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Tag Archives: Cyber Security

Web Security Backdoor

Top 3 Web Security Backdoors and How to Fix Them

Even the most tech-savvy CEO can fall prey to a cybercriminal who finds a way to weasel through a web security backdoor. Want some tips on securing your online business? We can help out.

World statistics show that there is rarely an impregnable fortress of a website. Hacks happen daily, leading to identity theft, device hijacking, malware installation, and theft of other sensitive data.

Take action today to make sure you are as safe as you can be. Start by reading on!

What is a Web Security Backdoor?

A web security backdoor is a hidden entry point that gives criminals unrestricted and unauthorized access to a website.

These backdoors are not easy to spot wether your website is infected. Unfortunately, businesses often confirm a backdoor only after continuous hacks occur even though the IT staff cleans up after each attack. Backdoors are hidden well in many different parts of the code of your website.

So if you have a web security backdoor infection that’s undiscovered, your business data is very vulnerable. To prevent your entire website from crashing and your company suffering a blow, you should learn about frequently found backdoors and how to fix them.

Web Security Backdoor protection

Why Should You Work Hard on Web Protection?

While the answer to this question can be summed up in a simple “Duh, it hurts your business” answer we can break it down into a few more detailed points:

  • You secure your sensitive administrative data from different viruses and malware
  • You maintain and continue to build authority in your niche and industry
  • You protect users’ data
  • You attract more users thanks to a secure website
  • You will rank higher in SERPs (search engine result pages)
  • You protect your’s and your team’s personal information from theft

Now, let’s get on to the gist of things!

3 Web Security Backdoors and How to Fix Them

Here are three web security backdoor problems and preventive methods to avoid security breaches.

Backdoors can be divided into:

  • Simple backdoors
  • Complex backdoors
  • CMS-specific backdoors

The most simple backdoors are no more than one-liner shortcodes. Innocent yet are incredibly hard to manually spot.

Multiple lines of code are complex backdoors that a skilled expert could identify with ease. These web security backdoors can easily be distinguished from a simpler backdoors thanks to their intricate functionality. To hide a complex backdoor multi-liner code from malware scanners, hackers frequently cover their tracks and snug the complex code.

A hacker can also modify the coding in a backdoor unique to a CMS (content management system). These are security backdoors that arrive with, and only work with one CMS, like WordPress. Other popular CMS platforms such as Joomla and Drupal won’t have them.

How to Prevent Web Security Backdoors?

There are a few simple ways you can keep your device secure from backdoors attacks.

Use Multi-Factor Authentications (MFA)

The purpose of multi-factor authentication is to increase security by limiting unauthorized access. MFA means that you and your staff are required to verify your identities more than once when visiting an app, website, or software.

Three crucial components are used by multi-factor authentications to validate your identity:

  • Something that only you know, such as a pin or password
  • A unique virtual or physical thing you own, such as a token or your smartphone
  • A unique trait about you, such as your fingerprint, voice, or facial traits

So, if you use a password to log into an account, you receive a notice on your phone requesting you to tap the screen to confirm the request. When entering into your accounts you can also be asked to enter your password, fingerprint, or scan your iris.

Web Security Backdoor login

Use an Antivirus

Malware, including trojan, spyware, and rootkits, which are routinely employed by cybercriminals to launch backdoor assaults… all of these things can be detected and prevented with the use of sophisticated antivirus software.

To keep you as safe as possible online, look for a good antivirus program containing features like:

  • WiFi monitoring
  • Advanced firewall
  • Web protection
  • Microphone and camera privacy monitoring

With good antivirus software, a backdoor infection is found and removed before it can infect your computer.

Use a Good Firewall

A firewall can act as a protected border between your website and the traffic that comes from different devices or regions. Each person who tries to access your website is first checked by the firewall you’ve installed.

The firewall attempts to determine whether a user’s Internet Protocol (IP) address has ever been flagged for harmful behavior. If it has, access to the site will be instantly denied thanks to this anti-backdoor protection.

The great thing about firewalls is that they can detect unauthorized backdoor traffic even when your antivirus software has been fooled.

Final Word

There is a myriad of web security backdoor vulnerabilities you could run into when developing and launching your website. While these flaws exist and affect the website, there are also ways to spot and fix these leak holes. We hope this article sets you on the right path to protecting your website, business, and product.

IT Assessment

Top 7 Benefits of an IT Assessment

We’re all guilty of delaying our routine checkups with doctors and dentists. And we’re also guilty of doing so with IT assessment. But the same as with our bodies, we should have an ongoing objective view of what exactly is going on within our IT system. All of this is done for the reason of mitigating future risk.

There are a myriad of benefits of an IT checkup. A complete IT checkup gives you an overview of your business’ IT situation. That way, you have a better view of your operations and a complete outside perspective. Also, system assessments keep you focused on trends in your industry and on what your employees are doing.

Let’s expand on these benefits of IT assessments a bit more.

Defining an IT Assessment

First, let’s understand a bit better what we mean by “IT assessment”. This sort of checkup refers to the assessment of the general strengths and weaknesses of an IT system in any organizational network. Along with the assessment, a list of suggestions is given, as well. The suggestions focus on ways to improve system security, network design, and the general IT infrastructure.

What has to be done for an IT assessment to happen?

For starters, you need to hire a reliable IT consultation service provider and give them total access to the organization network, IT facilities, and other needed data. Next, the provider conducts the assessment by checking key areas of your digital environment, such as:

  • System Security
  • Data Security
  • Mobile Device Management 
  • Server Infrastructure 
  • Network software 
  • Etc. 

Before we look at the most obvious benefits on system checkups, bear in mind that there are risks in IT assessments. They mostly come from the risk of your data being leaked to third-party vendors.

IT Assessment for your company

5 Benefits of an IT Assessments

Some of the best practices expert IT service providers recommend can help in building a strong company foundation as well as reliable plans for company growth.

Reduced chance of accidental misconfiguration: The company can decrease its system vulnerabilities in the cloud environment by implementing the specific configuration adjustments recommended as part of the cloud security assessment.

Reduced chance of missed notifications: The recommendations of the cloud security assessment team can help an organization enhance its ability to detect and respond to compromise, preventing a minor issue from becoming a full-blown breach.

Improved resiliency: The IT assessment team will provide suggestions to help enterprises recover from breaches more quickly.

Detection of past compromise: While an IT security assessment is not a full-fledged IT compromise investigation, it can detect deviations from the standard in the organization’s IT configuration that may have been caused by compromised behavior.

How IT Assessments Help Your Team Function Better?

So, the technical aspect of benefits is pretty clear now. But how does that further help your team operate better?

Employee Awareness

Apart from the apparent security benefits, one of the things that individuals overlook when conducting these assessments is their employees. All of the information gathered from a checkup like this can be utilized to improve employee performance and raise understanding of the hazards they face, such as how to spot phishing attack emails.

Motivation

Another benefit for your team is that assessments will serve to remind them of your commitment to security and adequate procedures. Every day, we all have a lot on our plates, and it can be difficult to keep all of them spinning at the same time. Maintaining the integrity of your systems by reinforcing priorities is always a wise technique.

Budget Planning for Middle and Upper Management

It’s vital to have good reasoning for the plans you’ll have when creating budgets for the following year. Your cloud assessment’s facts and lists will help you justify future spending and explain the long-term benefits of the acquisitions you intend to make. All of this information also aids in determining what security requirements should be prioritized in your IT budget.

IT checkup

Final Word

No matter if you looked up this article because you are currently facing IT difficulties in your company, or are just looking out for options to keep your ongoing business safe, we hope this helps you get your operations in order. Having an assessment done will help you build a foundation of security controls and assist you identify risks that are leaving you vulnerable to attack.

After all, all organizations and businesses need to employ the help of IT experts from time to time – at least once in 6 months, to be more exact. Especially when extra demands are placed on IT, it is helpful to outsource someone who can implement the new initiatives and meet the changing needs of your department.

Following an IT checkup, you’ll feel more at ease – just like after a regular checkup with your doctor.

Incident response retainer

7 Ways Incident Response Retainers Raise Security Resilience

Over 2,200 cyberattacks happen in the United States each day as a result of the switch to remote work. That translates into one cybersecurity incident every 39 seconds.

To combat these cyber threats, organizations are adopting incident response service solutions.

Specifically, businesses are trying to mitigate cyber risk and quick security breach response using retainer based contracts.

In this post, we’re going to reveal 7 ways incident response retainers raise cybersecurity resilience.

So if you’re looking to protect your assets, increase data security, and prevent major damage, you’ll find this article useful.

Let’s begin.

What are incident response retainers?

An incident response retainer is a cybersecurity policy that gives you access to resources to deal with the before and aftermath of cyber attacks. Outsourcing security to an incident response service provider means that you retain experts to deal with cyber incidents with a Service Level Agreement (SLA) guarantee.

Incident response retainer cyber threat

Why should you consider incident response retainers?

The simple answer is: incident response preparedness.

If you’re like most organizations in the United States, then your business reflects the gaps in the current landscape of incident response:

  • Only 57% of organizations have a fully documented incident response strategy and playbook.
  • Out of those organizations, only 55% of incident response policies are integrated into standard operating procedures.
  • One in two organizations feel that there is a skill shortage of experienced cyber security professionals to deal with incidents and threats.
  • 70% of organizations have at least one professional on retainer to assist with cyber attacks and breach response.
  • 30% of all organizations have no professionals to assist them in dealing with cybersecurity and breach threats at all.

Together with the switch to remote work and the adoption of cloud-based software, many consider incident response a way to mitigate cloud security, as well.

So whether you’re looking to raise cyber resilience, there is a clear need for you to have a robust incident response plan and a retainer on call.

Benefits of Having an Incident Response Retainer

Having an incident response retainer in place helps you to prepare for cyberthreats and gives you a definitive policy to respond quickly to a threat to your security, infrastructure, networks, data, or systems.

Here are 7 other ways incident response retainers help raise the cybersecurity resilience of your organization:

#1 Less chance of a security breach

Retaining an incident response service provider isn’t just another service that you need. It’s also a strategic plan to counter cyber threats and improve the overall security by filling up any cybersecurity gaps that your organization may have. 

And having that at your disposal means there is a lower chance of a security breach to begin with.

#2 Lower costs

Despite the operational expenses of retaining an incident response team or professionals, it’s significantly lower when compared to the costs of a successful security breach.

In most cases in the aftermath of a breach, you need to raise both operational and capital expenditure to overhaul your entire cybersecurity defense strategy and assets.

#3 Predictable costs

Having an incident response service provider on call gives you the ability to better manage your IT budget and overhead. That’s because you pay a retainer fee rather than a service fee per intervention or project.

#4 24/7 incident response experts on call

Because you don’t hire an incident response team contract-by-contract (but you permanently retain them), you get 24/7/365 security for your organization. (And the peace of mind that goes with it.)

#5 No onboarding or integration

Retaining an incident response team rather than hiring them eliminates the need to onboard cybersecurity staff. It also means that the incident response provider will use their own tools and technology to do the job. So there’s no need to integrate any tech stacks.

Incident response retainer cybersecurity

#6 Mitigating risk

Retained incident response providers are professionals. That means you receive their full expertise in best practices, digital forensics, defense security, and regulations. This can help you to get more bang for your buck, as they can help you to improve your cybersecurity policies and strategies.

#7 Flexibility with the retainer

How you retain incident response retainers is always up to you. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. If you’re not comfortable with retaining a team full-time most service companies can accommodate your needs by providing flexible retainer hour usage.

How to retain an incident service provider?

If you’re looking to retain an incident service provider right now, look no further than Demakis Technologies.

Our team of cybersecurity professionals is on call 24/7 all year round, and can help you get the best service for an unparalleled peace of mind.

CONTACT US to get in touch with a security professional who can walk you through what we can provide you and the first steps you need to take.

hybrid workplace safety

Hybrid Workplace Vulnerabilities: How to Promote Online Safety?

With the gradual lifting of restrictions, organizations have discarded remote work in favor of a hybrid workplace – a mix of an at-home and in-office policy.

This doesn’t come without its challenges. Least of which is how are you going to protect sensitive data and other online assets from the vulnerabilities of a hybrid workplace. 

Since security is always at the top of the list of priorities, in this article, we will explain what are the biggest hybrid workplace threats and five ways to promote online safety to a mobile workforce.

Let’s begin.

#1 Use a VPN

Virtual private networks (VPN) are products and services that create a private network from a public internet connection. This scrambles your browsing data and makes it almost impossible for hackers to decrypt your online activity.

With a series of encryptions and access controls, VPNs are a great deterrent to attackers from tracking movement online and stealing sensitive data.

VPNs are essential for securing public and shared wireless networks, especially if the Wi-Fi connection isn’t password protected (even with the new Wi-Fi 6 connection).

Using a VPN ensures that your wireless connection doesn’t provide easy access to your business data if no one is at the office.

hybrid workplace VPN

#2 Protect your passwords

While a VPN is an excellent tool, it’s only as strong as the passwords and passphrases that it’s meant to protect.

In fact, the Colonian Pipeline hack in 2021 was blamed on an attacker who gained entry to their data via an unused VPN. The issue: the VPN didn’t have multifactor authentication.

Multifactor authentication is a cybersecurity measure where several methods of identity verification are required for accessing valuable data behind password-protected accounts.

One way to resolve this problem is to use a password manager to protect your user and login data. 

If you’re looking to choose a password management solution for your business, make sure that it does include multifactor verification.

#3 Secure work-issued devices

Working in a hybrid workplace means that you and the people you work with will commute a lot between their home and office. It’s highly likely that they move their work-issued devices back and forth, which raises the chance of forgetting it at either location or losing it en route.

NOTE: Never use a personal device for business or to handle work-related data!

Hybrid Workplace Vulnerabilities

As convenient as it may be, a company device has more integrated security measures onto its hardware than your personal device.

If you’re downloading a file or app to a work-issued device, vet it and request permission to do so from your internal or managed IT professionals. Unknown files, apps, and programs have security gaps that make them an ideal gateway for cyber attacks.

Please read our full article on the 10 cybersecurity gaps you should know about (and how to fix each one).

#4 Educate staff and employees

Human error is the #1 cause of cyber attacks. This includes phishing scams and other serious threats to business data security, and all it takes is one wrong click.

In fact, since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic (and the rise of the remote and hybrid workspace) phishing attacks have risen by a staggering 55%.

Here are 5 clear signs of phishing attempts and how to react if you’re under attack.

Cybersecurity awareness is the first line of defense. So it’s vital to educate your staff on the best security practices, password protecion, personal device usage at the office, and how to identify security threats when they happen.

#5 Practice a Zero Trust policy

Zero trust is a security policy that’s exactly what it sounds like: TRUST NO ONE. This policy extends to all users, including business partners, employees, and even C-level executives.

Businesses that employ the Zero Trust model limit who has access to sensitive data and data sources. Staff that does have access to various sources, on the other hand, is heavily vetted before given access to that kind of information.

A basic mantra behind this concept is: If someone doesn’t need a particular piece of information, DON’T SHARE IT WITH THEM.

This means never sharing passwords and login data, especially via email, messaging solutions, or via video conference calls.

Hybrid Workplace Online Safety

Stay smart and secure

A hybrid work environment creates many vulnerabilities for your business, and managing your cybersecurity can be overwhelming if you don’t have a dedicated team running it.

But we’re here to help.

Demakis Technologies is a professional IT service provider that specializes in managed services, helpdesk support, and, yes, network and cyber security.

CONTACT US to get in touch with one of our IT security experts and gain a piece of mind in the knowledge that your business is well protected from online threats.

Social Engineering Webinar

Social Engineering Webinar

Hi, everyone! Welcome to new webinar at “Tea Time With Demakis”. In this webinar we will be discussing social engineering.

We’re going to talk about the most common social engineering attacks and different ways of stopping them.

We’ll also explain:

  • What is social engineering?
  • Why do social engineering attacks happen?
  • What do these attacks impact?
  • Worst cases of online social engineering.

So, if you want to know the most effective ways of protecting your company from widely spread social engineering attacks, keep watching.

If you’re worried about social engineering attacks, Demakis Technologies can help you!

Contact us to find out how you can use our cyber security services to protect you, your employees, your data, and your company from attacks.