Author Archives: Maria Koblish

With November 30th being National Computer Security Day, the Thrive team is sharing some of their most recent pieces as a quick refresher on some of the most critical parts of any cyber readiness strategy.

Thrive’s VP of Consulting, Dave Sampson, points out that “There has never been a more critical time to be proactive about cyber security risk mitigation when evaluating organizational risk.  This is applicable from both a business process and technology perspective, and requires a real-time, proactive approach to validate solution effectiveness and perform continual improvement.”

For a cyber security strategy that is ready to answer the call, it’s best to start with some questions.

While your employees may know to not click on links or open attachments from suspicious emails, how many have been trained to identify other forms of social engineering attacks? Have you identified where your most valuable data lives, and are there safeguards in place to keep it secure?

Once those questions have been answered, it’s time to understand what happens when something does go wrong. At the end of the day, the faceless “hacker” character is a real person trying to steal your most crucial data, and they will exhaust all methods of entry to get it.

Ensure your organization is prepared to mitigate and manage cyber attacks the National Computer Security Day by taking a look back at some of our most popular Blogs:

5 Common Misconceptions About Cyber Security

True or false? “When your system is compromised, you will notice the breach immediately.” Learn why breaches can go unnoticed and just how important a full security stack is in this quick read.
https://thrivenextgen.com/5-common-misconceptions-about-cyber-security/

The Benefits of Multi Factor Authentication for the Remote Workforce

With more employees than ever before working from home, increasingly unique issues are presenting themselves to IT teams everywhere. Enabling MFA allows you to secure any log-in attempt from anywhere, better protecting your business assets.
https://thrivenextgen.com/the-benefits-of-multi-factor-authentication-for-the-remote-workforce/

Social Engineering Attacks and Banking

Social engineering attacks exploit the simple human errors we all make every day – clicking on a link in a phishing email, responding to someone impersonating another member of the company, and more. These mistakes can result in significant financial losses alongside compromised sensitive information.
https://thrivenextgen.com/social-engineering-attacks-and-banking/

How to Perform a Cyber Security Tabletop Exercise

An incident can occur at any time and include many variables, so it’s not always practical to write step-by-step instructions for each potential scenario. A tabletop cyber security exercise provides clarity on how to handle different types of incidents with an actionable strategy.
https://thrivenextgen.com/how-to-perform-a-cyber-security-tabletop-exercise/

Thrive provides enterprises with the tools to mitigate cyber attacks and protect valuable data in the event of a breach. MFA and cyber security incident response plans are useful and important, but they are just a few of the many tools available to bolster your organization’s security posture.Contact our experts today to discuss a plan to fully protect your most important assets.

Can you tell when it’s time to move on to another IT company? Consider the signs below, and think carefully about whether it’s the right time to make a change. Thrive can help you accurately assess the needs of your growing organization and ensure they are met.

What Happens When You Outgrow Your IT Team’s Capabilities?

In today’s economic environment, your IT team is an integral part of your organization.

They need to be going above and beyond to do more than simply fixing broken equipment and installing new hardware—they need to be there when you need them most, and they need to find new ways to apply technology to enhance efficiency and enable new organizational capabilities.

Above all, they need to help the organization grow and operate more profitably than ever before.

Regardless of whether you have an internal IT team or an outsourced IT support company, if they can no longer support your business, then you need to consider an upgrade.

The big question is: how do you know when you’ve outgrown your IT team?

The Downside Of Growth

Organizational growth is a double-edged sword. Yes, success is great; more clients, more sales, more profits. That’s the goal, after all, right?

But with growth comes growing pains. As you take on new clients, you need more staff to be able to service them. You need more resources for those staff members. You draw more greatly on the support services you use every day.

If one part of that fragile system can’t keep up with your growth, you might have to turn new clients away or risk delivering a low-quality product or service to them.

One of the key components that is most likely to fail you during a period of growth is IT. Every single part of your organization depends on available, functioning IT—as you grow, your demand on IT does as well.

5 Signs You’ve Already Outgrown Your IT Team

Here are five red flags that tell you that you’ve outpaced your IT team’s capabilities:

• Unidentified Risks: Your IT team may be capable of handling day-to-day maintenance and support just fine, but that doesn’t mean they’re handling everything IT-related. Failure to properly plan and maintain the disaster recovery and business continuity plan can put your organization at serious risk without affecting your daily work.  One primary way to tell if your emergency recovery management is being handled correctly is to determine when the last full disaster recovery fire drill was executed.  If your organization has never completed one, that’s a very bad sign.  If it has been longer than a year, the potential for the plan to fail increases significantly because of updates or missing critical data and systems that have been added since the last fire drill. A failed disaster recovery plan during a real crisis can be an existential risk to any organization. That’s why your IT team needs to obsessively manage and test your disaster recovery and business continuity plans.
• Cyber Incidents: A mishandled cybersecurity incident or the inability to report on cybersecurity incidents is a key indicator that your organization has outpaced your IT team. Even if it did not result in considerable downtime or data loss, a mishandled incident exposes a serious oversight in your cybersecurity management processes.  A lack of incidents is an even bigger indicator of risk, as the underlying security weaknesses are going unnoticed. Similarly, if you lack basic cybersecurity defenses like multi-factor authentication, that’s a clear sign you need to find a more capable IT team.
• No Automation: Is your IT team handling maintenance tasks manually? The fact is that a lot of IT maintenance work, while necessary, is tedious, repetitive, and ill-suited to manual execution. More advanced IT teams automate these tasks and provide exception alerting to ensure they are carried out in a timely and consistent manner.  If your IT team is still doing everything manually, they may not have the management capabilities your growing organization requires.
• Lack Of Digital Transformation: As an organization grows, it will gain the resources to invest in more complex and advanced systems and software.  A key example of this is the migration of IT workloads to the cloud—while there are plenty of consumer-level cloud platforms that work for small organizations, as an organization scales up, it can greatly benefit from more tailored and complicated cloud deployments. If your IT team keeps telling you the cloud isn’t right for your organization, it may be because they lack the expertise or resources to properly migrate your data to the platform you need.
• No Annual Assessment And Planning: There are many tasks that your IT team must handle on an ad-hoc basis.  Internet outages, system failures, and corrupted storage devices don’t happen on a scheduled basis. However, planning for these events and building a long-term strategy for the application of technology should not be handled on a reactive basis, especially for growing organizations.  In order to properly plan for the future of any organization’s IT, budget accurately, and stay ahead of necessary expansions and upgrades, your IT team needs to establish a comprehensive annual assessment and planning process. If your IT team is only making changes and launching projects after they become necessary, then your IT management as a whole lacks strategy. Eventually, this lack of foresight will catch up with you, resulting in downtime, lagging systems, security issues, or worse.

Is It Time For You To Move On?

Your organization needs the best IT services to thrive.  It’s really as simple as that. From productivity to security, to communication, to innovative new ways to get work done—IT is at the heart of it all.

Here are the facts: properly chosen technology combined with true expertise can achieve real results for your organization.

All that depends on finding the right support—have you settled for something less? Get in touch with the Thrive team to get the IT expertise and resources your growing organization needs.

Is your IT staff out of their depth when it comes to certain aspects of your IT environment?

That’s understandable. If you have a team of four or five people, do you really think they can be experts in support, cybersecurity, engineering, infrastructure design and maintenance, and the many other types of work included in IT?

Your internal IT team can’t do everything, but that doesn’t mean you have to hire more people. Instead, you can augment their capabilities with Thrive managed IT services.

What Is Co-Managed IT?

Co-managed IT services allow businesses and their IT teams to take advantage of the expertise and skill of a team of outsourced IT specialists when needed, and without paying expensive salaries or benefits.

Co-managed IT does not replace your internal team—it adds to it. You’ll have the people and IT support you need when technology problems crop up that no one else can resolve or handle.

Why Should You Add Thrive To Your Internal IT Team’s Capabilities?

• Human Backup: With only internal IT staff, your organization is highly vulnerable to gaps in personnel continuity. This is a particular problem for smaller IT departments as the loss of a key engineer or manager on your internal IT team will almost certainly affect your maintenance and management processes. Without comprehensive documentation of your IT environment and how it is managed, your remaining staff members won’t be able to fill in until another engineer is hired. And that’s assuming that other members of your IT team don’t leave along with the departing employee — we see this happen quite often when the outgoing employee is a senior engineer or manager. However, if you have Thrive as a part of your IT team, you’re protected against these types of gaps in your staff. No matter who leaves your internal IT team, you can rely on Thrive to maintain a complete set of documentation and keep everything running smoothly while you recruit, hire and train new staff.
• Increased Capacity:  As most IT directors will attest to, there is never any shortage of work in the IT department of a growing organization. At any given time, there are usually multiple IT projects going on that are key to the future operation and efficiency of the organization. Quite often, existing IT staff members are drafted to work on these projects as they know the most about the organization’s Line of Business applications and user base.  This can create a conflict of interest for those staff members who may also have other IT maintenance and management responsibilities and potentially create burn-out of internal IT staff.  However, if you have Thrive as a part of your IT team, our service staff can take over those maintenance and support tasks on-demand while internal IT staff members handle project work.
• Second Opinions: An external partner like Thrive provides you with an invaluable perspective of the state of your IT systems. The fact is that you don’t know what you don’t know. Your IT team may be so close to the systems and processes they oversee that they may not be able to spot a critical risk item or potential service issue. We help address this in two ways:
• • We ensure that you properly document everything in terms of your IT in order to maintain continuity, no matter what type of employee turnover there is.
  • We provide an expert second opinion on the state of your IT, helping you determine what is optimized and what isn’t. We will help you address the gaps in your management, maintenance, and continuity.

Thrive Offers Perspective, Resources, And Expertise

An internal person or team can only offer so much in terms of availability, time, and skill sets. You might have the most talented IT team in the world and they will still be limited in what they can do.

It’s not your fault and it’s not their fault; it’s just the reality of IT services in an increasingly complex and tech-dependent world—comprehensive and end-to-end internal support is extremely difficult to arrange.

The fact is that your IT team just handles your company. Thrive works with dozens of other organizations, which allows us to maintain the resources you need, which you can access with an economy of scale.

Get in touch with us to access the additional IT capabilities your internal IT team needs.

It’s no secret that people are the most important resource in any organization. No matter the industry, one thing rings true: talented, dedicated people are what makes the true difference in our bottom lines. While other IT service providers offer a standard set of hardware, software, services, and support, we believe that Thrive’s NextGen services – and how we deliver them – truly differentiate us. That’s why the entire Thrive team – not just those working in account management – focuses on delivering the superior client experience. We make it our business to drive and support your success.

We’re able to consistently put the right people in the right places to succeed because of our proven Thrive5 methodology. Thrive5 creates a meaningful IT roadmap that capitalizes upon NextGen technologies and services, focusing on our shared customer – your users. Let’s take a look at that process and what makes it unique to the Thrive experience.

The Thrive5 Methodology

Strategy

Thrive’s account management team sits down with your organization to ensure that big picture issues are identified and included as remediation points alongside IT and security issues. During this first stage of the partnership, our goal is to understand your organization, your employees, your customers, and your goals.

Current Technology Assessment

Thrive’s technicians intensely analyze systems and processes to get a baseline of your current state. Typically a hands-off process for organizational leaders, Thrive will ensure you’re kept up to date and apprised during the process.

Comprehensive Solution Design

In this phase, Thrive’s Customer Experience team acts as a technical liaison between the IT teams and managerial teams to help outline strategy implementation with your larger business model in mind.

This usually includes a discussion around a governance plan for maintaining ease of use and organization of the new software tools to be launched.

They address issues like adding multi-factor authentication (MFA), endpoint detection and response (EDR), security incident and event management (SIEM), and more to your security stack while also ensuring it is deployed in such a way that it does not hinder employees from getting their jobs done.

Implementation and Optimization

This is where strategy comes to life. Throughout implementation, Thrive’s expert team ensures your existing data is safeguarded and that employees are up to date on any new practices put in place to improve security or to make their jobs easier.

At least once per year, Thrive revisits strategy in a Technology Business Review. In that review, we conduct a gap analysis comparing current technology against best practices to ensure your organization has the appropriate infrastructure to meet your business and security needs. The Thrive team then provides a plan to prioritize and remediate any gaps in coverage.

24 x 7 Managed Services

Enhancing your security stack with firewall protection is an effective step in safeguarding your important data. The next most important process is monitoring and maintaining said firewall to close any holes and stop attacks before they happen.

A Team You Can Trust

Thrive’s expert team of information security professionals is constantly identifying and mitigating potential breaches while also bolstering the frontlines to directly stop targeted attacks at our 24x7x365 Security Operations Center. At the same time, this team is always available to ensure your technology services are seamlessly transitioned and properly supported. In addition, we deliver hard-to-find CIO and CISO-level resources to provide high-quality oversight, regulatory, and compliance guidance through our vCISO service.

Enabling You to Take the Reigns

While not every organization needs a fully managed external team of IT professionals, the Thrive Platform enables you to be as hands-on or hands-off as you want. The Thrive Platform provides tailored experiences depending on the individual roles of your employees, streamlining the day-to-day tasks of IT while enabling users with self-service tools. Custom workflows and easy-to-follow instructions make day-to-day tasks a breeze, even automating some of the most common IT help desk ticket items like password resets and new hire onboarding.

It’s Our Business to Stay on Top of Yours

Thrive’s goal is to be your go-to partner for NextGen technology services. We understand that everyone has a choice when it comes to not only the hardware and software you choose to deploy, but also who you choose to help integrate and maintain those systems across your organization.

From discovery all the way through deploying and maintaining your new IT strategy, our account management team makes it their duty to fully understand all the challenges your business faces. As new problems or new initiatives arise, your tailored NextGen strategy is adjusted to support them.

Wherever you are in your IT journey – we’re here to help.

In Part Three of our series, we help organizations identify why IT consulting services are an important part of the return to the office.

Over the past few months, we have seen a significant increase in assessment-related work that helps organizations understand their current state and specific needs, while identifying critical issues and building a strategic roadmap for the future. Much of our assessment work is focused on cyber security, helping businesses maintain a strong security posture in direct response to the increase in breaches and attacks over the last year.

Now, as organizations help employees safely return to the office while bolstering security around hybrid work, it’s worth considering an external, independent review by Thrive’s consulting team to ensure end users can work securely no matter their location. All businesses should have a formal security program which includes a long-term strategic plan that the entire organization understands and can implement appropriately.

“What Is Your Organization’s Cyber Security Posture?”

This is a pivotal question that we pose to every organization. If it can’t be answered immediately, or at minimum in some general context, it is an indicator of risk and that assessment should likely be considered in the near future. When a formal security program has not been developed and is not backed by a recognized security framework, it is difficult to successfully protect the organization from the harmful impacts of cyber threats. In the assessment phase, we use automated tools combined with Thrive’s qualified consultants to understand your current assets, infrastructure, and environment, in an effort to provide specific, prioritized recommendations for the future.

Ongoing validation and review of your cyber security program is critical, particularly as employees return to the office and new cyber threats appear almost daily. If you have adjusted to remote work, was that strategic, or were temporary solutions used without consideration for the long term? As some workers return to the office, it will once again be time to update your security program with specific consideration for mobile devices, and remote management of company assets.

Written policies and procedures are the foundation of every formal security program. This document should be comprehensive and align with the organization’s goals as well as with a recognized security framework. The need for the continual validation and testing of policies and procedures, including disaster recovery and incident response plans, cannot be emphasized enough. This testing leads to predictable recovery and response plans and best positions the organization to minimize the impacts of a security or other business impacting event.

The Benefits of Outsourcing IT

With nearly every business we engage, we often find there are missing key components or applications. The return to the office requires a review of the current technology stack, because no single tool will provide a solution for end users. A comprehensive approach includes multiple tools and processes, from backup and disaster recovery, to endpoint protection and beyond.

Beyond the initial assessment, it’s suggested that additional third-party assessments are performed at least every 36 months in addition to internal security review meetings that should take place at least quarterly. This ensures the environment remains scalable, reliable, and secure. With constant cyber security threats and vulnerabilities, any issue that leaves the door open for a hacker or breach can cause problems.

Having conducted many assessments, it’s clear that outsourcing management of risk-mitigating platforms to an experienced team like Thrive can benefit your organization. We will identify any potential issues and create the necessary roadmap that can be used by board members, CIOs, CTOs, and other members of the IT team.

Whether it’s a short or long-term IT project, our experts will ensure all of your strategic objectives are met, addressing gaps and providing comprehensive solutions and consultative services based on your needs. Get in touch with Thrive to learn more about our IT consulting services!

You hear about malicious websites leading to big problems. You may have even visited one, and you knew (immediately or eventually) that something was wrong. Hopefully, by then, you closed the tab or browser before things got bad.

So, how can you tell if a website is malicious?

Well, the bad guys are certainly making it challenging. Whether it’s an email, file, or website, malicious content is becoming more and more genuine-looking.

Here are three things to keep in mind when trying to determine if a website is malicious:

1. Odd URL

Is there something fishy about that web address? Are there slight variations (or even outright misspellings) of popular websites and brands? Is the URL very long, with weird words that have no relation to the website’s subject? If so, play it safe and back off.

2. No HTTPS

If a website is asking for sensitive information AND you don’t see HTTPS, then something is probably wrong. Most sites now use encryption, so seeing HTTPS in the address bar doesn’t necessarily mean a website is safe, because the bad guys are actually using it for malicious sites.

3. Annoying downloads and alerts

If you visit a site and are suddenly bombarded with prompts to download things, something is not right. These can be links to download bogus updates to your system, or a fake warning that you have a virus on your computer. You could even have a message saying you’ve won a fabulous prize. Don’t click on anything.

The Golden Rule of staying safe online is “Think Before You Click.” It’s an easy thing to do. And if you combine that healthy habit with the above tips, you’re bound to be safer when traveling along the (mostly) wonderful World Wide Web.

Doing online shopping? Check out these three simple-to-follow steps to start safe while shopping online.

Software end of life.

It’s not something anyone really wants to think about. Especially time-strapped business owners and leaders.

But end of life is an important part of the product lifecycle. After all, a company can’t support a product forever, when new-and-improved versions are perpetually on the horizon. No new features will be added to end-of-life products, and official support will cease, allowing companies to focus on the newer offerings.

Continuing to use something that is no longer supported is risky, as vulnerabilities will no longer be patched. Sub-optimal performance and lack of compatibility are also expected consequences.

To meet performance expectations, Microsoft are updating the supported versions of Outlook for Windows that can connect to Microsoft 365 services.

Effective November 1, 2021, the following versions of Outlook for Windows, as part of Office and Microsoft 365 Apps, will not be able to connect with Office 365 and Microsoft 365 services.

We recommend that all users upgrade to the supported versions of Office and Microsoft 365 Apps.

The industry-recognized Thrive team is ready to assist you through the transition. As a longtime Microsoft partner, we have the experience to help you upgrade as smoothly as possible.

Your account rep will be a single point of contact with our team. No need to speak “Geek” – your rep will help you understand every facet of the upgrade. Our 24/7 help desk can also assist during and after the process.

Contact us today for an Office 365 consultation.

Chances are, you’ve heard about Ransomware.

It’s been a menace to businesses the world over. Companies and organizations large and small have been affected.

The Thrive team has shared tips on staying safe from Ransomware over the years through our blog and social media channels. And, of course, we’ve helped our customers fight Ransomware on the front lines, and even recover their data after a ransomware attack.

There’s no question cyber attacks are continually on the rise. Even Warren Buffet chimed in, naming cyber threats the biggest problem with mankind.

The U.S. Government has certainly taken notice of Ransomware and other cyber threats. President Biden signed an executive order for strengthening the nation’s cybersecurity.

Anne Neuberger, deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technology, stated that no company is safe from the threats.

Location and size of business have no bearing on whether you’ll be targeted.

Now, it is true larger organizations may have more valuable data – but their defenses are usually more robust. Smaller companies may not have the most attractive data or the biggest budget for paying for a ransom, but they may not have the strongest cybersecurity.

Bottom line: make cybersecurity and threat awareness a priority.

Stopping Ransomware with a new ransomware awareness resource

Stop Ransomware is an official website from the United States government that provides resources, news, and alerts concerning cybersecurity and Ransomware. There are even links for reporting ransomware incidents.

So, what is exactly is Ransomware?

From the Stop Ransomware website:

“Ransomware is a form of malware designed to encrypt files on a device, rendering any files and the systems that rely on them unusable. Malicious actors then demand ransom in exchange for decryption. StopRansomware.gov is the U.S. Government’s official one-stop location for resources to tackle Ransomware more effectively.”

Visit Stop Ransomware now at https://www.cisa.gov/stopransomware.

3 tips to keep safe from Ransomware

The Stop Ransomware website has plenty of tips and information to help you keep safe from Ransomware.

Here are three top tips to keep in mind:

1. Practice good cyber hygiene
Being vigilant and careful when online and in your inbox is a good foundation for keeping safe from Ransomware. Avoid risky emails and attachments, and don’t visit risky websites. Stay informed of the latest threats – and keep your staff in the loop, too! Human error can certainly be costly.

2. Keep it all patch
When your applications are updated, oftentimes, vulnerabilities are patched. This is the same for your operating systems. Thus, regular maintenance and updates are essential to your network and cybersecurity efforts.

3. Back it up!
Data backups are the ultimate last line in your network defenses. When all else fails, a good data backup can get you back to business. But, not all backups are the same. Off-site replication and image-based backups are two important considerations. Managed backups are also available.

Cybersecurity – it’s a big topic these days. Has been. And it’s not going to fade any time soon.

Cybercrime is rampant. You hear about it in the news. You may have a colleague or client who has been affected by it. You yourself may have been hit by a cyber attack.

Cybersecurity Awareness Month, which was started in October 2004, is an annual month dedicated to spreading awareness of cybercrime and cybersecurity. Knowing about the threats online and in your inbox can give you an advantage. Knowledge is certainly powerful.

Cybersecurity Awareness Month is dedicated to ensuring everyone has this knowledge and the appropriate safety resources.

To kick the month off right, check out some potent ways to keep safe.

5 easy-to-follow tips for keeping your network and data safe

Who says powerful ways to keep your network secure have to be hard? Here are easy things to keep in mind when online or in your inbox.

1. Pay close attention to URLs and email addresses.

Scam addresses may look legitimate, but a closer look can reveal slight differences. A word may be misspelled or have a minor variation.

2. Watch out for texts and calls.

Scammers don’t just use email and malicious sites. They will send scam texts and call you, too. Always be vigilant, no matter what device you’re using.

3. Be careful with attachments.

Be very careful about email attachments, especially when it comes via an email that’s unsolicited. If you’re concerned about the contents, reach out to the sender via a new email to a confirmed address. You can also call directly.

4. Don’t use outdated and unsupported software

Ensure all software is patched and up-to-date. Patch management and automatic updates can help keep you secure.

5. Don’t make rash decisions.

This is one of the easiest tips to follow. You’ve probably noticed that a lot of malicious emails are threatening (you’re account will be deactivated unless…) or they want you to think you’ve won something fabulous (you’re the lucky winner of an iPad). Before clicking on that hyperlink, take a moment to think through things.

In this day and age, it’s more important than ever to ensure employees can access company resources in a timely manner. Meanwhile, businesses have a duty to protect every access point. By implementing Multi-Factor Authentication, organizations can put an authentication solution in place that only provides access to those who can verify their credentials.

If your organization is not currently using MFA, it’s time to consider the benefits of going beyond just a username and password.

Implementing Multi-Factor Authentication

With more employees than ever before working from home, increasingly unique issues are presenting themselves to IT teams everywhere. More applications and devices are in use, and the visibility into potential threats isn’t always clear, particularly when the end user may be on an unsecured home network.

When MFA is in place, even if an attacker gains access to credentials, they are unable to go any further without verification. Outdated hardware and manual authentication leaves employees frustrated and confused. Implementing MFA is easy, because users typically already have access to the tools needed to secure the access point.

Entering a username and password for an application or certain resource was, at one time, good enough. Now, with users logging in from anywhere, MFA can add that needed layer of extra security. Often when utilizing MFA, the username and password must be joined by a security code sent to a phone or e-mail address, or perhaps a fingerprint or scan of facial features. By verifying the user before providing access, organizations don’t have to rely solely on passwords, which can be susceptible to phishing, social engineering, and other related attacks.

Adding on MFA helps to protect access points, be it a VPN, SaaS app such as Office 365 or Salesforce, or other important business resource. There are even different MFA methods that can be implemented across the organization.

MFA: Finding the Best Fit for Your Organization 

Multi-factor authentication provides flexibility for employees, whether in the office or working remotely.

With two-factor authentication (2FA), a password is combined with another step, such as a passcode or a fingerprint swipe. While 2FA is a great starting place for many organizations, it can be limited; it may not fill the needs of users in different locations while taking into account the various personal devices in use.

Contextual authentication is another form of MFA. It takes into account various factors such as IP address, time of day, location, and device. For IT teams, it provides a better idea of log-ins, when they occur, and why they occur, so stronger MFA requirements can be put in place when needed. This kind of authentication learns patterns over time, so when a suspicious log-in is detected, an employee must authenticate to gain access.

There’s even the possibility of password-free authentication. At least two factors of authentication are required, but no password is entered. For instance, a passcode and a fingerprint is required for log-in. It’s still MFA, but makes things easier for the end user; they don’t have to remember a password.

From applications to devices to workstations, enabling MFA allows you to secure any log-in from anywhere. Thrive will help design MFA solutions that work for your needs, so the entire organization benefits.