Category Archives: Blog

Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Links In Stories Now Available For All Instagram Users

If you’re not an Instagram user you may not have heard of ‘Stories.’ They are vertical photos or videos with a duration of no more than fifteen seconds per clip. You can post multiple 15 second clips in a row as well.

The unique part is that they vanish after 24 hours of posting. Stories are not displayed in a user’s feed but rather at the top of a user’s app when they’re logged in. Users “tap through them” to view the set.

When Stories were first introduced the company limited their access making them available only to users with verified accounts who met a certain number of followers threshold. Instagram has now removed those restrictions by opening Stories up to all user accounts.

This is great news indeed if you’re an Instagram user or if you own a small business and you’re looking for a way to leverage the power of Instagram to expand your business. ‘Stories’ is a good tool to leverage.

Instagram has been pushing hard to innovate. Increased pressure from upstarts like TikTok prompted them to develop ‘Reels’ for Instagram which are short 15-second video clips that can be posted with other clips and introduced to your feed. And now Stories can include video clips created and shared as a Reel but they have a shorter lifespan.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg had this to say related to the change:

“Reels is already the primary driver of engagement growth on Instagram. It’s incredibly entertaining and I think there is a huge amount of potential ahead. We expect this to continue growing and I am optimistic that this will be as important for our products as Stories is. We also expect to make significant changes to Instagram and Facebook in the next year to further lean into video and make Reels a more central part of the experience.”

If you’re not currently leveraging the power of Instagram you might want to consider. Its certainly worth doing a demographics study of your customers to see if they’re present in significant number on the platform and if so taking advantage of that fact.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Major Data Breach At Robinhood Is Affecting Millions

Do you buy stocks via the no-cost RobinHood platform? If so be advised that the company has recently disclosed a massive data breach estimated to impact more than seven million customers.

The attack against RobinHood’s networks occurred on November 3rd.

It happened after an unidentified threat actor called the company’s customer support line and utilized some in-person social engineering techniques to gain access to the customer support system.

This threat actor was able to access a wide range of customer information including:

  • The full names of clients
  • Email addresses
  • Date of birth
  • And Zip code

Based on the company’s disclosure statement the attacker was able to exfiltrate more than 5 million email addresses, the full name of some two million customers, birth dates, and zip codes for about 300 people. Even more extensive account information was taken for around 10 people.

An investigation into the matter is ongoing at this point. The company does not believe any customer social security numbers, bank account numbers, or debit card numbers were exposed.

On the heels of the attack RobinHood received an extortion demand. The company has declined to make the details of the demand public but the nature of the threat was that unless the company paid a ransom in BitCoin the stolen information would be released to the public.

If you use the platform out of an abundance of caution you should change your password immediately. Be on the lookout for phishing emails sent to the address you used when you signed up on RobinHood in case the attacker tries to contact you to steal other credentials.

Finally if you haven’t already done so the company recommends two-factor authentication as soon as possible. If you need to contact the company for support from inside the RobinHood app simply tap “AccountHelpContact Us.”

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Strengthening your cybersecurity policies

Strengthening your cybersecurity policies

Formulating strong IT policies and laying down the best practices for your staff to follow is one of the best ways to prevent your business from becoming a victim of cybercrime. In this blog, we explore the various areas your IT policy should ideally cover.

Passwords: Your IT policy should cover

  1. Rules regarding password setting
  2. Password best practices
  3. The implications of password sharing
  4. Corrective actions that will be taken in the event the password policy is not followed

Personal devices

  1. Rules regarding the usage of personal devices at work or for work purposes. Answer questions like
    1. Are all employees allowed to use personal devices for work or do you want to limit it to those handling lesser sensitive data, or to those at higher in the corporate hierarchy as you assume they will need to be available 24/7? Regardless, you should spell out the regulations that they must follow. For example, requiring a weekly or monthly check for malware and updates to anti-malware software, etc., If only certain kinds of devices, software or operating systems may be approved as they are presumed to be more secure, then that should be addressed in the policy

  2. Discuss best practices and educate your employees on the risks related to connecting to open internet connections (Free WiFi) such as the ones offered at malls or airports.

Cybersecurity measures

  1. Document the cybersecurity measures that you have in place for your business. This should include your digital measures such as the software you have deployed to keep malware out–like anti-virus tools, firewalls, etc., and also the physical measures such as CCTV systems, biometric access controls, etc.,
  2. Another example of a good practice is how you handle employee turnover. When someone quits your organization or has changed positions, how is the access issue addressed? Spell out the rules and regulations regarding the removal of a user from the network, changing passwords, limiting access, etc.,
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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Why do you need a top-down approach to IT security?

Why do you need a top-down approach to IT security?

For any organization, its employees are its biggest assets. But, what happens when your biggest assets turn out to be your greatest threats or liabilities? That is how cybercrime can change the game. In a recent study by IBM, it came to light that employee actions account for about 95% of the cyber security breaches. This blog focuses on the first step you need to take as an organization in the Wilmington business community to better prepare your employees to identify and mitigate cyber threats–adopting a top-down approach to IT security.

Being a victim of cyber-attack can prove disastrous for your business as it has the following repercussions.

  • Affects your brand image negatively: Business disruption due to downtime or having your important business data including customer and vendor details stolen reflects poorly on your brand.
  • It can cause you to lose customers: Your customers may take their business elsewhere as they may not feel safe sharing their PII with you.
  • Can cost you quite a bit financially: Data breach makes you liable to follow certain disclosure requirements mandated by the law. These most likely require you to make announcements on popular media, which can prove expensive. Plus, you will also have to invest in positive PR to boost your brand value.
  • It makes you vulnerable to lawsuits: You could be sued by customers whose Personally Identifiable Information (PII) has been compromised or stolen.

The organizational mindset needs to change and acknowledge the fact that IT security is not ONLY your IT department, CTO or Managed Service Provider’s (MSP) responsibility. You need to truly believe that IT security is everyone’s business, and that includes everybody working in your company, from the C-level execs to the newly hired intern. Everybody needs to understand the gravity of a cyberattack and its impact. Only then will they take cybersecurity seriously.

For a full list of Cyber Security Services offered by Atlantic Computer Services, click HERE. After you’ve had the chance to review that info, use the “Contact Us” page and let us know how we can help secure your network, data, and business.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Warn Your Employees About The New DocuSign Phishing Campaign

Phishing attacks tend to focus on executive level targets. They focus on high ranking targets who have considerable system access.

That appears to be changing. A recent trend tracked by researchers from Avanan has revealed that nearly half of all phishing emails analyzed in recent months were crafted to impersonate non-executives.

Additionally more than three quarters of them (77 percent) targeted employees on the same level.

This is something of a departure and it allows those who orchestrate phishing campaigns to target a significantly larger pool of potential victims. The reason behind the shift in focus is easy enough to understand.

The Avanan researchers summarize it as follows:

“Security admins might be spending a lot of time providing extra attention to the C-Suite and hackers have adjusted. At the same time, non-executives still hold sensitive information and have access to financial data. Hackers realized, there is no need to go all the way up the food chain.”

Increasingly hackers and scammers are coming to rely on spoofed DocuSign emails to gain access.

If you’re unfamiliar with it DocuSign is a legitimate platform used to digitally sign documents. In this case a scammer creates a dummy DocuSign document and emails a request to a low to mid-level employee to update direct deposit information or something similar.

By all outward appearances the DocuSign request looks completely legitimate but there is one important difference. An actual DocuSign email won’t ask the recipient for login credentials. The spoofed ones do. Naturally this is done so that the hackers can harvest those credentials.

Given the crush and volume of daily business emails the difference is easy to overlook which explains why this approach has enjoyed an uncannily high degree of success.

Be sure your employees are aware of this latest threat and stay on their guard against it. One moment of carelessness could wind up being costly indeed.

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