01

Implementation of best practices for cloud data by setting advanced security of Microsoft 365 accounts.  This addresses the following:

A.Prevent Unauthorised Access: Implementing security measures like disabling Entra ID access and managing user consent to applications helps prevent unauthorized access to sensitive information, reducing the risk of data breaches.

B.Protect Sensitive Data: Features like idle session timeouts and securing Microsoft Teams meetings ensure that sensitive data is protected from unauthorised access, even if a user forgets to log out or leaves their device unattended.

C.Monitor and Investigate Activities: The Unified Audit Log provides a comprehensive record of user and admin activities, helping organisations monitor and investigate suspicious activities, ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements.

D.Prevent Email-Based Attacks: Setting up DKIM and DMARC, strengthening spam filtering services, and configuring email alert policies help prevent email spoofing, phishing attacks, and other email-based threats, protecting the organisation’s reputation.

E.Early Detection of Threats: Configuring cloud apps alert policies and conditional access policies helps organisations monitor and detect unusual or suspicious activities within their cloud applications, providing early detection of potential threats.

02

Most cyber attacks start by the introduction of threats onto the local computers and the main way this is accomplished is via email.  Removing 99.9% of threats and training staff to spot the remaining 0.1% is one of the most effective ways to protect a system from attackers.

A.Reduce Spam and improve Productivity: By removing potentially 100s of spam emails from your staff’s inbox you will reduce the time they need to spend sifting through them.

B.Stop Viruses: Many emails have virus attachments and some of these are not yet known by antivirus software.  Filtering them prevents the risk of them being accidentally opened on your local computers.

C.Override the filter: With regular quarantine reports (every few hours if required) staff can easily release legitimate emails that have been captured.  Policies can still prevent virus attachments from being released.

03

Ransomware is a serious concern for business owners as it uses the threat of data loss to exhort money from a business.  It starts when hackers inject code onto your computers that are able to encrypt not only that one computer but every device they are connected to (including backups).  It is a terrifying prospect which is why many businesses pay the ransom fee in the hope it can regain access (although there are no guarantees the hackers will comply). Anti-ransomware does the following:

A.Monitors: Unlike antivirus software that looks for specific threats, anti-ransomware looks for encrypting type activity.  This subtle difference means that a completely unknown ransomware virus that can slip past your antivirus software can still be stopped.

B.Cannot be turned off: The software is not running on your local computer but in the cloud.  This is good news as the first action a virus takes is to disable protection on a computer so it can run without interruption. By hosting it in the cloud it is not possible for the virus to stop it.

C.Isolation: Once ransomware activity is detected on a computer it is isolated from the network automatically.  This means the virus is unable to spread to other devices and minimises the threat to a single machine.

04

Patching your computers to update them with the latest Windows security fixes is an important part of reducing threats.  However the additional programs you use on your computer may also need regular patching.  Everything from Adobe Acrobat Reader to Zoom require regular patching and our security software does this for hundreds of commonly used programs.  In addition Connect secure includes:

A.Proactive Threat Detection: Continuously scans for vulnerabilities, reducing the risk of data breaches.

B. Automated Scanning and Remediation: Automatically addresses vulnerabilities, ensuring round-the-clock protection.

C. Comprehensive Coverage: Supports a wide range of operating systems and applications, ensuring thorough protection.

D. Real-Time Alerts and Reporting: Provides timely information on vulnerabilities, allowing immediate action.

E. Compliance and Standards Alignment: Helps align with regulatory standards, avoiding fines and reputation damage.

05

Passwords are still one of the weakest links in terms of security.  Staff generally use simple passwords that they think are strong like Freddie21! and they also reuse the same password in lots of places.  Ideally every password would be unique, complex and have an associated 2-factor-authentication code.  What do we mean by complex, well how about %tU^p}W3h*huq!i-`jl3dr(l@ Obviously there is no way a human is going to remember 100s of these passwords, so a password manager allows you to have:

A.Enhanced Security: Creates and stores unique, complex passwords, reducing the risk of credential stuffing attacks.

B.Convenience and Ease of Use: Securely stores and autofills passwords across devices, simplifying password management.

C.Zero-Trust and Zero-Knowledge Security: Ensures only the user has access to their data.

D.Secure Sharing: Allows secure sharing of passwords and files without risk.

E. BreachWatch: Provides continuous dark web monitoring for breached credentials, offering real-time alerts and proactive protection.