Online scams have been around since the emergence of the internet, and as the web has grown in sophistication, so have the scams. One method scammers use to try and target their victims, is by sending an email with a compromised link, or with a view to panicking recipients into parting with financial details.
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) is reporting an increase in online threats as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic, so scammers are looking to capitalise on the raised anxiety levels of the general public for their own financial gain. These raised anxiety levels can also make it harder to spot a dodgy email pretending to be HMRC or pretending to be the NHS telling you that you need a COVID test.
You can have the best technical security plan in the world in place, but if your employees aren’t part of the security equation then they could unwittingly fall for a scam and cost your business time and money as a result of a compromised network. Everyone on your team needs to know exactly how to verify if an email is genuine.
How to tell if email contents are genuine
The NCSC has a list of things to look out for, when it comes to evaluating the contents of an email:
Urgency
Cyber criminals want you to react, without even thinking and they do this by sewing the seeds of fear. If your email includes an impossible-sounding deadline for a response or makes you feel panic and dread, this is one indicator that there’s something not right with the contents.
Authority
As we previously mentioned, they also like to pretend to be in a position of authority. Whether they’re falsely claiming to be from HMRC, the NHS, the boss, an accountant, or anyone else who might hold a respected position. It’s worth noting that no organization like the above will pressure you into giving details.
Emotion
If, for example, a charity sends you an email, but it makes you feel especially upset or guilty this can be another red flag that it’s a fake email trying to get you to give up your financial details.
Current events
As mentioned above, many online scammers are looking to profit from anxiety and panic caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. If you get any emails you weren’t expecting in relation to COVID then check them out with trustworthy sources first, like the NHS or gov.uk websites.
Scarcity
If you miss out on getting tickets for a hotly anticipated event but get an email a few days later offering you tickets – it’s more than likely too good to be true and you should proceed with extreme caution. Scammers often make use of scarcity and desperation in their attempts to gain money.
Is your email security up to scratch?
With 46% of businesses reporting identified breaches or attacks between March 2019 and March 2020 according to the Cyber Security Breaches Survey: 2020 Email security is everything if you don’t wish to end up joining their ranks for the 2021 survey.
With a combination of both technical solutions and human training, you can be confident in avoiding email scams and associated breaches.
 If ever you’re not sure on an email and would like us to have a look at it for you and advise whether or not it’s genuine, or you’d like some help tightening up your current email security setup, give us a call on 01732 617788 or drop us an email to [email protected] and we’ll be happy to help.
This Christmas might be somewhat different to what we’re all used to, and with a temporary lifting of Covid restrictions across the UK so people can spend Christmas Day with their families, mobile security is understandably going to be pretty far down the list of things to think about for most people.
However, with the ability to travel and eat in restaurants, the opportunities for mobiles to become lost or stolen are still going to exist – leaving a laptop on a train, a phone being swiped from a pocket.
We have a couple of questions for you to think about:
If something like that happened to you, could you have complete confidence in the safety of your data?
Even if you feel confident that your personal data is well protected, can the same be said for team members who have access to sensitive business data on their mobile devices?
They might pose some head scratching, but you’re in luck – problem solving is our job, and we’re here to think about things like mobile security so you don’t have to. There are certain things we can look into such as password protection, encryption, or the ability to wipe sensitive business data remotely.
If you’d like us to take a look at your data security setup as it is at the moment, and check that your mobile security is up to scratch, give us a call on 01732 617788 or drop us an email to [email protected]. We can ensure you’re heading for a Winter Wonderland, and not a Blue Christmas!
There aren’t many things more annoying than sitting down in front of your computer ready to start the workday but being met instead with a ping and a little box asking if you want to install updates.
We completely understand the reasoning behind sighing and clicking on ‘Not now’ or ‘remind me later’, but updates can be crucial. They’re there not only there to make sure you’re using the most current versions of software to improve your workday, they also often contain important security fixes to keep your machine, and therefore your business network, safe from the latest threats and malware.
By postponing them for one day, one week, six weeks, or even longer, you’re potentially setting yourself up for having to deal with some serious problems down the line caused by out-of-date software, or security flaws that could be fixed with a simple update.
And it’s not just you. How many users do you have across your business? If multiple employees are all having the same idea and clicking ‘remind me later’ on a regular basis, that’s creating multiple points of weakness across your network.
[H2] Never worry about updates again
We know these frustrations, and we can also fix them for you really quickly. We can schedule your updates to happen at a time when the user isn’t using their machine, even outside of work hours, so they’ll never be met with that annoying little box.
You’ll never have to worry about people’s work time being stolen by having to do updates, and your business will be protected against newer threats. Just drop us a line, and we can get them scheduled for you, easy peasy.
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