The real threat is email fraud
Business email compromise is the fraud we worry about most for Dunwoody clients. In its 2025 annual report, the FBI's IC3 counted 24,768 such complaints across the country and about $3.05 billion in reported losses. In a typical case, a criminal gets into a mailbox or creates a lookalike address, watches the conversation and then sends new bank details just before a payment is due. Georgia ranked tenth among states by complaint count in the same report, at 25,936 complaints of every type.
Several kinds of business common in Dunwoody are favorite targets. Real estate firms and closing attorneys move large sums on deadlines, which is exactly the pressure fraudsters use. Insurance agencies and financial advisers hold personal and account data. Medical and dental practices hold patient records protected by HIPAA. Consultants and professional firms pay and receive invoices all month long.
The home office problem
About a third of Dunwoody's working residents work from home. That's convenient, and it moves a lot of business data onto networks that were set up for streaming, not security. We see the same things again and again. Routers running years-old firmware with the default password. Work laptops sharing a network with children's tablets and smart doorbells. Business files saved to personal cloud accounts. Family members using the work computer.
None of that requires banning remote work. It requires managing the work device properly, wherever it sits. The laptop's security shouldn't depend on the house it happens to be in.
Our security layers
- Multifactor sign-in for email, remote tools and all administrator accounts, using an authenticator app rather than text messages where possible.
- Email filtering that blocks phishing, impersonation and malicious attachments, with a one-click button for staff to report anything odd.
- Endpoint detection and response on every laptop and desktop. It watches for suspicious behavior, such as mass file encryption, and can cut a machine off from the network.
- People reviewing alerts, so warnings get acted on instead of piling up in an inbox.
- Disk encryption on laptops, so a stolen bag at the MARTA station or a coffee shop is an inconvenience rather than a data breach.
- Patching of systems and applications, including on machines that never visit the office.
- Account clean-up: old accounts removed, admin rights limited and a password manager instead of a shared spreadsheet.
- Short, regular staff training with realistic test emails, so people learn what a fake invoice looks like.
Tower offices have their own risks
In shared office buildings, the network jack in your suite may be on the same building network as other tenants, and conference centers and lobbies have open Wi-Fi. We set up your own firewall and network so your traffic stays separate, and we make sure visiting staff and guests use a guest network that can't reach your files or printers.
Insurance, HIPAA and paperwork
Cyber insurers now ask detailed questions at renewal about MFA, endpoint protection and backups. We help you answer them truthfully and fix what would raise the premium or weaken a claim. For medical, dental and therapy practices, we put in place and document the technical safeguards the HIPAA Security Rule calls for, so your risk analysis has something solid behind it.
Practices along the medical corridor
Dunwoody's two ZIP codes hold 258 health care establishments, many of them small. A typical practice has a front desk PC, a few exam room computers, imaging or charting software and a patient portal. We lock down each of those, keep the software vendor's remote access tightly controlled and log who opens what, which is the kind of evidence HIPAA reviews ask for.
If something happens
If a mailbox is taken over or malware lands on a laptop, we isolate it, work out what was accessed, restore clean systems and help you decide who needs to be told, from your bank to your insurer to your clients. A written plan made in advance makes those first hours much less chaotic.
Questions about cybersecurity
Is a home router really a business risk?
It can be. Many home routers run old firmware and default settings. We focus on securing the work laptop itself, and we can help staff replace or configure the router when it's needed.
Where should a small office start?
Usually with MFA on every account, better email filtering and a check of who has admin access. Those three steps take a few weeks and cut the most common risks sharply.
