Vulnerability scanning has emerged as a powerful tool to anticipate & mitigate security issues

Here are the top 5 reasons you should deploy a regular vulnerability scan for your business. It's one of the lowest cost, highest value actions you can take to identify and resolve security vulnerabilities.

1. Defensive strategies have to constantly pivot as new threats emerge

The security landscape is evolving every day. A sophisticated scan can give you immediate validation (or identify vulnerabilities) that you've got it covered

2. Outside expertise can ensure true objectivity

Using an objective software solution, and generally an objective expert to interpret, can bring a fresh perspective, and ultimately identify and resolve security issues quicker and more effectively

3. Focus on the points of likely vulnerability

Vulnerability scans help detect vulnerabilities within and between network perimeter and end-point security products - one of the most common source of security issues

4. Cyber crime has risen dramatically in COVID-19 Pandemic Era

Most breaches are through vulnerabilities 1+ years and older. Current protocols may not be identifying the real risk

5. Our clients has seen real results

The introduction of a vulnerability scan has led to the legitimate identification (and subsequent) resolution of issues with every single customer we've deployed it for!

71 minutes. That's the average time employees would expect to gain if their organization's IT worked flawlessly.

How does your organization compare? How much does a lack of productivity translate into lost revenue? What about employee satisfaction? The direct and indirect impacts can be significant…

Combine this with your need to INCREASE Security & Reliability and it's often a challenging balance to strike. We're here to help! Let's look at the 3 steps you can take today:

1: Translate productivity losses into business costs

• Estimate your version of productivity losses from IT inefficiencies
• Translate this lost time into real business opportunity costs
• Consider if this is a material cost and worth further IT investment

2: Identify the systems, projects, locations or jobs that cost employees the most time

• Get specific with the opportunities for improvement
• Make a list of areas that DO NOT appear to need attention

3: Get an outside perspective

• Often, an outside partner can provide a fresh perspective beyond the existing team
• Pushing a security agenda while delivering ease of use is often a challenging balance
• Develop a IT roadmap to chart the path toward resolution

Finding an IT partner for an assessment, strategy or management can be a transformative step in getting your organization to the next level.

Secure SD-WAN adds security features and may LOWER total-cost of ownership

Basic SD-WAN is a very popular choice, given its scalability, for those looking for MPLS-level Quality of Service at a lower price point. And at face value, it looks like a cost-efficient solution with strong benefits.

However, as we see very often with our clients, when considering the real total cost of ownership (TCO), Basic SD-WAN may actually have limitations and be of greater total cost.

Implementation requires the networking team to deploy the next generation firewall (NGFW) and the networking team deploys the SD-WAN solution. This typically brings out two distinct issues:

1. Without fully integrated security, there's a potential lack of integration and a connectivity option that is also another attack vector
2. Potential performance issues with many NGFWs struggling in the face of checking an increased level of SSL-encrypted enterprise traffic for malware
3. And ultimately, these risks and implementation requirements may present greater risk and the involement of multiple teams leading to greater TCO

Secure SD-WAN was designed to solve these issues.

Secure SD-WAN has security built-in. It combines both network and security features in a natively integtrated platform: SD-WAN, NGFW, IPS, encryption, AV, advanced routing, WAN optimization, sandboxing all incorporated in the one solution to fully protect the WAN edge.

Secure SD-WAN is becoming more popular, and more relevant today with networks becoming more distributed as remote work grows. Organizations are feeling more pressure to deliver trusted, performant connectivity to support 'anywhere, anytime' working.

Is Secure SD-WAN right for your organization?

Each organization will have it's own priorities, but an increased focus on security, improving network speed, preventing down-time and data loss are at the top of just about everyone's list.

The introduction of a vulnerability scan has led to the legitimate identification (and subsequent) resolution of issues with every single customer we've deployed it for!

We work with 100s of companies, and often hear that we give them an "unfair advantage" - in managing their IT - which lets them focus their resources on growing their businesses.

In our experience, unfortunately, most companies make the same 5 mistakes in managing their IT. We’re sharing those here so you can benefit from our experience too.

5: Approach & solutions are not comprehensive

• A series of 'single benefit' solutions are implemented, which may do well to address that one challenge
• However, a holistics review of vulnerabilities will show that risks are created specifically because there are so many individual solutions with integration and a comprehensive strategy

4: Limited protection against data loss

• Multi-layered security with a comprehensive disaster plan is essential to prevent data loss
• Most internal teams under-consider the importance of disaster & recovery planning

3: Poorly planned integration of new technology

• The introduction of new technology can present risks to existing solutions
• Detailed integration planning is required before the addition of any new technology or solution

2: Outdated equipment & software

• Most companies struggle to determine the right time to upgrade their hardware and systems
• Putting off investments can lead to more significant (and costly) issues over time

1: Lack of internal employee security measures

• The root cause of nearly 50% of data breaches, employees (particulary if remote) open up a significant amount of attack vectors

With many of these challenges, internal teams often struggle to dedicate the resources beyond fighting the day-to-day fires. Combine increasingly complex IT environments with such a difficult hiring landscape, and it's a challenging time in IT.

Finding an IT partner for an assessment, strategy or management can be a transformative step in getting your organization to the next level.

Most budget planning is not keeping up with the pace of change in IT & Cyber Security

CFOs & business leaders generally make budget decisions based on an incremental change from prior year - requiring IT leadership to force cyber security into a budget that doesn't reflect the massive increase in risks in the Front-Lines of IT.

The reality is, today's environment is radically more complex and presents levels of risk not seen in prior years or circumstances. Savings in budget today could easily cost millions or tens of millions of dollars in damages later. We need a new approach.

We've found success with bottoms-up budgeting to help provide a truly objective view of the risks and the budget needed to cover them. Start with a blank slate and define vulnerabilities in the following categories:

1. People vulnerability

Many organizations under-invest in people because of a perception that the tech products offer the protection. The reality is that these increasingly sophisticated products do provide increased protection, but require an increasingly savvy team of strategic leadership, engineers and third parties to manage them. Tools & tech are truly only as good as the team who's implementing or managing them.

2. Technology Vulnerability

A CFO & IT leadership prioritization session - that truly takes an objective view - on the risks and the priorities (without the sales pitches) is often most helpful to separate the reality from the overly-optimistic view of most products. Define where there might be integration challenges or shortcomings of current product mix.

3. Process Vulnerability

Both the IT team and non-IT staff need to know what procedures to follow in terms of every day cyber hygiene, and actions in the event of an urgent incident.

A 5% increase in the Cyber Security budget in most cases simply cannot address the massive increase in risks and complexity of managing IT environments today. A fresh look, preferably from the bottoms-up can go a long way in connecting the CFO and IT leadership around the priorities, the required investment and the true costs of appropriately budgeting - or not budgeting - for Cyber Security

It often helps to find an IT partner for an assessment, strategy or management. It can be a transformative step in getting your organization to the next level.