Recently business and their customers have been losing money to invoice schemes. Thieves send seemingly legitimate invoices through email to trick you into paying for something you did not purchase. This may sound daunting, but there are specific measures you can take to protect yourself and your customers, including filtering all phone numbers and email addresses before opening them; noticing if a URL is valid, and double checking amounts charged to your accounts.
Security measures
As a business owner, there are a few security measures you can take that will help ensure that all private information stays that way.. By taking these measures, you will greatly reduce the risk of informational security breaches.
Fake emails are some of the most common of the ways for attackers to steal your information. Often disguising themselves as people in need, or as vendors who pretend to have sold you something you didn’t buy, phishing emails are used to steal your personal information to use in criminal activity. Most times these cyber hackers are easy to catch but some criminals can be crafty. They pose as store managers from businesses you frequent, claiming you owe them money. Unfortunately,sometimes we don’t give these seemingly legitimate emails a second thought until it is too late.
There are a few ways you can deal with this problem. The more time consuming (and frustrating) one requires you to go through every email address and make sure it lines up with a legitimate source – but who has time for that? The second – and most effective way of keeping criminals from even reaching your inbox – is setting up preventive measures, stopping the attack before it even happens. This is most effective when done by professionals that know the ins and outs of keeping your information safe.
Which brings me to my next point – consulting a professional. Criminals and attackers are becoming more and more advanced by the day. Hiring a good IT consultant can greatly reduce your risk of being successfully targeted by cyber attacks. A professional IT consultant will be able to assess the strength of your network and system, and can then instal anti-phishing software based on your network’s configuration. Blocking out about 99 percent of all spam, anti-phishing software quarantines any emails that seem suspect, allowing you to view your emails worry free.
The Power of VPN (Virtual Private Network)
A VPN (Virtual Private Network) could be your best friend when defending yourself against cyber criminals. It’s like the invisibility cloak of data security. A VPN is a private network that keeps your information encrypted and secure. How does it do this? It creates a private network from a public one, which allows your IP address to be untraceable. Great for you! Not so great for cyber criminals.
By utilizing a VPN, all private information – both personal and business related – is securely stored, giving you and your clients peace of mind. Any information sent is encrypted and untraceable, meaning those with malicious intent cannot gain access to the information at either endpoint or in transit.
Installing a personal VPN is quick and easy. All you have to do is go to the app store and download one on your phone. But when installing a VPN for your business, having a professional do it ensures your whole system is running at the same time and on the same network.
Network security can be your best friend in defending yourself against cyber criminals so make sure you do it right the first time. Here at KMF Technologies we specialize in just that and email filtering solutions– keeping business and people connected safely and without worry of being targeted by cyber attacks.
