Category: Security

5 reasons to outsource your cyber security

Posted on by Matt Jones

For the majority of businesses, maintaining a solid security position is a significant challenge. All businesses are at risk of becoming victims of the advanced cyberattacks that are growing more prevalent. Businesses often use new technologies that concentrate on prevention, detection, and remediation to lower this risk. 

But this technology alone won’t stop a cyberattack; it needs to be used by knowledgeable security experts. To make sure their business is as secure as possible, many companies opt to outsource this to a reliable third party. This post will go over 5 reasons for outsourcing cyber security by businesses.

Access to cyber security experts

Many businesses rely on their internal departments to manage both their infrastructure and cyber security. This can be a daunting endeavour, leading to a weak security posture and a stressed-out workforce, depending on the size of the business and the workload of the IT department. 

This is made worse by the fact that there is now a scarcity of cybersecurity professionals, which makes it challenging for organisations to hire them.

A business has access to a group of cyber security experts when they outsource their cybersecurity to a reliable third party. 

Their expertise guarantees that they will be able to precisely identify and address weaknesses in a business’s security set up, and most significantly, they are knowledgeable about the most recent cyberthreats and the most effective defences against them.

Reduced costs

Employing a new security specialist or retraining existing staff may be very expensive for businesses of all sizes. 

It might be challenging to justify hiring someone specifically for security for smaller businesses. A business will still have to pay for cyber security solutions in addition to the expense of hiring or training personnel. 

While the cost of outsourcing a business’s cybersecurity is often a fixed monthly sum that covers the technology as well as access to the team of cyber security experts.

Anytime a business weighs the expense of outsourcing security, they should also take into account the typical cost of a cyberattack because this can help determine the return on investment.

Decrease workload

If your business has internal IT staff, there’s a good chance they’re already swamped with support requests and managing the IT infrastructure. 

They frequently end up having insufficient time to focus on finding the ideal security solution or monitoring threats once the solution has been put in place. 

When cybersecurity is outsourced, a third-party supplier is in charge of the solution’s strategy, execution, and monitoring. As a result, internal IT departments have more time to devote to developing IT solutions that advance the company and enhance the experiences of both customers and other employees.

Improved incident response time

It is essential for a business to act swiftly after being the target of an attack to limit further damage and downtime. An internal IT team might not be aware of a cybercriminal entering a network or system over the weekend until Monday am. 

The threat actor will have enough time as a result to migrate laterally via a network and cause greater harm. For instance, Russian nation-state hackers can penetrate a network in under 18 minutes.

Numerous cybersecurity service providers provide protection, detection, and remediation around-the-clock to guarantee that, once an assault happens, someone is prepared to act quickly. 

Additionally, it is less expensive than hiring an internal crew to work on the weekends and through the evenings to provide round-the-clock security.

More advanced technologies

Numerous cyber security technologies, such as endpoint protection, email protection, autonomous detection, and many more, are made to perform particular tasks. 

Because it would be too expensive and time-consuming to provide training for every available option, an internal IT staff would not have experience with all of these cutting-edge technology. 

If a business outsources their cyber security requirements, it will be protected by a team of experts with knowledge of a variety of cutting-edge cybersecurity tools. This team will be able to reliably provide insights into which technologies are worthwhile for a business to invest in.

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The importance of investing into security is vital. With more advanced threats happening each day, can you afford not to?

How To Identify A Scam Email

Posted on by Tobias Gillott

Do you ever look at an email and think twice about its authenticity?

Well your definitely not being paranoid, these emails are known as phishing emails which in the recent 2021 government survey identified to be the most common form of attack on businesses and individuals.

What is a phish?

Phishing is when cyber criminals impersonate companies or “Persons of Authority’ such as a bank or government agency to mislead users into revealing information, making payments or downloading malicious software usually through emails. Recently phishing scammers have branched onto mobile messages so this blog concerns both email and mobile.

The main types of Phishing 

Mass scale – This is the most common of phishing scams because it’s so easy for cyber criminals todo. What cyber criminals will do is send a mass amount of emails to hundreds and even thousands of people at once with a generic email that could relate to anyone. This method relies on the chance that one or two people fall for this scam.

Spear Phishing – This method is much more direct. Focused at an individual or group of individuals. This method for the victim is much harder to identify as the cyber criminals will have knowledge of your personal details from other sources making the scam that more believable.

Whaling – A version of spear Phishing which targets a high value member within an organisation such as directors.

The impact Phishing causes

Depending on the attack the damage could be severe towards an individual or business. 

For individuals most phishing scams will try to gain personal information which can then be related to further issues such as identity theft. 

Companies can suffer massive loss of revenue on top of hefty fines if they were to suffer a phishing scam that affected customers. Phishing can affect companies in many ways and usually with diverted time which would be prioritised to fixing the issue.

However, if at all a phishing scam entered the companies system and leaked private information about clients, then the company could face a fine of up to £17.8 million or 4% of global revenue if the digital security of the company did not meet UK GDPR guidelines during an investigation.

Another big phishing impact would be to get you to install something onto your computer. If you didn’t know, downloading links from people you don’t know is usually a bad idea but if it were from a phishing scammer you could be installing anything onto your computer, Malware, remote monitoring and control software, viruses and others. This can then result if data loss and your system being held for ransom.

Anyone is a target

Phishing can affect even the most technologically and financially advanced businesses. A false invoice phishing attack impersonating one of Facebook’s main Asian-based suppliers cost the company $100 million between 2013 and 2015. Crelan Bank in Belgium lost $75.8 million in a CEO fraud scheme that was only discovered through an internal audit.

The criminals responsible are yet to be found.

How can I recognise phishing scams myself?

An infected attachment is a document that appears to be normal however conceals malware. It is recommended that you never open an attachment unless you are certain the message is from a legitimate source. The validity of the download will be flagged by your anti-malware programme if you have one. If this is the case, don’t go any farther.

Look at the email address.

Many people don’t look at email addresses, we cut straight to the content. Phishing scammers have found ways of displaying names that don’t correlate with the email address. This disguises the true origin of the email.

Genuine emails will have organisation names in the domains such as @paypal.com and @barclays.com. If they look any different then you should ignore the message and block the domain.

Another part would be that domains are misspelt in ways that are indistinguishable from the ones being impersonated. Creating a domain extremely similar to a company is called Typosquatting. ‘Google’ could be changed to ‘Yoogle’ or ‘Voogle’ in the chance that you wouldn’t notice the difference, this is because our brains are able to correct spellings without us even knowing and why we can read jumbled letters if placed correctly.

Messages require immediate action.

The longer you think about it, the more likely you are to notice something is amiss. The attackers are well aware of this. As a result, they use strategies to convince you to act now rather than later. PayPal, Windows, and Netflix are examples of frequently used services that are vital to the majority of people. As a result, they’re great because you’ll be able to deal with them right away.

The solution

Although very serious these are very easily and solvable problems:

  1. Educate yourself and your employees. Noticing phishing emails today is crucial and can save you a lot of time and money. Spam filters will never be 100% effective so everyone is responsible for protecting their email and their organisation. Spending some on training your employees is much cheaper than the losses that you could receive from phishing scams.
  2. Identify scams and report them to others. This gets the word out about emails to ignore.
  3. If you were to receive anything immediate from your bank or government which you don’t recognise then you should contact them directly (over the phone preferably).
  4. Use the knowledge within this blog to help you better understand how phishing scammers operate.

We hope that this blog helped you in some way. If you think that you have fallen victim to a phishing scam we may be able to assist you or point you in the right direction to recovery.

Please feel free to contact us at any time;

Phone: 01903 357002

Email: contact@atsconnection.co.uk

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6 Ways To Extend Your WiFi Range

Posted on by Tobias Gillott

Do you find that your WiFi doesn’t reach all around your home? Perhaps your one too many rooms away from the router and you notice extended buffering and generally slow performance.

Maybe some parts of your property there is no signal at all where even loading a web page seems to take an eternity. 

Usually these ‘black spots’ are often caused by distance, thick walls like brick and interference from other devices.

Nowadays WiFi is essential especially since working from home has become the new norm with video calls and cloud sharing becoming more popular. So when your WiFi keeps dropping out it can get increasingly frustrating and disruptive.

Luckily there are many different ways to extend your routers range all around your property to give you the same performance as if you were right next to the router.

Move the router

The easiest option would be to move the router to a better spot. Sounds simple enough but there are a few tricks to placing the router in the best spot.

Firstly have the router out in the open preferably in a raised place, not in a cupboard or behind the TV. Also getting the router as close to the centre of the house as possible will help distribute a signal evenly.

Although something of the past now some routers still have antennas and adjusting them to be perpendicular to the router will help. Antennas send the best signal out of the sides and less out of the top and bottom. Also if your router has multiple antenna your could position them accordingly to target certain parts of the house.

Upgrade the router

If moving your router around seems to not solve anything then perhaps your router is not powerful enough or too old. If this is the case then maybe its time to upgrade it to a newer one, most ISPs give these out if you ask and being a long-time user of the provider may help you out. Just watch out if they try to sell you a new contract.

The oldest to newest WiFi standards are: 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, 802.11ac and WiFi 6. If you have an older “b” or “g” wireless router we really recommend upgrading.

A common misconception is that the latest WiFi standard gives you the best performance and range. While this is partially true the best speeds come at the expense of range so you’ll actually get the best coverage from a router with really good performance using 2.4GHz, not 5GHz.

However, this merges with the next option of a mesh WiFi. 

Mesh WiFi kit

A mesh WiFi network is when two or more routers work together to provide the best coverage than what a single router could deliver. What it does is replace your existing routers WiFi and although this sounds confusing the process has been made very simple so that people with little to no knowledge of IT can set it up.

To set up a WiFi mesh kit connect the main device to the router via ethernet and put the other mesh devices around the house. Depending on what sort of coverage you need and how big the property is you may need one or more mesh devices. All the devices communicate with one another creating a reliable connection around the house even into the garden.

Powerline adapters

One of our most recommended options would be to use your properties electrical circuit. Powerline adapters are similar to mesh kits where a module is in each room that wants to be boosted. These even can work in places such as garages or outhouses. 

All you need to do is plug an adapter into a power socket near the router and connect the two via ethernet. Then plug in the extenders in the rooms that you want a boosted signal in and press a few linking buttons and you’re all setup.

Depending on what model you get sometimes the extenders create new connections which sometimes means you have to switch your internet. However there are some good ones that simply work off the main connection meaning you don’t have to switch around when going into different rooms.

Powerline adapters are more expensive than mesh kits however they mirror the signal that the router provides meaning no loss of bandwidth on each extender.

Wireless boosters

WiFi extenders which also go by repeaters or boosters increase your WiFi signal by capturing the wireless signal from your router and then rebroadcasting it. These do work however are not the best option if you require extremely fast WiFi speeds.

These are very cheap and very easy to install with some models little than £20 or so. However these use the older 801.11n standard. There are newer models if you’re looking for something slightly faster, 802.11ac boosters can be brought for around £35.

They work by having two halves of an antenna, one to receive and one to transmit which effectively halves the potential speed of the original WiFi signal.

Realistically this shouldn’t be too much of a problem if you are doing basic things like browsing the web but you could see some buffering if trying to stream in HD or downloading large files.

Wireless boosters work best when placed in a central location and are not to far away from the main router. If you think that putting a booster in a place where the connection is bad it will do no good as it is just spreading around a weak signal and will reduce the speed of the rest of the network.

So the best spot for the booster is somewhere in the middle between the router and the desired device that you want to be connected.

Using 2.4GHz instead of 5GHz WiFi

If you didn’t know WiFi uses two frequency bands: 2.4GHz and 5GHz. Most people think that the fastest option would be 5GHz. In a technical sense you’d be correct 5GHz is faster than 2.4GHz however you’d have to sacrifice the walls and ceilings in your house or sit right next to the router. 

This is because 5GHz cannot penetrate walls, ceilings or anything because of its wavelength. The higher the frequency the shorter the wavelength.

2.4GHz is much better at delivering a signal over greater distances but at slower speeds. That is why you may benefit from forcing your device to connect to the 2.4GHz network instead. Most basic routers combine the network so separating them can sometimes be a challenge. 

If this is the case then all you have to do is log into the settings web page (type your routers IP directly into a browser) and look for a WiFi menu where you can split the two frequencies into two entities.

Bear in mind some household devices can interfere with a 2.4GHz connection such as baby monitors, Bluetooth, Microwaves and more. These can reduce the speed and range a WiFi signal has. 

Ultimately you have to decide if you want a greater range with lower speeds or shorter range with greater speeds. Mileage may differ but it is very well worth understanding the difference between the WiFi bands and use it for your advantage.

Conclusion

There are many different ways of boosting a WiFi signal over your property. Some options are much better than others but really it depends on what property that you have. There are many different things that can influence the choice of WiFi extender, such as what your properties internals are made out of such as brick or plaster, also the size of the coverage that you want should influence your choice. It is easy to forget the reliability of your broadband causing an issue. If your property can’t currently get FTTP then SoGEA is the best alternative for speed and reliability.

All the options that we’ve covered in this article are viable options but if you’re having trouble deciding what would best suit you, don’t worry. 

Here at ATS Connection we can find the best option for your property and install everything to ensure that you receive top-notch WiFi everywhere.

If you do want a professional opinion feel free to call us at: 01903 357002 or alternatively email us at contact@aruntechsupport.co.uk 

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Top 4 Threats To Network Security

Posted on by Jake Boase

Whether your business is transitioning back to an office atmosphere or your workforce will continue to work remotely, you are more vulnerable to network security attacks than ever before. Threat actors (those who represent a security risk to your network) are after the data on your network and are working hard to obtain it. Here are the top four network security concerns to assist you comprehend the issue.

Ransomware

Ransomware is a serious threat to your business, especially because it is so difficult to detect. 

Gone are the days when you had a virus and it just showed up and said hello. Ransomware infiltrates your system, embeds itself in everything, and then attacks! 

It can take weeks or even months for a breach to be discovered. The time it takes to identify something is increasing. 

In 2016, Fireye reported a global average of 146 days. According to IBM calculations, it is already 228 days, according to a Varonis report from 2021. 

A data breach’s cost is calculated in terms of time, money, and reputational damage. You must have the assurance that you are safe.

Social engineering

Why should threat actors put forth the effort to get past your endpoint and network protection when they can use your employees to do so? This fundamental concept is what makes social engineering such a danger to network security. 

“Psychological manipulation to fool users into making security blunders or giving out sensitive information,” according to the best definition we’ve seen. 

Phishing assaults (emails posing as a senior member of staff in order to obtain information or money) are the most popular tool in the social engineering toolkit. 

Another example is hacked websites. Cyber hackers are always trying to break into trusted websites in order to steal information or gain access to your network.

In the real world, a developing method of attack is being used. Malware-infected USB sticks are put outside of targets in the hopes that they would be picked up. 

People are intrigued when they are referred to as “staff bonuses” or “salary raises.” When they plug them into their laptops, the malware is released, and the problems begin. 

This is a staff education challenge for you, and our blog has a number of items that can help.

Crypto-mining

You can obtain crypto-currencies in one of two ways: by purchasing them or by mining for them. Crypto-mining necessitates a significant amount of computer power. 

Breaching your network and using your devices’ computing power is a growing issue. 

According to Cisco statistics, 69 percent of businesses have faced some kind of harm as a result of this. As the value of crypto-currencies rises, so does the degree of activity. 

Bitcoin was trading at £45,000 per coin at the time of writing, a new high.

Although this threat appears to be minor at first, it frequently serves as a stepping stone to more serious cybercrime. They can do a lot more than just use your processing power once they’re in. 

You may have been hacked by a cyberminer if your AWS computing charges have increased or your bandwidth is always blocked.

DDoS attacks

Although Systems IT does not provide website hosting, this is an increasing issue, which is why we’re talking about it now. 

DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks grew by 55% in the 15 months leading up to March 2021, with NSFOCUS reporting that they had detected over 152,000 attacks by December 2020. 

The majority of DDoS attacks appear to be motivated by people disagreeing with your policies/beliefs or by you offending someone – whether intentionally or unintentionally. In the first half of 2021, the biotech and pharmaceutical industries were the most targeted. 

A network security breach has three costs, as previously stated:

  1. Time: a significant amount of time is lost, both in attempting to repair the damage and simply in downtime as your staff is unable to function. 
  2. Money: Whether you pay a ransom to get your data back or merely calculate the cost of lost revenue, it can soon add up. 
  3. Reputation: there are three considerations to consider here:
    1. Do you wish to inform your clients that your company has been hacked? What will they think of you, and will they decide to work with you again? 
    2. If your Personally Identifiable Information (PII) data has been accessed, you must notify everyone who may be affected, according to ICO regulations. The combination of a reputational risk and an increase in “ambulance-chasing” legal action can be devastating to your company. 
    3. What will your colleagues think of you if you refuse to increase the security around your network? Of course, enhancing security has a cost, but isn’t it far less than the costs we’ve discussed?

Survival

In the end, it could be the difference between your company growing and surviving. 

Within six months, 50% of organisations that have had a data breach have shut down. 

Even if they do survive, the impact of all of the above on the bottom line will be felt for a long time. 

These risks frequently go undiscovered for weeks or months, as stated earlier in the essay. 

Over time, the amount of damage is steadily increasing. 

The sooner you identify a breach and begin responding, the less damage is done.

The purpose of this article was to inform you about the threats that your network and business face. 

The next one will focus on how you can defend yourself. Simply subscribe here if you don’t want to miss that article. 

If none of the expenses listed above appeal to you, let’s discuss how ATS can assist you in protecting your network. Call us on 01903 357002 or send us an email. With cyber crime kill chains on the rise, it has never been more important to ensure you are protected than now. Check out out cyber security services here

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Staying safe while working from home

Posted on by Jake Boase

Security at work has always been essential in every business, especially when it comes to staying safe online, but how does that work now that many of us are working remotely?

Unfortunately, the freedom of working from home, or anywhere outside of the office, does increase the need to be vigilant around cyber security. This doesn’t mean that you can’t work as safely as when you were in the office – you just need the right solutions in place.

A modern hosted phone system, like eve, can offer enhanced security and peace of mind, by protecting users from fraudulent activity. Exceptional Call Protection is a key feature of eve, which monitors your call patterns and volumes to scan for any particular high-risk categories, such as premium rate calls. It is even possible for eve to block any outbound calls, if suspicious activity is detected.

Using a solution like eve will provide the reassurance you need to relax, safe in the knowledge that your business is protected, no matter where your staff are located.

Take a look at this feature in more detail, here.

How secure is our VOIP system?

Posted on by Jake Boase

What does it mean to keep a VoIP telephone service safe? Safety and security mean two things to us, our customers – connection safety and the safety of customer data/usage.

Here at Arun Tech Support, we want our customers to feel confident we are giving our clients an extremely reliable and robust service. That means no downtime, no data breaches, or fraudulent acts.

You rely on us to provide a secure reliable telephone service without the risk of fraud. Read on to find out how we achieve that.

Reliability Assured

For your busy customers, a loss of phone lines could be catastrophic. Not just an annoyance. We get it – reliability is key when it comes to VoIP services and unlike some other providers, we’re confident enough in our solution and backup practices to guarantee a minimum of 99.9% availability of our hosted telephone switchboard system.

Here’s how we can make that promise:

  • Each customer has a virtual switchboard server which is hosted on one of several physical servers in one of our data centres. Our physical servers are inherently fault-tolerant.
  • We keep a backup copy of each customer’s server configuration in at least two data centres.
  • If one of our servers fails, we attempt to restart it immediately using an automated mechanism. If the automatic restart does not work, we start up a fresh standby server from a backup image. This process takes less than one hour.
  • If one of our data centres were to suffer a major catastrophic failure of their equipment, we can switch all services to a secondary data centre.
  • For customers who require the highest possible level of failover contingency, we set up a hot standby server in a secondary data centre. Any changes to the configuration of the primary server are copied to the standby server immediately. If the primary server fails, we can switch the customer’s service to the standby server within 10 minutes.

Call Fraud Protection

Hackers and scammers will try to exploit any technology possible and even VoIP hasn’t been immune in the past.

Call fraud is when a criminal manages to piggyback off a VoIP system to make calls. This can be to commit further fraud using your customers’ telephone number or simply because they don’t fancy paying for their own VoIP solution!

Fortunately, call fraud is quite easy to detect for us and we have three levels of protection to ensure your customers don’t fall victim to a scammer.

  • Our carrier maintains a blacklist of popular call destinations which fraudsters use. They alert us immediately to any unusual traffic from a customer’s telephone numbers so that we can investigate.
  • We set a daily spend limit on each customer’s account. By default, this is set to £10 in 24 hours. This limit can be increased if appropriate. Our system sends us an automatic alert if the customer exceeds their 24-hour limit. We also have an option to automatically cut off block further outgoing calls if the spend limited is reached.
  • To make calls through our system, a fraudster would need to gain access to a customer’s telephone connection details on a switchboard server. We protect against this by applying strong randomly generated passwords to each connection and each server. We recommend that these passwords are either left unchanged or, if they need to be changed, you use our random password generator.

If for some reason fraudulent calls do occur (unlikely!), then your customer will not incur any penalties or have to pay for the calls – unless the fraud occurred due to their security lapse or system misuse.

Our Promises

We pride ourselves on our commitment to reliability and security. Here are our guarantees:

  • Guaranteed minimum of 99.9% availability of our hosted telephone switchboard system
  • A switch to our backup server within one hour should we experience main server loss
  • Customer will not incur financial losses due to fraudulent calls being made from their account unless the fraud was due to customer negligence
  • Guaranteed safe numbers – customers telephone numbers will never be released or sold to anyone
  • Telephone calls and recordings are kept completely private and secure
  • Smooth, safe, fuss-free transition to another service provider should the customer request it

If you are interested in our VoIP services with a guaranteed secure solution, then get in touch today.