Business Solutions & Software Group Blog

Running a business of any size comes with more than its fair share of risks, particularly if that business is on the smaller side. One major risk factor is the prospect of cybercrime and the impact it can have on a business. Let’s look at how this particular risk can influence the challenges that businesses must now contend with.

Ransomware attacks are notorious for their expense to the victim—largely because of the various costs that come along with successful ransomware infections, including many that might not be expected at first. Let’s review some of these costs, if only to reinforce the importance of avoiding ransomware as a rule.

For the small, but growing business, there are a lot of risks that could potentially harm their ability to stay in business. One of those risks comes in the form of cybercrime. Over the past several years, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) have improved the ways in which they combat cybercrime. Let’s take a look at some of the problems SMBs have to deal with.

If there is one kind of online scam that people need to be more cognizant about, it would be phishing—where a scammer tries to hack the user instead of the computer, tricking them into sharing sensitive information. Phishing can come in enough forms that it has splintered into a few different varieties to watch out for. Let’s go over what a basic phishing attack looks like, some of the different types you may encounter, and how to deal with such an attack appropriately.

When most of us think of cybercrime, we’re thinking about a lone hacker in a dimly lit room—or, at most, a few hackers hunched over their computers in a dimly lit room. However, to remain restricted to this impression would be inaccurate—particularly when you consider the very real threat that state-sponsored cyberattacks can just as easily pose.

Most businesses fall under some type of regulation that demands compliance. This will be especially true as data privacy concerns turn into further regulations. Most of today’s compliance standards are centered around data security, so you’d figure that if a company is compliant with the regulations their operations fall under, that would mean their business is secure. Unfortunately, the two terms aren’t always synonymous. Today, we will discuss the difference between security and compliance. 

Passwords are a crucial element of your online security in terms of keeping threats from being able to access your accounts and resources. Unfortunately, for fear of accidentally locking themselves out of their accounts, many users have gotten into the unfortunate habit of taking shortcuts when it comes to their use of passwords. Let’s try to fix this by going over a few ways to design a password that is both memorable and sufficiently secure.

Preserving cybersecurity requires the person responsible for doing so to consider every component and connection associated with their technology, down to the smallest minutiae. Let’s consider a sizable example that comes from a narrowly avoided disaster in the Democratic Republic of Congo, that could have potentially left millions of Internet users exposed to serious threats.

While many people seem to have little problem sharing their data with social media platforms, there is definite pushback against sharing the personal data generated by a messaging platform. This can be witnessed in WhatsApp, the cross-platform messaging application whose main selling point has been its end-to-end encryption, and its announcement that its users will soon be forced to share their personal data with Facebook (which acquired WhatsApp in 2014).

There are dozens of Internet browsers on the market. They are typically all free and when they come stock, are pretty much all the same. Most of the most popular ones come with an app store where users can download useful apps to make their experience better. Unfortunately, there are times that malicious code gets in there. Security firm Avast recently found 28 third-party extensions that are extraordinarily popular that had malicious code found in them.

It’s 2021! We made it! 

A lot of us look at a new year as an opportunity to greatly improve our lives. Maybe your resolution is to hit the gym regularly or commit to fewer processed foods—regardless, there are endeavours that take serious commitment, and others that take just a few minutes to accomplish. A really simple, really beneficial task you should add to your 2021 to-do list is to lock down some of your most important online accounts—and we’re going to walk you through it.

When was the last time you intentionally and systematically changed your passwords?

It’s a good practice, even though it can be a huge pain. For many of us, Google is a huge central hub that is tied to a lot of our data. With all of the cybersecurity issues and data breaches, it’s just a good idea to keep your Google account in check.

In March, when the stay-at-home orders first came down, and businesses started asking their employees to work from home, it was obvious that many of them were not prepared for this contingency. As the pandemic has gone on, however, businesses have had to adapt. Today, we thought we would look at some of the solutions and strategies that are being used by businesses to secure their endpoints with most of their workforce out of the office. 

Unfortunately, this season’s holiday is going to be much like the rest of 2020: risky. With many people taking the necessary precautions to not contract or spread the coronavirus, a lot of people are doing most of their shopping online. By distancing from others and using the Internet to do the lion’s share of your holiday shopping, you take on different risks. Let’s go through some of them today.

Cyberattacks continue to be a major problem as scammers send out billions of phishing messages a day. While it doesn’t really sound that nefarious it can be a major problem for a lot of people. One version of phishing, the absurdly labeled smishing, is gaining traction and presents another avenue of attack for hackers. 

From individuals all the way up to companies and governments, ransomware has been causing no small amount of stress for some years now. Let’s take a few moments to discuss this threat, what you can do about it, and how seriously the government is taking ransomware.

Software giant Adobe will cease support of Flash Player and the 24-year-old software will retire at the end of the year, according to the company. This is a pretty big deal, and the loss is one that will be felt by many businesses. Or will it?

Business success is often tied to the quality of your business relationships, and there are many people you need to trust: suppliers who can provide you with everything you need, the team who do their jobs, and customers who turn to you because they know they need you. Unfortunately, it is possible for cybercriminals to exploit this trust to achieve their own goals.

This year, the main focus for business owners has been how to conduct business with a global COVID-19 pandemic. The public health crisis has created opportunities for scammers and hackers, and they’ve responded. One could say that there is a flourishing cybercrime pandemic as the past twelve months has seen a 50 percent increase in lost revenue over the second-highest period on record. Let’s take a look at COVID-19-era cybercrime and how it’s just getting worse as the pandemic rages on.

Zoom is a video conferencing application that, as the coronavirus pandemic reared its ugly head, saw a considerable leap in popularity amongst organizations of every kind as well as private users. However, this leap also helped bring some serious security issues with the platform to light. Let’s check in and see how Zoom has since worked to improve their user protections.