The bad guys are smarter again. This time they have drastically improved their web and email design so much so that it is getting difficult to determine whether it is real or not. The good is that our clients are getting smarter and we’re getting a lot of emails from you asking whether an email is legitimate or not. Here’s a couple that we’ve gotten from clients recently. I’ve actually gotten both of these too.
What would happen if you thought these were legitimate email? They would take you to a website that look just like your Office 365 login page and steal that password. They would then try that password all over the Internet looking for where else you may have used it. They may also ask for other “identity verification” or “payment verification”.
Sending us these email is the right thing to do because your anti-virus won’t protect you from this kind of thing. Only the individual smarts of the person receiving the email prevents an identity theft. You have to suspect this email might not be legit, don’t click and ask for help.
Help is on the horizon
As you know we’re recommending that Windows 10 computer stop using additional anti-virus software. The built in Windows Defender is now good enough. But we are going to start recommended instead that those dollars are spent on something called Advanced Threat Management. ATM is a smart big data learning tool inside of Office 365 that can spot phishing, ransomware and the other non-virus threats that are common today. The traditional virus is pretty much gone. Instead we have these new methods that the bad guy are using to steal your identity, everything in your bank account and other payment information.
We’ve been testing and learning about ATM internally for a few months and now that we understand it and have experienced how it is to live with it from a normal user point of view we’re ready to move forward and talk to you about it.
Expect to hear more from us soon. New types of threats mean that we have to deploy new types of protection.
– Amy, president
About Harbor Computer Services
Harbor Computer Services is an IT firm servicing Southeastern Michigan. We work exclusively under contract with our clients to provide technology direction and either become the IT department or provide assistance to the internal IT they already have. We have won many awards for our work over the years, including the worldwide Microsoft Partner of the Year in 2010. We’re the smallest firm to have ever won this most prestigious award. Most recently we were recognized as one of the top 20 visionaries in small business IT by ChannelPro Magazine (2015). And in 2016 as the top Michigan IT firm for Manufacturing. There are a few simple things that make Harbor Computer Services the best choice for your business. •We are Professionals •We are Responsible •We are Concerned About The Success of Your Business
