If you receive a call claiming to be from the Social Security Administration, immediately hang up.  Don't press any numbers or call back.  Report suspicious SSA calls to the Social Security Office of Inspector General at 800-269-0271.

Callers are claiming your SS number has been suspended or involved in criminal activity and ask you to confirm your SSN to reactivate it or to pay a fee to "unfreeze" your account.  The Federal Trade Commission indicated that between April 2018 and March 2019, SSA fraud victims reported losses of $19 million.

The takeaways here?  Social Security numbers aren't "suspended" or "blocked" and government agencies don't call with threats and demands for money.

A recent Barracuda Networks survey shows the majority (87%) of decision makers believe email threats will rise in the coming year. However, many companies are ill-prepared to defend against these threats, and in fact, 94% of respondents acknowledged that email remains the weakest link in their cyber defenses.

The majority of organizations (57%), indicate most attacks target the finance department. However, attacks on customer/user support are also on the rise, with nearly one-third (32%) of firms identifying this as the most targeted department. 

The survey also underlines the risk of negligent employees, with 56% of respondents stating that some of their staff members don't follow security policies.

Contact CDS Office Technologies today for a 

no-cost network security assessment.