Message from Uzair Sattar, Founder

 

“In this month’s issue, we focus on a new form of phishing attack called angler phishing, and the importance of ‘value’ when it comes to technology and support. The one or two-person IT team of the past just won’t work for most companies today. These small teams simply don’t have the essential skills you will need to design, build, and deploy all the applications you will need. It’s complicated, as they say. We provide some of our perspective on this trend.”
— Uzair

 

Did You Say You Got Catfished or “Anglerfished”?

Businesses are seeing more malicious emails flooding their inboxes. Phishing attacks aren't just increasing, they're evolving. Email is still the number-one transmission method for most malware attacks (not ransomware). In fact, one in 131 emails contained malware in 2016, the highest rate in five years!  According to Verizon's 2017 Data Breach Investigations Report, two-thirds of all malware was installed via email attachments in 2016. 

 

And for all of you who love social media and online shopping — these social channels ARE becoming more and more pervasive for businesses in all industries — be careful. Researchers at Proofpoint, a next-generation cyber security firm, identified a new form of social media-based phishing attack, called “angler phishing.” The attack technique takes its name from the anglerfish, which uses a glowing lure to entice and attack smaller prey. In an angler phishing attack, a fake customer-support account promises to help customers, but instead attempts to steal credentials. Social media angler phishers create fake customer support accounts that target customers of a wide variety of industries, but we have seen a majority of angler phish attacks focus on customer support accounts for financial services brands.

 

 

At ICE Consulting, we can help you protect your business. We’ve been providing IT services to our clients for more than 20 years, and have seen technology continually evolve. And through our 1000s of engagements with customers, we have become experts on the latest technologies and security issues.

 

In our August 2017 issue, you can read more about security threats with ransomware.

 

In our May 2017 issue, you can read about some strategies in general with cyber attacks.
There’s no way to avoid being the target of a cyber attack, but that doesn’t mean you should become a victim. 

 

ICE Consulting offers a series of simple steps that can result in huge benefits for your firm. These benefits may include:

  • Restricting the programs that your employees can run on your computers
  • Keeping software updated regularly
  • And minimizing the number of people who have administrative control over networks and key machines.

Learn more at www.iceconsulting.com

 

 

 

Modern Technology Change Can Be Hard — Focus on
Value, Not Cost

Most of our clients have not migrated to the cloud yet because they are not ready to adopt modern technology or because they don't think their team has the right skillsets it will require. Technology change can be hard, even daunting for some companies like yours. At the same time, we know you want to attract new talent and know that adopting the latest technologies will offer a competitive advantage for your company. At ICE Consulting, we believe your business executive leadership needs to get involved and engaged — your IT team can’t solve this paradox on its own and needs a “technology” champion within your firm. We always say — with technology, “you have to keep up to keep ahead.”

 

 

In the early Internet era when our clients had an issue, they would contact the in-house "IT Guy.” (And yes, it was usually a guy, but that is changing!) By the time the IT expert finally made it to the employee's desk, the issue had interfered with almost the entire workday. The IT person would resolve it and walk away, leaving the employee with no idea what he did to troubleshoot and fix the issue or how to prevent it from happening again. 

 

This type of outdated support is strictly “reactionary” and completely dependent upon one individual who goes from workstation to workstation, putting out “fires” all day.  This is the exact opposite of our approach at ICE Consulting. We take pride in our proactive IT management tool that sets us apart from others. Our comprehensive Preventative Maintenance Checklist will ensure that you stay up and running and protected — without having to worry about unexpected outages or failures. It covers networks, servers, storage and applications. servers, storage, and applications.
 

From the One-Person IT Team to Teamwork, Collaboration and Specialists

 

In 2018, a wide variety of skills will be required to build the latest applications. That means combined teamwork, and no more one-person IT Guy running the show. It is becoming more and more rare to find one or two people with the essential skills to design, build, and deploy all the applications your company will need. This is exactly why ICE offers specialists in each area of networking. We have specialists in network engineering, product management, and network architecture with more than 10 years of Linux experience.

 

As companies grow, teams grow and become more complex and collaboration becomes more critical. Your IT teams require a wider range of experience, education, certifications and on-going training. MSPs like ICE can help you with your network design and implementation, and are experts in the latest technologies. We stay current with the training, certifications, and, most important, experience you can depend on.


Building a Tech Savvy Enterprise Requires “Adopting and Adapting” New Technology

 

The bottom line?  Technology changes are demanding other changes in your business — some that will have a long-term impact on your business viability. On one hand, you must meet today’s IT challenges. On the other, you require advanced IT tech skills to do so. We know, it’s hard to do this when IT needs are NOT your core business function. That’s why we were founded. As the pace of change of technology accelerates, tech strategy must inform your business strategy. And at ICE, we think the only meaningful way to do that is to foster an organization that can “adopt and adapt” to new technology and a hybrid of internal and external IT team members.


There is no way around it, if you want to build a tech savvy enterprise, you can’t do it with a cost-cutting mentality. We believe this requires an overall business strategy and a focus on VALUE, not cost. Cost is important to consider, but should not be your primary objective. In fact, you don’t need to hire an entire new team of employees anymore to build your own IT Infrastructure. You can easily keep your loyal employees in place and work with an MSP such as ICE Consulting assisting you and your team. We can audit, design, configure, install, and maintain IT systems for you. We do it all.

 

Call us today to learn more.

 

ICE Motto of the Month

At ICE, we believe at the end of the day we are accountable to ourselves. And our success is a result of what we do.

 

Have questions about our services?

Contact Kate Garrison at 408.701.5717 or email info@iceconsulting.com

 

Headquarters | Silicon Valley 1900 McCarthy Blvd. Suite 300

Milpitas CA 95035 | 888 423-4801

 

© 2018 ICE Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.