TechRx- 13th Edition

Webinar: The Power of Azure Stack Transforming Your Hybrid Cloud Strategy

with Brad Owen and Joe Galvan

Missed our last webinar? No worries, watch the full version here for an in-depth explainer on how Azure Stack can help you deploy and manage applications across on-premises and cloud environments. Gain invaluable insights into what Azure Stack is all about, its key features, and various deployment models. Whether you're an IT pro, cloud architect, system administrator, or business leader, this session is tailored just for you!

The Importance of Regular Security Audits for Protecting Your Organization from Cyber Threats

By: John Parker

In today's evolving digital landscape, the significance of regular security audits cannot be overstated. As cyber threats continue to grow in both frequency and sophistication, businesses must remain vigilant to protect their sensitive data and maintain compliance with industry standards.

Ep. 100: Mastering IT Leadership: Insights from Leon Verriere and Paul Di Liegro

In this episode, we sit down with Leon Verriere, a seasoned IT leader with decades of experience in the tech industry. Leon shares his unique personal management philosophy, developed through years of leading and managing technical teams. Discover practical strategies for fostering innovation, improving team dynamics, and achieving project success. Whether you're an aspiring IT manager or a seasoned professional, Leon's insights will provide valuable perspectives on effective leadership in the fast-paced world of technology. Tune in for an engaging conversation that blends industry expertise with real-world experience.

Cyber Security – Where to Double Down

The list of cyber security risks an organization needs to be concerned with is never ending. No matter how much you invest, there is always a case to be made for doing more. Like the memes about your chances of being killed by a cow being low but never zero, organizations have and will be impacted by seemingly low risk cyber threats.

Unfortunately, some organizations will hyper focus on these corner cases and pay insufficient attention to the table stakes - the areas where the overwhelming majority of attacks occur.???

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Identity and Authentication?

There are two different areas, but they go hand in hand. If you do not have a handle on who is logging in and how they are being authenticated, you have no hope. As our Microsoft Practice Manager Mark Alexander says, the bad guys aren’t breaking in they’re just logging in.??

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Your credentials and passwords are everywhere. They’re easy to get. Most organizations have started using MFA, but it is poorly implemented.??

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MFA is not applied everywhere – Your SaaS applications are not integrated with SSO and when they are, the SaaS apps allow for but do not require users to use SSO for authentication anyway. Not all MFA solutions are equal. Many organizations still use email or SMS as a secondary method.??

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Organizations don’t manage their exceptions well.? Service Accounts typically do not perform an interactive login and therefore cannot use MFA. Other techniques must be applied to restrict these accounts as much as possible.? MFA is frequently turned off when a user is having an authentication issue but never gets turned back on, once the issue is resolved. They simply move onto the next fire.??

Email Security?

Attacks via chat and collaboration solutions are on the rise but most attempts are still coming via email. Everyone has an email security solution and most of these will deal with malicious links and files reasonably well. Where are their wide discrepancies are in their ability to handle impersonation scams. Yes, the bad guys still send the obvious and annoying gift card requests, but they’ve gotten a lot more sophisticated. Using publicly available information and data obtained through unscrupulous means, hackers are able to craft messages that are very hard for an end user to recognize as illegitimate.??

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Modern email security solutions leverage machine learning and AI to stop or at least highlight suspicious emails. As good as these new solutions are, they still rely on proper management and an educated user base. Email security settings, rules, policies and exceptions need to be rigorously managed, and you should not skimp on cyber security training. Users need to know how to recognize bogus emails and know what to do when they encounter them. The training has to be ongoing and taken seriously.??

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Endpoint Protection?

Endpoint protection should be applied to all endpoint devices, but end user laptops is where most of the action is. Most organizations allow for BYOD, allow end users to have administrator access to these devices and have yet to implement a mobile device management solution. Your average organization struggles to even keep these systems patched. The result is you have users carrying around unsecure devices all over the town, the country or world connecting via unknown networks, while holding sensitive business information and authorized to access your corporate systems. What could go wrong???

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You should address all these things but as a start you need a modern endpoint protection solution. This is an area where the solution you pick, and the modules or options enable makes a huge difference. Your old school Anti-Virus solution simply doesn’t cut it.? Modern endpoint protection solutions use machine learning, artificial intelligence, and behavioral analysis to identify and respond to a broader range of threats, including zero-day attacks, ransomware, and advanced persistent threats (APTs).??

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As I’ve mentioned before, how the solution is managed matters. In cyber security, you don’t get a B+ for having 87% of your endpoints protected, you get compromised. Having your standard configuration with all the correct modules implemented on 4 out every 5 devices, isn’t pretty good it’s an opportunity to explain to leadership and business stakeholders, why you got compromised and your best guess on how long the organization will be down.??

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Verified Immutable Backups?

Most people understand the term immutable backups, it simply means backups that cannot be tampered with. If your backups are not immutable, the bad guys will simply encrypt your production data, then your backups, then have a snack before sending you their ransom demand.? Even with good backups, if you get hit with ransomware, you’re in for a bad day, probably a bad week. Without good backups you are in a world of hurt. The viability of your organization is potentially at stake.??

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Most IT organizations understand the importance of immutable backups, they have a solution that provides it and configure it properly. Unfortunately, they may not be as disciplined about monitoring, managing and verifying those backups. In a crisis they reach for the immutable backup savior only to discover not everything was being backed up. Some backups have been failing for weeks or worse critical data was missed altogether.??

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Summary?

I’m not suggesting you shouldn’t worry about your Bluetooth getting hacked through a flaw in your smart fridge. You should be considering all risks. What I am suggesting is that you should be focusing most of your investment and efforts on ensuring that the most common attack vectors are addressed and that simply buying and installing a solution is not all that is required. Your cyber security solutions need to be professionally monitored and managed.??

Best Regards,

Terry Murray and the Prescriptive Data Solutions Team

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