Security Archives - Page 2 of 10

Elastic Computing Revolutionizes Business Dynamics

by EstesCloud | Sep 26, 2023 | Backup, Business Consulting, Business Direction, Cloud, Disaster Recovery, Distribution, ERP, Managed IT Services, Prophet 21, Security, SYSPRO

Cloud Resources are Changing the Manufacturing and Distribution Industry Landscapes

In the world of cloud options for businesses, elastic computing refers to the ability to dynamically scale computing resources up or down based on demand, without the need for significant manual intervention. It involves the use of cloud computing and virtualization technologies to provide flexibility and cost-efficiency in managing IT infrastructure. This allows for greater flexibility and scalability, as resources can be easily scaled up or down based on dynamic business needs. Cloud computing also eliminates the need for organizations to invest in and maintain their own physical infrastructure, such as on-site servers, reducing costs and increasing efficiency.

What is Virtualization?

Virtualization, on the other hand, involves creating a virtual version of a device or resource, such as a server, operating system, or storage device. This virtualization technology allows multiple virtual instances to run on a single physical machine, effectively maximizing the utilization of hardware resources. By consolidating multiple virtual machines onto a single physical server, organizations can reduce the number of physical servers required, leading to cost savings in terms of hardware, power, and cooling.

Bringing Cloud and Virtualization Together

When combined, cloud computing and virtualization technologies offer numerous benefits for managing IT infrastructure. Firstly, they provide flexibility in terms of resource allocation. With cloud computing, organizations can easily scale up or down their computing resources based on their needs, ensuring that they have the right amount of resources at any given time. Virtualization allows for the efficient utilization of hardware resources, enabling organizations to make the most of their existing infrastructure.

Pay-As-You-Go, Quick-To-Market Technologies

At the end of the day, new cloud-based technologies offer cost savings throughout the entire business ecosystem. By leveraging cloud computing, organizations can avoid the upfront costs associated with purchasing and maintaining physical infrastructure. Instead, they can pay for the resources they actually use on a pay-as-you-go basis.

Virtualization further reduces costs by allowing organizations to consolidate their hardware resources, reducing the number of physical servers required and the associated costs of power, cooling, and maintenance.

Additionally, cloud computing and virtualization technologies enhance the agility and scalability of IT infrastructure. With cloud computing, organizations can quickly provision and deploy resources, allowing for faster time-to-market for new applications and services. Virtualization enables organizations to easily scale their infrastructure up or down based on demand, ensuring that they can meet changing business needs without disruption.

Furthermore, these technologies improve the reliability and availability of IT infrastructure. Cloud computing providers typically offer robust infrastructure with built-in redundancy and failover mechanisms, ensuring high availability of services.

Virtualization also enhances reliability by isolating virtual machines from each other, preventing issues in one virtual machine from affecting others.

The use of cloud computing and virtualization technologies in managing IT infrastructure provides organizations with flexibility, cost-efficiency, agility, scalability, reliability, and availability. By leveraging these technologies, organizations can optimize their resource utilization, reduce costs, and improve their overall IT operations. Here are the top 10 benefits of elastic computing for manufacturing and distribution businesses:

Scalability

Elastic computing allows businesses to easily scale their IT infrastructure to accommodate fluctuating demand, ensuring that resources are available when needed without over-provisioning.

Cost Efficiency

By scaling resources up or down as required, businesses can optimize their IT costs, paying only for the computing power they actually use, reducing overall expenses.

Resource Optimization

It enables efficient use of computing resources, avoiding underutilization during periods of low demand and preventing resource bottlenecks during peak periods.

Improved Performance

Elasticity ensures that applications and systems can maintain consistent performance levels even during traffic spikes or increased workloads.

Flexibility

Businesses can quickly adapt to changing market conditions or unexpected events, such as seasonal variations in demand or unforeseen disruptions by adjusting computing resources in real time.

Reduced Downtime

Elastic computing minimizes the risk of system failures or downtime due to resource constraints, as additional resources can be provisioned automatically in response to increased load.

Enhanced Disaster Recovery

Elastic computing can support robust disaster recovery and backup solutions, enabling businesses to replicate their systems across multiple locations or cloud regions for data redundancy and resilience.

Global Reach

Businesses can leverage cloud providers’ global data center networks to expand their operations into new regions and markets without the need for physical infrastructure investments.

Resource Isolation

Elastic computing can provide resource isolation and security, ensuring that applications and data remain protected even when sharing cloud infrastructure with other users.

Agility and Innovation

With the ability to rapidly provision and experiment with new resources and technologies, businesses can innovate more quickly and bring new products or services to market faster.

The Value in Cloud Elasticity

In manufacturing and distribution, elastic computing is particularly valuable because it allows companies to handle seasonal demand fluctuations, respond to supply chain disruptions, and efficiently manage their IT costs. In today’s fast-paced and ever-changing marketplace, businesses need to be agile in order to stay competitive. This means being able to quickly adapt to new trends, technologies, and customer demands. Agility allows companies to respond swiftly to market changes, seize new opportunities, and stay ahead of the competition.

However, agility alone is not enough. Businesses also need to ensure the reliability and performance of their critical systems. These systems are the backbone of the organization, supporting key operations and processes. Any downtime or performance issues can have severe consequences, such as lost revenue, damaged reputation, and dissatisfied customers.

By combining agility with reliability and performance, businesses can achieve a winning formula. They can swiftly respond to market changes while maintaining the stability and efficiency of their critical systems. This requires a careful balance between innovation and stability, as well as a robust infrastructure and effective risk management strategies.

Agility enables businesses to quickly adapt their strategies, products, and services to meet changing customer needs and preferences. It allows them to experiment, iterate, and pivot as necessary, without being tied down by rigid processes or outdated technologies. This flexibility is crucial in a dynamic marketplace where customer expectations are constantly evolving.

On the other hand, reliability and performance ensure that businesses can deliver on their promises consistently. Customers expect products and services to work flawlessly, without any disruptions or delays. Critical systems, such as e-commerce platforms, supply chain management systems, or customer support systems, need to be highly available, scalable, and efficient. This requires robust infrastructure, rigorous testing, and proactive monitoring to identify and address any issues before they impact the business.

Why Manufacturers and Distributors are Choosing EstesCloud

Businesses need both agility, reliability, and performance to thrive in today’s dynamic manufacturing and distribution industry landscape. Agility allows companies to adapt and innovate, while reliability and performance ensure that their critical systems can support their operations effectively. By striking the right balance between these two factors, businesses can remain competitive, deliver exceptional customer experiences, and achieve long-term success.

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ChatGPT Security? Tell Me About Your Motherboard

by EstesCloud | Apr 19, 2023 | Backup, Cloud, Disaster Recovery, ERP Risks and Challenges, Hosting, Managed IT Services, Network Administration, Network Security, Security

ChatGPT security concerns reveal that business owners are hesitant to let AI replace humans.

In November 2022, OpenAI introduced ChatGPT, an artificially intelligent, natural language chatbot. ChatGPT interacts with its users in uncannily humanistic and intelligent ways.

ChatGPT (Conversational Generative Pre-trained Transformer) is a new type of artificial intelligence technology that is being developed to improve the way people interact with machines. While it is intended to provide faster and more intuitive responses to queries, it also carries potential security risks, especially for business owners.

The main concern is that, due to its complex nature, it could result in the loss of private data at great cost to companies and their employees. Furthermore, the technology could lead to a lack of control over data and give hackers the power to manipulate user behavior. This could be particularly damaging to those who rely on personal data to make decisions, such as financial services.

Additionally, ChatGPT could potentially cause unintended consequences, such as decreased privacy, as well as a lack of transparency. Therefore, it is essential to understand the implications of this technology before it is put into use.

The capabilities of ChatGPT and other Artificially Intelligent (AI) platforms are truly astounding. Users can ask ChatGPT questions and expect meaningful, accurate answers. However, these advancements in AI and chatbot technology come with their own set of compliance, privacy, and cybersecurity concerns.

For instance, as these AI platforms become more sophisticated, they may begin to store more personal data and analyze user behavior. This could lead to potential privacy violations and other security risks:

AI-powered chatbots are particularly vulnerable to malicious attacks, as hackers may attempt to exploit vulnerabilities in AI platforms in order to gain access to sensitive information, manipulate data, or disrupt operations.
Additionally, AI-powered chatbots may be vulnerable to social engineering attacks, wherein hackers may use techniques such as phishing, impersonation, and disinformation to gain access to systems or manipulate people.
Furthermore, AI-powered chatbots may be vulnerable to data poisoning attacks, wherein hackers may input malicious data into AI systems in order to corrupt their output.
Finally, AI-powered chatbots may be vulnerable to adversarial attacks, wherein hackers may use sophisticated methods to fool the AI system into producing incorrect results.

These attacks can be used to gain access to valuable data, disrupt operations, or even cause physical harm. As such, it is important for businesses to take the necessary steps to protect their AI platforms from potential cyber threats.

The question and answer exchange feature of a chat-based AI tool allows users to exchange information and collect personal data, making it easier to target specific audiences with tailored content.

AI security issues surface greater challenges in company data management.

Sophisticated chatbots provide an efficient way to generate content quickly, allowing users to quickly respond to customer requests or create high-quality content. As AI systems collect data, threat actors can scavenge for personal data, such as payment information or an email address. Something immediately helpful in customer relationship management soon becomes a data management nightmare.

Aside from the entertainment and educational capabilities of this new AI technology, ChatGPT and its other rival AI platforms have the potential to revolutionize the internet and working atmospheres.

In the technology realm, IT workers can use ChatGPT to enhance their development by asking the tool to quickly write or revise code. Considering the capabilities of AI platforms, it’s no wonder why companies are investing in and implementing AI technology.

However, like many other technological advances in history, AI platforms have potential privacy and cybersecurity risks. Recently, Italy, Spain, and other European countries have raised concerns about the potential privacy violations that could arise from using ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence (AI) platform. As a result, these countries have sought to introduce new regulations to ensure that ChatGPT respects the privacy of its users.

In particular, these regulations would require the platform to limit the collection, use, and disclosure of users’ personal data, as well as to ensure that users are able to access, modify, or delete the personal data they have provided to the platform. The regulations would require ChatGPT to take appropriate steps to ensure that any personal data collected is adequately protected from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. This includes implementing appropriate technical and organizational measures such as encryption, pseudonymization, and secure storage systems.

ChatGPT would also be required to provide users with clear and detailed information about how their personal data is being used, such as the purposes for which it is being collected and processed, the categories of data being collected, how long it will be stored, and who it will be shared with. Furthermore, ChatGPT would need to ensure that users are aware of their rights in relation to their personal data, including their right to access and to request rectification or deletion of their data.

Many countries have banned ChatGPT. Under the Biden administration, the United States will roll out a comprehensive national security strategy to address the growing threat of hacking and malicious use of artificial intelligence (AI) platforms. This strategy will involve the coordination of multiple federal departments and agencies, including the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. It will also require close coordination with international partners and allies, as well as the private sector and civil society organizations to ensure that the strategy is effective and comprehensive in scope.

The strategy will include a focus on protecting critical infrastructure, strengthening deterrence and detection capabilities, improving information sharing and collaboration, and developing new technologies to protect against malicious cyber threats and malicious AI use. The strategy will also involve enhancing international cooperation and engagement to counter malicious cyber activities, as well as increasing public and private investments in cyber security research and development.

The Biden administration will also be seeking to build public-private partnerships to improve the security of both public and private sector networks and systems. AI platforms are increasingly becoming popular due to their innovative and highly capable nature. However, these platforms are not without their risks and need to be assessed by multiple parties.

Cybercriminals are constantly looking for ways to take advantage of these platforms, targeting them in order to steal confidential information, generate malicious software, or gain access to data systems. These types of cyber attacks can have serious implications for the security of the platform and its users, resulting in the loss of valuable data, financial information, and sensitive personal information. Therefore, it is essential that organizations take the necessary steps to protect their AI platforms against these types of malicious attacks. This includes implementing robust security measures and regularly monitoring the platform for any suspicious activities. Additionally, it is important to stay up to date with the latest cybersecurity trends and technologies in order to ensure that the AI platform remains secure and protected.

Although OpenAI has programmed ChatGPT with the appropriate rules to prevent abuse, hackers have already figured out how to “jailbreak” the platform. In as little as a minute, hackers can generate malicious code for criminal intent. Prior to utilizing ChatGPT, their efforts may have taken days or even weeks.

AI-generated malware and cybersecurity attacks have already occurred. For example, hackers recently used ChatGPT to generate apps that successfully hijacked Facebook users’ accounts.

Preventing cybersecurity attacks and data breaches are of utmost importance for companies that desire to protect their sensitive data and minimize their costs, and now that hackers are using AI platforms to further their criminal activities, it is imperative, now more than ever, for companies to seek the best security solutions.

EstesGroup offers EstesCloud services to protect companies’ private data and systems from cybercriminals who may use new AI platforms for malicious intent. EstesCloud protects companies in a changing society in which AI technology is accelerating and enhancing hackers’ criminal activities. ChatGPT security is included in the private cloud and hybrid cloud infrastructures that we create for our clients.

ChatGPT security isn’t an issue when your powerful, highly capable AI and ERP tools are protected in a reputable data center. EstesGroup is ready to protect companies from hackers who use ChatGPT and other AI platforms to attempt to breach their data systems. The new AI technology will inevitably advance in the future, and as companies embrace and implement AI platforms, security solutions, like EstesCloud, will be necessary to safeguard private data and protect data systems.

EstesGroup realizes that innovation requires responsibility and security solutions, and the Estes’ team of highly skilled and dedicated professionals are ready to assist companies that seek the best cloud protection. Only time will tell how AI platforms will transform company atmospheres, but companies can rest assured that EstesGroup is ready for an artificially intelligent future.

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How to Respect Data Privacy in 2023

by EstesCloud | Jan 25, 2023 | Disaster Recovery, HIPAA, Managed IT Services, Network Security, Security

Data Privacy Week is an annual expanded effort from Data Privacy Day — taking place from January 22 – 28, 2023. The goal of Data Privacy Week is to spread awareness about online privacy among individuals and organizations. The goal is twofold: to help citizens understand that they have the power to manage their data and to help organizations understand why it is important that they respect their users’ data.

As a Data Privacy Week Champion, EstesGroup recognizes and supports the principle that all organizations share the responsibility of being conscientious stewards of personal information.

Data Privacy in 2023: The Story of You that You Wish to Tell

All of your online activity generates a trail of data. Websites, apps, and services collect data on your behaviors, interests, and purchases. Sometimes, this includes personal data, like your Social Security and driver’s license numbers. It can even include data about your physical self, like health data – think about how a smartwatch counts and records how many steps you take. If you are a company owner, you hold the responsibility of protecting your employees and customers by keeping your business data private with the help of cybersecurity solutions that follow compliance regulations.

While it’s true that you cannot control how each byte of data about you and your family is shared and processed, you are not helpless! In many cases, you can control how you share your data with a few simple steps. Remember, your data is precious, and you deserve to be selective about who you share it with!

How Businesses Can Respect Data Privacy

Respecting the privacy of your customers, staff, and all other stakeholders is critical for inspiring trust and enhancing reputation. According to the Pew Research Center, 79% of U.S. adults report being concerned about the way their data is being used by companies. By being open about how you use data and respecting privacy, you can stand out from your competition.

Be transparent about how you collect, use, and share consumers’ personal information. Think about how the consumer may expect their data to be used. Design settings to protect their information by default. Communicate clearly and concisely to the public what privacy means to your organization, as well as the steps you take to achieve and maintain privacy.

Learn More About Data Privacy Week

About Data Privacy Week

Data Privacy Week began as Data Privacy Day in the United States and Canada in January 2008 as an extension of the Data Protection Day celebration in Europe. Data Protection Day commemorates the Jan. 28, 1981, signing of Convention 108, the first legally binding international treaty dealing with privacy and data protection. NCA, the nation’s leading nonprofit, public-private partnership promoting cybersecurity and privacy education and awareness, leads the effort in North America each year.

About the National Cybersecurity Alliance

The National Cybersecurity Alliance is a non-profit organization on a mission to create a more secure, interconnected world. We advocate for the safe use of all technology and educate everyone on how best to protect ourselves, our families, and our organizations from cybercrime. We create strong partnerships between governments and corporations to amplify our message and to foster a greater “digital” good.

Learn how a private or hybrid cloud strategy can help your business with data privacy management today. Please fill out the form below to schedule a free consultation with our ERP, IT or Cloud Services experts, and we’ll do all we can to help your business run better!

Cybersecurity Insurance Policy Pleasantries

by EstesCloud | Apr 26, 2022 | Cloud, Managed IT Services, Network Security, Security

Do you feel like your business insurance policy will cover you in the event of a digital disaster? If you’re online, you’re at risk, and small and medium businesses that engage in e-commerce are especially vulnerable to threats. To prepare for zero-day cyber attacks and other threats, you can enroll in a cybersecurity insurance plan. Let’s have a look at how you can protect yourself against losses by using cyber security solutions and cybersecurity insurance together.

Cybersecurity Insurance Estes Cloud Security

How much cybersecurity insurance coverage do you need?

Your coverage should match your maximum level of acceptable losses. Your risk increases as your online presence grows, and each year cybercrime gets smarter, with novelty attacks arising from talented dark web lurkers.

Hackers never rest, and security software IT companies must match their energy and their creativity. As a business owner, you face the great responsibility of securing your servers, your networks, your employees, and your customers. Even with everything protected by cybersecurity software solutions or by SECaaS (Security as a Service) management, you’ll want to ensure that your insurance coverage offers some hope if and when digital disaster strikes.

Know your cyber risks
Know your cyber threats
Know how much cyber insurance coverage you need
Know how the cyber security landscape is evolving

What is cybersecurity insurance?

Like healthcare insurance can’t prevent you from getting sick, cybersecurity insurance can’t prevent you from getting hacked. Therefore, your first step should be to buy a comprehensive cybersecurity solution. Do not trust a default security installation or setting. Zero-day attacks, often in the form of ransomware, evolve beyond the fundamental levels of cybersecurity. A basic security assessment, including a dark web scan, is a free service from a managed IT service provider like EstesGroup, and can reveal any issues that could result in a breach. Before you buy cybersecurity insurance, assess your risks and know your current threats.

Your next step is to invest in a comprehensive cybersecurity insurance plan. Understanding that insurance coverage is an aftereffect activity, like cleaning up downed trees following a thunderstorm. Breach cleanup can be as simple as credit monitoring or as complex as lawsuits and shutdowns.

Some industries regulate the level of protection you need. If you’re unsure about your industry compliance regulations, talk to EstesGroup consultants. In most cases, cyber incidents can be prevented by following the strict government guidelines that govern your industry.

In the event of a security breach, a cybersecurity insurance plan can help you redeem your losses, protect your reputation, and recover damages.

Cybersecurity insurance should include coverage for the things that matter most to your business operations, from server to remote worker:

System or network takeovers
Financial losses
Data breaches
Sensitive information theft
Data theft
Ransomware extortion payments
Company losses
Customer information breaches
Personal information and identity theft
General liability
Business interruption

If you store sensitive data on-premise or on a local server, you’ll need more comprehensive coverage since in-house and local systems are easily breached. Consider storing your data in a private cloud or a hybrid cloud platform for enhanced security and lower cyber insurance requirements. A good data center will offer a 100% SLA (service level agreement) and carry the risk of the losses mentioned above for you, which means you don’t have to worry about a cyberattack. The cloud provider and data center are mitigating these risks for you.

A managed service provider scans the cybersecurity insurance policies and insurance companies for you.

Cybersecurity insurance plans are a common loss for companies because business owners often overspend, thinking more money invested means lower risk. Don’t get tricked by the nefarious ways of fly-by-night cybersecurity insurance agents. EstesGroup is here to help you navigate relationships with cybersecurity professionals. Some of the experts you need to plan your cybersecurity policies and protocols are in-house at EstesGroup. And when it comes to things like cybersecurity insurance, the Estes team can serve as your liaison so that you get the best rates, the best services, and the best future for your business.

Is your business safe?

If you have a level of cybersecurity insurance that falls in your comfort zone, and if you have security services in place that will indeed protect your data in an attempted breach, then you will operate as a trusted business in the digital world. If you’ve suffered losses to your business or to your reputation because of a security breach, please reach out to us. Sometimes even the best solutions fail, and our managed IT services team can help you recover from disaster and surface vulnerabilities as they develop in your business.

How much does insurance cost your business every year? 2022 cybersecurity insurance rates are skyrocketing as the digital landscape is becoming more dangerous for American businesses. Even small businesses can benefit from liability coverage. Let’s begin a conversation about how digital transformation can help secure your business. We even protect the insurance firms!

Let's talk about how to protect your business.

Go Hybrid Workforce, Go Hybrid Cloud

by EstesCloud | Apr 7, 2022 | Backup, Cloud, Hosting, Managed IT Services, Network Security, Security

As part of a post-pandemic plan, businesses are solidifying and strengthening remote worker infrastructure and allowing employees to bounce between casual and corporate office settings. As a long-term commitment to flexible work environments and work-life balance, companies are increasing remote worker support by deploying private and hybrid cloud infrastructure to secure, protect, and optimize a hybrid workforce.

Solutions Like Microsoft Teams for Remote Teams

Teams are divided like never before, and this has proven to be a good thing. By allowing a hybrid workforce, you empower workers to choose the best setting for the work at hand. Social distancing requirements necessitated home offices, but in a post-pandemic era, that same flexible cloud-based infrastructure can allow workers to tap into secure software solutions, like Microsoft Teams, and complete their work from home, or from a hotel or other remote setting. Microsoft Teams provides an innovative toolset, giving remote workers everything they need to communicate and organize workflows.

When employees are dispersed, employers have to be creative with the software solutions they choose for basic business communication and operation. A secure network infrastructure needs to be properly managed so that productivity levels stay high. Employees must understand the tools they’re given, and they also need to be trained so that they understand the risks of remote connectivity. A software like Microsoft 365 comes with basic cybersecurity by default, but these cloud-based solutions require trained users, good management, and often need supplemental software and services, like SECaaS (Security as a Service).

Benefits of the Hybrid Cloud for a Hybrid Workforce

The main objective of a hybrid system, whether it be a hybrid cloud or a hybrid workforce, is to create optimal work productivity, low turnover of talented staff, and high ROI (return on investment) of purchased software and services. When you’re combining on-premise technology with remote enablement tools, you’ll need to invest in a cloud management team that understands the risks of hybrid systems.

Digital Transformation Results in More Access, Better Resources

In a hybrid cloud environment, employers can create coast-to-coast and even international teams without increasing the risk of a security breach. With managed IT services in place, companies can use specialized external staff to maintain the cloud platform, using technology to stay relevant and competitive.

Working with a Managed Service Provider (MSP) helps your business by giving you a complete suite of technology solutions and skills for every IT need that comes with hybrid systems. If your employees need to access your company data from a home office, then you can ensure that the web browser is protected by state-of-the-art cybersecurity solution.

What Cloud Does Your Hybrid Workforce Need?

If you’ve always done business in an on-premises infrastructure, then the shift to remote work might have put your sensitive data at risk early in the pandemic when companies weren’t aware of the risks of public cloud services and public cloud environments. Now that hybrid work is becoming a “benefit,” similar to a company discount program or company car, hybrid cloud solutions are replacing the basic web-browser access of the remote workforce of the past.

An off-premises data center can create a cost-effect hybrid cloud architecture, giving you a robust backup and disaster recovery solution for all of your software, including those that work by default in a public cloud capacity.

Can Public Clouds Turn Hybrid Workforces Into Hybrid Monsters?

If you Google “cloud,” you’ll see that a business cloud strategy means something different to everyone. When creating the cloud-based infrastructure for your remote employees, you should carefully design your cloud to give you the uptime, backup, and security you need to manage your business. Be leery of promises of the simplicity of public cloud offerings. Take on-premise technology and private cloud solutions into consideration before letting a third-party vendor limit you to the public cloud.

Please Fill Out the Form Below to Get a Free Hybrid Workforce Assessment

Let’s begin a conversation and see if your business would benefit from a robust private or hybrid cloud solution. EstesGroup helps businesses by bringing industry expertise along with the best consultants and technology the world has to offer.

Staff Security Training Tips: What You Get Is What You Click

by EstesCloud | Feb 25, 2022 | Disaster Recovery, Hosting, Managed IT Services, Network Security, Security, Software

Security Training for Your Employees is Critical in Times of Pandemic and Political Unrest

Do you have a “get this spam away from me” approach to digital communication management? It can be tempting to be strict, to set privacy and filtering settings at the max and limit online interactions from strangers. However, our email boxes often lead us to opportunities and relationships that will ensure future business success. With this in mind, we’d like to help you understand how staff security training allows you to keep your business open to outside communication while preventing a data breach.

Staff Security Training Secure Network Secure Server Grid

Digital Stranger Danger

Clicking on links is often something we do without thinking, so it’s important to provide staff security training that truly tests an employee’s impulsive online behaviors. Business owners can incorporate fraudulent link prevention strategies into routine security assessments, testing, and training by hiring a cybersecurity firm to randomly test users. This provides real data about user behavior in both the traditional office and in remote office settings.

Fake Link Identification and Education

Training your staff to know how to see a hacking attempt is considered a proactive cybersecurity strategy. Some business owners out there are comfortable with risk and choose a reactive strategy to security breaches.

Proactive Security

Backup and disaster recovery planning
Staff security training
Network assessments and testing

Reactive Security

Paying a ransomware fee to recover business data
Issuing a cyber incident alert after a breach
Testing backups and live system data for malware after a breach

If your goal is to prevent a security breach, then you need a proactive strategy, and this should entail staff security training.

Malicious Link Monitoring

To some business owners, a “bad” link is anything clicked that threatens privacy. In a world of email communication and marketing (often invited through a subscribe button), it’s best to train staff to recognize fake links, rather than to broadly and strictly limit communication to the outside world. However, robust endpoint security options might be your best option if you own highly sensitive data. You wouldn’t want a potential customer to end up in a spam folder, but you don’t want to risk losing compliance certifications, either. If you give your employees the tools and training needed to recognize hacking attempts, then you can safely do business online without the worries of ransomware.

URL Verification

Our top recommendation is to train your employees to observe all web addresses, or URLs. Phishing attempts often use recognized brands to trick you. With security training, your staff learns how to quickly recognize imitation URLs. Once you recognize the common patterns of cybercriminals, you can easily recognize links posing as legitimate companies. A URL might include an underscore or other symbol that doesn’t appear in the original web address.

Website verification falls into a spectrum of risk — like anything else in the world of cybersecurity. You might decide to train staff to be more aware of common edits hackers make to URLs. You might go further and train users how to right click on the address to gather more information about the hyperlink. You might use tighter measures in order to meeting compliance regulations for handling sensitive data:

Anti-phishing software
Virtual isolation protocols
Outsourced managed IT security

Education is readily available for your staff. The Phish Scale, developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), is an excellent example of free training available on their website.

Even the most careful clickers can fall into a hacker’s trap. This frequently happens when the name of a legitimate company is used as a malicious hyperlink.

Email Monitoring

How full is your “Junk Email” box? Smart mailboxes usually send suspicious, or unknown, emails to a junk folder. Some programs go one step further and prevent a user from opening a “junk” or “spam” email unless it it first moved to an inbox. Email monitoring software often comes with a free trial period, so you can gauge how effective the solution is at preventing security risks through a spam filter for incoming emails.

How can you prevent your staff from opening junk email? Phishing scams result in more than 90% of security breaches in some geographical areas, with around 3 out of every 4 American businesses falling prey to an email-based cyberattack.

Because of the prevalence of phishing attacks, email monitoring needs to include a human. Software is a step in the right direction, but staff security training makes your cybersecurity solution more effective.

Employees gain email monitoring skills that complement antivirus and malware monitoring solutions
Employees learn how to identify the authenticity of websites and URLs, email addresses and emails, phone numbers and text messages, as well as other contact information sources that could be altered to trigger malicious attacks
Employees develop intuition for recognition of a cyberattack and learn how to launch a proactive security alert to coworkers
Employees learn how to train and test one another, creating a self-monitoring environment conducive to productivity

Email boxes are a common information security risk for unauthorized access to company information, as well as personal information. View your mail server as a data security risk, and see your junk email folder as a soft problem-solving step toward more robust protection like full server monitoring intrinsic to a private cloud hosted environment.

Cyber threats are getting smarter and can take advantage of an operating system that needs to be patched or of a user mindlessly clicking on a “junk e mail” posing as a junk email. Small edits can help phishing attacks get through even the best software, and can trick even the most suspicious and judicious humans. If you need more robust technical support than your internal IT team can offer, then partner with a managed service provider (MSP) like EstesGroup for expertise when you need it.

IT Support and Staff Security Training Services for Your Business

EstesGroup is a leader in the fusion of cutting-edge enterprise resource planning (ERP), business software solutions, and human talent. If you are concerned about the rise in successful phishing attacks and other malicious cyberthreats, then you should sign up for a free technology assessment today. You are a short phone call away from knowing if you need a more advanced security audit or even a penetration test. For more security tips, please register for one of our virtual events. Do you have an immediate cybersecurity concern? Talk to an IT support specialist now.