{"id":33416,"date":"2019-02-28T10:00:35","date_gmt":"2019-02-28T18:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/?p=33416"},"modified":"2019-02-28T10:00:35","modified_gmt":"2019-02-28T18:00:35","slug":"dealers-offer-solutions-to-combat-the-threats-of-it-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/feature-articles\/2019\/02\/dealers-offer-solutions-to-combat-the-threats-of-it-security\/","title":{"rendered":"Dealers Offer Solutions to Combat the Threats of IT Security"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"OK, so the calendar reads March 1, and I\u2019m as ready for spring to arrive as the next fellow. But February always gets the short-shrift, and IT security is too important of a topic to abbreviate. So given this, gentle readers, we\u2019re going to pretend it\u2019s Feb. 29 and take one more dive into the topic before welcoming our March state of the industry focus on the vertical go-to-market approach.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll pick up where we left off last week, with a sampling of solutions that dealers employ to help their clients maintain pace with the evolving scourge of intrusion threats to both data and systems. Jeff Leder, director of managed IT security services for Impact, notes his dealership\u2019s offering consists of two primary aspects that enable it to confidently identify and handle threats.<\/p>\n

The Lake Forest, IL-based firm\u2019s assessment process entails using a combination of tools, many of which are the same ones intruders employ to infiltrate a client environment. The second variable is Impact\u2019s enterprise-grade solutions, which are designed to effectively monitor and protect specific aspects of the client environment.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Jeff Leder, Impact<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cBoth of these aspects combined offer us insight and additional threat mitigation for our clients, and we continuously research and expand upon our assessment tools, processes and solutions to ensure that emerging threats are mitigated,\u201d Leder said.<\/p>\n

Cyber-Worthy<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the challenges associated with working in the SMB space is the prevalent belief that their operations are too small and uninteresting to potential cybercriminals. As a result, many SMBs have fallen woefully behind their enterprise-level brethren in enhancing security measures.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the reasons we cover third party and vendor contacts and integrations is we like to look at who\u2019s interacting with your infrastructure and data, see what level of access they have and do they need that,” Leder remarked.\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s one other avenue where if someone manages to maintain and advance a persistent threat in a small environment\u2014it turns out it\u2019s a sister company or some sort of vendor relationship with a much larger organization. It\u2019s another conduit through which malicious actors can actually find their way, sort of island hopping between organizations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Derick Tallman, Access Systems<\/p><\/div>\n

Derick Tallman, IT security and operations manager at Waukee, IA-based Access Systems, points out that just as the evolution of security breaches is fluid, so too is the dealer\u2019s IT security offering. Augmented by industry newsletters, alerts from partners and vendors and U.S. government Homeland Security Alerts, Access System\u2019s team is able to keep up to date on the latest cybersecurity threats, enabling it to constantly evaluate its IT security offerings. The dealer\u2019s team also attends several conferences throughout the year where the latest threats and trends on cybersecurity protection are discussed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are constantly monitoring security threats and controls to put in place to protect against these threats,\u201d Tallman said. \u201cThis includes introducing new products into our IT security offering while working on minimizing the inconvenience factor, maintaining a strong and secure environment, and being cost effective for the client. We stay up to date on new products and services that are available to protect our clients and add the most value for our clients.\u201d<\/p>\n

Client Insight<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"

Monique Phalen,
AIS of Las Vegas<\/p><\/div>\n

Monique Phalen, director of IT at AIS of Las Vegas, believes one of the advantages a dealer has is its insight into an account, from the office manager right on up to the CEO, and can communicate the best practices in how to best conduct business in a secure manner. This guidance is not unlike the dealer\u2019s role in providing training and guidance on copiers and printers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe new opportunities lie in making sure you have insight into all touch points into all end users, and you do awareness training,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s important to do simulated attacks in the financial services industry, do simulated external and internal hacks, just to see what (threats) are out there. I think businesses are going to have to go through that fire drill to see where they\u2019re vulnerable and determine how to shore it up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OK, so the calendar reads March 1, and I\u2019m as ready for spring to arrive as the next fellow. But February always gets the short-shrift, and IT security is too important of a topic to abbreviate. So given this, gentle readers, we\u2019re going to pretend it\u2019s Feb. 29 and take one more dive into the topic before welcoming our March state of the industry focus on the vertical go-to-market approach. We\u2019ll pick up where we left off last week, with a sampling of solutions that dealers employ to help their clients maintain pace with the evolving scourge of intrusion threats to both data and systems. Jeff Leder, director of managed IT security services for Impact, notes his dealership\u2019s offering consists of two primary aspects that enable it to confidently identify and handle threats. The Lake Forest, IL-based firm\u2019s assessment process entails using a combination of tools, many of which are the same ones intruders employ to infiltrate a client environment. The second variable is Impact\u2019s enterprise-grade solutions, which are designed to effectively monitor and protect specific aspects of the client environment. \u201cBoth of these aspects combined offer us insight and additional threat mitigation for our clients, and we continuously research and expand upon our assessment tools, processes and solutions to ensure that emerging threats are mitigated,\u201d Leder said. Cyber-Worthy One of the challenges associated with working in the SMB space is the prevalent belief that their operations are too small and uninteresting to potential cybercriminals. As a result, many SMBs have fallen woefully behind their enterprise-level brethren in enhancing security measures. \u201cOne of the reasons we cover third party and vendor contacts and integrations is we like to look at who\u2019s interacting with your infrastructure and data, see what level of access they have and do they need that,” Leder remarked.\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s one other avenue where if someone manages to maintain and advance a persistent threat in a small environment\u2014it turns out it\u2019s a sister company or some sort of vendor relationship with a much larger organization. It\u2019s another conduit through which malicious actors can actually find their way, sort of island hopping between organizations.\u201d Derick Tallman, IT security and operations manager at Waukee, IA-based Access Systems, points out that just as the evolution of security breaches is fluid, so too is the dealer\u2019s IT security offering. Augmented by industry newsletters, alerts from partners and vendors and U.S. government Homeland Security Alerts, Access System\u2019s team is able to keep up to date on the latest cybersecurity threats, enabling it to constantly evaluate its IT security offerings. The dealer\u2019s team also attends several conferences throughout the year where the latest threats and trends on cybersecurity protection are discussed. \u201cWe are constantly monitoring security threats and controls to put in place to protect against these threats,\u201d Tallman said. \u201cThis includes introducing new products into our IT security offering while working on minimizing the inconvenience factor, maintaining a strong and secure environment, and being cost effective for the client. We stay up to date on new products and services that are available to protect our clients and add the most value for our clients.\u201d Client Insight Monique Phalen, director of IT at AIS of Las Vegas, believes one of the advantages a dealer has is its insight into an account, from the office manager right on up to the CEO, and can communicate the best practices in how to best conduct business in a secure manner. This guidance is not unlike the dealer\u2019s role in providing training and guidance on copiers and printers. \u201cThe new opportunities lie in making sure you have insight into all touch points into all end users, and you do awareness training,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s important to do simulated attacks in the financial services industry, do simulated external and internal hacks, just to see what (threats) are out there. I think businesses are going to have to go through that fire drill to see where they\u2019re vulnerable and determine how to shore it up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":166,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1650,82,87,1638],"tags":[2132],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33416"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/166"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33416"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33417,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33416\/revisions\/33417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}