Synapse Blog

Last week, an unusually sophisticated phishing campaign appeared to target Google’s 1 billion+ Gmail users worldwide, seeking to gain control of their entire email histories.

The worm, which arrived in users’ inboxes posing as an email from a trusted contact, asked users to click on an attached “Google Docs” file. Clicking on the link took users to a real Google security page, where users were asked to give permission for the fake app, posing as Google Docs.

Once the user entered their details, the worm sent itself out to all of the affected users’ contacts, spreading rapidly with every new victim.

Google said it has “disabled” the malicious accounts and that the vulnerability was exposed for only about one hour. During that time, a spokesperson reported that “fewer than 0.1 percent of Gmail users” were affected, a percentage which would still be about 1 million users.

While the scam appeared as an authentic Google Doc email, one of the biggest giveaways was the sender address which appeared as hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh@mailinator.com.

In order to ensure you don’t fall victim to the next phishing scam, here’s everything you need to know about phishing and how you can avoid it:

What is phishing?

Phishing is a technique used to trick you into giving out personal information such as your bank account details, passwords and credit card information. While phishing can come in the form of phone calls and website downloads, the most common form of phishing attempts occur via email, where scammers pose as trusted companies, so that you’re tricked into disclosing personal information.

Phishing emails can look authentic, featuring corporate logos and fonts similar to legitimate emails.  Some common examples of phishing include the scammer saying that your bank is verifying customer records due to a technical error. Or, they may ask you to fill out a customer survey and offer a prize for participating.

Alternatively, the scammer may alert you to ‘unauthorised or suspicious activity on your account’. You might be told that a large purchase has been made overseas and asked if you authorised the payment. If you reply that you didn’t, the scammer will ask you to confirm your credit card or bank details so the ‘bank’ can investigate.

Tips on how you can avoid phishing scams:

Note the language Used in the email

Fraudsters often include threats which will try and get you to react immediately. Emails threatening to close your account or stating that urgent action is required, are often sent by scammers who want you to think your information is at risk.

Does the email have spelling or grammar errors?

Cyber criminals are not known for their grammar and spelling. Most professional companies have editors who will thoroughly check mass emails for any spelling and grammar errors before being sent.  If you receive an email with spelling and grammar errors, it’s likely you’ve received a phishing email. In addition to spelling and grammar mistakes, look at the general layout of the email. As you can see from the phishing email from ‘Australian Government Department of Human Services’ below, some phishing scams appear unprofessional in both their layout and wording.

Is the greeting personal or generic?

If you’ve opted in to receive emails from banks, online shopping companies and other businesses, chances are they will have your name in their database and address emails with a personal greeting. Phishing emails are usually sent out on mass and therefore will most likely have a generic greeting such as “Dear member”,  “Dear customer” or “Hi There”

Does the sender address match the company?

Sometimes phishing emails will look professional until you look at the sender’s address. If the sender address does not match the corporation that emailed you, it is likely to be a scam.

While spelling errors and the tone of the email are the easiest way to spot a phishing email, some scammers have managed to make messages look authentic by using legitimate-looking logos and font. As with the Google example above, one of best ways to spot a fake is by looking at the sender email address. If the address does not match up with the company that allegedly sent the email, delete it immediately.

Are links legitimate?

Links on a phishing emails can look very similar to those of a company’s legitimate website. If you are unsure of the legitimacy of a link, don’t click on it. Instead, hover your mouse over the URL and see if the URL matches the real web address (which will come up in a yellow box under the link), if they don’t match, its likely to be a malicious email.

Are you affiliated with the company that sent you the email?

While it seems obvious, receiving an email asking for urgent action can cause unnecessary stress and immediate response. If you receive an email from a company or service provider that you are not affiliated with, delete the email immediately.

Over the past week alone, the team at Synapse have received a number of phishing emails. If you receive any of the following emails, do not click on any links and delete them immediately:

A Phishing email posing as The Department of Human Services

A Phishing email posing as Myob

Taking the above tips into account, you should be able to confidently differentiate a legitimate email from one attempting to steal your personal data. If you’re still unsure about a particular email, feel free to give the team at Synapse a call on 1300 903 405.

Scheduling backups, monitoring systems and undertaking routine maintenance can be hard work for businesses that don’t specialise in IT. After all, it can be easy to forget about IT altogether until something goes wrong!

That’s where outsourcing comes in! While outsourcing often connotes images of scripted telemarketers and terrible hold music, outsourcing your IT to a specialist company can reap numerous benefits, including the obvious advantages of cutting costs.

But is there more to outsourcing than the bottom line?

In this article we will discuss the 3 R’s of subcontracting your IT to an external company: The reasons, risks and rewards.

The Reasons

There are numerous reasons why companies choose to outsource their IT, here are some of the most popular motives:

Reduce and control operating costs

The main driver of IT outsourcing for many companies is reduced spending. Depending on your business size and your agreement, you could save up to 40% on your IT spend.

When you outsource your IT, both capital and operating expenses can be reduced. You don’t need to purchase expensive hardware, or hire employees to perform certain IT functions. What’s more, most IT companies offer fixed cost packages, which means your IT spend is predictable with no nasty surprises or expensive time and materials costs.

Improve company focus

For small businesses especially, trying to juggle IT management, consistent marketing efforts and bookkeeping can be a struggle. Outsourcing enables you to focus on your core competencies, allowing experts to take care of other functions in your business.

Gain access to exceptional capabilities

Your return on investment is so much greater when you outsource your IT to a firm that specialises in the areas you need. Instead of just the knowledge of one person, you benefit from the collective experience of a team of IT professionals. Most IT companies, including Synapse requires their consultants to have proper industry training and certifications, meaning your business is in very safe and capable hands.

Reduce Risk

Keeping up with the technology required to run your business is expensive and time consuming. Because professional outsourced IT providers work with multiple clients and need to keep up on industry best practices, they typically know what is right and what is not. This kind of knowledge and experience not only reduces your risk of implementing a costly wrong decision, but ensures your system is proactively monitored and maintained at all times.

The Risks

As with most things in life, there is risk involved in outsourcing your IT which can cause headaches if inadequate planning and research has been undertaken before selecting an IT company.

Business owners who consider outsourcing IT functions need to be aware of the following risks:

Lack of Confidentiality

When hiring an IT company to oversee your entire IT system, the confidentiality of data and disaster recovery can sometimes come into question, as IT providers require your passwords to access your system.   Before you sign on to an agreement, ensure the IT company is professional and reputable. The testimonials section of the company’s website is a good place to start.

Employee morale may be affected

If you will be laying off employees to replace their job functions with an outsourced IT firm, employee morale can be affected. Often employees who survive lay-offs can be left feeling depressed or insecure about their position. Research shows that reduced commitment and diminished productivity can linger for the better part of a year after a layoff takes place.

You may get “locked in” to a contract

More often than not, IT companies require you to sign a 12 or 24 month contract.  If you haven’t established clear expectations with your IT service provider, you could be in for a very frustrating and tiresome two years.

Before you agree to anything, ensure you and your IT provider are on the same page with everything from contract inclusions, response rate and excess charges. Still not sure what to ask? view our list of things you should cover in your IT support agreement.

The Rewards

Cost

As we’ve already mentioned, outsourcing your IT to a team of experts can save your business a significant amount of money.  Not only will you save money on costly hardware and equipment, but with a team proactively monitoring your system, the risk of downtime and idle staff is reduced enormously. Even in the event of a catastrophe, robust backup and recovery procedures significantly reduce the risk of losing important company data. IT outsourcing providers ensure that data centers have appropriate defences, such as firewalls and security information and event monitoring software.

Access to the latest and greatest in technology

As technology is constantly evolving, software and operating systems can quickly out-date leaving you vulnerable to viruses, hackers and loss of valuable data. Keeping up to date with everything can be time consuming and challenging, especially if you aren’t sure what tools need to be implemented to achieve your IT goals.

Whether you switch the cloud or keep a server on premise, outsourcing your IT means you will get expert advice on the latest technology and solutions to suit your business’ particular needs.

Reduced­­­­ Risk and Increased Flexibility

Technology is expensive, and making wrong decisions is costly. An IT services provider has a solid base of experience that assists with making the right technical decisions. If you decide to change your technology strategy, your IT provider will have tools and services to help you transition.

Working with an IT services provider also provides flexibility that enables companies to scale their system as their business grows (or downsizes). If your company is growing rapidly and needs additional capacity, an IT services provider can rapidly bring additional servers and storage online.

When managed properly, outsourcing your IT services is a great way to save costs, increase reliability and keep up to date with the latest software. If you are considering outsourcing, why not get in touch with the team at Synapse IT.

There is no doubt that outsourcing your business’ IT to a specialized IT consulting company, can save you both time and money.

Regardless of what industry you are in, technology most likely plays an integral role in the day-to-day operation of your company. Have you considered what would happen if you weren’t getting the most out of your IT system?

For some clients, IT can be like an onion; protected by layers of problems and expenses that no one can seem to solve before the next layer is uncovered. While this can be a common feeling amongst executives, it shouldn’t have to be this way.

A well-managed IT system doesn’t have to break your budget- it should strengthen your business’ day to day routine, enhance productivity and boost subsequent profit.

When it comes to ‘all in’ managed IT services, or IT support agreements, there are 5 critical questions which can make or break the relationship between you and your IT service provider:

1. What does ‘all in’ truly mean?

Support agreements and ‘all in’ managed IT service agreements should be clear and leave no question unanswered. Ensuring that you understand exactly what is included in your agreement is vital as additional fees and/or items that aren’t clearly understood should notequate to additional charges every month. If everything is included, why would there be any extra bills?  Your service level agreement should fit the day to day needs of your business, with a clear and predictable cost each month.

2. How long will they take to resolve a problem?

When your IT systems are down your entire business suffers, so it is essential to clarify with an IT team how long it will take them to respond to your support request, and also how long it will take them to resolve it. Many IT services state that they have a rapid response time, but this does not mean they can solve the problem straight away. The solution might be hours or days away, so talk about timing in your IT support agreement, well before a problem actually occurs.

3. When do they operate?

Gone are the days when everyone works 9am-5pm. Information technology is crucial for businesses at all hours of the day, and you will need to confirm when your IT team operates. Even if they do not provide a service 24 hours a day, it is wise to partner with a team that works similar hours to your own business. Waiting for technical support can be costly for your business, so think about this concern ahead of time.

4. Are they using the latest and most efficient technology?

This is very simple to figure out.  If you are seeing or hearing from engineers when it comes to updates, patches, basic maintenance and reboots, the 90s are calling, and they want their IT support team back!  Intelligent systems management is driven by advanced technology, delivered through proven processes and tools overseen by tech experts. As a result of this mature technology, your IT provider should be able to handle much of your work remotely and without any interruption to you. When your IT department is using advanced and modern technology, efficiency and productivity amongst your workplace should dramatically increase.

5. Am I secure?

If you need to ask, then you probably aren’t.  Professional, modern IT providers use premium security software and management systems to relentlessly support basic IT administration and delivery.  Security is at the heart of any IT and business infrastructure so demanding security and compliance services are a must.

As the complexities of the technology you use to run your business increase, so do the vast amount of options, price points and opinions surrounding IT support.  While this may be the case, IT support does not have to be confusing or costly. With the right communication, strategic plan and service provider, you can optimise technology solutions inside of your organisation.

In the ever-growing realm of cloud computing, virtualisation and managed and hosted IT services, organisations are faced with the big question: should we leverage hosted services or should we expand on existing in-house IT infrastructure?

Although at first glance, building, operating and managing an in-house IT Infrastructure seems to be the obvious, reasonable and cost effective choice for most businesses, hosted services also has its benefits – specifically when it comes to cost, flexibility, scalability and managed service platform. The decision must be weighed carefully against key business objectives to make the optimum decision.

This article will discuss and evaluate several factors against both delivery models – hosted IT services models and traditional in-house IT services model.  

Financial Costs

For many, cost is the number one driver and qualifying criteria for any IT product and service. Organisations seek IT solutions that not only automate business processes and improve performance but also have less TCO and a quicker ROI. In this regard, in-house IT infrastructure is much more expensive to create and manage. Organisations have to pay substantial upfront capital costs to source IT resources, manage and plan for infrastructure upgrades and depreciation costs, along with ongoing operational and maintenance costs to operate and manage such an environment. 

In comparison, the hosted IT service models provide a flexible and predictable monthly cost based on the amount of hosted services being used. There is hardly any capital or operational costs attached with hosted services and organisations just have to pay a fixed or pay-per-use monthly rental. Moreover, the vendor is responsible for managing the costs associated with backend infrastructure upgrades.

IT Flexibility

Organisations these days move at a very fast pace and require access to IT infrastructure that stays up to the mark with the business. Technological advancements, ever evolving business functions and changing markets requires backend IT’s flexibility to adjust and address new challenges. Traditionally, in-house IT can be flexible but only up to a certain point. They usually don’t welcome a new IT advancement and constrain themselves to a specific technology and limited skill sets.

In comparison, hosted IT services must innovate, change and evolve on an ongoing basis. A good hosted IT service provider will embrace IT flexibility and adapt to new and unique business requirements.

Infrastructure Scalability

Similar to IT flexibility, growth trends and business evolution have equal effects on the backend IT infrastructure supporting it. Organisations working in fast paced consumer environments generally face several scenarios where computing requirements surpass the ability of in-house IT infrastructure.

Hosted service providers mostly have IT infrastructure that can scale and sprawl to greater capabilities and do so quickly as required. Most resources are added to the existing resources instantly – which generally take days and weeks in a traditional IT delivery model. An established hosted IT service provider will have a broad range of solutions and services enabling organisations to source only a single provider for all their needs, thus decreasing IT complexity.

Access to Skilled Human Resources

Skilled employees and resources are the key to managing a highly efficient, readily available IT infrastructure. However, it’s very difficult to find and hire good employees, especially if your organisation has limited IT skills. Even if you somehow have access to such personnel, their performance turnover is unpredictable and their sudden absence can leave IT in shambles. With hosted services, the hosted service provider will do whatever it takes to hire and retain the best resources to deliver consistent and reliable IT services for their clients. They usually have access to multiple highly skilled, qualified and certified IT human resources.

Information and Infrastructure Security

Information and infrastructure security is something that can’t be extracted out from any IT environment, whether in-house or hosted. Even companies running a basic website and some e-mails require a level of security to avoid intrusions and exploits. When it comes to in-house security, small and medium organisations generally have limited security capabilities. They rely on standard security practices and usually don’t innovate or change to increase their security. However, with hosted services, a hosted service provider is bound to implement and manage enterprise-class security measures that go beyond basic security techniques. They are usually certified with industry leading security standards and certifications and have well-crafted security measures.

IT Services Delivery and Monitoring

Perhaps among the top requirements for any IT environment, IT services delivery and its continuous monitoring is a key business requirement. With in-house IT environments the internal resources manage and monitor the IT infrastructure and ensure it remains above the benchmark requirement. Organisations large or small rely on their IT staff for delivering business critical applications, interacting with customers and automating business processes. However, most small to medium businesses lack such management and monitoring support around the clock. If a service fails in the later hours of the day, the response and resolution time is comparatively higher. With a hosted service provider, organizations receive 24/7/365 IT services and monitoring support-backed by service level agreements and performance based pricing. With the always-access service platform of hosted IT service, delivered through the collective pool of IT and human resources, service degradation and failures are quickly addressed and resolved.