When You Fall Victim To A Cyber-Attack Through
No Fault Of Your Own, Will They Call You

Stupid…Or Just Irresponsible?

An URGENT Notice To All Small Business Owners And CEOs In Greater Kokomo:

We have entirely FREE and time-sensitive information that is critical for you as a CEO to know regarding growing cyber security threats AND your company’s credentials being sold on the “Dark Web.” Please respond ASAP.

 

8/18/2017
From The Desk of: Jeff Hodson
President, Elsewhen Technology

 

 

 Dear [Name]

It is EXTREMELY unfair, isn’t it? Victims of all other crimes – burglary, rape, mugging, carjacking, theft – get sympathy from others. They are called “victims” and support comes flooding in, as it should.

But if your business is the victim of a cybercrime attack where client or patient data is compromised, you will NOT get such sympathy. You will be instantly labeled as stupid or irresponsible. You will be investigated and questioned about what you did to prevent this from happening – and if the answer is not adequate, you can be found liable, facing serious fines and lawsuits EVEN IF you trusted an outsourced IT support company to protect you. Claiming ignorance is not an acceptable defense, and this giant, expensive and reputation-destroying nightmare will land squarely on YOUR shoulders. But it doesn’t end there…

According to Indiana laws, you will be required to tell your clients and/or patients that YOU exposed them to cybercriminals. Your competition will have a heyday over this. Clients will be IRATE and leave in droves. Morale will TANK and employees will BLAME YOU. Your bank is NOT required to replace funds stolen due to cybercrime (go ask them), and unless you have a very specific type of insurance policy, any financial losses will be denied coverage.

Please do NOT underestimate the importance and likelihood of these threats. It is NOT safe to assume your IT company (or guy) is doing everything they should be doing to protect you; in fact, there is a high probability they are NOT, which we can demonstrate with your permission.

Who Am I And Why Am I Writing You Today?

My name is Jeff Hodson, CEO of Elsewhen Technology. We specialize in making technology productive and easy for business owners in the Greater Howard County area and have a stellar reputation for fast, proactive service built over years.

I do realize that the above statements and this letter may come across as “fearmongering.” It may even upset you. That is not my intent. I truly only seek to help. In fact, I’m writing to offer you a Free Cyber Security Risk Assessment for your company to introduce our services to you AND to help you determine if your business could truly survive a cybercrime attack.

While few businesses let anyone know when they have suffered a cyber-attack, here are local news stories about attacks that happened in the last year.

• A computer hack demanding a ransom is ending up costing Madison County nearly $200,000
• Howard County: Ransomware attack worse than originally thought
• Cancer Services of East Central Indiana – Little Red Door’s terminal server and backup drive were hacked and all the agency’s data was stripped, encrypted and taken for ransom by an international cyberterrorism organization around 10 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 11. The self-identified “dark web” organization threatened to contact family members of living and deceased cancer clients

To help you understand why I’m so passionate about this topic, let me share with you a recent incident.

One employee of a small online retailer in the Midwest received an e-mail with a link to a seemingly benign catalog. One click and the company’s system was infected with malware.

The malware affected accounting software, customer account files, including credit card numbers, social security numbers, customer names and addresses among other information.

The malware was able to encrypt 15,000 accounting and customer files. A ransom demand soon followed, demanding $50,000 in exchange for a decryption key.  Because the company’s backup systems had not been working for months, the company had no choice but to up.

However, the decryption key did not work and after spending $50,000, the owner could not afford pay to rebuild the network systems. Within six months the company closed its doors, strangled by lack of sales and cash flow.

That incident made me want to do something. I was SO ANGRY that this happened to a good people like this! It was unbelievable! They were hardworking business owners just like you and me. They didn’t deserve to be punished for a crime they didn’t even commit! Nobody does! Their only “guilt” was ignorance. They trusted the wrong IT company to protect them, which is hardly a crime. That’s why I decided to start a personal mission to help – and at least EDUCATE – as many business owners as I could about the dangers of cybercrime and how they can protect themselves from losing everything.

That’s why I’m writing YOU TODAY.

Obviously, I don’t know you or your situation. Your IT guy might be brilliantly ahead of all of this for you, doing all the right things to protect you. However, it’s also VERY possible you’re being underserved and ill advised by your IT company.

I get calls from business owners desperate for help after a ransomware attack or devastating virus, or even to clean up the aftermath of a disgruntled employee, who HAD an IT guy that they trusted with the responsibility of protecting the business, but realized all too late they weren’t doing the job they were hired to do.

There are many reasons for this. First, it could be that they simply don’t know how to advise you, or even that they should. Many IT guys know how to keep a computer network running but are completely out of their league when it comes to dealing with the advanced cyber security threats we are RECENTLY seeing.

     Second, they may be “too busy” themselves to truly be proactive with your account – or maybe they don’t want to admit the service package they sold you has become OUTDATED and inadequate compared to far SUPERIOR solutions available today.
     And finally, NOBODY (particularly IT guys) likes to admit they are out of their depth. They feel compelled to exaggerate their ability to avoid being fired. To be fair, they might actually have you covered and be on top of it all. However…

What I found out about the businesses that go out of business is almost all of them thought their IT guy “had things covered.” That’s why it’s VERY likely your IT guy does NOT have you “covered” and you need a pre-emptive, independent risk assessment like the one I’m offering in this letter.
As a CEO myself, I understand that you have to delegate and trust, at some level, that your employees and vendors are doing the right thing – but it never hurts to validate that they are. Remember, it’s YOUR reputation, YOUR money, YOUR business that’s on the line. THEIR mistake is YOUR nightmare.

Our Free Cyber Security Risk Assessment Will Give You
The Answers You Want, The Certainty You Need

For a limited time, we are offering to give away a Free Cyber Security Risk Assessment to a select group of businesses. This is entirely free and without obligation. EVERYTHING WE FIND AND DISCUSS WILL BE STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL.

This assessment will provide verification from a qualified third party on whether or not your current IT company is doing everything they should to keep your computer network not only up and running, but SAFE from cybercrime.

Here’s How It Works: At no cost or obligation, one of my lead consultants and I will come to your office and conduct a non-invasive, CONFIDENTIAL investigation of your computer network, backups and security protocols. Your current IT company or guy DOES NOT NEED TO KNOW we are conducting this assessment. Your time investment is minimal: one hour for the initial meeting and one hour in the second meeting to go over our Report of Findings.

When this Risk Assessment is complete, you will know:

 

• If you and your employees’ login credentials are being sold on the Dark Web (I can practically guarantee one or more are… THIS will shock you). Thanks to a new threat intelligence and ID-monitoring service we subscribe to, we can run a report on YOUR company and see what credentials are actively being sold on the Dark Web, which is a part of the World Wide Web accessible only by means of special software. This allow operators to remain completely and totally anonymous and untraceable and is used by the most notorious cybercrime rings around the world.
• IF your IT systems and data are truly secured from hackers, cybercriminals, viruses, worms and even sabotage by rogue employees. If you are not getting weekly security updates from your current IT person, your systems probably are not secure. You should also know that antivirus software and most firewalls are grossly inadequate against the sophisticated attacks now happening.
• IF your current backup would allow you to be back up and running again fast if ransomware locked all your files. In 99% of the computer networks we have reviewed over the years, the owners were shocked to learn the backup they had would NOT survive a ransomware attack. Ransomware is designed to infect your backups as well, leaving you defenseless. There are only a handful of backup systems that will prevent this from happening.
• DO your employees truly know how to spot a phishing e-mail? We will actually put them to the test. We have never seen a company pass 100%. Never.
• Are your IT systems, backups, policies and procedures in sync with compliance requirements for [HIPAA/GLBA/SOX/etc.]?

 If we DO find problems…overlooked security loopholes, inadequate backups, credentials that have been compromised, out-of-date firewall and antivirus software and (often) active malware…on one or more of the PCs in your office, we will propose an Action Plan to remediate the situation that you can have us implement for you if you choose. Again, I want to stress that EVERYTHING WE DISCUSS AND DISCOVER WILL BE STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL.

Why Free?

Frankly, we want the opportunity to be your IT company. We know we are the most competent, responsive and trusted IT services provider to small businesses in Greater Howard County.

However, I also realize there is a good chance you have been burned, disappointed and frustrated by the complete lack of service and the questionable advice you have gotten from other IT companies in the past. In fact, you might be so fed up and disgusted with being “sold” and underserved that you do not trust anyone. I do not blame you.

That is why this assessment is completely and entirely free. Let us earn your trust by demonstrating our expertise. While we would love the opportunity to be your IT company, we will come in with no expectations and only look to provide you with fact-based information so you can make a quality, informed decision – and we’ll ONLY discuss the option of becoming your IT company if the information we share makes sense and you want to move forward. No hard sell. No gimmicks and no tricks.

Please…Do NOT Just Shrug This Off

I know you are extremely busy and there is enormous temptation to discard this, shrug it off, worry about it “later” or dismiss it altogether. That is, undoubtedly, the easy choice…but the easy choice is rarely the RIGHT choice. This I can guarantee: At some point, you WILL HAVE TO DEAL WITH A CYBER SECURITY EVENT.

Hopefully you will be brilliantly prepared for it and experience only a minor inconvenience at most. But if you wait and do NOTHING, I can practically guarantee this will be a far more costly, disruptive and devastating attack that will happen to your business.

You have spent a lifetime working hard to get where you are today. Do not let some lowlife thief operating outside the law in another country get away with taking that from you. And certainly do not “hope” your IT guy has you covered. Get the facts and be certain you are protected.

Contact us and schedule your Free, CONFIDENTIAL Cyber Security Risk Assessment today: www.ewtpro.com/security. Feel free to also reach out to me direct at the phone number and e-mail address below.

Dedicated to serving you,

Jeff Hodson
Web: www.ewtpro.com
E-mail: ewtpro.com
Direct: 763 236 6404 Extension 4

Not Ready To Meet Just Yet?

Then at least allow me to send you our brand-new free Executive Report titled “7 Urgent Security Protections Every Business Should Have In Place Now.” This Executive Report is brief, concise and contains facts and information that might mean the difference between surviving this terrible and growing storm of cybercrime coming or being financially devastated and sunk. You can instantly download this report for free at www.ewtpro.com/securityreport or you can call my office at 765-450-9320, for your free copy.

 

You can download it at www.ewtpro.com/securityreport