1. Create a culture in your business or medical practice centered around computer network security
  2. Install a Unified Threat Management (UTM) firewall with Intrusion Prevention Service (IPS), Gateway anti-virus, Content Filtering, Anti-spam, Application Control, and Deep Packet Inspection
  3. Sign up for a program that backs up all of your data and your server Operating Systems offsite (Business Continuity)
  4. Conduct a proper and comprehensive Security Risk Analysis and remediate all of the problems found
  5. Find a great IT company (like us) to maintain and monitor your network because your sister’s ex-husband’s brother’s nephew does not have the knowledge needed to maintain today’s complex computer networks

Folks, it is a different world today than it was just a few short years ago. It seems as if every day there is a new announcement that some big company has lost millions of their customer’s records. Target, Home Depot, Sony Entertainment, and JP Morgan are all some of the biggest offenders. All of these records were lost because of some form of poor computer network security.

So, now you are saying that your company or medical practice is not that big and what cybercriminal would waste his time trying to steal your Patient information or drain your bank account.

Well, let me say this about that: You are wrong.

A stolen credit card is worth about a $1.00 on the internet, primarily due to its short shelf life. A medical record is worth anywhere from $10.00 to $90.00. So, if you are a medical office, you are sitting on something very, very attractive to the criminals.

Regarding your business checking account, it is only insured by the FDIC against the bank going out of business. Unless you have some special arrangement with your bank, money stolen from your business checking account is YOUR problem.

Some examples:

  • The Western Beaver public school district in Pennsylvania filed a lawsuit against its bank after cyber-thieves used malicious software to siphon more than $700,000 from the school’s account at ESB. According to the lawsuit, the funds were transferred in 74 separate transactions over a two-day period.
  • Cyber-crooks stole $1.2 million from Unique Industrial Product Co., a Sugar Land, Texas-based plumbing equipment supply company. The company’s operations manager said a forensic analysis showed the attackers used malware planted on its computers to initiate 43 transfers out of the company’s account within 30 minutes.
  • Fraudsters struck JM Test Systems, an electronics calibration company in Baton Rouge. According to the company’s controller, an unauthorized wire transfer of $45,640 was sent from JM’s account to a bank in Russia. The company’s bank subsequently provided the company with new credentials. But less than a week later, another $51,550 of JM Test’s money was transferred to five money mules across the country. The company was able to recover only $7,200 of the stolen money, which was returned only because one mule who was to receive that transfer apparently closed their account before the transfer could be completed.

In his Congressional testimony before the House Financial Services subcommittee, Assistant Director Gordon M. Snow of the FBI’s Cyber Security Division stated: “The FBI is currently investigating over 400 reported cases of corporate account takeovers in which cyber criminals have initiated unauthorized ACH and wire transfers from the bank accounts of U.S. businesses. These cases involve the attempted theft of over $255 million and have resulted in the actual loss of approximately $85 million. ”

So, if you have not taken the security of your computer network seriously in the past, now is the time to turn over a new leaf and make it your priority.


About our IT company
Our IT company was founded in 2004 by Rick Boyles. Our typical customer has 10 to 150 workstations, is a small business or medical practice, and relies heavily on e-mail, the Internet, and their computer network for running their business or medical office.  Clients hire us to provide computer network security, Security Risk Analysis, managed IT services, HIPAA Risk Analysis, HIPAA Risk Assessment, and more. They do not want to incur the overhead and cost of a full-time IT staff, and they do not want to risk their IT to a self-taught employee who knows “a few things” about computers.  We serve Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Portsmouth, Suffolk, and Hampton Roads, Virginia.