DON’T BE LOW HANGING FRUIT

With the ever-growing rate of cyber-attacks, we have seen a rise in ransomware attacks. Hackers are constantly scanning the internet for vulnerable and weakly protected systems. In search for what we call, low hanging fruit. When an organization falls prey to a ransomware attack, they are face with the decision of whether they’re going to pay the ransom and hopefully get back up and running or not pay and run the risk of never getting their data back. It may seem tempting to some to just pay and get your data back, but the repercussions are just not worth it and in some cases are illegal. Here are four reasons to not pay ransomware.

There’s No Guarantee You’ll Regain Access to Data

Most victims prefer to pay the ransom because they see it as a less expensive or less risky option compared to not paying. The way ransomware is design is that you pay the ransom on your data, and you regain access. However, only 51% if victims that paid the ransom were able to get their data back. A study shows that only 8% of business got all their data back. On average businesses will only receive 65% of their data back. The attackers who hold the ransom are thieves. There is no guarantee that they will honor the ransom.

Ransom Payment Encourages More Attacks

When an organization pays the ransom, they are more likely to be targeted again. The organization may be seen as a well of money for to the attackers. This same reason could result in only partial access to data. Studies show that 80% of organizations that paid the ransom, have experienced a second attack by the same group. The attacker could have saved a copy of the data just to threaten you more to pay more ransom. By paying the ransom, the organization put a target on their backs. The advice has always been to not negotiate with the attackers.

The Attacker Could Still Leak or Sell Your Data

An organization paid the ransom and got all their data back, great right? Not so much. The attacker could have saved a copy of the data just to leak the data or sell it to nefarious people. Depending on the information, the attacker possibly could sell the data to worse criminals. Companies who need to comply to HIPAA are usually most targeted due to the nature of the sensitive information they hold. Data such as social security numbers, health records, banking information, phone numbers, and email addresses can all be sold by the attackers.

Paying Ransom can Cost You Fines

Many of these ransomware actors reside in countries in which the U.S. government has sanctions on. The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has included malicious cyber actors in its cyber related sanctions program. These sanctions allow OFAC to penalize any U.S. persons who aid and or support these cyber criminals. By paying the ransom, a person is counted to be assisting these attackers. The penalties apply even if the victim is unaware of the sanctions and may be civilly liable by OFAC.

Conclusion

Ransomware attacks can be an expensive headache. These attacks usually start as malicious software that get on to a system usually through a phishing email or weak cyber defense. At EZETech, we set up controls throughout your organization to reduce and minimize the chances and damages of ransomware attacks. Our team of trained professionals understand the many different ways these criminals can get into your network and systems. We work with your team to train your staff to spot these threats before letting them in by mistake. We lock down systems, networks and even user permissions to prevent this costly threat. Additionally, we provide you with consistent patching and training to make sure your systems are simply too tough to break into. In most cases these hackers are lazy and will move on to other low hanging fruit.

Contact EZETech today for more information on our IT services.

(772) 237-7732

[email protected]

1597 SE Port St Lucie Blvd, Port St. Lucie, FL 34952

Technology has advanced to the point that just about everyone has a computer in their pocket. Cell phones are great and able you to do many things on the go beside just communication. However, many people don’t realize that the computer in their pocket is at risks to cyber-attacks just as much as the computer at home. That threat is called smishing. Here is what smishing is and how to defend against it.

What is Smishing?

Smishing in a nutshell is the mobile version phishing. Phishing is typically a legitimate looking scam email, disguised to look like a real company to steal your data. A popular example of this is an email made to look like your bank asking you to sign in or asking for account information. Smishing is exactly like, but instead of email its text messages. These scam messages can also appear in other messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp. These messages, like phishing emails, often appear as a company offering a special deal with a link attached.

What are the attackers after?

Like with phishing emails, the attackers are after your personal information. They are interested in the information that would be able for them to steal money, usually yours or your company’s. They might accomplish this one of two ways. First, they might attach a link in the message that would start downloading malware. This malware might disguise itself as a regular function or app, tricking you to input your sensitive information. Secondly, the link may take you to a site asking you to input personal information. With this information, the cybercriminals can steal your online identity and or even your money too.

How to protect yourself

Thankfully it is simple to protect yourself. All you must do is to not fall for the bait. There are a few things to keep in mind to help you not take the bait. First, no bank or merchant will send you a text asking to update your information or confirm your card information. If you have doubts, call your bank. Secondly, never click on a link or reply message that is included in a text message you are unsure of. Thirdly, look for suspicious numbers that don’t look like normal phone numbers. Lastly, just don’t respond to the message.

Conclusion.

Even though your phone may now be at risk of being attacked, smishing is simple to prevent. You just need to remember the four main thinks to look out for in an unrecognized text message. At EZETech, we set up policies to reduce and minimize the chances and damages of smishing attacks. Our team is trained to prevent cyberattacks of all types. We strive to keep you and your company safe and secure by using the latest technology and providing security awareness training.

Contact EZETech today for more information on our IT services.

(772) 237-7732

[email protected]

1597 SE Port St Lucie Blvd, Port St. Lucie, FL 34952

In the working world, communication and staying organized are essential. Communication and staying on task were simple when everybody worked from the office. Gone are the days of pen and paper to do list and communicating with your coworker that was ten feet away. Today everything is digital, and we are all working from remote locations. Today more than ever we need a reliable to do and communication tool? Microsoft Teams and Microsoft To Do accomplish exactly that, and here area few ways they do it.

Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams does many things from collaborative file editing, secure chatting to web-meetings. You can look at Teams like an improved version of Skype with Office features and SharePoint all in one place. Teams is a secure and compliant way to communicate and share data with internal company’s team members.

Teams is great for the quick question to your boss or co-workers. The chat feature is used for a quick tap your co-worker on the shoulder type of question. This is great for those virtual workers, or workers in another department that you rather not have to walk to. Teams allows you to talk to team member without the need for an email or call. You can even create group chats for different projects and/or teams to communicate together in one group.

Teams also allows VOIP calling. Both video and audio calls are effortless with Teams. This is great for hosting meetings or if you need to have a long conversation with a co-worker at a different location. If you ever need do R&D from home or need to run to a client’s office, you can take the team chat with you. Even accessing secure files in remote locations are easy in teams. Keeping everything centralized and accessible without compromising security are key to a company’s success.

Microsoft To Do

Microsoft To Do helps employees organize their tasks and helps to refocus what the managers want done. It is an intuitive task management tool, that allows user to create individual To Do list, invite others to collaborate, and the integration with other Microsoft apps make To Do an amazing tool. Allowing integration with Outlook, makes it easy to turn emails into task with a simple click and drag. You can also link your Outlook task to automatically sync with your To Do Task.

If you are an individual working on a project or have many things to do, To Do allows for you to document every step of the way. This will help organize and to help focus on the tasks ahead. Your To Do can host multiple different lists allowing to track multiple projects at once. Manager’s love being able to see what you are working on, using To Do makes status reports easy to compile because you have everything in one place, and it can easily be exported.

To Do is great for collaborative work. If you are working on a large project, To Do makes it easy for everyone to see the task for the project. To Do also makes it simple to assign specific task to certain colleagues. This allows for easy tracking of task to make sure the project stays on time.

Conclusion

Microsoft Teams and To Do allows for a streamline way to communicate, share, organize and collaborate with your team. These tools help to boost productivity and security. Here at EZETech we practice what we preach. We use our tools and services we provide on a daily basis. Teams and To Do allow us to mainstream our level of service for our clients and of course our managers love everything they bring to the table. Microsoft is constantly improving on these tools, and they are always adding new features and integrations to other tools we use. Contact us today to see how we can help incorporate these tools into your business with Office 365.

Contact EZETech today for more information on our IT services.

(772) 237-7732

[email protected]

1597 SE Port St Lucie Blvd, Port St. Lucie, FL 34952

The Log4j exploit, called Log4Shell or CVE-2021-44228, has been in the news in recent weeks. However, many are asking what it is and how is it bad. How has it made its way into millions of servers? How can you protect yourself?

The Confusion

The main confusion that come with the exploit is that it is not data but rather code. Log4j is not a malicious application or a virus. Log4j is simply a logging library for Java Script. An example of what it does is say you log into an account and with the wrong username or password, Log4j will keep track of that. However, it does log more than just usernames and passwords. It can also keep track and display error messages.

Where the Problem is and How it Works

The problem comes from that fact that every Java application is running Log4j to some extent. What that means that some apps use it directly while others use it indirectly. Approximately 60% of applications use Log4j indirectly and therefore it is so widespread.
How the exploit works is through JNDI (Java Naming and Directory Interface) lookups in log messages. Log4j allows the logging of expressions. Expressions perform the work of a Java program. Among other things, expressions are used to compute and assign values to variables and to help control the execution flow of a program. Like say displaying an error message when logging in with the wrong username or password.. JNDI store Java objects in remote locations and serialize them, like streaming them from a cloud server. When an object is searched or requested in an application, the JNDI will automatically go to look up the object from the remote server.

Why it works is because the link to the server could be to a malicious program. The malicious program could enable Remote Code Execution (RCE). RCE allows for any hack to run code on your machine by hacking the application that uses Log4j. So, say you are on a news app, and you search for a certain topic. The key words for the topic is the JNDI. The app will perform a JNDI lookup for articles that link to the key words. Then the app shows articles to download to read. The problem lies here. In the lookup process a cyber attacker just modifies the lookup code and redirect it to where they want it to go. After the hacker, when those key words are searched, the results are going to bring up code that allows for an RCE. This process is very easy to do since Java is open source. So, all the hacker has to know is how to code.

Am I Safe?

The version that was a problem has already been patched. However, just because Java has been updated doesn’t mean that you’re in the clear. We still need to wait for all applications using anything older than update 2.16 to be updated to the latest version. Here we are at the mercy of the companies and developers.

What Can I Do?

On the server side it is very simple. There are settings that control whether the logging system can interpret data as code. On the everyday side, there is not much you can do beside general cybersecurity safety. Be on the alert for phishing frauds, use a strong antivirus, and update your applications constantly. At EZETech, we make the process of keeping your data safe simple. With server monitoring and security control we can make sure that your server is protected. With risk management, passwords management, log and event management, backup and disaster recovery, our team of cybersecurity specialists strive to keep your data safe and secure.

Contact EZETech today for more information on our IT services.

(772) 237-7732

[email protected]

1597 SE Port St Lucie Blvd, Port St. Lucie, FL 34952

In the workplace today, computers and technology are a commonplace. Having high end technology is great and can help increase efficiency and productivity. But at the same time, the downside to technology arises when it stops working properly causing your company to halt to a freeze. When the technology goes down so does productivity. Some companies have staff that can handle some of the issues, but why have them focus on fixing something that is not part of their job? That’s where Managed IT comes in.

What Is Managed IT?

Imagine having a problem that you could try to solve yourself but would take hours of your valuable time and may not be done correctly resulting in more issues. Normally in those cases you would result in hiring a professional to come solve your tech problems, paying emergency charges. This ultimately is unpredictable expense and can hurt your overall business. There is a solution. Managed IT. With a Managed IT Partner, you can trust that the people doing the work are experts in that field. Providing you the best-in-class service with best security and implementation processes. Additionally, documentation is a standard practice for Managed IT companies. This protects you from forgetting credentials or losing access to your own equipment.

Main Reason to Managed IT

Most large companies have a dedicated IT department that maintain and fix problems that arise within the company. This is good, but not great. In many cases on site staff are overwhelmed and usually fail to do training on new security threats and new technology solutions. Smaller business on the other hand sometimes can’t afford the payroll budget or office space to properly house IT staff. These companies typically rely on the unknown internet solutions and/or their own employees to fix IT issues. Here is how Managed IT can benefit everybody.

Staffing

Usually, to have an effective IT department you need to hire a few staff members to properly diversify skill sets. Depending on your company’s operations will depend on the number of employees, but generally you are going to need an IT Manager, a security analyst, and a few system administrators. For a conventional IT department, you would need to have space in the office and a substantial payroll budget. You would also need to spend time looking for candidates and time training. A Managed IT Partner would take away the need for a dedicated payroll with benefits and replace it with a predictable monthly service fee. The Managed IT Partner is responsible in its staff education and training to stay up to date with technology, security threats and industry knowledge.

Security

The FBI revealed that 95 percent of all security incidents are a result of human error. A Managed IT Partner will setup around the clock tracking and monitoring on any company device. This is to catch any human errors and prevent inviting strangers into your system. Having a Managed IT Partner can also assure that your systems are safe and secure from any outside threat. In the event of an attack, the last thing that you’d want is to lose access to your data. Aside from Asset Inventory having a SIEM and a SOC to track, monitor and alert on security flaws is key to protecting your assets and corporate data.

Choosing the Right IT Partner

When looking for an IT Partner for your business, be sure to ask how they plan to improve your success. A good IT Partner should help to increase the productivity and security of your company. Here at EZETech we offer a variety of different IT solutions that meet all business sizes. We offer everything from Computer Repair to more advanced Cyber Security services, like: SOC, NOC and SIEM. Our team knows that conventional IT solutions can be costly, that’s why we offer an affordable and predictable solution and are always willing to work around your budget. We strive to help you grow with your business, by offering the best in class plans and services to meet your needs while protecting you from the ever-growing dangers of the internet.

Contact EZETech today for more information on our Managed IT services.

(772) 237-7732

(772) 237-7732

[email protected]

1597 SE Port St Lucie Blvd, Port St. Lucie, FL 34952