Resources & Blog

To learn both what a managed service provider (MSP) is, and why those which are smaller in size are disadvantaged, make sure to check out our previous blog, Why You Should Choose A Larger MSP.

A managed service provider (MSP) is an outsourced IT team who will configure your digital infrastructure, monitor your network, troubleshoot any issues you may have, and so on. Ultimately, employing an MSP is the perfect solution for many businesses when it comes to tackling anything, and everything, IT related. Rather than maintain in-house IT personnel, which is the costly alternative, an MSP provides consistent access to specialized expertise without the high price tag. Employing an MSP enables businesses to eliminate the risk of paying high capital expenditures unexpectedly and, instead, to adopt more predictable operating expenditures.

Not only are cybersecurity threats growing in number, but they’re evolving too. As discussed throughout the cybersecurity series, businesses have to watch out for a variety of tactics which cybercriminals employ, ranging from malware attacks, to eavesdropping, to phishing. Cybercriminals are constantly developing more advanced methods of sneaking into your infrastructure and stealing your data, and unfortunately this means you need to spend more resources on refining your cybersecurity to combat the situation.

Regardless of how many resources you’ve spent building your digital fortress to protect against cyberattacks, there is only one way you can be certain it will hold up to potential threats—by putting it to the test. Specifically what is being referred to is a penetration test, where trusted cybersecurity professionals are authorized to simulate a cyberattack. Here, a variety of tactics are employed which are commonly used by cybercriminals to attempt to gain unauthorized access to the network system. Of course, the cybersecurity professionals don’t actually do any damage by performing the simulation. This is why this procedure is often known as ‘ethical hacking’, or hacking without fraudulent intention. Essentially, by practicing cyber attack scenarios businesses can learn both how their defenses would perform when challenged with a security threat, and whether or not they can actually be confident implementing those same defenses in the real-world. Moreover, they can also keep track of performance statistics, find out where improvements need to be made, and ultimately develop a more secure network system.

Whether it be improved flexibility or improved productivity, working remotely entails a variety of added benefits. However, there are cybersecurity risks which accompany these benefits. This entry in The Evolution of Cybersecurity series will detail what the risks associated with working from home are, the threats cybercriminals employ, and how a zero trust approach can help in their mitigation.

When you’re logging in to an account, whether it be for work, entertainment, social media, or so on, multi-factor authentication means that one single authentication factor isn’t sufficient to gain access. The term “multi”, in multi-factor authentication, suggests that at least two or more authentication factors are required to log in successfully. Here are the possible forms of authentication factors:

The first part of The Evolution of Cybersecurity series, titled What Poor Endpoint Protection Entails, covered why antivirus (AV) software should not be relied upon for endpoint protection. In fact, the senior vice president for information from Symantec claims that the majority of attacks go undetected by traditional AV. The first takeaway is that common forms of AV are ineffective against encryption. The AV doesn’t have the key to access the file, and as such, it may not be analyzed, leaving the system vulnerable. The second takeaway is that AV must be configured independently for each unique device, including fax machines and printers. This may require significant manual labour if the devices are not linked, and automatically updated, via the cloud. Therefore, it can be costly and is often neglected.Read More…

Considering March is fraud prevention month, it brings with it a wake-up call for businesses to evaluate their cybersecurity practices. The statistics confirm that this should be of your concern.  With a 600% increase since the pandemic, the cost of cybercrime is estimated to be around 1% of global GDP. Canada is no exception—nearly 60 percent of Canadian organizations were targeted by ransomware attacks in 2022, costing Canadian organizations $5.6 million USD.

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