Technology Advisor Blog

A Real-World Wake-Up Call

Last week a 10-person machine shop in the Boston area reached out to us with an urgent challenge. They were eager to win Department of Defense contracts, but there was one major roadblock: compliance. Specifically, they needed to meet CMMC (Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification) standards to even qualify.

Ransomware attacks can destroy a business in hours, yet having a local incident response team alongside national experts provides direct support when every minute counts. A nearby team delivers immediate on-site assistance, translates complex technical information, and works directly with your staff while national teams handle remote tasks.  When a local business was recently locked out of all their systems after a ransomware attack, a nationally recognized incident response team needed "boots on the ground" and we were honored to be called to help.

Picture this: Your business has assigned you a new license that includes sharing documents with one another, the platform being used that you may be unfamiliar with is SharePoint.
For those new to the full-time workforce or even those that have been using the same applications for years, you may ask yourself; “I know of SharePoint, but I don’t know how to fully explain it to someone else. What is it?” This blog will be a perfect starting point for you and even have some fun tips n’ tricks thrown in you may not have known about! As someone new to the Cybersecurity Industry and a beginner, turning novice, with Microsoft, I learned something new. When I learn something new, my intent is to pass along information I believe will be informative and helpful for other individuals.

Introduction-Basics

To start off, what exactly is SharePoint? SharePoint is a web application; part of Microsoft 365 Suite launched in 2001. The web application is used for building a controlled network open to communications within your team to share, manage files and important documents. There are a variety of ways you can approach SharePoint, such as sharing, uploading files, collaborating with your team or organization, creating a custom team site, various communications, creating smooth workflow operations, custom keyboard navigation shortcuts, and so much more for discovering content. At Ekaru, our team specializes in helping you navigate through Microsoft applications with clear and concise information to apply and digest. Let’s take a look at the key components for a general understanding!

Starting SharePoint-Key Feature Components:

Sites: The landing page of a website, or in this case your home team page to meet up and communicate.
Document Libraries: The ground-zero to store and manage all files
Lists: Location for various spreadsheets to manage your team’s data. Such as inventory, tasks, contacts, project management, etc.
Pages: Content pages sharing information, embed videos, documents and more. I like to call this one the airdrop but for Microsoft.
Web Parts: Building blocks of pages
Permissions: The control room where you can apply who has access or restrictions to documents.
Integration: As SharePoint is part of a larger licensing application, SharePoint works seamlessly with Microsoft apps like Word, Excel, Teams, PowerPoint, and more.

Now that the basics are covered, lets transition to merging documents outside of Microsoft for teams to implement and utilize effectively.

Source: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/get-started-with-sharepoint-909ec2f0-05c8-4e92-8ad3-3f8b0b6cf261

Tips to Merge Outside Documents Into SharePoint

As we begin a new month, cybersecurity trends continue to evolve, keeping us in the industry on our toes.
Today’s world of cybersecurity, cybercriminals and hackers use tactical, socially engineered techniques, targeting large and small businesses in stealing their personal information at an alarming rate. At Ekaru, we have seen businesses become targets for these attacks and have provided them with tools to identify their approach and react accordingly to a variety of scenarios. Our goal is to have businesses acquire the resources they need to be aware of cybersecurity, while also being your helpful ally in an unprecedented evolving geopolitical climate a phone call or email away.

The Ekaru team does not slow down in the summertime, we continue by providing local businesses with our specialized skills in cybersecurity to ensure your business has the best tools and security practices in place to protect your team and its assets. We mentioned in a previous blog post that cyber criminals will target travelers when they are away from their desks, especially in the quieter months for work and PTO.
To target travelers with social engineering, scammers will try anything to cause a strong emotional reaction that leads you to making a quick, flustered decision.
How are they doing this now and in the summer, you may ask; cyber criminals are creating hyper realistic sophisticated scams through targeted social media ads and email promotions with too good to be true vacation prices. The goal for them is to create a sense of escapism, love the idea of a trip that you cannot give up on, and all at a fair price that makes you want to impulsively take your credit card and proceed, without taking a moment to be skeptical.
In these scenarios, how you react may either omit safety or have you flustered for falling for a scam. Either way, we are here to help and provide you with awareness, you, your team, friends and family will appreciate.

When it comes to establishing your business on a social media platform, a lot of teamwork and insight goes into its strategy. These calculations apply to tone, values, visuals, color, and messaging to find the right audience to interact with your content. What’s also important in maintaining social media is the security of general accounts and who monitors activity across these accounts. In the case of our social media presence at Ekaru, a small business MSP specializing in cybersecurity located within the outer metropolitan area of Boston serving small to medium sized clients. Our values are to be friendly, helpful, insightful, provide knowledgeable articles that align, bring up conversations surrounding awareness of good and bad cybersecurity practices to learn from. Along with cybersecurity practices to implement within your business, questions you may ask yourself are ‘how can I maintain a healthy social media presence that can apply for my business and self?

Temperatures are beginning to soar as the summer months roll in for businesses in Boston and all surrounding metropolitan areas. From laptops to tablets to servers, monitors, and portable hard drives, your business essential devices are vulnerable to the extreme heat if left unattended.
As your local Ekaru team, we want to help your business celebrate securely and ensure your IT systems stay protected while you enjoy some well-earned freedom. 

One of the questions we hear all the time is:  “We have spam filters—so why are these phishing emails still getting through?” Sometimes, it’s said with a little more heat:
“Why don’t these security tools actually work?”

Are you sharing too much information in your Out of Office message?  One of our core values at Ekaru is being "Friendly and Helpful".  In that spirit, I used to include a lot of information in my Out of Office Auto-Reply... because I wanted to be friendly and helpful! 

Penetration testing (or pen testing for short) is a proactive way to protect your business from cyberattacks. It simulates real-world attacks to identify vulnerabilities before cybercriminals can exploit them. For small businesses, often working with limited security resources, pen testing is a critical tool to uncover hidden risks, meet compliance requirements, and strengthen defenses.

Your business data and customer information need strong protection to maintain trust and meet compliance standards. Modern automated tools make professional security testing both accessible and cost-effective for smaller companies. Through regular testing, you can build a clear roadmap to strengthen your defenses and stay ahead of emerging threats.