Banks and companies that manage automated teller machines, better known as ATMs, have been warned against another method thieves have been utilizing to commit identity theft--by no less than the Secret Service.
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Virtual reality is a major contender for the next big technology to hit the business industry, and it’s been able to accomplish what modern neuroscience could not. In the medical sector, virtual reality has been tested on paraplegic patients in attempts to help them walk again using brain-controlled robotic limbs. However, these innovations have yielded unexpected, astounding results.
What would you do if a significant sum of money magically disappeared from your account due to a “miscommunication” between accounting and someone pretending to be you? Wire transfers have made it extraordinarily easy for scam artists to make large transactions, which are augmented by the ability to impersonate authority figures within the office; the c-suite staff, also known as management.
This type of CEO fraud is known as a “whaling” scheme. In a sense, it’s like a phishing scheme, but on a much larger scale. When it comes to whaling, rather than faking the identity of your IT department or another employee, the hacker goes for the motherload: you, the business owner, or another member of your management staff. This plays to the employee’s willingness to comply with your requests and makes it more likely that they’ll perform unreasonable tasks, like sending “you” a large wire transfer.
Wire transfers in particular are proving to be a powerful tool for hackers to exploit. ITProPortal reports: “Individuals create bogus messages seemingly from a senior leader, for example, the CEO, which asks employees to wire funds across to them. The messages ultimately trick employees into transferring large amounts of cash electronically.” The average value of a wire transfer is $67,000, and according to the FBI, CEO fraud has cost businesses over $3 billion over the past three years alone.
One of the biggest problems with wire transfers is that they are difficult, and often impossible, to challenge. Therefore, your best chance of recovering from a whaling scheme is to avoid getting scammed in the first place, unfortunately. Due to the fact that wire transfers are too fast and finite, you’ll want to ensure that your business has practices in place to handle this influx of CEO fraud. A good place to start would be to address how your business handles unsolicited requests for payments or credentials via email, telephone, or otherwise. Here are a few tips and tricks to consider for your business.
- Implement hands-on phishing scam training: If you want someone to learn something, it’s best to have them go through the process themselves. This type of hands-on education works well against phishing scams. Engineer a system that roots out those who have subpar reactions to phishing scams, and help them learn how to improve their ability to react to threats.
- Always check in person before sending credentials, or anything else: Emails that request suspicious or sensitive information need to be cross-referenced, either in-person or by checking the email addresses that you have on record. Although, even this might not work at all times, as hackers can potentially spoof email addresses to make their messages appear legitimate. Basically, it’s better to just ask whoever supposedly sent the message before responding rashly to a request.
- Educate employees on best practices: We return to the hands-on phishing scam training to emphasize the importance of best practices. Make sure that your team understands how to respond to threats, and regularly quiz them to ensure that they’re not going to inadvertently sink your business or cause data loss.
To learn more about whaling schemes or CEO fraud, reach out to us at 800.394.2301.
The traditional break-fix IT model may have worked for businesses years ago, but today it holds them back from fully leveraging their IT to its fullest potential. Managed IT, the superior alternative, aims to take the difficulty out of managing IT so that you can focus on running your business. Here are just a few managed IT services that free up your business in this way.
Cloud Management
The cloud continues to grow more popular as time goes on, mostly due to the overwhelming convenience it offers for small businesses. Your workforce needs agility and constant access to important data and applications, especially if your organization wants to stay competitive in the ever-shifting business environment. This means that you need to provide your employees with the tools they need to stay productive anytime, anywhere. Still, managing a cloud server is far from a simple task, and not one to be taken lightly. When Infradapt manages your IT, you can outsource this responsibility to us and take the burden off of your shoulders.
Network Security
Network security requires an intensive knowledge of online threats and vulnerabilities, and as such, you want a seasoned professional handling the security of your systems. It’s not enough to equip your business with consumer-grade antivirus and firewall solutions. Instead, you need someone with a thorough knowledge of your organization’s potential vulnerabilities, including endpoints, network connections, and software solutions. This type of work is best handled by a third party working behind the scenes to keep your business secure.
Remote Management and Maintenance
Management and maintenance of critical IT systems are often a major pain point for small businesses, as they generally don’t have a dedicated in-house IT department to handle this responsibility. More often than not, technology systems needing regular maintenance are left neglected, which can severely cut their lifespans. For example, in order for servers to stay healthy, they need regular maintenance and management. Otherwise, a crippling hardware failure resulting in data loss could happen at any moment. Remote monitoring and maintenance is designed to provide all of your maintenance needs remotely, without the need for expensive on-site visits.
Help Desk Support
One of the most sought-after services is help desk support, especially for SMBs. An outsourced help desk solution provides your team with the support they need to get the most out of their technology. This helps to ensure that your team has the technology assistance they need when they need it. This is especially useful if you already have an internal IT department, allowing them to focus on implementing valuable and innovative solutions designed to improve operations.
So, what are you waiting for? To get started with any of the above-mentioned IT services, reach out to Infradapt at 800.394.2301.
Regardless of your security protocol, there will always be threats. One of the most often forgotten outlets for attacks comes from insider threats. Sometimes these threats may be from angry employees wanting to sink your business, but more often than not, those behind insider threats don’t have malicious intentions. Still, it’s best to cover your bases and ensure that your organization isn’t at risk from careless or negligent employees.
Insider threats are categorized as internal threats that are either malicious or negligent in nature, like irate employees, or those who just don’t care about security best practices. Regardless of why the insider threat is a threat, you should be aware of these enlightening statistics concerning security and insider threats.
Internal and External Threats: Reality vs Expectations
A study by Accenture and HfS Research claims that 69 percent of organizations have experienced the theft or destruction of data due to internal threats. This is compared to only 57 percent experiencing the same from external threats. These numbers are much different from their expectations, however; only 55 percent expect to become a victim of an internal threat, while 80 percent expect external threats to make trouble. The lesson: be prepared for anything, or you’ll be prepared for nothing.
Exposure of Sensitive Data to the End User
The Ponemon Institute issued a study claiming that 62 percent of users felt that they had access to data that they probably didn’t need access to. To resolve this problem, employers can implement a user-access control system that restricts access to certain information on a per-user basis. For example, your average employee has no business accessing financial records, salary information, and personally identifiable information (Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses, etc.).
Reaction Time to Insider Threats
According to Ponemon, the reaction time to insider threats varied. Some organizations responded quickly, while others went months, or even years before finding out:
- Within 24 hours: 24 percent
- Within a week: 19 percent
- Within a month: 14 percent
- Within 6 months: 20 percent
- Within a year: 9 percent
- More than a year: 14 percent
It’s a bit surprising that organizations have taken this long to find out about insider threats, but regardless, it’s proof that something needs to be done, sooner rather than later. Organizations need to have ways to keep track of who accesses what data, and how their data is handled.
The Ability to Respond to Insider Threats
SANS Institute reports that 31.9 percent of businesses have no way of fighting against insider threats, while 68.1 percent have tools to take the fight to them. It’s surprising that the numbers are so low, but perhaps it’s because administrators simply aren’t aware of the activity themselves.
How Effective Preventative Measures Are
According to SANS Institute, only 9 percent of organizations have techniques proven to prevent insider threats from becoming an issue. 42 percent have the tools, but they aren’t used. 36.4 percent are currently implementing processes to mitigate insider threats, while 2.3 percent simply aren’t concerned by them.
Potential Vulnerabilities
Mimecast suggests that 45 percent of companies claim that they’re ill-equipped to handle malicious insider threats involving email security, which is more than any of the other kind email threat. Therefore, businesses need to keep an eye on what enters and exits the infrastructure via email.
The Types of Insider Threats
According to Gartner, there are three types of insider threats. One, called a “second streamer” (someone who uses the data from one job to obtain revenue from another job) consists of 62 percent of insider threats. 29 percent of insider threats are from the “career launcher,” or someone who took information with them as they left a company, while only 9 percent of insider threats could be classified as sabotage.
If your business doesn’t know how to take the fight to insider threats, reach out to Infradapt at 800.394.2301.