Combatting Spikes in Malicious and Fraudulent Websites: Why Trusted IT Security Consultants Are Vital to Business Continuity

Back in July, the CrowdStrike crash caused untold chaos for millions of businesses when a security update impacted an enormous volume of users reliant on MS Windows devices. This resulted in long delays at airports, news stations going off the air, and hospitals closing to new admissions.

One of the unsurprising side effects from an IT perspective was how quickly malicious hackers and fake service providers sprung into action. Leveraging the crisis, they targeted vulnerable businesses desperate to find a solution and get their devices and organisations back online.

Within 24 hours of the crash, 40 fake domains were created, most promising an ‘unofficial’ or ‘secret’ code to correct the problem, but in reality, extorting money and, in some cases, gaining access to secure servers.

While this made headlines, the speed and scale at which fraudulent sites seem to materialise is no shock to experts in the IT sector, but it is a threat that every business and organisation should be keenly aware of when souring any service, information or product online.

The Critical Security Threats Posed by Fake and Malicious Websites

The CrowdStrike example is just one illustration of how and when bad actors use fear and panic to their advantage, but in reality, this criminal practice is all too common.

The ease of buying a domain name that sounds similar or almost identical to an authentic provider and replicating fonts, logos, and communications to impersonate a genuine company poses no barrier.

Here is a quick snapshot of the scenarios we come across in our work as a commercial cybersecurity specialist:

• An employee receives an email that appears from the company’s banking provider, with a generic message such as an account statement or updated interest rate—with a link that takes the user to a site that looks exactly like their login screen. As they type, their banking password is collected, and often, the account is drained within minutes.
• Phishing attacks that look and sound genuine often request an urgent or very overdue payment with documentation like invoices or statements that look like the real thing. Of course, the payment details are not, and any money transferred may be irretrievable.
• Malware and malvertising, which presents an appealing or heavily discounted offer but takes the user to a malicious website or instals malware on the user’s device, either disrupting their system, damaging files or stealing information.

While malicious websites come in many other guises, all have the potential to cause significant damage and cost, which is why we always recommend businesses consult an experienced IT security consultant to ensure their vulnerabilities are controlled and threats are under continual supervision.

Why Standard Phishing Security Measures Are Ineffective

Businesses commonly assume the antivirus software, firewalls and email filtering they have in place will be more than sufficient and that they have little or no risk of becoming a victim of malware, ransomware or phishing attacks.

Unfortunately, this is often incorrect, and most efforts to prevent data thefts and losses rely heavily on the ability of a user, which could be any member of personnel, a customer, or a site user, to recognise the subtle indications that a communication, email, advert, or file is suspicious.

The challenge is that without a multi-layered approach, there is never any certainty that every potential attack vector is covered or that the tiniest gaps will not be exploited.

Implementing a Multi-Layered Approach to Business IT Security

Rather than depending on a piece of software or hoping that your workforce will have a 100% success rate in differentiating between fraudulent and authentic websites, your business should have a range of defence mechanisms in place, each of which acts as a failsafe for the others. They include:

• Introducing cybersecurity protection that makes it harder for any unverified or unknown communications or files to reach system users.
• Improving the ability of users to detect unusual, harmful or malicious messages and know how to block and report these.
• Creating safeguards around critical and commercially sensitive business data, protecting it from the impact of a phishing email or malware file that reaches your networks.
• Having a cybersecurity specialist on hand to respond rapidly to evolving or suspected incidents, with the capacity to identify the cause and limit the impacts and costs to your business.

Although every cybersecurity strategy and ongoing monitoring approach will depend on your organisation, devices, and threats, these basic elements are essential. They mean you limit risks but also have a disaster recovery and mitigation plan ready to deploy in an emergency.

The Benefits of Working With a Reputable Team of IT Security Consultants

There are many misconceptions about what we do as cybersecurity consultants, but for most clients, we develop long-term relationships, learn about their digital infrastructure and priorities, and implement ongoing tracing, monitoring, security patching, and network oversight rather than consulting on standalone projects such as system upgrades or replacements.

While the latter can be valuable, we recommend that businesses begin with an IT security audit or a vulnerability report, which is the foundation of a robust cybersecurity strategy and reinforces compliance with data protection legislation.

Vulnerability reporting involves a detailed analysis of all systems, using advanced security testing to identify gaps and threats, laying out exactly where these exist, identifying the level of risk each represents, and defining the right solutions to fix them.

Our role is to look for any potential entry point or access to your systems, whether through a phishing email or text, a virus or malware file, or a fake or fraudulent web link. From there, we can either leave you to implement targeted improvements as required or work with you to ensure your systems and networks are fully protected, both now and into the future, as new threats evolve.

Just as the real-world case study created by the CrowdStrike outages shows, there are also fake IT service providers or cybersecurity consultants who might purport to offer a similar systems audit as an easy way to access your entire systems and networks.

Therefore, we’d recommend only ever working with an IT firm you know is legitimate, with a verified URL, authentic customer reviews, a physical office you can visit in person, and a website with an established domain—without those details being hidden.

For more details about getting started with a systems IT security audit, training your workforce to recognise fake and fraudulent websites, or any of the information discussed here, you are welcome to get in touch with Jera.