How Cloud is Changing Pharmaceutical and Life Science Businesses

Pharmaceutical companies have been leveraging the power of Big Data for over a decade, utilizing ever more powerful computing devices to make logical leaps and data correlations that would have been impossible in previous years. Having immediate access to this scale of information allows scientists to build more quickly upon the work of others while also providing an improved experience for patients at healthcare locations. There is no question: cloud-based computing is having a dramatic impact on life sciences and pharmaceutical businesses.

Providing Secure and Immediate Access to Crucial Data

Electronic Health Records (EHR) are a standard requirement for organizations offering healthcare to the public and many support businesses besides. Being able to quickly and securely access this information is crucial to success — and an expectation in terms of providing proactive patient care. Visitors to your healthcare facilities are not patient with filling out paper forms and providing the same information multiple times. With the proliferation of local options for healthcare, clinics need this type of access to cloud-based storage and application data in order to be successful.

Pharma Benefits from Flexible, Scalable Cloud Solutions

It’s not unusual for pharmaceutical businesses to store and access petabytes of information on a regular basis — molecular and gene sequencing and results of clinical studies, just to name a few. The pharmaceutical industry has become adept at harnessing the power of the cloud to drive their analyses, hoping to shave time off of the extensive requirements of bringing a new drug to market. Anything that will speed the approximately 10-year review cycle that can cost billions of dollars has the potential to revolutionize the pharmaceutical industry, but there is still a great deal of work to be done before the cloud is fully utilized by these organizations. Turning data into insight is a key requirement for life sciences businesses, which entails tying together disparate software platforms and data sources in a way that provides greater transparency to analysts and scientists alike.

Streamlining Operations and Improving Security

Resource demands can fluctuate based on the stage of any business, and having your infrastructure based in the cloud allows organizations to scale quickly when needed. Providing your business with quick access to consolidated information can help streamline operations by digitizing workflows and creating a more cohesive view of the business. The enhanced focus on platform security, data privacy and compliance requirements demand that life sciences businesses increase their ability to store, secure process and analyze increasingly complex data sets.

Coretelligent has a deep commitment to providing healthcare and life sciences organizations with the secure advanced technology that you need to remain dominant in today’s highly competitive marketplace. See how our proactive technology professionals will work closely with your organization to define your specific needs and create the cohesive solutions that will support the security and compliance needs of your business both now and in the future. Contact us today at 855-841-5888 or fill out our online contact form for a quick response to your requests.

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You’ll Need These Cybersecurity Best Practices to Protect a Wealth Management Office

Creating a secure infrastructure is important for any business, but there are special considerations when you’re supporting a wealth management office or other financial institution. Security must be ironclad anytime you’re collecting and storing sensitive client information to be used in your business. A recent study by the Ponemon Institute shows that financial businesses and healthcare organizations are the hardest hit by the wave of recent cyberattacks, as criminals look for ways to mine the rich stores of personal information that can be found within these businesses. From user education to cyber insurance, here are a few of the cybersecurity best practices that you will need to protect your organization.

User Education and Training

Many business professionals are surprised to learn that more than 27% of breaches are caused by human error, which often stems from poor password security or a lack of formalized training. You can reduce the potential of user errors when your firm engages in holistic training that builds staff awareness of the dangers associated with business security and the cybersecurity tactics that will help to avoid them. Cybersecurity threats are changing rapidly, making it crucial that you schedule ongoing training that teaches users how to spot potential threats and the appropriate responses.

Email Security and Encryption

Putting a robust email security platform in place is no longer an option — it’s a necessity. With 90% of malware delivered via an email, users must always be alert to the potential of spoofed or forged emails. Active defense mechanisms may help protect against spam, phishing emails and malicious attachments, but user awareness remains a critical success factor. This includes putting policies in place against placing any sensitive client or personal data such as Social Security numbers, banking codes, account numbers and credit card information into emails.

Protection Against New Threats

Any financial services organization must be ready to quickly pivot to adjust to the changing threat landscape. Your technology partners should be continually scanning the environment to ensure that any weak points are effectively shored up, starting with the implementation of Next Generation Antivirus (NGAV) software. Deploying these aggressive cybersecurity measures can help protect your corporate workstations and servers, as well as provide alerts for any suspicious activities that may occur.

Vendor and 3rd Party Firm Audits

Working with external organizations can be the weak point in your security, especially if their cybersecurity posture is not as aggressive as that adopted by your organization. Ensure that any partners or 3rd party vendors employ a robust arsenal of cybersecurity protections, at least equal to those in your organization. They should also have plans in place for regular review of their security in light of advances in the field.

Cyber Insurance Coverage

A security breach or data loss can be extraordinarily expensive, especially for organizations that capture, store and manage personal financial information. Cyber insurance coverage can help protect your organization in the event of an attack, reducing the overwhelming burden of sanctions, notifications to customers and remediation that can be part of any type of cybersecurity breach.

Formalized Policies, Processes and Workflows

A key part of maintaining an aggressive security posture includes formalizing policies, processes and workflows within your organization. It’s all too easy for training to be forgotten in the bustle of daily work, but formalized policies help keep this important task top of mind. The same is true of high-risk activities such as wire transfer of funds or other financial transactions. It is vital that financial organizations follow best practices for the storage and transmission of account numbers and credit cards or other personally identifiable information such as birth dates and Social Security numbers.

Web Presence and Social Networks

Social media accounts provide a great deal of information for would-be attackers, much more than many individuals realize. Encourage staff members to segregate personal and professional social media activities, and refrain from discussing business or posting information online that could be utilized in the event of a cyberattack.

From user security to protecting your organization from malware and data breach, wealth management offices face unprecedented challenges in today’s complex world of data and integrations. Ensure that your organization is fully protected with aggressive cybersecurity measures as well as active monitoring when you work with the professionals at Coretelligent. Contact us today at 855-841-5888 or visit us online to see how we provide our partners and their clients with an exceptional level of protection against these ever-changing threats.

 

Article Written By: Chris Messer, CTO of Coretelligent

Click here to see Chris present an expert educational session at the Family Office and Private Wealth Management Forum in Newport, RI , July 22-24, 2019.

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Top 4 Reasons Your Financial Services Business Needs a Backup and Disaster Recovery Strategy

Financial services businesses have a high degree of responsibility to protect the information that is stored and managed by your organization. Ask yourself this: “Can our business function without technology infrastructure or access to customer data and applications”? If the answer is no, then you should immediately begin work on a comprehensive backup and disaster recovery strategy. Even with robust security measures in place, your staff members are one of the most likely sources of data loss or unauthorized access — making it imperative to protect against the eventuality of a fail. Here are four of the top reasons your financial services business needs to put a backup and disaster recovery strategy in place.

1. Outages Are Not Uncommon

Even a single blink in the power supply to your servers could be enough to cause a waterfall of failures that pervades your business. Downtime happens, whether they are caused by a failure in the technology itself, natural phenomena such as fire or excessive flooding or through human error. When internal staff members and customers lose access to their financial information, there’s a waterfall of failures that can wash through the entire organization. From a massive increase in customer service calls to the delays caused by bringing IT staff along to get a fix in place, there are no winners when you’re unprepared for an outage.

2. Reduced Risk of Compliance Issues

Storing personal financial information requires a great deal of care, making it crucial to have a solid backup process in place. Losing even a few moments of transactional data can take days if not weeks to rebuild and causes frustration that ripples through your customer base. Without the adequate support of a trusted technology partner, you might even find that your lack of a backup and disaster recovery strategy can put your business outside the law in terms of compliance.

3. Prevention is Cheaper Than the Cure

Yes, there is a certain cost associated with the business analysis and implementation of a comprehensive backup and disaster recovery strategy, but that cost is minimal when you weigh it against the cost of recovery after an event. Remediation after a data loss requires immediate assistance and may require calling in additional resources that are working at premium rates to quickly help your business recover. When you don’t have a backup and disaster recovery strategy in place, it’s likely that you’ll uncover additional challenges as you seek to rebuild your critical business systems, too.

4. Uncover and Resolve Resourcing and Productivity Challenges

A side benefit of disaster recovery and backup planning is that you are likely to identify inefficiencies in your processes at a time when you’re able to make plans for resolution over time. This thorough review of your business systems can help improve employee productivity and resource utilization throughout your teams, often uncovering disarray or poorly-implemented business rules that are damaging to your operations. Once these situations have been uncovered, you have a bit more time to schedule measured remediation instead of having to rush into an expensive fix after the fact.

Designing a backup and disaster recovery solution starts with access to a knowledgeable technology partner that can help your IT team and leadership think through the necessary business rules and make recommendations that fit your parameters. At Coretelligent, our technicians and project managers have a great deal of experience working with financial services organizations and have a strong understanding of the various challenges that these businesses face. Contact us today at 855-841-5888 or via email to info@coretelligent.com.

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Data Protection Is Essential for Pharmaceutical Companies

Protecting your organization is the primary directive for business leaders, and pharmaceutical companies have a lot to be concerned about. The risk from cybercriminals is extensive and growing, with more than 4,000 ransomware attacks happening on a daily basis, according to the FBI. This startling trend is even more frightening when you consider that even organizations as large and sophisticated as Merck & Co. can suffer a global shutdown of operations due to a security breach. See how you can protect your sensitive data and maintain secure operations with advanced cybersecurity countermeasures.

The Cost of Cybercrime

Cybercriminals are responsible for an astounding amount of loss to American businesses, with much of these costs coming in the form of lost productivity, lack of consumer confidence after a breach and the cost of notifying individuals after a breach. Recovering from a cybercrime can be extremely expensive for organizations, especially when you consider the cost of identifying the breach, making any necessary adjustments to your security processes and procedures and then putting safeguards into place to ensure that your data is more secure in the future.

Proactive Data Protection

Client health and financial data is extremely sensitive, and must be treated with the utmost care. With active management, your technology team should be able to quickly identify weaknesses in your processes and procedures — shoring up the support with ongoing training for your team members. When your employees fully understand the scope of the problem around data loss, they are much more likely to abstain from clicking that tempting email. Phishing is a primary attack vector for cybercriminals, as they have seen a great deal of success by creating increasingly complex emails that mimic legitimate correspondence with colleagues and vendors.

Defining a Robust Cybersecurity Posture

While training is a good step, it’s crucial that your technology provider is working with your internal team to actively manage your cybersecurity posture. This could include:

  • Active monitoring of your network activity
  • Spam control at the server level, before emails are delivered to users
  • Proactive backup and recovery procedures
  • Vulnerability assessment
  • Compliance reporting
  • Management of active data as well as data at rest
  • Secure onsite or offsite data storage facilities
  • Endpoint protection, including security for mobile devices and Internet of Things devices

With a pharmaceutical company, there’s the added concern with having intellectual property available that cybercriminals may be able to access. Protecting this lucrative information is a primary consideration for technology teams.

Leveraging Artificial Intelligence

With more pharmaceutical organizations looking for ways to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) in their work, it’s possible this could open additional vulnerabilities for the business. The massive amounts of data that can be mined from patient records and used to simulate results on a broad scale have exciting potentials for AI and machine learning. Unfortunately, the aggregation of this high-value data is likely to tempt cybercriminals to attack pharmaceutical companies on a broader scale than ever before.

Protecting your data may be job one, but it’s probably not the only consideration for your internal teams. At Coretelligent, we work closely with life sciences and other organizations to create a secure infrastructure that will protect your organization — and the data of your key constituents. Contact us today at 855-841-5888 or via email to info@coretelligent.com for more information.

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Cybersecurity Challenges Lurk Around Every Corner for Life Sciences Companies

A recent ransomware attack against a Michigan healthcare billing organization reveals what some consider to be one of the biggest cybersecurity threats for health sciences companies to date: vendor partners who are unable to maintain adequate security for their operations. This data breach potentially exposed the personal, health and financial information for over 600,000 residents, according to the Michigan attorney general. Even six months after the attack occurred, the affected organization still can’t say with certainty whether these records were truly compromised. While remediation began immediately, the company and partners are still reeling under the weight of the negative publicity, notification costs and system upgrades required to return to normal business operations. This massive attack illustrates the need for robust and proactive cybersecurity, particularly for organizations who collect and store personal, financial and health-related information.

Dangers of Ransomware Attacks

The cybercriminals attacked Wolverine Solutions Group, the Detroit-based billing sub-contractor, in September 2018 with ransomware with an attack so heavy that it took nearly a month to fully resolve. After several more weeks of working with an external IT investigative team, Wolverine Solutions Group was finally able to restore critical operations — on November 5, 2018. While the data that was under house arrest by the cybercriminals was encrypted, the organization can’t guarantee that the hackers weren’t able to exfiltrate the information for sale. This uncertainty has led to a lack of confidence in the organization and a loss of trust from the Michigan community affected by the ransomware attack.

Importance of Disaster Preparedness

In this particular instance, Wolverine Solutions Group may not have had an adequate backup and disaster recovery process in place. The malicious actors were able to infect their network with malware that effectively seized control of records stored by the company. The cybercriminals were then able to hold the records in an inaccessible state until Wolverine Solutions Group paid the ransom. While it is unclear whether the ransom was ultimately paid, the organization did state that they have since migrated to a different system that ostensibly has greater safeguards in place for the protection of their critical systems and data. With a robust backup and disaster recovery solution in place, the ransomware attack may have been remediated more rapidly — allowing the organization to return to business as usual.

Suggestions to Protect Your Systems

The team at Wolverine Solutions Group specifically noted that they are also training their staff in taking additional precautions, signaling that the attack may have come through one of their workforce members. Ransomware attacks currently cost businesses more than $75 billion per year, a terrifying statistic when you consider that ransomware attacks are projected to hit an organization every 14 seconds by the end of 2019 with the pace expected to accelerate in 2020 and beyond. Cybersecurity experts recommend that you take the following actions to help reduce the risk of malware.

  • Invest in ongoing training for staff members, so they’re able to identify and avoid malware
  • Proactively monitor systems and reporting for unexpected traffic and other cues
  • Maintain a robust, offsite backup and recovery process for data and applications
  • Protect and monitor endpoints
  • Utilize advanced protection software, including malware scrubbers for email and protection for your websites
  • Apply all patches and updates to software in a timely manner

While it’s unlikely that every attack can be prevented, when you’re actively engaged in protecting your organization any attack will be quickly identified. This allows you to get a jump on remediation and can ultimately result in fewer losses for your business. Organizations in the health sciences space such as pharmaceuticals, dental and medical practices and others are at a particular risk for this type of attack due to the perceived high value of the information that’s being stored in their data structures. When you’re ready to review your cybersecurity preparedness, contact the professionals at Coretelligent at 855-841-5888 or via email to info@coretelligent.com.

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4 Reasons You Should Outsource IT Support ASAP

Unless your core business competency is providing information technology security support for others, you should join the revolution and outsource this critical piece of your information architecture. Why? Not “because everyone else is doing it”, but because it makes solid business sense. Sure, you will reduce costs and improve overall business processes, but you will also gain some things that are perhaps even more important — time and the ability to quickly scale. The reality is that complexity in the world of technology continues to rise. If your organization’s IT department is underfunded as so many are, it’s unlikely you have the resources to devote to both driving innovation along core business lines as well as supporting the security needs of the organization. Here are four reasons why you should consider outsourcing your IT support to a trusted service provider ASAP.

1. Regain Resources

You have smart, forward-thinking individuals on your technology team, but are they being fully utilized? They know your business better than anyone else, but if they feel stifled or unable to innovate due to the daily pressures of minutia they are unlikely to be motivated to excel. Recapture these amazing resources and turn them loose on solving tough business problems. From automated, onsite and remote support to infrastructure monitoring and reporting, your outsourced IT team handles everything from helping users change passwords to project management of longer-term IT initiatives.

2. Reduce Overhead

The cost of adding a new IT professional can be extensive, not to mention the time required to find someone with exactly the blend of skills that you need both now and in the future. And finding someone who is an excellent cultural fit, too. . . ? The pool of qualified candidates continues to shrink, especially if you are looking to add someone with a different competency set than those you already have on staff. With 360 Support from Coretelligent, you’re adding a team of IT services experts who are available around the clock.

3. Improve Security

Having a full team of security professionals focused on the health of your infrastructure provides needed bench strength to support your internal IT assets. New threats are constantly cropping up — does your internal team have the bandwidth necessary to stay up-to-date on everything coming their way? The proactive model employed by many IT managed services providers (MSP) creates a flow of information to and from your organization from key touchpoints. This allows your MSP to patch servers quickly, providing you with actionable analytics that will make your network infrastructure smarter and security measures harder to defeat.

4. Making Expenses Predictable

Budgeting is a major challenge for many C-suite executives, but IT may be the vertical with the most difficult task when it comes to budget time. If you have the funds available to replace computers and servers every two years — great! However, if you’re like the majority of organizations, these replacements need to come in waves. This makes it tough to predict what can (and will!) fail on an annual basis, and what types of new threat will come on the market that needs to be repelled. With a managed services provider, you are paying a single set fee that protects you against the sudden expenses with traditional IT models.

Working with an MSP to control your costs, improve security and free up time for your IT professionals makes good business sense. It can also help change the rules for your competition. What new innovation could your technology team propose if they had the space to focus on deep-seated business problems instead of putting out fires? Find out today by calling Coretelligent at 1-855-841-5888 to learn more about our 360 Support services. Our team of experts functions as an extension of your technology team, picking up where there are gaps and helping move your business forward.

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These 4 Password Alternatives Will Help Keep You Safe Online

Nearly all websites require some sort of login and password. While you know in your heart that you should use different passwords for each website, who has the time (and mental energy) to create new passwords . . . much less remember them in the future? Passwords were once thought to be the most secure way to authenticate users on the internet. However, consumers have slowly been losing confidence in the humble password over the years. It seems like every time you turn on the news there is another organization who has been the target of a cyber attack, many of which are related to password hacking. Here are 4 alternatives to traditional passwords that will protect your family and your business while you are online.

1. Biometrics

Smartphone users will notice that more apps are asking for biometric identification these days, such as a fingerprint. Apple has even instituted facial recognition with the Apple iPhone X. While relatively foolproof, this next generation of digital IDs is not more secure than passwords simply because you can’t “hack” a fingerprint. Every item that you have touched today and in the recent past has a fresh fingerprint on it, just waiting for a nefarious actor to lift and use. Users do find that biometrics provide a better user experience since they are generally easy to use and impossible to forget.

2. Password Managers

The best lockboxes for your passwords work across all platforms and sync seamlessly. Some options that you can find include the ability to log into websites for you, password storage and retrieval, and a system that prompts you if you’re using the same password for too many different sites. Some top apps include:

  • LastPass. Supporting two-factor authentication, LastPass is one of the industry leaders in this space. The software works well online and synced or locally on a single device. When a particular website has been compromised, LastPass is a step ahead and creates new passwords for you.
  • 1Password. If the idea of remembering only one password appeals to you, then this option is a good choice. It works seamlessly across browsers and includes a strong password generator.

3. Simple Multi-factor Authentication

This security measure is widely regarded by security professionals as the only option that is truly viable. Multi-factor authentication requires that you have access not only to your password but also to your smartphone in order to gain access to your sensitive information. Google, Yahoo and many banks are among a few of the organizations who have already moved in this direction. Anytime a website or app texts a number to your smartphone and requires you to enter the code to gain access, that’s generally considered multi-factor authentication.

4. QR Code + Biometrics

While technically this is a multi-factor authentication, this “one step further” approach combines several other best practices for multi-factor to truly amp up the protection for your personal and business information. This system includes scanning a QR code with your smartphone that is visible on your computer’s screen. The second step of authentication includes matching an encrypted mobile ID to the scan to confirm that you are truly authorized. When added to the biometric authentication, this system provides an added level of security beyond simple multi-factor.

Security is a major concern for individuals and organizations of all sizes, and these methods of securing your identity can help protect you at a granular level. At Coretelligent, we are focused on providing the highest level of security possible for your business with our CoreArmor solution. This dedicated, holistic approach to protecting against the cybersecurity challenges found in businesses of all sizes. Contact Coretelligent today at 855-841-5888 or fill out our quick online contact form to receive a free initial security consultation for your business.

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What You Need to Know About Business Data Backup Services

Saving your information on a regular basis is second-nature to most business professionals working in a traditional software package. That same paradigm is going by the wayside with the growth of cloud-based platforms, how does an entire business hit the “save” button on a regular basis? Even if you do have data backup services in place, are you sure that they’re going to fully protect your business and offer easy and rapid access to your data? Your data backup and recovery solution could mean the difference between a short access outage and a business-stopping disaster.

Benefits of Data Backup Services

There are plenty of arguments for on-premise data backup such as quick access to restore individual files or folders. However, many businesses are now moving to a cloud-based solution as they offer a more comprehensive solution. Distributed data centers provide the security needed to protect your sensitive systems and data while allowing quick access to a complete rebuild should that become a necessity. The potential of a threat actor accessing your information remotely is more of a reality than ever before. This makes it critically important that your business is able to rebuild and efficiently scale operations from any location. Disaster can take many forms such as fire and flood, and it is rare that you have enough advance notice to quickly protect the data within your organization.

Protection for Today’s Businesses

When you work with a trusted data recovery provider, you know that your business information is protected at all times from any type of threat. Creating a backup of your data is only step one as rapid recovery times are a critical indicator of whether your business can survive a catastrophe. The hourly and daily cost of a loss is staggering, with 24% of medium to large businesses in a recent poll reporting that a single hour of downtime can cost between $300-$400,000. This number can include everything from the direct cost of lost productivity and sales to the indirect costs associated with lost productivity and the loss of consumer trust. Backup Data Recovery (BDR) services provide state-of-the-art solutions to this modern business problem without the heavy overhead traditionally associated with scaling up these solutions.

Scalable, Reliable and Resilient

These three words together should describe your data backup services, as they each provide a critical component that will help your business recover quickly. Scalable solutions expand as your business grows, without exceptional effort on the part of your team. Maintaining server compatibility and ramping up for a new project can be costly and time-consuming. This can cause projects to slow down unnecessarily and get in the way of achieving business objectives.

A reliable solution, whether on-premise or in the cloud, is one that is fully redundant and accessible from any physical location. The data centers housing your information must maintain the highest level of security. Customer service and engineering support should be readily available and knowledgeable enough to help bring your business back from the brink.

Resiliency can have a variety of meanings in the technology world. In business data recovery services, being resilient means protecting data from any type of attack and includes compliance measures and encryption whether data is at rest or in transit. Advanced recovery solutions take a multi-pronged approach to managing risk that includes a dedicated team of professionals available for client support.

Modern data backup services allow for the restoration of both relevant data and the virtual environment quickly and efficiently. This allows business users to return to normal operations as quickly as possible — saving time and effort for the organization. Ready to learn how your business can enhance your recovery time after a data loss or disaster? Contact the professionals at Coretelligent today at 855-841-5888 and see the power of a team fully dedicated to your success.

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How Data Recovery Solutions Protect Your Business

Are you aware of what’s happening in your business at every moment in time? Unfortunately, hackers and malcontents don’t send postcards letting you know that they’re about to infiltrate your security systems. You may not realize that something disastrous has happened until it’s too late — and you have already lost access to data and possibly even your critical business systems. With robust data recovery solutions, your business is secure and protected at all times.

Benefits of Data Recovery Solutions

Today’s businesses are highly dependent on data: from websites to customer service, to shipping orders accurately and on time. Without access to our mission-critical data, the business quickly grinds to a halt. Whether the issue was caused by a disgruntled employee or accidental file deletion or even an electrical surge, data recovery solutions include a backup of important information and business systems, allowing you to spin up the digital side of your business again much more quickly than if you didn’t have a robust solution in place. Additional benefits of having a trusted data recovery solution in place include:

  • Fast and efficient recovery of critical files and business resources
  • Protect the reputation of your company should you experience an outage
  • Maintain employee productivity and the ability to generate revenue
  • Ensure that your competition doesn’t overtake your business while you’re in an extended recovery mode

A robust data recovery solution (BDS) is far more than a cloud-based backup, however. It is a mechanism that allows you to weather the unexpected storms of business and reduce the negative effects of unplanned downtime.

When Your Systems Fail

Bringing your business back online after a significant outage can take days or even weeks without a backup and data recovery solution in place. During this time you might lose clients, frustrate your vendors and lose the trust of your prospects if you’re unable to deliver on promises or requests. The cost of downtime is significant and difficult to measure as its a mix of expenses, lost productivity and the cost of lost business. Even overtime for your technology staff should be factored into the analysis of what it costs if your systems fail.

Unified Solutions for Complex Data

The data that are used to run today’s businesses are varied and complex and can be stored in a variety of different buckets or locations. A single weak point in your organization’s digital armor can be used as an entry point to infiltrate other systems and wreak havoc on your business. Everything from your Exchange Server to customer relationship management software and your website are vulnerable. Each of these data sets are often stored on separate servers, usually with unique file structures. The level of complexity that is introduced by attempting to create backups of all of this data are exceptional — not to mention the challenges presented by monitoring the health of each of your various systems.

Protection You Can Trust

When you work with a trusted backup and data recovery solutions partner, you can be assured that backups are granular, fast and efficient. You should have easy access to dashboards that show your data security and allow you to quickly compress and de-duplicate your files. Flat and highly structured data should be stored safely, and recovery should take only a few hours — not days. Th level of protection found in CoreBDR, the Coretelligent Backup and Data Recovery Solution, would be difficult to build within your business infrastructure, which is why it is so important to work with organizations that have deep experience in protecting various types of businesses.

Many organizations will experience an outage throughout their years in business. However, the businesses that are fully prepared with a robust backup and recovery solution in place are the ones who will be able to quickly regain a high level of operation. Contact the team at Coretelligent at 855-841-5888 or fill out our quick online contact form for more information. We partner with the best security teams in the business, including Veeam for encryption to protect your data whether it’s at rest or in transit

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Most Common Types of Cyber Attacks & How to Prevent Them

It seems you can barely turn on the news or read headlines from your favorite news site without seeing yet another major corporation falling prey to cyber attacks. Whether they are caused by phishing, data infiltration or even brute force, the barrage of assaults seems never-ending. However, for every organization that is victimized, hundreds if not thousands of others are able to protect themselves and their sensitive data from penetration. Here are tips to prevent some of the most common types of cyber attacks by proactively managing your risk profile.

Spear Phishing and Whaling Attacks

As organizations become more global and attacks become more sophisticated, what used to be relatively simple to spot has now become a nightmare even for savvy internet users. As recently as the last five years, phishing attacks began morphing from poorly-spelled email pleas to send money to a prince overseas to become highly detailed and realistic-looking asks that appear to be from executives within your organization. Email address masking and other tools that are often utilized by marketers to create a more pleasing customer experience are being leveraged in nefarious ways by individuals who are attempting to defraud your organization. Information gathered from social media and public profiles are leveraged to define a picture of a specific executive or group, and then that information is used in “whaling” attacks — so named because they are truly going after the big fish in the sea.

How to prevent spear phishing and whaling attacks:

  • Encourage staff members to make their social media profiles private, and be wary of accepting friend requests from individuals they do not know
  • Create an educational series to show how these attacks differ from valid communication
  • Use up-to-date email filters, anti-phishing tools and utilize active protection at the system network level
  • Teach caution as employees click on links embedded in emails

Cross-Site Scripting

Cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks are some of the wiliest because a user is unlikely to realize that they have even been hacked. Instead of going after the host website, these snippets of code are built to run when the page loads via a comment or other auto-loading section of the site. The dangerous snippet then attacks the user’s login and password information and other personal details, exfiltrating them for later use.

How to prevent cross-site scripting:

  • Limit the amount of user-provided data on your websites and web apps to only what is absolutely necessary
  • Regularly scan your website using a vulnerability scanning tool to look for XSS

Poor Compliance Behavior

Perhaps one of the easiest ways to maintain cybersecurity within your organization is through continual compliance monitoring and behavioral review. Users tend to reuse the same password on multiple platforms, increasing the chance that there could be a major security breach within your organization. Passwords are often simplistic or easily guessed, especially when cyber attackers leverage social engineering to enhance their knowledge of their prey. According to the Harvard Business Review, vulnerabilities were caused by insiders in more than 60% of the attacks in 2016. This is especially true for industries such as healthcare, financial services, and manufacturing where there are large quantities of valuable intellectual property, personal information and financial assets available for the taking.

How to prevent poor compliance behavior:

  • Regularly audit access to key systems, ensuring that access is restricted to individuals who actively need it
  • Review compliance guidelines with supervisors and staff on a regular basis
  • Require strict password guidelines on a rigorous reset schedule
  • Implement log management and active system monitoring to detect intrusions as they’re happening

While no systems are infallible, there are ways to protect your organization from the dangers that are associated with doing business today. Protect your business and your staff with the dedicated support structure of CoreArmor from Coretelligent. Our behavioral monitoring, asset discovery and reporting provide 360 degrees of protection with our Defense-in-Depth (DiD) strategy. Contact us today at 855-841-5888 for the office nearest you, or fill out our online contact form for assistance.

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