Here’s one of my favorite questions to ask business owners: when did you last check that your backup was working properly?
It never fails to amaze me that most people can’t give me a good answer.
The scary part is – the very worst time to find out your backup hasn’t been working is when you need to use it. After you suffer a ransomware attack, for example.
Then what do you do? You’ve essentially lost everything.
And although you may be confident in your security measures to protect you from attacks (please never be too confident, nothing will keep you 100% protected), there are other reasons you may rely on your backup, too.
What happens if you accidentally delete important files?
Or if your website is corrupted?
Or there’s a fire at your office?
Any one of these scenarios is a real (if rare) possibility. It would give you real peace of mind to know that at least your data is backed up anytime you need it.
So, if you do one thing today, check your backup. Please.
And as always, if we can help you with any aspect of this, just give us a call.
You know that if your business becomes the victim of cyber-crime, you should report it to the FBI or your countries equivalent. And lots of businesses have been doing just that.
Last year, the FBI received 791,790 complaints of internet crime. This was up 300,000 from 2019. And yes, you’ve guessed it, the pandemic is to blame for this one.
While we were trying to protect ourselves and our loved ones from
Covid-19, cybercriminals were taking advantage. Americans lost more than $4.2 billion to scammers.
The biggest source of loss? Business email compromise.
The FBI recommends the best way to avoid this type of scam is to verify all requests for personal information or money transfer, either directly or over the phone.
However, security awareness training can also be a big help in protecting your business from business email compromise or any other type of data breach.
Our advice is to schedule regular training for all of your people, from receptionists right up to the CEO. You can even try attack simulations to help educate your team on how this kind of attack really occurs. Knowledge is power, after all.
If you want help with this, get in touch!
The FBI has outlined 5 main types of scams that affect businesses:
BOGUS INVOICE SCHEME - criminals pretend to be a supplier requesting funds to a fraudulent account
CEO FRAUD - scammers pose as the CEO and send an email to the finance department requesting a money transfer
ACCOUNT COMPROMISE - your email account is hacked and used to request invoice payments to suppliers
ATTORNEY IMPERSONATION - cybercriminals pretend to be the attorney and request funds or sensitive information
DATA THEFT - HR or bookkeeping are usually targeted to obtain sensitive information to use in future attacks