3 Essential Data Security Tools for Every Business
Your data is one of your most valuable business assets. Keeping it safe should be one of your main priorities.
Your data is one of your most valuable business assets. Keeping it safe should be one of your main priorities.
Our phones are a goldmine of private information. If they’re not as secure your other devices, they can become a gaping hole in your cyber security
Cloud computing has quickly become a popular option for businesses that want to streamline their operations, reduce costs, and become more flexible. But are you swayed by the idea that cloud services are automatically better for the environment? Could the need to do your bit ‘cloud’ your decision-making? Sorry. Bad pun. It’s true that cloud services have environmental benefits compared …
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If you own a small or medium-sized business in Long Island, NYC, you may already know that ransomware could present a significant threat to your business. What is ransomware, exactly? Ransomware is software designed to render your files impossible to use. If you’re infected by ransomware, you won’t be able to use the information on your device or network until you pay what the attackers demand. This article details actions to help your business stay protected from ransomware.
Ransomware is constantly on the rise. It affects large corporations as well as smaller businesses in the Long Island, NYC area and across the globe. Ransoms are getting higher, too–the average payment rose 82% in 2021 from the previous year.
Working with an experienced IT team like LI Tech Solutions can help you protect your assets from ransomware attacks. However, there’s also a lot you can do to minimize risks. Let’s take a look at how you can effectively partner with your IT team and keep your business safe.
You can do a lot to keep ransomware attackers from impacting your business in the first place. Here are a few common-sense precautions you should never overlook in the fight to keep your business protected from ransomware.
Don’t ignore that software update prompt! Patches and updates can be annoying, but they are necessary to protect your devices and networks. It’s much harder for attackers to target a device that’s up to date. Automated patch management can make this much easier since you won’t have to remember to check for updates.
Storing important data on just one device is asking for trouble. You should keep information on a separate device as a back-up. If ransomware attackers successfully target your primary data source, your information won’t be lost forever–and you won’t be stuck playing their games.
What is social engineering? Simply put, it refers to techniques that trick users into giving attackers access to your information or systems. Social engineering can take many different forms. Here are a few of the most common.
Remember to avoid opening messages or clicking on links that seem suspicious. Frequent training will help everyone on your team know how to watch out for new strategies. Also, be sure to require proper email inbox filters to keep emails from attackers at bay.
Using the same password everywhere you go is a good way to fall prey to ransomware attacks. Everyone in your organization should change their password frequently and follow proper complexity guidelines.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is an American government agency devoted to cyber defense. Their website offers guidelines, resources and tools to help you stay protected.
You know how to spot scam emails a mile away, and you’re aware that “12345” is not an acceptable password. However, there are also some less familiar steps that you should strongly consider to protect yourself from ransomware.
What is an “endpoint”? In this context, it’s a device like a laptop or phone that might fall prey to attackers. Endpoint detection and response (EDR) is a process that can help you spot attacks on these devices quickly. You should also monitor your network routinely to avoid any blind spots. It’s important to perform routine scans to check for vulnerabilities in your systems that you may have overlooked.
If everyone in your organization can access all of your information, you may need to improve your identity and access management techniques. Making sure your users have only the access they truly need is a great way to minimize threats.
The more spread out your network is, the harder it is for attackers to deal a crushing blow. Segment your network into small pieces so that malicious attacks can only do so much damage.
4 Dangerous Ransomware Myths Proven False
Everyone knows that the internet can be a dangerous place. When someone from your organization connects to the internet, they should take several precautions to prevent attacks.
When you partner with LI Tech Solutions as your managed service provider, you’re working with industry leaders in data protection. We can help you effectively respond to attacks, but we can also ensure you take the proper protective measures to avoid ransomware attacks in the first place. Call us at 516.210.6400 today, and start working with the top IT service providers in Long Island, NYC.
Do you own a business on Long Island or in NYC? If so, it’s important to stay on top of the best technology solutions for businesses in NY. As technology rapidly evolves, your IT solutions will need to adapt and grow accordingly. Choosing a comprehensive, proactive MSP like LI Tech Solutions is essential. If your IT partners are unable to adapt quickly enough to changing trends, your business could fall behind competitors.
What emerging technologies for IT solutions in businesses in NYC should you keep an eye on? In this article, we’ll take a look at the latest technology solutions for businesses in NY.
Your business may or may not be working with these emerging technologies yet. However, the future of tech is rapidly evolving, and new tech is changing the way we live and work at lightning speed. Evaluating the role these technologies might play in your business is a great way to stay ahead of the curve. That’s why it’s important to partner with an MSP that stays on top of current trends, like LI Tech Solutions. Let’s take a look at what tomorrow might hold for businesses on the cutting edge of technological advances.
What can AI do for your business? It likely has the potential to streamline your processes and reduce mindless, repetitive tasks for your employees. Some industry watchers tend to worry that AI will replace humans in the workforce. However, AI’s role in the workforce doesn’t have to be destructive–it can be freeing instead. When meaningless tasks are outsourced to computers, humans are free to innovate, be creative, collaborate, and build meaningful relationships.
What is a “blockchain,” anyway? In the simplest terms, a blockchain is a database, but it’s different from traditional databases in some important ways. Information is shared among the nodes of a computer network, and data is structured in blocks rather than in tables. Since information isn’t centralized, blockchains offer increased security and efficiency, among other benefits.
People tend to associate blockchain technology with cryptocurrency. However, it has far-reaching potential to revolutionize fields such as healthcare, finance, supply chains and voting procedures. In fact, blockchain is already being used by 81 of the top 100 public companies. Blockchain is only positioned to grow as one of the leading technology solutions for businesses in NY.
Virtual reality, augmented reality and extended reality will only become more essential to running a successful business in years to come. As the lines between the physical world and digital worlds become more blurred, it’s important for your company to assess the roles virtual reality might play in your future success.
What if you could let potential customers preview your products by offering immersive experiences? What if you could replace a traditional assembly or instruction manual with a virtual experience? Tomorrow’s customers will expect your business to stay on the cutting edge of virtual reality technologies. Delayed adoption of advanced technology solutions for businesses in NYC is usually a mistake.
Read more in our blog: Digital Transformation in Healthcare: MSPs’ Role in Long Island
Your company might still be working on its long-term artificial intelligence or virtual reality strategies. However, some relatively recent technologies are essential today for most businesses–not only for large corporations, but also for small and medium-sized businesses. What are some recent trends that your business should respond to? Let’s take a look at some of today’s emerging essentials in the world of business technologies.
Today’s consumers, top talent, and investors are looking for greener and more energy-efficient processes. The world expects your business to use tech for the benefit of our planet. According to Forbes, technology is an indispensable tool for achieving global sustainability. More and more companies are taking responsibility for their environmental impacts and looking for ways to reduce waste. As a best practice, your small or medium-sized business should be proactive about participating in this trend.
How can technology help your business become more green? There is a whole world of possibilities. From carbon-negative data centers that produce energy instead of consuming it, to smart waste bins that create a more environmentally-friendly workplace, the options are endless.
Cybersecurity has always been at the top of the list of vital technology solutions for businesses in Long Island, NYC. However, today, it’s more essential than ever before. Major companies, including Facebook, have recently experienced notoriously disruptive cyberattacks. Other recent data breaches have affected industry leaders like Chick-fil-A, Uber, and even MailChimp. Particularly since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, cyberattacks have been increasing in volume and complexity.
How can you stay ahead of the ever-growing need for better cybersecurity? LI Technology Solutions has the answers you’re looking for. We stay on the cutting edge of data protection and backup solutions. When it comes to technology solutions for businesses in Long Island, NYC we lead the way in the industry.
Cloud computing is among the most important advanced technology solutions for businesses in Long Island, NYC. It offers many benefits to small and medium-sized business owners. A few of these include:
If your business isn’t taking advantage of what cloud computing can offer, you risk being left behind. LI Technology Solutions offers end-to-end cloud computing solutions, so your team can focus on what you do best: running your business.
Why is tech outsourcing among the top emerging technologies for IT solutions in businesses in NYC? Partnering with an MSP like LI Technology Solutions offers the maximum value for your dollars. Let’s consider a few of the benefits that tech outsourcing can offer.
Your business may not be ready to hire a full-time IT professional who specializes in a specific cutting-edge trend. However, when you partner with an MSP, you get access to industry specialists who can put their expertise to work for you on an as-needed basis.
Technology changes fast, and a data breach or hardware failure can strike when you least expect it. Partnering with an MSP gives you the option of a sudden increase in labor, so you can effectively respond. Otherwise, you may not have time to quickly hire additional staff when an urgent need arises.
Read more in our blog: The Future of IT Solutions: What to Expect in 2024 and Beyond
By partnering with an MSP, you can avoid the expense of hiring full-time staff, without sacrificing quality. LI Technology Solutions offers predictable, flat-rate pricing so you can effectively manage your IT expenses.
Why should you partner with LI Technology Solutions as your MSP? You’ll gain an IT partner to handle all of your business’s needs, without bringing additional full-time staff on board. LI Technology Solutions is an industry leader among technology solutions for businesses in Long Island, NYC. We stay on top of current trends and technological advances, so you don’t have to worry about getting left behind. Call 516.210.6400 today for a free consultation and technology assessment!
The global pandemic put a big emphasis on the need to run a business from anywhere. Enabling employees to work remotely requires cloud solutions. This includes collaborative platforms like Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) phone systems have also become critical.
VoIP allows companies to stay in contact with customers and potential customers. Employees can work from anywhere and still answer the business phone line. Callers get a similar experience no matter where employees may be working, office, or home.
When you have people working from home, those old landline systems are inefficient. This has led to a large movement by businesses to VoIP. Both for necessity and cost-savings.
According to Microsoft, 82% of organizations have reported saving money after implementing VoIP.
While VoIP is the way to go for the future, this doesn’t mean it’s foolproof. Companies that don’t set up their system efficiently, can experience issues. This includes things like dropped calls, low bandwidth, and features left unused.
If you’ve been struggling to make your cloud phone system more efficient, check out these tips below. They provide setup best practices for VoIP. Use these to positively impact your bottom line.
Microsoft Business Applications vs. Google Workspace: How LI Tech Can Help
You can’t just assume that you can enable a VoIP system, and all will be well. Your network may not be able to handle the extra bandwidth needs without adjustments.
Things you want to look at include jitter and packet loss. Additionally, review router settings to make sure it can handle peak traffic times. Experiencing dropped calls or choppy audio shows a need to address issues. These may include adjusting network hardware and/or increasing your ISP bandwidth.
Quality of Service (QoS) is a router settings area that allows you to say which traffic is most important. If QoS is not in place, it means resource issues. A large cloud backup could kick in and interrupt your calls because it’s taking up bandwidth.
QoS sets up “traffic lanes” that give priority to certain functions. You’ll want to have your VoIP software prioritized to get the bandwidth it needs. This avoids issues with less critical processes hogging up internet resources.
Using QoS keeps your calls smooth. It also improves the reliability of your cloud phone system. It’s also a good idea to use these rules for other important cloud activities.
A cheap headset can ruin the call experience for a potential customer. If someone calls in and can’t hear anything or gets choppy reception, they’ll quickly get frustrated. They will most likely figure that your company doesn’t have its act together.
Your employees may not be able to afford high-quality headsets. They also may not know what type to buy. Head off potential problems by issuing quality headsets for your team to use.
One of the great features of VoIP phone systems is the ability to set up ring groups. You first set up your department groups (accounting, marketing, etc.). Then set the included employee extensions.
Creating a ring group allows you to have a call go to your customer support department as a whole. This is better than one person, who may be busy. That way, the whole group gets the ring, and the first available person can pick up.
Ring groups improve the caller experience by reducing the wait time. It can also mitigate the need for the caller to leave a voicemail and get stuck waiting on a callback.
Auto assistants are extremely helpful and nearly all VoIP systems have them. First, you set up your company directory and then record messages to prompt the caller.
For example, you can set up a message that prompts them to input the last name of the person they are trying to reach. If they aren’t calling a specific person, they can be routed to a department.
While setting up a company directory takes a little effort upfront, it will save much more. You no longer will need to have someone specifically routing every call. Callers can also get to the person or department they need faster. This improves the customer experience and boosts office productivity.
When you get out of a long meeting, going through a bunch of voicemails can take time. Instead of having to listen to each one to see which calls are a priority, you could simply read through them.
The voicemail to email feature in VoIP phone systems will automatically transcribe voicemails. They are then emailed to the recipient. This improves efficiency. It also eliminates wasted time having to listen to entire messages to know who called.
Have employees set up this feature with their extension and email address. Some VoIP systems also offer an option to have transcribed voicemails sent via SMS.
Don’t leave your employees to jump in and learn a VoIP system themselves. It’s important to train them on the features and the company calling process. This ensures that your team can enjoy all those time-saving features.
Need help improving your business phone system? Looking for a better customer experience? Give us a call and schedule a consultation. LI Tech Solutions, a Long Island managed services provider, can help!
This Article has been Republished with Permission from The Technology Press.
The need to back up data has been around since floppy disks. Data loss happens due to viruses, hard drive crashes, and other mishaps. Most people using any type of technology have experienced data loss at least once.
There are about 140,000 hard drive crashes in the US weekly. Every five years, 20% of SMBs suffer data loss due to a major disaster. This has helped to drive a robust cloud backup market that continues to grow.
But one thing that’s changed with data backup in the last few years is security. Simply backing up data so you don’t lose it, isn’t enough anymore. Backing up has morphed into data protection.
What does this mean?
It means that backups need more cybersecurity protection. They face threats such as sleeper ransomware and supply chain attacks. Cloud-based backup has the benefit of being convenient, accessible, and effective. But there is also a need for certain security considerations with an online service.
Companies need to consider data protection when planning a backup and recovery strategy. The tools used need to protect against the growing number of threats.
Some of the modern threats to data backups include:
Just backing up data isn’t enough. You need to make sure the application you use provides adequate data protection. Here are some of the things to look for when reviewing a backup solution.
Ransomware can spread throughout a network to infect any data that exists. This includes data on computers, servers, and mobile devices. It also includes data in cloud platforms syncing with those devices.
95% of ransomware attacks also try to infect data backup systems.
It’s important that any data backup solution you use have protection from ransomware. This type of feature restricts automated file changes that can happen to documents.
Continuous data protection is a feature that will back up files as users make changes. This differs from systems that back up on a schedule, such as once per day.
Continuous data protection ensures that the system captures the latest file changes. This mitigates data loss that can occur if a system crashes before the next backup. With the speed of data generation these days, losing a day’s worth of data can be very costly.
Data protection incorporates proactive measures to protect files. Look for threat identification functions in a backup service. Threat identification is a type of malware and virus prevention tool.
It looks for malware in new and existing backups. This helps stop sleeper ransomware and similar malware from infecting all backups.
Cybersecurity professionals around the world promote zero-trust security measures. This includes measures such as multifactor authentication and application safelisting.
A zero-trust approach holds that all users and applications need ongoing authentication. So, just because a user is logged into the system today, doesn’t mean they are completely trusted.
Some of the zero-trust features to look for include:
If you back up to a USB drive or CD, you have one copy of those files. If something happens to that copy, you could experience data loss.
Cloud backup providers should have backup redundancy in place. This means that the server holding your data mirrors that data to another server. This prevents data loss in the case of a server crash, natural disaster, or cyberattack.
Air gapping is a system that keeps a copy of your data offline or separated in another way. This would entail making a second backup copy of your data. Then, putting it on another server. A server disconnected from external sources.
This is a feature that you may want to seek out if you deal with highly sensitive data. It helps to ensure that you have at least one other copy of your backup. A copy walled off from common internet-based attacks.
Are You Properly Backing Up Your Business Data?
Have you updated your backup process for today’s threats? Give us a call today to schedule a chat about data backup and protection. LI Tech Solutions, a Long Island managed services provider, can help!
This Article has been Republished with Permission from The Technology Press.
Whether you sell shoes or run an accounting firm, you need some type of technology to operate. Today’s companies aren’t just in the business of selling their own goods and services anymore. They also must master various types of digital tools.
These include software, payment systems, computers, Wi-Fi networks, mobile devices, and more. Companies also need to protect their devices and network.. If that technology isn’t working, it can impact a business significantly.
98% of surveyed organizations say that just one hour of IT downtime costs more than $100,000. The reliance on technology means that every company is now a technology company.
This is the case no matter what products you sell or services you provide. Let’s discuss exactly why this is the case in today’s world.
Even farmers use tech to check commodity prices, sell livestock, and keep their books. Most companies couldn’t operate without their software. Or without databases filled with important information.
IT downtime is so devastating for this very reason. Remember the breaches impacting global meat producer JBS and Colonial pipeline? Those companies had to halt operations because of ransomware attacks.
They both paid the ransom to their attackers so they could begin operating again. Without the technology that’s become a normal part of our day, a lot of companies would close.
Customer experience came in first in a survey of top business priorities for the next 5 years. Nearly 46% of respondents said it was at the top of their list.
If a customer has just one bad experience with your company, they will likely go elsewhere. In a digital world, those experiences are often:
To keep up with consumer expectations in 2023 and beyond, means you need to use technology. From your website to your payment experience, people expect a smooth digital flow.
How do employees work productivity without the use of a computer, tablet, or mobile device? These devices keep staff connected to each other and your customer data. Devices enable communication and are how much of the work in offices gets done. If they don’t run well, business productivity suffers.
AI and automation help organizations move faster. AI can personalize a consumer shopping experience. Automation can help sales teams close 30% more deals and improve conversions by over 200%.
To stay competitive, companies must integrate technology tools with AI and automation capabilities. This means they need to know the best ways to use these tools. Plus, integrate them well with existing solutions.
Companies generate information digitally at a dizzying pace. Can you imagine what it would be like if you had to go back to all the paper files? You’d need a separate building just for all the filing cabinets.
Files, documents, and customer records are largely digital now. Keeping track of all that information and making it searchable requires technology skills.
Think of the vendors you use to run your business. Could you interact with any of them offline only? No email, no digital documents? In most cases, the answer is, “No.”
The companies that you rely on for your business are also “technology companies” in the same way. Most will be leaving behind legacy systems like fax machines and paper documents. Thus, you need to use digital means to interact with them.
People are limited by what they can mentally and physically do in a day. Computers and technology have exponentially increased that. They do a lot of the processing and manual work.
The cloud is often touted as leveling the playing field for small businesses. It allows smaller companies to leverage technology to do more affordably.
It’s hard to continue growing your business without the smart use of digital tools. This includes reviewing your technology infrastructure and looking at innovations on the horizon.
Business continuity is about keeping your company running despite any crisis events. One natural disaster could severely impact a building and everything in it. But, if you are storing your data in the cloud and using cloud software, your business can still operate.
Companies that aren’t employing backup systems are at significant risk. Tech solutions create the ability to continue operating from anywhere, increasing business resiliency.
Using technology securely and to its fullest can be a full-time job. Give us a call today. LI Tech Solutions can help take that burden off your shoulders.
This Article has been Republished with Permission from The Technology Press.
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Also, regular content audits and competitor analysis are equally effective in building and optimising your content strategy. In turn, this means that regardless of your type of business, the opportunities to find new clients online are limitless. NLP can help you better handle customer queries by using bots to collect data about their website visitors and better reach them. They can help you identify customers ready to complete a purchase and pass those “hot leads” over to your sales team.
A large amount of content on different social networks can be treated with NLP to classify what is important and streamline processes. Launched in February 2022, Google’s predictive search feature People Search Next aims to anticipate future queries users will type into the search bar. Here instead of going one by one, it goes as a whole and produces more accurate results.
NLP is widely used in healthcare as a tool for making predictions of possible diseases. NLP algorithms can provide doctors with information concerning progressing illnesses such as depression or schizophrenia by interpreting speech patterns. Medical records are a tremendous source of information, and practitioners use NLP to detect diseases, improve the understanding of patients, facilitate care delivery, and cut costs. Google utilises this technology to provide you with the best possible results. With the introduction of BERT in 2019, Google has considerably improved intent detection and context. This is especially useful for voice search, as the queries entered that way are usually far more conversational and natural.
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Before choosing a pre-trained model, it is important to understand the task at hand and the type of data involved. Different NLP tasks require different types of pre-trained models. For example, a pre-trained model for sentiment analysis may not be suitable for text generation.
Through this, one can enhance the existing models by simple integration of NLP Project Ideas. From a computer science viewpoint, NLP is a technique to enhance language processing and analysis tasks. The main of NLP is to provide accurate solutions for text translation and uncertainty problems. Further, it also includes several research areas that have widespread research problems best nlp algorithms and challenges. Deep Learning has evolved as the leading artificial intelligence paradigm over the past decade providing us with the ability to learn complex functions from raw data at unprecedented accuracy and scale. Deep Learning has been applied to problems in object recognition, speech recognition, speech synthesis, forecasting, scientific computing, control, and many more.
In order to understand how Google’s algorithm has been evolving over time, one must always consider user experience. To the Mountain View firm, the aim is always to ensure the satisfaction of those Internet users who rely on its search engine by offering them results that are as relevant as possible. This implies that they are continuously improving the quality of the pages highlighted in the SERP. Companies can also use natural language processing to help filter out resumes when recruiting talent.
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Whereas NLP is mainly concerned with converting unstructured language input into structured data, NLU is concerned with interpreting and understanding language. The grammar and context are also taken into account so that the speaker’s intention becomes clear. NLU uses AI algorithms (artificial intelligence algorithms) for the purpose best nlp algorithms of natural language processing in AI. These algorithms can perform statistical analyses and then recognise similarities in the text that has not yet been analysed. These bots are able to quickly and efficiently solve many customer issues because the algorithms are able to understand human language and respond appropriately.
NLP also helps you analyse the behaviour and habits of your potential customers according to their search queries. This enables you to scale more easily and tailor your messaging accordingly. It is important to understand why it is a right to explain automated decision-making.
Before choosing a pre-trained model, it is important to understand the task at hand and the type of data involved. Different NLP tasks require different types of pre-trained models. For example, a pre-trained model for sentiment analysis may not be suitable for text generation.
The holiday shopping season is taking off. This means that scammers have also revved up their engines. They’re primed and ready to take advantage of all those online transactions.
Don’t forget to stay safe online during the buying frenzy that occurs this time of year. An ounce of cybersecurity prevention is definitely worth a pound of cure. It can also save you from a financial or privacy nightmare.
Here are some of the most critical safety tips to improve your online holiday shopping.
Computers, tablets, and smartphones that have old software are vulnerable. While you may not want to wait through a 10-minute iPhone update, it’s going to keep you more secure.
Hackers often use vulnerabilities found in device operating systems. Updates install patches for known vulnerabilities, reducing your risk. Make sure to install all updates before you use your device for online holiday shopping.
Yes, it’s annoying to have to type in “amazon.com” rather than just clicking a link in an email. But phishing scams are at an all-time high this time of year. If you click on an email link to a malicious site, it can start an auto download of malware.
It’s best to avoid clicking links, instead visit the website directly. If you want to make things easier, save sites as shopping bookmarks in your browser. This is safer than clicking a text or email link.
It’s always a risk when you give your debit or credit card to a website. The risk is even higher if you’re doing holiday shopping on a site you haven’t purchased from before.
Where possible, buy using a wallet app or PayPal. This eliminates the need to give your payment card details directly to the merchant. Instead, you share them with the wallet app service (Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, etc.). But the retailer doesn’t get them.
There are many websites (including Amazon) that automatically save your payment card details. This is bad. Yes, it may make the next buy more convenient, but it puts you at risk. A hacker with access to your device or account could make purchases.
There is also the risk of a data breach of the retailer. These are common and can leak sensitive customer payment information. The fewer databases you allow to store your payment details, the better for your security.
Immediately after you check out, remove your payment card from the site. You will usually need to go to your account settings to do this.
HTTPS has largely become the standard for websites now. This is instead of “HTTP” without the “S” on the end. HTTPS means that a website encrypts the data transmitted through the site. Such as your name, address, and payment information.
You should NEVER shop on a website that doesn’t use HTTPS in the address bar. An extra indicator is a small lock icon in front of the website address.
We all make typos from time to time. Especially when typing on a small smartphone screen. One typo can land you on a copycat site (such as Amazonn(dot)com).
Hackers buy domains that are close to the real ones for popular retailers. Then, they put up copycat sites designed to fool users that make a mistake when typing the URL.
Take those extra few seconds to double-check that you’ve landed on the correct website. Do this before you start shopping.
When you connect your device to public Wi-Fi, you might as well expect a stranger to be stalking you. Hackers LOVE the holiday shopping season and will hang out in popular public Wi-Fi spots.
They spy on the activities of other devices connected to that same free hotspot. This can give them access to everything you type in. Such as passwords and credit card information.
Never shop online when you’re connected to a public Wi-Fi network. Instead, switch off Wi-Fi and move to your mobile carrier’s connection.
Phishing scammers were very active during the holiday shopping season of 2021. There was a 397% increase in typo-squatting domains connected to phishing attacks.
While you need to be careful all the time about phishing, it’s even worse during the holiday season. Attackers know that people are expecting retailer holiday sales emails. They also get a flurry of order confirmations and shipping notices this time of year.
Hackers use these emails as templates. They impersonate brands like Target, UPS, Amazon, and others. Their emails look nearly identical to the real thing. They trick you to get you to click and/or log in to a malicious website.
Be on high alert for brand impersonation emails. This is another reason why it’s always better to go to a site directly, rather than by using an email link.
Check your bank account regularly. Look for any suspicious charges that could signal a breach. One way to automate a monitoring process is to set up banking alerts through your online banking app.
For example, many banks allow you to set up alerts for events such as:
Mobile malware is often deployed in holiday shopping scams. How secure is your device from malicious apps and malware? Contact us today for a security checkup.
This Article has been Republished with Permission from The Technology Press.