Why the Why Matters

Cyberattacks such as ransomware and targeted phishing are increasing in frequency and sophistication. Beyond immediate operational disruption, breaches can damage reputation and trigger fines under regulations like CMMC and HIPAA. Employees who see these risks as abstract are less likely to follow best practices. Communicating the business impact — lost revenue, downtime, and reputational harm — makes security tangible and motivates compliance.

Leadership Sets the Tone

Executives and managers must model secure behavior and prioritize cybersecurity in decision-making. When leadership frames security as a shared responsibility and ties it to employee priorities — uptime, productivity, and personal data protection — adoption improves. Simple messaging that answers “What’s in it for me?” helps win hearts and minds across departments.

Tools That Amplify Culture

Once the “why” is clear, choose tools that support people and processes. Extended Detection and Response (XDR) integrates telemetry across endpoints, cloud apps, and data stores for faster investigation. Managed Detection and Response (MDR) brings expert monitoring and response without overburdening internal teams. AI-enabled automation can correlate signals from multiple sources and stop attacks faster, while also reducing alert fatigue for staff.

• Cyber Insurance and Compliance: Cyber insurance can be a valuable part of a risk strategy, but insurers expect documented risk assessments, incident response plans, and baseline controls like multi-factor authentication for all accounts. Aligning your security program with compliance frameworks not only helps with insurance eligibility but also strengthens overall resilience.

• Make It Practical: Start with clear policies, role-based training, and regular tabletop exercises. Reward secure behavior and keep communications simple and relevant. Measure progress with incident metrics and employee engagement.

A strong cybersecurity posture blends culture, tools, and governance. Helping clients build that culture is the most effective way to reduce risk. Contact us today to design a security program that meets compliance and prepares you for cyber insurance requirements.

The post Building a Culture of Cybersecurity That Actually Works appeared first on Bizcom Networks.

Understanding Network Security

Network technologies vary widely in their approach to security. At the core of any secure platform is end-to-end encryption, which ensures that data remains protected while in transit. Ideally, encryption should be enabled by default—not optional. Without it, your organization could be vulnerable to breaches, risking both your data and your reputation.

Other essential security layers include firewalls, malware scanning, and network segmentation—each designed to limit access and prevent unauthorized data exposure.

Common Threats to Your Network

Cyber threats don’t stop at your network perimeter—they extend to your website and communications tools as well. Key threats include:

• DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks that flood your systems with illegitimate traffic, slowing or disabling service.
• Eavesdropping via data path interception, allowing attackers to monitor or steal private communications.
• IP spoofing, where an attacker masquerades as a trusted device to infiltrate your network.
• Malware and worms that exploit vulnerabilities in connected systems, spreading rapidly with or without a host file.

These threats can impact availability, confidentiality, and trust in your business operations.

How to Protect Your Business Communications

Implementing strong security protocols is non-negotiable. Begin with Transport Layer Security (TLS), a protocol that provides both encryption and authentication between communication endpoints. Use digital certificates to verify identity and prevent spoofing attempts.

Complement these with robust firewalls, Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS), and access control policies to minimize risk.

Train Your Team on Security Best Practices

Technology alone isn’t enough—your team must be trained to recognize and respond to threats. Security awareness training helps employees identify phishing attempts, avoid unsafe behavior, and report suspicious activity. A well-informed workforce is one of the best defenses against cyberattacks.

Stay Secure While Staying Connected

Securing your telecommunications environment isn’t just a best practice—it’s a business imperative. By combining strong technology with employee awareness, you can communicate confidently and protect what matters most.

Need help securing your communications? Contact your trusted technology advisor today.

The post Why Network Security Is More Critical Than Ever appeared first on Bizcom Networks.

Preparedness Starts with Awareness 

October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Starting in 2024 the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) theme is “Secure Your World.” Cybersecurity Awareness month is a time for understanding the threats that face all businesses, and perhaps especially small to medium-sized companies. The good news is, you can learn more about what threats affect your network, applications and data, and how to protect your business.

Protect Your Business from Common Threats 

Common threats include phishing as well as the ransome ware that can infect your network and steal your data. If your data isn’t stolen, it can be encrypted away from you via a ransomware attack. Security incidents can occur as a result of weak authentication of account access (weak passwords and lack of multi-factor authentication). Mishandled operating system updates can lead to not having the latest security updates and bug fixes. 

Phishing threats are growing in frequency and sophistication, and can come in through emails designed to trick recipients into giving up security credentials, which can then be used to gain access to a company’s network and data. Phishing attempts, along with variants like “smishing” (attacks via text messaging) and “vishing” (attacks by phone and voicemail) rely on fear and a sense of urgency to trick the recipient into action. Such attacks may include malicious links. Knowing how to recognize and deal with a possible phishing attack includes knowing how to report the email before deleting it, and knowing not to click links. If in doubt about the sender’s address, the recipient can point their mouse arrow at the URL to determine if the address is legitimate. 

Weak authentication can also put your company’s network at risk. Security incidents can occur when a password is guessed and the attacker penetrates the network. Examining your company’s password best practices and making sure workers know the practices, can help defend against intrusion. By creating strong passwords (e.g. twelve characters, with a variety of numbers, letters and special characters) individual workers can protect the company’s network. A password management system can help generate and store passwords, and only the password to that system needs to be remembered.

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) adds an extra layer of protection. To verify identity, a one-time code or even biometric like fingerprint recognition can determine that the request to access your network is legitimate. Even if a bad actor guesses and uses a password, they can’t access the network. 

Keep Current on Operating System Updates

On the company level, updating operating systems and applications can help protect your network and data. Operating system updates often include bug fixes and updated security features. Managed updates keeps them happening on schedule and compatible with your network environment. 

With its “secure your world” theme, CISA’s cybersecurity awareness campaign can be a template for your company’s efforts to prepare for possible attack. For further assistance, contact your trusted technology advisor today.

The post Become Aware and Prepared During Cybersecurity Awareness Month appeared first on Bizcom Networks.

What is SIEM?

Security information and event management (SIEM) combines two separate systems to not only gather information but develop rules to help analysts understand what occurs in your company’s network. Security information management involves the gathering, monitoring and analysis of security-related information across different computer logs–including email applications. 

Security event management is involved in helping respond to incidents. SIEM brings the two functions together – the strong log-keeping functions of SIM with the response capabilities of SEM. The information is put together in a standard format, then aggregated and analyzed, helping IT professionals prioritize their threat response. Since SIEM can be outsourced to managed service providers (MSPs), it is possible for small to medium-sized businesses to afford it and not have to hire extra staff.

SIEM and Phishing Attacks

The security operations center of an average organization can receive tens of thousands of threats, and some can receive ten times more. What’s a small or medium-sized business to do? How do they know they are victims of a ransomware attack until the damage is already done? Security information and event management has the capacity to gather and analyze information about user authentication attempts, separating normal logins from malicious attempts. When unusual login activity is detected, an event is created when it happens.  The SIEM software can then lock out the suspicious user while doing the investigation. While SIEM can show IT teams what’s happening throughout the network, everyone still needs to be aware of phishing emails and what they look like, and trained to act.

Train Your Workers, Too

Humans are thought of as  the weak spot in protecting against cyber attacks, including phishing emails. But what if, combined with SIEM, they are a strong defense against malware and other dangerous network intrusions? Whether phishing attempts using ChatGPT as the hook will become so sophisticated as to hide normal clues to phishing emails is not yet known. Clues like spelling errors and poor grammar are signs that the email is not from a legitimate sender. Educating workers to look for more information without clicking on malicious links and attachments, can help them identify a phishing email.

Technological tools like SIEM can combine with staff training to provide a strong defense against hazards from phishing emails. For further assistance, contact your trusted technology advisor today.

The post Using Workers and Technology to Fight Phishing Attacks appeared first on Bizcom Networks.

Cyber Resilience Involves People and Processes

Cyber resilience is more than just technological tools protecting your organization. Cybersecurity is part of it, but not all Cyber resilience has to do not just with preventing a cyber attack, but recovering from the damage and evaluating the response. This evaluation may include changes in policies and procedures. According to a CompTIA Community Blog post, people can be the most important asset in defending against – and  in some cases recovering from – a cyber attack. 

What Causes Cyber Attack?

According to statistics, more than 50% of cyber attacks and resulting data breaches stem from human error. Lack of training is a primary source of risk. Do employees know what to do if they get a phishing email? Do they know what one looks like? What are your workers’ skill sets, knowledge, levels of training? How well has your company defined processes for cyber security, disaster recovery, and monitoring? Though cyber resilience processes can be defined by executives, everyone plays a part in protecting your company.  

Performing a Cyber Resilience Assessment and Moving Forward 

While developing policies, processes and procedures can seem daunting, some resources can get you started. A good starting point is evaluating current defenses along with workers’ skills. The National Institute of Standards and Technology provides a framework for preparing your organization’s defenses, one that can be used by SMBs and MSPs alike. Small to medium-size businesses, along with their partners, don’t have to be alone in the fight against cybercrime. 

Frameworks for developing procedures, along with resources for training staff, can help your company prepare for and recover from cyber attack. For further assistance, contact your trusted technology advisor today. 

The post Cyber Resilience Is About More Than Just Technology appeared first on Bizcom Networks.

The Vital Importance of Cybersecurity

The attacks just keep coming. In recent years, SolarWinds and Colonial Pipeline are just a couple of well-known incidents. According to statistics, more than half of cyber attacks result from human error–weak or poorly managed passwords, susceptibility to phishing schemes, perhaps even ignorance of company policies and of best practices. The cost of attacks is supposed to continue increasing, to over $10 trillion by 2025. 

The Cybersecurity Conversation

It’s never too late–or too soon–to openly discuss cybersecurity in your organization. Your executives, both in your IT department and outside of it, can set the tone for your company’s cybersecurity culture. For example, sharing learning from past experiences can show your workers that anyone can learn from mistakes. More than technology and tools, cybersecurity training needs to be an integral part of company culture–it saves costs, preserves your company’s reputation, and keeps your company in business. You can freely discuss cybersecurity in team meetings and everyday work conversations. Ideally, this will get workers of teams talking about ways to keep your company safe and may reach the individual level, encouraging them to evaluate their cybersecurity savvy and improve it. Regular training and retraining should also be part of the organization’s culture of cybersecurity. Staging mock “phishing” attacks to test workers’ knowledge and ability to act, will help to make training concrete. This is where tools and technology can come in, providing engaging ways for workers to understand the importance of cybersecurity.

Clear Policies and Procedures

Having and clearly communicating policies and procedures helps all employees know what to do in case of emergency, and even how to avoid an emergency in the first place. Does everyone know what a phishing email looks like, and how to report one? Do they know to choose strong, hard-to-guess passwords, and change these passwords periodically? What’s the first thing they should do in a cyber attack? If everyone, from the top executive to the newest trainee, knows what to do, all contribute to the security of the organization. 

Establishing a culture of cybersecurity begins at the executive level. Establishing cybersecurity as part of your company’s philosophy, as well as clear policies and procedures, can help everyone understand their role in protecting company systems and data. For additional assistance, contact your technology provider today.

The post Developing a Culture of Cybersecurity appeared first on Bizcom Networks.

Definition of Defense in Depth

Simply defined, defense-in-depth is a cybersecurity approach in which independent layers of controls are employed to build redundancy. If one control fails, another will take over. If an intrusion occurs, the bad actor can go only so far and will be dealt with before they cause serious harm. All the way from your perimeter to the most sensitive data at the core of operations, controls will keep your data and applications safe from loss and compromise. A first layer is detection, which catches anomalies and reports them to cybersecurity personnel, stopping them from intruding further into your network.

Evaluating Your Current Cybersecurity Posture

How do you know what an anomaly looks like, and whether it is a cyberattack in the making? Before making the transition to a multi-layered cybersecurity structure, knowing your current cybersecurity posture is important. One thing to consider is what a possible attack might look like. Viewing intelligence from past activity logs, especially when an intrusion occurred, should show you what unusual activity looks like. A next step is identifying your mission-critical data and applications, not to mention your most sensitive data, to determine which assets need the greatest protection and should be at the innermost layer of protection. Finally, what intrusion detection systems can you put in place to detect anomalies in usage?

Multiple Modes of Protection

A defense-in-depth system contains multiple defenses dedicated to controlling access to physical and data resources, as well as the resources themselves. Physical controls include security (say, at cloud data centers) and technical controls (firewalls and antivirus protection) defend the contents of physical systems. Administrative controls refer to policies and procedures for network security–for example, data-handling procedures and digital codes of conduct. Cybersecurity controls help maintain data integrity within a company’s network; examples of these protections include encryption at rest and encrypted backups offsite. Network monitoring of processes and of possible intrusion, along with endpoint protection, are yet more layers. 

Ideally, with defense-in-depth, you can protect your systems by using multiple tools that work better than any one tool by itself. For assistance with this approach, contact your technology advisor today.

The post Defense in Depth Provides Robust Cybersecurity appeared first on Bizcom Networks.

Know the Threat Landscape

Threats to cybersecurity abound, and some of the most common are ransomware and malware, which can get to your network via phishing schemes and social engineering attacks. Ransomware is a type of malware in which files are encrypted and become unreadable, and can only be available again if the user pays money (a ransom) to get a key to get the files unlocked. Malware, in general, is malicious software designed to steal confidential information, insert a virus into the network, or both. Commonly, malware and ransomware enter a network via social engineering attacks such as phishing schemes. A bad actor pretends to be someone the victim knows, and tricks them into giving confidential data. For example, the attacker may pretend to be a fellow employee needing assistance that requires access to the network. Instead of trying to find and exploit weaknesses in the system itself, the criminal tries to find “weaknesses” in the victim–a desire to help others, for example. 

Train Employees to Recognize and Prevent Attacks

There are excellent online and in-person training programs to prevent cyber attacks. This training can be a good foundation in knowing more about the risks and how to prevent them. Training is not just a one-time endeavor; rather, it needs to be practiced consistently. Part of training should involve teaching employees how to recognize social engineering attacks, such as phishing. Clues to a phishing email can include misspellings and grammatical errors in the body of the email, along with urgent calls to action (even threats). One way to assess which employees might fall prey to a phishing scheme is to send a fake phishing email with a link in it, and discover who clicks on the link. 

Aside from recognizing attempts to get into a company’s network, there are other common-sense practices to stay safe. One is effective password management, encouraging formulation of strong passwords initially, and changing them regularly. Also, not sharing passwords with others is a basic rule of thumb. Furthermore, discouraging use of unsecured Wi-Fi (which might be used by employees working outside the office) helps keep your network safe.

To learn more about the existing and evolving threats and how to combat them, contact your trusted technology advisor today.

The post Training Your Employees to Help Avoid Cyberattacks appeared first on Bizcom Networks.

What Phishing is and How to Prevent It

Phishing is an increasingly popular way for attackers to access company data and plant malware in a network. A phishing attempt involves putting a fraudulent link in an email to get the recipient to click on the link and unwittingly import malware into their company’s network. Spear phishing, a related type of attack, focuses on an organization or individual. Employees can be trained to recognize an attempt by looking for clues. One is misspellings and grammatical errors in the message. Another tipoff is a strange or suspicious sender’s address; if it looks strange or suspicious, don’t open the email. Yet another practice is to point the mouse arrow over a link to look at it without clicking. All are things an individual can do, and there are additional effective practices.

Focus on the Fundamentals

The best preventive measures are simple. According to a CompTIA article, getting the basics right is one of the soundest investments a business can make. Prevention, as always, is far less costly than repair. While tools, current antimalware definitions and operating system patches are important, much of your company’s preventive power lies with employees. Developing a culture oriented toward protecting a business’s technological assets is far more effective than placing blame if a phishing attempt gets past defenses. Phishing schemes have become so clever they can catch anyone unaware. An all-day training can be a good start, but the training should be a regular part of your business’ strategy for keeping itself safe.

As technology advances, cyberattack attempts will keep pace. Companies should remember one of their most powerful assets—their people. To learn how to train your employees and develop a culture of security, contact your technology advisor today. 

The post Train Your People to Fight Cyberattacks appeared first on Bizcom Networks.

Know and Understand the Risk          

A recent Forbes article reports on a new survey of 600 IT security and IT Operations decision-makers. The results reveal the level of risk to networks and the level of business’s preparation—and how much education and preparation are still needed. According to survey results, 60% of respondents had a data breach within the last two years, and more than 30% had experienced more than one breach. Vulnerabilities can occur anywhere—in a company’s on-premise systems, or through an employee’s mobile device accessed in an unsecured area. All it takes is one weak spot in the network, to compromise the entire system. Common causes of breaches include lack of security protocols to begin with (52% of respondents), unpatched software (51%), and lack of automation in patch application.

Steps to Protect Your Network’s Security

Instead of simply lamenting the lack of security, these statistics serve to point the way to achieving network security.  Knowing problems common to businesses can guide your business in what aspects of network security to focus on first. Businesses can start by performing a network audit to find any weak spots where network security vulnerabilities may exist.

Be sure to check that OS patches are up-to-date, and that antivirus and anti-malware definitions are current. Monitor endpoints including mobile devices and devices used by remote workers and perform periodic network scans to detect any data bottlenecks or weak spots. Depending on the nature of data your company gathers, and whether the company is subject to special industry regulations, public or private cloud environments can be used to protect and back up data. Just as important as these technical measures is educating your employees about how to recognize malware intrusions that can occur via “phishing” emails and how to identify and report breaches.

While the chance of a cyberattack will always exist, the risk to your business can be minimized. To evaluate and start improving the security of your network, contact your technology advisor today to get started.

The post Cybersecurity Risks and Preventive Action appeared first on Bizcom Networks.