7 Tell-tale Signs That You’ve Been Hacked

Security,
18
Oct 2016

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Anyone who sets foot online these days is at risk of falling victim to hackers, so it’s a good idea to know when you’ve been hacked.

After all, the sooner you realize you’ve been hacked, the sooner you can start working to remove the infection from your PC and make your data secure again. However, hackers are stealthy individuals and you may have to look a little closer than usual to catch them in the act.

And, to give you a helping hand, here are 7 tell-tale signs that you’ve been hacked.

1. Slow Internet Connection

If you internet connection has ground to a halt then this could indicate that you’ve been hacked. Due to an increase in network activity – caused by hackers using your bandwidth to commit malicious activity – this can render your normal internet access next to useless.

2. Unusual Access Times

It’s always a good idea to keep an eye on the times at which your network is accessed by new connections. In general, access during your normal working hours is to be expected, but new connections outside these times should be treated as suspicious. Hackers, you see, are likely to use automated software that is active throughout the entire day rather than between 9-5.

3. Disabled Antivirus

There are very few occasions that you would deliberately disable your antivirus, so if you notice that your antivirus software has been disabled this should start ringing alarm bells. And, for a hacker, if they’re able to disable your antivirus software, this allows them free rein to download all sorts of malware to your PC.

4. Unable to Log on?

One of the first things a hacker will try to alter on your system is your login credentials as this restricts your access and gives them more time to cause trouble. Therefore, if you’re absolutely sure that you’re entering the correct username/password combination, you need to consider that you may have been hacked.

5. Strange Cursor Movements

Due to hardware and software issues, your mouse may occasionally move without any user interaction. However, these are usually haphazard movements and certainly don’t double click on programs to open them. If you ever see your mouse ‘come to life’ on its own then it’s time to shut your PC down and call in the experts!

6. Fake Antivirus Messages

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You should always make sure that your network users are aware of the antivirus software that you’re running; this is because one way that hackers can target your PCs is through fake antivirus messages. These will usually advise users that a virus scan has been run and viruses detected that only this piece of software can remove. And this will involve being redirected to a website to download the “antivirus software”, but in reality you’ll be downloading nothing but malware.

7. Internet Searches Redirected

Hackers are keen to disrupt your activity for their own benefits and one way to do this is to redirect your internet searches to alternate websites. So, if you find your internet searches suddenly start taking you to dubious websites then there’s a good chance you’ve been hacked.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

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6 Tips for Browsing Online Safely and Securely

Internet, Network, Uncategorized, , ,
11
Oct 2016

Computer Keyboard with symbolic padlock key

Almost every business has a daily need to go online and interact with the internet, but to do this safely you need a little bit of browsing know-how.

Whilst most websites are relatively secure, it’s difficult to guarantee just how secure they are. And seeing as even government websites can be hacked, how do you know that, for example, that customer maintenance portal you have to log on to daily hasn’t been hacked for dubious means?

Avoiding this sort of scenario is crucial for your business to run smoothly, so I’ve prepared 6 tips to help you browse online safely and securely.

1. Use HTTPS Security

If a website is truly secure then its web URL should start “HTTPS:” and the “S” at the end stands for secure – provided by secure sockets layer (SSL) security. Conversely, if the web URL only starts “HTTP:” then the security behind it will be much less and can’t be taken for granted.

2. Avoid Public WiFi

NEW YORK, NY - JULY 11: A free Wi-Fi hotspot beams broadband internet from atop a public phone booth on July 11, 2012 in Manhattan, New York City. New York City launched a pilot program Wednesday to provide free public Wi-Fi at public phone booths around the five boroughs. The first ten booths were lit up with Wi-Fi routers attached to the top of existing phone booths, with six booths in Manhattan, two in Brooklyn, and one in Queens. Additional locations, including ones in the Bronx and Staten Island, are to be added soon. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

Public WiFi may provide a fantastic service and serve many happy consumers, but unfortunately these networks have a less than amazing level of security protecting them. And hackers are able to easily infiltrate these networks with basic software to hijack the personal data of those accessing the public network.

3. Don’t Click on Phishing Websites

Phishing is a contemporary threat to your data and appears to be showing no signs of going away soon. This is why you need to be on your guard about phishing websites as they can be deceptive beasts at the best of times.

Links to these websites are usually emailed, but whilst the link may appear to seem innocent, it’s possible to engineer a link which reads www.amazon.com but redirects you to a different (and more dangerous) website.

This puts you at risk of infection and having your networks breached, so double check any suspicious links by hovering your mouse cursor over them to get a preview of the true web address.

4. Update Your Browser

Keeping your software up to date is vital to ensure that you’re well protected against hackers who have discovered vulnerabilities in that piece of software. And web browsers are no different, in fact, once support for out-dated web browsers is discontinued, hackers will discover vulnerabilities very quickly.

Therefore, it’s essential that you install all patches and updates as soon as possible to keep your browsing activity protected.

5. Disable Stored Passwords

Although activating the ‘store your passwords’ option may feel as though it’s going to make forgotten passwords a thing of the past, it can actually cause more trouble than it’s worth. You see, if your system becomes compromised by hackers, they can then access all your store passwords.

And the best way to avoid this is to work on a little bit of memory training to remember your passwords!

6. Have a Strong Arsenal

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Perhaps the best way to browse online safely and securely is to arm yourself with the best defenses possible. And the more defenses the better.

So, instead of just securing your network with a state of the art firewall, why not try adding in state of the art email filtering? And, you know what, if you also install web filtering software on top of that, you’re going to find your data becomes safer than ever before.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

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How does OpenDNS Work?

Office Network, Security, ,
04
Oct 2016

opendns_umbrella

OpenDNS not only blocks malware, botnets and phishing but also detects and contains advanced attacks before they can cause damage. But how does it work?

How does OpenDNS Umbrella work?

OpenDNS is a cloud-delivered network security service that proactively protects users from advanced malware, botnets and phishing attacks. Unlike reactive signature-based tools, OpenDNS leverages big data analytics and real-time algorithmic learning machines processing over one million events per second. This 2% cross section of the world’s Internet activity enables OpenDNS to predict and prevent attacks. It protects users on- and off-network, across any port, protocol, or app. And because Umbrella is delivered via the cloud, it is lightning-fast and easily scalable.

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Predictive intelligence to proactively protect your employees: OpenDNS is powered bypredictive intelligence, which means that we identify malicious places on the Internetand prevent your employees from visiting them, so that they don’t get infected withmalware.
Maintain acceptable use & compliance: filter up to 60 content categories and domain-specific whitelists & blacklists, so you can manage where any corporate-owned assetgoes whether on- or off-network.

For more ways to secure your business networks, contact your local IT professionals.

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7 Security Tips to Keep Your Passwords Secure

Security, ,
04
Oct 2016

password-security

Passwords can easily be hacked and this seems to be happening more and more often, so understanding how to secure your passwords is vital.

Although passwords have come in for a lot of criticism recently, they still have a place in the security arsenal of all businesses. This is why it’s crucial that you don’t underestimate their potential for letting a hacker in the back door.

Aside from using a password manager, it’s actually surprisingly simple to keep your passwords secure, but you’d be surprised by just how many people fail to protect them. And, when this happens, you get hacked!

Let’s take a look at 7 security tips to help keep your passwords secure.

1. Don’t Advertise It!

Yes, that’s right, you have to keep your password secret or it defeats the point of a password! Don’t tell work colleagues what it is and don’t write it down on a post-it note!

2. Different Passwords for Different Accounts

It may seem simpler to use one password across multiple accounts, but this actually puts you at a huge risk of losing all your data. If, for example, a hacker gains access to your email password, their next step will be to try that password in every piece of software you log into.

However, by using different passwords across different accounts, you minimize just how catastrophic the theft of a password can be.

3. Combination Passwords

You should always make sure that you use a combination of letters, numbers and symbols to create your passwords. By using a mixture of these characters you’re ensuring that standard words from dictionary lists will be useless when trying to hack a password by brute force e.g. antarctica will be in a dictionary list, but antarctica247! most definitely will not be!

4. Don’t Make it Personal

It’s very common for people to use their personal details as the basis for their password e.g. name, date of birth, hometown information. However, although this is personal to you, it’s also very easy for hackers to research. And that’s why you need to give the hackers something harder to think about.

5. Longer Passwords are Better

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Hackers are able to employ software which uses brute force to check around 2 billion password combinations in one second. And, when you consider that a 6 letter password has just over 3 billion possible combinations, you can see that longer passwords offer more protection e.g using 8 letters produces a possible 208 billion combinations!

6. Regularly Update Passwords

Complacency is the biggest threat to your password’s security. Sure, you may have a password with no personal links and it’s 23 characters long, but give a hacker enough time and they’ll crack it. That’s why you need to regularly change your passwords to make sure that you keep resetting the progress of potential hackers.

7. Enter your Password Discreetly

Always make sure that no one is watching your fingers fly across the keyboard as you enter your password. Okay, no one wants to accuse their co-workers of any bad intentions, but insider threats to data security are a real thing, so always make sure enter your password safely.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

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4 Tips to Secure Your Business IT Network

Security,
27
Sep 2016

Hand pushing virtual security button on digital background

The number of threats to your business IT network seem to increase on a daily basis, so it’s important that you know how to keep your network secure.

Although it’s difficult to maintain security – just ask Hilary Clinton – there are a wide range of preventative steps you can take to help put up the barricades against cyber attacks.

And, in order to help you stay as secure as possible, I’m going to share 4 tips to secure your business IT network.

1. Conceal Your SSID

Wireless networks are an essential for most businesses, but they also act as an attractive opportunity for hackers to gain access to all your data. And, if a hacker is targeting your business in particular, you don’t want to give them a head start.

That’s why you need to change your service set identified (SSID). An SSID is the name given to your router to identify it e.g. a company called Bob’s Paperhouse may rename their router to Bob’s Paperhouse to single it out from multiple wireless networks in the same location.

However, it also publicly advertises exactly whose network this is and presents a security risk. Instead, I would always recommend a less obvious SSID such as ‘wireless123’ and only disclose this information to individuals who need to access the network.

2. Control Install Privileges

The average employee knows very little about the intricacies of network security, so their judgment, in this respect, can present many potential security risks.

In particular, they may not be able to identify what represents an unsafe link and what doesn’t. And the end result of this can see employees installing what appears to be an essential software update, but is actually a piece of malware disguised as a legitimate update.

Although it may seem as though you don’t trust your employees, you need to employ a policy which restricts install privileges to a few individuals who can evaluate the risks safely. This helps to eliminate the risk of poor judgment from your employees.

3. Set up a Virtual Private Network

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A virtual private network (VPN) should be a priority for any business which has external employees accessing the company network.

Sure, these employees can take advantage of free wifi hotspots when they’re out and about, but these networks are notoriously unsecure. With a VPN, however, you can start to take back control of your security.

A VPN helps to create an encrypted connection between external devices such as laptops using a public wifi connection and your business network. This protects not only your device, but also reduces any back door access into your business network.

4. Install a Firewall

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It may seem simple, but a firewall remains a strong contender for being the best method of protecting your company network. After all, what’s a hacker going to be more interested in hacking – a network with no firewall or a network with a firewall? You don’t need me to tell you the answer to this!

Firewalls act as a keen set of eyes to identify all traffic accessing or trying to access your network, so they’re a crucial first line of defense against any rogue visitors. They can also identify suspicious files which are placed in quarantine where they can be reviewed, so this multi-targeted approach can really pay dividends for your network security.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

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