Why you need extra protection on Office 365 emails.

Why you need extra protection on Office 365 emails.

Between 2016 and 2017 the number of emails sent globally containing ransomware increased by 6000%.

Think about that for a moment... not 100% or even 600%.

6000%.  

That’s a pandemic increase in email-based threats, and unfortunately, due to its practically ubiquitous nature in the world of business, Office 365 has become a profitable area for hackers to exploit. As more and more organisations onboard to Office 365, so the need to “hack-proof” the O365 environment becomes more essential. We’ve seen this manifest itself in the availability of cloud backup products, and our offering by way of example that now offer backups of entire Office 365 tenancies, with version control, redundancy, and granular restores to mitigate the damage caused by ransomware attacks.

Hang on, don’t I have a filter?

Office 365 has a built-in spam filter, and has kept many an inbox clear for a long time, but despite recent updates and dedicated efforts to improve its performance against malware and phishing, it can be a rather basic solution when ranged against the mind-boggling array of cyber-threats which now use email as a preferred attack vector. Right now, it’s more important than ever in business to ensure that your data is safe, not just to avoid embarrassing breaches or expensive thefts, but with a continuously growing focus on the security and the privacy of the individual online, anyone who

handles data and deals in certain geographies is bound by law to safeguard that data, or risk working outside of compliance, resulting in the possibility of big fines. Very big.

Office 365 offers two levels of security, Exchange Online Protection, or EOP, and Advanced Threat Protection, which uses some heuristics to look at email behaviour, can block filetypes and attachments and monitors mail accounts for SPAM-related markers. this level of protection is in the low-middle of the market. But new malware can often get through tried and tested email protection technologies. While Microsoft’s EOP can detect 100% of all known viruses, and updates every 15 minutes, it is not as effective at protecting against new or unknown malware threats, and of course, zero-day exploits.

Zero-day? Sounds scary…

A zero-day exploit is a type of cyber-attack that occurs on the same day that a weakness is discovered in a certain piece of software. At this point, the software weakness can be exploited before a fix or patch is made available from the software author. It is so called because zero days have passed since the weakness was discovered. If an email is infected with malware which then takes advantage of this newly discovered security hole, then obviously there will be no way of a spam or email filter that depends on a library of known threats to stop the attack.

So, what’s the answer?

The way to offset this is to anticipate the attacks by using email filtering systems with predictive techniques. Machine learning and advanced analytical tools such as Bayesian analysis (building an iterative approach to the probability of a threat as more information becomes apparent) and looking at the behaviour of an email; it’s content, links and attachments, addresses, SPF records and a whole list of other features.

Using these techniques, the software ‘learns’ to block new varieties of phishing, and zero-day attacks before they cause damage. There is no longer a requirement to have met the threat already.

Office 365s email security features don’t really measure up to these dedicated tools, as developing these software tools can be expensive and best left to niche security providers.

One such tool that we are using at Pearce IT to great effect, is SpamTitan.

What’s SpamTitan?

Spam titan, in addition to enhancing spam blocking, also adds an additional layer of data loss protection. It also includes powerful data-leak prevention rules to prevent data loss such as social security numbers, bank details, data containing tagged keywords and other pieces of Personally Identifiable Information (PII).

Advanced phishing protection includes whaling and spear phishing by performing real time inbound scanning on emails. Spam titan will search for key indicators in an email’s header, contents, or domain information, that suggests that it may be a phishing attempt. It can also perform reputation checks on links within the email.

When considering email safety and security it may seem counterintuitive to scan outgoing emails. SpamTitan provides outbound scanning, helping to prevent your organisations sender domain from being blacklisted due to circulating SPAM emails or emails containing malware. If your account or domain becomes blacklisted, it can be costly to reverse for your business.

Additionally, Office 365 does not come with full-tenancy protection and backup enabled as standard. Getting changes undone, or restoring data that has been lost to leaks, malware, malicious editors, or even total lockout due to ransomware, can be time-consuming, costly, and sometimes impossible to achieve. When you are thinking about putting locks on the doors, you should also make sure the house doesn’t flood, so fortunately we offer full-tenancy or individual user account Office 365 Cloud Backup solutions.

So, we’re safe?  

Well, it’s certainly advisable to use some sort of dedicated filter software if you’re in the business of staying in business. The more you can protect your data, and that of your customers, the better, and If there’s one thing we’ve learned recently, it’s the importance of not spreading viruses.

If you want to secure your email using the award winning SpamTitan email security, then get in touch with Pearce IT today.

MS Teams; What’s all the fuss about?

If you’ve never heard of Microsoft Teams, then you’re obviously from a galaxy far, far away, but Microsoft’s collaboration, communication and file-sharing app has been transforming workplaces all over the world.  At Pearce IT, we’re a big fan of Teams, and we’ve been helping our customers migrate their infrastructure to Teams, as well as provisioning Teams for organisations caught on-the-hop by the Coronavirus outbreak. 

Teams is now Microsoft’s fastest growing app ever, with over 500,000 companies using it globally at the time of writing. Microsoft estimates that 75 million people are using Teams daily, and its list of features just keeps growing. Whereas the number of Teams users assuredly got a boost due to the COVID 19 situation, the ‘stay-at-home revolution’ introduced by the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed a great many organisations into operational territory they previously didn’t occupy, and weren’t really ready to. This being said, the number of organisations that have adopted and stayed with Teams is a testament to just how easy it can be to provision and implement, and how effective it can be when deployed in your organisation.  

Getting on the Team 

You can start using Teams with a free version from Microsoft, but full-fat Teams comes bundles with most of the Office 365 business licences, so if you have an Office 365 Business Premium, Standard, or Enterprise licence, then you probably have Teams bundles included with your licencing. If you need assistance with this, then we can help you get the right licencing to kick off your Teams journey. 

Teamwork and collaboration being the cornerstone of modern organisations, it’s natural that these are central tenets within Teams operation. If you have an existing Office 365 security group infrastructure then this will simply translate to Teams, as an individual user groups or ‘Team’ is constructed using the Office 365 security framework. You can add or remove members of a team at any time, transferring ownership or permissions within a team is equally simple. Microsoft have a very simple ‘how-to’ on how to set up Teams and channels for your organisation here. 

Collaboration and teamwork are the cornerstones of modern workflow, and since its launch, users have been finding new ways to use Teams daily. But if you’re not currently using Teams, here are some reasons why we think that you should get involved. 

More than just chat 

You can use the chat window in Teams to have quick conversations with your colleagues, but there’s so much more to it. If you need to share a file, then you can just drag and drop the file to the chat. If you need to discuss the file, then you can make a video or voice call straight from the chat window. Once you have finished discussing the file, you can schedule a review meeting without leaving the chat. Teams’ chat function integrates beautifully with other Microsoft products such as Office and OneNote meaning that switching between apps throughout your conversation is no longer an issue. 

Power up your meetings 

Meetings can be a challenging. Making sure everyone is in attendance, that they all have the agenda and access to any required files (or have had them delivered by email beforehand) can be difficult. If you have set up a meeting in Teams it’s very easy to check attendees, conference everyone via video or voice, share documents and screens and even chat via text with attendees whilst in the meeting. 

The recordings of the meeting are immediately available to you in the same tab, so if you missed the meeting, the recording is right there, plus any notes and documents. 

Reduce email, increase oversight 

One great thing about Teams is that it has replaced a great deal of correspondence sent via email in the workplace. If you have a chat conversation that is on a particular subject, you can search that chat using keywords, which will bring out any relevant chat entries related to your search term. Furthermore, everything you do in Teams is recorded by Microsoft if you specify this as a security preference; great for administrative oversight and Human Resources requirements, but also essential for backing-up and securing your data and workflow.  

Integration, integration, integration  

Teams has very tight integration with Office 365 (as well as a whole suite of 3rd party apps), so you can create Word, Excel or PowerPoint document in Teams, and share these for co-authoring without even leaving the chat. Add comments, discuss, and amend versioning in-app.  

File storage for Teams is created under a Teams folder in SharePoint, so users can also view these files using the SharePoint User Interface if they should wish to. Each team can be configured with its own file-sharing and storage allocation or can be built to share files and folders across the organisation; It’s up to you. 

Anywhere-connectivity 

With the Teams mobile app, you have access to your calls, meetings chat and documents on the move, or at home via a smartphone or tablet device. The Teams mobile app gives you the same functionality as the desktop client or the web app, so you can have the same experience regardless of where you are.  

The most exciting connectivity function in Teams is the ability to integrate VoIP packages, allowing the app to receive calls from and make calls to the Publicly Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). Right now, we have the ability to roll out Teams with a dedicated VoIP package, meaning that you can make calls from the app to colleagues without Teams, and even include them in meetings with other users. Call-queuing and hunt-groups can also be implemented, and we have specialist handsets that use the Teams app user interface, making it uniform across your organisation.  

Of course, you don’t have to have ANY hardware to run VoIP using Teams, as the mobile, web or the desktop app will just use the integrated VoIP service over mobile data or fixed Ethernet to make calls to the PSTN, effectively meaning that all your workflow can be geographically fluid; you don’t need an office, and you don’t need specific hardware. A user with a mobile phone and a laptop can answer mail, share files, chat, review documents, make calls, take calls, schedule meetings and tasks, all just as they would if they were sitting in the office. 

If you’re looking to harness the power of Teams and you need some advice, or you want to power up your existing Teams infrastructure with VoIP, get in touch. 

Feeling secure with your IT?

Staying safe at home is still the order of the day, and as we have become physically isolated, we have become more digitally connected – to our workplaces, our data and each-other. This is undoubtedly a good thing in terms of keeping everything going, from personal relationships through to critical projects and day-to-day business, with some damage avoidance already done for those businesses with strong work-from-home or cloud-based elements to their processes. As we become more physically separate however, the number of security flaws begins to increase. With a physically disparate workforce, or a family where home visits are impossible, it is hard to ensure that everyone’s cyber security is up to a good, or even sufficient standard. 

As we come into the 8th week of lockdown, it’s a fact that there are now more cyber threats than when we entered, and for small businesses or families that don’t have a particularly rigorous approach to IT security this means that the threat of data theft or security breach is very real. As we are a Cyber Essentials accredited body, and we want everyone to be as safe as they can be right now, here are some top tips to getting yourself secured at home, from the team at Pearce IT. 

Protect devices with Antivirus software. 

We’ve all heard that Mac’s don’t get viruses (False) or that Windows Defender is the best AV solution out there (False), but in reality If you don’t run an AV solution, then you’re not really taking your security seriously. AV software now includes features such as real-time scanning for websites, as well as any files that you open or applications you run or download. We recommend ESET Internet Security as it has a fantastic range of features to secure your device from external threats. 

Update everything 

Cyber-criminals work very hard to exploit vulnerabilities in operating systems and software. They realise that people’s willingness to run outdated software is their quickest route into your device. Similarly, application and OS developers work even harder to ensure that the latest versions of programs have these vulnerabilities patched. It’s vital to update the OS and all critical software installed on any device that you use at home, especially if it’s currently being used for work. 

Secure your WiFi 

Protecting your devices will be of little help if an attacker connects to your Wi-Fi or takes up residence inside your router. Anyone who does that can intercept data, passwords, remote-access sessions, or work e-mail. You must lock your network down. 

Make sure that the WiFi access to your router is encrypted. If your Wi-Fi asks for a password, the connection is encrypted, but there is more than one method of encryption, and really you should be using WPA2. You can use the router settings to change the type of encryption — and your WiFi password while you are at it (remember to use a strong password) to make sure nobody that already has your credentials can continue to connect.  

While you’re there, change your default admin login and password to access your router settings. The default passwords for many routers are very weak leading to them being cracked, but many are also published on the web. System administrators and IT support personnel look these up all the time. These are often simply written into malware code — if they work, your router is captured. Intruders can check open devices on your network for files or spy on you. Remember - everything you do online passes through your router. We supply Draytek routers, which have great encryption and security options. 

Use a VPN if connecting to open or strange Wi-Fi networks 

If for some reason you are connected to someone else’s WiFi, or as an essential worker you are unavoidably on the move, then you should use a Virtual Private Network, or VPN. This encrypts the connection between your device and your target network, and between your device and the router you are currently connected to, so anyone else monitoring the connection will not be able to read it. 

Lock your device 

You should have password protection enabled on every device you use. It can still be stolen. Even if you’re working at home and outsiders can’t get to your devices, if you’re about to leave the device or the room, lock the screen. You probably don’t want your child to accidentally send a gibberish text to a customer, or your cat to wander across the keyboard and send half an email to the company directors.  

Make sure you use secure services 

You most likely have a set of IT services that you use for work, such as Microsoft Office 365. If you or your employees are using such a service, make sure that it is THE ONLY service that you or they use for storing or exchanging company data. Personal Google Drives and the like can send anonymised links that can potentially be picked up by search engines, so make sure everyone is set up correctly and using reliable and secure cloud storage and sharing apps. We recommend using Microsoft Office 365 which allows secure cloud storage using OneDrive and SharePoint, and messaging, videoconferencing and sharing via Teams. We can even ensure these services are backed up. 

Be vigilant 

Phishing mails can be highly convincing, and spoofing attacks can send mails which appear to originate from within your organisation, from a customer or a loved one. Sometimes, these can bypass even the most sophisticated SPAM and email filtering services. As the amount of digital communications has increased sharply with teleworking, so you should read all messages carefully and don’t rush to reply. If someone urgently needs an important data or a demand for payment of an invoice, double-check the sender is who they claim to be. Call the other party for clarification if needed. Check links on documents especially; best to check them by hovering your mouse over them first. If it’s a random URL, then best to ignore it. If a link takes you to sign-in page for any service, be VERY suspicious indeed. It is always better to get clarification on links and linked files from someone else or the supposed sender. 

Be comfortable 

Finally, don’t neglect your wellbeing. Lounging around on the sofa might seem like a great idea whilst working on the laptop, but you’ll end up being uncomfortable in the long run, Find yourself a desk and a comfortable chair, preferably in a well-lit room to your productivity and concentration levels high, don’t forget to periodically stretch  your legs, drink water, and don’t skip meals. When our concentration levels are low, that is when we are most vulnerable. 

Keep remote workers secure

Forward thinking is part of what we do. This is because we know that the landscape that we work in is constantly changing and as a result of this, new threats and challenges are constantly emerging. We deal with these as they appear, and as they evolve, our solutions evolve with them. It is a dance, a war of attrition, an unspoken agreement that the job is never really done as long as technology keeps marching forward.

Now we know all this already- it’s a baked-in feature of working in the tech sector, but how do we explain these truths to a potential client, or an existing one for that matter? After all, if a client has just bought a bunch of brand-new laptops from you, they’re not going to want to buy NEW laptops in three years’ time, are they? Do they think their staff should be able to work anywhere? Why should they; they’ve just shelled out on an office refurb and three new parking spaces! Cloud storage? But they bought a NAS only two years ago, and there’s loads of space left!

It’s easy to see how customers can look at forward thinking IT strategies and dismiss them as unnecessary expenditure at best, and frivolous or a ‘Hard-Sell’ at worst, but it’s become very evident with the recent responses to lockdown and requirements to furlough staff or take appropriate steps to allow them to work from home that many businesses were a long way behind the curve in terms of their readiness for unforeseen events, and those with well-planned policies encompassing ‘Business Resilience’ have seen minimal disruption to workflow.

It's become almost a meme that, when it comes to provisioning effective IT Business Resilience strategy, clients have to suffer a disaster before they will invest in resilience tech and disaster recovery; Implementing a backup solution after that server array broke, finally putting a password policy in place after that data breach, and putting in Work From Home solutions after the office toaster fire got out of hand… not having this stuff provisioned in the first place means down-time, or as time is money; down-money.

The sad truth is that whilst many of the remote working technologies and protocols we rely on for business resilience, or allowing our employees to access vital resources on our business networks from home have been reliable in the past, they are now creaking and showing vulnerabilities. Direct RDP intercepts and hacks are becoming more and more prevalent, and even VPN’s, such as those based on L2TP protocols, have been getting attention of late for all the wrong reasons.

Any good IT strategy should incorporate a good degree of the three R’s – Redundancy, Resilience and Responsiveness; this is to say, systems in everyday use should have a backup portal or interface, not be easily taken offline, and should be able to be brought to bear in the event of a business critical issue with minimal downtime and fuss. In this age of hugely powerful mobile devices, fantastic cellular data service coverage, Cloud productivity suites and VOIP, and with many of these coming from the same suppliers or MSP’s, it’s difficult to see how some companies are still behind the curve.

If there is one thing that this current situation has taught us, it’s that not planning for a disaster is a disaster in itself.

If you haven’t already invested in a Business Resilience strategy, give us a call. We’ll help you make the right decisions about your IT, giving you piece of mind and the ability to weather any storm. Get in contact to talk about our VOIP and cloud productivity solutions.

Helping you keep your business open

With all the concerns over service disruption due to recent events, rest assured that the we at Pearce IT have redundancy and resilience at the forefront of our minds. We support you using the latest in cloud-based infrastructure and Software As A Service, so if you should experience disruption in your business, it won't be down to your IT. 

Read our day in the life of a home worker 

I start the journey to the office. It’s a short walk to the kitchen table where I start up my laptop PC, my headset, notepad and a coffee, then open my organisations VOIP application on my mobile, connect the headset and (in less than 5 minutes) I’m ready to go. 

The emails come flooding in, the first one I open needs me to check their file, I open our cloud storage and quickly get to work. File checked and customer answered I'm onto the next, this one needs a phone call; The call quality of my headset is excellent, so talking to my customers is just like doing so from the office, except I can do it in more comfortable clothing (pyjamas). I help the client navigate our online portal and resolve their issue. 

11am is our daily meeting, everyone is working from home so we hold a video call where everyone can chip in. (I put a jumper on over my pj’s) 

And breathe, I’ve got a full hour to put the washing on, make myself some lunch, walk the dog and unload the washing machine! 

Back to it this afternoon, and we are all planning the next team social on our instant messaging platform. 

The afternoon went quickly, my inbox is almost clear, now for the long journey home... and to get out of the work clothes. 

Here’s how:

Hosted Desktop:

With this service you can have your desktop wherever you are on any device you own.  Yes that’s right everything everywhere all looking the same.  Your data looking exactly the same on any device.  The latest version of Microsoft Office, your e-mail on every device.  Fully backed up to the cloud and accessible on almost any device. All this for less than a cup of coffee a day.

E-mail:

It’s all very well having your e-mail available on your phone but can you see your sent items, contacts and Calendar?  E-mail is like a jigsaw there are many pieces of information that can be scattered around.  It’s not until you put the pieces all in the same place that the picture appears.  By using Online Exchange (Office 365) you can have your cake and eat it.

E-mail is one of the most important tools that businesses use.  Don’t run the risk of missing that important e-mail just because you’re out of the office or onsite with another customer.

Online File Access:

Using Pearce IT cloud we not only make sure your PC’s and Servers are backed up but also that you have access to them in a web browser being able to view them and edit them on almost any device. With our Briefcase option you too can have you files on all devices and synchronised locally on PC’s and Macs to give you offline access to essential documentation you need whilst out and about.

VOIP:

Voice over IP.  In this modern era although we can converse via the internet using e-mail and text. It is always nice to hear the other person, have a discussion and get business done.  VOIP telephony has come a long way over the last few years.  With the latest technology we can make and receive calls just by taking our phone wherever we go and plugging it into an internet connection. By doing this you can call your clients displaying your office number and using your free call allowance you have already paid for.  There are many packages for phones to include unlimited calls and cheap overseas calls.

Remote Access:

Sometimes the cloud can be a daunting thought you may just need access a bespoke application or service running only on your Desktop in the office.  Here we can create a VPN.  A VPN is a Virtual Private Network.  Joining your remote device to your corporate network enabling you to connect to your office resources.

These are just a few ways that Pearce IT can help your business run as usual.  Give us a ring today to find out what your options are.

Is your business walking an IT tightrope without a support safety net?

If you’ve built it up piece by piece over many years, or are using old IT equipment without vital software updates and reliable backups, there’s a good chance that you are!

But have you thought about how you’d cope if disaster struck - of whatever kind - and your systems suddenly couldn’t be used?

If the thought strikes you with dread, you need managed IT support.  And when you choose Pearce IT of Gloucester, you can get it without paying over the odds.

Business owner Liam Pearce set up his business after working with a number of leading companies across many sectors including insurance, finance, port authorities and IT security companies.

“I found that I really enjoyed the nitty-gritty of pinpointing the source of a problem and using the expertise and products available to me to come up with a permanent solution to them” Liam says.

 “For example, I recently took a call from a business whose system was originally installed by someone who had since sadly died - and there was no one else in the business who’d assumed the responsibility for managing the technology they used, and relied on”.

That’s a typical scenario - all the experience of installing systems and keeping them up-to-date is in the hands of just one person, and especially in the light of the obligations placed on them by GDPR to keep track of their data, at some stage, most businesses are going to have to ask themselves “how do we start to properly manage our IT?”.

The easy and cost-effective answer is with a managed service package from Pearce IT.

Why use a manged IT service?

 There are several compelling reasons:

 - You get comprehensive help, with 24-hour support access, from a team of knowledgeable, helpful experts.

 - You can think of a managed IT service package as being an insurance policy which you can call on to keep the systems at the heart of your business running.

 - Most problems can be solved without a site visit, which means that Pearce IT can protect your business, no matter where in the UK you’re based, or your work takes you to.

 - You and your business get IT solutions which have been fully tested and proven.

 - And with Pearce IT, you’re dealing with a business which understands what it means to rely totally on your computer - you won’t be just another ‘support ticket’.

Pearce IT is a Microsoft Silver Partner, and an accredited member of the Government-backed Cyber Essentials scheme.  This is a key part of the government’s IT security strategy, involving bringing together a network of businesses and individuals with the expertise to ensure that their clients’ systems are properly protected from hacking and other forms of attack.

“We’re also undergoing constant refresher training to keep abreast of the latest IT security issues and threats,” added Liam.

 “The main benefit of this is that you get a solution for your IT requirement or problem which will last, because we stake our reputation on being able to get, and keep, our systems running smoothly – it’s in our own interest to get it right, first time,” concluded Liam.