How to Prepare Your Employees for Phishing Attacks

a close up of a computer keyboard with the word intps on it

Phishing attacks are no joke, especially for business owners. Phishing is when a criminal pretends to be a reputable company to trick you into revealing personal information. This is usually done through emails, and they’re usually after passwords. 

To prevent your business from falling victim to a phishing attack, you have to prepare your employees to combat it. With that in mind, here are four ways to go about that.

Check for Grammar Mistakes

Even though American businesses are usually targeted for phishing, the attacks originate from overseas. That means that English might not be the hacker’s first language. Tell your employees to keep this in mind as they look over any suspicious emails. If it contains misspelled words, poor punctuation, or awkward phrasing, it may be a phishing attempt. 

Phishing Scams Will Claim to Be Urgent

Phishing emails always want you to act as quickly as possible. They’ll tell you that an issue involving your credit card or password needs to be resolved immediately. If you or your staff read an email like that, take a second to analyze it. Then, remember that a reputable company probably wouldn’t try to rush you.

Be Cautious When it Comes to Phishing on Mobile Devices

Mobile devices aren’t as secure as desktops. Thus, that’s why they’re far more likely to be targeted. Communication apps like Skype, Slack, and Facebook Messenger are especially vulnerable. Additionally, tell your employees to ignore any suspicious messages received on their phones.

Have Good Dental Hygiene

Make sure your employees have good digital hygiene. They shouldn’t be posting any information on social media that hackers can use. These guys are used to utilizing tiny bits of information to amass gigantic attacks. However, if they don’t have that, they’ll be forced to try phishing anonymously. Those attacks are easier to defend against.

For more advice on combating attacks, contact us today. We offer specialized IT services to help your business succeed. 

Office 365 vs Office 2019 – Which One is Best for Your Business?

the comparison between office 365 and office 365

When it comes to which product is superior, Microsoft’s traditional Office (2019) suite, or their relatively new Office 365 package, there is no definitive answer. Microsoft offers two options for its customers because it recognizes that a one-size-fits-all philosophy may not necessarily meet the needs of everyone in its very large audience.

In this post, we will outline some of the key features of each suite so each business can decide for itself, which package is better suited for its particular office environment.

Office 365 for Business

Office 365 is a cloud-based version of Microsoft’s suite of office products such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, plus additional business-related apps. Instead of paying a one-time license fee, buyers pay a monthly or annual subscription for use of the product. 

Some key advantages include:

  • Regular updates
  • Increased cloud-based collaboration
  • Use apps on multiple devices
  • Linking (rather than attaching) files to emails
  • Multiple subscription-level options

Microsoft Office 2019

This is Microsoft’s stand-alone version of their Office line of software applications. Buyers make a one-time purchase of the package, which includes Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook. Microsoft does offer a business version of the product and the one-time fee is good until the end of life of the product (infinite access).

Advantages of the stand-alone package include:

  • Pay only once
  • 60 days of free support
  • Tried and true classic office applications

Generally speaking, Microsoft’s Office 2019 software is a good choice for very small businesses — typically less than 5 employees. As a stand-alone product, there is a fee attached to each copy of the software so if you have 3 machines using Office 2019, you’ll have 3 licenses. For slightly larger companies who use other cloud-based applications, Office 365 may be a better choice. It certainly offers more on-the-go flexibility by allowing the use of the app on multiple devices, as well as multiple subscription options.

If you would like to know more about how to select the right office package for your business, please contact us.

Top 5 Mobile Device Security Protocols for Organizations

a person sitting at a desk with a cell phone

More and more organizations are allowing their staff to rely on portable smart devices in order to conduct official business. With 24-hour, on-the-spot access to key information and business tools, portable devices offer astounding amounts of flexibility and convenience — enabling employers to access their organization from anywhere. That said, the question must be asked, is enough being done to ensure mobile device security?

In this post, we will outline 5 tips to consider regarding corporate mobile use.

Updating Mobile Device Security Policies 

Whether an organization writes their own security policies or if they outsource their IT services to third-party, corporate leaders need to make sure their written security policies address specific issues regarding mobile use. Not only does this force companies to sit down and seriously consider all the ramifications of mobile data access, but it also lets staff members know that IT security policies are not just “office-only” policies to follow.

Protect What’s Really Important 

By updating corporate security policies, it becomes obvious that what businesses are really protecting is the data that employees might access. No one is going to write up a security policy regarding the potential loss of a mobile device that cost a few hundred dollars. From the top down, everyone needs to clearly understand that following mobile usage policies is about data, not simple device breakage.

Mobile Device Security  

There is security software specifically available for mobile devices. Companies must ensure that any mobile device their employees use, whether company or personally owned, has professional security software installed and updated regularly.

Scrambling the Data

Along with mobile security, there are also mechanisms available that will scramble, or encrypt, phone data such as contact lists, emails, text messages, etc. Companies should check with those handling their IT operations to ensure encryption software is installed on all corporate mobile devices.

Consider Bluetooth Access

Many people don’t spend nearly enough time thinking about what it really means to have Bluetooth-enabled devices. They don’t know that:

  • Most new devices come with Bluetooth enabled
  • Anyone nearby could potentially connect to their mobile device
  • Whether using Bluetooth for personal or business reasons, if it’s on, it’s on.

Bluetooth can be a very useful feature that allows one to take hands-free calls, texts, etc. but it is also very difficult to remember to manually turn it off when not in use. Companies need to seriously consider whether to allow their employees to use Bluetooth at all or at least use security software that addresses Bluetooth use.

If you would like to know more about developing comprehensive security policies regarding employee mobile usage, please contact us.

Improve Teamwork and File Collaboration with Microsoft Teams

a group of people standing next to each other

Team projects frequently require regular and sometimes even intensive communication between team members. It is often difficult, however, to find the time and the meeting space to bring everyone together. This is just one of the reasons why Microsoft developed their Microsoft Teams application. Their Teams application provides an easy mechanism for project members to improve file collaboration with each other; all from the convenience of their own desk or even while on the go.

Flexible Communication 

With the Microsoft Teams collaboration hub, members can easily connect with each other for group chats to review important project documents, or they can initiate a private conversation with another team member or an external user. Microsoft Teams offers flexible communication by offering team members the choice to communicate through voice, text, or video channels. Team members can sign in anywhere, anytime, using virtually every device on the market, since Microsoft Teams can be downloaded onto a variety of devices and operating systems, including:

  • Mac
  • Android
  • iPhone
  • Windows
  • Web

File Collaboration Made Easy

Group projects typically require the use of multiple applications, along with a multitude of different file types. Microsoft Teams makes it easy for team members to view, discuss, and edit a variety of different files from applications such as:

  • Excel
  • PowerPoint
  • Microsoft Word
  • Visio 

If team members need to share project documents outside of their group project, Microsoft’s Teams application allows that as well. Of course, there may be times when team members need to bring in files for review from sources other than Microsoft’s line of applications. In that case, project members can make use of their underlying SharePoint library to view non-Office files within the Teams application. 

If you want to increase efficiency and productivity in your group projects, Microsoft can make it happen with their Teams app. Contact us for details.

Your Employees are the Biggest Threat to Your IT Infrastructure

a woman with long hair standing with her arms crossed

One of the biggest threats to any company’s IT infrastructure, albeit an unintentional threat, is the company’s employees. It isn’t all that uncommon for a company’s employees to end up accidentally helping out criminals or compromising the company’s IT security just by doing what they consider to be completely normal activities.

When employees use their devices to access a company network so they can check their email, download files, etc. then their device may end up getting infected by a virus or malware or get hacked. When this happens, then the company’s data can end up getting compromised in addition to just that employee’s personal data. Of course, there is also the risk that they may lose these devices, and hackers or other criminals will then have access to that employee’s credentials which they can then use to break into your network.

What Can You Do About It?

  • Provide your employees with additional training so that they are capable of identifying potential security risks and acting accordingly.
  • Make sure that you have established a clear and consistent set of policies. They should relate to password management, use of personal devices, data sharing and internet access.
  • If you don’t have a clear reason to allow it, then it may be in your best interests to ban the use of personal devices on your business’s network in order to minimize this risk.
  • Install a wide variety of different security mechanisms, both hardware and software. This ensures that you are easily able to identify when your network is being accessed. Additionally, confirm that the person accessing it is authorized. Therefore, you can identify and address potential security breaches before they become a problem.

IT security is a critical portion of any business. When you let employees access your network, you are trusting them to be responsible with the data they can access. If you are going to give them access to this data, you should make sure they are responsible enough.

For more information about securing your IT infrastructure, contact us today!