Cyber-criminals are seeing the COVID-19/Coronavirus pandemic as an opportunity to exploit the public’s fears and anxiety.  They are now weaponizing these feelings into cyber-attacks. 

In fact, the US Department of Health and Human Services has already been targeted in a cyber-attack that is believed to have been unsuccessful at taking down systems and stealing data. 

Keeping all of this in mind, we would like to share with you the US Department of Homeland Security’s Cyber-Infrastructure (CISA) alert outlining a few key areas to focus on as these attacks ramp up. 

With many States across the U.S. taking major actions to limit the spread of COVID-19, businesses need to offer their staff with options to telecommute.

DP Solutions can help! When you join our Managed IT Services program, you’ll enjoy many technology services that can help you provide an effective telework environment for your employees. Talk with one of our Business Solutions Advisors about enrolling in our Managed IT Services plan.

How DP Solutions can help enable your employees to work remotely:

The outbreak of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) has many employers evaluating their capabilities to allow staff to work from home. Considering this current pandemic, it’s important that your organization is prepared to provide productive work spaces outside of the office.

Below are a few tips to create a productive remote work environment for your staff:

Did you know that sharing too much information on Social Media makes it that much easier for cyber-criminals to target you for a Spear Phishing attack?

In under 5 minutes, Ben Schmerler shows you 3 ways to avoid becoming the victim of Spear Phishing.

I wanted to take a moment and comment on some recent news regarding Microsoft Windows and security.

Two important events happened on Tuesday, January 14, 2020:

1. Microsoft released a security update for Windows regarding a flaw found in the operating system discovered by the NSA.  As you are probably already aware, this kind of thing happens all the time.  As new flaws are discovered, Microsoft releases patches to fix the issue.  We support this effort by making sure that patches are applied on a regular basis for our clients who receive patch management as part of their Managed IT Services agreement with us.
   
   
2. The official End of Life of Windows 7 happened on January 14, 2020.  This means that the patch released on Tuesday was the last major security update for the Windows 7 operating system, according to Microsoft. 

As a Managed IT Services Provider, we consider it our responsibility to provide information on factors that could potentially impact organization's technology, and as a result, their businesses. 

Due to recent international events, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) of the US Department of Homeland Security has issued an alert (AA20-006A) about potential cyber-threats.  

While we do not feel there is a need to be alarmed at this time, there is reason to believe that there could be retaliatory cyber-attacks against the US Government, private businesses, critical infrastructure, academia, and so on.  

*As featured on Tripwire.com - January 7, 2020

In some ways, the cloud has made security management easier, as many cloud providers have taken the responsibilities traditionally associated with local server management out of your hands. But in other ways, the security management conversation has become more confusing for decision makers, as “cloud” is a very broadly defined term and could speak to a variety of different technology ecosystems with their own security considerations. To top it off, many of the people who must ultimately make the decision about what kind of cloud solution is being utilized by their business don’t necessarily understand the security management ramifications of that decision.

*As featured on Tripwire.com - October 17, 2019

The calculus for disaster recovery and risk management is changing. Most small businesses within the past decade would often keep many of their critical technology assets locally, perhaps in a server closet, or a centralized data center for multiple offices. They built their own “vault” of applications, databases, email, files, etc., often on a few physical servers they would be wholly responsible for maintaining and eventually upgrading or replacing. Most of them would care enough about these technology and data assets to invest significant sums in redundant servers, quick recovery backups and imaging solutions, security hardware/software as well as the physical infrastructure to support these products like power and air conditioning.

*As featured on WJLA ABC7, August 13, 2019

Online and device security may not be the first thing that comes to mind with the new school year, but more and more middle school, high school and college students have mobile devices, laptops, and study online. Children are increasingly becoming heavy targets for cyber-crime and so it is more important than ever that students protect their digital lives as much as adults.

*As featured on Tripwire.com - August 4, 2019

As someone who has worked for their entire career in the Managed Network Services space, if I had to pick out, over the past five years, two of the most impactful shifts in managing technology, it would be a shift from traditional, in-house servers to solutions where 3^rd parties build “clouds” to provide similar business functions as well as the increased pressure on organizations to have comprehensive cyber-security strategies as threats become more significant. While some might want to call these things “trends,” I don’t think either is going to come out of focus or take a 180 degree turn anytime soon.