Find the right partner to keep hacking, phishing and malware from crippling your organization
By Guest Contributor Charles Johnson | EDTS
EBay urges 145 million customers to change their passwords following a cyberattack that compromised personal information.
Facebook discloses 6 million users had e-mail addresses or telephone numbers shared with others accidentally.
Target admits that 110 million customer payment cards were compromised in a data breach.
In South Carolina, a massive data breach at the Department of Revenue exposed the Social Security numbers, credit card information and bank account data of 3.8 million taxpayers.
The rate of malware, or ransomware, attacks on small businesses continues to climb at an alarming rate. Mostly from abroad, ransomware blocks your access to data unless you pay an extortion fee. It’s organized, automated, stealthy – and can crush an unprepared organization.
Data breaches at major banks, retailers, corporate vendors and governmental offices keep coming… enough to make returning to a barter economy seem like a bright idea. And more challenges are certain to follow. Among them:
- Windows XP: The popular operating system retains significant market share in the desktop OS category, and powers a wide spectrum of kiosks and embedded devices. No longer supported with patches and security updates by Microsoft, attackers have already declared open season on remaining Windows XP systems.
- Mobile malware: Mobile malware is adapting and evolving faster than security tools can learn to detect and evade threats. Expect this to become a new frontier for bad guys.
- Interconnectivity: Connected devices make life easy – for you and for bad guys. If you can access your home security system or baby monitor camera from your smartphone, an attacker may be able to do so as well.
And it’s not just big business getting targeted. Organizations small and large have been targeted. The window of opportunity to protect yourself is closing rapidly.
As cybercriminal attacks on corporate networks increase, businesses need to embrace next-generation security solutions. If your proprietary data – customer records, operational performance data, intellectual property, healthcare information – is important to your organization, protecting it with a part-time IT person who claims to know how to keep everything safe and running is a very dangerous gamble. The degree of continuous training, investment in leading-edge technology, depth of resources and 24/7 vigilance required to truly protect your organization is staggering.
In today’s world of specialization and regulation, identifying a technology partner that can efficiently combine the right people, expertise, processes and technology with your infrastructure to provide security, accountability and transparency is a must. Here are characteristics to look for in an IT partner:
A Skilled and Deep Team
- Depth of Expertise – demand a credentialed team of security and network engineers, not one or two, including certified CISSPs, GIACs, CCNPs and other accreditations proving experience and capability.
- Compliance Savvy – to address industry mandates, top IT partners have expertise in GLBA, HIPAA/HITECH, PCI DSS and SOX compliance, to name a few areas.
- U.S.-based – certified security operations and monitoring with redundant U.S.-based facilities.
Proven Processes
- Responsive – should offer emergency response (immediate) or normal response (under 2 hours), with monitored alerts handled within minutes of notification.
- 24×7 Monitoring – bad guys attack at all hours, so require 24x7x365 monitoring and availability, along with dedicated priority support lines; many industries require ongoing monitoring and security.
- Quality Control – ask how your partner monitors critical support and management systems to ensure that services, alerts and response are being provided promptly; demand to see performance metrics for all systems.
- Event Correlation – able to evaluate and respond to threats around the clock.
Leading Edge Technology
- State of the Art – today, expect a hybrid cloud security architecture for the optimal managed security platform and cutting-edge security monitoring to ensure compliance and audit support.
- Comprehensive – your partner should provide a full range of security technologies blended to complement your existing capabilities, regardless of size or industry.
The key to protecting your organization from today’s numerous IT threats is asking the right – and tough – questions of your IT provider or in-house staff. If you’re not certain of the questions to ask or of your own ability to discern whether or not the replies are accurate, consider a third-party IT security audit to get a common-sense explanation of your strengths and vulnerabilities.
In today’s brave new world of hackers, phishing and Eastern European ransomware threats that can literally put you out of business, you’ll be glad you did.
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Charles Johnson, CISSP, is CEO of EDTS, a full-service technology consulting firm specializing in network security, managed IT services and advanced infrastructure for business. Visit them at EDTSolutions.com.
