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IT Security Tip: What are Zero-Day Vulnerabilities?
In the world of Cyber Security, the term “zero-day vulnerabilities” comes up often. What exactly does it mean and why do I care about it? After all, we are a small business and surely not worth anyone’s bother to “hack.” Nothing can be further from the truth. A zero-day vulnerability is a unique weakness in either software or hardware which has not yet been exploited by the hacking community and provides them with a brief window of opportunity to hack your systems before a fix is readily made available to you. IN other words, it is a hacker’s dream come true. Why should you care? Ideally, you shouldn’t. You should know that we care a tremendous amount and have gone to great lengths to protect you, your employees and customers from just such an exploitation. Let’s get back to that comment about “not being large enough for a hacker to target you.” Yes, it is true, governments and large organizations are under a 24/7 barrage of hacking attempts. What is also true is they spend millions upon millions of dollars every year just to keep up, never mind get ahead of the hackers. Hacking is a trillion-dollar business. That is true. And if you are a hacking concern you are going to look for “soft targets” or the low hanging fruit where you can make a few bucks. If you hit enough of these singles with small businesses that adds up quickly and you can make a good “living” at it. They know that most small businesses are too busy to have proper IT security hygiene and take advantage of that fact. This is one reason all of our clients are monitored 24/7 and scanned continually for probable threats. If you have a nagging suspicion this isn’t occurring for you, we should talk. Cybercrime is at an all-time high, and hackers are setting their sights on small and medium businesses who are “low hanging fruit.” Don’t be their next victim! To download this free report that reveals the most common ways that hackers get in and how to protect yourself today go to www.packetlogix.com
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CPAIRS Stops ERC claims!
The Employee Retention Credit (ERC) has gained wide publicity and numerous shops have popped up all over the United States and unfortunately many have been “false advertising” about businesses eligibility and how much money they will receive. We receive at least five calls per week offering to “gets us the money that is owed to us,” and messages that “you could receive up to $26,000 per employee.” These types of claims have caused an unprecedented IRS response. A recent moratorium on the processing of new claims has been enacted, at least through the end of this year. If you were legitimately eligible for the ERC (employee retention credit) your CPA could have run some computations to help you determine your eligibility. There were a few hurdles to jump over, and there wasn’t just “free money” out there because you had employees. The credit was refundable and based upon a business’s ability to pay workers through the COVID-19 pandemic even if their operations were fully or partially shut down or for those that saw a significant decline in gross receipts during the eligibility period. The credit was claimed on an amended form 941 (quarterly payroll tax return) generally for the periods of March 31, 2020, to September 30, 2021. Due to a slew of recent claims within the last 90 days, the IRS Commissioner reacted with the moratorium, because he said, these claims should be dissipating and not increasing. There have been criminal investigations and convictions related to false claims. To learn more, see this article in the Journal of Accountancy: https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2023/sep/tsunami-of-erc-claims-required-irs-action-halt-fraud-experts-say.html submitted my M Hughes CPA & Company, LLC  This Week’s Cybersecurity Tip of the Week, provided by PacketLogix
IT Security Tip: Fake update prompts from popular software All software needs to be updated on a regular basis. This includes popular programs such as adobe reader, java, and other programs that you might use on a regular basis. Since most of these programs don’t auto-update, they have to ask you to do it. The bad guys have figured this out and use trickery to present you with fake update windows that look deceptively close to the real thing but will actually give you viruses or malware if you click on them. The best way to handle this is to either 1. Partner with an IT company that will handle 3rd party software updates automatically for you or 2. Only update this software from within the application itself. Updates can usually be found in the ‘help’ menu for most software. Cybercrime is at an all-time high, and hackers are setting their sights on small and medium businesses who are “low hanging fruit.” Don’t be their next victim! To download this free report that reveals the most common ways that hackers get in and how to protect yourself today go to www.packetlogix.com This Week’s Cybersecurity Tip of the Week, provided by PacketLogix
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