This came to my email.. I happen to be working with Stuart title at the moment, but not this person and I am not Frank..
Be careful don't click!
Tuesday, March 9, 2021
If it is not to you and looks interesting... Don't Click.... It's a scam!!
Do people really send you random money in an email? SCAM!
Wednesday, March 3, 2021
More Than 80% of Data Breaches Are Email Based
What source puts a company’s data most at risk? It’s not hackers, or nation-state cybercriminals, or even disgruntled employees – it’s email. Seemingly routine, everyday email is the most likely vector for a damaging cyberattack that leads to a data breach. But a few smart steps can be taken to reduce the risk of an email-related data breach in 2021.
Results from a recent survey of 500 IT leaders and 3,000 remote-working employees in the US and UK across vertical sectors including financial services, healthcare and legal affairs make one thing clear: every business is at risk for trouble. More than 80 percent of surveyed organizations have experienced a data breach in the past year because of email. Further, 95 percent of the IT leaders surveyed believed that client and company data is most at risk from actions that are taken over or in response to email.
Human Error, Stress and Distraction Cause Worrisome Jumps in Data Breaches
Employees are handling more email these days as the expected return to offices is slowed by the continued global pandemic. An estimated 85 percent of employees reported sending more emails since they’ve been working remotely. Throughout the last year as companies remained fully or mostly remote, email handling has grown less predictable as well, bringing new challenges to IT teams – 73 percent of employees surveyed said that they regularly read and respond to work emails outside of their working hours, and almost one-quarter of employees (24%) reporting that they handle work email while doing other things.
This tracks with the long established IT maxim that the number one cause of a data breach is human error. One of the major contributors to email based data breaches noted in the survey was remote workers making mistakes and because of distraction, tiredness and stress. About 60 percent of employees noted that they are working in environments where distractions are commonplace. A further 73 percent of employees reported that they feel tired, stressed or upset because of the pandemic.
IT leaders agree that the pandemic and remote work spurred by it are major contributing factors to email-related data breaches. Almost 60 percent of IT leaders reported an increase in email data leaks since implementing remote working as a result of the pandemic. Those same IT leaders reported that email-related data handling mistakes were one of their company’s biggest risks, with almost one quarter of breaches caused by an employee sharing data in error by sending an email containing sensitive data to the wrong recipient or attaching the wrong file.
Employees Are Handing Out Credentials at an Eye-Popping Rate
Employees under pressure and working remotely are also interacting with much more phishing email and handing out their credentials at an alarmingly high rate. In a recent multi channel phishing exercise, researchers noted that one-fifth of the tested employees fell for phishing emails even if they have gone through some security awareness training. Of employees that fell for the phishing email, more than two-thirds also entered their credentials, such as a password.
This is a troubling trend, especially for businesses that do not have adequate access point security. Researchers noted that the number of surveyed employees who fell for phishing tricks and clicked on a phishing link increased by 77 percent in this year’s survey, going up from 11.2 percent in 2019 to 19.8 percent in 2020. Those employees were also quick to hand over their credentials. An astonishing 644 percent year-on-year increase in employees that provided their credentials in response to phishing illustrated the increased danger of an email related data breach for companies, skyrocketing from 1.8 percent in 2019 to 13.4 percent in 2020.
What Will Mitigate This Risk?
Reducing a company’s danger from phishing starts with reducing its proximity. The less exposure employees have to phishing, the better. If a company uses an affordable automated phishing defense solution like Graphus, it’s already making great strides toward solving that problem. Otherwise, two strong mitigations to put in place to lower the risk of an email-related data breach in both the short and long term are secure identity and access management and better security awareness training around email.
Secure identity and access management with Passly won’t stop staffers from mishandling email, and credentials, but it can stop cybercriminals from gaining access to your systems and data with a phished password. Multifactor authentication stops 99 percent of password-based cybercrime. That’s just one of the overlapping defensive tools that you get with Passly. This is the fastest, easiest mitigation to put n place for an business.
Advanced phishing resistance training with the new BullPhish ID is the gift that keeps on giving for organizations. Security awareness training like this, when refreshed at least quarterly, lowers a company’s chance of falling victim to a phishing attack by up to 70 percent. The newly unveiled user-friendly, customizable training portals make training painless for IT staff and employees. Plus, training materials can be customized to reflect a company’s real threats. Add white labelling at every turn and MSPs can be sure that their business is top-of-mind- for users.
Helping prevent email-related data breaches is essential for securing businesses as we shift into a more permanent work-from-home world. Companies have realized that remote work is here to stay and it brings them unexpected IT challenges (and huge risks) that can only be solved with the right combination of cybersecurity solutions to keep data in and cybercriminals out.
Why a Managed IT Service Provider is a Great Option for Your Small Business
Keeping up with the latest tech changes is always a challenging task for small businesses. Trying to take care of your technical needs while also managing your business is often a challenging situation. One way to overcome these obstacles is to reach out to a managed IT service provider. A partnership with a managed service provider offers numerous benefits while also helping you better serve your customers.
Here are a few of the top reasons why managed IT services can help your small business become more successful.
Around the Clock Support
Downtime is a major problem that can impact your business in a variety of ways. One way to keep downtime to a minimum is to partner with an IT provider that offers around the clock tech support. These IT professionals are available to provide immediate support while also monitoring your network for any unusual activity.
Scalable Options
Another reason to consider using a managed IT service provider is that it gives your business the flexibility to scale up or down. You will only pay for what you use instead of wasting money on unnecessary features. Cloud computing also makes it possible to purchase more storage space or add new software programs to better meet the needs of your business.
Data Protection
A data breach often destroys trust with your consumer base, and it can also lead to expensive fines. However, you can limit the chance of a data breach by choosing an IT service provider. Patch management, network monitoring, and the creation of data backups are only a few examples of the many ways a managed service provider can keep your information secure from cybercriminals.
Cybersecurity Awareness Training
Cybersecurity incidents at work often happen due to employee negligence. Phishing scams and social engineering attacks usually prey on employees that make careless mistakes. One way to avoid this situation is to use a managed IT service provider that offers cybersecurity awareness training classes. These courses can cover a variety of cybersecurity topics while also keeping your business up to date with the latest scams.
Enhance Productivity
One of the biggest obstacles facing small businesses is reducing employee turnover. Unfortunately, it isn't easy to keep employees with your business for the long-term if they are constantly feeling overworked. However, you can reduce employee workload by partnering with an IT provider to handle day-to-day IT-related tasks. Over time, this can save your employees a lot of extra work and make their jobs much easier.
Closing Thoughts
Selecting a managed IT service provider is a great long-term option for small business owners. Partnering with an IT provider allows you to focus on your core business operations without having to manage additional IT tasks. An IT service provider also gives your company additional protection against cybersecurity schemes that continue to evolve. Technology will only continue to play a more important role in the workplace, as a managed IT provider is an essential service for small business owners.
Robert Blake
Bit by Bit
877.860.5831
Monday, March 1, 2021
February Newsletter: Cyber Scam Alert | Don't Click! Amazon or Apple Security Services
No images? Click here    Sadly, as we weather the storm of COVID, the cyber scams are still coming fast and furious. Among the many we face every day, beware this recent [...]  Lotus Notes? Yes, it’s still around and in fact, it’s quite efficient for faxing, of all things, when integrated with RightFax. [...]  Thanks to you, our clients, we’re on a roll! We’re thrilled to announce that we have been recognized as one of the top IT service [...]     ©2020 Bit by Bit. All Rights Reserved. |
Wednesday, February 24, 2021
Protect Against the Number One Cause of a Data Breach – Human Error
CISOs around the world agree – human error is the most dangerous threat that any cybersecurity plan can face. In a recent study, 55% of survey respondents noted that human error and lack of cybersecurity awareness is their top concern. Even though they were concerned, 44% of the survey respondents stated they did not know how to discover who should be counted among the most at-risk employees for a major mistake.
So how can an organization add protection that helps guard against damage done by employee cybersecurity mistakes if it doesn’t know who might be in line to make those mistakes? By adding a strong guardian that protects your systems and data from all sorts of cybersecurity disasters that’s both effective and cost-effective.
Using a secure identity and access management solution like Passly to guard your access points is the fastest way to stop many of today’s worst threats without breaking the bank. It’s a crucial mitigation for today’s flexible workforce, enhancing security no matter where your staff is working from. That’s why more than 40% of CISOs chose secure identity and access management as their top cybersecurity priority in 2021.
The biggest shield that you gain against cybercrime with Passly is multifactor authentication. This single mitigation on its own can stop more than 90% of password-based cybercrime. That includes the majority of attacks based on credential compromise, the damage from password theft by phishing, the dangers of reused passwords and many other common human error driven catastrophes. Multifactor authentication is an absolute must-have for every business.
Every employee makes errors. Security awareness training and building a strong cybersecurity culture are important to reducing the incidence of mistakes, but you’ll never stop them all. By taking the proper precautions against damage caused by human error, you can keep your systems and data safe even when staffers aren’t on their toes.
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