifiable information (PII).

Consider a password manager as a vault of sorts, able to store multiple passwords in an encrypted database or produce them on demand. This means you don’t have to reuse the same password for various accounts, memorize them yourself, or write them down.

Regardless of how many passwords you have or how complex they may be, a password manager can keep track of them for you. Additionally, when you need a stronger password for a new account or to better secure an existing one, a password manager can generate a new, complex password for you.

Security Benefits
According to MyGlue, more than 60 percent of all data breaches are the result of weak or stolen passwords. By using more complex passwords that feature uppercase and lowercase letters, numerals, and special symbols, that are unique to each of your accounts, you are protecting vital online information from credit card numbers to the answers to your security questions. Not only is this important in your personal life but it is imperative to your business as well. Password managers help by generating unique, complex passwords that will not be easily guessed by bad actors.

Another sobering statistic is that more than 30 percent of employees keep track of passwords by writing them on Post-it Notes, according to MyGlue. This is not a secure or suggested form of storing passwords. With a password manager, you only have to remember a single master password to access your “vault” with all of your passwords in one place.

Business efficiency is also improved with the use of a solid password manager because employees won’t have to waste time resetting passwords or searching for that sticky note that disappeared. There will also be a reduction in requests to IT for password resets.

Password managers can also simplify shopping. Payment information can be stored in your password manager so that it’s all at your fingertips when you are ready to shop online.

Risks of Password Managers
I know what you’re thinking. If a hacker gets access to your master password, that would allow them access to all of your accounts. Bad actors have also been known to breach the central vault of password managers. The good news is that there are defenses available to address both of these concerns.

First, any password manager worth its weight is going to employ multifactor authentication. This means that when you, or someone else, attempts to access your “vault” of passwords, you will be sent a text or email with an authentication code to log in. If someone were to steal your master code, you would find out via a text message or email. No one can access your credentials without having both the correct password and the right authentication code. This gives you time to change your master password and notify your password manager should a problem arise.

Vendors usually protect master vaults as well by encrypting your password information locally. That information is encrypted and stored, on servers operated by the vendors who, in most cases, employ some of the best cybersecurity measures available. Some of the free password managers don’t offer the same higher level of security that paid password managers do. Be sure to do your research before signing up with a company or touch base with us at Oram so we can recommend one that works best for your needs.

The Cost of Better Security
There are a multitude of password managers available. Some offer free versions but when it comes to the security of your business, remember that you often get what you pay for. With that in mind, at Oram we recommend paying for a password manager as many don’t cost much.

Most password managers offer some sort of free trial period and range from $12 per year to upwards of $50 a month. The cost may depend on the number of devices or users the program is being employed for.

What Oram Recommends
There are so many password managers available that it can be hard to choose one. Some offer features such as photo login options (a form of multifactor authentication), phone support, and use across a wide variety of operating systems. The two that we recommend to our clients are MyGlue and LastPass.

We highly recommend MyGlue because it offers so many options for a low price. First, as a business owner, you will know who accesses what password and when. MyGlue is easy to use, functions well with multiple operating systems and allows you to share training material with your team for the program so no one is lost. Finally, you can avoid hackers by using strong passwords that are secure, keeping your business information such as the PII of employees and clients and your proprietary data safe. MyGlue also employs the highest security measures available.

If MyGlue doesn’t fit your needs, LastPass is the next best option. LastPass works on iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems. It offers a variety of subscription options from a single user to families, teams, and enterprises and all are quite affordable. With LastPass, you can simplify online shopping, store digital records, and share passwords and notes with others securely in addition to storing and generating passwords.

If you have lingering questions or concerns about the use of password managers, please call Oram today at (617) 933-5060 or visit us online. Our team is happy to help you select and engage a password manager that meets all of your business needs.

The Dark Web: What it is, how it impacts your organization, and ways to protect your business

October 19, 2018 by securewebsite

The Dark Web sounds like the name of Hollywood’s latest horror movie. In reality, it is something much scarier. It can rob your business, negatively impact employees, and shutter companies.
While you can’t see it, the Dark Web is a huge threat to the stability and continuity of business. Knowing what it is and why it is threatening is the first step to protecting what you have built with hard work and dedication. Here is what you need to know about the Dark Web, why it’s so dangerous, and ways to best protect your organization.

What is the Dark Web?
The Dark Web is the shady side of the World Wide Web. Digital communities on the Dark Web are accessible with special software that allows users and those operating dark websites to remain anonymous and untraceable. While it offers some legitimate uses, it is estimated that more than 50 percent of all sites on the Dark Web are employed in criminal activities. This can mean everything from the theft of digital credentials to their disclosure through sale.

Your Credentials
Digital credentials such as usernames and passwords keep you and your employees connected to critical business applications, email, and other online services. Criminals know that if they can get those credentials, they can access everything from your business’s list of clients to your trade secrets and funds. This means digital credentials are some of the most valuable pieces of information floating around the Dark Web.

Credential Theft
Criminals steal credentials from login information for social media platforms such as Facebook to dates of birth and credit card numbers. The problem is that many individuals and companies often fail to realize their credentials have been stolen until it’s too late.

In more than 75 percent of cases, it is law enforcement or another third-party that notifies a victim that something is amiss. By then, it’s usually too late to prevent data theft or a serious breach that could stop your company in its tracks, lead to a loss of customers, or even bankrupt your business.

Human Resources and Payroll
Your business relies on its human resources and payroll department(s) but these valuable individuals are some of the biggest risks to your organization’s digital security. When they utilize their work email to access websites and programs such as ADP, Paychex, and Ceridian, it can open the door for criminals who have stolen their credentials.

Cybercriminals can use their stolen information to heist the personally identifiable information (PII) of other employees, access payroll information, and even steal from the company coffers. Such breaches can also lead to other criminal activity such as the identity theft of employees or customers.

Client Relations Management
The client relations management (CRM) tool your business uses allows you to communicate seamlessly with your customers. This is great for your business and it’s great for cybercriminals, too.
Pretend for a moment that you have used the same password for your eBay account as you do for your business’s HubSpot. If a hacker steals your eBay credentials, they can access your business’s HubSpot. They can now send an email to your clients pretending to be you. The hacker can ask your clients for anything they want from money to their PII. This can ruin your name and reputation with your clients and within your industry as well as that of your company.

Communications
Another risk lays in your company’s communications from Verizon to Adobe and T-Mobile. For example, if someone wants to hack your AT&T account, they may be able to reveal your payment information from a bank account or credit card. Now they have access to your accounts and can steal money from you and/or your business. Using your mobile number, they can also spoof text messages, reset your bank account password, and access your cash as well as other websites, social media platforms, and other apps you utilize.

Business tools such as email services can also become hacked with the theft of employee credentials. Whether your company uses Gmail, Yahoo, or Office365, these are all hackable. Once someone has access, they can send spoofed emails to clients pretending to be you or an employee asking for more information or even money.

Collaboration
While collaboration among employees, contractors, and vendors is typically considered a positive attribute in business, it can also put your organization at risk. Many individuals and businesses today use Dropbox as a great method of file sharing and collaboration. Such files often contain a plethora of valuable information including trade secrets, PII, and client data. A hacker can use this information to spoof emails, gather data from clients, and target them as their next victims.

Travel Services
If your business employs a travel service to help them get from point A to point B, this can be another security risk. Companies such as Expedia, Travelocity, and Orbitz typically store your credit card information along with other PII that can be devastating in the event they are breached.

Be sure to employ different login credentials for each of these websites to best protect yourself and your business. Use multi-factor authentication if it is offered and don’t store your billing information with these sites if given this as an option.

E-Commerce
Whether your company orders office supplies online from Staples/Office Depot or your business sells products through Amazon/eBay, this is yet another area of risk. Again, stolen credentials can allow for the theft of PII and access to financial information that can drain your bank account before you realize what has happened.

Banking & Finance
Programs such as QuickBooks or Freshdesk or banking apps from financial organizations such as Bank of America or Wells Fargo can also lead to problems when it comes to credentials. If a hacker steals access to your bank accounts, credit cards, or financial programs, it can be truly devastating for your business.

Imagine having all of your accounts wiped out. How will you pay your employees, cover your business mortgage, or pay out contractors? Once the money is gone, the likelihood you will ever see it again is minimal, as hackers can be very difficult to trace and, even if you do get it back, how will you cover your business expenses in the meantime?

Social Media
If your employees or business are on social media, which most are, this can put your business at higher risk for a breach. Pages on social media can be easily spoofed or copied. A cybercriminal can invite your friends and followers, steal their information, and worse. This can ruin your reputation whether the hacker takes an unpopular political stand on the false page or accesses more people to victimize through spoofing of their personal or business pages.

Other Employee Risks
In addition to the threat of employees having their work credentials stolen, their personal credentials can also put your business at risk if they end up in the wrong hands. For example, if an employee uses their LinkedIn credentials such as their username and password for work in QuickBooks, they can expose your company to a breach. Employees should be trained to use unique usernames and passwords for each program, app, and website they use. This is true not just for work but also for their private internet use as well.

While it can be cumbersome to keep track of different usernames and passwords for each website or app they use, there are password management tools such as MyGlue or LastPass that can keep track of them all. While some of these password management programs are free, some do have a minimal cost associated with them. Remember, you get what you pay for in business. Some of the free apps are poorly encrypted locally on your own device so if you get hacked, the bad guys will still have access to your information. We advise working with a larger company so you know they have the manpower and ability to keep your information safe and secure.

Users often have the same password for multiple services such as network logons, social media, and online stores. This greatly increases the potential for a breach. Train and retrain your employees on cybersecurity. It is worth the investment as is paying a small annual fee for a secure password management tool. Consider this well spent money as an operating expense just as you do with your marketing budget.

Combating the Dark Web
At Oram, our experts are able to search the Dark Web so you don’t have to. Using Dark Web ID from ID Agent, our experts search for your personally identifiable Information (PII) on the Dark Web to determine if you are at risk of experiencing a breach. This gives you time to protect your information, notify your bank or lender, and change passwords before you experience a breach.

How Dark Web ID Works
Dark Web ID is a commercial solution to detecting compromised credentials in real time on the Dark Web. It offers the same advanced credential monitoring capabilities that are employed by Fortune 500 companies. This specially designed software connects to multiple Dark Web services including Tor, I2P, and Freenet where it searches for compromised credentials. With this proprietary software, you don’t have to expose your own software, hardware, or network to these high-risk services directly.

By searching the most secretive and covert corners of the internet, Dark Web ID locates compromised credentials associated with your business, contractors, and personnel. If we find credentials that compromise your company, we notify you immediately BEFORE you become the victim of identity theft, data loss, or a breach. The real-time awareness of compromised credentials Dark Web ID provides means you will know if your PII has been stolen so you can safeguard both your personal and business assets before it’s too late.

Be Prepared
The more information you have, the more valuable it is and the more prepared you can be. We employ extensive logging and reporting capabilities that allow us to track your credentials and the credentials of your employees on the Dark Web. As a result, we can triage incidents quickly and create effective policies and procedures to reduce the risk to your business.

How It Helps Businesses
We use the Dark Web ID as a tool to identify compromises throughout your organization that could put your company at risk for a data loss or major breach. With this software, we are able to monitor the Dark Web 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. It is so effective, it reports more than 80,000 compromised emails daily. In addition to email, the program searches and monitors the following platforms frequented by cybercriminals:

• Hidden chat rooms
• Private websites
• Peer-to-peer networks
• Internet relay chat (IRC) channels
• Social media platforms
• Black market sites
• 640,000+ botnets

Predictable Patterns
While it is good practice to be prepared for a breach, it’s even better to have a warning that one could be coming. Using Dark Web ID, we can identify industry patterns. If we see that your industry is starting to come under attack, we can share that intelligence with you to best protect your employees, your business, and your consultants.

Prevention is the Best Medicine
While a network attack may be inevitable, they can be made less destructive and costly. With proactive monitoring of stolen and compromised credentials, you can be alerted to prevent losses before they happen. With alerts that tell you when your credentials have been stolen, you can respond immediately to prevent a breach.

By employing monitoring services and software such as Dark Web ID, your company can move toward compliance with data breach and privacy laws. Our experts can even help you develop and implement a data breach response plan.

If you would like more information about the Dark Web, Dark Web ID, or reducing cyber risks to your business, please call Oram today at (617) 933-5060 or visit us online.

Threats to business cybersecurity and a strategy for resiliency

October 4, 2018 by securewebsite

Imagine going into work, settling into your routine, and realizing you can’t access your email. You try refreshing your browser, logging out and then back in again, only to realize something malicious has happened. You start to panic. You can’t work, don’t understand how this could have happened, and wonder what the cost to your business will be.

Email is arguably the most vital tool used in modern business. It helps us communicate with our customers, collaborate internally, and keeps the information we need to move forward flowing like the blood in our veins. Without it, the livelihood of our business is at stake.

What has become the lifeblood of today’s businesses, Cybercriminals are using to become just as successful. According to the report The State of Email Security 2018 by Mimecast, email is the main way hackers initiate attacks to defraud businesses such as phishing scams, malware delivery (such as ransomware), and impersonation. As a matter of fact, the report shows a whopping 90 percent of global organizations studied in the 2018 report described consistency or rise in the number of phishing attacks experienced in the previous year.

BEC and EAC Threats
The 2017 Internet Crime Report issued by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Internet Crime Complain Center confirms email is a major target of bad actors. The report shows business email compromise (BEC) is a huge trend. This sophisticated scam targets organizations that frequently work with foreign suppliers and/or businesses and perform wire transfers on a regular basis. A variation of the threat, known as email account compromise (EAC) specifically targets individuals who regularly make wire transfers.

The FBI warns that though some businesses report using checks rather than wire transfers, cybercriminals will very casually employ the method that your business typically uses to steal your funds so as not to draw attention to themselves. They do this by compromising your “legitimate business email accounts through social engineering or computer intrusion techniques to conduct unauthorized transfers of funds.”

Hacking and Spoofing
In 2013, the FBI’s report shows victims indicated the email accounts of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and Chief Financial Officers (CFO’s) were often spoofed or hacked.

When an email is hacked, criminals can intercept important messages and data. One example is Climategate. This occurred when email archives from the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia were copied by the thousands. The breach occurred just before the Copenhagen Summit on climate change. Skeptics used information from the stolen emails as grounds to argue that global warming was a scientific conspiracy.

Email spoofing, or impersonation, is the forgery of an email header so a message appears to have originated with someone other than the actual source. This is a common tactic used by cybercriminals in phishing campaigns and spam emails because employees with access to data and/or funds are likely to respond to emails from supervisors or clients. A bad actor may spoof the email header of a CEO and send an email to someone that often handles wire transfers within the company, demanding an immediate wire transfer to avoid an emergency situation. In addition, spoofing can also be used by bad actors to fraudulently invoice business customers for goods or services with the funds going directly to accounts they have set up in order to steal money from the pockets of your unsuspecting clients.

Attackers are becoming ever more clever in the way they deceive victims. With social engineering, cybercriminals are learning to target specific individuals in a company by impersonating them online. In the last year, nearly 40 percent of organizations have seen impersonations of “finance/accounts” personnel and 28 percent report C-suite executives as targets of impersonations. Another 25 percent of organizations reported impersonations of human resources staff. In total, 20 percent of respondents studied in the Mimecast report suffered a direct financial loss as the result of an impersonation attack.

Phishing by Numbers
Phishing is another form of email threat. Phishing occurs when someone sends an unsolicited email, text message, or telephone call that is purportedly from a legitimate company. Such phishing messages may request personal or financial information or even login credentials. An online article by TripWire reported that three-quarters of organizations experienced phishing attacks in 2017. This number held steady from the previous year.

A study by Dr. Zinaida Benenson, a professor at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg who leads the “Human Factors in Security and Privacy” research group, demonstrated that 45 percent of people will click on a malicious link if it includes their name. In a second study where the recipient name was not used, 20 percent of people still clicked on the link. She suggested companies employ a “reporting” feature to flag suspicious emails or that utilize digital signatures to stop them before employees have a chance to get click happy.

Ransomware
Ransomware is a form of malware. It targets weaknesses by both security technology and human users. This malicious type of malware is typically delivered through vectors such as remote desktop protocols which allow computers to connect to one another across networks. Additionally, ransomware can also be sent through phishing emails that are sent to an end user resulting in the rapid encryption of sensitive data or files in a network.

Cybercriminals seize control of a business’s data in these ways and then hold it for ransom, often demanding large sums of money to restore access. Some cybercriminals even threaten to release proprietary information or data if a ransom is not paid within a given timeframe. Aside from that, the Mimecast report shows an average downtime three days after a ransomware attack which can cost your business even more money.

WannaCry, also known as WannaCrypt, was one of the major ransomware attacks in the history of IT. It affected several hundred thousand machines around the world bringing businesses from banks to law enforcement agencies as well as infrastructure companies to their knees.

Internal Threats
The Mimecast report also demonstrates that internal threats are also on the rise. Of the organizations studied, 88 percent reported internal threats caused by careless employees over the course of the last 12 months. To make matters worse, another 80 percent reported accounts had been compromised and 7- percent identified malicious insiders as a cause of internal issues during the same period.

Insiders have a distinct opportunity to wield emails. They can steal information and send it to outsiders or publish it for their own gain. This is where using the practice of least privilege can help protect your business.

Prevention is the Best Medicine
It’s been said that the best defense is strong offense. That is particularly true when it comes to cybersecurity. Just as you inoculate a child against disease with vaccinations, businesses should employ preventative measures to reduce the odds of an attacker getting in through their email.

Oddly enough, businesses have taken a more reactionary approach to cybersecurity and it’s costing them big time. Changes in data storage technology such as migrating email to platforms such as the Cloud or Microsoft Office 365 is leading businesses to oversimplify their security strategy. Business leaders believe they can save money and minimize the complexity of managing their cybersecurity by employing a defense-only model. This way of thinking falls short of providing the forethought and prevention the best security has to offer.

“Attackers are leveraging these same changes and are working in real-time to exploit gaps in your security program,” warns the Mimecast report, which predicts that 50 percent of organizations will suffer a negative business impact from an email-borne attack this year.

Education is Key
While email is unequivocally a major business tool, it can also be a major security threat. Of the organizations studied for the Mimecast report, “61 percent were hit by an attacker where malicious activity was spread from one infected user to other employees via email.” That is why cybersecurity awareness training is so imperative to a solid business security strategy, especially for business leaders.

According to Mimecast, nearly 40 percent of organizations see the CEO of their organization as a “weak link” in the cyber security chain. In fact, the study showed 31 percent of C-level employees have unintentionally sent sensitive information to the wrong person in the last year compared to 22 percent of other employees. This is due in part to corporate level employees having access to more sensitive business data than the average employee. Over the last 12 months, the report also showed 20 percent of organizations had C-level employees send proprietary data via email in response to a phishing email.

All employees should receive regular cyber security awareness training to prevent breaches before they can happen. While every employee needs regular training to keep up on the latest threats, this is especially true for C-level employees and those with access to sensitive data. You want to ensure there is security expertise at the leadership level of your business and the right training can get you there.

Cyber Resilience is Everyone’s Job
Implementing a solid cyber resilience plan is the responsibility of every employee. It doesn’t just fall to one person or department. Of businesses that have employed a cyber resilience plan, 80 percent feel prepared to fight ransomware and are confident that their sensitive data and files are properly backed up and encrypted, according to the report by Mimecast.

There are several steps to implementing a cyber resilience plan for any business based on the four dimensions of cyber resilience: Threat protection, adaptability, durability, and recoverability. Those steps include ensuring:

• The right security services are in place before an attack happens.
• A durability plan to keep email and business operations running during an attack or security breach.
• The ability to recover data and other corporate IP after a cyber incident or breach occurs.

Extra Tips
Here are a few more tips from the State of Email Security report to help close the security gaps at your business:

• Place cybersecurity into the function that manages overall risk mitigation for your business.
• Understand upper management sets the tone for company culture including security.
• Benchmark your security controls and risk management programs against similar businesses on a regular basis.
• Engage your security team on a regular basis to discuss your security program and requirements as well as the need for changes.
• Leverage internal marketing to communicate that security is everyone’s responsibility.

For more information on implementing a winning cyber resilience strategy for your small business, contact Oram now at (617) 933-5060.

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