Managed IT Services Blog

The firewall is an essential first line of network defense, filtering traffic and blocking malicious outsiders from gaining access to your critical systems. Businesses today commonly use multiple firewalls to create a system of protected network segments with varying security needs. In this post, we’ll take a brief look at five primary types of firewalls and the three main implementation models.

A new global study finds that the threat of ransomware remains at “peak levels,” with half of organizations across all sizes, regions and industries falling victim to at least one attack last year. According to Fortinet’s 2023 Global Ransomware Report, most organizations lack a clear strategy for dealing with increasingly sophisticated and aggressive attack variants.

Surveys find that up to 80 percent of organizations now use VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) for business communications. That’s not particularly surprising — it’s a proven and reliable technology that has been providing flexible, creative and cost-efficient communication and collaboration options for going on three decades.

We tend to think of cyberattacks as highly sophisticated operations that use complex techniques to bypass layers of digital security measures. In truth, most are stunning in their simplicity, using social engineering tactics to manipulate individuals into divulging confidential or personal information.

Risk management was a classic back-burner issue in many IT organizations for years. Faced with tight budgets, staff shortages and day-to-day deadlines, most were inclined to focus their resources on their immediate needs. However, rapidly expanding attack surfaces are forcing organizations to make risk management a higher priority in 2023.

For decades, information security practices were built around the core theory of “implied trust” — an assumption that users and devices operating inside the network were trustworthy and that any threats would originate outside the network perimeter. That has become a dangerously flawed concept.

Desktop management has always been among the leading challenges facing IT managers, and the job just keeps getting more difficult as workforces become increasingly distributed. The time, expense and effort required to troubleshoot problems, update applications and patch operating systems across remote and office environments is a significant burden for in-house IT teams.

Cybersecurity has become exponentially more difficult over the past few years due to the increased volume and sophistication of threats, a growing attack surface and a global shortage of security professionals. To address this perfect storm of challenges, more organizations are increasing their investments in security operations centers (SOCs).

Cyberattacks by notorious international hacking gangs such as the Lazarus Group, DarkSide, Lapsus$ and the Legion of Doom make headlines and strike fear into everyone responsible for network and data security. As menacing as these groups may sound, Cindy in sales and Eric in engineering likely pose more imminent threats.

The phish are biting. Learning to identify the common lures can help keep your organization from becoming the catch of the day.

The private space flight company SpaceX recently began launching its second-generation Starlink communication satellites into low-Earth orbit. It’s the first phase in a broader strategy that could change the way millions of people access the Internet.

It’s no secret that most cyberattacks are designed for financial gain — cybercrime generates trillions of dollars of income each year for threat actors worldwide. However, recent trends suggest that malware is increasingly weaponized to cause as much damage as possible.

As businesses around the world continue the transition to decentralized organizational structures, they are increasingly reliant on software-defined wide-area networks (SD-WANs) to keep everything connected. IDC analysts say more than 95 percent of enterprise organizations have deployed some form of SD-WAN or plan to do so within the next two years.

Despite the increased adoption of digital technologies for modernizing core business operations, millions of organizations still rely on analog telephone technology that’s more than a century old. Recent regulatory changes make that an increasingly impractical choice and will undoubtedly accelerate the transition to Voice-over-IP systems in the coming months.

Hybrid work models place a premium on effective communication and collaboration to link hyper distributed workforces, but research suggests inadequate solutions are compromising operations and creating dire bottom-line impacts.

Cost reduction has always been touted as one of SD-WAN’s great benefits, with the technology’s most ardent evangelists claiming companies can cut networking costs by 50 percent or more by using commodity broadband Internet connections instead of expensive MPLS circuits. Of course, your mileage may vary.

The Gulf of Mexico has long been one of the U.S.’s primary energy sources, accounting for significant shares of the country’s crude oil and natural gas production. It now also figures prominently in plans for the increased development of wind energy.

Data protection requirements present the healthcare industry with an unusual dilemma. Given the intensely personal nature of patient records, healthcare providers have legal and ethical obligations to maintain the privacy of that information. At the same time, however, sharing clinical data about diagnoses, treatment plans, tests and prescriptions with other providers is a necessary component of effective healthcare.

Rising IT complexity and ongoing staffing challenges are expected to drive increased spending on managed services in 2023. It’s a proven strategy — managed services help organizations reduce IT costs by up to 45 percent and increase operational efficiency by up to 65 percent, according to recent research by Mordor Intelligence.

Cyber insurance has become a vital component of the risk management framework, providing a hedge against financial losses stemming from cyberattacks. However, these policies have become more expensive and difficult to obtain due to an explosion of new digital threats. One of the many ways underwriters are attempting to balance their risk is by making multifactor authentication (MFA) a mandatory requirement for coverage.

Even as organizations move more workloads to the cloud, most still require on-premises hardware, software and network services to support those workloads and to maintain more direct control of mission-critical data and other assets. However, managing in-house IT infrastructure is becoming more costly and complex than many companies can reasonably handle.

Digital transformation has enabled the oil and gas industry to boost productivity, increase efficiency and reduce costs. Unfortunately, it has also increased the possibility of cyberattacks with the potential for creating global chaos.

As we discussed in our last post, the healthcare industry is being relentlessly targeted by a range of cyberattacks due to the inherent value of the sensitive data it collects, processes and stores. These attacks not only put extreme financial pressure on the industry, but also create daunting risks to patient privacy and health.

Federal officials recently issued an alert warning healthcare organizations about an ongoing ransomware campaign that is compromising patient safety and forcing hospitals to divert ambulances, cancel surgeries, postpone appointments and close urgent care units. The campaign has victimized more than 1,300 healthcare organizations and generated more than $100 million in ransom payments over the past 18 months.

From X-rays and stethoscopes to robotic surgeries and wearable monitors, technology innovations have always played a critical role in helping healthcare providers improve patient outcomes while reducing costs. It’s why healthcare organizations around the world are nearly unanimous in their commitment to digital transformation initiatives that can drive new efficiencies.