In June 2018, Unatrac Holding Limited, a company which deals in sales of heavy industrial and farm equipment, was said to have approached the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) over a breach in the email account of its chief financial officer where a fraudulent transfer of funds was done. The intruder was said to have sent phishing emails containing a web link, purportedly to the login page of the CFO’s online email account hosted by Microsoft Office 365. Believing the link to be genuine, the CFO was said to have imputed his username and password from where the intruder got full access to the account and sent a fraudulent wire transfer request to the company’s internal financial team. Acting under the impression that the email emanated from the CFO, the finance staff processed approximately 15 payments between April 11 to 19, 2018, totalling $11 million.

Email security gateways protect enterprises from threats such as spam and phishing attacks. This article explains how these products get the job done.

Companies use email security gateways to prevent email messages that violate an organization’s policies — particularly ones with malicious intent — from reaching their destinations.

All email security gateways have the ability to quarantine or block email that contains detected malware, phishing attacks, spam, as well as other malicious content. This prevents most attacks from reaching their intended recipients, which, in turn, reduces the number of successful compromises of hosts, user credentials and sensitive data.

Some security gateways also offer data loss prevention capabilities that thwart inadvertent or intentional leakage of sensitive information via email messages. This is mainly a concern for outbound traffic — email messages sent from within the organization.

There are many products available. It is not feasible to exhaustively capture the characteristics of every single one, so this article focuses on the most widely used types of gateway products.

The architecture of email security gateways

There are several possible architectures for hosting email gateways, including the following:

1. The email server: Some gateway products are email server-specific — e.g., for Exchange servers only or for Domino servers only — and these products are typically installed directly onto the email server. Most products do not fall into this category.

2. An on-site hardware appliance: The majority of secure email gateway products offer a hardware appliance option. Companies install this dedicated appliance on the organization’s network, and inbound and outbound email traffic is routed through the appliance for analysis and filtering.

3. An on-site virtual appliance: Most vendors offer on-site virtual appliances for email security. Companies can install these virtual appliances as part of a private cloud controlled by the organization, or they can be run on an on-site server without necessarily being part of a cloud architecture.

4. A public cloud: Many email security gateway products are available as public cloud-based services. They function the same way as the on-site appliances do; all inbound and outbound email traffic for an organization is routed through the service.

5. A hybrid approach — combining public cloud and on-site presence: Many vendors offer a hybrid architecture, which combines a public cloud-based service and a locally deployed hardware or virtual appliance.

Each option has advantages and disadvantages in terms of security, performance and reliability. However, all of these architectures ultimately deliver the same type of email analysis and filtering services to their user communities. Email security gateways are strictly that — gateways — and they have no presence on client devices. The lack of a dependency on client-side security controls is important for achieving effective email security in many environments, especially those that have email users with client devices outside the organization’s control, such as bring your own device laptops, smartphones and tablets.

Typical environments suitable for email security gateways

Secure email gateways are a necessity for virtually every organization since email-borne threats are ubiquitous. They allow all types of organizations to boost their security.

Gateways go beyond the traditional detection capabilities of legacy antivirus and antiphishing tools by offering more sophisticated detection and prevention capabilities. They also make use of threat intelligence to stay up to date with the latest threats.

Since email security gateways monitor network traffic, the gateways filter email messages before they reach users’ inboxes. Consequently, they can offer a strong level of protection for email clients on all devices, protecting employees who use their own devices for work or who work remotely. Secure email gateways don’t affect the performance of these devices.

However, to ensure endpoint and mobile security, companies should consider upgrading to cloud versions of their email security gateways that include more advanced phishing protection, particularly to protect against impostor email threats — email fraud — or business email compromise — a financial cyberthreat. Cloud platforms are also more agile and better able to adapt to new threats without the need for administrators to upgrade on-premises appliances or software. Email security gateways are beneficial for organizations that host their own email services and those that outsource their email services, assuming the outsourcer isn’t already providing security gateway services.

Organizations that outsource email services should check with their outsourcer to see what security services they provide, before inadvertently duplicating those services.

The costs of email security gateway adoption and deployment. The cost models for adopting and deploying gateways vary considerably depending on the type of product selected. For example, public cloud-based email security gateway services usually charge per-user, per-month fees. Appliance-based models typically have a flat fee for the appliance itself and may also charge a subscription fee to supply the appliance with the latest threat intelligence information and other updates. Because email security gateways should be transparent to end-users, client support should be minimal. Gateways do make mistakes, but most products are extremely accurate in their classifications of email messages, so it’s quite rare for one to block a nonthreatening message. Such instances may require a gateway administrator to intervene. Some secure email gateways offer add-on security capabilities, such as email encryption. These capabilities generally involve a separate charge in addition to the gateway itself and any support or maintenance subscriptions.

Beefing up organizational security with email security gateways

Secure email gateways prevent malware, phishing attacks, spam and other unwanted email messages from reaching their recipients and compromising their devices, user credentials or sensitive data. Because so many attacks today are email-based, a security gateway can sharply decrease the number of successful attacks against an organization.

Next Steps

With over 146 billion records expected to be stolen over the next five years, enterprises can no longer rest on their laurels when it comes to protecting the data under their care. As recent events show, the impact of data breaches can be severe, not just in terms of monetary losses but also reputational damage.

Speak to a consultant today via call 08183405221/09023416588 or email – enquiries@tranter-it.com.

I have often been asked by clients about what makes our IT support engineers at Tranter IT unique and what they should look out for when selecting IT support engineers for their companies. I know a lot of business owners also have such questions especially as not every business owner can consider themselves a tech guru. This is why I have taken the time out to put out an article on the things your company should be looking out for when choosing an IT support engineer for your company.

It is no news that no organization in this current age can survive without IT. With that in mind, here are a few skills to look out for when choosing the right technical support engineer for your company or while evaluating your current technical support engineer.

• Communication Skills: An IT support engineer should be able to effectively communicate technical issues to his colleagues. He must be able to listen and understand the technical problems being faced by a user and communicate solutions to such user effectively. In essence, he must be able to break down technical terms to smaller pieces as much as possible.

• Time Management Skills: An IT support engineer must be able to effectively spread his time among the different technical tasks that he must attend to in a day. He must possess strong time management skills and be able to achieve more in less time.

• Patience: Just like customer care agents, IT support engineers often have to attend to frustrated and impatient users. Therefore, he must be able to patiently listen to complaints and walk the user through the process of resolving technical issues and ensuring that such issues do not reoccur.

• Technical Skills: Of course, an IT support engineer must be skilled at working with various software and hardware, web-based applications and more. He must also display an interest in self-development and be willing to update his skills when needed. IT is always evolving; therefore, the right IT support engineer must be one that is willing to always get updated on the latest trends in the industry.

These are the things to look out for when choosing your IT support engineer. Remember, they must possess communication skills, technical skills, time management skills and be able to patiently attend to users’ complaints.

At Tranter IT, these are the skills we ensure that our IT support staff must possess. We ensure they go through a rigorous training to keep them up to date in the IT industry.

What do you think? What other skills do you look out for when choosing an IT support engineer? Please share below.

PS: At Tranter IT, we provide IT support engineers for growing businesses under our 10+ IT support platform. If you want to get a highly experienced IT support staff equipped with all the skills mentioned above and more, contact us here: https://www.tranter-it.com/10plus to sign up for a free consultation with us. If you already have an IT support staff that you want to retain, we can also adopt the staff and constantly update their skill set and IT knowledge, thereby rendering better quality service to your organization.

Melanie Ayoola

Executive Director, Tranter IT

Everybody loves speedy internet, so it’s no surprise that every major telecom in the world is working to make it even faster. Smartphones, watches, homes, and cars are increasingly requiring stable internet connections. In order to pipe in enough bandwidth for that precious wireless feed, we’re going to need an entirely new form of wireless signal—that’s where 5G comes in.

Similar to 4G and 3G before it, 5G is a wireless connection built specifically to keep up with the proliferation of devices that need a mobile internet connection. It’s not just your phone and your computer anymore, either. Home appliances, door locks, security cameras, cars, wearables, dog collars, and so many other inert devices are beginning to connect to the web. Gartner predicts that 20.8 billion devices will be connected to the Internet by 2020. By comparison, there are currently an estimated 6.4 billion connected devices in the world. That’s a lot more devices asking for a quick connection.

To make 5G and the future of wireless internet a little easier understand, we decided to break down exactly what it is and how it will make your life better in the very near future.

What exactly is 5G?

The “G” in 5G stands for “generation.” Wireless phone technology technically started with 1G, and in the early 1990s, and it expanded to 2G when companies first started enabling people to send text messages between two cellular devices.

Eventually, the world moved on to 3G, which gave people the ability to make phone calls, send text messages, and browse the internet. 4G enhanced many of the capabilities that were made possible with the third generation of wireless. People could browse the web, send text messages, and make phone calls—and they could even download and upload large video files without any issues.

Then companies added LTE, short for “long term evolution,” to 4G connectivity. LTE became the fastest and most consistent variety of 4G compared to competing technologies like WiMax. The difference between WiMax and LTE is similar to the difference between Blu-Ray and HD DVDs: Both technologies achieved similar outcomes, but it was important to create a standard for everyone to use. LTE did just that, and it made 4G technology even faster.

5G will build on the foundation created by 4G LTE. It’s going to allow people send texts, make calls, and browse the web as always—and it will dramatically increase the speed at which data is transferred across the network. 5G will make it easier for people to download and upload Ultra HD and 3D video. It will also make room for the thousands of internet-connected devices entering our everyday world. Just imagine upgrading your data connection from a garden hose to a fire hose. The difference will be noticeable.

5G To Transform Lives

But is 5G really that much faster than 4G?

In short: Yes. Speeds will be significantly faster. Currently, 4G LTE transfer speeds top out at about one gigabit per second. That means it takes about an hour to download a short HD movie in perfect conditions. The problem is, people rarely experience 4G’s maximum download speed because the signal can be disrupted by so many different things: buildings, microwaves, other wifi signals. The list goes on and on.

5G will increase download speeds up to 10 gigabits per second. That means a full HD movie can be downloaded in a matter of seconds. It will also reduce latency significantly (giving people faster load times). In short, it will give wireless broadband the capacity it needs to power thousands of connected devices that will reach our homes and workplaces.

How does it work?

There are already huge consortiums of major global telecoms working to create worldwide standards around 5G. Although most of those standards haven’t been solidified, experts expect it to be backwards compatible (with 4G and 3G) in addition to having some interoperability across the world.

In their most basic form, cell phones are basically two-way radios. When you call someone, your phone converts your voice into an electrical signal. It transmits that electrical signal to the nearest cell tower using radio wave. The cell tower bounces the radio wave through a network of cell towers and eventually to your friend’s phone. The same thing is happening when you send other forms of data (like photos and video) across the network.

Typically, when a new mobile wireless technology comes along (like 5G), it’s assigned a higher radiofrequency. For instance, 4G occupied the frequency bands up to 20MHz. In the case of 5G, it will likely sit on the frequency band up to 6GHz. The reason new wireless technologies occupy higher frequencies is because they typically aren’t in use and move information at a much faster speed. The problem is that higher frequency signals don’t travel as far as lower frequencies, so multiple input and output antennas (MIMOs) will probably be used to boost signals anywhere 5G is offered.

What is 5G and why it will rule the world?

After 1G, 2G, 3G and 4G LTE now comes 5G. It is the fifth generation of wireless network that is expected to be launched in 2020 in India and rest of the world. 5G will be based upon the combination of the existing wireless technologies like GSM, Wi-Fi, LTE etc and the new radio access technologies.

5G will bring higher capacity than the existing 4G network. It is expected to increase the data rates beyond 1GB per second and will provide higher broadband density to the users. It is estimated that peak download rate of data will be of 20/Gbits and upload rate will be of 10G/bits. There will be low latency and low battery consumption while using 5G that means it will increase the battery life upto 10 years and reduce network energy usage by 90%. Several hundreds and thousands of computers will be able to access simultaneous connections at a very high rate. Spectral efficiency will also be increased in 5Gnetwork.

5Gnetwork will benefit the telecommunication sector to a great extent. It will provide better usage of smartphones by increasing their speed. It will introduce VR (virtual reality) and AR (Augmented reality) in smartphone sector.

5G will also bring a biggest change by starting the era of driverless smart cars and smart homes.

More than just speed

ADVANTAGES OF 5G

5G network will benefit not only business person but also the commoners. There are several new things that will emerge along with 5Gnetwork making it more reliable and efficient.

Here are some of the things we will be benefited with:

• Greater speed (enough to download a movie in few seconds)
• Greater capacity (1,000 times capacity of 4G)
• Reduced Latency (stop delays)
• Provide high resolution and larger bandwidth
• It will gather networks on one platform
• Lower battery consumption
• Simultaneous connections can work together
• Provide uninterrupted and consistent connectivity.
• Allow access to parallel multiple services
• Remote place access grant
• Detect natural disasters

“We are absolutely convinced that 5G is the next revolution,” Tim Baxter, president of Samsung’s US unit, said during a press conference.

Here’s just a taste of what 5G will be able to unlock.

Self-driving cars

While companies like Google and Uber are investing in self-driving cars now, many in the industry don’t believe a fully autonomous vehicle is possible without a 5G network.

“We are absolutely convinced that 5G is the next revolution.” Tim Baxter, president of Samsung’s US unit.

That instantly responsive network and ubiquitous coverage means the cars will be able to use 5G to talk to other cars and sensors built around the city, from street lamps to gas stations.

“It not just about the cars,” Adam Koeppe, vice president of network planning for Verizon, said in an interview Monday. “It’s about urban design and technology.”

Elon Musk Tesla 3

WHAT ADVANTAGES WILL 5G OFFER?

Each new generation of wireless technology has brought faster, more reliable cellular and internet connections. In the 1980’s, first-generation technology made communication via cellphone possible. The next generation, 2G, allowed for more efficient and secure phone calls, and introduced mobile text messaging. 3G ushered in the smartphone era, and 4G/LTE gave us the high-speed connections that make it possible to stream high-definition video on our phones.

5G is projected to bring three main benefits

– Faster speed: Data transfer speeds are projected to be about 10 times higher with 5G than is possible with 4G. That means significantly faster transmission of images and videos. With 4G/LTE, downloading a high-definition movie might take about 10 minutes. With 5G, it should take less than a second.

– Shorter delays: Though it’s not always noticeable, there is often a brief lag in time from when data is sent to when it’s received. 5G should reduce this so-called latency, making it possible, for example, to watch high-speed virtual reality video with no delays or glitches.

– Increased connectivity: Cell towers equipped with 5G technology would have greatly increased capacity over 4G/LTE. That means more people — and more devices — should be able to communicate at the same time.

WILL I NEED A NEW PHONE?

Just as 2G phones couldn’t connect to 3G or 4G networks, today’s 3G and 4G/LTE phones will be unable to connect to a 5G network. So experts predict you’ll need a new phone. The cost of a 5G phone is unclear, but monthly 5G service is likely to cost more than 4G/LTE service.

WHEN WILL 5G BE AVAILABLE?

Samsung and Intel debuted 5G technology at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, where it was used to stream live VR coverage of sporting events. AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon are continuing to develop and test 5G technology and expect 5G service to be available in some U.S. cities later this year. Access to 5G is expected to expand dramatically in 2019.

Source: https://gizmodo.com/what-is-5g-and-how-will-it-make-my-life-better-1760847799

https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/tech/what-5g-next-wireless-revolution-explained-ncna855816

When you first step into the compound and look at the environs of Tranter IT, there is a curiosity that engulfs you and makes you eager to see what lays behind the building structure which boasts of over 40 years of existence.

A look into our offices, you’ll see staff who are sharing ideas, discussing future possibilities, being productive and most importantly the existence of genuine Love amongst the staff.

As we celebrate Valentine’s day, our interview today is with Adedayo Odubanjo, the Head, Human Resources, Tranter IT Infrastructure Services Limited and Tranter International LTD. Adedayo gives an insight on how she encourages employee motivation and a healthy work environment with love, which helps in fostering productivity and overall growth of the company which has almost 350 staff including about 300 IT Engineers.

Read the rest of Adedayo’s interesting interview below:

Fabwoman: Would you rather be doing anything else other than Human Resources?

Adedayo: [Smiles] Over my 10 years’ experience as an HR professional, I have acquired knowledge in social media marketing, digital marketing and also been an editor for a couple of websites so I will say that while I will continue to be an HR Professional, I am open to learning other skills that will help me be the best I can be.

Fabwoman: What is it like being the Head, Human Resources of an IT firm?

Adedayo: Because Tranter IT also renders IT support to clients all over Nigeria, it is quite demanding but I have learnt to put my Empathy, Conflict resolution, Critical thinking, Multitasking and Proactive skills into use on a high scale. The guidance of the Executive Management has also helped me perform my job effectively and efficiently.

Fabwoman: What are the core values of your organisation that has kept it in existence for over 28 years?

Adedayo: The core values of the Tranter Group are Team Work, Excellence, Integrity, Accountability and Innovation. We have however found out that even with all these values in place, the key to overall success at Tranter IT is the ability to show love to one another. The CEO, Lare Ayoola, has shared in various instances, the importance of love in creating a healthy and transparent environment which in turn leads to an organization’s overall success. Mr Ayoola believes that when you speak openly about your business to your employees and they feel comfortable coming to you with anything that’s on their minds, this can do wonders for the collective motivation of the workplace. That’s because love gives birth to transparency which in turn builds trust; when people understand that the Executive Management aren’t hiding anything, and that they’ll listen to anybody, they’re far more likely to respect and appreciate them. Employees are more comfortable bringing up what they like and don’t like, and there are more chances to nip potential problems in the bud by resolving them in a timely fashion.

Fabwoman: You say Love is the key to your organization’s success, how are you celebrating Valentine’s day with your employees?

Adedayo: [Smiles], It’s a tradition for us to share gifts amongst ourselves, so everyone looks forward to Valentine’s day, knowing they will be made to feel special and loved by their fellow colleagues.

Fabwoman: Any final words?

Adedayo: With genuine love, you can never go wrong. Love should not only be shown through words spoken but also by consistent actions and acts of service. Love should also not only be shown on Valentine’s day but every day.

Fabwoman: Thank you for your time with us

Adedayo: Thank you for having me.

Source: https://fabwoman.ng/valentines-day-special-love-is-the-key-to-our-success-at-tranter-it-adedayo-odubanjo/