Why Is Now the Best Time to Implement Managed IT?
This year’s holiday shopping season has just begun, and Cyber Monday online sales set all new records. According to Adobe Analytics, Cyber Monday 2018 was the largest shopping day in U.S. history topping $7.9 billion in sales. Although the designated holiday shopping days have passed, sales are expected to exceed $1.10 trillion by January. As noted in previous posts, as online sales increase, so do the opportunities for cyber criminals to launch a cyber-attack. It is more important than ever before to make sure that your company has proactive security measures and a backup and data recovery plan in place.
How to protect your company?
One of the best ways a business can protect itself from cyber-attacks during the holiday season is by implementing Managed IT with a proactive security plan. The biggest threat that companies are currently facing is increased spear phishing scams that target online shoppers. According to KnowBe4, an Impact partner and security awareness training platform, 91% of all data breaches start with a spear phishing attack. Spear phishing scams play on consumers emotions, and during shopping periods when users are receiving a high volume of promotion emails, it is even easier for them to open a scammed email or click on a faulty link. A Managed IT provider will be able to recommend customized security measures for your company, but security awareness training for employees should always be included. While it is impossible to ever be fully protected, training employees to better spot and predict threats will significantly reduce risks.
What if a breach happens?
As previously noted, a company can never be fully protected from a cyber-attack, so it is important to have a Backup and Data Recovery (BDR) solution in place. If an attack were to happen, your company’s hardware, data and applications need to remain safe and be available to run at anytime, anywhere. By implementing a BDR solution, your company will have an added layer of peace should an attack happen. Key features of a Impact’s BDR solution include:
- Image-based backups of the entire OS, including all applications, configurations and data.
- The ability to restore everything exactly as it was prior to an emergency.
- Servers are restored in a predetermined amount of time (typically 3 hours or less).
Why work with a managed service provider?
There is no doubt that Managed IT and cybersecurity can be costly line items in a company’s budget, but cutting corners and trying to take on this service in-house can prove to be an even great expense. According to IT Pro Portal, trying to manage your IT in-house could cost as much as much as $700,000 per year. Whereas working with a managed service provider can total $100,000, but you receive increasingly more benefits. In addition to the assumed IT functions such as infrastructure, data center, hardware and software, etc. a managed service provider can provide offerings that in-house IT just can’t manage, such as:
- Multiple IT experts who become a direct extension of your team
- 24/7/365 monitoring
- Proactive maintenance and security
- Continued assessment of hardware and software
Spear phishing has proven to be an extremely dangerous and easy way for hackers to get confidential information from both end users and companies, and the holiday season provides even more opportunities for an attack. Businesses should consider working with a managed service provider, such as Impact’s Managed IT solutions, to employ experts who can implement the necessary cybersecurity and BDR measures and help train employees to build up the strongest defense possible.
To find out more about Impact’s cybersecurity and managed IT offerings, get in touch with a local Impact representative. Or, download our eBook, What Makes a Good Cybersecurity Defense for a Modern SMB?