We’ve spent a lot of time talking about the realities and dangers around phishing attacks and social engineering scams. By now you should know that these attacks are heinous attempts by criminals to trick you out of personal information,

Social engineering is a term that’s become more well-used in recent years, and its one everyone with a computer should be familiar with as remote work becomes the norm.

We’ve all heard talk of phishing scams and social engineering attacks—devious new ways for hackers to get access to our personal information. But what are they exactly? What is a phishing scam?

      You may have heard the buzz about Windows 7 reaching its End of Life date, and the risks associated with the continued use of an obsolete operating system (OS). Essentially, if you or your business is relying on an OS that has reached its End of Life (EoL) date, then you are relying on software that is no longer receiving support. No more security updates or exploit patches are released for that software. That means that every new exploit or hack found for that OS is a permanent risk to you and your business. Not exactly something we want to deal with, right?

When it comes to cybersecurity, employee training is a step that many employers neglect or undervalue. Too many companies think that installing a suite of antivirus and anti-malware software is enough to protect them from malicious attackers, but in the world of phishing scams and social engineering attacks that just isn’t enough. An untrained team of employees can be the largest security loophole in your business if you don’t keep them trained.

At the time of this writing, the coronavirus outbreak has struck fear into the hearts of people worldwide. People are scared to go into crowded public places, or go outside at all—this obviously has had a disastrous impact on business of all kinds.

We’ve all heard the term before, “phishing”, and most of us know that it generally means some kind of online scam. But how many of us know what a phishing scam actually entails? 

If you think large companies and government organizations are too secure for cybersecurity attacks or that your small business is safe, think again.

Although uncommon, there have been some recent malware attacks that successfully infiltrated the systems of high-profile organizations.

Keep reading to learn more about these and to understand what this means for your business.

                                                                    “If you can’t hire a team internally, you should outsource one.”

Today we are living during an unprecedented time. Our world has become a place where people cannot congregate towards any common goal. People are getting too sick to work and are being forced into quarantine if they, or someone they have been in contact with, are or have been sick with Covid-19.

Anyone can be a victim of phishing—from you at your personal computer, to the largest corporations and organizations in the world. Knowing that 90% of successful hacks or data breaches are due to phishing scams proves that they can reach any user, regardless of their position in their company or their expertise in their field.

 As an organization or company, you likely outsource your IT security to a group or team of professionals that help you plan out and manage your IT needs. This can be everything from disaster recovery to malware and hacking prevention. When you outsource security, you’re hiring somebody to coach you through the policies you need to put in place and the technology you need to implement for those policies.

Did you know that cyber-crime cost businesses over $3 trillion in 2016? This may seem like a huge sum, however, the bad news is that experts expect this to double to $6 trillion in the next three years.

If you are a small-to-medium-size business you may be wondering what you can do to defend yourself and your business against such threats.

The good news is that there are experts here to help. Check out our list of 5 basic security improvements that all companies should make.