Autumn Winter 2016

20-21 / 36

Thankfully it’s not all doom and gloom as fraud attacks can
be prevented with a little investment in some key areas:
• staff knowledge
• security solutions
• regular reviews and updates
Staff knowledge
Educating your staff in cyber security is one way to reduce
threats to your organisation. We have seen various instances
where a telephone call is received reporting to be from a
bank or perhaps a large IT firm such as Microsoft. These
bogus calls often request access to either your computer, or
ask for some details from you which would then allow them
to commit fraud. All staff should be educated to ask some
simple questions on receipt of such a call.
• Verify the exact company the caller is calling from.
• Request that the company call back with contact details.
• Verify that these details are from the company they
purport to be.
Such questioning will help identify fraudsters and reduce
the number of instances whereby these kind of scams are
successfully carried out.
Emails reporting to ‘wire money’ to an account are becoming
very sophisticated. Social engineering is used to track
potential targets and, from there, emails to employers,
suppliers or businesses they deal with appear very valid.
Such requests could put your business at risk, so it is
extremely important to educate your staff not to respond
or act upon these phone calls or emails without first
investigating the request.
Banks are trying to reduce the number of fraud attacks
occurring by communicating warnings such as the following:
Top tips to beat cyber crime
Security of your IT systems is a top priority for David
Allen IT Solutions. With the number of reports across
the media sharing actual fraud cases continuing to grow,
businesses need to be vigilant.
If you would like more information on
our range of IT services call Gary on
01228 711888.
Gary Martin
IT Director
Security solutions
Preventing fraudulent contact with your employees is crucial
to preventing successful scams and fraudulent attacks taking
place across your business.
At David Allen IT Solutions we provide a number of software
solutions to businesses to minimise the risk of fraud attacks.
Web control allows us to lock down an employee’s access to
potential harmful websites through your business computers.
Antispam solutions can prevent fraudulent emails from
ever reaching an employee’s inbox. In one week in June
2016, 27.9% of emails addressed to our clients were spam
messages – that’s over 6,000 potentially destructive emails
blocked in one week through effective software!
ABOVE: Almost 30% of all email received to businesses is junk.
Our antivirus solutions are designed for businesses. We
know that some businesses install free antivirus solutions, or
simply rely on luck – hoping that viruses, Trojan or malware
will not reach their computers. However, when we install
our solutions, 9 out of 10 times we will find viruses already
resident on these systems. Our software immediately cleans
these up, and then prevents against viruses in the future.
Our antivirus software is also available for Android phones.
Staff who bring mobile devices into work and use your
corporate wifi can introduce threats to your business.
Protecting these with mobile security solutions closes yet
another door to potential fraudsters.
Regular reviews and updates
Our team at David Allen IT Solutions are always looking at
implementing the latest technologies to ensure we’re up to
date with the latest security threats and trends.
We are accredited to assess your business for Cyber
Essentials certification. Businesses with Cyber Essentials
accreditation in place have reduced the risk of cyber crime
and fraud significantly across their business by mitigating or
partially mitigating 99% of common threats. Cyber Essentials
certification requires an annual review of your systems.
However, many more maintenance updates should be
scheduled for your computer systems. Our antivirus software
for example updates several times each day, keeping the
software up to date with the very latest virus definitions.
ABOVE: 99% of common security threats are mitigated by
becoming Cyber Essentials certified
Our patch management software ensures that third party
programs such as Adobe and Java are kept up to date as well
as all the vital Windows updates you would expect to receive.
All of these routine updates are automated to ensure that
none are missed and they are applied in a timely manner
when released by the software vendors to ensure that your
business is always fully protected with the latest security
technology.
Tweet us!
@DavidAllenIT
Take the time to benefit from
your FREE IT review to ensure
your business is protected against
security risks. Call Gary today
on 01228 711888.
20
AUTUMN/WINTER 2016 AUTUMN/WINTER 2016
21
“PLEASE PASS THIS EMAIL TO WHOEVER
DEALS WITH PAYMENT OF INVOICES”
We have been notified of a potential ‘IT fraud’
whereby customers are contacted by a third party
who has an email address very similar to ours
impersonating one of our staff. They then notify you
that our bank details have changed and request future
payments to be sent to a new bank account. The new
bank details are not our account.
Please be aware we will never contact you by email
notifying of a change of bank details without first
notifying you in writing and also by telephone. We
have no plans to change our banking arrangements.
Should you be contacted by anyone (even if they
appear to be from someone you know in our office)
requesting you to send money to a different account
other than that showing on your invoice, please notify
us by telephone immediately.
Spam volume: Past 7 days
21,554 total messages
6,013 spam messages
27.9% spam
Security Threats
Mitigated (69.2%)
Partially Mitigated (30.1%)
Not Mitigated (0.7%)