5 Steps to avoid Cyber Fraud

Microsoft have announced vulnerability with their Microsoft Support Diagnostic Tool (MDST), making it more important than ever to be safe online.

A remote code execution vulnerability exists when MSDT is called using the URL protocol from a calling application such as Word. Translated from techno babble – this means that you could receive an email with a link or an attachment that is from an attacker. The attacker can then install programs, view, change or delete data or create new accounts in the context allowed by the user’s rights. This is a perfect example of cyber fraud!

What is cyber fraud?

There are two main types of cyber fraud:

• One targets the computer itself (for example by infecting it with malware or viruses)
• The other uses the computer to gain access to your personal details (for example by hacking emails, passwords and other secured data).

For businesses, both types of cyber fraud are a threat as they could pose a risk to personal data you hold of customers and your ability to continue working if computers are hacked and viruses installed.

Cyber fraud examples

There are a number of examples of cyber fraud that could impact businesses like those supported by Technical Drive, including:

• Email fraud – for example malware hidden in attachments, for small businesses these will most commonly be about invoice payments and failed parcel delivery
• Theft and sale of corporate data
• Cyberextortion (this is a common one targeting businesses, where the criminals demand money to prevent a threatened attack)
• Ransomware attacks
• Cyberespionage (where hackers access company data).

With 70% of small businesses unprepared to deal with a cyber attack, it is important that steps are taken to prevent cyber fraud scams and keep your business protected.

Online fraud in cyber crime – how you can prevent it

There are a number of ways you can protect your business against cyber fraud and Technical Drive are here to help you. We offer managed cyber security services so we can help prevent, detect and respond to ever-changing threats and can recover data quickly when ransomware or other exploits strike.

Here are 5 steps you can take to protect your business by avoiding cyber fraud

1. Stop, think, is it expected?

When you receive an email, especially an email with an attachment you need to:

Stop – do you recognise who the email is from?

Think – does the email look legitimate? Is there a link or an email attachment that doesn’t look quite right? Or even if it does look legit, think about whether you really need to click on it!

Is it expected? – Whether it may be from your bank, amazon or the post office. Are you expecting an email from them? Why are you receiving this email and is this something you need to open?

2. Don’t open attachments in emails

Unless you are certain they are genuine, don’t open email attachments. A common way that computers get infected by malware attacks and other forms of cybercrime is via email attachments in spam emails.

3. Keep a secure password

We all want a password that’s easy to remember, but often that can pave the way for cyber fraud. Implementing a strong password will help prevent it from being guessed or hacked by criminals. Cyber news have recently published the top 10 passwords – is yours here?

• 123456
• 123456789
• qwerty
• password
• 12345
• qwerty123
• 1q2w3e
• 12345678
• 111111
• 1234567890

Other common password features include birth years, names of people and pets, sports teams, place names, seasons and food.

So, if you use any of these in your passwords you should pause reading here and go and change it…

Welcome back!

If you are worried about using a stronger password for fear of remembering it, there are lots of password managers available that will help you with this. These will then store all of your passwords, so you don’t have to remember them.

4. Keep software and operating system updated

IT cyber security is vital and keeping your software and operating systems updated ensures your computer will be protected. If you have Technical Drive’s managed cyber security services we will do this for you as part of our service.

5. Use anti-virus software and keep it updated

Using anti-virus or a comprehensive internet security solution like Technical Drive’s managed cyber security services will ensure that you stay protected from cyber fraud scams.

Anti-virus software allows you to scan, detect and remove threats before they become a problem. Having this protection in place helps to protect your computer and your data from cybercrime, giving you peace of mind.

If you use anti-virus software, make sure you keep it updated to get the best level of protection.

Don’t panic, we’re here to help!

Whether you have already been hacked by cyber criminals or indeed have seen that cyber crimes are rising and want to start protecting yourself, you are in the right place.

We can offer remote IT support too, so whether you have hybrid working or locally based in one office, we can log into your IT remotely and solve your problem.

If you would like to discuss how we can help you, please get in touch.