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Eset Antivirus Can Protect Against Ransomware

Eset is a reliable Anti Virus provider, at a reasonable price

Eset is a leading provider of anti-virus software for your business and home. They are constantly improving on their technology and they are inexpensive for what you get, especially upon purchasing more than one license for your devices.

Eset has been building a stronger and stronger product through the years and they have improved each release to have a more dynamic range of offerings, and never slowing the machine down. They also publish a very helpful blog called We Live Security and it is worth stopping by their website to read their articles, if not, just read their head lines to get a better appreciation of the research and knowledge they have.

You can follow their twitter account and you can keep up with their newsroom announcements.

 

 

  • 05/18/2017
  • CSO

Ransomware – How reliable backups save businesses.

in jail

 

Server backups are essential to all businesses. The recent news of ransomware which has attacked numerous hospitals in various countries is not a new type of attack. While IT security professionals have warned businesses small and large to ‘take action’ and pay for higher quality security measures, typically this is ignored until an ‘event’ happens. This is where backups come into play for all businesses.

It is essential that businesses, especially small businesses, spend the additional money every month on a valid  off site backup. For the annual cost of less than one ransom payment, a company can properly back up their most vital data.

There are several preferred vendors that Menlo Technical uses, but Code42, who are the creators of Crashplan, does an excellent job of giving control to the businesses of their data back up, including daily reports on success or failure of each and backup. Crashplan products from Code42 are very secure and their software is very reliable. They also have a very strong suite of encryption for your data BEFORE it leaves the building, in case your network traffic is interrupted by pirates and government intelligence groups.

Signing up for code42.com products are easy. Their Code42 pricing is reasonable and their support pages are very clear and set up could not be quicker.  The sooner you sign up for off site backup, the sooner you can feel reassured of protecting yourself against ransomware attacks. The average for personal home user ransom amounts are between $100-$500. For bigger Hospital Pays Ransom for their data like hospitals, they run into $10,000 – $1Million.

 

 

Small Businesses IT Security

 

Small Businesses remain in denial about the growing threat of cybersecurity in their daily online interactions. While reports of large corporate security breaches are weekly occurrences, through basic computer security holes, it is not well advertised that small businesses are the biggest targets for these hackers.

The hacking community knows Small Businesses do not take IT Security seriously, because they figure “Why would anybody bother with my little store?”  This may be the truth for businesses complete removed from credit card transactions and email, but that is a fraction of the modern business world. Everyone else who owns and operates a small business, should take IT Security upgrades seriously.

A recent article in the New York Times, “Hackers go After Little Fish, Too, While Trawling for Credit Cards“, a United States Secret Service Investigator explains the situation is not just limited to large businesses:

Ari Baranoff, an assistant special agent in charge with the Secret Service’s criminal investigative division, said that for the most part the hackers going after retailers, both large and small, are “Russian-speaking cybercriminals” who are not in the United States.

Mr. Baranoff said that the Secret Service, which oversees the investigation of many point-of-sale attacks, had found that some criminals test out new disruptive malware programs on smaller businesses before unleashing them on bigger companies.

 

A Verizon Security Report from 2013 noted these accumulated facts about Point of Sale (Point of Sale) software attacks:

– In the Retail, Accommodation and Food Services sector, 97% of attacks involved tampering, generally of payment systems — including payment servers (59%), and payment terminals and pay-at-the-pump devices (47%). Payment terminals at small stores and restaurants are often particularly soft targets.

– In the Healthcare sector, Point-of-sale (POS) systems and desktops were the most commonly breached devices in healthcare organizations – the top targets were POS terminals (70%), POS controllers (41%), Desktops (17%).

– In the Financial Services sector, two-thirds of the breaches that we studied involved ATMs. But ATMs weren’t their only target; attackers cast their nets far and wide. Other assets need protecting too – including database servers and end-users.

 

In Verizon’s 2015 release of this report, these statistics have only become worse, but now both Small Businesses and Large Enterprise (Chase, Anthem, Home Depot, Target, etc.) businesses are getting much greater numbers of attacks per day.

Small Businesses no longer need to spend large corporate budgets in order to protect against 90% of the daily infections that hackers try to use to gain access into computers. At one time it was on the level of $5000, but today can be obtained for less than $1500.

IF any small business is interested in staying compliant with credit card security (PCI-DSS) and overall backup reliability, call Menlo Technical Consulting today to schedule a review of your Small Business IT Security technologies.

 

Point of Sale (POS) Attacks

Point of Sale (POS) Systems are targeted every day by the hacker community. There is little concern and priority, on the part of the small business, because they ignore the seriousness of the threat, typically until consequences are paid.

POS Systems are targeted en masse every day, and there is little concern on the part of the retailers because they turn a blind eye to the problem.

 

Point of Sale (POS) Software is well known in the retail industry, but frequently not by name to consumers. They are the systems retailers use to run purchasing transactions for consumers. Whenever a consumer hands their credit card over to be processed for a purchase, it is swiped through a POS system. This type of software offers automation, significantly reducing the time the business owner spends on things like office management reporting, bookkeeping, employee tracking, inventory tracking, and a myriad of other functions. Unfortunately, these POS manufacturers do not feel it is their responsibility to protect the consumer across the board.

As consumers volunteer their personal information daily, they believe the transaction will be safe because of a type of faith in the credit card companies, the stores that use these credit cards and the employees in between. It could also be called personal trust, built between the store culture and the consumer.

That personal trust factor is no longer enough for any consumer nor small business. While the modern consumer could previously be complacent about these transactions, everyone needs to look out for common scams, and be aware of their credit report standings. Businesses need to be very cautious about their POS system security. POS systems not ONLY need to be updated regularly, but the equipment it operates on also needs to be maintained regularly. Ignoring this cost to a business is flirting with disaster.

While most small businesses have been able to figure out how to get along without IT help in the past, current trends in hacking has made this impossible. Greater budget will be needed to hire IT Security Consultants who specialize in identifying security holes, and updating everything needed to follow a current ‘best practices’ plan. Without hiring these professionals, nor performing regular updates, any POS system is a “sitting duck” for hackers.

 

Contact Menlo Technical Consulting today and find out more about how to better protect your POS system and small business.

Windows 10 – Value to the Enterprise

 

 

Microsoft’s recent Windows 10 release is being pushed on machines like never before. While teh endless hype about how great this is is mentioned all over their own marketing literature, it can often cause significant problems for individuals and small users who ‘forgot to check’ if their current software and machine hardware is going to be ‘upgradable’. Once you commit to the ‘free upgrade’ you can not go back.

While anything free is enticing, this particular upgrade is going to cause problems in many environments. We continue to advise the use of Windows 7 Professional on all workstations. It was designed for all the machines we have installed and upgraded.

FREE, AS IN FUTURE PROBLEMS

Software Compatibility Issues: The most difficult aspect of this upgrade is that many businesses have software designed for older versions of Microsoft. When you upgrade to the ‘latest and greatest’ is may break the functionality of that software.

Hardware Compatibility Issues: In the Microsoft world, those machines that ‘just’ pass the requirements do not necessarily mean great performance or improved performance. Selecting Windows free 10 upgrade can drag the performance down and cause additional unexpected problems.

Reversing the Upgrade: If you have already upgrade and you need to reverse it, you can use a previously saved entire drive image, or you can reinstall the Windows 7 upgrade software that came with the machine. If you do not have these, you can be in a tight spot without going through the process of ordering a new copy of Windows 7.
This new Windows 10 upgrade offers a complete product download, not trial, for free for a limited time. Notice the footnote at the bottom of the official Microsoft Windows 10 ‘free upgrade’ page:

Yes, free! This upgrade offer is for a full version of Windows 10, not a trial. 3GB download required; internet access fees may apply. Estimated retail price of Windows 10 Home shown, actual retail prices may vary. To take advantage of this free offer, you must upgrade to Windows 10 within one year of availability. Once you upgrade, you have Windows 10 for free on that device.

 

Future Re-install: In the event that the system has to be reloaded with Windows 10 in the future, the “missing” installation CD’s leads to many problems, causing a kind of extortion payment for the original ‘free’ upgrade. Microsoft doesn’t have a good answer for these users, outside of a payment.
Windows 7 Professional remains the preferred platform for all Menlo Technical customers, enterprise to SMB. This release of operating system will be supported and patched until 2020.

Since Windows 10 is designed for newer products, some of the Windows 7 compatible devices that are found on enterprise networks may no longer be supported, like older printers. Replacements for such incompatible devices will be one of many aspects of the upgrade that is unforeseen. Hidden costs to productivity in the both small business and enterprise is the single biggest problem with these free upgrades, and the software never evaluates the realistic impact of the upgrade. Never. Therefore always trust Microsoft to try and get you to the opportunity where they will earn money, regardless of hidden costs to your organization, nor any automated ‘recommendation’ software advice.

 

 

Menlo Technical Blog Updates – Clean Slate

Due to the continuously changing nature of IT security, we will post more current information here, and remove the things that no longer apply. As of today, we have completely removed all 250 blog entries and will start a clean slate to be sure we are publishing things that are current.
Thanks for stopping by!
Menlo Technical Team

  • 09/12/2015
  • CSO

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