Classifying Cyber Attackers and their motivational Quotients

Different organizations tend to have their own way of specifying cyber threats. But then again, as it would be the case according to the renowned IT organizations there are just five broad categories of cyber attacks and each one of them have their own and distinct; although sometimes overlapping methods and objectives. Those popularly being:

-      Pulling off Financial cons and scams

The first amongst the objectives; it often ends up involving criminals – highly organized and well-funded; using technology as a tool for stealing money and other assets. This stolen information at times is used for extorting a ransom from the target organization in question.

-       Spying

In the present era, the valuable intellectual property of an organization comprises of corporate electronic communications and files as well as traditional R&D outputs. With the theft of IP considered as a persistent threat and the victims not even knowing what has happened – right till the point until someone knocks off the products suddenly appearing in the market, or the patent based on R&D gets registered by another organization. Well, as it would go the crimes in such a case may be either carried out by commercial competitors or state intelligence services seeking to use IP for either R&D or gain high-end business intelligence.

-        Conflict between nations or Warfare

With tensions every now and then escalating amongst nations; critical national infrastructure (CNI) such as power, telecoms and financial systems is always a plum target. The Stuxnet attack on Iran’s nuclear establishment is a good example.

-         Unleashing Terror Campaigns

With the threat often overlapping with warfare attacks are undertaken by (possibly state-backed) terrorist groups again targeting either state or private assets, in some instances often targeting establishments such as CNI.

-          Activism

Again as an ideology, it may end up overlapping some other categories, but then as it goes attacks are undertaken by supporters of an idealistic cause – as in the recent times by supporters of the Wiki Leaks site. And as it goes organizations need to anticipate such threats by thinking how activists might view the impact of particular actions taken by them on their personal interests.   www.pccare247.com

Safeguarding Information Resources from Insider Threats

Insider threats have been around for a long time and if one were to trace them back to the earlier civilization’s, it was in 1800s that the first batch of computers suffered an attack at the hand of malicious insiders. Invented by Joseph-Marie Jacquard of France, it was essentially an automatic loom that ended up boring the brunt of an attack launched by malicious elements.

Two insider variables working against you

There are two insider variables which seem to be working against an employee big time:

·         Firstly, Trust &

·         Secondly, Legitimate Access  

The first instance allows malicious insiders to conduct espionage, steal sensitive data, and sabotage assets quickly, easily and with a greater degree of stealth than an external attacker. Careless and negligent insiders pose a similar threat, even if their intentions wouldn’t be considered to be nefarious. Something one could end up carrying out accidently or with purpose; leading to ramifications fraught with adverse consequences. And additionally from there on an investigation into the insider activity would enable one to ascertain whether the same act was carried out with a malicious intent.

Best Practices Considerations

·         Monitoring every user’s interaction with information

·    Ensuring high-end accountability irrespective of an endpoint gadget in question i.e. it does not matter whether a device in question is a laptop, desktop, tablet, or a smart phone

·   Protecting clients from careless activity related to accidental sharing, posting, and   uploading of information as well as any activity related to lost or stolen laptops and USB thumb drives

·         Employing varying controls across all information states—at rest, in motion, and in use

·         Aggregating controls across endpoint, network, and data for holistic visibility

·       Centralizing security control management for rapid incident identification, analysis, and response

While at the end of the day, human analysis would be essential to protect information from insiders, it is impossible to know if individuals responsible are indeed supported with the right type of security controls. And in such a scenario no black box can be plugged into a network that will mitigate all careless and malicious insider activity. However, then again there are sets of controls which when leveraged collectively could provide strong incident detection, protection and response capabilities across all endpoints, networks, data as and when the requirement be. www.pccare247.com

Customer service techniques for building customer loyalty

Call centres are renowned for offering the highest degree of customer convenience. Without the client having to trot off to a retail location, the caller can not only place orders but also make reservations, check balances, register complaints and ask questions concerning products and prices. However, this convenience comes at a price and conducting business over a phone is never as personalized as a face-to-face interaction. With too many visuals missing – people can't see whom they are speaking with – leading to less than complete communication. And this is exactly where an interminable wait in the call queue or, worse, the handoff fails to make an issue go away.

The cost of convenience comes inclusive of impersonal agents and long virtual lines. Thus, a run around might only end up making clients apprehensive about getting their concerns resolved over the phone. On the contrary, as it might be the case superior client-servicing skills not only help call center agents overcome any caller angst but at the same time only work towards injecting more personality back into a client conversation.

Try and build a rapport

To engage a client it is essential to build a rapport. And to build a rapport, modifying the tone, tempo, vocabulary and volume is essential. If the caller is an executive, short, direct language might be required. If the caller is a disgruntled client, a warm, friendly approach using simple language might be the best available option.

Being an Optimist Always Helps

Phrasing what may be received as bad news can really end up making a difference in the perception of a caller. Cushioning the blow by focusing on the bright side of things always ends up makes things a whole lot simpler. The following response would go a long way towards bringing a conversation to favorable end. Say for instance, the statement "I am so sorry, we no longer carry that item" can be replaced by an approach instead which says, "Our product line has recently been upgraded. The item you requested is now available in a new and improved format. Please, tell us how you would like it to be shipped."

Proactive Listening

Before call center agents can go ahead and effectively assist customers, they have to find out what a particular client wants. And for the same to happen, a certain amount of listening to what is being said and isn't being said is required. Agent should use confirmations like "yes," "I see," and "I understand" as verbal substitutes any eye contacts or head nods in an ordinary conversation. Agents should also end up listening "between the lines" for what is left unsaid. Through active listening, agents would create a conversational connection that further ends up reassuring a caller that someone really does care.

Offering an Apology

Nobody is perfect and no organization would be considered to be fault free. Mistakes happen and when they do happen, a sincere and an unconditional apology would only help in defusing a situation. What's more interesting is that only a genuine apology and proper handling of the complaint can increase customer loyalty. In fact, as research would point out, if clients feel that their concerns are addressed appropriately, 85 percent will continue to be loyal to the organization.

Stay positive

Customers can often be difficult to tackle. They rarely hold back and all they think of is to just direct their disappointment, dissatisfaction and displeasure at you. But then what can you do to stay upbeat in the face of phone rage? Firstly, avoid the tendency toward "fight or flight." Be proactive. Listen. Put yourself in your customer's shoes. And if the customer continues to be unreasonable, involve your supervisor. Just the thought that someone higher up is now involved will calm many a frustrated customer.

Being responsible helps to quite an extent

Very often call center agents hide behind the limitations of their computer scripts to avoid dealing with anything unusual. In such cases often scripts provide an efficient way to carry forward seamless customer conversations. It is only when a caller has a concern that there is some or the other sort of deviation from the planned path. Extraordinary customer support always tends to take care of things away from the script. In fact as it would go taking the initiative and assuming responsibility for resolving the case is always a part of the plan.

Resolving the issue

Clients get in touch with contact centres because they need help with something they can't resolve on their own. For all issues on hand superior call center agents are trained to assess all possible requirements. All the more being aware about what resources are available to address a particular need they go ahead and put together people and the resources for getting a job done. By involving clients throughout the process they only end up asking, "How can I help solve this problem? What would you like me to do? Is there anything else I can try for you?" To get the solution for these general queries or question visit here www.pccare247.com

Good reasons for you to go ahead and replace your remote support tool

In order for the helpdesk to improve its responsiveness both on and off the corporate LAN; maybe it was about time one ended up reevaluating the remote support by adding new capabilities, increased efficiency and consolidated support tools.

However, all said and done, if we may only proceed and beg to ask what exactly would you really stand to gain by switching the remote support tool?

·         Enhanced technician efficiency via reduced average handling time

Any patented and cutting-edge remote support tool operating via point-to-point architecture enables technicians to reliably connect to remote PCs, Macs and smart phones – on or off LAN – approximately in as much as 20 to 30 seconds. A facet not only contributing to technician productivity but also reducing support costs. On an average, the switch to a better application can reduce every technician’s AHT (Average Handling Time) by one and a half hour every day.

·        Boosting up support capability through accentuated support for PCs, Macs, Smart phones with a single tool

The move to support mobile applications or add support for smart phones calls in the need to rope in an application with an edge. The same tool should not only ease the workflow but also act as a best possible support tool for remote PCs, Macs and Smart Phones.

·         Increased security risk

A good deal of legacy IT management tools boast of an ability to remote control end user machines without prompting an end user. Even though the same concept is intended for unattended management it can end up posing as a major security risk to Accounting, Legal and Finance departments.

·       Improvement in Support Efficiency not only leads to ease of use but a greater degree of integration with support workflows

Any remote support solution can be more valuable if the interface is intuitive for technicians and integrates easily with existing support tools such as ticketing and CRM software. All the more when any technician’s interface maps to support workflows and is well-integrated, the requirement to hop between desktop screens is done away with.

·         Decreasing support costs through effective communication and reduced telecom costs

Escalations, expensive callbacks and long phone times can drive up support costs. Shifting support interactions from phone-based support to online channels like chat, email and Web forms as techniques can save an organization’s money in big time.  www.pccare247.com

Four ethos of complete web protection for attaining ‘Net Nirvana’

Tackle the most potent Web threats head on by following these four rules of complete web protection:

Rule 1: Decrease the attack surface

For reducing the size of any attack surface try and avoid not only any obvious threats but also try and eliminate all vulnerabilities by:

-          URL filtering of Malicious and inappropriate sites

URL filtering is highly effective at blocking thousands of new malware sites, SEO poisoning attacks and hijacked trusted sites popping up on a daily basis.

-          Application control 

Unnecessary and unauthorized applications increase the attack surface area by exposing more potential targets. Giving hackers an opportunity for exploiting holes in applications such as web browsers, PDF readers, media players, toolbars, instant messaging (IM) clients and peer-to-peer (P2P) clients.

-          Patching 

It’s estimated that 90% of attacks against software vulnerabilities could be prevented with an existing patch or configuration setting. So,

·         Monitor the latest patches from widely-used commercial software

·         Prioritize patches tied to critical, in-the-wild threats

·         Don’t leave patching up to users—identify which endpoints have the latest patches

Rule 2: Protect everywhere

Your users are no longer tethered to the network, so keeping them safe has become more difficult. You need to protect them wherever they are through:

-          Endpoint web protection

Protecting users is easy with web protection integrated into an endpoint. This way, they can take their web protection with them, wherever they go. What’s more, you can even account for their activity and update policy in the same way you would if they were in the office.

-          Mobile device control

The explosion in mobile working and super fast connections means that securing data at every point is a priority. You need to be able to set security policies for the latest mobile devices and remote lock or wipe them if they go missing.

Rule 3: Stop attacks and breaches

It’s time to move beyond signatures. With innovations like real-time updates, you can stop new threats instantly via:

-          Anti-malware 

A real-time web threat scanning engine is perhaps the single most essential component in a web protection solution. To be effective, it must scan all web traffic, including trusted content and identifying known threats as well as any new zero-day exploits.

-          Live antivirus 

With so many new and unknown threats emerging daily, your threat protection needs to be updated constantly. Live antivirus technology keeps a PC user safe by checking for new threats in real time.

Rule 4: Keep people working

Security measures shouldn’t get in the way of your daily business. At the same time, you need to keep your employees from accessing risky sites acting as a treat to your environment.

-          Productivity filtering 

Prohibiting access to illegal, inappropriate or non-business-critical web content is a standard practice for businesses, as it should be. Supplementing productivity filtering with live URL filtering and malware detection to block threats alongside proxy filtering ends up keeping rogue users from bypassing productivity filtering or acceptable use policies.

-          Visibility 

It is vital to monitor user activity and identify problematic behavior before it ends up becoming a real issue. If you offer an open policy and see repeated offensive content being accessed, you can either implement more stringent controls or talk to offending users before a legal proceeding ends becoming a reality. http://www.pccare247.com/virus-removal.html

Look Out!! The cyber criminals are looking to expand their territory

Rush for cover!! For the Cyber Goons are headed for your PC. And in their kitty they are carrying a good number of techniques to fetch malware from the Web and push it into your PC. Before it gets too late, we thought why not go ahead and apprise you of all the techniques they intend to bring into play. Getup!! Go ahead and take note. Learn their techniques and get a good understanding of the weapons mentioned below they intend on using in order to breakdown your defenses.  

The Hackers Inc. weapons of choice are out!!

·         Blackhat SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Be very afraid!! The cyber thieves are always on the lookout to rank malware pages way up on the search engines.

·         Socially motivated Click-Jacking

It is a popular technique for tricking users to click on highly innocent looking pages

·         Spearphising Portals

These sites end up mimicking legitimate institution such as banks for stealing account login credentials

·         Malvertising

Embedding malware in ads displayed across hundreds of legitimate high-end traffic sites

·         Compromised Legitimate Portals

Hosts embedded malware spreading across to unsuspecting visitors

·         Drive-by Downloads

Exploiting flaws in a browser software for installing malware residing on a Web Page

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