CyberSecurity: Why your organisation needs to Get Wise to the New Threat Landscape

The CyberSecurity landscape changes every day, with new actors, new threats, new schemes, and new ways to infiltrate websites, emails, devices, and almost anything that is connected to the internet. We’re constantly reading about the rise of spear phishing, DDoS attacks, global malware threats, ransomware, CEO fraud, and more.

Despite all of the attention that CyberSecurity is receiving, there is still a widely held belief in the small- to medium-sized business or organization (SMB) that cyberattacks happen to someone else - the “Ostrich Effect”

Apparently, this is something that is prevalent in humans; it is our natural instinct to avoid unpleasant or difficult news or situations. Unfortunately, hiding from a problem doesn’t make it go away. It just continues without you, delaying the inevitable.

This is the state of CyberSecurity in the SMB market today. The threat exists. It’s real. It’s growing. It is not going away, and if we continue to bury our heads in the sand, it is going to get much worse. 

Ransomware as a Service or RaaS is a direct threat to SMBs

SMBs should be aware that Ransomware as a Service (RaaS) can be used by anyone with the desire to commit cyberextortion and this has changed the threat landscape. SMB's are now at more risk than ever before.
Consider these statistics:

1. Cybercrime is expected to cost the world over $6 trillion USD by 2021.
2. SMBs are under attack as cybercriminals understand SMBs have fewer resources and far less protection than larger entities.
3. Half of all cyberattacks are against SMBs.
4. Ostrich Effect statistics: 77% of SMBs say their companies are safe from cyberattacks, yet 83% of them have no formal cybersecurity plan.
5. 6 out of 10 SMBs do not have a contingency plan should they undergo a cyberattack.
6. 66% of SMBs say they are not worried about a cyberattack.
7. Most SMBs do not have policies in place to provide procedures for employees in the case of an attack.
8. While most small businesses feel that they have adequate protection for themselves and their customers, Visa, Inc. reports that SMBs represent over 90% of payment data breaches.  
9. Most small businesses do not have any cybersecurity training in place for their employees, while 83% of breaches are caused by untrained employees being duped by phishing and spear phishing activities.

Being Proactive is the Way to Defend against Cyberattacks

While the news on the CyberSecurity front is daunting, SMBs with a proactive plan of protection are far less likely to suffer a breach. When considering a plan for protection, these four areas should be reviewed:

1. Risk Assessment—it is critical to know what data is at risk, where it is, and how to protect it.
2. Risk Remediation—have a process to remove/back up/encrypt data to bring to “clean state.”
3. Protection—utilize advanced technologies to secure a safe environment for your business and your customers.
4. Education—instigate employee CyberSecurity awareness training.

A proactive approach to protection is the key to being safe for most businesses and organisations, whatever their size.

Remember,
if you are connected to the Internet,
you must be protected!

If you would like us to assist, please Ring us now 01-2166 970 or click here to send us a form.

Protect Your Networks with Easy Patch Management

One of the easiest ways for hackers to breach networks is by targeting the vulnerabilities of out-of-date software. It has never been as important to ensure that all devices on your network are correctly patched with the most up to-date software updates.

That’s why keeping software current with the latest security patches
is essential for strong Cybersecurity.

GDK's Remote Monitoring & Management Software (RMM) streamlines patch management by giving you granular control over your patching policies through our Monitored Helpdesk System. Whether you want to automate the entire process, customize patches for certain devices or manually approve or deny patches, RMM gives you peace of mind while getting the job done

• Automatically approve patches based on severity so you don’t miss a critical security update
• Schedule updates for specific maintenance windows to avoid disrupting productivity
• Sup port more software, including critical Microsoft programs and over 80 third party application families

Patches are provided for popular Software including, but not limited to:

• Microsoft Office 365, Exchange, SQL Server,
• Internet Explorer and Windows OS, Java, Adobe, Mozilla Firefox,
• Google Chrome, Apple iTunes and Apple QuickTime.

To assist our clients we install an easy patch management strategy.

If you would like us to assist, please Ring us now 01-2166 970 or click below to send us a form.

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Protect Your Networks with Easy Patch Management

How to prevent Cyber Attacks on your Computers?

Cyber-criminals are constantly evolving their tactics. They employ several complex techniques to avoid detection as they sneak quietly into computer networks to steal valuable information.
How secure is your network?  Explore the four primary strategies cyber-criminals employ to infiltrate your network and learn how to apply best practices and discover what your firewall needs to do to counter the cyber-attacks.

Counter-attack #1
Protect your network every minute of every day. Insist on a firewall that leverages the power of the cloud for real-time countermeasures to the latest malware threats. An effective firewall needs to be continuously updated, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Cyber-attack strategy #1
Bombard networks with malware around the clock. Cyber-criminals work 24/7 to exploit your weaknesses especially out of date anti-malware technology.

Counter-attack #2
Ensure that your network is protected against all types of malware. To stay ahead of threats, consider multiple layers of protection against malware that provides continuous and timely updates to safeguard networks around the clock from millions of new malware variants as soon as they are discovered.

Cyber-attack strategy #2
Infect networks with different forms of malware. Cyber-criminals use different types of malware such as Viruses, Worms, Trojans, Spyware and Adware to catch you off guard. Trojans are designed specifically to extract sensitive data from the network.

Counter-attack #3
Choose a firewall that offers superior threat protection and high performance that has been independently tested and certified for network-based malware protection by ICSA Labs.

Cyber-attack strategy #3
Find and compromise the weakest networks. Cyber-criminals often target their victims based on the network weaknesses they discover

Counter-attack #4
Choose a firewall that protects against global threats. To block the latest global threats, invest in a security solution with global reach.

Cyber-attack strategy #4
Morph frequently and attack globally. New threats are popping up every hour on all continents.

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Conclusion and Recommendations

Cyber-attacks are on the rise and firewall vulnerabilities are creating tangible business risks for your organization today.
GDK can assist you in a variety of ways to protect your computer systems:

1) Review the role of your Firewall:

1. GDK can review your existing configurations and ensure that you have the correct configuration in place to avoid any security exposures.
2. GDK will ensure that that your firewall is maximising the performance of your broadband configuration eg: e-fibre from Eir.
3. GDK will review the Unified Threat Management software included in your firewall which needs to be kept up to date annually

2) Include GDK’s Web Protection as part of your Security Suite as well:

1. Keep your business safe and your end-users protected by securing against websites pushing malware, phishing, proxies, spyware, adware, botnets and spam
2. Apply time-based browsing rules and web content filtering policies across a robust range of website categories
3. Manage bandwidth usage with alerts when devices exceed thresholds - enabling quick remediation to avoid unwanted costs or a throttled network.
   

 3) Implement GDK’s Email Security and Business Continuity Mail Solution as part of your configuration:

1. Provides an additional layer of security for Office 365, blocking threats before they reach a company’s mail, even if, as with Office 365, that email server is cloud-based.
2. Mail-Protection provides a unique combination of technologies to secure your customers' networks against email-borne threats, including zero-hour antivirus defence, virtualization-based malware detection technology and traditional signature-based antivirus engines.
3. Provides improved Spam Protection engines
4. Provides Business Continuity for your email system and secure easy access to archived mail.

If you have any security concerns regarding Internet threats and protecting your business from Cyber Attacks please contact us and we can provide a free consultancy review.  Ring us now or click here to Fill in the Contact Form. 
We are here to assist you.

You can read more on the Cyber Attacks in this eBook