Top 4 Ways Hackers Will Attack Your Network - And They Are Targeting You RIGHT NOW

Most small and midsize business (SMB) owners exist in a bubble of blissful ignorance. They focus on the day-to-day operations of their organization, driving growth, facilitating hiring and guiding marketing, without a single thought given to the security of the computer networks these processes depend on. After all, they’re just the small guy – why would hackers go to the trouble of penetrating their systems for the minuscule amount of data they store?

Eventually, often after years of smooth sailing through calm seas, they get hacked, fork out thousands of pounds to malicious hackers and collapse beneath the weight of their own short sightedness.

The facts don’t lie. According to Verizon’s annual Data Breach Investigations Report, a full 71% of cyber-attacks are aimed squarely at SMBs. While it’s unclear exactly how many of these attacks are actually successful, with the sad state of most small businesses’ security protocols, it’s a safe bet that a large proportion of the attacks make it through.

But why? As Tina Manzer writes for Educational Dealer, “Size becomes less of an issue than the security network … While larger enterprises typically have more data to steal, small businesses have less secure networks.” As a result, hackers can hook up automated strikes to lift data from thousands of small businesses at a time – the hit rate is that high.

Today, trusting the security of your company to your son-in-law, who assures you he “knows about computers,” isn’t enough. It takes constant vigilance, professional attention and, most of all, knowledge.

Start here with the four most common ways hackers infiltrate hapless small businesses:

1. PHISHING E-MAILS

An employee receives an e-mail directly from your company’s accountants, urging them to fill out some "required" information before their wages can be processed. Included in the very professional-looking e-mail is a link that your employee needs to click on to complete the process. But when they click the link, they aren’t redirected anywhere. Instead, a host of vicious malware floods their system, spreading to the entirety of your business network within seconds, and locks everyone out of their most precious data. In return, the hackers want thousands of pounds or they’ll delete everything.

It’s one of the oldest tricks in the hacker toolbox, but today it’s easier than ever for an attacker to gather key information and make a phishing e-mail look exactly like every other run-of-the-mill e-mail you receive each day. Train your employees to recognize these sneaky tactics, and put in safeguards in case someone makes a mistake and clicks the malicious link.

2. BAD PASSWORDS

According to Inc.com contributing editor John Brandon, “With a £300 graphics card, a hacker can run 420 billion, simple, lowercase, eight-character password combinations a minute.” What’s more, he says, “80% of cyber-attacks involve weak passwords,” yet despite this fact, “55% of people use one password for many logins.”

As Managing Director or senior authority within your company, you should be bothered by these statistics. There’s simply no excuse for using an easy-to-crack password, for you or your team. Instead, it’s a good idea to make a password out of four random common words, splicing in a few special characters for good measure. To check the strength of your password, type it into HowSecureIsMyPassword.net - before you make it official.

3. MALWARE

Malware is often delivered through a shady phishing e-mail, but it’s not the only way it can wreak havoc on your system. An infected website (such as those you visit when you misspell sites like Facebook.com, a technique called “typo squatting”), a USB drive loaded with viruses or even an application can bring vicious software into your world without you even realizing it. In the past, an antivirus software was all that you needed. These days, it’s likely that you need a combination of software systems, up to date, on-going training and many other factors to combat these threats. These tools and services are not typically very expensive to put in place, especially considering the security holes they plug in your network.

4. SOCIAL ENGINEERING

As fallible as computers may be, they’ve got nothing on people. Sometimes hackers don’t need to touch a keyboard at all to break through your defences: they can simply masquerade as you, to a support team in order to get the team to activate a password reset. It’s easier than you think, and requires carefully watching what information you put on the Internet - don’t put the answers to your security questions out there for all to see!

We’ve outlined some of the simplest ways to defend yourself against these shady techniques, but honestly, the best way is to work with a company that constantly keeps your system updated with the most cutting-edge security and is ready at a moment’s notice to protect you in a crisis. Hackers are going to come for you, but if you’ve done everything you can to prepare, your business will be safe.

SHINY NEW GADGET OF THE MONTH: Introducing The Snap SmartCam

Today, the security of your home is more important than ever before. Burglars are constantly getting bolder, and as our technology advances, they switch up their tactics. With that in mind, all of us should be on the lookout for a security camera that’s difficult to spot, is intelligent about the footage it collects, and grabs high-quality footage to identify infiltrators.

Enter the Snap SmartCam, a tiny little camera that looks - and operates - just like a phone charger. The innocuous-looking device uses motion-detecting technology to pick up when shady activity is going on in your home or office, and takes high-quality footage to catch a person in the act. If you’re interested, the camera will cost about £60.00 at the time of writing, a great deal for a security camera of any type, much less one that seems so useful.

Leadership Is Lacking

By Robert Stevenson – Author How To Soar Like An Eagle In A World Full Of Turkeys

Professor James O’Toole once said that “95% of managers today say the right thing… 5% actually do it.”. When I look around at the current business landscape, I see poor leadership destroying companies from the inside out. Disengaged employees, and especially those who abandon an organization altogether, cost companies thousands of pounds each year. As ‘they’ say, people don’t leave companies, they leave bosses. Forty-six percent of employees leave their job because they feel underappreciated, while 75% of employees cite their boss as the most stressful part of their job.

Luckily, the inverse of this is also true: great leaders find that happy employees are 31% more productive, and 56% more effective at sales!

But what makes a great leader? A truly excellent leader makes people believe in themselves, feel good about working for the company, and, most importantly, feel special about being chosen to work there. Ralph Hart, a former CEO for Heublin, a company with thousands of employees, made it a policy to personally greet every new recruit. He’d sit down with them during the first month of their employment to have a short chat and let them know just how he and the company felt about them joining. He would tell them, “The company you are working for is first-class. I want you to know we have first-class products, first-class marketing, first-class advertising and first-class customer service.” However, he’d always stress that “to be able to list everything we do as first-class, we have found that we must hire only first-class people!” He made sure they knew that he was delighted to have them on the team.

In less than two minutes, this CEO made an enormous impact on his new employee. They couldn’t believe that the CEO of this huge company even knew their name, much less believed that they were a first-class talent. There’s nothing better than making someone feel special – nothing better than telling someone that you believe in their abilities.

Ralph Hart knew better than anyone that how you treat your employees is how they will treat your customers and associates. If you want first-class employees, then treat them as such. They’ll respond in turn by going out of their way to do more, deliver more, help more, innovate more, and stick around for the long term.

When you think about your employees’ needs ahead of your own, the success of your business will take care of itself. If you show them that you are concerned about them advancing in their career, then they will help your company prosper. When you help them to succeed, they will help you succeed. Your relationship will grow and the need to micromanage will never be a concern.

How To Quickly And Easily Make Your Business
More Profitable

Early in any business, it’s extremely difficult to make a profit. Even after you gain a little traction, it’s easy to get caught up in the never-ending details. This means you have no time left for the things that will actually increase your revenue. But there are a few things you can do right now to raise your bottom line.

Perhaps the most important action item on your list should be to calculate the exact costs of your business. In order to know where you’re starting, you need to look beyond general expenses and pinpoint just how much your activities are worth to the company. Then you can start cutting out tasks that are measurably low in their value, automating them wherever possible. If you can do that for both you and your team, you have a great place from which to start.

SmallBizTrends.com, March 26, 2018.

What To Do BEFORE You Go To Costa

You’re in the car on the way home from Costa, basking in the glow of your triple-shot, low-foam, extra-hot pumpkin spice latte when you suddenly realize your laptop has gone missing. You drive back to the establishment like a caffeinated lunatic, only to discover no one has handed it in.

What do you do?...

Well, first you should notify your IT department (us?!) – or whoever deals with IT in your organisation, immediately to tell them that your device has gone missing. That way, we can change passwords and lock access to applications and data. We can also remotely wipe your device to make sure no one will be able to gain access - another key reason that it’s critical to back up your data on a daily basis.

Next, change ALL the passwords to every website you regularly log in to, starting with any sites that contain financial data or company data. If your laptop contained others’ medical records, financial information, or other sensitive data (national insurance numbers, birthdays, etc.), you should contact a qualified lawyer to understand what you may be required to do by law to notify the affected individuals. This is of particular importance given the recent GDPR updates.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, so make sure you’re engaging us to encrypt and back up your data and put remote monitoring software on all your mobile devices. Put a pin-code lock or password requirement in place to access your devices after 10 minutes of inactivity, two factor authentications wherever possible and get in the habit of logging out of websites when you’ve finished using them.

6 Guaranteed Ways To Protect Yourself From Data Leaks, Hacks, And Scandals

1. Reconsider what you put online. This goes beyond social media posts. Even sharing your telephone number with an online associate can come back to bite you later.
2. Use password managers. This way, you can use different, randomized passwords for all your sites without losing track of them.
3. Always use two-factor authentication. It’s a no-brainer.
4. Encrypt the information on your drive. It’s easier than it sounds!
5. Read privacy policies, otherwise you may be signing away more than you think.
6. Monitor your credit. Check your accounts regularly and set up automatic alerts. That way, if someone tries to use your details to make a large or suspicious purchase, you can stop them in their tracks.

What’s New

Boundaries for Leaders By Dr Henry Cloud

Being an effective leader requires more than tracking employee performance and guiding your team to success. You need to create a business environment that enables your team to function at their highest potential.

In “Boundaries for Leaders,” Dr Henry Cloud breaks down seven extremely important “leadership boundaries” that are crucial to maximizing not only productivity and success but will provide benefits in all areas throughout your organization. This includes facilitating employee focus on what matters most, to identifying ways for your team to take ownership of projects in order to drive results.

If you’re a leader in any capacity, it’s a vital read that will give you a big-picture overview of strategies to push your team to the next level.