I’m old enough to remember when Twitter was a social media platform mostly for teens and celebrities. In the last few years it has become one of the most immediate sources for news and views from around the world. Yesterday several of the most followed Twitter accounts were hacked and a ballsy bitcoin scam was perpetrated. Today, the day after, Twitter is explaining that the hackers most likely got in through employee accounts. It shows that even huge technology-driven companies are susceptible to malicious attacks just like everyone else.  I am sure Twitter has provided technology training to their employees in the past, but I am willing to bet that these efforts will be ramped up substantially.  The takeaway is how do we learn from Twitter’s mistakes and secure our own technology from attack?

The Director of the FBI has been warning recently of increases in cyber attacks on the USA. At Aptica, we have also seen an uptick in the kind of hacking and phishing that goes on constantly with small businesses and ordinary people. With everything that is going on in the world presently, we believe that malware and ransomware attempts will only increase. To help prevent that, Aptica is including updated security training and mock exploit emails for our customers at no extra charge.

Aptica Has A New Training Program For Your Employees

How long has it been since you last had educational cyber crime prevention training for you and your employees? The prevention of malicious attacks and increased data security must move up your list of priorities. Our first few training topics are Malware Awareness, How to Avoid Phishing Scams, and Data Protection: Privacy Risks. Training courses will be delivered electronically within your company regularly.

After the education, then Aptica will put the training to the test. We will send realistic emails to users to see if they can spot the problems before they click on the mock exploit. If mock exploits get clicked, then it redirects that user to more training.

Training Is 3-4 minute Videos Done At Your Desk

The learning starts with how to recognize the training emails sent from Aptica. Is it really from us? Should you click or not? We will prep you with visuals of what the email will look like as well as with the details of the electronic point of origin. If we do not do this extremely well to begin with, then we are setting you up to click on some bad actor’s attempt to install malware. There are so many real horror stories like, “But it looked like an email from my bank, logo and all.”

If the email matches the attributes we have shown you, it is safe to open the email and click on the “Begin Training” button. You will be directed to a 3-4 minute video that will introduce key concepts. After the video, there are 5-8 questions about the content. Once the quiz is completed and submitted, immediate feedback is provided.

Periodically Aptica will simulate mock weaponized email attacks. We have two major objectives. First, to see if the training program mentioned above is working. Second, to provide real-life examples of weaponized emails and see how your users react. It is better to learn in a simulated attack than to learn from an actual attack that did costly damage to your network, data, or business reputation. We will review the results and make necessary adjustments. Our goal is to ensure we are providing the best training possible to protect your network from malicious attacks.

The ideal scenario is that the threat is recognized, nothing gets clicked, and either an internal manager or Aptica is notified. Users may forward any suspicious email to us anytime for our review—just call our Help Desk. If a user does take the bait and provide sensitive information, they will immediately be directed to training on what they did wrong and how to avoid the mistake in the future.

Experts Are Saying These Attacks Are Only Going To Get Worse

Aptica wants to make your team aware of the malicious attacks they are facing and to provide a safe environment to learn about these threats. We strive always to ensure a safe and secure technological environment so your company can thrive. This new tool helps us achieve this cybersecurity objective together.

Call me with questions. Whether you tweet or not, what better example of how dangerous things are now than yesterday’s brazen attack?

Jason Newburg, 260.243.5100, ext 2101, is the founder and owner of Aptica LLC. This IT management and support company has been serving small to medium-sized businesses for 19 years in the region that includes Angola, South Bend, and Fort Wayne, IN, Battle Creek, MI, and Toledo OH.