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Category: Compliance

Why 2FA is Necessary for Business

Businesses are face an increasing number of cyber threats. To protect sensitive data and prevent hackers from gaining access, implementing stronger security measures is crucial. One such measure is 2-factor authentication (2FA). Let’s look at the importance and security benefits of 2FA for businesses.
 

Enhanced Account Security:

2FA adds an extra layer of security to the traditional username and password login process. By requiring users to provide a second form of authentication, such as a unique code sent to their mobile device, it significantly reduces the risk of hackers from gaining access. Even if a hacker manages to obtain a user’s password, they would still need the second factor to gain access.
 

Mitigation of Password-related Risks:

Passwords are often the weakest link in security systems. Many users tend to reuse passwords across multiple accounts or choose weak and easily guessable ones or re-use the same password while incrementally changing a digit or two. With 2FA, even if a password is compromised, the additional authentication factor acts as a safeguard, making it significantly harder for attackers to gain access.
 

Protection Against Phishing Attacks:

Phishing attacks, where attackers trick users into revealing their login credentials, are a common threat to businesses. 2FA provides an additional layer of defense against such attacks. Even if a user unknowingly falls victim to a phishing attempt and enters their credentials on a fake website, the second authentication factor would prevent the attacker from accessing the account.
 

Compliance with Industry Regulations:

Many industries, such as finance, healthcare, government contractors, and e-commerce, are subject to strict data protection regulations. Implementing 2FA helps businesses meet compliance requirements and avoid potential penalties. It demonstrates a commitment to safeguarding sensitive customer information and builds trust with clients.
 

Cost-Effective Security Measure:

Implementing 2FA does not require significant financial investment. Many 2FA solutions are readily available and can be easily integrated into existing systems. Considering the potential financial and brand reputation damage caused by a security breach, the cost of implementing 2FA is minimal compared to the benefits it provides.
 
In an era where cyber threats are constantly evolving, businesses must prioritize security measures to protect their valuable data. 2-factor authentication offers a simple yet effective way to do so. 

If your company is interested in implementing 2FA across the entire organization, then contact us for assistance.

The Importance of Cyber Security Training

In today’s digital age, where technology has become an essential part of our lives, ensuring the security of our online information has become more crucial than ever before. With cyber threats and attacks on the rise, it is vital for individuals and organizations to invest in comprehensive cyber security training. In this blog article, we will explore the importance of cyber security training and why it should be a top priority for everyone.

Protecting Confidential Information

One of the main reasons why cyber security training is essential is to protect confidential information. In our increasingly connected world, we store sensitive data, such as financial information, personal details, and business data, online. Without proper training, individuals become vulnerable to malicious attacks, such as phishing scams, data breaches, and identity theft. Cyber security training equips individuals with the knowledge and skills necessary to identify and prevent such threats, ensuring the protection of confidential information.

Mitigating Financial Losses

Cyber attacks can have devastating financial consequences for individuals and organizations. The cost of recovering from a cyber attack, including restoring compromised systems, investigating the breach, and compensating affected parties, can be significant. By investing in cyber security training, individuals and organizations can minimize the risk of falling victim to cyber attacks, thereby avoiding potentially crippling financial losses.

Safeguarding Reputations

In today’s hyper-connected world, reputation is everything. A cyber attack not only compromises the security of your information but also tarnishes your reputation. News of a data breach or cyber attack can spread like wildfire, damaging the trust that customers, clients, and partners have in you. By taking proactive measures and investing in cyber security training, individuals and organizations can safeguard their reputations and maintain the trust of those they interact with.

Staying Ahead of Evolving Threats

Cyber threats are constantly evolving, with hackers employing new techniques and strategies to breach systems and access sensitive information. Cyber security training ensures that individuals and organizations stay up to date with the latest cyber security practices, emerging trends, and new vulnerabilities. By staying ahead of evolving threats, individuals can better defend themselves against attacks and organizations can maintain a robust cyber security posture.

Building a Culture of Cyber Awareness

Cyber security is not just the responsibility of IT professionals; it is everyone’s responsibility. By promoting cyber security training, organizations can build a culture of cyber awareness among their employees. Ensuring that employees are equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills to identify and report potential threats reduces the attack surface and strengthens the overall security posture of the organization.

Conclusion

In a world increasingly reliant on technology and interconnectedness, the importance of cyber security training cannot be overstated. From protecting confidential information to mitigating financial losses and safeguarding reputations, cyber security training is crucial for individuals and organizations alike. By investing in comprehensive training programs, we can enhance our ability to identify and prevent cyber threats, ultimately creating a safer digital environment for all.

If your company is one of the 47% of companies that plan to add or change their cybersecurity solution this year, then contact us for assistance.

Our New Email Analysis and Education Tools Helps Keep Your Employees Safe

Phishing-Scams

As you know, we take cybersecurity and the protection of your accounts and data very seriously. That’s why we are always striving to provide you with tools and resources to help keep you and your employees safe from cybercrime.

The most common threat we are seeing is phishing messages delivering malware or stealing credentials. Even though your company might be protected with spam filtering, there are instances where these malicious messages could still appear in your employee’s inboxes. And it’s important we both arm them with as much education and resources as possible to understand and identify these phishes.

We have a new tool that we’d love to demonstrate for your or talk more about. It’s called Catch Phish, and it’s an email analysis and training tool. It connects right to your employee’s Outlook as a clickable application on every message. When clicked, the tool quickly, but safely, scans the important details of the message to find potential threats such as suspicious links or attachments, sender details, or message details such as threatening language or deactivation scares.

This tool is included in our cybersecurity training packages and can help provide the much needed cybersecurity education to all levels of staff.
 
Do you have 30 minutes to talk about reducing your risks with Catch Phish and our other cybersecurity awareness training tools, then contact us for assistance.

Compliance Requires Penetration Testing

Compliance is and always has been a complicated matter. Here are the quotes from the three types of compliance – CMMC, HIPAA, and PCI:

“CMMC – Risk Assessment L2-3.11.2 – VULNERABILITY SCAN: Scan for vulnerabilities in organizational systems and applications periodically and when new vulnerabilities affecting those systems and applications are identified.”

“HIPAA – § 164.308 Administrative safeguards. (a)(1)(ii)(A) – Risk analysis (Required). Conduct an accurate and thorough assessment of the potential risks and vulnerabilities to the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of electronic protected health information held by the covered entity or business associate.”

“PCI – 11.3: External and internal vulnerabilities are regularly identified, prioritized, and addressed”

To summarize what this all mean – compliance requires penetration testing and vulnerability scanning. Networks have to be tested regularly to make sure that there has been nothing missed which would allow a hacker to breach the network and steal the treasure of information. Our recommendation is to scan at least quarterly, if not monthly, to find these vulnerabilities and address them before the hackers find them.

If your company has compliance requirements that you need consulting for, then contact us for assistance.

A Medical Office’s Journey to the Cloud

Today we tell the story of a medical office’s journey to the cloud. This particular client was facing their server operating system reaching end of support (a HIPAA violation) in the near future. They had begun by looking at their electronic medical records software company’s online offering, which didn’t have all the functionality of their on-premises software and was very expensive (this is typical).


They next decided to look into moving their current on-premises software into the cloud and we were asked to help with the testing. We determined that it would be best to move the file portion of the server to SharePoint / OneDrive to increase their mobility and flexibility. We also determined that it would be best to move them away from on premises Active Directory into Azure Active Directory / Intune to allow authentication and security policies. Finally we began testing the on-premises software hosted on a server in Azure with a VPN connection to their office.


The SharePoint / OneDrive and Azure Active Directory portions went through with little issues. The server, however, was not as we had hoped. The Azure VPN connection was expensive due to it always being on and no way of turning it off outside of business hours. The performance of the SQL database that the on-premises software used was basically unusable. The other option would be to create virtual desktops on Azure for this purpose but the cost and functionality was not what the customer was hoping for.


This has lead them back to searching for an online EMR software that will meet all their requirements. This will be tough because most companies are good at some things, but not all things and compromises usually have to be made. Our hope is that this story is a lesson to other companies. The cloud may sound like the newest and best way to work, but the costs and functionality are often worse than expected.

If your company is going to use full disk encryption or has compliance requirements that you need consulting for, then contact us for assistance.

Cost of Insuring Your “Digital” Employees

We were discussing the price customers paid for their monthly maintenance of computers and the comparison was brought up about insurance costs. As a business owner with employees, it is necessary these days to offer health insurance as part of their compensation package. If the company has vehicles that are used for business, then the government mandates that they be covered by minimum amounts of insurance. These costs are then built into the price the business owner then charges their clients for products or services.

Insurance Statistics: 

  • According to Business.com, the average cost of health insurance for a single employee was $645 per month and $1,850 per month for a family.
  • According to NerdWallet.com, the average cost of car insurance was $179 per vehicle per month. 

Questions:

So what about the “digital” employees of the company, aka the computers and network equipment that make business possible. How much are business owners paying to “insure” these assets? What are businesses willing to pay to make sure that their computers and network don’t have a sick day? Does the cost of insuring them include preventative care? Who does the business call in case of an accident or breakdown in the middle of the day? Does the cost of insuring include on-site service or transport to a service center?

If your company wants to keep their digital employees healthy and insure them from accidents, then contact us for assistance.

RMM Automation: Export List of AD Users Last Login Days Ago

As our business continues to grow our focus is on providing white labeled Tier 3 IT support services, RMM as a service, and co-managed IT services. This blog will be highlighting tips for using Powershell to get an Export List of AD Users Last Login was more than 90 Days Ago.

Research

You need to find out what the Organizational Unit (OU) path that you are trying to get the count from. The following command will list all OUs in the domain.

Get-ADOrganizationalUnit -Filter 'Name -like "*"' | Format-Table Name, DistinguishedName -A

If you want the entire organization then you will need the top level information which looks like DC=[DomainName],DC=local

Variables

$SearchOU = This is the full DistinguishedName from the above output.

Script Snippet

$InactiveDays = 90
$Days = (Get-Date).Adddays(-($InactiveDays))
  

Get-ADUser -Filter {LastLogonTimeStamp -lt $Days -and enabled -eq $true} -SearchBase $SearchOU -Properties LastLogonTimeStamp,UserPrincipalName |
  
select-object Name,mail,@{Name="Last Login Date"; Expression={[DateTime]::FromFileTime($_.lastLogonTimestamp).ToString('MM-dd-yyyy')}} | export-csv C:\support\inactive_Users.csv -notypeinformation

The script will take several seconds to run based on the number of users in the OU being searched. The output is saved to the local c:\support directory and you can modify this script to include the FTP upload based on our previous article – https://www.farmhousenetworking.com/rmm/automation/rmm-automation-export-log-files-to-ftp/ The script can also be easily modified to change the number of days since last login.

If your company is a MSP or wants to become one and automation just seems out of reach, then contact us to run your RMM for you.

RMM Automation: Active Directory User Count

As our business continues to grow our focus is on providing white labeled Tier 3 IT support services, RMM as a service, and co-managed IT services. This blog will be highlighting tips for using Powershell to get an Active Directory User Count.

Research

You need to find out what the Organizational Unit (OU) path that you are trying to get the count from. The following command will list all OUs in the domain. 

Get-ADOrganizationalUnit -Filter 'Name -like "*"' | Format-Table Name, DistinguishedName -A

If you want the entire organization then you will need the top level information which looks like DC=[DomainName],DC=local

Variables


$SearchOU = This is the full DistinguishedName from the above output.

Script Snippet

(Get-ADUser -Filter * -SearchBase $SearchOU).count

The script will take several seconds to run based on the number of users in the OU being searched. The output is an integer number. You can do the same sort of thing for an Active Directory Group Count or Active Directory Computer Count:

(Get-ADgroup -Filter * -SearchBase $SearchOU).count

or

(Get-ADcomputer -Filter * -SearchBase $SearchOU).count

If your company is a MSP or wants to become one and automation just seems out of reach, then contact us to run your RMM for you.

Zero Trust – Cyber Security Audit

Security Audit - Grants Pass, OR

This is the tenth and finale in a series about the concept of Zero Trust, which means in the IT sense that you trust nothing and always verify everything surrounding and connected to your network. Today’s discussion will be on Cyber Security Audit. 
 

Cyber Security Audit

Cyber Security Audit is a process where both internal and external systems are tested for their ability and susceptibility to being successfully attacked by hackers. This usually involves an inventory of current systems, research into known vulnerabilities, and testing of those found to see what information can be accessed. Once this process is complete a report is generated to detail both what is found and how those vulnerabilities can be addressed to protect the business’ most valuable commodity – information (intellectual property and client data). Here are some questions to ask:

  • Do you have an inventory of all assets in your organization? Is it up to date?
  • Have you tested your internal network for vulnerabilities?
  • Have you had a penetration test performed on your external network?
  • Do you know what compliance standards apply?
  • How do you document policies and procedures? Who oversees that?

If your company is wanting to have a free cyber security audit, then contact us for assistance.

Zero Trust – Network Security

This is the ninth in a series about the concept of Zero Trust, which means in the IT sense that you trust nothing and always verify everything surrounding and connected to your network. Today’s discussion will be on Network Security. 

Network Security

Network Security is having the proper hardware and configuration of that hardware in place to protect the business network. This configuration includes segmenting network traffic to keep specific types of traffic, like guest devices, separate from traffic of business devices. It also includes keeping outsiders out of the network and detecting when they have breached security measures. Here are some questions to ask:

  • Do you have a business class router / firewall?
  • Do you have business class switches and access points that support segmentation?
  • Is your network configured to segment business traffic from guest traffic?
  • Are devices like VoIP phones and network cameras on their own network?
  • Is geo-location blocking turned on for non-essential countries?
  • Is network traffic being analyzed for suspicious activity?
  • Do you filter internet traffic?
  • Can your network detect and respond to a breach?

If your company is wanting to lock down network security, then contact us for assistance.

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“They share freely and give generously to the poor. Their good deeds will be remembered forever.”
For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you. - 2 Corinthians 9:8-10