Ferrum Technology Services Blog

All businesses must make securing their infrastructures and reinforcing cybersecurity practices a priority, especially as we move into the new year. This is a concept that involves securing the network, infrastructure, and data from the countless threats out there. Here are three of the most important issues to keep in mind when building your cybersecurity strategy for the new year.

Incorrect configurations on your infrastructure’s hardware are surprisingly easy mistakes to make, and even worse, they can have severe security ramifications if they are not discovered promptly. It can happen to anyone, as evidenced by a recent data leak. One of the most popular software developers out there, Microsoft, made a pretty nasty blunder with one particular setting that led to a huge data leak that could have exposed millions of records.

It should come as no surprise that cybersecurity is an important consideration for a business, which means it is important that you are aware of how effective your security practices are. Evaluating this is best accomplished by testing your team and their preparedness… but how often should you do so?

A survey from Splunk and Enterprise Strategy Group indicates that organizations tend to invest a significant amount of their capital into cybersecurity. Even more interesting is that 88 percent of respondents in this survey reported that they would increase these investments, with 35 percent reporting that they will be substantial. What other insights can we glean from this survey?

There are a lot of threats out on the Internet, and the good news is that many of them have absolutely no chance to threaten your business. The problem is that it only takes one to really put your business at a major disadvantage. One threat is all it takes to lock down your files and hold them for ransom. One threat is all it takes to corrupt your databases. One threat, if it got bad enough, could conceivably end your business. 

While last year saw a significant decrease in its number of data breaches, the number of records that were leaked doubled… and then some. Part of this can likely be attributed to a spike in the use of ransomware, indicating a resurgence in interest of the mean-spirited malware. This means that your business may very well see more ransomware infection attempts coming its way—the only question is, are your team members prepared for them?

Despite all the attention we try to direct toward cybercrime and awareness of the risks out there today, hacks and scams are still impacting businesses. With so many professional duties and activities carried out online, your business’ cybersecurity needs to be considered paramount. Here, we’ve listed six things to prioritize in your business to help protect it from such activities.

A business’ employees are perhaps its greatest weakness in terms of its cybersecurity, although they also have the potential to be one of its greatest advantages if trained properly. To demonstrate this, let’s consider a few examples that exemplify either case.

When it comes to your business, especially its technology, some of the buzzwords you hear floating around can be pretty convincing, almost intoxicating. Unfortunately, like most buzzwords, many of these are aggrandized beyond their worth to the average small-to-medium-sized business. Let’s take a look at how this can impact a business’ perception of its cybersecurity, as well as dig into the reality behind these terms.

The COVID-19 pandemic has put a lot of stress on people.  Nowhere is this more true than in the small business arena. Small businesses, many of which were forced to suspend or severely alter their operations, are also dealing with cyberattacks. Let’s take a look at the effects COVID-19 has on small businesses regarding cybersecurity. 

There are a lot of security threats directed toward businesses today, with plenty of immoral opportunists seeking to profit at your expense. This makes it critical to secure your network and its data, which sounds like an expensive and time-consuming process. However, it doesn’t have to be, as we’ll show you by highlighting a few ways to protect your business and its assets.

Cybercriminals aren’t exactly holding back when it comes to attacking businesses, which means that businesses can’t rest on their haunches as the new year rolls in. Let’s take a few moments to look toward the near future, and the issues that cybersecurity professionals are warning us about.

Do you know those horror stories you catch every so often where a huge business has their network hacked and millions of their customers and employees have their personal and financial information leaked onto the dark web? Your organization isn't likely as big as theirs, but regardless of how much money, people, and diverse revenue streams an organization has, having its network breached and its customers’, or its employees’, information strewn about over the dark web is not an ideal scenario. 

As business owners, with so much talk about cybersecurity and all of the threats that face us, we tend to put a lot of faith in the security investments we make. I say we, because an IT company has to be as protected, if not more, than their most demanding client. I’m going to talk shop a little bit about security, and some major concerns that I have in regard to all of our businesses.

Every IT administrator today needs to be concerned about cybersecurity, as does every private business when it comes to its network. However, the same can’t really be said for the computing resources of the government and other public entities… simply due to the lack of talent available.

Let’s face it, cybersecurity now has to be a major point of emphasis for the modern business. With the immense amount of threats out there, cybersecurity it has grown into a multi-billion dollar a year industry, with no limit in sight. Just a few decades ago, there was no fileless malware, no ransomware, no botnet army lying in wait to DDoS corporate data centers into oblivion. Today, we take a look at the brief (albeit rapidly growing) history of cybersecurity. 

The modern threat landscape is filled with horror stories of people that have been the victim of software vulnerabilities, hackers, and situations that could have been managed differently. Today, we will go over some of the best ways to keep your business from being a victim of a data breach, data theft, or malware attack.

Phishing attacks are the bane of modern businesses, and any organization’s employees need to be cognizant of the threat they pose. Unfortunately, no matter how much you protect against them, hackers are usually crafty enough to work their way around even the most well-defended security measures. However, not even the best security measures can keep your employees from making a split-second decision to click on a link or download an infected attachment.

Earlier this week, you may have seen the first part of this article, where we discussed how robocallers collect your information. Today, we continue our discussion on data privacy and what you can do to keep your organization and personal data safe.

Protecting your business’ data is no simple task. To make it as secure as possible, you’ll have to understand how personal data flows through online channels. We’re digging pretty deep with this one, so get ready for an informative and, if nothing else, interesting read. This topic is especially important in an age where Facebook and Google exist, but there are countless other threats to data privacy out there that we all experience on a regular basis--business or not.