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HACKED! Small Businesses are susceptible to cybercriminals

It’s a chilling moment when a small-business owner discovers hackers have stolen thousands of dollars from the company checking account.

Cybercriminals took an average $32,000 from small-business accounts, according to a December survey of owners by the advocacy group National Small Business Association. And businesses don’t have the same legal protection from bank account fraud consumers have.

The Electronic Funds Transfer Act, passed in 1978, states that it’s intended to protect individual consumers from bank account theft, but makes no mention of businesses. Whether a business is protected depends on the agreement it signs with a bank, said Doug Johnson, a senior vice president with the American Bankers Association, an industry group. If the business hasn’t complied with any security measures required by the agreement, it could be liable for the stolen money, he said.

Any business is vulnerable, but small companies are less likely to have security departments and procedures to guard against online theft than big corporations do. They also don’t have big revenue streams that are better able to absorb losses from a theft. And even if they get the money back, they still have to spend time and money dealing with the hassles of closing accounts and opening new ones.

Sandy Marsico’s company accounts were attacked — twice. Her bank contacted her in December 2014, saying a transfer of over $50,000 to Mexico had been requested from her checking account.

The thieves had obtained the account information; Marsico, owner of Sandstorm Design, a Chicago-based marketing company, still doesn’t know how. The bank did an investigation but didn’t share its findings with her.

Marsico didn’t approve the transfer, the account was closed and a new one opened. But the following November, someone began withdrawing money from the new account in increments ranging from $1,000 to $4,000, a total of $20,000 in the course of a month. Marsico didn’t discover it until she got her monthly statement.

“My stomach dropped when I wasn’t able to identify these as our charges,” Marsico said.

The bank, which again did an investigation but didn’t tell Marsico the results, again reimbursed Sandstorm. Marsico has since moved some of her accounts to another bank.

Thieves are increasingly using realistic-looking emails to trick companies into transferring money from their accounts with what’s known as wire transfers, said Avivah Litan, a security analyst with the research company Gartner. Often, an employee receives an email purportedly from a company executive asking them to transfer the money from the company’s account into a specific external account. If employees don’t check to be sure the request is legitimate, they might go ahead and authorize a withdrawal.

The first attack on Marsico’s account was a wire transfer attempt but didn’t use an email to her company.

The FBI reported in August that more than 7,000 U.S. companies had been victimized in emailed attacks since late 2013, with losses of more than $740 million. The government said the number of identified victims had surged 270 percent between January and August of last year. Most of the thieves are believed to be in organized crime groups in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Source: Joyce M. Rosenberg, The Associated Press

How Can Axiom Cyber Solutions Help?

Axiom Cyber Solutions is offering a Managed Firewall, Cyber-Security Protection for Small Business starting as low as $199 per month. We realize that most small businesses do not have a dedicated IT team and business owners may be handling their cyber security matters on their own. Let us take over and provide you with peace of mind. Axiom will provide your business a firewall and manage it so you don’t have to worry about securing your business. We will assess the security risks for your business and will help implement the right cyber security service for your business. And don’t worry, there are no upfront costs for the device and you can cancel at anytime.

Axiom’s solutions come in different sizes and all our solutions are designed to deal with the attack vectors of today while being adaptive and flexible enough to continue to secure your network for years to come. For more information, check out our website at axiomcyber.com or give us a call today for your free consultation.(800) 519-5070. #FightBackWithAxiom

Think You’re Immune to Cyber Crime Because You’re Small? Think Again!

Think You’re Immune to Cyber Crime Because You’re Small? Think Again!

Do you believe your healthcare practice isn’t appealing to a cyber criminal because of your small size, lack of revenue, or maybe because you’re just a drop in the vast bucket of healthcare practices?

You are dead wrong. You are actually more appealing to cyber criminals because they know as a smaller practice, you are probably less secure.

A poll by KPMG showed that over 200 healthcare providers were polled and found that four out of five providers had been hacked. 44% of healthcare organizations have been attacked 1-50 times while 38% have been attacked between 50-350 times in the last year. 13% were attacked more than 350 times.

These cyber criminals are going after smaller healthcare practices with full force and the consequences are dire. If a cyber criminal is successful in attacking your network, you will have violated the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA), lose all trust from your patients, or even worse, you could lose a life and your entire practice. You are not immune to these consequences if your healthcare practice is small.

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Out of all the industries that exist, the healthcare industry is probably one of the most complicated to get a handle on their cyber-security. Many healthcare practices have been holding onto old practices, and with the ever-evolving landscape in cyber-security, if you’re not staying up-to-date, you are opening yourself to these attacks. For many, the idea of tackling this is too much. Instead of being so overwhelmed by all the ways a hacker could breach your network, take that time to reach out to the professionals who will help manage your cyber-security.

According to the American Medical News, a five physician practice named Phoenix Cardiac Surgery was fined and penalized after it was found that they had a host of problems amongst their cyber security and were negligent in fixing these problems.

The practice ‘failed to implement adequate policies and procedures to protect patient information; failed to document that it trained employees on HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules; failed to identify a security official within the practice and conduct a risk analysis; and failed to obtain any business associate agreements for its Internet-based email and scheduling services.’

In the end, Phoenix Cardiac Surgery had to pay over $100,000. Leon Rodriguez, director of the Health and Human Services of The Office for Civil Rights stated,

We hope that health care providers pay careful attention to this resolution agreement and understand that the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules have been in place for many years, and OCR expects full compliance no matter the size of a covered entity.

Once a healthcare facility has violated HIPPA privacy laws, HIPPA will continue to audit the practice. That means that they have eagle eyes and are looking for other violations. It does not help anyone to ignore your cyber-security issues.

How can Axiom Cyber Solutions help your healthcare practice?
Axiom Cyber Solutions is offering Managed Cyber-Security Protection for Small Business starting as low as $199 per month. We realize that most small businesses do not have a dedicated IT team and business owners may be handling their cyber security matters on their own.

Let us take over and provide you with peace of mind. Axiom will provide your business a firewall and manage it so you don’t have to worry about securing your business. We will assess the security risks for your business and will help implement the right cyber security service for your business.

Axiom’s solutions come in different sizes and all our solutions are designed to deal with the attack vectors of today while being adaptive and flexible enough to continue to secure your network for years to come. For more information, check out our website at axiomcyber.com or give us a call us at (800) 519-5070. #FightBackWithAxiom

The Benefits of Managed Cyber-Security

The Benefits of Managed Cyber-Security

You’d have to have had your head stuck in the sand for the past year to not notice the amount of cyber-security breaches that are occurring. The cyber-security industry is growing and attacks are at an all-time high.

Quick Statistics:
-Currently, 60% of all targeted attacks struck small and medium sized organizations (Symantec).
-For most of these businesses, it took 170 days to detect a malicious or criminal attack (Ponemon).
-60% of businesses close within six months of experiencing a cyber breach (National Cyber Security Alliance).
So why do so many businesses continue to ignore their cyber-security?

For most, it comes down to their budget. Many employees in small businesses wear several ‘hats’ and are involved with numerous departments at their job. If most small businesses can’t hire an IT staff, it’s safe to say that a cyber-security professional is definitely out of the question. For many of these businesses, they haven’t even thought about an incident response plan for these attacks. These businesses don’t know what they’ll do, who they’ll contact, or how they’ll tell their customers when it happens to them.
Axiom Cyber Solutions wants to help keep you and your business secure. For $199 a month, Axiom will manage your business’ cyber-security. We believe the benefits to managed cyber-security is well worth it, in order to keep your business and clients safe and secure.

Here are 4 major benefits to managed cyber-security.

1. Protecting your business means protecting your data: All businesses should have anti-virus software but in the world of ever evolving cyber threats, it simply is not enough to only have anti-virus software. Each Axiom managed cyber-security package comes with: An Axiom Sentry Firewall managed by Cyber-Security Experts, Automatic Firmware & Security Updates, Threat Detection, Threat Prevention, Real-time Alerting & Monitoring, Denial of Service Protection, Advanced Ransomware Protection, Monthly Reporting and 24/7 Support

2. By spending $199 a month, you have the peace of mind that your network is being monitored with state of the art equipment. With our real time alerting, you will not have to wait 170 days to discover your network has been maliciously attacked. Leave it to our experts to help keep you secure.

3. If your business is protected, your organization’s reputation will not be hurt. One negative story about your business in the news will scare potential clients and your current clients. No one wants to do business with a company who doesn’t care about their clients and by having managed cyber-security, you are protecting your client’s most valuable data.

4. Do you want to have to report to the FTC daily? Save yourself from being hit with fines and audits, otherwise the FTC can fine a company that has not sufficiently protected their data against a breach. The FTC will require a company to undergo 20 years of security audits if they are found negligent. Having firewalls and intrusion detection mechanisms in place to prohibit cyber criminals from gaining access to your network is key to avoiding the potential fallout you’ll have to deal with.

How can we help your small business?
Axiom Cyber Solutions is offering Cyber-Security Protection for Small Business starting as low as $199 per month. We realize that most small businesses do not have a dedicated IT team and business owners may be handling their cyber security matters on their own. Let us take over and provide you with peace of mind. Axiom will provide your business a firewall and manage it so you don’t have to worry about securing your business. We will assess the security risks for your business and will help implement the right cyber security service for your business.
Axiom’s solutions come in different sizes and all our solutions are designed to deal with the attack vectors of today while being adaptive and flexible enough to continue to secure your network for years to come. For more information, check out our website at axiomcyber.com or give us a call us at (800) 519-5070. #FightBackWithAxiom

Hackers are Targeting Small Business

Hackers are Targeting Small Business

“60% of businesses close within six months of a cyber attack.”  (The National Cyber Security Alliance)

What side of that statistic do you think your business would fall on?

Do you believe you’re immune from hackers because you’re nowhere near as well-known as Anthem or eBay? You are dead wrong. Smaller businesses do not have the same cyber security resources as larger businesses and hackers are banking on the fact that you are ignoring your cyber security. As a small business, you are a more attractive target because you are more likely to be less secure. Thanks to automation, cyber criminals are mass producing their attacks with numbers in the thousands with little to no investment.

It’s all over the news and almost impossible to escape from. Every day a new story pops up about a data breach or cyber crime. Corporations worldwide are beefing up their cyber security. It is not only the retail and financial organizations, the Pentagon is also following in their footsteps to protect their data.

Cybercrime has cost the US economy $100bn a year, worldwide that total goes up to $300bn annually, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

In fact, McAfee found that almost 90% of small and medium sized business in the US do not use any data protection for their company and customer information. Less than half secured company emails to prevent phishing scams. Where does that leave the hackers? It leaves them to focus on you.

Despite the growing number of cyber crimes, many small business owners believe that hackers will not waste their time on small business. However, hackers are stealing enormous amounts of cash from small businesses and because these are small businesses, they do not get anywhere near the amount of news coverage like a Target or Sony would get. Most of these cyber crimes occur before the business owner can even realize their security has been compromised. The loss of customer data will change how your customers view you and these security threats are not going away anytime soon.

For small business owners, being proactive is an absolute must. Just like in football, your best defense is good offense. Otherwise, the fallout from a data breach can be astounding. You do not want to wait until your data is being held ransom before you think about cyber security. Otherwise, you will face quite the fallout from a breach.

Not only will you have to pay fines and penalties, you will have to conduct a forensic investigation and a PCI assessment. A small business will lose their reputation and lose the faith of their customers. Punishment will come in many shapes and sizes. You may not be able to continue to take credit card payments once a cyber breach has occurred, many merchants will suspend your account once this has occurred. Your payment processor may impose stricter PCI requirements and compliance which of course means it will cost you more money to continue to do business. Anti-virus and anti-malware can only protect a single computer from an attack. It does not protect your network hardware from attempted breaches. You need a good firewall and transport security in conjunction with updated virus and malware protection.

How can Axiom Cyber Solutions help secure a small business?

Axiom Cyber Solutions is offering Cyber-Security Protection for Small Business starting as low as $199 per month. We realize that most small businesses do not have a dedicated IT team and business owners may be handling their cyber security matters on their own. Let us take over and provide you with peace of mind. Axiom will provide your business a firewall and manage it so you don’t have to worry about securing your business. We will assess the security risks for your business and will help implement the right cyber security service for your business.

Axiom’s solutions come in different sizes and all our solutions are designed to deal with the attack vectors of today while being adaptive and flexible enough to continue to secure your network for years to come. For more information, give us a call us at (800) 519-5070. #FightBackWithAxiom

Why SMBs Should Pay More Attention to Their Cyber Security

Many small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) assume that they are immune to cyber attacks and cyber crimes because they are not necessarily high profile targets. In recent headlines, big corporations such as Target, Sony, and JPMorgan Chase are experiencing very serious data breaches and losing large amounts of money due to cyber crimes and data breaches.

Although you often see these big corporations plastered in the news when they experience cyber attacks, smaller organizations do not attract as much attention in the media. That, however, does not mean that they are not victimized. In fact, 60% of all targeted attacks struck small and medium-sized businesses, according to Symantec’s 2015 Internet Security Threat Report.

According to the National Cyber Security Alliance, one in five small businesses experience a cybercrime each year and 60% of those small businesses go out of business within 6 months after a cyber attack.

Experts agree that smaller businesses are much more vulnerable and attractive to cyber criminals because they are often less secure. Also, thanks to automation, these cyber criminals have the ability to mass produce attacks.

Greg Shannon, chief scientist at the CERT Division of the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon, states that size is “somewhat of a red herring. It’s more about scale.” But, he adds that, “small business is a huge target because attacks are automated. The criminals don’t care who they’re attacking, and while any given business isn’t worth much, they have viruses or ransomware that allow them to attack thousands or millions.”

These automated attacks are especially damaging for SMBs because many of these small business owners don’t believe they will be hacked when up against the thousands of other businesses out there. Today, hackers aren’t wasting their time to pick and choose what businesses they want to attack, it’s all taken care of with automation.

One of the most common issues that affect the quality of security in SMBs is budgetary constraints. Since many of these businesses do not have a dedicated IT team, business owners are handling their own cybersecurity matters. They may be struggling to keep their businesses profitable and do not see an immediate need to expend resources on cyber-security, especially if they do not rely on online applications. This ideology has to change as the volume and scale of cyber attacks grow exponentially.

We at Axiom Cyber Solutions understand these concerns and want to encourage businesses of all sizes, but especially smaller organizations, that the need for proper cyber security should be on the forefront of your strategic vision.#FightBackWithAxiom