RenovoData was featured in the 3PL Perspectives publication with this article, which is part THREE of the three-part series that addresses cybersecurity. This final article, “Best Practices for Preventing Email Cyberthreats” covers a higher level of safeguarding, one that stems from designated leadership and overall preparedness. 3PL Perspectives is a third-party logistics magazine provided by the Transportation Intermediaries Association.

Two Excerpts are below:

An early step in building a system of best practices is to appoint leaders to devise, disseminate, train for, and oversee every aspect of the initiative. On an ongoing basis, these leaders should play a watchdog role in identifying the most damaging email scams. They should continually measure and analyze the results of the program and make updates and improvements as needed.

The measure of both a cyber attack’s effectiveness and a victim’s level of damage is the length of time it takes for the company’s systems to recover. Effective disaster recovery from cyberattacks can be categorized in three maturity levels..

You can read the complete article about best practices for preventing email cyber threats here, “Best Practices for Preventing Email Cyberthreats”.

RenovoData was again featured in the 3PL Perspectives publication. 3PL Perspectives is a third-party logistics magazine provided by the Transportation Intermediaries Association. This article, “How Users Can Identify Email Cyberthreats” written by RenovoData’s Michele Vayle, is part TWO of a three-part series that addresses cybersecurity.

Two excerpts are below:

Pay attention to the distribution group. The absence of one is a bad sign, as is one you don’t know. Some scammers go to the trouble of hijacking real distribution group lists, so an authentic one does not prove the email to be legitimate. If the email turns out to be crooked, be sure to let everyone in the group know, since they may also be targets.

Hazy contact information inevitably smells of Phish, since real companies want to publicize their contact details clearly. If the company and signer are on the level, there should be a website that can verify their legitimacy.

You can view and read the complete article about email cyber threats here “How Users Can Identify Email Cyberthreats”.

RenovoData was featured in the 3PL Perspectives publication. 3PL Perspectives is a third-party logistics magazine provided by the Transportation Intermediaries Association. This article, “What Users Should Know About Email Cyberthreats” written by RenovoData’s Michele Vayle, is part one of a three-part series that addresses cybersecurity.

Two excerpts are below:

Email fraud seeks to fool recipients into taking unwise actions, so users should be aware of the kinds of threats their inboxes may contain. Continual vigilance is the key. This is especially important for 3PL and trucking companies because of the volume of email involved in day-to-day business and the speed with which users must handle their work.

Hackers, many of whom are good guys, are a talented breed of high-end computer programmers who specialize in combing through existing programs to spot hard-to-find problems. Malware hackers are computer experts who have put their skills to work for dark purposes. Causing damage via malware is known as hacking and pieces of malware or acts of assault are called hacks.

You can view and read the complete article about email cyber threats here “What Users Should Know About Email Cyberthreats”.

An Email Backup is More Important Than You May Think

If you’re running a business, losing your emails, conversations with clients and the ability to interact with the world outside of your company can bring your business to a screeching halt. Now if your email goes down and you lose your emails, it can feel like you’re aboard the Titanic and it’s going down – fast. So how do you prevent a massive loss? And how do you make sure that when you back up your data you’re also backing up your email?

What is the Difference between Backing up Data vs. Backing up Emails?

Usually, backups are configured to save and recover documents, files, and other miscellaneous data you have stored. Depending on the type of program you are using for your emails, those files might be in a completely different part of your computer that isn’t always backed up by normal programs.

If you store your emails on your own email server, you need a backup for the email server database. Even with an email database backup, some of those emails might be lost if you are only backing them up once or twice a day. To prevent this type of loss, you also need an email continuity solution.

Email Attachments and Backing up Key Conversations

Ever have conversations with clients where they sign off on changes to a project? Ever send large important files to clients or have them send it to you or your employees?

If you are overlooking these important parts of your data, they could easily be lost if the email data isn’t backed up correctly. By backing up and archiving these files, you’ll insure you can recover these essential conversations if you ever need them again.

Why do You Need to Backup Your Emails?

There are several reasons you need to back up the email for your business.

• To protect against any kind of loss. – Without a backup up plan for email, you can easily lose conversations, important attachments, and client agreements in the blink of an eye.
• To ensure confidentiality and security – If these things are important to your clients, you’ll need to make sure that things like contact information and other sensitive materials stay in the office not outside of it. Also, having an email backup plan allows you to protect against accidental or purposeful deletion of emails by employees.

By investing a little time to evaluate the risks and then implementing a backup procedure for your emails to cover these risks, you can prevent a lot of stress and prevent sensitive conversations from leaving the walls of your office.

In today’s business environment, everyone knows to watch out for hackers.

However, data leakage and loss from negligent file sharing is becoming just as significant a risk as data theft. Popular applications like Dropbox and Box do increase productivity and make collaboration easier. However, being able to securely share sensitive corporate data is a critical requirement for all organizations. The truth is, more and more valuable company information is being shared outside the organization, often without the knowledge or approval of CIOs, IT managers or supervisors, etc. Companies are often not responding to the risk of ungoverned file-sharing practices among employees as well as with external parties (business partners, contractors, vendors, etc.).

Many organizations are more vulnerable to data loss and non-compliance than they may think. Weak process control, an inability to govern how data is shared and weak file-sharing technology creates the perfect
storm for data loss, data leakage, and non-compliance.

What you can do:

Conduct regular yearly audits to determine if the document and file-sharing activities are in compliance with laws and regulations.

What you should do:

• Establish a clear policy for the adoption and use of cloud-based file-sharing/file sync-and-share applications.
• Maintain clear visibility into the file sharing/file sync and share applications used by employees at work.
• Exercise the ability to manage and control user access to sensitive documents and how they are shared.
• Educate employees annually of the risks of data loss and data theft.

Employees throughout the organization can be negligent when it comes to data sharing and collaboration. Here are just a few examples of risky behavior:

• Sending unencrypted emails.
• Failing to delete confidential documents or files as required by company policies.
• Accidentally forwarding files or documents to individuals not authorized to see them.
• Using personal mobile devices (BYOD) because security standards on personal devices may not conform to company policies
• Using personal file-sharing/file sync-and-share apps in the workplace.

What you can do:

Establish your CIO and (under the CIO) your IT Department as the authority when it comes to the adoption of new technology and applications that affect business operations. This idea goes beyond file sync/sharing services as well. If accounting wants to use a new app, they need to get approval, etc. With clear review processes and communication, approvals can happen in a timely manner- thus preventing any department from increasing the risk of data loss through the adoption of insecure applications.

Organizations need to have a clear understanding of how their data is being shared and distributed and take steps to protect data wherever it travels. The effort required will be a combination of education, process control, governance, and technology. Companies that fail to take action may experience data loss, which may lead to a loss of reputation, competitive advantage, and potential regulatory fines for noncompliance.

It’s not hard to imagine the following email scenario…

Imagine that you are in your car and driving to work. Suddenly, there is an urgent call from your assistant telling you that your company’s website has been attacked by hackers. Visitors to your corporate site are not only seeing the messages and images posted by hackers, but screenshots of private emails sent to your company posted to Twitter for all the world to see. This is a situation that Lenovo sadly faced back in February of this year.

It was soon determined by the experts that Lenovo’s servers had not in fact been compromised. So how can a site be controlled by hackers without actually being hacked? The answer is by manipulating the Domain Name System (DNS) records. DNS records are handled by Domain Name Registrars; GoDaddy is one example. In Lenovo’s case, the registrar was Webnic.cc, based in Malaysia. As it turns out, the hackers responsible for the attack on Lenovo were able to gain access to Lenovo’s DNS records which then rerouted traffic to a server that the hackers controlled. In addition, changes to the MX settings, which define the location of the mail server, allowed the hackers to receive any email sent to Lenovo by customers, employees, etc.

DNS hijacking should be considered a growing threat that could befall any company large or small. It would be wise to take steps to insure that your DNS records are protected. Make sure your company’s Domain Name Registrar:

• Uses two-factor authentication
• Uses domain locking Implements
• DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC)

As always, you should maintain best practices for the protection of your company’s servers. These elements include strong passwords and two-step verification. Whether you use Cloud IT Services or manage your own “in-house” IT infrastructure, companies with a proactive approach to data protection will always make a less attractive target for hackers – yet no company should consider themselves immune to the possibility.

At RenovoData, we care about our customers, especially keeping their data safe and protected.

We work tirelessly to ensure that crucial business data is backed up and recoverable in the event of a disaster or data loss event. We stay ahead of the curve when it comes to the latest developments and trends in cloud computing. Still, in this day and age it does come as a bit of a surprise that some people are using weak passwords like “password” or “123456”! Most people know that the more common or weak a password, the higher the chances someone could hack into personal accounts… and yet, these weak passwords continue to be used A LOT.

Recently SplashData released its annual list of the year’s worst passwords. Among the top-ranked terrible passwords were: “qwerty”, “baseball”, and “football”. Numerical sequences also dominated the list including “111111” and “123123”. Changing things up are “abc123” and (somewhat ironically) “trustno1”.

In order to help you make your passwords more secure, we’ve gathered a few tips and suggestions:

• Don’t use the same password for all of your accounts.
• Don’t skimp on the character count. Unless otherwise directed, passwords should be at least 14 characters long.
• Avoid words with personal information, for example, your name, your pet’s name, your child’s name, the name of your favorite sports team, etc. This kind of information can be relatively easy to find and in turn, guessed.
• Scatter numbers and symbols throughout your password. Having them at the end or replacing an E with a 3 is just not secure enough.
• Pick random word combinations (like cheese-shoe-rain).
• Pick the first letter of each word in a sentence from a poem or song. (For example, “Let it go, let it go, Can’t hold it back anymore” would translate to “l-i-g-l-i-g-c-h-i-b-a”)
• Use a random password generator. (Example: http://passwordsgenerator.net/)
• We hope this post will get you thinking about the security of your passwords. Forgetting a password is a pain, but dealing with the aftermath of unauthorized access is much worse. Protect yourself!