Latest News, Advisories, and Information
“Keeping You Connected to Everything.”
Information about Security, Technology, Infrastructure, and Trends
HIK Vision IP Cameras Banned By Federal and State Agenc...March 24, 2019 - 4:44 pm
TIER4 Technical Support 2020How to Avoid Facebook CloningFebruary 10, 2020 - 6:08 pm
TIER4 Technical Support Helps Employers and Employees During...March 29, 2020 - 10:44 pm
What’s the difference? Synchronous and Asynchronous...April 30, 2020 - 1:16 pm
- The Impact of Email Phishing and Identity Theft: A Guide...July 16, 2023 - 7:01 pm
- Facebook Security Tips 2020 Edition from TIER4 Technical...July 30, 2020 - 2:03 pm
- What’s the difference? Synchronous and Asynchronous...April 30, 2020 - 1:16 pm
- TIER4 Technical Support Helps Employers and Employees During...March 29, 2020 - 10:44 pm
AT&T
broadband
Charter
cloned facebook
Cloud Computing
Coax
Copper
Corona Virus
COVID
COVID-19
dedicated
DSL
email
facebook
Fiber
hikvision
hik vision
how do i
identity theft
Internet
ip cameras
ndaa
Nextiva
online safety
phishing
Press Release
security
social media
Spectrum
support for home
surveillance
technical support
VoIP
Call Us: 989-569-6655
The Impact of Email Phishing and Identity Theft: A Guide to Recovery
Safety and SecurityIn the evolving digital era, with advancements in technology come new avenues for cybercrimes. Among these, email phishing and identity theft have become pervasive threats, damaging both individuals and corporations. This article will examine the effects of these cybercrimes and outline the steps one should take if they fall victim.
Understanding Email Phishing and Identity Theft
Email phishing is form of cybercrime where fraudsters send malicious emails, camouflaging as trustworthy sources, in an attempt to extract sensitive data such as login credentials or credit card information from unsuspecting victims.
Identity theft, on the other hand, is a crime where perpetrators use another person’s personal information, without their consent, typically for financial gain. This information can include Social Security numbers, bank account details, and other sensitive information.
Email phishing and Identity theft are often used together to achieve the fraudsters goals immediately or over a period of a time if left undetected or unchecked.
Personal Impact
Organizational Impact
What To Do If You Are a Victim
Falling victim to phishing or identity theft can be distressing and embarrassing, but taking immediate and appropriate steps can mitigate the damage.
Share this article with your co-workers, friends and family. The impact of these crimes can be significant, but awareness and appropriate preventive measures can safeguard against these threats and reduce the impact on your home or organization.
***
TIER4 Technical Support has trusted professionals that are trained in handling phishing and identity theft against consumer and organizations. If you suspect that your computer has been compromised, contact the TIER4 Technical Support team at 989-569-6655 option 2. You will receive assistance with your case and guidance along the way.
Facebook Security Tips 2020 Edition from TIER4 Technical Support
How To GuidanceFacebook is an online social networking website where people can create profiles, share information, and respond or link to information posted by others. With membership in the billions, the online community can be overwhelming to understand. Our video shows the 2020 edition of some top security tips to understand, in an effort to make your experience a little more informed and secure. We hope this helps you form a better understanding of some of the security features within Facebook.
As always, if you are a parent you should be involved in your children’s social media community. Share these security tips to the rest of your family and make sure that understanding social media is a priority.
What’s the difference? Synchronous and Asynchronous Networks.
Understanding Technology, What is the difference?Lets first start with bandwidth is NOT a good measurement network speed. Bandwidth is the measurement of how many bits at one moment may be transmitted, but not how long it will take to get from Point A to Point Z. Latency is the the delay before a transfer of data begins following an instruction for its transfer. We need to start with looking at those two words before getting into the difference between Broadband Network Access Providers that have “asynchronous transfer rates” indirectly to the Internet and Dedicated Internet Access Providers have “synchronous transfer rates” directly to the “Internet.”
Asynchronous transfer rates pose big issues in Corporate networks that need to transmit large amounts of data to the cloud, because the time it takes for something to leave the network and travel up to the cloud is “jittery” with less amounts of available network access than when receiving data from the Internet. This makes cloud backups, offsite disaster recovery processes, and employees accessing corporate information inefficient and slow.
Synchronous transfer rates alleviate the strain by cutting out the middle network access provider and supplying your network users with the same amount of bandwidth in both download and upload directions. Transferring large speeds in both directions allows cloud access and employee remote access more stable and much faster than from a broadband network access provider.
When employees are at home, they are typically also connected to broadband data networks. When a request is made from the home user through the Internet to the Corporate network, the upload bandwidth is capped by the home Internet provider as well as the corporate broadband provider. This bandwidth limitation causes very slow data rates in both directions to the Corporate network. Broadband Network Access operates as an “onramp” to a highway bypass that eventually connects you to the superhighway where a Dedicated Internet Access Provider skips the Bypass and onramps your data directly to the superhighway. If the home network has a 100mb/s download and 5mb/s upload and the corporate network has a 100mb/s download and 5mb/s upload, the maximum transmission speed will be locked to the limited upload bandwidth of both sites which is 5mb/s.
Synchronous and Asynchronous both have their legitimate applications, where the asynchronous is a low-cost solution for a home user and a synchronous dedicated Internet pathway is requirement for reliable upload from corporate WANs.
When your corporate data is mission-critical and a requirement is necessary for employees to access that mission-critical data offsite, Dedicated Internet Access is the only the solution. Dedicated Internet Access Providers also have the ability to scale their network speeds across fiber in near real-time. If your network access needs to be scaled from 50mb/s to 100mb/s in both directions, it is often achieved through your account portal. The same cannot be said with broadband network providers that are limited in scalability and reliability.
Essentially, what the work from home requirement during any crisis has demonstrated is a need to have scalable and synchronous networks that allow for reliable and sustainable network access from employee to corporate access with as much bandwidth as feasible. At this point Coaxial cable and legacy copper based technologies are no longer contenders for a primary path to the Internet for corporate networks, because access is no longer just about the download. Synchronous and Asynchronous are of significant importance when planning your remote worker policies to guarantee productivity and accessibility.
###
3LRT, LLC. d/b/a TIER4 Technical Support assists in the deployment of Fiber WAN, Switched Ethernet Across Fiber, and numerous Work From Home (WFH) Technologies, including Workforce Management systems to ensure access and productivity of your remote workers. For more information about Work From Home Technologies, Workforce Management systems, or Fiber, contact sales@3lrt.com or via telephone at 989-569-6655. Visit our website at http://www.tier4ts.com for more information. Link to this article.
TIER4 Technical Support Helps Employers and Employees During COVID-19 Crisis
Press ReleasesFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE. Oscoda, MI. TIER4 Technical Support continues comprehensive support for employers and employees through the COVID-19 crisis with business continuity assistance and essential support services. For most businesses, it was immediately necessary to temporarily shut down or immediately reduce operations amidst State Executive Orders and Federal Guidelines in previous weeks. For TIER4 Technical Support it was immediately necessary to support existing companies and their employees in how to still conduct business in a time of uncertainty and disarray.
We Help Businesses, Municipalities, and Education Connect Via Video Conferencing and Collaboration Technology
TIER4 Technical Support provides several services that allow for businesses and employees to still meet virtually “face to face” with each other. Many services are available at no cost during the current crisis. Our video conferencing suite through both Zoom and Cisco WebEx are free to get back to meeting and communicating almost instantly. This offer extends to municipalities affected by Michigan Executive Order 2020-15, to allow “temporary authorization of remote participation in public meetings and hearings…” The remote conferencing services also allow for immediate availability for students with Internet access to be able to participate in online learning with teachers or peer groups.
We Help Reconfigure Telephone Systems, Telephone Services, and Add New Features / Services
With many businesses in a state of confusion or uncertainty due to COVID-19, TIER4 Technical Support has been enabling business to continue making, answering, and responding to customers through their phone systems and other communication mediums. Many businesses have telephone services that allow conditional call forwarding, simultaneous answer on a home phone and work phone, as well as busy call forward allowing for employees to take calls on devices in their home or through Voice Over Internet Phone services (VoIP) without exposing home telephone numbers. Our specialist team sets up and can provision temporary or permanent connections for employees needing to still take customer or partner telephone calls now and in the future.
We Help Setup Secure Remote Access to Work Files From Home
Accessing work and client files securely has been a large focus for many businesses this past week. TIER4 Technical Support partners with many telecommunications providers to setup data connections via Fiber, Copper, and Wireless technologies for secure voice and data communications. Securely accessing client files across existing Internet connections for employers and employees are being setup with our service providers with 24 to 72-hour turnarounds to keep information flowing throughout a business.
We Help Our Home Users With Remote Technical Support and Solutions
Our home users are still able to receive technical support as well from the comfort of their home without risk of exposure to COVID-19. With a robust remote support offering, many issues that a home user may experience can be solved quickly and securely through our programs where Internet is available. TIER4 Technical Support also has finance programs for purchasing technology through their “Buy Here Pay Here” program, allowing a customer to purchase equipment on payment plans that work with their budget to get their home offices up and running.
TIER4 Technical Support is a managed service provider that assists organizations in maintaining and improving business processes through guided integration of technology and best practices. Servicing both home and business customers throughout the state of Michigan. For more information about services, please email support@tier4ts.com or contact via telephone at 989-569-6655. The website is http://www.tier4techsupport.us or http://www.tier4ts.com for more information.
How to Avoid Facebook Cloning
How To GuidanceBe careful who you add to your Facebook account, because just like you have heard many times before, not everyone on the other end of the screen may be who they say they are. When you get a friend request of someone that may already appear to be on your friend list, the account may be a “cloned” or “imposter” Facebook account.
There are many reasons why someone wants to appear like someone else on the Internet, and the reasons are not good ones. For starters, a cloned Facebook account is where an account is built using another account holder’s publicly available details to appear like the original account. The duplicate, cloned, or imposter account then attempts to add the same friends as the original real account holder. The new imposter account will then try and create familiarity and duplicate other accounts that are associated with the original account.
What is next is that the imposter account is used to gather information, spread scams, or become abusive to the friends on the original account. The friends of the original account may not understand why they are being abused and think it is the real person perpetrating the abuse or scams.
TIER4 Technical Support takes social media security and privacy very seriously. If you believe you are the victim on either end of a cloned Facebook account we are here to help. Our office offers sit down sessions to go over your Facebook questions, privacy, and social media security. On top of the services that our office offers, be sure to use complex passwords that aren’t easy to guess, change your password on a regular basis, don’t re-use passwords between various services, enable two-factor security when available, and always verify who you are adding to your online life.
Need more help? We are here for you.
HIK Vision IP Cameras Banned By Federal and State Agencies
IP CamerasThe US President signed the 2019 NDAA into law in August 2018. Part of the NDAA bans the use of Dahua and Hikvision Camera technology (as well as their OEMs) for US government agencies, for US government-funded contracts and possible for “critical infrastructure” and “national security” usage. These rules that have been promulgated across all federal government agencies has a critical deadline, which is replace these cameras prior to August 13, 2019. Under (c) EFFECTIVE DATES. —The prohibition under subsection (a)(1) shall take effect one year after the date of the enactment of this Act, and the prohibitions under sub-” Several other names were listed under the prohibition.
The State of Vermont issued a stricter declaration for their agencies this past year as well. “The agency has determined that the risks presented by Kaspersky-branded products or services, and covered telecommunications equipment or services including those provided by Huawei, ZTE, Hytera, Hangzou Hikvision Technology or Dahua Technology” were sufficient to justify the ban.” (Burlington Free Press; Feb 2019). Similarly, the technologies listed in the State ban includes various cameras and some network switches.
The rules have a significant impact on companies that are receiving federal grant money or are heavily involved in government contracts. Under the various Federal and State directives, these cameras should be removed and replaced as soon as possible. “As we discover technologies that have been banned, we have advised clients and contractors to stop utilizing Hikvision and related products in various deployments based on security concerns brought forth by the Federal Government,” stated Lary Holland. “Likewise, we do not recommend the use of any of the banned manufacturers in ANY deployment, whether or not in an affected jurisdiction,” Holland further stated.