Leading Provider in Managed Technology Services Teaches Cyber Security Prevention Measures
Teleco, a leading managed technology services provider (MTSP), is helping
small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs) thwart cyberattacks and protect their organizations from unnecessary downtime by addressing the most common
tactic that cyber criminals use to attack modern workplaces; phishing. Phishing is the fraudulent practice of sending emails purporting to be from
reputable companies in order to induce individuals to reveal personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers. According to PhishMe research, “91% of the time, phishing emails are behind successful cyberattacks.” Teleco is helping businesses identify the 3 tell-tale signs behind the majority of successful phishing attacks and how mere employee
awareness can eliminate the vast majority of this threat from entering an organization.
“The overwhelming majority of security breaches caused by phishing are completely avoidable,” stated Penny Belluz, Director of Operations of Teleco. “While cyber criminals have grown more sophisticated
in their approach, the average attack consists of the same key ingredients: an under educated employee, effective bait and a temporary lapse in judgment. While we are in the business of securing an organization’s entire network and protecting them from any threats whatsoever,
there are some initial steps that will safeguard a company without costing much time, energy or capital expenditure. These measures we’d like to
share are extremely easy to implement and are excellent first steps in protecting a company from cyber crime.”
The first sign to look for is
the sender’s name in the “From” field of the email. Cyber criminals often use misspelled email addresses, such as JohnnyStealyastuff@gmaail.co
m, for example, in order to deceive the receiver into thinking that the email is coming from a reputable company. At a quick glance, many recipients
won’t recognize the typo in the address field and they’ll open the email which opens them up to the bait.
The next step for employees is to hover their mouse over links, instead of clicking them without thinking about it. Lots of hackers use very long links or they hope that the recipient will just click on the link right away
instead of previewing the destination by hovering above and making sure that the domains match where they expect to be directed. If the preview link looks suspicious, that’s probably because it isn’t a legitimate offer. We recommend deleting these types of emails. The final step for employees
is to look in the footer. One of the current laws around email marketing requires senders to leave a physical address within the footer of the email. This is often left-out by cyber criminals and is a very easy way to tell if the email is a phishing attempt. Furthermore, there should also be an unsubscribe” button at the bottom of the email, which is another step that most hackers ignore.
By simply addressing these three initial steps, SMBs can avoid the vast majority of cyber attacks coming at their business. They are some of the
simplest, yet most effective ways at minimizing risk within an organization. “If all organizations were even this educated about cyber attacks, we would see a dramatic drop in incidents,” concluded Belluz.
ABOUT TELECO
TELECO is a locally owned technology company committed to delivering specialized solutions and products since TELECO was founded by President Frank Littlefield and has grown tremendously since its inception. Our customers look to us to provide all their technology needs with a solution
that has the highest product quality and service standard. Today TELECO designs, installs and maintains all major technology solutions for any size business including on-premise PBX telephone systems, VoIP, Hosted and SIP Services, Video Conferencing, IT Managed Services, Surveillance Security Solutions, Point-to- Point Networking Solutions and Structured Data Cabling. TELECO is also an authorized dealer for Tbaytel for Wireless,
Home Phone, Internet and Digital TV services. We don’t just sell products we help you implement technology to enhance your business. This philosophy and technology portfolio creates a one-stop solution and provides the convenience of a single point of contact for all your technology
needs.
For more information, please contact Teleco at 807-345-2900
