Government & Small Businesses Must Prioritize Cybersecurity

Are You Prepared If Your Companies Data is Compromised?

Most of your everyday interactions are dominated by Fortune 1000s. However, small businesses continue to be the foundation of the U.S. economy. The 30 million small businesses that are operating in the country employ almost 50% of the overall workforce, as per the Small Businesses Administration. However, these same businesses have started to fall prey to cybercriminals at an increasing rate. This trend is putting the country’s economy at risk. As bigger organizations invest heavily on cybersecurity, hackers, fraudsters, and cybercriminals have started to shift their focus on small businesses.

Improved Cybersecurity Can Protect Economy

Malicious cyber activities cost the U.S. economy between $57 billion and $109 billion every year. These figures are expected to grow as the economy starts to include all of the losses incurred by small businesses from cybercrime.

As economists highlight the possibility of recession, it is crucial for all of society to assist small businesses from becoming a contributing factor. Here are few things that need to be done.

Government supported tax incentives – the government is already trying to secure our borders, financial system and air travel. Now, it needs to help in securing the digital environments of all those who are unable to do so on their own. A good place to start is to provide tax incentives to encourage innovation as well as to help small businesses realize the importance of network security. Incentives are an effective way of producing results without having to implement regulations and not having to force firms to react. In many instances, the government has leveraged tax deductions and rebates to encourage certain behaviors that are unlikely to be seen otherwise, just like with electric vehicles and solar power.

Lower Cyber Insurance Premium – small businesses can benefit from having cyber insurance if the event of a cyberattack since the damages the result from it are generally excluded from general liability policies. If small businesses do not have coverage, they will have no choice but to deal with ransoms, data loss, damages, as well as other liabilities. But, several small firms are priced out of cyber insurance market these days. Aside from that, the policies don’t cover the main attack vector, which is email phishing. If making insurance widely available is in the horizon, there is a need to request assistance from the federal and state government through tax deductions and grants. This is a small price to pay when compared to how the economy will suffer if small businesses continue to fall victim to cyberattacks.

Improved organizational awareness -  small businesses also have the responsibility to raise awareness in their company and to improve their defenses. A study revealed that less than 20% of small businesses said they were confident in their cybersecurity and those that had a well defined cybersecurity strategy didn’t reach 50%. Performing a third party security evaluation that will identify vulnerabilities is one affordable yet crucial step to take. Once the weaknesses have been determined, a plan can be made on how to deal with these weaknesses and mitigate possible losses in case a cyberattack happens.

Call SpartanTec, Inc. if you need help in setting up the most effective cybersecurity measures to secure your business against the most common online threats.

SpartanTec, Inc.
Myrtle Beach, SC 29577
(843) 420-9760
https://www.spartantec.com/

Does Every Company Need IT Support?

Small businesses often believe that IT support is only for large companies. This is false. No matter how large or small your company, there are many benefits to having IT support available.

IT support can increase your company’s competitiveness. IT support can also be used to reduce costs and help you achieve your goals.

Here are some reasons to explore managed IT services.

Increase your ROI and reduce costs over time

An IT professional is a great investment. It will increase your ROI and reduce company costs. Professional tech support will take away the need to worry about expensive repairs or questionable software investments. Unexpected costs and fees are not an issue. All you have to do is pay a flat fee that is flexible to your budget.

Increase overall computer security

No matter what type of business you run, data is an essential part of any business. Reliable backup systems and high-quality cybersecurity are essential to protect your company’s data.

You can enjoy all the benefits of an IT support team. An IT specialist can help protect your company and confidential data of employees and customers.

Give Clients the Service They Want

Clients expect quality service. Technology that isn’t up to standard can compromise customer relationships. You can ensure that your clients receive the best IT support experts.

Make use of new technologies to help you reach your goals

Technology may not be a problem for your business. An IT support team can help you get the most out of your business’s technology.

Spend more time managing and less time worrying

Computer problems can cause headaches. These tech problems can be avoided by investing in IT services. You can leave IT problems to the professionals and concentrate on other important issues, such as employee management and strategy development.

Boost Company Efficiency

No matter what type of business you run, efficiency is something you want to increase. Technology can assist you in this endeavor. It can also be harmful if it is full of bugs, flaws and other problems. Tech support ensures that your technology is optimized. You can make the most of your technology with the support of an IT team that is dedicated to helping you achieve your business goals and identify areas for improvement.

Get a customized service

Each company has different technology requirements. Professional technical IT support will provide customized managed IT services tailored to your business’s needs. Your IT support team is made up of qualified candidates who have been trained. They can help you identify your IT needs and provide the best solutions to achieve your company’s goals.

Adtek Advanced Technologies is the right place to go if you are looking for the best in technology.

People also ask

What type of companies need IT services?

Characteristics of Businesses that Require Outside Information Technology (IT) Support to Succeed

1. Those without In-House IT Expertise. It may be obvious to state that the business without IT support, is the one that needs IT support. …
2. Those Most Concerned About Cyber Security. …
3. Those That Plan on Growing.

What does an IT support company do?

Work an IT support company does can involve everything from fixing bugs and backing up data, to overseeing security and managing IT infrastructure.

https://adtekitservices.com/rock-hill-sc-managed-it-services/

Rock Hill, SC 29730
(803) 902-3111

Dillon, SC 29536
843-627-3079

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Cox Communications Reports Recent Data Breach

Cox Communications is a major provider of cable, internet, and phone service in the United States.  The company is the latest in a seemingly unending parade of companies to fall victim to a hacking attack. In this case, the hacker gained access to company servers by impersonating a member of Cox Communication's Customer Support team.  At this point details are sketchy as the investigation into the matter is ongoing.

The company's breach notification statement reads:

"On October 11, 2021, Cox learned that an unknown person(s) had impersonated a Cox agent and gained access to a small number of customer accounts. We immediately launched an internal investigation, took steps to secure the affected customer accounts, and notified law enforcement of the incident.

After further investigation, we discover that the unknown person(s) may have viewed certain types of information that are maintained in your Cox customer account, including your name, address, telephone number, Cox account number, Cox.net email address, username, PIN code, account security question and answer, and/or the types of services that you receive from Cox."

At this point the exact number of records the hacker gained access to is not known. However given the above if you are a Cox customer you should change your password and security question(s) at a minimum.

Although payment card information associated with impacted accounts was not specifically mentioned it pays to closely monitor whatever payment cards you have tied to your Cox account just to be safe.

It is also worth mentioning that the company is in the process of contacting impacted customers and has offered one free year of Experian Identity Works. The program can help monitor credit reports and detect signs of fraudulent activity.

We wish we could say that this will be the last major data breach of the year but sadly it almost certainly won't be.  Stay vigilant.  It's dangerous out there.

SpartanTec's primary objective is to keep our customers data secure. Call us today to see how we provide peace of mind.

SpartanTec, Inc.
Myrtle Beach, SC 29577
(843) 420-9760
https://www.spartantec.com/

Serving: Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach, Columbia, Wilmington, Fayetteville, Florence, Charleston

New Emotet Malware Found A New Way To Distribute

Emotet is one of the most feared malware strains circulating right now. The team behind it has managed to infect a staggering array of targets all around the globe. To say that it is a major threat would be an understatement. Recently the group behind Emotet just upped the ante even further. Researchers have recently discovered that the malware is now being distributed via a new channel.

The new channel is a malicious Windows App Installer that appears to be an innocuous Adobe PDF reader. Windows App Installer is a built-in feature of both Windows 10 and 11 and systems can be infected by "tricking" users to click attachments in emails which trigger the App Installer.

Emotet's preferred methodology revolves around a "conversation in progress" approach.  An email is crafted that already has several replies. So at a glance it appears that the recipient and whomever sent this email have already been conversing about something. The "most recent" reply says some variation of "please see attached" and contains a PDF file.

When the recipient clicks the file the built in App Installer is triggered and the malware is installed. Note that this completely bypasses most malware and cybersecurity measures because the recipient is making a conscious decision to open the file in question.

The campaign is amazingly well put together.  The attachment and subsequent prompts appear to be legitimate Adobe Acrobat components right down to sporting an official company icon and a certificate marking it as a trusted application. So there's no reason for a user to think that there's anything amiss unless they look more closely at the email containing the attachment.

That's exactly what the hackers are counting on.  They know that people are busy and may only give the body of the email a cursory glance before clicking to see what all the fuss was about.

As ever vigilance and mindfulness are the keys to avoiding these types of shenanigans. Many employers overlook employee training because they assume their employees are aware of how to look for spam in their emails.

SpartanTec, Inc. provides employee training and spam protection. Call us today before your network falls prey to malware. Activate your two free hours of IT support now.

People also ask
Is Emotet a virus?
Emotet is a computer malware program that was originally developed in the form of a banking Trojan. The goal was to access foreign devices and spy on sensitive private data. Emotet has been known to deceive basic antivirus programs and hide from them.
https://www.spartantec.com/2021/12/09/block-off-malware-from-computer/

Is Emotet a ransomware?
Emotet is a malware strain and a cybercrime operation believed to be based in Ukraine. The malware, also known as Heodo, was first detected in 2014 and deemed one of the most prevalent threats of the decade. Emotet is known for renting access to infected computers to ransomware operations, such as the Ryuk gang.

https://www.spartantec.com/2021/11/29/mistake-employees-cybersecurity/

SpartanTec, Inc.
Myrtle Beach, SC 29577
(843) 420-9760
https://www.spartantec.com/

Serving: Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach, Columbia, Wilmington, Fayetteville, Florence, Charleston

Business Continuity and Your Organization

Business Continuity, also known as Business Continuity Management (BCM), is a collection of procedures, processes, program design and supporting policies that are used to assist an organization in recovering from a disaster. It helps to ensure that a company can continue to function without interruption, no matter what the adverse circumstances. Business continuity is not something that can be implemented immediately after a disaster. To ensure that an organization is able to maintain service, consistency, recover from a disaster, business continuity must be planned and actively managed.

SpartanTec, Inc. is a business continuity platform that integrates and innovates. It ensures that all business functions are accessible to customers, employees, suppliers, and any other entities that may need them in the event of a disaster. We provide complete business continuity planning services as well as unique products that ensure that data and applications can be fully restored when there are problems.

Cloud Business Continuity - Data Backup and Recovery

SpartanTec, Inc. continuity service ensures that your business is always on the right track. In the event of a loss, data is immediately accessible and backed up. Reduce disruptions caused by faulty tape drives, disks or inconsistent backup management. Cloud Business Continuity secures backups and stores data over the Internet as well as locally. This provides disaster protection and fast restores. We can help you protect your data and keep your business running smoothly.

Data Backup Services include:

• Off-site data backups
• Local Data Backups
• Virtual Recovery Environments and Rapid Restores
• Automated Services
• Monitoring and Management
• Security and ease of deployment

Consulting in Disaster Planning

SpartanTec Inc. Data Recovery Services help you to protect your business data and minimize financial loss during outages. These are the steps to take when planning:

Evaluation and Consultation: SpartanTec can evaluate your company's system strengths and weaknesses, as well as potential threats and vulnerabilities, and help you identify areas of risk.

NexusTek will create a plan based on your evaluation.

Implementation and Testing: NexusTek will execute the plan and conduct ongoing validation and testing to ensure that your business continuity plans are able to adapt to changing company needs.

People often ask questions.

What is business continuity?

Business continuity plan. Disaster recovery is the process of restoring data, operating systems, files, software, and servers after a disaster. Business continuity, on the other hand, refers to how a business continues operations in the face of technological failure or outage.

https://www.spartantec.com/2021/08/13/effective-business-continuity-planning/

What's the difference between a business continuity and disaster recovery plan?

Business continuity is about keeping businesses operational in the face of a disaster. Disaster recovery, however, focuses more on recovering data access and IT infrastructure from a disaster. ... A disaster recovery plan helps organizations to recover from a disaster.

https://www.spartantec.com/services/business-continuity-planning/

What is a business continuity planner?

Create, maintain, and implement business continuity strategies and solutions. This includes risk assessments, business impacts analyses, strategy selection and documentation of business continuity.
https://www.spartantec.com/services/it-consulting/security/

Call now if you're interested in learning more about business continuity and how it can help your company.

SpartanTec, Inc.
Myrtle Beach, SC 29577
(843) 420-9760
https://www.spartantec.com/

Serving: Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach, Columbia, Wilmington, Fayetteville, Florence, Charleston

 

Large GoDaddy Data Breach Involves WordPress Customer Email Adresses

Are you a GoDaddy customer? Do you maintain a WordPress blog with the company? If so be advised that the company recently announced a data breach of their network. An as yet unidentified third party accessed GoDaddy's Managed WordPress hosting environment.

Based on the investigation to date the intrusion began on September 6, 2021. While taking advantage of a vulnerability the company was unaware of at the time the unknown cybersecurity attacker was able to gain access to a variety of information.

The information taken includes:

• The email addresses and customer numbers of more than 1 million Managed WordPress customers (both active and inactive)
• The original WordPress Administrative password that was set at the time of provisioning
• For active customers, the SFTP and database usernames and passwords
• And for some customers (exact number unknown at this time), the SSL private key

The company has retained the services of an independent third-party security firm to assist them with their investigation. That investigation is ongoing but the company has already reset the SFTP and database passwords for all impacted users. They are in the process of issuing and installing new certificates for customers who had their SSL private keys exposed.

The company is in the process of contacting all impacted users. If your email address was exposed, you will definitely want to keep a sharp eye out for phishing attacks targeting your email address.

As is the case any time an event like this occurs the company apologized and stressed that they take customer data security very seriously. No additional information is available at this time but bear in mind that the investigation is still ongoing.

It's unfortunate but not altogether unsurprising. A company as large as GoDaddy with millions of customers is an attractive target for almost any hacker. Stay vigilant out there. This won't be the last major breach we see this year.

Call SpartanTec, Inc. now if for more information about cybersecurity and our managed IT services.

SpartanTec, Inc.
Myrtle Beach, SC 29577
(843) 420-9760
https://www.spartantec.com/

Serving: Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach, Columbia, Wilmington, Fayetteville, Florence, Charleston

Hackers Hit Wind Energy Provider With Ransomware

Vestas Wind Systems is one of the leaders in wind turbine manufacturing in North America with 40,000 MW currently installed and another 36,000 MW under service in both the US and Canada.

Recently the company published a data breach notification indicating that they had been the subject of a successful cyber attack which occurred on Friday, November 19th.

This forced them to shut down broad swaths of their network infrastructure to keep the attack from spreading. Although Vestas did not specify the exact nature of the attack based on their description it seems likely that the company fell victim to a ransomware attack.

Unfortunately this incident is almost certain to have serious downstream impacts. The company was already struggling with supply chain issues and the shutdown forced them to delay production. That is going to delay the completion of many of the projects Vestas has in the pipeline which will have further impacts as well. Although these are difficult to predict with any accuracy.

According to the latest information provided by the company both the issue itself and the investigation into it are ongoing and the company does not yet have a firm timeline for recovery. Vestas also confirmed that some of the company's data had been compromised and exfiltrated but did not provide any details as to the specifics of that information.

There have been a number of cyberattacks on critical infrastructure concerns as gangs of cybercriminals seek ever larger payouts. Given that the Vestas attack is very much in line with attacks earlier this year on Colonial Pipeline, Irelands Health Service Executive, and meat processing giant JBS.

If you do business with the company just be aware that their operations have been impacted and that the issue is ongoing so there are almost certain to be delays. Let us hope Vestas is able to resolve the matter quickly.

SpartanTec, Inc. now if you want more information about managed IT services and how they can help protect your information from cyberattacks.

SpartanTec, Inc.
Myrtle Beach, SC 29577
(843) 420-9760
https://www.spartantec.com/

Serving: Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach, Columbia, Wilmington, Fayetteville, Florence, Charleston

Cybersecurity Mistake That Lets Cybercriminals Into Your Network

In the wake of unprecedented rates of digital crime, with the cost and frequency of data breaches constantly skyrocketing year after year, companies all over the world have been forced to scramble for solutions. There’s an arms race running behind the scenes of every piece of technology we use in business today, as cybersecurity companies shore up their clients’ defenses against increasingly sophisticated digital threats. Billions of dollars are now poured into batting away would-be intruders from the most precious assets on global networks: most of the money directed toward the software that keeps everything afloat, just out of reach of the bad guys. But even as each day brings a new technological apex for security solutions, data breaches continue. Despite the fact that the tools hackers use to make money are more or less the same as they were three years ago, nobody seems to question why companies are still being hacked at record levels. It’s easy to imagine a crack team of infamous hackers hammering away at a keyboard into the late hours of the night, feverishly computing the one piece of code that will break them into a system.

This may be the process behind the high-profile breaches you read about in the news each week, but in reality, most cybercrime takes much less effort. The average hack succeeds not because of overt vulnerabilities in the structure of business networks, but because of a mistake made by you or your employees. According to IBM’s X-Force Threat Intelligence Index, more than two-thirds of breaches arise from what they call “inadvertent insiders,” folks who accidentally left the network vulnerable from one action or another without even realizing it.

Most of the human error that becomes the root cause of catastrophe can be traced back to phishing. A criminal spends some time researching your organization, maybe learning a bit about an employee or two, and decides to masquerade as someone worthy of trust either within your team or from a company you contract with, or just a stock person offering something pretty much everybody wants. They mock up a somewhat convincing e-mail and send it off to 10 people within your business. Somebody clicks the included link without thinking, and there you go – you’ve got ransomware. If you haven’t backed up your data, you’re looking at a hefty fee to get everything back, if they even give it back at all.

In other cases, your team may actively duck around your previously implemented security measures or avoid the procedures you’ve put in place to keep the business safe. That can mean visiting unsavory websites, ignoring a vital security patch or another minor transgression. But when every mistake spells a potentially massive vulnerability, you can’t afford people who aren’t conducting business to the highest standards in cybersecurity Myrtle Beach.

Regardless of how it happens, most hacks occur because employees just don’t know better. Even in 2021, when cybercrime runs rampant and virtually everyone is constantly at risk on the Internet, most of us just aren’t well-versed in ways to protect ourselves, much less the companies we work for.

The good news is that this problem is pretty easy to prevent through education. To keep everyone abreast of the latest threats to their livelihood, it takes a thorough set of rules, guidelines and general savvy to steer them through the troubled waters of modern cyberspace.

Of course, this will take more than a 30-minute crash course in the break room one afternoon. It’ll take a concerted effort and dedicated resources. Luckily, we can help. With a trusted partner dedicated not only to keeping your organization protected from the latest digital threats, but to keeping your employees alert and ready to spot anything phishy, you drastically decrease the chances of your business becoming another statistic in the war on cybercrime. Work with us and secure the future of your company for the long haul.

Call SpartanTec, Inc. now if you need professional help in mitigating threats to your cybersecurity and expert training of your employees. We work with small and medium size companies in North and South Carolina.

SpartanTec, Inc.
Myrtle Beach, SC 29577
(843) 420-9760
https://www.spartantec.com/

Serving: Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach, Columbia, Wilmington, Fayetteville, Florence, Charleston