How Cybercriminals Rip You Off

Cybercriminals are in the business of ripping you off, make no mistake about it. They’ll do what they can to trick you and steal your hard-earned cash. Thankfully, there are common and recurring trends you can look for that expose these fraudsters for what they really are.

Suspicious Messages

Any message claiming that you’ve won the lottery or that you’ve inherited a fortune from some rando you’ve never heard of can safely be assumed to be malicious in nature. However, other messages might look like they come from a bank, a utility company, or even the government. These messages will often demand immediate attention or payments, as well.

Ransomware Threats

Ransomware locks down and encrypts files while demanding a payment for their safe return. These threats may also double or triple-extort you by threatening to leak sensitive information online or sell it to the highest bidder. These threats are a reason why you want data backup and disaster recovery solutions in place.

Infected USB Drives

Malware is all over the place, and if you’re not careful, you can download the wrong file or click on the wrong link to cause serious damage to your infrastructure. Even an infected USB device can create trouble for your business if you’re not careful.

Fake Bills

Criminals will sometimes hack into your email to change a supplier’s contact information to make fraudulent adjustments to real bills. So, while you’re paying your bills like a good citizen, who’s to say it’s not a hacker who’s getting a pay day? Sneaky, sneaky.

Old Passwords

Old passwords that used to work for certain accounts could potentially get stolen and used on other websites, especially if you’re really bad about changing and reusing them. Imagine having your old banking password stolen and leaked online, then having a social media account hijacked because you never changed the password for that service.

Social Engineering

Sometimes, the easiest way through your security measures is through your employees. This is when hackers will target your team with phishing messages designed to take advantage of a lack of knowledge or a lack of awareness of cybersecurity. It’s one of the more effective ways cybercriminals break into systems.

The Small Business Vulnerability

Small businesses often don’t have the resources that large enterprises do, therefore, they skimp on cybersecurity when they should instead focus the same amount of effort and attention on it. SMBs often think they’re not at threat, but we assure you, the threat is very real, and it is terrifying. If your business suffers a data breach, it could experience immense downtime, lose data, lose customers, lose respect with clients, lose trust with the public… really, what’s not to lose? It’s better to just be cautious and prepare for the worst as far as cybersecurity is concerned.

How to Protect Your Business

Here’s a shortlist of what you’ll want to implement for your business’ security solutions:

• Access control - We can outfit your business with both physical and digital access control tools that will keep your assets more secure than they would be otherwise. 
• Knowledge sharing - We can help train your team to spot scam emails and use computers safely.
• Backed up - We make sure all your important business information is copied and stored safely, so if anything bad happens, you can get it back quickly.
• Monitoring - Our managed IT services mean we’re always keeping an eye on your computer systems to spot trouble early.
• Dark Web monitoring - We can even check the hidden parts of the internet to see if any of your business’ passwords or information are being sold by criminals.

Does this sound complicated? It doesn’t have to be. Get started with Preferred today and let us handle your cybersecurity. Learn more at 708-781-7110.