Cyber-criminals don’t always need a keyboard to hack into your bank account or company network. In fact, a lot of attacks start with a simple phone call. Typically, the attackers are either trying to get information out of you or to make you do something. This is a technique they call social engineering.

Social engineering is the art of manipulating people so they give up confidential information. Criminals use social engineering tactics because it is usually easier to exploit your natural inclination to trust than it is to discover ways to hack your software.  For example, it is much easier to fool someone into giving you their password than it is for you to try hacking their password (unless the password is really weak).

Here are some tips on how to avoid Social Engineering scams.

• Don’t Trust Caller ID: Caller ID is great to let you know who’s calling, but it’s really easy to spoof a number.
• Don’t trust referrals given by the caller: Often, social engineers will call around a company and ask who’s the best person to speak about a certain topic. Your colleagues may point them in your direction. When they call you, they’ll say “Linda said you’ll be able to help me with this.” Don’t assume that Linda knows the caller or that she has vetted him. Call her and ask her how well she knows the caller.
• Don’t divulge non-public information: Especially if you don’t know the caller and it’s an incoming call, don’t disclose any information on the phone that the caller couldn’t also get from a public record such as your website. If they ask something you’re not comfortable sharing, stay courteous and ask them why this piece of information is important to them. If in doubt, check with your manager or your security officer.

Social engineers don’t restrict themselves to the phone but also use faxes, letters, email, or show up in person at one of your offices, so be on your guard! If you still have questions, please call Network Security Associates at 702-547-9800.

Untangle Gold partners represent the company’s top resellers who bring the highest level of training and service to end-users

Las Vegas, NV September 1^st, 2019— Network Security Associates (NSA) has been named an Untangle Gold Partner by Untangle, a leader in advanced network security solutions, for the 2^nd year in a row.  Untangle’s Gold level represents those partners who have made the commitment to the highest level of security expertise and service to Untangle’s end customers.

“NSA’s achievement demonstrates not only its commitment to technical expertise but its pursuit to provide industry-leading

customer service and support,” said Brian Thomas, director of strategic accounts and channels programs at Untangle. “Getting network security right is critical for every organization, and simply put, well-trained and well-educated resellers have happier customers and end-users, with safer networks.”

“Network Security Associates, Inc. is a full service IT consultancy, serving customers in the Nevada area since 2003.  We renewed our Gold status with Untangle as it’s important for our team to be up to date with the latest security technologies.  Our team of certified technicians, engineers, and sales representatives work closely with the Untangle team to offer industry best practices for security.   Being a Gold partner gives us top-level support which in turn allows us to get answers faster and the ability to provide a high level of support to our managed customers.  Protecting our customer’s data is very important to us and Untangle is one of the best products to accomplish this goal,” explains Robert Davis, CEO of NSA.

About Network Security Associates

NSA is a nationally marketed technology consulting company headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada.  Formed in 2003, the company has become one of the most complete technology service providers in the country, with core competencies ranging from Cloud, Security, Managed IT and technical staffing.  As a premier provider of total information technology solutions, NSA is one of 2 firms in Nevada that is licensed by the Nevada Gaming Commission.

NSA has earned a reputation as a financially stable, growing, and highly experienced consulting firm with best of breed service. Visit www.NSA-NV.com for more info

About Untangle

Untangle is the most trusted name in solutions specifically designed to help small-to-medium businesses and distributed enterprises optimize their networks while safeguarding their data and devices. Untangle’s Network Security Framework provides cloud-managed security and connectivity options that work together seamlessly to ensure protection, monitoring, and control across the entire digital attack surface from headquarters to the network edge. Untangle’s award-winning products are trusted by over 40,000 customers and protect millions of people and their devices. Untangle is committed to bringing open, innovative and interoperable solutions to its customers through its rapidly growing ecosystem of technology, managed services, and distribution partners worldwide. Untangle is headquartered in San Jose, California. For more information, visit www.untangle.com

Cyberattacks on SMBs will continue, but businesses can take the steps to proactively secure their network today and prevent these attacks from causing large-scale havoc on their business.

Join Chad NcNaughton from Ungangle and NSA’s Jeff Wagner on Oct 16th at 10 am PST.

Four things you will learn during this educational webinar:

1. How to Choose a Unified Threat Management solution to provide protection at the gateway, blocking malware, spyware, phishing, and hackers before they reach the network.
2. Insist on VPN connectivity for remote and branch offices, extending the network security policies already in place at the headquarter location.
3. Provide consistent employee training to increase cyber threat awareness [among] employees to [help them] identify suspicious emails, attachments, and other malicious communications that may infect the network.
4. Establishing and defining User Access policies will allow businesses to manage network privileges based on group, department, or protocol—securing only those with authorized permissions have access to business-critical information.

 Click HERE  to register.

Every year my family asks me, “What would you like for Mother’s Day?” I often say something like, “I don’t know. Let’s just go out for dinner.” But, is that what I truly want? Dinner? At a crowded, noisy restaurant? Humm… Not this year. What DO I WANT? Good Question.

I went online to search for a gift idea that was truly meaningful and, instead, uncovered articles that highlighted gifts that just didn’t “hit home.” Time to herself, a clean house, a handwritten note? COME ON! Is that the best you can do? I mean, I have time to myself as I fight traffic to and from work. A clean house? This held much more importance to me when my children where younger, but now that I don’t have a living room full of toys, I can pretty much say the house usually looks ok even if the neighbors drop by. A handwritten note? Please… Not even going to spend time on that idea.

I didn’t think figuring out what I truly wanted would be so difficult. I mean, I should want something? Right?

Then it hit me! I would like to spend time with my children, with no cell phones or distractions. I’d like to have a nice conversation with them or a nice walk. I don’t need a fancy dinner, flowers or even a card. Just time with my two children, hearing them laugh and expressing ideas and dreams.

If you’re looking to spend quality time with your children this Mother’s day, hereare a few local places to take a nice walk and enjoy each other’s company:

• The Clark County Wetlands – 7050 Wetlands Park Ln, Las Vegas, NV 89122
• The Clark County Museum – 1830 S Boulder Hwy, Henderson, NV 89002
• Floyd Lamb Park – 9200 Tule Springs Rd, Las Vegas, NV 89131
• Red Rock Canyon – 1000 Scenic Loop Dr.

I have been to each of these places and enjoyed myself immensely. I think you will, too.

Happy Mother’s Day from Network Security Associates.

We all have that stack (or two, or three) of papers, files and things “to do” piled on our desk. We say to ourselves, “I’ll get to that when I have a spare moment.“ But, in today’s fast-paced work environment,  spare moments are hard to find.  Here are 3 simple office cleaning and organizational tips to help you tackle that pile, get organized and be more productive.

• Schedule time

Make an appointment with yourself to go through the piles of stuff on your desk or in your in-box. Accomplish this by setting a calendar invite for yourself so you don’t forget, and stick to it. Carving out time can help you get organized.

• Scan, Scan, Scan!

Every office should have a scanner. Scanning documents, receipts and other important pieces of paper has multiple benefits.

1. You have access to your documents at your fingertips. No more going through endless files in a file cabinet searching endlessly for that one important document.
2. You can easily share documents with your fellow workers or employees either by way of sending a file by email or for easy collaboration using an online tool such as OneNote or ShareSnyc.

• Declutter your computer’s desktop

We all have PDFs, photos, Word, and/or Excel documents saved our desktops. We save them there so we can quickly find what we are looking for. But, overusing your desktop as a file manager can be a bit overwhelming. It can actually make it more difficult to find the file you need. Keeping files in a dedicated folder and even sub-folders will take the guessing work out of “Where did I save that?”

We here at Network Security Associates hope you find these spring cleaning tips useful. Contact us today to schedule your free, in-person Network Security Assessment. The assessment focuses on:

• Security
• Performance
• Data Protection
• Compliance

Our highly skilled technicians focus on multiple aspects of your company to detect both hidden risks and obvious areas of concern to help your company save even more money by preventing potential security breaches. Visit www.nsa-nv.com/network-assessment/ or call (702) 547-9800 to learn more.

Windows 7 and Server 2008 end of life means that Microsoft will no longer improve the product, accept warranty claims, or provide non-security hotfixes. This is known as mainstream support.

It will continue to offer bug fixes and security updates through January 14, 2020.

What To Do Before the Microsoft Extended Support Ends in 2020

1. Contact Network Security Associates for a FREE Evaluation of your Entire Computer Environment. We will:
   • Identify computers that need to be upgraded or replaced
   • Identify and consider replacing legacy systems that  use an older operating systems and/or software with updated technology
   • Develop a timeline and budget for upgrades and replacements

With smart devices surging in popularity, it’s inevitable your employees may want to use their own mobile phones for work-related tasks. Allowing them to do so has multiple benefits, but there are also a few risks your company should acknowledge and have proper IT services in place to safeguard against.

Benefits of BYOD

An easy way to increase employee satisfaction is to permit them to use their own mobile devices. This seemingly small concession can boost employee productivity and reduce your company’s expenses. Instead of having to pay for a device and work-related mobile plan for each employee, you can reimburse your employees for a specified portion of their device expenses. The alternative to this is providing employees with devices specifically for work-associated tasks. However, most employees would prefer to only carry a single device.

Disadvantages of BYOD

There are a few drawbacks to permitting employees to bring their own devices. They may use outdated devices that expose your company’s sensitive information to virtual threats, including malware. You may find it harder to enforce rules regarding device security for your employees’ devices; they may balk at being asked to restrict their usage of the device.

It’s possible your employee might leave your company. If so, you must make sure they don’t have any data stored on their device. Another issue is the phone number associated with the phone. Your employee has a right to keep their number, and this means if they leave the company, your customers will be able to contact them.

You also have to provide IT services for a variety of different phone models. If you opt for corporate devices, it’s possible to issue the same device to every employee, requiring only one type of device support.

Best Practices for BYOD

You can optimize the advantages of permitting employees to bring their own devices while confronting the disadvantages by following these best practices. Make sure you clearly convey company rules for mobile devices to your employees.

For example, you should require your employees to use encrypted devices. They should also password-protect their devices and work-related programs. Another option is to enact a guideline that limits the age of the device an employee can use or require a specific operating system.

Get Adequate IT Services for All Devices

Utilizing the IT services of an experienced company, like Network Security Associates, is another way to add safeguards to employee devices. Our team will create isolated networks that provide a means of secure transmission for corporate data. We can also retrieve data from a specific mobile device and remotely wipe a device if an employee separates from the company. Contact us today at 702-547-9800 to get started.

Network Security Associates welcomes Jeff Wagner as a Senior Solutions Consultant.

“With more than 10 years of Technology & Information Security experience, we know that Jeff’s skills will add value to the already experienced team here at NSA.  “I surveyed the MSP (Managed Service Provider) landscape in looking to continue my career in technology and found a home at NSA.  I always believed that you can’t effectively help customers unless you can be responsive to their needs as they see fit. NSA provides both remote and onsite assistance and doubles down in letting their clients dictate the level of service. That’s just one of the reasons why I’m so pleased to be part of the team at NSA.”