How Is Cyber Security Different Than IT Support?
Most IT companies pride themselves on how good their IT support is, or how knowledgeable their team is. While that’s important, a huge segment of managing IT beyond the help desk that requires attention is protecting your data. Part of this process differs from site to site, but from the core cyber security perspective, it’s similar. Protecting the perimeter network at the firewall is important, and protecting desktops is important. Unfortunately, desktop protection is sometimes secondary when it comes to outsourced IT.
If you ask the average client of a managed IT support company if they want some sort of optional increased level of security that can prevent a major catastrophic loss of data or a major breach of data, many will pass on the opportunity. They just don’t see the need. If that same major issue arises, who will they call first? Of course, the same company that offered IT security in the first place. We protect all our desktops with the same level of protection, so each desktop that has access to data has our full level of security from behavior-based endpoint protection, through application white-listing, and on to foothold protection just in case something was able to get by the first two levels of protection.
IT Support alone is important, but IT Support with Cyber Security protection is even more important.
What’s Wrong With Antivirus?
Antivirus in the traditional sense is only as good as what it knows in its existing database. If you add a behavior-based component to it, it can block previously identified behaviors. But as we have seen in recent months, bad actors use known, good applications in their attacks. Cyber security protection should encompass not only a traditional method of scanning for viruses but protecting the machine from applications that shouldn’t be there in the first place.
Here is an example. When a user tries to install a driver for a new mouse they purchased, they search “Logitech mouse drivers”. One would expect Google search to be a good resource to find drivers, but many of those results will lead the user down the road of installing software that is not what they expect. Protecting the company’s data in that situation is the primary goal of cyber security protection.
How July 4th, 2021, Changed Everything
The Friday before July 4th, 2021 was a pivotal point in managed IT services. Kaseya is a company used by many managed service providers across the globe. It is installed locally on the IT company’s network or hosted within the Kaseya cloud. As you can imagine, this system has access to many networks, and even more, machines, considering this is the system used by IT companies to manage those networks.
Attackers had discovered a security vulnerability in the Kaseya platform and had planned to execute an attack on as many of the systems as possible simultaneously. They were successful on less than 50, but that attack led to thousands of machines with ransomware. It led to the FBI’s involvement in the largest ransomware incident to that date. Thankfully, our Omaha-based IT Company was not affected directly or compromised, but we powered off our servers for several days until we received an update. It changed the way we manage networks.
IT Security Isn’t Always Convenient
We try to balance security and convenience, but sometimes security isn’t always convenient. MFA prompts require the user to stop and click approve or enter a code. Some users will complain, but multi-factor authentication is the most critical factor in preventing a full breach on networks. We appreciate your cooperation with MFA.
How We Are Different From Other IT Companies
After the July 2021 IT industry incident, we realized that our approach needs to change. We vowed never again to feel as vulnerable as we did then. We rolled out security improvements shortly after and are still improving that process since. With our Security 2.0 initiative, our managed networks are protected exponentially better than before. It has completely changed the approach we take to networks.
Contact us today to understand how our cyber security approach can improve your network security and reduce your attack surface!
