Category Archives: Blog

Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Train your staff: Your first and best firewall

Protecting your organization against cyber threats can seem like a challenge that involves extremely high-tech wizardry, sophisticated knowledge etc. Much of this is true. Protecting your data and your company against cyber threats requires skilled professionals. But that isn’t only what is needed.

The first line of defense in data security is everyday common sense and diligence on the part of everyone who works in your organization.

Some thoughts . . .

The first challenge in beefing up your data security is creating awareness among all of your employees that they really do have a serious role in data security. Many of the ways they can protect your data are simple, but until they are aware that they may represent a threat to data integrity they won’t take their role in protecting your company seriously. Provide training that both explains that their actions may unknowingly create problems, and then review what they can do to avoid trouble.

Training should not end. It should be an on-going focus in your organization.

Passwords Part 1

Remind everyone that simple passwords are unwise. Does your company mandate a certain level of complexity in password creation? Maybe you should.

Passwords Part 2

No password sharing. We tend to trust most of our colleagues, so when logging in and out seems a nuisance, we are often willing to let a peer use a database we’ve already logged into so they can do some simple, quick task. Not a good idea.

Email and phishing scams

These are really easy to fall victim to. Emails that look like they are from a legit source, so we open them up and then click on a link inside. Explain that emails can be made to look like what they aren’t. Always be suspicious. Look at the email address to see if the domain matches the legit site. For more on email and phishing scams, click HERE and check out “One Wrong Click Can Wipe Out Your Entire Business.”

Odd links

If someone you know sent you a link to a site, unless you absolutely know the email is legit and the link is safe, let it go. Email them back to verify.

Lonely hardware

Remind everyone: Never, ever put a thumb drive into their computer unless they know where it came from. No matter how much one knows better, if you find a thumb drive sitting on a desk, it can be extremely tempting to plug it in to see what’s on it. Don’t. Just don’t.

 

For more details on simple yet effective employee training for cybersecurity, click HERE and contact ACS Today!

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Additional Security Recently Added To Office 365

Back in September of 2020 Microsoft announced that it was experimenting with the addition of SMTP MTA Strict Transport Security (MTA-STS) support to Exchange Online. This was done in a bid to ensure the email communication and security of their Office 365 customers.

In a recent statement by the company the Exchange Online Transport Team said:

“We have been validating our implementation and are now pleased to announce support for MTA-STS for all outgoing messages from Exchange Online.”

While it may not sound like a terribly exciting change, it truly is a big step forward.  Now that the feature is in place in Office 365, any emails sent by users via Exchange Online will be delivered using connections with both authentication and encryption protocols. This is for protecting them from interception and attack attempts and includes both man-in-the-middle and downgrade attacks.

Again, per the Exchange Online Transport Team:

“Downgrade attacks are possible where the STARTTLS response can be deleted, thus rendering the message in cleartext. Man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks are also possible, whereby the message can be rerouted to an attacker’s server. 

MTA-STS (RFC8461) helps thwart such attacks by providing a mechanism for setting domain policies that specify whether the receiving domain supports TLS and what to do when TLS can’t be negotiated, for example stop the transmission.”

In addition to the feature addition Microsoft has also provided guidance on how to adopt MTA-STS. This includes where to host the policy file on your domain’s web infrastructure.

Additionally, the Exchange Team announced that they’re in the process of rolling out SANE for SMPT (with DNSSEC support). That provides better protection for SMTP connections than MTA-STS does.

The company’s plan is to proceed slowly and in two phases. Phase I is to be completed by March 2022 and phase II is to be completed by year end 2022.  The team stressed that admins would be able to use both standards on the same domain at the same time, allowing them to account for senders who may exclusively use one or the other.

Great news indeed.  Kudos to Microsoft for their continuing efforts.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

New Android Malware Steals Data And Factory Resets Phones

BRATA malware was first spotted in the wilds by Kaspersky back in 2019.

Its earliest incarnation saw it targeting e-banking users and it was designed to steal banking and login credentials of anyone infected.  That’s undeniably bad but according to researchers the latest version of BRATA has gotten downright nasty.

Security professionals have discovered a dangerous new variant in the wild that adds a raft of new features. One of the features includes allowing BRATA to steal a wide range of user data before resetting the infected device back to factory defaults when it’s done. That means it is essentially wiping away most of a user’s data.

Most users aren’t very good at backing up their data regularly and don’t always save their most cherished photos and videos to the cloud. So that could add a devastating personal loss on top of a hefty financial one.

The even worse news is that the hackers behind BRATA seem to be branching out.

In December of last year (2021) researchers started seeing BRATA pop up in Europe.  Based on recently analyzed code samples, the group behind BRATA is beginning to experiment with variants custom tailored to the country or region it is released in.  So far, researchers have found distinct variants targeting e-banking users in the UK, Poland, Italy, Spain, China, and Latin America.

The bottom line is that BRATA is a serious threat and the group behind the code is clearly setting their sights far beyond Brazil.  This one is one to watch in 2022. If it’s not already on your employees’ radar it certainly needs to be. So make them aware of the potential threat as soon as possible.

The standard protection protocols apply here.  Do your due diligence before installing any new app on your phone. Be sure you’re getting whatever apps you install from the Google Play Store direct.  That’s not bullet-proof protection but it’s a solid beginning.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Best practices for data safety in a remote work environment

Best practices for data safety in a remote work environment

Do you have staff working from home? Of late, due to the Coronavirus crisis a lot of businesses shifted to the remote working environment. While it raises some data security concerns, they can be overcome by following a few best practices.

Formulate rules
You can start by formulating rules that define the extent and manner in which personal devices may be used for work purposes.

  • Who are allowed to use personal devices for work?
  • Spell out the regulations that they must follow. For example, regular checks for malware and updates to anti-malware software, etc.,
  • If there are restrictions to the device type, software or operating systems that may be used, out of security concerns, then that should be addressed.

Focus on the 2 Ts of cybersecurity

  • Train your staff: The first T is training your staff on how to identify IT threats and cybercrime activities that they can be a victim of. Examples include phishing emails, dubious attachments, clone sites, etc., Another area to train your staff is free/public wifi. They need to know that public wifi can be a gateway for hackers and cybercriminals into your system. Accessing emails from the airport’s waiting lounge or the mall’s food court, can expose your business to IT threats.
  • Teach good password hygiene: This is the second T. Help your employees understand how important password strength is. They should be able to identify weak passwords and steer clear of them. Also, they need to know that no matter how urgent the situation seems, password sharing is not acceptable. Similarly, mistakes such as repeating the password for multiple accounts, not changing the passwords frequently, etc., can make a cyber criminal’s job easier.

Keeping things under control

You can conduct monthly audits of the devices your employees will be using for work purposes. Arrange for regular security patch implementation, firewall installation and software updates. Install quality anti-malware software, firewalls, and make sure email security systems are in place. Even in the remote environment, you can ensure appropriate data access through role and permission-based access control measures.

All of this may seem new, and tedious, especially for businesses that are looking to recover from the effects of the on-going pandemic, which is why it is a good idea to team up a managed services provider to help set up a strong, secure, work-from-home environment for your business.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Suspicious Files Get New Warnings In Google Drive

If you have Google Drive, there’s good news.  The company has recently announced that soon they’ll be rolling out a new feature to help alert users to the presence of suspicious documents.

Google Drive users will soon start seeing banners alerting them to possible dangers This will serve as an additional layer of defense that will hopefully keep people from clicking on links embedded in malicious files, which may guide victims to poisoned sites.

The company first announced the new feature back in October during the Google Cloud Next 2021 user conference.

The company explained the functioning of the new feature as follows:

“If a user opens a potentially suspicious or dangerous file in Google Drive, we will display a warning banner to help protect them and their organization from malware, phishing, and ransomware. 

Google will automatically evaluate any files that are shared with you from outside of your organization for phishing or malware. If detected, Google will block your access to the file in order to protect you.”

As to the message, Google kept it simple. 

If you open a suspect file, you’ll see a bold yellow banner across the top of your screen with a message reading:

“This file looks suspicious. It might be used to steal your personal information.”

This is the latest in a series of moves the company plans to make to help protect its user base and prevent Google Drive abuse.  Last year the company added phishing and malware protections in their Enterprise environments that automatically tagged all suspicious files and only left them visible to their owners and Admins.

It’s a small change but it could have significant impacts.  That means fewer users getting taken in by malicious documents and that’s a very good thing.  Kudos to Google for continuing to add user protections.

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