A Reminder How Important Monitoring Your Devices Can Be

It's easy underestimate the importance of monitoring your solutions. Nevertheless, the advantages of tenacious monitoring were recently thrust into the spotlight when 24 spammers were arrested in October by the Delhi Police’s cyber cell for impersonating Microsoft support staff and duping American citizens.

With the help of Microsoft’s Digital Crime Unit (based in Redmond, Washington, USA, and with offices around the globe) the authorities were able to leverage data analytics in order to bust multiple companies with illegal call centers. These call centers were operating a tech support scam that targeted American Microsoft Windows users.

Typical of tech support scams, the employees at these call centers would first send their targets a fraudulent notification that claimed that their systems had malware on them. They constructed websites to further convince their targets of their legitimacy. When a victim called the number provided, the cybercriminals would charge them a sum anywhere between $100 and $500 to “remedy” the apparent problem.

The scammers would pilfer data and install malware once they were given access.

It was via monitoring that an employee of Microsoft India, Nripenda Kashyap, was able to identify and report these activities to the DCU. His actions ultimately resulted in 10 call centers being raided and the arrest of 24 people, the owners of these businesses included.

There are a few lessons that we can take from these events.

You need to remember that no major technology company like Microsoft  is ever going to reach out to you and inform you that your device is having problems. The only exception is if you’ve enlisted a service provider like Macro Systems to actively monitor your computers and other devices. Otherwise, you’re basically on your own.

Having your own IT monitored isn’t something that you should postpone. Tech support scams like these claim $1.5 billion each year from 3.3 million users (and that’s according to a lawsuit that the DCU filed… in 2014) While you may see the dozens of errors that your computer tracks as some kind of catastrophe, a professional IT resource will be able to tell if something is actually wrong.

When you decide to have your devices monitored and maintained, try reach out to Macro Systems. We’ll work behind the scenes, actually preventing issues before they happen and identifying and mitigating threats.

If you’re interested in learning more about our services, including our remote monitoring and maintenance solutions, reach out to us at 703-359-9211.