Pain Points
SPAM / Junk Emails & Phishing Attacks
Spam and Junk emails are annoying and usually not dangerous – 99% of them should NEVER reach your inbox if your email platform is actually any good.
Phishing attacks are more sophisticated and come in several other forms called Whaling and Spear Phishing – The naming gives away that these other methods are direct and targeted attacks on a business or organisation whereas Phishing is a general term to catch whoever bites.
Let me be clear in stating that no email filter will catch or prevent 100% of Phishing attacks as Cyber Criminals are too clever.
Below are 3 common techniques which continue to be effective for Attackers.
- They could send through legit attachments, usually Word documents, PDF files or Excel Spreadsheets with embedded code which tricks the recipient into running the script resulting in a Ransomware infection or Remote Access Trojan being installed.
- Another method is to steal (Brand-jack) a reputable companies email layout and signature, embedding a link to an external website which has been cleverly cloned to trick the recipient into entering a username and password which is then stolen.
- Those credentials might give the attacker access to a users Office365 system. This hosted platform can be used to distribute a ZIP file, containing a “js” file which has had it’s code obfuscated so Antivirus systems can not read it. Once downloaded and run, the actual Malware is downloaded and executed and if your very lucky, your Antivirus MIGHT stop the attack.
Your best defence against any form of phishing attack is to block access to the entire internet and then make minor and detailed exceptions to the websites you actually need. Eg. Deny all and then allow the following business websites: Xero, NAB, Office365 etc.
Another method is to prevent the Script files from running and to block all new programs from running using a technique called “Application Whitelisting”. It’s also important to ensure legit programs like word and powershell can not connect to the internet using “Ring Fencing” and to have 2 Factor Authentication enabled on all accounts.
TechTopia understands that blocking is far more effective than detection when it comes to protecting against Phishing Attacks.
Fraudulent Emails
An email to your customers or own internal staff pretending to be one of your users and being sent from a server in Russia or China should NEVER reach an inbox of any recipient.
There are multiple mechanisms that can be put in place to help prevent this which ensures your brand is protected.
They are known as SPF (Sender Policy Framework), DKIM (Domain Keys Identified Mail) and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance). You don’t need to know what they are or how they work – you just need to know if you have this setup which is an easy check.
Simply look up your domain, your current IT Providers domain and your accountants domain – after all, you need to know they are setup correctly to trust them.
TechTopia ensures all our customers are setup with these settings – not negotiable.
https://dmarcguide.globalcyberalliance.org/#/
Ransomware
Ransomware is the scourge of the Internet, the absolute worst problem which continues to evolve at the hands of Cyber Criminals.
Imagine having your family photos, your personal and confidential data or your entire business locked and unable to function as all your files are encrypted / locked, held to ransom for several thousands or millions of dollars or you are threatened to have all of the information exposed onto the dark web or completely inaccessible.
It’s a scary prospect no matter who you are or what size business or organisation you are and while backups can help you recover your data, having personal or critical business data exposed publicly has taken the threat to another level.
The solution can be simple and cheap if you are willing to make the sacrifices, change behaviour and work with TechTopia, or it can be expensive and complicated to compensate for unlimited exposure, poor staff behaviour and increased risk.
The choice here is of course your own but I would recommend a specialist consult with TechTopia.
Further information about TechTopia’s approach to minimise exposure can be found on our DefaultDeny Page.
Slow Internet
Many slow internet issues can be the perception of the user or are out of the control of the business – but many are not and are caused by the business and users within.
Windows Updates not setup correctly, users with Torrent software running and file sync platforms like OneDrive and Dropbox all cause “internal network contention” while using a slow DNS service will make website access appear slow.
The solution will vary depending on the customer – but systems like OneDrive and Dropbox have either LAN Sync, FilesOnDemand or a rate limiter available.
Windows updates on Windows 10 computers setup correctly will communicate with other computers inside the network to obtain updates whereas Windows 7 will download them from the internet – usually all at once if they are not setup to be staggered.
uTorrent / qbtorrent and other tools have a very limited legit use case within business – so remove it and make sure they are never re-installed.
Ensuring your business computers are setup correctly with only the required applications is where TechTopia excels.
Unreliable Phone System / Phone Calls Dropout
Just like all things internet based – VOIP (Voice over IP) has many moving parts but the most critical is your Modem / Router / Firewall.
Using the right device to control your internet connectivity will allow for advanced controls and monitoring of bandwidth, latency and Quality of Service.
Many small businesses suffer at the hands of the ISP Supplied modem / routers with the Telstra DOT Business modem being the most unreliable.
The minimum standard of Modem / Router TechTopia will provide are Draytek while Watchguard covers our UTM Firewall requirements. Both of them are intelligent and can prioritise VOIP traffic over general internet browsing and downloads.
When paired with our Hosted PABX platform – business reliability and up-time are improved considerably.
Slow Computers
The year is 2020, SSD hard drives are insanely fast and cheap and RAM is cheap – so no computer should be slow – it’s that simple.
I have installed an SSD and an additional 4GB RAM into an old computer and it was faster than when it was purchased.
TechTopia will never sell an old style hard drive as a primary disk – it’s not an option.
Poor Cloud Experience
You’ve spent the money and invested in a cloud platform which is a hosted remote desktop platform…and it’s rubbish.
Your printing settings change after each login or you have to print out a document, scan it to yourself and then email it from your PC because your cloud system doesn’t link to your Outlook or it’s just slow.
A VPN Tunnel is required to communicate from the server to the printer to ensure seamless printing.
The platform could be heavily restricted platform where the software vendor looks after themselves, therefore additional programs like Outlook are not installed despite the function being relied upon.
You might need a second internet connection, load balanced to ensure suitable bandwidth for all staff.
TechTopia has built many Remote Desktop Cloud platforms which just work and tick all of the required boxes with no restrictions that impact business functions.
Staff Monitoring and Controls
There might be a time when you need to silently uncover why a team member is under performing or you would like to review an entire team to establish a baseline or performance.
This is easily achievable and after some initial work around classifying websites and programs into productive or unproductive, the reporting available can help you manage your situation.
Website blocking is a control that is often lost outside the office – but now every business asset including laptops, tablets and smart phones can be controlled and access to unproductive websites can be removed no matter the location and connection.
Backups - because TechTopia can not recreate your data
TechTopia can replace your computer, laptop, server, phone or tablet and can reinstall all actively supported programs – but we can not recreate your data in the event of a disaster.
A disaster could be hard drive failure, platform failure, ransomware infection, malicious staff member, cyber criminal or an act of nature such as flood or fire.
If you are not backing up your critical data and leveraging the additional bandwidth the NBN offers to utilise cloud storage – you are at risk!
If you think that storing your data inside Dropbox, Office365 or another Cloud system makes it 100% safe – you are misguided!
Backing up your critical information to the cloud, or going “Cloud to Cloud” is far cheaper than recovery. In some scenarios – your server could fail taking out your entire business, but you could recover in just minutes!
The are many options for an effective backup strategy available – talk to TechTopia to get the right system for you!
Reliable Wi-Fi and Seamless Roaming
In most cases, Wi-Fi networks that are not reliable are caused by All in one Modem/Router/Wi-Fi units being installed instead of dedicated Wireless Infrastructure. I use the analogy of an athlete competing in the Olympics in the 100m sprint, Javelin and High Jump. These are 3 very different disciplines and while the athlete might compete well, it’s very unlikely they will win Gold.
This is why any business or organisation that has a dependency on Wireless connectivity should invest in dedicated Wireless Infrastructure. This will provide better speed, coverage and reliability along with features like fast roaming, airtime fairness, band steering, guest networks, captive portals and security controls to protect your main network.
TechTopia can supply and install intelligent, feature rich and aesthetically pleasing equipment which just works to fulfill and exceed your wireless requirements.