The Datamax Thinking Blog

Top-to-bottom business awareness, employee education, multi-layered security protection, and proper business continuity planning continue to be a much needed prescription for avoiding the number one malware threat to SMBs.

As one menace to business livelihood (the COVID-19 pandemic) dominates headlines, another continues to lurk in the shadows as a significant threat to businesses of all sizes — ransomware.

When evaluating potential managed service providers, it’s important to look at both the hard metrics as well as the humanistic qualities of the company you will entrust with your technology landscape.

As security concerns take center stage and IT becomes increasingly complex, small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) continue to seek the help of a managed IT services provider.

As businesses navigate the rough seas of the ongoing pandemic, one thing’s for certain: Cybercriminals have gone phishing. Organizations must take the necessary precautions and remain vigilantly aware to avoid getting reeled in to these attacks.

Phishing attacks are nothing new. Neither is the propensity to attack during a time of crisis. Online scams like phishing, malware, and the various forms of social engineering become increasingly more effective when individuals are vulnerable, desperate, or just looking for answers.

Global concern over COVID-19 is the perfect bait.

When supporting a remote workforce, understand that security controls shift. Therefore, firewalls, DNS, and IDS/IPS could be ineffective when employees head home.

As the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to spread, many businesses are assessing how they can prioritize their employee safety and still maintain regular business operations.

To maintain both their livelihood and their credibility, SMBs must be aware of, and must be prepared for, this persistent, potentially disastrous cybersecurity threat.

Anyone who thought the Ransomware storm that hovered over businesses for years had passed, should take a look at the radar. The forecast calls for more severe weather.

This is not a sophisticated scam. However, it is an effective and profitable one and it happens to an increasing number of companies across America each year around tax time.

Tax season is here. Are you safe? That seems like an odd question to ask; nevertheless, with the increasing sophistication of cybercriminals it must be considered and answered.

Nearly a third of all respondents (32%) said that they had never received cybersecurity training from their workplace but should have.

Healthcare today has its share of gaps: Gaps in healthcare access, gaps in the treatment of chronic diseases, and gaps in communication between patient and provider.

But what about the existing gaps in a medical facility's IT security plan?

Considering a Managed IT agreement? Go straight to the partner you're looking to outsource to and ask them these five questions. These inquiries will reveal both their capabilities and what your expectations should be moving forward.

We are a nation of outsourcers. From groceries to household chores to business game plans, we hesitate little in handing it over to someone who specializes in x, y, or z.

To remain secure against increasingly-sophisticated attacks, organizations need to take a more practical approach: One that involves heightened employee awareness and full executive stewardship of a collaborative, company-wide security initiative.

IT Security: It can often still be considered an “IT issue.”

But it’s more than that. Just as revenue and performance are routinely reviewed, assessed and collaborated on, security should be a talking point inside the executive boardroom and an initiative that involves all employees. It’s not just an IT issue. It’s a business issue that involves your entire organization.

Beyond the infrastructure in place, what about employee education? What is your company doing to educate its team for recognizing and avoiding these sly, malicious tactics?

Human error. It’s an inevitable part of life and conducting business every day.

We’re only human, after all.

But such human error can be especially damaging in today’s cybersecurity climate. According to Verizon’s 2018 Data Breach Investigations Report, phishing or other forms of social engineering cause 93% of all data breaches. This means that employee negligence is generating a majority of cyber attacks. It's possibly only a matter of time before one of your employees is hoodwinked by human-manipulating tactics.