Navigating tax season can be incredibly stressful, requiring us to undergo immense work to accurately report our finances and comply with complex requirements. Nowadays, most people use digital tools to simplify the process, with 93.8% of individual tax returns filed electronically for the 2022 fiscal year. However, this shift towards digital methods raises significant cybersecurity concerns. By exchanging such massive quantities of personally identifiable information online, people tend to sacrifice security for convenience. This leads to an increased risk of encountering IRS-related scams, highlighting the critical need for robust cybersecurity measures during this process.

These frauds are a year-round concern, but bad actors intensify their attacks during tax season, exploiting the heightened sense of urgency around filing deadlines. This period, marked by increased communication and pressure, makes people more susceptible to mistakes, creating an ideal environment for scammers to deploy their deceptive tactics effectively.

To reduce your risk, it’s crucial to stay vigilant and informed. In the following sections, we delve into the most prevalent IRS-related scams, outline strategies for safeguarding yourself, and provide guidance on steps to take if you unfortunately become a victim, aiming to minimize the damage caused.

Common Scams

In an IRS-related fraud scheme, a malicious actor impersonates the Internal Revenue Service to obtain your personal information, employing tactics like phishing or smishing (smartphone phishing). These fraudsters craft messages containing malicious links, using sophisticated documents and professionally designed landing pages to enhance authenticity. Using social engineering, they craft messages that may:

• Prompt you to collect unclaimed refunds,
• Threaten legal action for alleged fraud,
• Inquire about supposed unpaid fees,
• Request verification of unusual account activity, etc.

Once the link is clicked, it can be used to install malware or ransomware on your device.

You may also receive phone calls from impersonators who leave vague, pre-recorded voicemails threatening your arrest if you don’t immediately call back to provide payment. They may use spoofing technology to make them appear to be a legitimate government source.

In other cases, these criminals may engage in tax filing fraud, using your social security number to file a fraudulent tax return and claim your refund. This is a huge issue, with the IRS identifying over one million tax returns as potential identity theft cases during the 2023 tax season. 

What are the red flags and warning signs? 

Be aware of subtle signs that might suggest you are dealing with an impersonator rather than the legitimate agency. These include:

• Unsolicited documents like a tax transcript, an Employer Identification Number, or a W-2 from an unknown source.
• Unexpected messages from a tax preparation service claiming to have represented you.
• Aggressive calls or messages demanding specific payment methods, such as gift cards or wire transfers, for an alleged debt. These may also ask for personal information like credit card numbers over the phone – practices never used by the IRS! 
• Communications from unofficial or misspelled URL or email domains, or other grammatical errors in the content
• Messages about unrealistic refunds or other far-fetched incentives

For additional insights, our guide on identifying business email compromises
 offers valuable tips on recognizing phishing and other deceptive impersonation tactics.

How can you protect your data from falling prey? 

You can implement various proactive measures to avoid these incidents, such as:

• Use Strong Passwords: Implement strong, unique passwords and enable multi-factor authentication for all accounts
• Verify Communications: Avoid clicking links in unsolicited messages. Instead, directly visit the official website for any legitimate notices. Remember, the Internal Revenue Service primarily communicates through traditional mail, not text or email.
• File Taxes Early:  Submit your taxes promptly to prevent fraudsters from filing fraudulently in your name.
• Consult Trusted Advisors: Work with reputable financial and tax advisors for tax preparation.
• Obtain an  Identity Protection Pin: This adds an extra layer of security to your account, as it’s required for filing tax returns with your Social Security number or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number.
• Verify Unknown Calls: If you receive a call from an unknown number claiming to be the IRS, hang up and call the official number to confirm its legitimacy.
• Update Devices and Software: Regularly update your devices and software to close any security gaps that bad actors could exploit.

Organizations can also help create a more secure business environment by adopting a zero-trust cybersecurity approach, which involves continuously validating users on your network to minimize unauthorized data access. 

What should you do if you fall victim?

If you suspect you may have been tricked into exposing your data and finances, you must act immediately to minimize potential damage. 

• Confirm and Report: After determining the unsolicited communication is fraudulent, report it to the appropriate authorities. You can find specific reporting methods for different types of schemes on the IRS website.
• Notify Financial Institutions: If you made any payments during the interaction, inform your bank and/or credit card company immediately to secure your accounts.
• Monitor Your Credit: Keep a close eye on your credit reports for signs of potential identity theft. Consider signing up for identity theft protection services for expert monitoring and assistance.

Partner with designDATA to protect your data 

Falling victim to a scam can have devastating effects, including significant monetary losses, drained bank accounts, and a tarnished credit history. Such consequences can hinder your ability to rent a home, purchase a car, secure employment, and perform other essential activities.

To prevent these outcomes, it’s crucial to safeguard your personal information proactively. This means not only implementing the measures we have outlined in this article, but also staying informed about the latest IRS-related scams. Equally important is sharing this knowledge with your colleagues, friends, and family to foster a safer community for everyone. 

While personal vigilance plays a crucial role in safeguarding individual tax information, its principles are equally vital in the business world. The same attention to detail and proactive mindset are essential in protecting an organization’s data. Partnering with a Managed Services Provider like designDATA can help you build a robust IT infrastructure that keeps your critical information and resources available and confidential. With our
cybersecurity solutions, you can minimize disruptions in the workplace and empower your team to do their best work, securely. 

Learn how we can protect your organization from evolving cyber risks with an advanced multi-layered defense by getting in touch with us.

Achieving their core mission and maintaining stakeholder relationships are critical priorities for nonprofits and associations. Unfortunately, a data breach can jeopardize an organization’s focus and community trust, thanks to the likely downtime and loss of sensitive and confidential information.

Heading into 2024, organizations face increasingly sophisticated and more large-scale cyberattacks. Picture more incidents like the 2023 attack against the file-transfer software company MOVEit, which likely impacted over 2,000 organizations worldwide and hundreds of millions of individuals just from cybercriminals exploiting one zero-day vulnerability.

In the new year and beyond, focusing on implementing a zero-trust cybersecurity framework will be your best defense for preserving your online safety in that environment.

Need a real-world case study for proof?

At a recent session at our VisionCSI conference titled “Securing the Future: Building Trust in a Zero Trust World,” attendees learned the story of how the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians applied a Zero Trust architecture to help recover from a devastating cyberattack and experience more advanced data protection.

Below, we give an in-depth overview of the Zero Trust fundamentals discussed at the session. Keep reading to gain actionable insights to improve your information security and keep your organization resilient amidst an uncertain and risky environment.

What is Zero Trust?

Zero Trust is a modern security framework that follows the motto “Never trust, always verify.” Previously, traditional perimeter-based cybersecurity treated internal users as trustworthy and everything outside its network as unsafe. This new model sees every identity as suspicious, a more effective approach that can help organizations reduce their likelihood of a data breach by 50%.

The zero-trust framework has three fundamental principles:

1. Verify explicitly: Prioritize comprehensive and continuous authentication throughout an identity’s journey with your IT infrastructure.
2. Least privileged access: Restrict access to resources so users can only interact with the specific data necessary for their work and the exact duration required.
3. Assume breach: Act as if a malicious actor has already breached your system, and work to prevent lateral movement and minimize an intruder’s potential attack surface.

How to Implement a Zero Trust Paradigm to Improve Your Cyber Defense

Your Zero Trust approach should focus on gaining visibility into six key pillars:

1. Our data
2. Endpoints
3. Identity
4. Applications
5. Network
6. Infrastructure

With so much area to cover, organizations must seamlessly orchestrate security controls and policies into a comprehensive defense system. Automation will be critical for streamlining the process and detecting threats in real-time.

How can you get started on establishing this new model in your workplace?

1. Assess your existing security posture and evaluate your current environment based on Zero Trust principles.
2. Build or outsource a security operations team that can execute the project.
3. Implement multi-factor authentication that prioritizes the security of your identities, devices, and legacy applications.
4. Establish governance, including data loss prevention policies and data classification systems.
5. Proactively and routinely identify gaps in your posture to optimize your cybersecurity infrastructure continuously.

Cybersecurity Best Practices To Complement Your New Framework

Associations and nonprofits need industry-proven strategies to stay ahead of emerging threats.

To improve your online safety, your organization should adopt several cybersecurity best practices before and alongside your Zero-Trust approach.

Do the following:

Establish policies
Before adopting a zero-trust framework, your organization must develop procedures addressing your data’s privacy and confidentiality. Consider which team members can access your data and how they can use it. Then, document those decisions to ensure your employees approach data security cohesively. Written documentation also allows for accountability in case a compliance issue pops up.

Assess your inventory
Effective data protection starts with understanding the resources you need to keep safe. Focus on building an inventory of information assets such as addresses, credit card numbers, social security numbers, and physical assets like laptops, mobile devices, and IoT devices. This process will allow you to address incidents and breaches quickly.

Conduct cybersecurity training
Help your team protect your data as the first line of defense. Organizations should invest in regular staff cybersecurity training so employees understand how to navigate risks, avoid scams, and use technology securely.

Prioritize incident response and disaster recovery
Your staff should have a roadmap for containing security incidents and promptly restoring operations. Define roles, assign responsibilities, and establish reporting mechanisms. Also, develop a communication plan and a process for analyzing an incident’s severity.

Remember, your incident response planning should never be static! Continuously reassess your plans to enhance how your team recovers from future incidents.

Administer regular cybersecurity risk assessments
Your organization should systematically audit your information assets, systems, security policies, and controls to identify potential vulnerabilities. Your current setup may not be compliant with regulatory requirements, aligned with best practices, or effective in mitigating risk.

This cybersecurity risk assessment will help you pinpoint areas for improvement and take action to allocate your resources to manage threats better.

Tailored IT support for Washington DC Associations and Non-Profits

A proactive zero-trust security framework, in combination with evidence-based security measures and best practices, can help associations and nonprofits protect their sensitive data and business continuity—which is critical for the communities that depend on your organization.

Collaborating with cybersecurity experts and service providers will make implementing a new IT architecture simpler and more efficient.

When you partner with designDATA to address your information technology needs, your organization will benefit from our robust cybersecurity solutions and specialized expertise. From dark web scans and endpoint protection to Layer 7 Firewall and managed drive encryption, our tools will give you the security and peace of mind you need. With our offices in Washington, DC, and Maryland, local organizations from the region can benefit from more regular hands-on support.

Are you curious about attending future educational sessions to boost your cybersecurity and technology knowledge? Join our training webinar mailing list HERE.

Interested in talking about your cybersecurity? Discover how a no-pressure conversation can provide peace of mind and improve your digital safety.

Artificial intelligence’s transformative impact on business gained even more attention this year with the generative AI boom in early 2023 after the release of ChatGPT. People are fascinated by its potential to reshape how we work. From copywriting and customer service to virtual assistance and data analysis, artificial intelligence is becoming capable of addressing a wide range of business challenges.

Businesses are rushing to adopt AI solutions to increase efficiency and improve employee workflow to keep up with the rapid advancements. A recent Cisco study showed that 97% of people felt their companies faced growing internal pressure to implement AI technology in the workplace over the previous six-month period. 61% of respondents believed that if their companies failed to act, they would fall behind and suffer.

However, although businesses are eager to use AI for its benefits, they must also remember to protect their data while pursuing innovation. That same Cisco report shows that roughly 68% of respondents feel their companies aren’t fully equipped to detect and thwart AI-related cyber attacks.

Below, you’ll discover the best practices your organization can implement to continue adopting AI technology while your vital digital assets stay safe.

Understanding the AI Landscape

By now, we have all encountered artificial intelligence in many aspects of our daily lives – whether in our social media feeds, search engines, smart assistants, or navigational systems. But what is it exactly?

At its core, artificial intelligence is a type of technology that can mimic human intelligence in how it performs its tasks and executes its functions. These include recognizing patterns, generating predictions, solving problems, and making its own decisions without human input.

Natural language processing (NLP) is an integral part of AI. It allows computer programs to understand and interpret human communication, such as text and speech, in relevant ways for the user interacting with the system. With sufficient natural language processing capabilities, a computer program can almost instantaneously understand how humans structure and form a word, the word’s role in a sentence, and even the emotion behind the word’s use.

Developers train the system using large datasets for artificial intelligence programs to be effective and efficient. They develop algorithms that incorporate machine learning, capable of absorbing knowledge from previous actions to improve performance over time. With more data, the computer program can learn from a broader range of patterns and features, ensuring it can handle complex tasks and improve accuracy.

Key Risks of AI in Data Security

Despite the potential for positive transformative change, it’s essential to recognize the many risks involved when combining our data with AI technology.

While machines are supposed to be neutral, the people inputting the data to train an AI program can influence it with their human flaws. For example, organizations often use artificial intelligence in recruitment, to speed up the work involved in sourcing new employees. In this case, the algorithm’s bias may affect hiring decisions if the inputted data isn’t entirely representative and comprehensive, leading to potential unfair workplace practices and legal ramifications for the organization.

While large datasets are crucial for effective machine learning, many individuals want more transparency about where the data comes from and want to ensure that the data’s original creators can consent and receive compensation. Several authors recently launched a class-action lawsuit against ChatGPT for using their work without permission to train its algorithm.

Your organization’s risks with AI go beyond ethical implications such as potential plagiarism and piracy. Organizations risk disclosing confidential information to unauthorized individuals once they put their data into the system. This example happened last year when a ChatGPT bug exposed user data.

Bad faith users can use AI tools to breach your system, tricking the program into performing actions such as unauthorized transactions. In a recent Sapio Research study, 75% of security professionals observed a surge of cyberattacks in the last year, with 85% linking generative AI as the primary driver behind this increase.

Cybercriminals may also use AI model theft and tampering to manipulate input data and deceive the system’s decision-making process. This risk impacts the tool’s ability to function correctly, which will impede your productivity significantly if you rely on it for your operations.

Beyond affecting individual customer trust, these incidents may cause an organization to break data privacy laws and regulations like the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), leading to more wide-scale financial loss and legal implications.

Best Practices for Embracing AI Safety

To address the challenges and risks of integrating AI into your work, your organization must develop solid strategies for responsible and secure deployment. Luckily, when you follow these best practices to shape your approach, you can still harness the benefits of AI and keep up with evolving industry standards of workplace technology.

Focus on Data Governance and Compliance

When developing AI strategies, it’s critical first to determine which data privacy regulations apply to your organization. Then, you need to implement tactics to meet these regulations’ requirements. At the bare minimum, you’ll likely need to focus on establishing:

• Mechanisms for gaining customer consent around data use
• Policies for how to transparently disclose your practices around handling data
• Methods of encrypting certain types of customer data, as well as anonymizing data when required

You should also regularly audit your data governance policies to spot weaknesses and vulnerabilities and update organizational practices to ensure they reflect current expectations.

Prioritize Employee Training and Awareness

Your organization can help secure digital assets by empowering your team to manage risk using innovative internet-based technologies like artificial intelligence.

Business leaders need to help foster a culture of security awareness where employees understand the potential threats they can encounter when incorporating AI tools into their tasks. You can accomplish this by:

• Conducting regular training on responsible AI use, as well as helping your team understand how they can use AI in their specific functions
• Establishing guidelines around data disclosure on the platform, fact-checking information sourced from generative AI platforms, and other ethical usage considerations
• Defining a policy to clearly outline employee roles and responsibilities in maintaining AI security, whether around access control and authentication, data handling, incident reporting, documentation, etc.

Partner with Trusted AI Vendors

Let’s say you want to go beyond using free online generative AI tools and invest in more robust AI solutions in your workplace. In that case, you must select a vendor that aligns with your business goals and technical requirements.

Selecting a trusted AI vendor will be vital to maintaining strong security throughout the process. You should start by defining the business problem you want to solve. Then, look for a vendor who meets your needs – even better if they can customize their model to work within your objectives.

Then, ask yourself:

• Firstly, is the AI tool’s interface user-friendly, or will there be a steep learning curve for my team to adopt it into their workflow?
• Can the vendor offer a tool with strong cybersecurity features that is scalable and capable of handling growing volumes of data and resources without degrading performance?
• Do they have significant expertise and experience working with artificial intelligence and machine learning, and have they engaged in substantial research and development to create their product?
• Can the AI tool seamlessly integrate with my existing infrastructure and be compatible and interoperable with my current protective measures?

Implement a Layered Security Approach

Protecting data when your organization uses artificial intelligence tools is more than finding a solution with robust cybersecurity features. You can’t rely on just one security measure to safeguard your organization.

You need to fortify your defenses at multiple levels, combining physical, digital, and administrative security controls to ensure you can prevent threats across various points of vulnerability.

You must develop strategies for preventing cyberattacks and mitigating the damage they cause if a hacker successfully breaches your system. Techniques can include implementing measures like identity control and data destruction policies, continuous monitoring, and creating incident response and recovery plans.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) framework offers a ready-made roadmap for executing this, outlining the essential building blocks for a strong cybersecurity framework.

Future-proof Your Organization With Our Cybersecurity Experts

Remember, while embracing innovative technologies like artificial intelligence is essential for organizations to stay competitive, you need to prioritize data security while doing it. When your organization builds an AI strategy that centers around your data governance requirements, you’re more likely to use the technology responsibly from the start.

When you pair that with educating your team on responsible use, sourcing reliable AI vendors, and implementing a layered security approach, you can better guarantee that your AI deployment will successfully meet your business goals without sacrificing privacy and safety.

When you partner with designDATA for your IT needs, our experts will help you procure the right AI solutions to increase productivity and security. We also focus heavily on employee empowerment, providing staff training to ensure your employees have the skills to use your technology with proficiency and without increasing risk.

Want even more guidance on how to use AI effectively? Watch our three exclusive training videos on elevating your productivity through artificial intelligence.

Four-minute read

As the landscape of our work environments continues to evolve, with more options for remote and hybrid work settings, the importance of robust security practices, such as regular password updates, stays top of mind. We’re here not only to guide you through these processes but also to empower you with the knowledge to manage them effectively on your own.

Below, you’ll find some practical tips to help you seamlessly navigate through these essential security updates.

In the Office

Changing your password in the office is straightforward, thanks to being connected to the same network as your domain. Simply press CTRL+ALT+DEL to bring up the ‘Change a Password’ menu, and follow the prompts to update your password.

While Working Remotely

The process is similar when you’re remote, with the key addition of ensuring a VPN connection. This simulates being on your office network. For most of our customers using the Sophos VPN – identified by the little traffic light icon in the lower right-hand corner of your screen – make sure this is activated before proceeding.

After connecting to your VPN, you can access the ‘Change a Password’ screen by pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL. Choose a new password, remembering to enter it twice for confirmation. After changing your password, double-check that the VPN is still connected (look for the green light on the icon) and then LOCK your computer twice.

This step is crucial; it confirms the new password on both the network and your local device, as it may not sync immediately the first time.

For an added layer of assurance, after locking and logging back in twice, sign out of and back into the VPN. Successful re-entry indicates the password change has been recognized at the domain level too.

Special Considerations for Mac Users and Non-VPN Users

If you’re working from a Mac, or if you don’t use a VPN, your password change process will differ and is tailored to your specific organization. For specialized assistance or any issues with your password change, particularly in a remote work setting, please contact the designDATA service desk; our technicians are ready to help.

We’re committed to ensuring your digital security and smooth operation, regardless of your work location. For more valuable cybersecurity tools and blogs, be sure to visit our resource page.

Six-minute read

Rising housing, education, and food prices are plaguing countries globally. To cope with the surging costs of living, side jobs (otherwise known as gig work or moonlighting) have gained significant popularity, particularly within the ride-hailing and food delivery services like Uber, DoorDash, and Grubhub, where companies are capable of obtaining an average of 93 million users per month. This steady, high market demand, the extra cash influx, and the flexibility of working on your schedule have been highly alluring aspects of gig work since the establishment of these services. At least, this was the standard until the COVID-19 pandemic made its debut.

When many companies opted for remote working conditions to ensure the safety of their employees, a cognitive shift occurred within the moonlighting community, leading to the desire for remote gig work as well. Add in the cybersecurity holes introduced by organizations unprepared for remote working conditions, and gig workers have been exploiting the opportunity to make significantly more money than they did DoorDash-ing by joining ransomware gangs. As a result, the number of ransomware hackers has burgeoned and produced a flood of ransomware attacks aimed at businesses worldwide.

Ransomware Overview, Trends, and Effects

For those unfamiliar with the terminology, ransomware is malware that encrypts files on an organization’s computers and servers, threatening critical infrastructure. Often, sensitive data is exported in tandem and kept hostage for ransom. Ransomware is typically distributed through phishing attacks and software vulnerabilities, and ransom notes with monetary demands are delivered to the victim once the ransomware has been downloaded and the hacker has exported the victim’s information. At this point, the victim either chooses to pay the ransom and recover their data or risks having their sensitive information exposed to all dark web criminals. Upon ransom collection, victims are offered a decryption key to decrypt the ransomware and collect their data.

The pandemic provided favorable breeding grounds for ransomware hackers in particular. Since the onset of the pandemic, ransomware hackers have been shifting their attention to severely impacted industries like municipal, educational, and healthcare facilities. Not only have their targets turned, but all aspects of ransomware attacks are seeing a steep upward climb from 2019 values: the frequency of attacks is up 148%, ransom demand values have increased 33%, and the

cost of recovery and clean up has more than doubled, causing organizations significant losses of revenue along the way.

So, what’s causing this surge among the hacker community?

Ransomware as a Service (RaaS): The Business Model

Previously, ransomware was a “direct-to-consumer” business: developers created the code – with a high chance of penetration, low chance of discovery – and also distributed the cyber attacks. Now, cloud infrastructure is widely available, providing standardized and scalable environments and offering crime gangs the ability to franchise their efforts. What was once a linear attack model is now a multi-dimensional one.

This new, multi-faceted approach mirrors the typical Software as a Service (SaaS) model, where software is centrally hosted from a cloud service provider and licensed to affiliates. With the Ransomware as a Service (RaaS) model, the developer still creates the code but now leases the ransomware variants. This is often done by employing an affiliate as a “middleman” to carry the bulk of the risk and distribute the ransomware code to victims – with an attractive payout, too! There are four general revenue models, ranging from a monthly subscription for a flat fee to affiliate programs (with about 20% of profits going to the RaaS operator), a one-time license fee with no profit-sharing, or pure
profit-sharing.

Using this organizational technique, RaaS is structured like big business, with the increased operational efficiencies leading to an observed escalation in the number of ransomware attacks. This RaaS franchise effort is frequently supported with onboarding documentation, a step-by-step guide, and sometimes even status monitoring. Under this workflow, you no longer need technical prerequisites to become a successful hacker, making it widely available to everyone as a side gig. This opens the door to more than just your everyday criminals; terrorists are now entering the game as a way to inflict damage on their targets, causing a significant threat to national security in the United States. For them, the ransom is just frosting on the cake.

Although it’s well-known that ransomware hacking is illegal, the enticement for general affiliates is the developers’ adoption of a sheen of professionalism. Affiliates see the increased efficiency of the RaaS model and believe in the legitimacy of the work, going so far as to take corporate responsibility pledges in some affiliate programs. Because the RaaS business model is a vicious loop, as ransomware groups make more money, they can invest more in their operations and hire more affiliates, allowing them to hit bigger targets, repeating this cycle indefinitely.

This pattern and the current threat landscape highlight the lack of tools, resources, and expertise to keep up with the growing list of vulnerabilities, attack techniques, and security incidents within victimized organizations. To prevent cybersecurity attacks and protect your organization, focus on educating your staff on cybersecurity best practices, establishing defense tactics, and continuously monitoring your systems for vulnerabilities.