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Data Security Threats Every SMB Must Be Aware of

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Human Error and Employee Negligence

1Human error, by way of unintentional data deletion, modification, and overwrites, has become much more prevalent in recent years. Much of this is the result of carelessly managed virtualization technology. Virtualization and cloud computing have enabled improved business continuity by allowing entire servers – including all data, operating systems, applications, and patches to be grouped into one software bundle or virtual server and subsequently backed up. The catch is humans must still instruct this technology how to perform, which is why so much of today’s data loss is linked to human error. The complexity of these systems often presents a learning curve that involves quite a bit of trial by error. For example, a support engineer can accidentally overwrite his backup when he forgets to power off his replication software prior to formatting volumes on the primary site.

While most CIOs at SMBs are generally accepting and understanding that mistakes happen, they must be more stringent when it comes to managing risky negligent employee behaviors in this era of mobility and accessibility. Employee negligence puts a company or organization’s critical business data at risk of being stolen by cybercriminals or malicious employees. Examples of this negligent behavior include:

  • Leaving computer systems unattended
  • Weak passwords (“password” or “12345”) or passwords that aren’t frequently changed
  • Opening email attachments or clicking hyperlinks embedded with spam
  • Visiting restricted websites

5Employee Mobility & Data Exposure

In the modern-day BYOD workplace, more people are doing daily business on their personal laptops, iPads and Blackberrys. They are also carrying around portable media like thumb drives, USB sticks and CDs.

These devices are not always backed up or secured by IT administrators. There is not only the potential for these devices to be lost or stolen but there is also a very high probability that employees using them are also accessing personal email, downloading music, browsing the web, playing games and hanging out on Facebook. This makes sensitive data susceptible to malware, viruses and hackers. All of this substantially ups the likelihood of data loss incidents.

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Cognoscape Security Services

Cognoscape talk on the news about XP and Heartbleed security issues!

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Cognoscape Security Services

Click on Video

An apparent security flaw found on most websites is allowing hackers to use the Heartbleed virus to breach private information — including your emails, passwords, and credit card numbers.

Keeping Sensitive Data Safe

Are SMBs Keeping Sensitive Data Safe in Bring-Your-Own-Device to Work Era?

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Keeping Sensitive Data Safe The global research firm Forrester recently projected that by 2016 there will be over 200 million employees using their own smartphone for work. That’s right, the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) movement is upon us. While BYOD has undoubtedly enabled businesses to better accommodate an increasingly mobile and dispersed work force, how secure is sensitive customer and corporate data in the modern era of work-life integration? Are SMBs doing enough to ensure that networks aren’t threatened by the risk of malware being spread from personal mobile phones? Find out how you can be prepared – Download the eGuide – “Now You See It, There It… Stays: Decreasing the Business Costs and Risks of Data Loss What You Will Learn From this E-Guide Two very common sources of data loss and leakage How new technology can expose your business to data loss and disruption Four critical steps to better secure and backup sensitive data According to the Gartner Group, only 6% of small businesses survive a major data loss. Any small or medium sized business without a data back-up and recovery plan must act now before it’s too late!

Michael St Martin|Cognoscape|ITServices

Keeping up with Technology – Speaker for your event?

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With the rate of technology ever increasing and the importance it has on becoming a successful business, Michael is increasing his number of speaking engagements as a value add activity to surrounding communities.   He can easily adapt his talk to the audience or topic and speaks on all things technology and how to maximize it for your desired results.   Please let us know if you are interested in having Michael speak at your upcoming meeting.   Read Michael’s full bio below.   Thanks!

Keeping up with TechnologyMichael St Martin|Cognoscape|ITServices

Michael St. Martin

Learn what’s up with the latest technology trends and how “Strategic Technology Acceleration” can rocket your business forward.  Is your technology a competitive advantage?  Do you know how to leverage Cloud Computing? Mobile Devices? Is your network secure? Michael St. Martin will provide information and real world tips that you can use immediately to make your systems an asset instead of a liability.

Michael St. Martin is an entrepreneur and founder of Cognoscape, a Business Technology company that specializes in bringing Enterprise Class technology solutions to Small and Medium Business. While Cognoscape is the newest of Michael’s successful business ventures, his experiences include executive positions with Accenture, building sales organizations with NetIQ and Permeo and adding value to multiple IPOs’ and M&A’s.   His current passion resides in assisting business owners to utilize technology and gain a competitive advantage while streamlining their business.  

Michael has spoken to audiences both large and small, always imparting insight into the latest technology and how to apply it to the audience.   “My goal as a speaker is to give the audience something to take away immediately and apply to their business that day, while entertaining them along the way,” says Michael.   So… great and timely content, mixed with Michael’s engaging style motivates the audience into action!

Word doc containing embedded malware.

Network Security tools are not always enough

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Network Security tools and antivirus products do not provide complete protection from the Viruses and Malware that threaten businesses on a regular basis.  Common sense and intuition can help fill the gaps where network security tools leave off.  A recent example comes from a client who correctly DID NOT open the attachment and referred the email to our team for analysis.  Working for a lawfirm, our client knew that such a notification would arrive as a certified letter instead of just an email to a distribution list.  The email came in as follows:

From: Douglas Rosenthal – Attorney [mailto:doug.rose@douglasrosenthal.com]
Sent: Monday, August 02, 2010 3:04 PM
To: Recipients
Subject: Cease and Desist

Dear Sir

It has come to our attention that your website contains a logo thatis identical/substantially similar to our copyrighted Work.
Permission was neither asked nor granted to reproduce our Work and your Work therefore constitutes infringement of our rights.
In terms of the Copyright Statutes, we are entitled to an injunction against your continued infringement, as well as to recover damages from you for the loss we have suffered as a result of your infringing conduct.

In the circumstances, we demand that you immediately:
1. remove all infringing content and notify us in writing that you have done so;
2. credit all infringing content to ourselves.
3. immediately cease the use and distribution of copyrighted material;
4. undertake in writing to desist from using any of our copyrighted Work in future without prior written authority from us.

Attached is a list of the copyrighted material in question.

We await to hear from you.

This is written without prejudice to our rights, all of which are hereby expressly reserved

The email attachment is a Microsoft Word document named 822010.doc with a size of 112,532 bytes.  Opening the document you see what looks like a PDF file named infrige_documents.pdf with the instructions “(double click to view)”.

A quick look at the properties of the embedded file (In Word 2010 – Right Click on the file/Packager Shell Object Object/Properties) shows the embedded PDF file is really an executable named  INFRIG~1.EXE with a description of “Ufouonkt Uvadb”.  The file name was even a misspelling of INFRINGE, another clue that the whole thing is bad.  Launching this file would have launched a virus that would attempt to infect the computer.  When I tested this file, only 17% of the the world’s anti-virus engines would have flagged it as bad.

With any email or pop up message we advise our clients to either call us or forward the email so we have a chance to prevent a much bigger problem.  When in doubt, DO NOT open items or click messages when you can easily pick up the phone and get the help of an IT professional.

Information Security and your Business

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A recent study released by Symantec Corporation reveals that many small and mid-sized organizations are recognizing the importance of information security. On average, SMBs are now spending approximately $51,000 per year to protect their company information. This is a substantial increase from last year when one-third of SMBs didn’t even have antivirus protection in place. SMBs risk cyber attacks and loss of confidential data and devices.  In today’s hyper-wired world that could mean the difference between success and having to shut down.

Stephen A. Cox, President and CEO of the National Council of Better Business Bureaus states, “The average cost of fraud for self-employed and small-business owners is about $4,627.” But your bottom line isn’t the only thing at risk. By failing to protect your customer data, you could put them in danger of credit card fraud and identity theft. Below we’ll cover some simple safeguards your company can put into place to prevent information theft:

1. Employee awareness – Employees are the gateway to your company’s information. Create and implement Internet security guidelines. Then, educate your employees and make sure they are following them. This can be as simple as requiring periodic password changes to updating your employees on the latest threats and how they can prevent them.

2. Protect important business information – Use data encryption so prying eyes can’t intrude. Maintain wireless security. Limit employee access to important information such as: credit card numbers, customer information or employee records. Important data in the wrong hands could become detrimental.

3. Create a Backup and Recovery Plan – You can’t predict the future but you can be prepared for it. A virus could spread through your system or a flood could ruin your equipment. Make sure you back up your data to an external source as frequently as possible in case the unexpected occurs.

Information Security is crucial to all businesses. In recent news, the Federal Trade Commission charged social media site, Twitter, for failing to adequately safeguard user information. Their failure to protect user accounts led to account attacks on both President-Elect Barack Obama and CNN host Rick Sanchez.  Twitter has not only suffered monetary losses, but has also lost trust and respect of some of their users.

Invest in protecting your company’s data now so you don’t have to deal with a disaster later.

“When a company promises consumers that their personal information is secure, it must live up to that promise.  Likewise, a company that allows consumers to designate their information as private must use reasonable security to uphold such designations.” – David Vladeck, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.

Cognoscape Secures Law Firm Data from Loss, Virus and Potential Disaster

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Cognoscape Secures Law Firm Data from Loss, Virus and Potential Disaster

Dallas, TX (PRWEB) April 28, 2010 — In a city that’s famous for being considered the lower section of “Tornado Alley” it’s comforting to know that one of your most important business assets (data) is secure and recoverable. With uncomfortable memories of the recent 10 year anniversary of a tornado that ripped through the west side of the Dallas/ Fort Worth Metroplex in 2000, the threat of a disaster that could potentially put an entire business at risk is quite real. Thirty three businesses were damaged or destroyed in that disaster.

Ft. Worth Tornado

Cognoscape, a Dallas based Computer Services start up has secured a local law firm’s data through their sophisticated TotalCare Data Back Up and Disaster Recovery solution. With both on-site and off-site data backup and recovery, *GoransonBain, one of Dallas’s premier family law firms, is now protected from data loss, hard drive failure and major disaster. “Backing up data in and of itself is certainly not a complicated issue” states CTO of Cognoscape – Charles Tholen, “but a sophisticated system allowing for a complete and quick recovery is paramount to maintaining business continuity and keeping a business up and running.”

  • 93% of companies that lost their data center for 10 days or more due to a disaster filed for bankruptcy within one year of the disaster. 50% of businesses that found themselves without data management for this same time period filed for bankruptcy immediately. (National Archives & Records Administration in Washington)
  • 20% of small to medium businesses will suffer a major disaster causing loss of critical data every 5 years. (Source: Richmond House Group)
  • 30% of all businesses that have a major fire go out of business within a year. 70% fail within five years. (Home Office Computing Magazine)
  • This year, 40% of small to medium businesses that manage their own network and use the Internet for more than e-mail will have their network accessed by a hacker, and more than 50% won’t even know they were attacked. (Source: Gartner Group)

“The sad part is that most small and medium businesses think they are covered for Backup and Recovery but don’t have sufficient systems and/or don’t test those systems on a regular basis to know if they even work properly or not. Add to the mix, little or no security for the network itself against virus or malicious attacks and this compounds the problem.” says Michael St. Martin, Cognoscape’s COO. In addition to Data Backup and Disaster Recovery, Cognoscape has also improved the overall use of technology at GoransonBain with the latest in servers, desktops, laptops, software and applications which has streamlined the law firm’s business process and increased productivity. Thomas Goranson, attorney and managing partner at GoransonBain states that “not only do we feel better about our data security but the use of newer technology allows our lawyers to focus more on our business and our clients.”

With a number of technology solutions, all carefully chosen to ensure business continuity, Cognoscape is uniquely positioned to make a name for itself in the growing Managed Services market. “It’s been quite a ride so far, and I look forward to being able to continue to deliver to our clients the ability to make them even better at what they already do well”, says St. Martin.

For a free Backup & Disaster Recovery evaluation contact Cognoscape at 214.377.4884.

About Cognoscape – A growing Managed Services and Technology Solutions company that focuses on Business Continuity and delivering Enterprise Class Technology Solutions to Small and Medium Business. Using the latest Cloud Computing technologies such as redundant or fail over server capability, hosted Microsoft Exchange, sophisticated network monitoring & management and government grade security we allow you to focus on your business while utilizing technology as a competitive advantage.