Orange County IT Support Providers often use similar tactics to the “bad guys” in their approach to protecting their client interests. This is because the term “hacking” isn’t inherently negative. There are good “hacks” and bad “hacks”. Bad hackers lie, cheat, and steal; using social engineering techniques to undermine even the greatest security. White hat hackers tell the truth, educate, and anticipate, safeguarding operations against digital and social engineering threats through a predictive, intuitive security design. With that in mind, it makes sense to understand some of the issues MSPs fight against. They fall primarily under two categories briefly mentioned earlier:

• Social Engineering Hacks
• Digital Hacks

Digital and Social Engineering Hacks

Digital hacks use viruses that operate under Trojan strategies where they lurk in the hidden code of third-party apps, they operate under ransomware designs which lock out users from their data against a fee, they operate in an adware capacity that litters a network with invasive advertisement, and spyware which steals information and disseminates it to competitors.

Now, these hacks can be blocked against directly through things like firewalls, antivirus software, and monitoring that proactively supports your operation. But social engineering of the black-hat variety is used by hackers to get past digital security barricades, allowing them to implant things like ransomware, or steal data, or generally cause mayhem. Orange County IT Support Providers are aware of common social engineering techniques. For a great overview, consider this video where a woman simulates a baby’s cries with an app on a speaker and uses that to get a man’s cellphone account info. What this clip evinces is the practice of these social engineering techniques:

• Trust
• Ignorance
• Laziness
• Kindness

Through the baby’s cries, the “hacker” at the convention giving a social engineering hack demonstration immediately fosters trust, kindness, and laziness. The woman on the other end of the phone trusts the baby’s cries, her kindness prompts her to be accommodating, and her laziness prevents her from doing the requisite follow-through because of her established trust. All these things are facilitated through ignorance of social engineering hacks.

Securing Your Business

Orange County IT Support Providers through Advanced Networks can help you get cybersecurity designed around known regional threats. We can help you comprehensively secure your business against both digital and social engineering hacks. Contact us to see what kind of protections are most appropriate for your operation.