When it comes to Managed Cyber Security, the short story is that you need a ‘Swiss army knife’ approach to your IT.
This essentially means that – much like a trusty swiss army knife – your approach to Managed Cyber Security needs to be multi-purposed and equipped with a number of different tools to combat a broad range of contingencies – all neatly compacted within one Managed Services Solution.
In a world where cyber threats loom at every corner, whether it be due to human error or system vulnerabilities, every business needs a swiss army knife approach to IT security.
Your Swiss Army Knife Cyber Security Toolkit
Patch Management
Using best-in-business remote management and monitoring software from N-Able, your first tool within your Swiss army knife is patch management. Patch management is the process of automatically deploying software, operating system and application updates as needed to reduce the risk of attack.
Cyber criminals scan different types of software for potential vulnerabilities to exploit. Without patch management, your business software could remain out of date and consequently leave ‘back door’ access to your devices and network. Using remote management and monitoring, Milnsbridge can automatically and remotely deploy much-needed software upgrades at any time and without causing disruption.
Endpoint protection
Legacy, or traditional, antivirus is no longer enough for the modern business. Traditional antivirus software relies on a predetermined set of ‘rules’ and threat ‘characteristics’. However, in a world where cyber attacks quite literally change and evolve day-to-day businesses need a next-generation antivirus that employs algorithms, artificial intelligence (AI), threat intelligence and data science to detect and stop attacks.
As a part of your cyber security Swiss army knife, Milnsbridge will equip your business with SentinelOne. SentinelOne can intelligently identify threats, isolate infected devices before the threat spreads to your entire network and can even give a ‘black box’ summation in the rare case that a threat leaks through. Read more about SentinelOne.
Email Security
Email is still the most widely used form of business to business communication. Therefore, it remains an attractive target for cyber criminals to prey upon. In fact, a recent international study found that around 74% of Australian businesses reported falling victim to at least one successful email attack last year.
One way you can combat email-borne threats before they even reach a user’s inbox is through Spam Titan which you will receive when partnering with Milnsbridge. Spam Titan is a powerful anti-spam solution that can identify and block harmful emails from appearing in a user’s inbox. As human error makes up for a huge proportion of cybercrime incidents, removing harmful emails entirely from the equation is a sure-fire way to protect your business.
Password Manager
These days we can have hundreds of logins and passwords for hundreds of sites, apps and accounts. Unless we have photographic memory, the likelihood of having different password and username combinations for every account we have is highly unlikely. The shear amount of accounts we all tend to have generally means we are more likely to reuse easy-to-guess passwords in order to remember them. The more accounts you use a password for and the easier it is to guess, there is a higher chance that if one of your accounts is compromised, a hacker could easily access other accounts using the same password.
Milnsbridge uses Keeper Password Manager, a password manager that works on a ‘zero trust policy’. This software can store the credentials for shared business accounts and personal accounts safely. It can also generate more complex passwords that are harder to be guessed by cyber criminals – the best part is that you won’t need to remember these complex passwords as Keeper will automatically store them and insert them where needed.
Multi Factor Authentication
Another important aspect of your cybersecurity Swiss army knife is authentication. Whilst a strong password is good, it is no longer enough to protect accounts. Should your password fall into the wrong hands, that person has the ability to access your account no questions asked.
However, Milnsbridge customers are equipped with Duo Security – a multi factor authentication tool. MFA adds an extra layer of security to your accounts by prompting a user who is attempting to log into an account to authenticate their identity through a secondary source such as a six digit code or a push notification. This way, if someone malicious is trying to access your account, they will not be able to authenticate as they are not the account owner and will be subsequently barred.
Cyber Security Awareness Training
We identified before that human error makes up for a large proportion of cyber crime. As cyber attacks sophisticate and employ social engineering, people can be continually tricked by hackers.
This is why cybersecurity awareness training is a paramount tool in your Swiss army knife. Empowering your team with the knowledge of how to spot a phishing email, the signs of an attack and general cyber hygiene, you can reduce the likelihood of human error related attacks.
Milnsbridge leverages the uSecure platform to provide training and testing to ensure your team are well-equipped to face a cybersecurity threat should they come into contact with one.
Application Control
Another must-have tool in your cybersecurity Swiss army knife is application control. Hackers often try to inject malicious code into operating systems, masquerading as benign software applications. Application control works by only allowing approved software applications to execute.
These exploitations act as a back-door for hackers. You can avoid this entirely with application control software. Milnsbridge employs the ThreatLocker application control solution for our customers, including it as standard in our Enhanced Managed IT Services pricing plans, or as an option in our other plans. This means that your computer will only run the business apps and software which are approved by your business update – closing an easy and exploitable back door for hackers.
Just like a Swiss army knife, Milnsbridge’s cybersecurity services are equipped with a range of tools to proactively and pre-emptively handle a cyber security issue if one should occur. To talk to one of our friendly team about Managed Security or Managed IT Services in general, give Milnsbridge IT a call on 1300 300 293.
