In light of today’s announcement that Marriott/Starwood Hotels had the second largest data breach in US history (citation), we thought we’d give you some insight and security solutions to keep your business and customer data safe.

One of the most astounding facts about the Marriott breach is that the hackers had access to customers’ passport numbers, names, addresses, email addresses, and credit card information since 2014. That is four years of access! (It’s important to note, that as of right now, it hasn’t been reported how the hackers gained access to the network and why it went unnoticed for such a long period of time).

Our concern is that small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) hear about a massive data breach and think, “It won’t happen to us. Hackers only target large Enterprise companies.” This is not true.

In fact, there is a common form of malware that can go unnoticed for long periods of time called Trojan Horses. A ccording to a newly published report by DATTO which surveyed 2,400+ managed IT service providers, 38% of client breaches in from Q2 2016 to Q2 2018 were trojan horses (citation).

And of course, ransomware remains a consistent threat.

5 Things You Can Do Today:

1. Awareness and Training. You and your employees are your company’s best defense but also your biggest liability when it comes to security. It’s important to remember that each day someone is trying to break into your business by tricking your employees into giving up sensitive information, downloading malware, or paying legitimate looking invoices from compromised vendors.
2. Upgrade your firewall to include Unified Treat Management (UTM)

This should include:

• Intrusion prevention
• WebBlocker
• Gateway Antivirus
• Reputation-Enabled Defense
• Network Discovery
• SpamBlocker

3. Include Multi-Factor Authentication to your security mix.
4. Secure remote connections with VPN. If you allow your employees to work remotely or if they use their own devices for work, then you may have a potential security risk. VPN can secure these remote connections.
5. Have true business continuity systems in place, including cyber liability insurance. In the Datto report, businesses with true business continuity fully recovered from an attack within 24 hours or less.

At Consilien, we’ve never had a Managed Service customer suffer excessive downtime from a malware attack. We ensure that our customers are well informed and secure. More importantly, our clients are prepared for any eventuality that may threaten their business from ransomware to human error to leaky pipes. #BeyondBackup #Cybersecurity #DataSecurity