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4 Best Practices to Get Your Organization Ready for Cybersecurity Awareness Month

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America’s Cyber Defense Agency – CISA, the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency – marks its annual Cybersecurity Awareness Month this October. This is the ideal time to review and share an effective cybersecurity action plan with your team.

Your business is digitally connected – to employees, vendors, and customers – and now is the time to make your organization safer from online dangers.

Your systems store sensitive business and customer information. This information and personal data could be at risk. No business is too small to be a target for online crime.

Thousands of small and medium businesses (SMBs) have been harmed by ransomware attacks, with small businesses three times more likely to be targeted by cybercriminals than larger companies. The total cost of cybercrimes to small businesses is in the billions every year!

Four Smart Ways to Protect Your Business

Online criminals are always looking for easy targets. Businesses that don’t take basic precautions are at risk. Take the following four steps to make it harder for malicious actors to access your data or trick employees into allowing access to your systems.

DC-area businesses must also safeguard their Phone systems and UC services from cyber threats.

A compromised system enables attackers to steal sensitive information, disrupt operations, and damage reputation. Strong UC security ensures customer trust, regulatory compliance, and uninterrupted communication – protecting both employees and clients from malicious bad actors.

Need help with your UC or Voice communications security? Contact TCI today at (703) 321-3030 or GetHelp@tcicomm.com.

 

Evolving Threats Require a Multi-Layered Cybersecurity Strategy that Includes Your UC

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The cyber threat landscape is evolving rapidly, driven by AI, increasing connectivity, sophisticated adversaries, and the widespread adoption of cloud and remote work environments.

New vulnerabilities are rising. Ransomware remains the top concern, while cyber-enabled fraud, including phishing and business email compromise, is the second most significant threat. Supply chain attacks and AI-powered intrusions are also escalating, exploiting weak third-party defenses and leveraging automation to bypass traditional security measures.

Fueling these threats is AI, which cybercriminals use to craft highly convincing phishing campaigns and automate attacks. The expansion of connected devices and cloud migration increases attack surfaces, making endpoint protection and cloud security paramount. Human factors remain critical, as social engineering exploits employee vulnerabilities.

To mitigate these risks, business leaders should adopt a multi-layered cybersecurity strategy:

  • Implement Zero Trust Architecture to continuously verify every user and device accessing network resources, minimizing lateral movement within systems.
  • Leverage AI-driven threat detection for real-time anomaly identification and proactive defense.
  • Enforce robust cloud security practices, including encryption, identity and access management, and continuous monitoring.
  • Prioritize employee cybersecurity training to strengthen the human firewall against phishing and social engineering.
  • Maintain regular backups and disaster recovery plans to ensure business continuity in case of ransomware or data loss.
  • Conduct ongoing vendor risk assessments to secure the supply chain.
  • Ensure compliance with evolving industry regulations to avoid penalties and build customer trust.

We understand the complexity of today’s cyber threats. Work with TCI to ensure your UC services are safeguarding your business communications.

Contact us today at (703) 321-3030 or GetHelp@tcicomm.com

 

Simple Cybersecurity Tips from CISA to Protect Your Business

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The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) recommends businesses keep it simple and focus on these four critical actions now:

  • Teach Employees to Avoid Phishing – Phishing happens when criminals trick employees into opening malicious attachments or sharing personal info. Implement training to teach employees how to identify and report suspicious activity.
  • Require Strong Passwords – This is one of the easiest ways to protect your business from criminals who might otherwise access your accounts by guessing or using automated hacking programs.
  • Require Multifactor Authentication – Use more than a password when signing into accounts, such as a texted code, authenticator app or biometrics – to make them much safer than a password alone! MFA protects accounts by requiring additional authentication to prevent access by others.
  • Update Business Software – Defects in software, routers, VPNs and apps can give criminals an opening to your accounts. Software manufacturers publish patches, but you must install them to be protected! Don’t use outdated software. Keep business software up to date.

Need help with your UC or Voice communications security? Contact TCI today at (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.

 

Stay Safe and Keep it Simple… 4 Essential Actions to Take During Cybersecurity Awareness Month

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The theme of CISA’s, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Cybersecurity Awareness Month is “Secure Our World.” They are asking all of us to do our part.

CISA offers helpful tips, videos and resources to protect yourself, your family, and your business from online threats here:

https://www.cisa.gov/secure-our-world

CISA recommends all of us – individuals, families and businesses – to keep it simple and focus on these four critical actions this month – and all year long.

  • Use Strong Passwords – Strong passwords are long, random, unique, and include all four character types (uppercase, lowercase, numbers and symbols). Password managers are a powerful tool to help you create strong passwords for each of your accounts.
  • Turn On MFA – You need more than a password to protect your online accounts and enabling MFA makes you significantly less likely to get hacked. Enable MFA on all your online accounts that offer it, especially email, social media and financial accounts.
  • Recognize & Report Phishing – Be cautious of unsolicited messages asking for personal information. Avoid sharing sensitive information or credentials with unknown sources. Report phishing attempts and delete the message.
  • Update Software – Ensuring your software is up to date is the best way to make sure you have the latest security patches and updates on your devices. Regularly check for updates if automatic updates are not available.

Your UC and Voice Communications need to be protected too. Need help with your UC or Voice communications security?

Contact TCI today at (703) 321-3030 or GetHelp@tcicomm.com.
 


Stay Vigilant… 5 Techniques Bad Guys are Using to Breach Your IT

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While we all know security is important, sometimes day-to-day operations overwhelm our good intentions to keep up with fast-moving technology threats. Staying safe means being continually aware and taking precautions against the more common techniques bad guys are using to breach businesses every day:

1. Spoofing – Email spoofing is when the sender address is forged to make it appear that their email comes from a trusted source, such as your bank. The email can send you to a bogus website where your account details can be stolen. Or it appears to come from inside your own organization, asking you to change your password or confirm your details.

2. Phishing – Often posing as a request for data from a trusted source, this attack is launched via email and asks users to click on a link. Over time, phishing has evolved to include Spear Phishing (targeted attempts highly personalized for a specific individual) and Whaling (phishing scams that target high-profile users and decision makers).

3. Hijacking – This attack changes a computer’s settings to either ignore DNS or use a DNS server that is controlled by malicious hackers. The attackers then redirect communication to fraudulent sites. Website hijacking is commonly used to redirect users to fake login pages for banks and other online services in order to steal their login credentials. It can also be used to redirect security sites to non-existent servers to prevent affected users from updating their security software.

4. Malware Insertion – This refers to a variety of cyber threats including Trojans, viruses and worms which typically steal data or destroy key computer functions; usually introduced through email attachments, website visits, software downloads, or operating system vulnerabilities.

5. Ransomware – This is a specific type of malware that requires some sort of ransom payment to either remove it or to retrieve files that had been encrypted. Ransomware has been around for a long time, but it made news in recent years when payments started to be demanded in Bitcoin, making this activity virtually risk-free for cyber criminals.

IT security is a big challenge. TCI security experts can help keep your business safe. Contact us today at (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.