While emails can be an easy and efficient way of following up on chats had at meetings or business deals, it isn’t always as safe as you might assume.
Hackers have developed ways of spying on communication and infiltrating emails within businesses. It is now possible for them to hack into email accounts, without arousing suspicion to the owner or the company that their account has been accessed.
This allows them to read correspondence with colleagues and familiarise themselves with their victims professional relationships, making it easy to know who to target for funds.
If you receive an email from a colleague asking for money for a project – whether you know of it or not, make sure you adhere to this check list;
Am I familiar with the transaction?
Is the email from a plausible source?
Have I checked with them in person (walk over to their desk), or on the phone after the email was sent?
If you aren’t able to get in contact with the sender to verify, investigate yourself. Compare whether the bank details you’re being asked to make a transfer to, match the details you’ve made previous payments to. Scammers can convince you of authenticity by replicating exact email addresses, even senders.
Only once you have checked all of this, is it safe to go ahead with the payment.
Phishing is a fraudulent online method of coaxing sensitive information such as; usernames, passwords, credit card details, medical history, etc. through the use of emails, phone or text.
These emails are designed to seem legitimate and are sent by scammers posing as real people or companies that that person does business with.
In actual fact, they are from attackers looking to infiltrate your system or attain a payment or your credentials. It could include a prompt in the form of a link to a website or a simple request of payment details.
TIPS TO AVOID SCAMS:
1. If the email is from a sender you don’t recognise – DO NOT OPEN IT.
2. If the email is from a sender you DO recognise, but the subject line and message are regarding an issue unknown to you or asking for a payment, always call the person to CONFIRM the details.
3. Double check the sender’s email address – often scammers will misspell or add numbers to a familiar email to make it believable. E.g. if the real email is ‘[email protected]’, the scammer might use ‘[email protected]’
4. If the email isn’t addressed to anyone – be suspicious. If payments are being requested, it should at least greet your personally (Hi John). If the email goes right into requesting funds without any niceties or conversation topics familiar to you and that person, it could be a sign of phishing.
5. Some blackmail hackers will use scare tactics to get you to make a payment. This could be threats such as; ‘We will release your search history to your colleagues’ or ‘We will delete your database’, etc. followed by, ‘unless you make a payment to this account’. Don’t believe it and make your IT department aware.
6. Change your password regularly [See our post about how to create a secure password].
How lovely. Lisa in accounts has a brand new puppy.
It’s taking over her life. There are photos on her desk.
It’s all she seems to talk about. Hey – she even changed her password to
include his name.
And suddenly that puppy has become a security risk to your
business.
Hackers are clever. They look at social media feeds, and build profiles of people based on what they share. You’d be surprised many people base their passwords on their pets or children’s names.
We’ve created a new video about this very subject. You need to watch it now.
There are many factors to consider when making the choice between hiring
an in-house tech team or a managed serviced provider (MSP). A managed service
provider is a company that manages client’s IT infrastructure and end-user
systems, remotely. Businesses usually
hire MSPs to provide them with a recurring, subscription-type service with
different support features based on their company needs.
By ‘support’, we mean the dedicated team in charge of your staff’s tech.
This is everything from physically installing hardware to email set-up,
software installation and virus damage control.
For small companies, MSPs might be more cost effective rather than an
in-house tech team. If you have few computers and your relationship or primary
mode of communication with your clients isn’t dependant on the smooth running
of your tech, it might be futile to fork out large salaries to technicians who
are hardly needed.
By choosing remote support you can select a plan that works for you.
This could be pay-as-you-go, monthly or yearly support with on-call assistance
– the flexibility of the conditions of your tech support are negotiable between
yourself and the company you choose.
An in-house technician might only have general knowledge and not always
know the best method to care of your staff’s tech needs. If you have a large
company however, with 50+ staff that require a tech guy on hand to deal with
minor issues e.g. email set-up, internet connectivity, it would be cheaper to
add a technician to the permanent team. MSPs have high hourly rates and can
charge more for call-outs. When you’re paying these rates for small problems
that happen frequently, you’ll begin to see which option is most
cost-efficient.
Managed service providers (which is what we are), house a full team of
technicians with a broad spectrum of specialist knowledge and skills. Where one
technician might still be learning a topic, another might thrive in it. An MSP
team is constantly learning about new software, systems, devices and completing
training courses in order to stay up-to-date with evolving technologies, to
deliver a comprehensive service to the large range of clients they cater to.
If it sounds like your company would be better off with an MSP – we are
one!
Our CEO is extremely accessible and loves talking to new clients – seeing
how we can best tailor our plethora of services to come up with a plan that works
best for you.
Give us a call or send an email and you’ll hear from him directly.
From the
tech team at iceConnect, to anyone sat at a desk, struggling to find the
document they minimised ten minutes ago, here are a few handy keyboard
shortcuts we deemed the most necessary to know.
Ctrl + ‘S’ =
Save document
Ctrl + ‘C’ =
Copy text
Ctrl + ‘V’ =
Paste text
Ctrl + ‘X’ =
Cut text
Ctrl + ‘Z’ =
Undo action
Ctrl + ‘Y’ =
Redo action
Ctrl + ‘B’ =
Make text bold
Ctrl + ‘I’
= Italics
Ctrl + ‘U’
= Underline text
Ctrl + F =
Find word
Shift + Arrow
keys = Highlight text
Windows key + ‘L’ = Lock computer
Windows key + comma = Peek at desktop
Windows key + ‘T’ = Look through apps on task bar
Windows key + arrow keys = Change window size
Windows key + ‘D’ = Minimises everything to show desktop and again to bring everything back up
Windows key + Shift + ‘S’ = Screenshot part of screen
Shift +
Windows key + Left & Right arrows = Move window to another monitor (multiple screens)
Shift + Windows key + Up & Down arrows = Minimise and close window
Alt + Tab =
Quickly switch between windows – helpful to find pop up windows
When starting a business, being able to track your growth accurately and protect your ideas and business plans is important. Ninety percent of all start-ups fail within the first year. You should optimise every cog in the machine that contributes to the smooth take off of your business and lands you in that tenth percentile.
Whatever
sector you find yourself in, it is highly unlikely you won’t require some sort
of IT or tech to get you started. As well as the standard smart phone and
emails, here are five IT essentials that will ensure any hiccups in the road,
won’t be because of the tech.
1. Computers (obviously)
You’ll need a devise to carry out basic business such as accessing the internet, emailing, compiling reports, etc.
While a phone is handy and can do nearly everything
a computer can, sometimes when doing real work you need a bigger screen and the
ability to type – so consider portability.
Will you need to access files and emails from
remote locations or on-the-go?
If your start-up hasn’t established offices and a
permanent working space with monitors and desktops, laptops and tablets are
key.
Consider a screen size that works for you. Do you carry bags that will fit larger
laptops? Do you need a bigger screen to see detailed images? What sort of job
do you have and what features do you require from the device? Are you in a
creative field and need touch screen or boosted graphics? Will any portable
device with Microsoft Office, suffice?
All to take into account when choosing your brand
and size.
As you’re presumably trying to spend money smartly,
you don’t have to go for the premium, high range products. Having said this
don’t cheap out and opt for unreliable tech with a short life span. Mid-range
if perfect for new companies. As you grow and learn what best suites the needs
of the business you may find changes with your devices need to be made or
replacements and upgrades. It will be the safe option as you haven’t spent a
small fortune on a laptop that you decide isn’t for you after a year and you
haven’t jeopardised your work with shoddy equipment.
2. Online Storage
More often than not, it is easier and more efficient
to store files and important information onto some sort of cloud. The
unpredictability of saving crucial documents onto physical devices – with an
array of scenarios in which you could lose or break them, is too risky. With
all the options on offer there’s no reason not to utilise online storage. It is
cost effective and saves physical space.
With apps and sites such as Dropbox, Google Drive
and iCloud files can be instantly backed up and accessed from anywhere with an
internet connection.
This eliminates the need to rummage through your
belongings for the correct USB and the most recent version of a file that
you’ve saved five times.
3. Security
With sensitive information and everything you use
to track your company’s operations, all stored on a tech device, imagine the
catastrophe when you lose it all to a silly virus.
Antivirus software is like an umbrella in the rain.
Even if you don’t have a start-up, protecting your device from a virus is just
good sense
4. Phone Systems
If your business is customer/client focused, a
primary method of communication with them can be via telephone. This can be a
tricky process to keep track of and analyse if you don’t have the correct
system in place to monitor it.
You mightn’t have ever thought to use your phone
line traffic to your advantage and determine key information about your
clientele, but in can prove extremely useful in your marketing strategy going
forward.
A comprehensive system can track the statistics and
figures of your phone lines and offer you reports and insights into how your
customer operates. With this information you can inform your staff and alter
your business operations to better cater to the needs of the customer. This
will help you grow and be seen as a reliable and professional contender in your
field of work.
5. Emails
While free emails are great for personal, every-day
use, consider investing in an email account provider. Having your company name
in the address ([email protected]) gives you the platform to come
across as more organised and professional when presented to customers.
Network
neutrality – or ‘net’ for short, is the concept that internet service providers
(ISPs) should not charge users to
access platforms on the web differently based on user, content, website,
platform, application, type of equipment, or method of communication.
Currently
in the USA there are plans for ISPs to begin charging users to use different
networks and online platforms, such as Netflix and WhatsApp, to increase the
efficiency and line speeds at which they are using them.
Websites
and companies will have to pay ISPs premiums to allow them to grant access to
potential site visitors, giving an edge to bigger companies with more power and
money.
The impartiality
of this method could affect hundreds of thousands of businesses without the
funds to pay ISPs. It will act as a form of censorship, dictated by companies
already in good financial standing or with strong partnerships with other mega
giants.
Any companies
offering similar services, such as online video streamers – Netflix and Amazon
Prime Video, many also have influence over several other popular sites
depending on existing alliances and deals.
The
future landscape of the world wide web could soon look like this;
First
slower speeds:
Source: arstechnica.com, 2017
Packages
you pay for because your service is slow:
Source: indivisible.org, 2019
Once
you’ve paid for a subscription plan that doesn’t cover the website you’re on:
Source: stories.avvo.com, 2017
Proposals
for net neutrality were repealed towards the end of 2017 by the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) and was officially ruled out on June 11 2018.
The issues
that came into question were; who would regulate the broadband companies and
ensure they weren’t abusing their powers as gatekeepers of the internet, and
not favour their own content over a competitor’s?
A
Republican-led FCC was stripped of its authority after Chairman, Ajit Pai
abolished these old rules safeguarding net neutrality.
Currently,
there is a wait for the appeal courts decision as to whether this move was
legal and the fate of net neutrality.
What does it mean for me?
For now,
this issue is contained mainly to the USA, with little effect on external
nations like the UK. For the States, it means higher prices for have ease of
access to everyday sites like Facebook and even WhatsApp. It also means the
content being distributed to different factions in society will be censored and
the elite can easily dictate, what those less able to pay for freedom on the
web, are exposed to.
If net
neutrality laws eventually fall through and the new monetisation of the
internet catches on, it is highly likely the concept with spread globally too.
No matter where you travel to these days, you’re destined to
never be left without a means of contact, with the help of public wi-fi
hotspots. Free access internet is now available at nearly every shopping
centre, train station, airport, major tourist attraction and even on populated
streets. The temptation, to save your monthly data allowance in exchange for
simply handing over your email address and full name, seems harmless, right?
Unbeknownst to too many people, by connecting to these open
networks you are letting hackers know you’re open for business. By accessing
emails and online banking, you have inadvertently marked yourself as a target
and made all your sensitive information, vulnerable.
Here’s How
‘Man in the Middle’ attacks
This is when someone within range of the hotspot reach is
essentially eavesdropping on your online activity. They are able to intercept
the flow of information you’re sending between your device and the internet
service.
Unencrypted networks
The information that flows from device to wireless router should
be in the form of a secret code, meaning sensitive information cannot be read. Most
routers are unencrypted until set up by IT professionals who know how to
encrypt it, so anyone who uses this router is protected by this private
network. Public and unencrypted networks deliberately set up by hackers don’t
enable this safety feature so that they can survey your activity from afar.
Malicious hotspots
Cyber criminals will set up fake hotspots named similarly to
reputable businesses. They will be branded and made to look legitimate, the
same way in which, BT for example has their access pages displayed. These rogue
hotspots then act as a direct portal for criminals to peer into your sensitive
information and give them to platform to use it anyway they see fit. When doing
so they can see which web pages you visited, any log in information you
submitted and hack any accounts.
Tips for staying safe:
Do
Turn wifi off when you’re not using it
Log out of accounts when done
Disable Bluetooth and file sharing
Only use web search
Don’t
Allow auto-connect
Access apps with sensitive information such as online banking/health records
