For the 120,000 communications and creative agencies in the U.S., the threat of cybercrime isn’t new. As early as 2009, the FBI publicly warned that hackers were targeting PR agencies.  Yet few agencies have proactively addressed the threats.

Over the past decade, many of these same agencies have worked diligently to help their clients establish crisis communications plans, engage in rapid response, and mitigate brand reputation damage, both proactively and more commonly, in reaction to cyberattacks. Ironically, the upsurge of “cybersecurity” work for agencies hasn’t translated into the prioritization of digital security for their own brands – leaving them more vulnerable than ever to cyberattacks.

While attacks on agencies haven’t frequented the news cycle (yet), there are recent attack examples that suggest the industry is a priority for attackers. Just last year, Omnicom Media Group had to take down IT servers because of a massive cyberattack. The media giant was lucky and didn’t suffer any data loss, but the fact that an attack got through in the first place is a bad sign for a company of such size with so many resources.

Additionally, many attackers now regularly seek out access to social media brand channels, many of which are run by marketing, digital or social agencies, and hide cyberattacks directly within posts. The origination of such an attack is often untraceable. And finally, earlier this year an international hacker group stole a bunch of press releases, which eventually netted them $100 million in illegal earnings.

Why are agencies attractive to hackers?

While you’re likely familiar with recent large-scale cyberattacks targeting enterprises, government agencies, and politicians made famous by the news, you may be less aware of the millions of cyberattacks that now target small and medium-sized businesses on an hourly basis. As those larger public and private institutions continue to spend millions on technology and people to harden their cyber defenses, attackers have shifted their targets toward companies with lucrative data and assets that don’t have the resources to implement such defense-in-depth. Hence the risk to the majority of communications and creative agencies is rising faster than the industry can accommodate.

 

Four primary reasons why agencies are an attractive target for cyberattacks:

1. Agencies retain sensitive customer data, marketing strategies, market and competitive research, and more – often for multiple clients. That means agencies hold a treasure trove of data.
2. Agencies are often known for their flexible, bring-your-own-device environments and remote worker policies. But this flexibility, coupled with the fast pace of agency life, means employees are more likely to inadvertently connect to a compromised network or miss critical device updates and protections that leave them vulnerable to attack.
3. Turnover has long plagued agencies, and with turnover comes an often-overlooked threat – data theft.
4. Agencies are often early adopters of technology, many of which are reliant on cloud services (Box, Dropbox, Office365, Slack, G-Suite, etc.) for business operations, productivity, and efficiency. Because of limited IT resources, these agencies often don’t realize that these cloud apps are highly vulnerable to cyberattacks, even with the security protections inherent to each service.

What’s at stake for agencies?

Knowing the risks, clients are increasingly demanding that agencies obtain cyber insurance and commit to cybersecurity. Cybersecurity has become a cost to doing – or at least to growing – business. Unfortunately, like many small and mid-sized businesses, most agencies don’t know the reality of their security risks, nor do they know who to trust and where to begin with creating, implementing, and executing a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy.

Such an excuse – no matter how much truth there may be to it – is no longer acceptable. Today, clients of all sizes trust agencies with their sensitive data. A single breach can tarnish client relationships, result in lost business, interrupt business continuity, facilitate lawsuits, and force agencies to close their doors for good.

In fact, 60 percent of hacked small and medium-sized businesses go out of business after six months, according to the National Cyber Security Alliance. For any agency to sustain, grow and gain top-tier clients, it can no longer afford to ignore cybersecurity.

Data breach protection for agencies that use the cloud

Coro protects agencies using the most popular cloud applications like G-Suite, Office 365, Slack, Dropbox, and Box from data loss, unauthorized users, and malware spread with no cumbersome installations or restrictions on where employees can work. In addition, Coro prevents remote workers from joining rogue Wi-Fi networks while also blocking suspicious activity associated with BYOD policies – all without interrupting the user or the company.

Our platform uses AI to continuously get smarter at detecting and mitigating threats, providing security for users, devices, and SaaS applications all in one platform. It’s security for agencies, done!

Want to learn more about what makes our award-winning platform so unique?

Why provide monthly security reports? 

MSPs today manage much more than just traditional office and storage software for their clients. They’re responsible for managing their clients’ SAAS platforms. And, as most companies moved to a cloud-based working environment, MSPs must ensure their clients’ cybersecurity too. Whether cloud apps, DLP, email, or even endpoints, everything is the MSP’s duty to keep safe. 

But most SMB clients don’t know that cybersecurity for cloud-based platforms is not as ‘built-in.’ Often, SMBs who outsource their IT needs to an MSP think that they are safe. So they don’t take action or build a cybersecurity strategy. They assume that their MSP already took care of all cybersecurity matters on their behalf. In fact, 74% of them said that they will sue their MSP in case of a breach. 

MSPs are facing a new challenge. On one hand, more companies are beginning to understand the value of cybersecurity. But on the other hand, they are not always willing to pay the additional costs associated with reliable security platforms.  

Even if the cost and effort is minimal, it is still difficult to get the customers on board.  

A simple way to avoid this situation is to provide SMBs with a monthly security review. Here are three more reasons to provide monthly cybersecurity reports. 

Reason #1 

A monthly security report shows the true value of the MSP’s services. When MSPs “handle” things, it’s easy to forget that a lot goes on below the surface. The client is only looking at what’s above the surface. They’re completely unaware of the threats, and risk of possible attacks that the MSP successfully prevented.  

Think of a monthly report as a look-how-we-kept-you-safe-this-month report. That is how you show clients the reason they are not in trouble. The reason they can keep their business routine. And the reason they can sleep at night. 

Reason #2 

Sending a monthly report is a way to ensure regulatory compliance. What if that one-in-a-million hack targets your client? A monthly report is a way to show that you have alerted and kept guard of possible threats. It’s also a very good legal defense if a security lawsuit is coming your way. 

Reason #3 

A monthly security report is the best way to keep cybersecurity on your client’s mind. SMBs are usually busy with pushing their revenue and margins, they might think of cybersecurity as an additional cost and not a necessity. That monthly reminder of the cyber dangers is the best way to make sure security stays on their mind and on their planned budget. 

In short, a monthly report is the best way to articulate your ongoing value to the client, to protect yourself legally and to make sure cyber security is still your clients’ priority. 

Coro makes producing such a monthly report effortless. In fact, you don’t even have to do anything to get it. All data comes automatically from the accounts connected to the platform.  

Now all you have to do is engage with your client. Build a personal relationship and make them feel you got their back. Also, with everything done for you, and with your clients’ trust in you, it will be much easier for you to increase your scope of services based on the risks the report details. 

Want to learn more about what makes our award-winning platform so unique?

Mid-market companies are falling victim to cyberattacks at an alarming rate. As such, we must learn to better identify and respond to threats. 

   

Spotting the warning signs of a cyberattack  

Did you know that half of the mid-market company owners victimized by a cyberattack don’t even know about it? There can be some red flags for mid-market company stakeholders to look out for. Signs of a malware infection could include: 

• Slow computer performance 
• Programs opening or closing automatically 
• Pop-ups 
• A lack of storage space 
• Frozen windows 
• Blue screens 

In phishing campaigns, attackers masquerade as trusted parties and lure mid-market company employees or owners into opening documents, filling out forms, or making payments. 

According to the Cyber Security Awareness Alliance, common signs of a phishing attempt could include: 

• Abnormal request for confidential information 
• Mismatched or misleading information 
• Use of urgent or threatening language 
• Promises of attractive rewards 
• Suspicious attachments 

Many of today’s spearphishing attempts are so clever that even trained IT professionals can have difficulty distinguishing them. Often, a hacker may use a superior’s email account and ask a subordinate to pay an invoice, submit a document, follow a link, or open an account. 

Mid-market companies can find several online resources, such as this quiz by Jigsaw and Google, to help their employees learn how to identify phishing attempts better. 

What to do if your company is under cyberattack 

Whether it’s suspicious activity or an attack that has already happened, responding quickly is key to reducing the damage and regaining continuity. Follow these steps to prevent an attack from growing worse. 

• Isolate the Problem – Isolating the problem can reduce the attack’s ability to spread throughout the network and infect other systems. If you suspect a computer is infected with malware, immediately disconnect it from the network. If you suspect an employee’s credentials are at risk, immediately suspend access and force a password change. 
• Communicate the Problem – Next, let everyone in the organization know of the suspected attack. If one employee was hit with a phishing scam, others were likely targeted. Spreading the word quickly can reduce the ability of the attack to spread. Also, consider reporting it to authorities. While they probably can’t do anything to help recoup your losses, they can learn more about the threat and notify the cybercommunity to reduce the risk that may cause others to fall victim. 
• Investigate and Learn – Conduct a thorough investigation to determine how the attack happened. Make sure you put policies and protections in place to remove vulnerabilities. Post-attack actions may include installing new systems, implementing new policies, or even additional training for employees. 
• Restore – After purging the problem, perform a safe restore from backups of the impacted computers and files. This should underline why it’s critical to ensure you’re running verified backups daily. Losing a few hours or days’ worth of work and changes is better than losing weeks or months. 

Coro protects mid-market companies from cyberattacks  

We at Coro are dedicated to bringing affordable, enterprise-grade cybersecurity to mid-market companies. They are America’s economic backbone, yet for too long they’ve struggled with expensive, time-consuming solutions. Our protection frees them from worrying, investigating, or remediating themselves, allowing them to focus on their business.  

Want to learn more about what our data breach protection platform can do for you?

As we discussed previously, cyberattacks against small businesses are on the rise. Mid-market companies are falling victim to data theft, phishing, malware, and ransomware attacks at an alarming rate. Luckily, there are ways for these companies to improve their cybersecurity.

Below are the questions that mid-market companies need to ask when evaluating vendors:

• What is the true Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)? Using a TCO approach helps you identify the total cost of a vendor’s solution and flag vulnerabilities or shortcomings in the process. While the TCO for cloud-based solutions is typically lower than traditional systems, there can be several hidden costs. One consideration is how many full-time employees (FTEs) you need to operate the platform effectively. While some automated solutions can run with little input after setup, others may require burdensome training, interaction, and oversight.
• How many FTEs will I need to operate the solution effectively? The SANS Institute surveyed mid-market companies with a median employee count of 80 and found that half had only one dedicated cybersecurity employee, less than what they consider “ideal.” In reality, security for small businesses should not require any full-time resources. Instead, the technology, once implemented, should support a ‘set it and forget it’ methodology.
• Against which threats am I going to be protected? Small businesses must identify what types of protection the solution provides and whether or not it offers automatic responses. Will it protect the organization from phishing, malware, ransomware, commjacking, data leakage, and other attacks? If the product is a point solution that does not cover most threats – skip it. You don’t have time, staff, and money to create a complex web of security products.
• What kind of training will my team need? Small businesses don’t have time to train their staff regularly or on technology that is foreign to their work responsibilities. So, if the vendor publishes elaborate training programs you need to send your people to, the product is probably too complex for your business.

Security-as-a-Service for mid-market companies

Coro’s all-in-one data breach protection service provides small and mid-sized businesses with a simple, affordable, and instant-on solution offering real-time protection against cyber risks. With Coro, small and mid-sized companies can accomplish the following:

• 24/7 monitoring of their business for cyber security threats
• Automatically block suspicious and abnormal user behavior
• Identify and prevent sensitive data leakage (such as PII, PHI, and PCI)
• Prevent malware and ransomware spread in cloud applications and email
• Ensure that employee and company devices are secure and connected to safe networks

Want to learn more about our data breach protection platform and how it helps your small business?

Cyberattacks against small businesses are on the rise. Mid-market companies are falling victim to data theft, phishing, malware, and ransomware attacks at an alarming rate.

According to a special report by Cisco, 53% of mid-market companies have experienced a data breach, with more than half of those attacks resulting in more than $500,000 worth of damages. That’s enough to put many mid-market companies out of business within a year. Additionally, only 33% of small businesses believe they could remain profitable for more than three months if they lost access to their essential data.

Mid-market companies’ primary constraints to cybersecurity are time, money, and resources. Many recognize the need to invest in cybersecurity as threats and attacks continue to garner more mainstream awareness. The problem for them now is knowing where to begin.

Comprehensive cybersecurity can be expensive and complex. So mid-market companies   often rely on firewalls, antivirus, and other point solutions. Unfortunately, these solutions don’t offer the level of protection that these companies need. Additionally, business leaders aren’t cybersecurity experts. They often have to make a tough choice between multiple vendors claiming to offer small business-specific solutions.

The truth is that most cybersecurity companies don’t have products or services built to address the needs of small and mid-sized businesses. But that doesn’t stop them from trying to take your money. Business ethics be damned.

Enterprise security solutions create a false sense of security for small business

Let’s not beat around the bush: enterprise security vendors lull mid-market companies into a false sense of security. Unethical companies insist that their solutions are more comprehensive than they are. What a vendor might claim as complete protection is commonly no more than a byproduct. While these solutions are critical components of any defense-in-depth strategy, they often don’t cover the full security spectrum. Nor do they address the most urgent vulnerabilities and needs of mid-market companies.

Additionally, enterprise security vendors are often quick to make claims of ease of use and affordability. The reality, however, is that many such solutions are expensive and require the integration of multiple software products. Others may even call for new hardware and a dedicated expert team to operate them. These complexities and additional resource requirements only increase the costs. And that’s a big problem considering the results of a BAE Systems Applied Intelligence survey which found that half of IT professionals say budget is a bottleneck to developing and implementing comprehensive security plans.

The hard truth is that most vendors claim to service small businesses, design their solutions to meet the lucrative needs of large multinational corporations, and then haphazardly try and scale down that technology for small businesses to supplement revenue.

What can small businesses do to evaluate cybersecurity vendors?

Small businesses must challenge cybersecurity vendors to learn if their solutions offer the right mix of processes, people, and technology to deter attacks. If the vendor does not explicitly say they support mid-market companies, don’t even bother. You are not on their radar; they don’t design or optimize a product to work for your company.

Keep your eyes peeled for the second part of this series! In part two we’ll look at the questions you should be asking to make sure nobody is taking advantage of you.

The professional services sector is a particularly tempting target for cybercriminals. Accounting, legal, financial, IT, and insurance firms possess large databases of confidential and sensitive information that can fetch top dollar on the black market. Sensitive data may include:

• Client banking information
• Healthcare records
• Trade secrets
• Intellectual property
• Highly classified documents

This information is highly valuable to criminals who want to sell data on the dark web or even back to the firm they stole it from for a ransom. Corporate espionage is another cause of data breaches. Many of these attacks are particularly subtle, with many companies detecting data breaches only years later.

Cyberattacks pose the greatest threat to professional services firms  

Last year, the professional services sector saw 7,463 reported security incidents – the highest of any industry.

These companies that are targeted by phishing attempts and malware have a lot to lose. The average cost of a data breach is more than $7 million, but that doesn’t factor in the reputational damage. Client confidentiality is a cornerstone of professional service sector work — so much so that firms that are deemed “cyber-vulnerable” can suffer consequences of a class action suit without a data breach actually occurring.

Compared to large organizations, hackers view smaller professional services firms as “soft targets” without the strong perimeter defense or internal resources committed.

Sensitive data handling vulnerabilities

Firms must take a closer look at all potential areas of vulnerability:

• Malware – viruses and software that install on the firm’s computers, sometimes in ways that are undetectable by antivirus software.
• Crimeware – a type of malware that steals identities through social engineering or technical stealth.
• Hacking – a system data breach, usually through the firm’s web apps or browser plugins.
• Ransomware – encrypting a firm’s data to make it inaccessible until hackers receive payment.
• Physical loss – stolen laptops or devices used to commit crimes or sold to criminal enterprises.
• Social engineering – when experienced cybercriminals convince employees to inadvertently share valuable information.

Is your professional services firm secure?

The firmest security controls cover all bases:

• Preventative controls – patch and configuration management; vulnerability audits; authentication; access control; data encryption; antivirus blocking; sensitive data handling policy.
• Detection controls – managed security service providers; intrusion detection systems; network alerts.
• Corrective controls – incident response; forensics; virus quarantine; system isolation; disaster recovery; business continuity plans; administrative response; legal actions.

No company is too big or too small to suffer an attack. Even with all the right security measures in place, data breaches can still occur. Responding promptly to mitigate the damage makes all the difference.

Tips on strengthening sensitive data handling policy

Consider these ways of bolstering your defenses:

• Perform an in-depth risk assessment to identify potential vulnerabilities.
• Develop a security program, including an incident response plan and mock response drills.
• Conduct security awareness training and re-evaluate employee clearance.
• Classify, identify, and segregate different types of data.
• Test all backups, archives, and antivirus solutions to ensure they are secure.
• Work with an advisory group like Coronet with the knowledge and experience to help you stay current.

While it may not be possible to prevent every type of attack, you can prevent costly breaches. Learn more by contacting Coronet to learn how we keep cloud data safe.

Since the start of 2020, a cyber-warfare storm has been brewing. Hundreds of thousands of mid-sized businesses lie in its path. Cyberthreats are common occurrences. In fact, they’re so common that every company falls into one of two categories:

1. Companies that have already suffered a security breach.
2. Companies that are about to suffer a security breach.

How do we know?

We’ve studied the data.

Over the course of 2020 and 2021, Coro undertook a research effort focused exclusively on mid-market businesses. We analyzed cyberthreat data from over 4,000 companies that employ between 100 and 1,500 people and operate in six industries:

• Retail
• Manufacturing
• Professional
• Services
• Healthcare
• Transportation
• Education

Our findings should serve as a wake-up call to the mid-market and the cybersecurity industry that is currently undeserving it. In the past two years, cyberthreats against mid-sized companies have increased by 150%. Additionally, attacks against specific sectors range from doubling to nearly tripling over those two years.

At the same time, mid-market companies’ defenses against these growing attacks haven’t grown.

The combined growth in attacks and stagnation of security solutions offer a grim prognosis for mid-market cyber security preparedness in 2022 and beyond.

That said, there is still hope. With a proper shift in the cybersecurity paradigm, growing companies can find protection against cyberthreats.

Seven unavoidable truths from our research

1. Growing companies are getting barraged by cyber-attacks as frequently as large enterprises. 

2. No industry is escaping cyber-criminals’ new attention toward mid-market businesses. Every sector has seen tremendous increases in attack volume, putting companies in all industries at risk. 

3. While numerous factors contribute to the increasing volume of attacks, one of the more critical shifts we’ve seen is the expansion of attack vectors. Phishing and malware attacks now have many more “flavors” than before the pandemic. This opens new avenues for bad actors to infiltrate corporate networks. 

4. Not only has the number of attacks against any given mid-sized company increased dramatically over the past two years, but the sophistication of the attacks has also risen significantly. 

5. Automation of attacks against midmarket companies has increased significantly during the COVID era. 

6. Most businesses in our study lack protections against this expanding and increasingly sophisticated array of attack vectors. And for the few companies that have deployed security solutions targeting specific attack vectors, most of these deployments are misconfigured, rendering the intended protection ineffective. 

7. The escalation in attacks against mid-market companies combined with the increasing sophistication seen over the past two years points to dire predictions for 2022 and beyond. 

A New Paradigm for Mid-Market Security

Even if there were enough point solutions on the market today to cover the ever-broadening array of cyberthreat vectors being introduced into the cybercrime market, the IT and security resources needed to research, purchase, deploy, configure, and support the collection of disparate technologies would blow holes in the typical growing company’s IT and security budgets. 

This is where Coro comes in

Coro is the fastest-growing mid-market cybersecurity company. 

We provide all-in-one protection that defends against malware, ransomware, phishing, and bots.  

We secure across devices, users, and cloud applications.  

Over 5,000 businesses depend on Coro for cybersecurity protection.  

Thanks to our unrivaled simplicity and unmatched affordability, that number is growing.  

Coro’s platform is built on the principle of non-disruptive security.  

It employs innovative AI technology to identify and remediate the many security threats. Thanks to our AI, IT teams don’t have to worry, investigate, or fix issues themselves. 

If you run the IT department of a small to medium-sized bank or credit union, you’re used to having a lot on your plate. Let’s face it: you may be the IT Department. Without the budget and massive staff of one of the Big Four banks, your to-do list is huge. Do you have time for cybersecurity?

Cybersecurity in financial services Is crucial, from stopping hacking to meeting compliance needs, but you don’t have the time or budget to think about it much. Coro has surveyed scores of financial institutions just like yours. After the survey, we found that companies like yours often overpay for cybersecurity that underdelivers.

Often, your cybersecurity package is too big or you patch together a solution from multiple small vendors.

The problem comes from within

Cybersecurity threats come in many forms. The average business is cyber-attacked every twelve seconds (!),but your number one threat comes from inside the house. Most security breaches are a result of employees not following security best practices. These aren’t criminals working from the inside — they are your honest, friendly co-workers, doing their jobs as productively and smoothly as they can, but they’re not locking the front door. As a result, familiarizing your employees with and enforcing these policies can make a huge difference. At Coro we believe that security shouldn’t come at a great cost, so here are some free but effective things you can do today.  

7 things you can do for free to strengthen cybersecurity: 

Always use a private Wi-Fi network (with a complex password!)
Never use personal emails on company devices.
Don’t allow use of unauthorized third-party apps
Use 2-factor authentication. 2FA asks you to confirm your identity after entering a password. This means that even if someone steals your password, they still can’t log in to your account.
Enforce a policy of using passwords with upper- and lower-case letters, a number and special characters. SOm3tHinG.LikE_Thi5!
Forbid non-employees from using work-issued devices
Sign up for free monitoring from Coro Cybersecurity

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Bad actors are like water: they will look for entry via the path of least resistance. Bots can try almost endless variations of passwords at once. Since they only need one success to compromise your whole workforce, they’re going to try the common passwords first. In fact, these are the 10 most common passwords in use today: 

1. 123456 

2. 123456789 

3. qwerty 

4. password 

5. 12345 

6. qwerty123 

7. 1q2w3e 

8. 12345678 

9. 111111 

10. 1234567890 

Research shows that cyber attackers are 300x more likely to target financial firms than other verticals. Obviously, that’s where the money is.

Coro co-founder Dror Liwer is keenly aware of the cybersecurity threats that face companies like yours:

“While much of the transaction volume and account dollars are focused within the top five U.S. banks in the United States, thousands of smaller banks, credit unions, and investment firms manage accounts for customers throughout the country. These smaller financial firms are rapidly becoming targets for cyber-attacks as they often boast broad customer data and accounts, and do not have robust security measures in place as other larger financial institutions.”

This means bad actors can collect on a large payday without little potential challenge to their attack. It’s typical bully behavior. These cybercriminals are picking on you because they know you‘re understaffed, under-budgeted, and overtasked.  

Airport cybersecurity is crucial for guarding our personal data – not to mention our lives. But the aviation industry rarely meets basic security standards. When it comes to protecting its cyber systems from attack, they’ve dropped the ball.

In 2020, Swiss researchers identified “massive cybersecurity risks” at 97 of the world’s top 100 airports. Actually, only three of the world’s airports (in Amsterdam, Dublin, and Helsinki) achieved an A+ rating.

Common airport cybersecurity problems

Cybersecurity in airports is often poor. In fact, one in four airports having received an F rating for issues like:

• Using outdated software with known and exploitable vulnerabilities in WordPress or jQuery systems.
• Failing to use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption between servers and clients.
• Running old, now-obsolete versions of encryption software such as SSLv3.
• Failing to secure mobile apps, fix known vulnerabilities, and encrypt outgoing data.
• Losing highly confidential data like financial records and passenger ID information to the Dark Web.
• Storing sensitive data on unprotected public clouds.
• Falling short of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance standards.
• Failing to comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) requirements.

How to improve airport cybersecurity

The above issues are just the start. Data security in airports should include a continuous security monitoring system.

It must use anomaly detection to identify phishing attempts, password reuse attacks, and all other intrusions in real time.

Because today’s digital nature, an online presence can weave across multiple parties and platforms. So it’s important to take a holistic approach to maintain visibility of digital assets and attack surfaces.

The small percentage of truly secure airports conduct in-depth audits of all vendors and third-party suppliers. This ensures they are equipped to mitigate complex risks.

Finally, you must train personnel in all security matters. Particularly, how the email and apps they use at work can compromise security.

Are you looking for greater security measures?

Organizations like Coro work with international airports to provide top-level support.

We use robust security standards provided by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the International Organization for Standardization, and the Civil Aviation Organization.

Our founders boast over 25 years of experience across the tech world. We are committed to implementing cybersecurity solutions that deal with modern challenges and the threats of tomorrow.

Do Hidden SSIDs Work?

The logic makes sense: If it can’t be seen, it can’t be attacked. But that logic doesn’t always work with wireless SSID.

Many businesses and individuals hide their SSIDs (known fully as a Service Set Identifier) with the hope of eluding hackers. A prevailing theory in security has long held that by cloaking an SSID, hackers won’t know your network exists, and thus, can’t penetrate it.

Simply put, that theory is wrong. Cloaking your network isn’t as safe as you thought. Cloaking an SSID may buy you time, and even lull you into a false sense of security, but determined hackers will eventually locate your network. It’s easier than you think; they have the tools to do it.

KARMA Will Come and Get Your Device

The first thing to consider is that an SSID wasn’t created to be a security mechanism. An SSID is a network name and not a password. The SSID distinguishes your wireless network from others in the area. When a wireless device – laptop, smartphone or tablet – tries to connect to a Wireless Local-area Network (WLAN), it searches and listens for beacon and probe frames of the available networks’ SSIDs.

But many businesses and homes cloak their networks. Businesses will tell employees the company SSID so they can connect their devices to the network (or an IT administrator configures access for them). But hackers aren’t fooled; they get help from your device.

Your laptop and smartphone send out probe requests that seek information about nearby WLANs as the device tries to find the access point it’s associated with. Hackers love this because the information exchange between the device and WLAN includes the SSID.

All a hacker needs is a bit of KARMA – a set of wireless sniffing and responding tools that discover devices and their preferred networks by listening to those probe requests and responding. KARMA tools capture probe conversations and display the SSID in plain sight. What’s most troubling is that many of the tools have special features that enable hackers to seek non-broadcast networks.  

This is why you should be leery of using free Wi-Fi in coffee shops, libraries, store and other places. A hacker can sit unnoticed in a free Wi-Fi zone looking for non-broadcast networks. Even if your device is not connecting to your WLAN – and even if the network is miles away – it still remembers the hidden SSID and sends out probe requests looking for it. The hacker simply needs to pretend to be that SSID and gets access to your device before you even know it.

Similarly, a hacker can sit outside your business or home and use wireless sniffing tools to capture the many probe requests all around him.

Don’t Open Your Network to Commjacking

Commjacking – the hijacking of your wireless communications – is a legitimate threat that can cripple your business and cause damage to your personal finances and reputation. Cloaking an SSID, as you now see, not only fails to protect a WLAN but it also exposes devices connected to it.

To truly protect your network, use protocols that are intended to address WLAN threats. Try encrypted communication. Avoid using free WiFi with devices. If you’re a business, consider a Virtual Private Network, and using Coronet on your devices.

It’s not enough to hide from hackers. Taking legitimate security steps in plain sight will protect your SSID and network.  

HIPAA cyber security is on every medical provider’s mind these days. One vulnerability in the cyber security of a hospital or doctor’s office can leave personal patient data wide open for hackers to steal. They might demand a ransom in exchange for an encryption key to use the data again, or they may sell the information to the highest bidder. Coronet is a leader in EMR security and HIPAA data security, providing companies big and small with advanced technology that goes above and beyond compliance to create robust surveillance, prevention, and response plans.

Are Your Current EMR Security Measures Enough?

Proactive measures make the difference in keeping patient data fully secure, whether you have an internal database or a cloud-based system. Prevention is key. When you partner with Coronet, you get 24/7 surveillance with continuous network and workstation scanning conducted by our AI powered engines.

Advanced patient data security includes workstation, tablets and smartphone compliance

HIPAA Cyber Security Breaches

If a breach in HIPAA cyber securityoccurs, you must:

• Respond – A quick reply to intrusion helps you mitigate damage.
• Report Crime – You must alert local law enforcement of the data breach.
• Report Threat – Contact federal agencies tasked with cybersecurity.
• Assess Breach – Determine the level of compromised health information.

If a breach of personal data has occurred, you have 60 days to notify all affected individuals. If more than 500 individuals were affected, you must alert the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights and the media as well.  

A Holistic Approach to HIPAA Data Security

A holistic approach must be taken with regard to HIPAA data securityto avoid the constant scramble to put out fire after fire. You’ll want to consider cybersecurity as part of your organization’s overall risk management process. Determine where gaps in security exist and what updated safeguards you can adopt in terms of administration, physical standards, and technical structures.

Administration

Administratively, you’ll need a robust security management process with risk analysis and management, and regular information system activity reviews put into place. You’ll need proper authorizations, supervision, clearance procedures, and steps taken to protect data following employee termination. Security awareness training should include everything from malicious software detection to password management.

Physical

From a physical perspective, you’ll need limitations on physical access to workstations and detailed maintenance records. Devices represent a common point of corruption, so it’s essential to have procedures for proper access, accountability, media reuse, disposal, data backup, and storage.

Technical

From a technical standpoint, unique user identification, automatic logoff, encryption, and decryption will need to be tightly controlled. Set up regular hardware, software, and procedural audits. Integrity control mechanisms to authenticate electronic personal health information and ensure transmission security will help you stay on the leading edge of HIPAA data security.

Contact Coronet to Learn More About Advanced HIPAA Data Security

Cyberthreats are increasing, prompting healthcare providers to shift more of their budgets to IT. Technological advancements are rapidly changing the landscape of healthcare security, making it easier to remain in compliance and achieve next-level proactive data safeguarding.

Working with a qualified IT provider like Coronet will give you end-to-end protection, making it easier to manage your everyday security needs using the right processes and tools.

Here’s a shocker: 93% of SMBs said they would switch MSPs to get adequate cyber security coverage.  

Some might see this as Armageddon, but we see this as an incredible opportunity to retain your existing customers, and recruit many new ones.  

We narrowed it down to these 5 strategies: 

1. Actively stress the importance of cybersecurity. Let current and potential clients know that cybersecurity is always top of mind, positioning company leaders as thought experts who can be trusted. Make them feel that even if they haven’t brought up the subject themselves, they are in good hands, with a service provider who covers all possible risks in advance.
2. Offer a cybersecurity assessment service. Many SMBs don’t know where to start when it comes to protecting their business from potential cyberattacks. Providing an assessment that includes security suggestions can go a long way in cementing a partnership. These partnerships are the bread and butter of making a client stick with a service for the long run.
3. Make it simple. Cybersecurity can be very intimidating for a small business, potentially leading to denial or procrastination in establishing a cyber plan. MSPs can ease that stress by offering an end-to-end service that outsources all of the security monitoring and remediation, providing peace of mind to their customers. A client who feels secure in the hands of his MSP is not likely to look and compare with competitors.
4. Be transparent. Offer a weekly cyber report that will give the customer a sense of what happened during the week – what potential issues were discovered and how they were handled by technology and your team. This way the MSP is also not allowing them to forget about the threat, making sure they are aware their MSP constantly fighting for their protection.
5. Use services that not only identify risks, but automatically mitigate them. These services will eventually make sure no data breached is being overlooked while minimizing the need for human intervention from both the end user and the MSP security specialists. Thus, enabling an MSP to have more clients without having to hire more team members for its staff, therefore raising is final ROI.

With Coronet, you can immediately deploy these strategies, at a click of a button. Coronet was designed exclusively for the SMB market, and as such, is simple, fully automatic, and very affordable. 

With 79% of SMBs planning to invest more in cyber security, MSPs have so many opportunities for new, high-margin revenue streams. Don’t let your existing customers fall into the 93%, and make sure you proactively go after those who are looking for a better cyber security solution.