Welcome to Security Essentials!

Cyber Security is on everyone’s mind regardless of how tech savvy you are, there doesn’t seem to be a day that goes by where there isn’t a story in the news that creates more fear. Business Email Compromise attacks have become more sophisticated in that cyber criminals are now using genuine cloud software such as Dropbox that now bypasses email security as it is coming from a genuine site.

You may feel it is never ending with the constant threats; however, you do not need to make decisions based on fear. With the right level of cyber protection, it can go a long way to mitigating threats. In addition, you have a Trusted IT Partner who you can turn to ask questions and seek advice.

There are several support packages out there and this alone can be daunting with finding the right one for your needs, our advice is ask questions and do challenge things as any good IT provider will be more than happy to answer. At the minimum our advice is if you do nothing else with your IT at least have security in place to protect you and your business.

With this in mind PDR IT’s Security Essentials was born.

What is Security Essentials

We noticed the need for a package that focuses just on security, as having peace of mind that your cyber security is in order is usually the first thing that springs to mind when assessing your IT requirements.

Security Essentials provides you with the following:

• 24/7 monitoring by our team to detect and resolve any threat.
• User Friendly Password Manager to keep your you and your account secure.
• The peace of mind knowing that you are protected.

Security Essentials Plus provides you with the above plus:

• Email spam and phishing protection keeping unwanted and malicious emails out.
• Domain security which prevents unauthorised use of your email domain which stops cyber criminals pretending to be you.

2. Protection from Business Email Compromise

Business Email Compromise known as BEC attacks, are where an attacker pretends to be you or someone you know with the end goal of extorting money whether that is in the form of a Ransomware attack or duping your clients into paying bogus invoices.

BEC 3.0 is the latest threat where cyber crooks are using legitimate services such as Dropbox to start their attacks. What is worrying about this, is that because these attacks are being initiated from genuine services these attacks land straight into your inbox that can have devastating  consequences.

Having email protection in place will go along way to preventing you falling victim to these types of attacks. As the protection software will be able to emulate the entire process to either block the email from coming through or warning you it could be dangerous.

How to protect against BEC 3.0 attacks

Whilst it can be hard to detect, our advice is to follow these basic steps.

1. Treat every email with caution that requests information such as login credentials or contains files to download. This applies even if the email comes from someone you know.
2. Consider that the sender may have had their emails compromised, which means the attacker might know you are expecting something from the sender, and they will exploit this.
3. Confirm with the sender it was them, it is recommended to call them as replying to the email could result in the hacker responding to it.
4. Do not login into anything that was shared via the email or within anything that originated from the email chain.
5. Enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) this adds one final layer of protection even if the hacker has your username and password.
6. If your Microsoft365 is managed by an IT provider, speak with them to confirm whether they have implemented additional security measures such as only allowing logins from within the UK and so on.

If you would like to discuss how to enhance your protection we would be delighted to assist you with this, you can book a complimentary consultation here.

3. How Does PDR IT Keep Me Protected 24/7?

You may have heard the term SOC within conversations and possibly wondered what the hell it meant, to avoid using jargon it simply means Security Operations Centre. Our team actively monitor your organisation 24/7 every day of the year (that includes Bank Holidays and Christmas Day).

Our team spot these issue and in most cases will resolve the situation without it causing hindrance to your day.

4. Can I buy my own anti-virus?

You may be thinking that you can just go to your local shop and purchase anti-virus from a well-known brand. This is certainly an option, whilst this can be a great option for your personal devices. These brands are usually not the best solution for your business devices as they do not have level of protection and technology required to adequately protect your business.

Our anti-virus provides a team of people monitoring 24/7 and the solution is more comprehensive insofar as it is designed with business in mind, which in turns keeps up to date with emerging trends.

Unsure on where to begin for your business?

The important step is to go with a solution that works for you, we hope this will be with PDR IT Solutions. However, we still encourage you to speak with other IT providers to explore your options.

The beauty of our Security Essentials package is that it provides the fundamental protection to keep you safe, what’s more, it works in the background which enables you to do what you do best.

Get in touch by booking a complimentary consultation here, we look forward to hearing from you and learning more about how we can assist.