Top 3 Reasons Why Managed IT Services Are Beneficial to Your Organization
October in Canada is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, a month that raises awareness to businesses – large, medium and small-sized alike – to step up their cybersecurity. Mid-way through this Cybersecurity Awareness Month, it’s worth considering whether managed IT services are right for your business.
What Are Managed IT Services?
Managed IT services allow small and medium-sized businesses to enjoy the benefits of the services of a third-party that specializes in IT security. In the past, such specialized IT security services, which come by way of in-house IT personnel, were only enjoyed by large enterprises as in-house IT personnel comes with the corresponding high operating expenses for hiring, training, and accompanying hardware and software costs.
Here are the top 3 reasons why managed IT services are beneficial to your organization:
- Cut In-house IT Tech Cost
Managed IT services are cost-effective as your business doesn’t need to allocate money for hiring, training and related hardware and software requirements as a specialized third-party already has existing trained and experienced IT staff and the necessary tools (hardware and software) to carry out their job.
- New Normal Calls for Managed IT Services
The way the world reacts to COVID-19 brings about a new normal. It’s normal nowadays to work from home.
Statistics Canada reported that as of September 2020, a large number of Canadians continued to adapt to COVID-19 by working remotely, with 4.2 million Canadians working from home – over twice as many than those who usually do so in the past (1.9 million).
Way before the remote workforce adoption as a result of COVID-19 pandemic, professionals in the managed IT services have long adopted the remote work approach, making them highly effective in securing your organization’s network and your organization’s remote workforce.
- Cut Unnecessary Cost of Cyberattack or Data Breach
Managed IT security services offer the following services: firewall with customized configuration and rules, secured Virtual Private Network (VPN) for remote access, intrusion prevention, threat detection and response, website tracking and filtering, reputation monitoring and defense, email spam blocking, anti-virus, data loss prevention and complete application control.
COVID-19 and the resulting new remote workforce brought about new cybersecurity incidents. In March 2020, the Government of Canada, through the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, issued a warning that the COVID-19 pandemic presents an elevated level of risk to the cybersecurity of Canadian health organizations involved in the national response to the pandemic.
The Cyber Centre recommended that health organizations involved in the national response to the pandemic remain vigilant and take the time to ensure that they’re engaged in cyber defense best practices, such as increased monitoring of network logs, reminding employees to practice phishing awareness and ensuring that servers and critical systems are patched for all known security vulnerabilities.
In July 2020, the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security issued an alert warning Canadian organizations that it has been made aware of several compromises of computer networks in Canada. In each case, the Cyber Centre said, a threat actor was able to compromise infrastructure exposed to the internet because it wasn’t properly secured by two-factor authentication and/or because the software running on an exposed server wasn’t patched to the latest version.
The Cyber Centre recommended that organizations evaluate their networks for the presence of vulnerable software, especially those installed on devices exposed to the internet, and patch as soon as possible to the latest version. The Cyber Centre further recommended implementing two-factor authentication on all internet-facing remote access services, beginning with perimeter security devices such as Firewalls and remote access gateways for remote workers.
A recent survey conducted by KPMG showed that since the pandemic started, Canadians have been hit mostly by phishing attacks (38%), followed by spear-phishing attacks (13%), data breaches (12%), and malicious software (malware) incidents (9%). Phishing and spear-phishing are two of the most common forms of cyberattacks that weaponize emails. While phishing campaigns are directed to random individuals, spear-phishing campaigns target certain individuals or companies.
The KPMG survey also showed that over four in five or 84% of Canadians would take their business elsewhere with any organization that’s had a cyberattack or data breach.
“While social distancing has made us much more reliant on all things digital, the surge in cyberattacks and data breaches amid the COVID-19 pandemic is starting to undermine trust, with as many as four in five Canadians warning they would reconsider doing business with anyone that failed to keep their data safe,” Hartaj Nijjar, KPMG partner and national leader of Cyber Security Services, said. “The new reality in which we’ve living demands that every organization take a much-harder look at their cybersecurity strategy, systems, and protocols.”
It’s important to note that while the COVID-19 pandemic has brought in new cyber incidents, pre-COVID-19, Canadian businesses reported that they were impacted by cybersecurity incidents which affected their operations. As such, stakes are high even without the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Statistics Canada reported that in 2007, over one-fifth or 21% of Canadian businesses reported cybersecurity incidents that affected their operations. More than half or 54% of these impacted Canadian businesses reported that these cybersecurity incidents prevented employees from carrying out their day-to-day work; one-third or 30% experienced additional repair or recovery costs; and 10% of these Canadian businesses reported that they lost revenue as a result of cybersecurity incidents.
Since 1983, we’ve helped hundreds of businesses protect their most important investments, and always delivered on time and on budget. From adopting to new normal to mitigating the risks of cyberattacks, expert help is a phone call way. Call us today at (416) 920-3000 or email sales@genx.ca