Managed IT Services: Managing Risk through Digital Trust

Managed IT services is crucial for all businesses, whether big or small. The Internet is the backbone of the new digital economy. McKinsey estimates that data growth has generated 10% net new growth in GDP, and with the increase of IoT, it is estimated that in just three years there will be 4.3 devices connected to the Internet for every man, woman, and child on the planet. And that number is expected to grow into the hundreds. This has significant ramifications for how businesses operate.

• Data is currency – New technology is making it possible to correlate, analyze and draw conclusions from data in ways never seen before. Organizations MUST monetize data or be left behind.
• Data lives everywhere – Networks and computing have moved beyond the data center and remote office to include mobile workers, IoT wearables, smart vehicles, and the advent of the personal area networks (PAN).
• Data is being auto-generated – The expansion of parallel, interconnected networks that collect and share data to allow devices to make autonomous decisions is expected to generate a massive volume of machine-to-machine data.
• Most importantly, Data has value – Data is responsible for generating billions in new revenue for today’s digital organizations. Unfortunately, many organizations have a difficult time quantifying the value of their data or assigning a risk profile to it.

 

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Managing Risk

The problem with our increasing reliance on data is that anything that can be generated, transmitted, stored, or analyzed can also be stolen. The question that many businesses are grappling with is, “how can we capitalize on the opportunity of the digital economy while managing the attendant risk?”

This is the role of risk management.

The challenge is that traditional risk management strategies do not always translate well to our new distributed and elastic networking ecosystems or the increasing sophistication of cybercrime. Increasing hyperconnectivity of devices and networks, the globalization of the digital economy, advances in cybercrime techniques, and the commercialization of crime-as-a-service has resulted in an explosion in both the frequency and severity of cybersecurity attacks.

Given the radical transformation of network infrastructures, every organization, regardless of size or industry, needs to regularly examine their exposure to cyber risks and prepare for a potential incident. The basic formula is Risk = Threat x Vulnerability x Consequence. While this may seem simple on the surface, getting the information required to make a risk calculation is not trivial.

Historically, organizations have focused primarily on reducing and managing the threat and vulnerability components of the equation. Of course, we need to understand what devices are on our network, where our data lives, who has access to these resources, and how applications and services connect these things together.

However, managing these elements of the equation is becoming increasingly complicated, and given the current rate of effective security breaches, it can be argued that it hasn’t been particularly effective.  Part of the problem is that the isolated security tools and platforms currently deployed in our networks to address threat and vulnerability were never designed to protect today’s complex ecosystems. As we move infrastructure and services to the cloud, implement and adopt IoT technologies, embrace a more mobile workforce, and acknowledge the growth of shadow IT (where data and services live outside the network, and often out of the sight or control of the IT organization), the potential attack surface grows.

In order to be effective, risk management needs to focus more resources on the third element of the equation, which is consequence. To do that, defenders must invest time and energy getting to know what data is worth protecting, who and what can access it, and how to build an ecosystem designed to prioritize and protect your digital assets and resources.

Doing this requires creating digital trust and hiring managed IT services Fayetteville NC.

Digital Trust

Effective cybersecurity is more than just defense. It is an essential enabler of digital transformation. If organizations and users can’t trust their data, and trust that it is safe, they will not engage or take the risks that drive growth, and the digital economy will fail.

To establish digital trust, every member of the ecosystem must commit to doing their part to secure mutually valuable assets. Because interconnected networks span a variety of ecosystems, from cloud and IoT to virtualized networks and endpoint devices, protecting what’s left of our borders is no longer enough. To weave digital trust into the environment, organizations require an integrated security architecture that can provide transparency and control from top to bottom, across the entire distributed technology landscape.

But digital trust is about much more than technology. It requires shifting our paradigms from being reactive to proactive. This includes educating people, establishing a culture in which security is paramount, understanding the risks associated with business objectives, and mindfully creating processes that engineer as much risk out of the system as possible.

The goal of any risk management strategy is to maximize the opportunity while minimizing risk. This requires understanding your business goals, the context of your market, customers, value proposition, and your expected results (KPI’s) and connecting them to a cybersecurity strategy. Risk can only be quantified by knowing what your vulnerabilities are as well as the impact to your organization if they are exploited.

Managed IT Services: Digital Trust Starts at the Top

The person primarily tasked with the protection of data assets in many organizations is the CISO. Today’s CISO must be more than a technologist and risk manager. They must also be business leaders, They must understand short and long-term business objectives, have clear line-of-sight across the organization and technology, and be able to establish policy and governance for everyone who touches your data.  At every step along the way, it should be possible for the CISO to assess vulnerabilities and threats, size the consequences of compromises, and tie investments and focus to business objectives.

It can’t stop there, however. While the CISO is the quarterback, cybersecurity as a core behavior needs to permeate every function and all levels of the organization, from the CEO and CFO on down. Each business or functional leader must be mandated to embed security into the core processes and initiatives that they respectively own. And every employee needs to understand that good security practice benefits everyone. There can be no single throat to choke – all leaders must have a role in assigning risk and assuming the weight of consequences.

To do this effectively, organizations need to be more precise about describing why something is risky.  Is this risk due to a system or process vulnerability, an internal or external threat, or the consequence of something else? Organizations also need to assess the size of a risk - low, medium, or high – to appropriately allocate resources, and estimate the consequences should a breach be successful.

Finally, you have to prepare for the unknown. Many organizations that have dealt with a breach can tell you that some risks you aren’t even aware of can have severe consequences. Which means you need to be thoughtful about engineering as much risk out of your infrastructure and processes as possible to protect your most critical assets, rather than simply relying on reactive security technology.

 

Call SpartanTec, Inc. now if you want to know more about managed IT services.

 

SpartanTec, Inc.
Fayetteville, NC 28304
(910) 745-7776
http://manageditservicesfayetteville.com

Serving: Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach, Columbia, Wilmington, Fayetteville, Florence

Chrome Zero Day Exploit Gets Fixed With Latest Update

On April 20, 2021, Google released Chrome 90.0.4430.85, designed to address a zero day exploit hackers are currently taking advantage of, tracked as CVE-2021-21224. The patch also patches four other high severity security flaws that had previously been plaguing the most popular browser on the web. By the time you read these words, the latest version will be available for Windows, Mac and Linux users.

The other issues this latest patch addresses are tracked as follows:

• CVE-2021-21222 (a heap buffer overflow in V8)
• CVE-2021-21223 (an integer overflow in Mojo)
• CVE-2021-21225 (an out of bounds memory access issue in V8)

Needless to say, with a quartet of serious to critical severity flaws being addressed, this is an update you don't want to miss.

 

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If there's a silver lining to be found, it lies in the fact that by itself, the remote code execution allowed by this particular zero-day exploit doesn't allow a hacker to escape from Chrome's sandbox. That's not much of a silver lining though. The company explained in a blog post about the matter, and as demonstrated via a recently released proof of concept, it can easily be chained with another exploit to allow it to escape the sandbox.

Google and a number of other giant tech firms have been scrambling this year. They've been addressing zero-day and high severity cybersecurity flaws left and right, trying gamely to stay one step ahead of the hackers, or at least not fall too far behind them.

Kudos to Google for taking fast action here. Be sure to update to the latest version as soon as feasible. If the current pace of patching holds, this is going to be a very busy year for everyone. It's best to know more about zero trust networks, too. Buckle up, it appears that 2021 is going to be a wild ride indeed.

 

Call SpartanTec, Inc. now for more information on how our team of IT experts can help protect your company against zero day exploits.

 

SpartanTec, Inc.
Fayetteville, NC 28304
(910) 745-7776
http://manageditservicesfayetteville.com

Serving: Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach, Columbia, Wilmington, Fayetteville, Florence

Tips For Protecting Your Company With Backup and Disaster Recovery

Disaster recovery is crucial. Is your business ready for a massive technology failure? Do you have a well thought out or thorough steps set in place to make sure that your business would function and recover as needed?

If you’re a company owner, you should manage to answer these important questions. With the complexity of the technology these days, a lot of incidents could happen that may derail your business. These are:

• Hardware failure or server failure that could lead to data loss
• Cyberattacks such as phishing attacks and ransomware may take your business operations offline.
• More basic calamities such as equipment damage or power failure caused by power grid failures as well as severe storms could also cause problems.

Consequently, now more than ever, businesses these days require backup and disaster recovery solutions. But companies that do have these solutions in place, about 23% of them have not tested or tried them yet. Because of these, you should take a closer look at how BDR were implemented before, and how the modernization in technology have changed it today, and how your company can make the most out of all these things.

 

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Conventional Backup and Disaster Recovery

Conventionally, data backups have been physical reels that come with a magnetic tape where company data is stored. These reels were saved on site so that it could be accessed easily if there’s an emergency. It made a lot of sense to have the data backup readily on site so that it can be retrieved whenever it was required.

But, tape storage isn’t a good and efficient way to store company data. In case you lose this data, it could take you several hours to bring back. As a matter of fact, the downtime that could happen while you are waiting for the restoration of data could be devastating.

And that’s just a restriction of the technological process required to get the data on tapes. If anything occurs on the physical tapes, your information could be lost completely, with no way to get it back. The same could be said for solid state drives and USB drives.

The most effective strategy to backup data for business is to have several backups, offsite and onsite. This is consistent to what is referred to as the 3-2-1 backup guideline, which must be used as the baseline for every business BDR strategy.

Cloud based Backup and Disaster Recovery

A better solution for the data and backup disaster recovery plan for your company is to establish a cloud-based BDR system. If you compare it to tape storage, a data backup that is cloud based is more efficient, more secure, and much more convenient.

Backup happens much more frequently through a snapshot based backup process. It happens when data changed since the backup last happened. This means that you will get more backup throughout the entire day, in some cases as often as a 15-minute interval.

Having backups frequently means decreasing the possibility of losing large amounts of data significantly. You can save your data in these backups onsite as well as in the cloud, making it easy to access.

The Ultimate Advantage

Generally speaking, the benefit of using BDR that is cloud based is that you could get back the data to any hardware device. This includes the backup and data recovery device, too. Whatever is the cause of the loss of data, you will have instant access to the data backup the moment you need it. You can also hire IT services to help you out with this part of your business.

 

Call SpartanTec, Inc. now for more information about backup and disaster recovery.

 

SpartanTec, Inc.
Fayetteville, NC 28304
(910) 745-7776
http://manageditservicesfayetteville.com

Serving: Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach, Columbia, Wilmington, Fayetteville, Florence

Your Business Is More Likely To Be The Victim Of Cybercrime

 

Though we’re in the midst of an unprecedented rise in high-profile cybercrime incidents, it’s easy to assume that our own much smaller businesses are safe. Sure, we think, hacking into the data stores of J.P. Morgan, the U.S. Government, or Virgin America can net hackers millions and millions of dollars.  Why would they bother with a small and medium business?

 

But unfortunately for all of us, hackers actually do bother with small and medium businesses across the country — these attacks just don’t make the news. By some estimates, including one reported in Media Planet, more than half of small businesses have had their data compromised. According to StaySafeOnline.org, these attacks, targeting small to midsize companies, now comprise over 70% of all data breaches. What’s worse, this digital onslaught shows no sign of slowing. In fact, ransomware attacks alone have increased 250% since 2016, accompanied by higher rates of malware, phishing, and other forms of cybercrime.

 

Once you see these numbers, it’s easy to understand why hackers seek the little guy. These days, massive corporations like Google or Citigroup employ incredibly sophisticated digital measures. Their digital vaults, though containing ludicrously attractive sums of potential money to grab, are located at the end of a virtual labyrinth covered in traps, with a final, inches-thick steel door protecting their assets for good measure. In contrast, the digital assets of smaller businesses are often hidden behind nothing more than a single, often weak, password. With thousands of businesses going about their day-to-day, utterly oblivious to their paper-thin IT services and security, the question turns from “Why would hackers bother with my business?” to “Why wouldn’t they?”

 

Though cybercriminals may come away with less than they might have had they targeted a Fortune 500 company, it certainly isn’t going to seem cheap to you. According to one TechRepublic analysis, an average cyber-attack on a small and medium business can cost as much as $256,000. Is that a sudden cost your company can weather?

 

Luckily, there is hope. Though small and medium businesses often assume that effective cybersecurity solutions lie far outside their budget range, robust digital security is now more affordable than ever. By investing in comprehensive protection, smaller businesses can deflect even the most persistent hackers.

 

Today, a cyber-attack on your business is almost statistically inevitable. And when that attack comes, you’ll definitely want to be prepared. If you haven’t needed a doctor for the past two years, does that mean you’re going to abandon your health insurance coverage? Of course not. What about car insurance? Does it become unnecessary in the absence of a crash? No, because even if you’re the best driver in the world, sometimes a collision is out of your control. What’s more, both your body and your car require regular upkeep and maintenance to remain in peak condition. It’s no different with your network security. As technology hurdles forward at an ever-increasing speed, the ways that hackers can infiltrate your network multiply. The best digital security platforms constantly update, enabling them to anticipate these shifts and prevent them from becoming liabilities. This way, you can be proactive prior to a digital crisis, ensuring that no matter what comes, your network is protected especially when you work with IT support Fayetteville NC.

 

Even as digital crime climbs at a staggering rate, and hundreds of small and medium businesses are forced to close their doors for good, thousands of businesses fail to notice, assuming they’ll somehow be spared from an attack. Don’t be one of them. Invest in regularly maintained, powerful IT Services Fayetteville NC, and ensure the future of your company.

Call SpartanTec, Inc. now to know more about our cybersecurity solutions and how we can help protect your company from various kinds of online threats. 

SpartanTec, Inc.
Fayetteville, NC 28304
(910) 745-7776
http://manageditservicesfayetteville.com

Serving: Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach, Columbia, Wilmington, Fayetteville, Florence

What are the benefits of managed IT services?

 

Whether you’re a business executive or a seasoned IT professional, managed IT services simplify your work and make it less complicated so you could concentrate on the things that are more important.

Managed IT services Fayetteville NC offer several benefits including industry knowledge, dedication, as well as the expertise of the whole IT department, who are focused on delivering your core business.

Managed IT services lets you remain focused on expanding the core competencies of your business while a managed service provider could assist you with your daily tasks of more complex and time consuming projects like:

• End user support
• Cybersecurity
• Asset and computer system management
• Disaster recovery
•  Cloud computing

The managed service providers will boost the competitiveness and efficiency of your business by providing your firm with the advantages of managed IT services Fayetteville NC.

Benefits of Managed IT Services

Scalable and Predictable Spending (OPEX)

Investing in IT infrastructure and systems can be very costly. If making such investments require predicting and upfront operating expenses, it would be hard on your company once it starts growing. With outsourced IT services, these expenses will be consolidated into a fixed and single set of operating expenses.

Since the providers of IT support Fayetteville NC generally operate with fixed monthly rates, repairs, maintenance, and hardware breakdowns are factored into the operational budget and will not put a strain in your budget once they happen unexpectedly.

Avoid Sunk and Operational Expenses

Having an in-house IT team means you have sunk costs including office upkeep, insurance, benefits, and monthly salaries. Aside from that, it will take time and money to train the employees so they can familiarize themselves with the existing processes and systems. With IT outsourcing, you will cut back on your significant capital expenditures that are associated with the management of in-house systems that add little to almost no value to your company.

IT outsourcing also helps you save on emergency repairs, training, licensing, and consulting. You will also benefit from the lower labor costs once you sign the managed services agreement, which will help you save time, too.

Faster Response Time

Nowadays, businesses can’t afford to experience any kind of technical difficulties or have their staff do nothing because of system or network problems. You will lose a lot because of a downtime and that is why you need round the clock customer service. With a managed IT service provider like SpartanTec, Inc., you can be assured that someone will help you whenever you need it.

Expertise and Experience

Working with a managed IT service provider gives you access to a team that has the experience, certification, training, and qualifications that are specific to the industry you belong in. You will also have access to the most recent technology on the market and it could be implemented smoothly and quickly.

Proactive Monitoring and Repair

Aside from getting access to IT experts and their skills, you will also receive proactive solutions once you work with a reliable managed IT service provider. Monitoring and the management of your IT will help catch problems before they turn into serious issues. Managed IT service providers are quick to respond and also promotes business continuity because of the minimal downtime.

Call SpartanTec, Inc. now if you're looking for a managed IT service provider that offers 24/7 IT services for a reasonable price. 

SpartanTec, Inc.
Fayetteville, NC 28304
(910) 745-7776
http://manageditservicesfayetteville.com

Serving: Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach, Columbia, Wilmington, Fayetteville, Florence

4 Questions to Ask When Evaluating MSSPs

 

The growing threat landscape coupled with a shortage of cybersecurity talent is attracting more organizations to outsourced IT security. Managed security service providers (MSSPs) are becoming part of a sound cybersecurity strategy — especially for organizations with limited budget and in-house support staff.

Global researcher Research and Markets estimates the MSSP market size to grow from $17.02 billion last year to $33.68 billion by 2021. At the same time, PwC found that 62 percent of surveyed companies use cloud-based managed security services for initiatives such as threat intelligence, authentication and real-time monitoring and analytics.

Managed IT services Fayetteville NC have many advantages. However, no two MSSPs are alike and it’s important to conduct your due diligence before choosing a vendor.

Trends Driving MSSP Market

The scarcity of information security professionals has been growing. Frost & Sullivan estimates that by 2022, the gap will be 1.8 million workers — a 20 percent increase from last year’s forecast.

Clearly, the dial isn’t moving fast enough to attract new generations to the industry. And the underground economy is booming. Better tools are making it easier for bad actors to breach companies regardless of size.

The Benefits of MSSP Outsourcing

Organizations are finding that outsourcing cybersecurity to an IT services Fayetteville NC offers benefits beyond just closing the IT security talent gap.  These include:

• Cost efficiency: There is a reduced operational cost because you can upgrade infrastructure only when needed and operate with a leaner in-house security team.
• Expertise: You can access top security talent, yet you don’t have to worry about the challenge of drawing from a small pool of workers.
• Compliance: MSSPs typically specialize in specific areas of compliance, and they stay current with new regulations.

Outsourcing may not be for everyone, but if your company is consistently struggling to keep the data secure and the infrastructure current, you should give this option a serious look.

Factors to Consider in Choosing a Provider

When you’re evaluating the capabilities of the IT support Fayetteville NC provider, ask these key questions:

1. Do you provide an end-to end solution?

Even when point solutions work with each other, they don’t necessarily provide a seamless integration and often issue competing alerts increasing the chance that something will fall through the cracks. Ask potential MSSPs if their solution includes an architecture that provides both comprehensive detection and coordinated defense and intelligence sharing across the enterprise.

2. Do you have the right capabilities?

The IT service provider should have highly trained, highly skilled security professionals with experience in your sector that are consistently being trained on the latest threats and technologies.

3. Does your solution scale?

Even if you’re not using the cloud or integrating IoT devices now, choose a provider that can scale services to protect data outside the network perimeter. A vendor that uses a multi-device management strategy will easily adapt as your needs grow.

4. How do you use threat intelligence?

Threat intelligence is ineffectual if it’s not actionable. Take the time to understand how the MSSP applies threat intelligence to its defense strategy — shared threat intelligence across the entire enterprise mitigates risk faster and more effectively.

A partner of Fortinet and managed security services provider, SpartanTec offers comprehensive security services with advanced, independently validated technology designed to adapt to emerging threats. Contact us to learn how partnering with us for your managed security can help you improve your security posture.

SpartanTec, Inc.
Fayetteville, NC 28304
(910) 745-7776
http://manageditservicesfayetteville.com

Serving: Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach, Columbia, Wilmington, Fayetteville, Florence

5 Ways To Prevent Data Breaches

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WED, MAR 10 AT 4 PM EST

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Businesses need to prioritize data security especially these days when high profile information security breaches are almost always making the headlines. Organizations today face a one in four chance of having an information data breach that would cost about $2.21 million over the next two years. The aftermath of a data breach includes distrust, revenue loss, decreased loyalty among customers, and a negative reputation for your brand.

Prevent Information Security Breach

Asset Inventory

Visibility of what software and hardware assets you have in your network, as well as physical infrastructures, would help you get a greater understanding of the security posture of your organization. An asset inventory could also be used to create ratings and categories around the vulnerabilities and threats your assets may come across with. Ratings and categories for these vulnerabilities could assist you in prioritizing the remediation efforts that would occur on these assets.

Information security breaches add emphasis to endpoint protection. It’s not enough to have an antivirus installed to prevent a major breach. As a matter of fact, if you depend only on your antivirus software, you’ll be leaving your endpoints such as your laptops and desktops, widely exposed. Your devices would become the entry points for breaches.

An in-depth endpoint solution would utilize encryption to stop data leaks and loss, implement unified policies to protect data across all your endpoints, networks, servers, thereby lowering the possibility of a data breach.

Vulnerability and Compliance Management

Using a VCM or vulnerability and compliance management tool or at least completing a vulnerability assessment can help you pinpoint weaknesses, gaps, as well as misconfigurations in the security within your virtual and physical environments. VCM could check your IT assets and infrastructure continuously for compliances, vulnerabilities, as well as configuration best practices. An effective VCM lets you develop an action plan for remediating such vulnerabilities and designate them to the appropriate employees.

Audit Security Posture Regularly

Undergoing audits on a regular basis to determine potential new openings in governance and compliance would help in your security posture validation. A security audit would be a more comprehensive assessment of your business’ security policies compared to the penetration testing or vulnerability assessment. A security audit will take into account the dynamic nature of the business and how the company deals with disaster recovery as a service.

Common Questions During A Security Audit

• Does your business have documented policies about information security?
• Did you set up escalation profiles, management processes, and processes document and monitored, and a playbook in case there’s a breach?
• Did you prepare network security mechanisms?
• Did you set up a log and security monitoring?
• Did you come up with a Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity Plan?
• Did you test your applications for security flaws?
• Do you have a change management process set up at each level within the IT setting?
• How do you back up your files and media? Who can access the backup? Have you tested your restore procedures?
• Have you reviewed the auditing logs? When do you review them?

Employees Must Be Trained and Educated

Once you have completed your security policy audits, you can now implement a written employee policy that involves data security and privacy. You need to conduct security training regularly or hire an IT support Fayetteville NC expert who can do that so that all of the staff members know about these newly created policies since they won’t comply with policies they are not familiar with. When you are setting up your security policy for your staff, you should take into account training on these things:

• Using different unique passwords on devices that are used at work
• Enforcing a documented system for employees, contractors, or vendors who are set to leave your company (laptop access, key cards, passwords, etc.)
• Training staff on the importance of reporting data security leaks or information security breach
• Developing a policy that will describe how your staff should deal with, get rid of, restore, and even send data

Your staff requires training on the kinds of phishing attacks that take place these days. Phishing is a common method used by cybercriminals to spread ransomware in an organization. If you could train and educate your staff about the signs to search for in a dubious email, your business will be well served. Work with a reliable IT services Fayetteville NC that can help you achieve this objective.

Call SpartanTec, Inc. now and let our team of IT experts help you establish security measures and protocols to mitigate online security threats.

SpartanTec, Inc.
Fayetteville, NC 28304
(910) 745-7776
http://manageditservicesfayetteville.com

Serving: Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach, Columbia, Wilmington, Fayetteville, Florence