Impact's Cyber Security Update - October 2024

It’s Cyber Security Awareness Month! A great time to kickstart our regular security updates to you talking about the threats to your business and what we are doing behind the scenes to help keep you safe.

In this update:

Trick or Treat? – File Sharing Links

Phishing is still the biggest threat to your business, but there’s one type of phishing email that’s proving very successful and is responsible for nearly all the incidents we respond to.

These emails come from people you know (e.g., customers and suppliers) that have had their email account compromised. Hackers use the compromised accounts to send file sharing links, leveraging the trust you have with the sender and the blind spot in email scanning tools.

Please look out for file sharing links with generic file names such as ‘invoice, proposal, and quote’ and always check with the sender if you receive a sharing link that you were not expecting.

If you’re worried about the level of security in your businesses please speak to a member of our team, it’s what we’re here for!

Enhanced Phishing Protection

The team at Impact has been  hard at work proactively enabling some new features to help combat phishing attacks. These features help protect users when they type their login password in these ways:

  • If users type or paste their password on any browser into a site deemed malicious by Microsoft, we alert them and advise them to change their password so attackers can’t gain access to their account.
  • Reusing login passwords makes it easy for attackers who compromise other websites and services to gain access to their work account. We will now warn users not to reuse their login password on other sites and apps.
  • It’s unsafe to store plaintext passwords in text editors like Microsoft Word. We will now warn users if they store their login password in Notepad, Word, or any Microsoft 365 Office app and recommend they delete their password from the file.

Please note that these features are only available in Windows 11.

If you would like to learn more about what we’re doing to keep your business safe give us a call!

An example of a message you will receive if you enter a website known for stealing passwords.

End of the Road for Windows 10

It’s now less than a year until Windows 10 stops receiving security updates from Microsoft.

We’ve started upgrading all  your compatible devices to Windows 11, but if you have devices that aren’t compatible, now is the time to start thinking about replacements so you can benefit from all the latest security features.

If you’re worried about your device compatibility, don’t worry! A member of the Impact team will be in touch with you soon to guide you through next steps.

If you’d like to hear more about the Windows updates, feel free to get in touch with Will on our solutions team. will@impactcomputing.co.uk.

How can we help?

How was that? It’s our first time doing something like this, so we’d love to hear from you. What did you find useful? How often would you like to see these? What else can we do to help you stay safe?

Please take the time to give us some feedback, you can email me (ashley.farr@impactcomputing.co.uk) or give us a call on 01772 684282

In the meantime, check out our recent video on these updates with Client Security Lead, Ash Farr.

Please take the time to give us some feedback, you can email (ashley.farr@impactcomputing.co.uk) or give us a call on 01772 684282