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Strengthening Small Businesses & Cybersecurity Awareness Month

October is not just about the shifting into autumn or prepping for Halloween; it’s also Cyber Security Awareness Month. As the owner of an IT company, I’ve witnessed firsthand the unique challenges small businesses face in the cyber realm. Our local communities are brimming with innovative businesses, and with innovation comes an increasing need for robust cybersecurity measures. While large enterprises might have an army of IT professionals at their disposal, small businesses often work with limited resources, making them enticing targets for cyber threats. However, there’s good news. Many risks can be substantially minimized with good habits, especially around something as fundamental as password behavior. Passwords: The Unsung Hero of Small Business Cybersecurity As an entrepreneur, I understand what it’s like to invest everything into building and growing a business. Time, money, passion, and dreams. With so much on the line, protecting digital assets becomes paramount. Believe it or not, the humble password often serves as the first (and sometimes only) line of defense against cyber intrusions. Complexity is Key: As an IT professional, I can’t stress this enough. The digital age requires digital resilience. A robust password isn’t just about length—it’s about the mix. Use a combination of uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and special characters to keep attackers guessing. Be Unique and Unpredictable: Your business is unique; your passwords should be too. Stay clear of birthdays, family names, or anything easily associated with your business. Create a password that’s as unique as your enterprise. Sharing Isn’t Always Caring: It’s tempting to share passwords for ease, especially in a close-knit team. Resist the urge. Keep passwords confidential to reduce vulnerability. And always use different passwords for different accounts. Level Up with Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): MFA is like a digital bouncer for your business. It’s an added layer that confirms the user’s identity. Implementing MFA can drastically reduce unauthorized access risks. An IT Company Owner’s Take on Small Business Cybersecurity Navigating the landscape of cybersecurity can be daunting for any small business owner. But as someone deeply entrenched in the IT world of small business owners, I can attest to the wealth of resources and solutions tailored specifically for our small business community. Each time a small business is fortified against cyber threats, our communities grows stronger. Cyber Security Awareness Month serves as a reminder, but the principles of cybersecurity should be woven into the daily fabric of our operations. If you’re a small business owner concerned about cybersecurity issues, remember you’re not alone. Reach out, educate yourself, and leverage local expertise. And always, always prioritize good password behavior. In the digital age, we need to be as protective of our cyber assets as we are of our physical ones. As the owner of an IT company, I’m committed to ensuring small businesses are not just aware but empowered to defend against cyber threats. Stay safe and stay secure this Cybersecurity Awareness Month!

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Scammers Are Using These 10 Popular Brands To Trick You Into Revealing Your Private Data

Scammers Are Using These 10 Popular Brands To Trick You Into Revealing Your Private Data

Cybercriminals know the easiest way to sneak under your radar is to pretend to be a brand you know and trust. These large companies have spent years on marketing, customer service, branding and consistency to build a trustworthy reputation, and hackers leverage this to go after you. The most common method is to use phishing attacks. These thieves set up URLs that look scarily similar to the real company’s website. To slip by your watchful eye, here are some of the simple switches hackers make that can go unnoticed: Switching out a zero for the letter “O” or a capital “i” for a lowercase “L.” If you’re quickly reading an e-mail, it might look legit. Adding in a word that seems like it could be a subdomain of the real company, like “info@googleservice.com.” Using a different domain extension, like “info@google.io.” Some criminals will take it a step further and set up a web page that looks identical to that of the real website. When you click the link – via e-mail, SMS or even through social media – several dangerous results can occur. The first is that malware can be installed on your computer. Clicking a bad link can set off an automatic malware download that contains malicious files with the ability to collect personally identifiable information from your device, like usernames, credit card or bank account numbers and more. The second is the fake website will have a form to harvest your information. This could be login credentials, passwords and, in some cases, your credit or bank information. The third most common issue is an open redirect. The link might look legit, but when you click on it, you’re redirected to a malicious website where the intent is to steal your information. What brand impersonations do you need to look out for? Well, all of them, but according to Check Point’s latest Brand Phishing Report, there are 10 companies that top the chart in overall appearance in brand phishing attempts. Here Are The Top 10 Most Frequently Impersonated Brands In Phishing Attempts In Q2 Of 2023: Microsoft (29%) Google (19.5%) Apple (5.2%) Wells Fargo (4.2%) Amazon (4%) Walmart (3.9%) Roblox (3.8%) LinkedIn (3%) Home Depot (2.5%) Facebook (2.1%) Take a minute and ask yourself how many of the companies on this list send you regular e-mail communications. Even just one puts you at risk. Cybercriminals go the full mile with these scams. They know what types of messages work best for each company to get your attention. Here are three common phishing attacks cybercriminals have used under these brands’ good names to gain access to your private information. Unusual Activity – These types of e-mails will suggest that someone gained access to your account and you need to change your password quickly. They leverage fear so people will click without thinking, hurrying to change their password before they’re a victim of the attack. They usually have buttons that say, “Review Recent Activity” or “Click Here To Change Your Password.” These e-mails can go as far as to show fake login information detailing the region, IP address, time of sign-in and more, like real messages from the companies do to convince you to click. Fake Gift Cards – These e-mails suggest that someone sent you an e-gift card. When you open the e-mail, they either redirect you to a website to “claim your gift card” or have a button to “redeem now.” Account Verification Required – These e-mails suggest that your account has been disconnected, and they need you to verify your information. As soon as you enter your login credentials, the hacker has access. These scams are happening every single day. You’re a target, but so are the unsuspecting employees in your company. Without proper training, they might not know what to look for, panic and try to resolve these “issues” under the radar, ultimately causing the problem. There are multiple steps to making sure your network is secure. One would be getting e-mail monitoring to help reduce the likelihood of these phishing e-mails ending up in your inbox. It’s also important to make sure employees know what to look for so that if an e-mail does get by the phishing detection system, they can still keep your company safe. The best thing to do is to start here with your FREE Cybersecurity Risk Assessment. We’ll evaluate your network and provide a full report on areas where you are vulnerable and what to do to fix them. There’s no obligation, but you should know where you’re at risk. Click here to schedule your assessment now.

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The Key To Scaling Your Company Efficiently

The Key To Scaling Your Company Efficiently

As a business owner, you know that continuous, steady growth is an essential part of success. When you’re ready to get serious about scaling your organization, several vital activities must happen. Documented workflows and processes, streamlined hiring, onboarding and training, well-oiled marketing systems and more top the list. One key but often overlooked element of scaling success that can make or break your efforts is leveraging technology to enhance operations quickly, efficiently and cost-effectively. One resource necessary for growth is the cloud. The cloud, which now integrates with numerous AI tools, giving it more capabilities than ever before, allows you to streamline and automate your operations without large, unnecessary investments. In this article we’ll cover what the cloud is, the major benefits you should take advantage of and how you can use it to grow your organization without overspending. The cloud is simply a global infrastructure of servers that gives you remote, on-demand access to computer system resources, including data storage, over the Internet instead of on your computer’s hard drive. With these capabilities, your business doesn’t need to invest in its own hardware or software licenses, allowing you to pay only for what you use when you use it. Software and hardware can be expensive, making this a great solution for businesses in growth mode without unlimited budgets. How can the cloud help your organization? Here are 5 benefits to consider: Economies of Scale – As mentioned, with most cloud-based programs you can expand the services as your business grows. When revenue increases and you take on more clients, you can choose to upgrade your services or invest in new features or capabilities, so you never pay for more than you need at the time. It takes only a few clicks from an administrator. Enhanced Collaboration – In a digital world, we need real-time access to tools for collaboration, no matter where our employees are. Cloud-based programs can typically be accessed anywhere in the world on any device by multiple members of the team simultaneously. This allows for colleagues to work on projects together even if they aren’t in a physical office or are in different time zones, increasing productivity all around. Increased Automation – You can save money and your employees’ time by having cloud-based programs automate certain repeatable tasks such as regular backups, logging and monitoring networks, resource allocation and much more. Most business owners don’t know how many tasks they can automate or how much money and time they can save until they have an IT professional review their network. Faster Access to Resources – With the cloud, your employees no longer have to wait for extensive downloads or installations. Most tools are readily available instantly, making it easier and faster to get work done. Reduced Disaster Recovery Costs – Disasters rarely damage cloud-based data and assets that are hosted virtually on servers, not on hardware in the office. Your IT professional should have multiple backups of your data, so if something goes wrong, it will be easy to get it back up and running. Cloud-based programs are a great resource for business owners who want to scale. They are easy to use, simple and flexible to expand, cost-effective, great for collaboration, more secure than other programs and much more. If you think you’re not harnessing all the power that cloud tools provide, you’re probably not. The best next step is to have an IT professional do an in-depth review of your current network to find the areas of opportunity in your business. We offer a FREE Network Assessment, where we’ll extensively review your network and sit down with you to review what should be done differently to save you money and enhance your business operations. If you’re serious about scaling and want to do it the right way, click here to book a Network Assessment with our team or call our office at 314-432-1661 to get a meeting on the schedule.

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Betrayal Vs. Trust In Business

Betrayal Vs. Trust In Business

My journey into business didn’t start in a fancy boardroom, but in the lessons I learned as a kid from my dad. He was a ‘built-from-scratch’ entrepreneur who was hit hard when his business partner betrayed him, stealing hundreds of thousands from the company. This awful event showed me how vital trust and honesty are in business. It’s the glue that holds everything together. But when my dad’s partner decided to break this trust, the fallout wasn’t just about the lost money. It was a betrayal that shook us to our core. From this experience, I learned that having a team you trust and business relationships built on integrity are critical. It’s about being able to trust and respect each other fully. However, that trust also needs to come with a dash of caution. It’s like having an alarm system along with strong locks for your home. Now, in my own business, these early lessons play a big role. They help me make the right choices and drive my mission of protecting other hardworking business owners. For the tech industry, I accomplish that by taking cybersecurity very seriously. In today’s world, cyber threats are everywhere. It’s my goal to help fellow entrepreneurs keep their business and their client’s data safe from these cybercriminals. After all, it’s important work with and IT company you trust to help keep you safe from cybercriminals.

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