Author Archives: Sydney Pujadas

Being vigilant about your cybersecurity posture is more important than ever. With the increased ease of cyber attacks, such as phishing schemes, ransomware, and data breaches, businesses need to protect their digital assets and have a plan in place should a breach occur. The rise in cyber attacks has led businesses to tap into their cyber insurance policies or seek out coverage for the first time. But the increase in potential payouts has led to stricter cyber insurance requirements for companies to meet. Lack of compliance could lead to being denied a policy, or being denied benefits when already insured.

What is Cyber Insurance?

Cyber insurance, also known as cyber liability insurance, is a specialty insurance that aims to cover the financial losses that organizations have as a result of ransomware attacks, data breaches, and other cyber incidents. Having cyber insurance can lessen the financial impact of a breach, which costs organizations an average of US$4.35 million per breach, according to IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach report. Due to the rise in payouts from security breaches, insurers have increased their cybersecurity requirements for companies before they can get coverage. Having cyber insurance can protect organizations with the following coverage:

• Financial loss due to business disruption
• Incident response, system repairs, forensic investigations and other services after an attack
• Legal expenses
• Cost of notifying customers of hacks where personally identifiable information (PII) has been compromised
• Ransom payments
• Public Relations to deal with reputational management post-breach

How Businesses Can Meet Cyber Insurance Requirements

There are many ways in which companies can improve their cybersecurity posture and meet more rigorous insurance requirements at the same time. Having a solid IT framework can help prevent attacks before they happen, and also make your organization a low risk insurance candidate.

For companies trying to match up to potential cyber insurance requirements, Thrive recommends following the CIS 18 Critical Security Controls which provides a roadmap for establishing basic cyber hygiene and then the steps to mature your approach. Of course, you will also want to understand the specific needs of your insurer and ensure you’re meeting those, but the CIS controls are a great starting point for insurance as well as complying with other regulations and standards as part of a cybersecurity compliance program.

To first understand your cybersecurity posture, conducting a cybersecurity risk assessment can help you understand potential gaps and weaknesses. A comprehensive risk assessment can also help prioritize areas that need immediate attention and align your security measures with the specific risks your business faces.

Other ways to improve your cybersecurity posture include:

• Patch Management and Vulnerability Remediation
• Advanced Threat Detection and Response
• Data Encryption and Secure Communication
• Employee Training and Awareness
• Compliance with Industry Standards
• Regular Data Backups

How Thrive Can Help

Working with a managed service provider, like Thrive, provides organizations with the specialized knowledge and tools needed to enhance their cybersecurity program and meet insurance requirements.

Thrive provides comprehensive, 24x7x365 services to help get your organization’s cybersecurity stack prepared for any attacks or breaches that may try to compromise your systems. Thrive offers Managed Detection and Response (MDR) services that aim to proactively detect and mitigate threats in real time. Additionally, Thrive provides patching and vulnerability management services to ensure that your systems are up-to-date and best protected.

Strengthening your cybersecurity program is a multifaceted process that requires a combination of technical controls, employee training, and compliance with industry standards. By implementing these best practices, businesses can not only reduce their risk of cyber incidents but also meet the increasingly stringent requirements set by cyber insurance providers. In today’s threat landscape, a proactive approach to cybersecurity is essential for safeguarding your business and ensuring that you are fully covered in the event of an incident.

Contact Thrive today to learn more about how an MSP can help you boost your security posture and get you cyber insurance ready.

Midsize enterprises (MSEs) face a unique set of challenges in maintaining a robust cybersecurity posture. One of the most pressing issues is the lack of cybersecurity full-time equivalents (FTE). This shortage can leave MSEs vulnerable to cyber threats, as they often lack the resources to hire and retain a full-fledged internal cybersecurity team. The ideal team consists of members across three different role types:

• CIO/CISO
• Infrastructure and Operations
• MSSP/MDR/EDR

According to the Gartner report, How Midsize Enterprise CIOs Create an Effective Cybersecurity Operations Strategy, Managed Service Providers (MSPs) offer a strategic solution to this problem by providing outsourced IT professionals with specialized expertise, ensuring that MSEs can protect their IT infrastructure effectively.

The Cybersecurity Challenge for MSEs

MSEs often operate with constrained budgets and limited staff, making it difficult to allocate sufficient resources to cybersecurity. The demand for skilled cybersecurity professionals far exceeds the supply, driving up salaries and making it even harder for MSEs to compete with larger organizations for top talent.

47% of MSE CIOs and the most senior IT leaders use external managed services to handle skills gaps in both cyber and information security -2023 Gartner MSE Baseline survey

A small internal IT team without satisfactory support and resources can lead organizations to have many business-halting cybersecurity issues, such as:

• Lack of security measures across the organization, such as access controls, threat detection, and multi-factor authentication (MFA) setups
• Increased vulnerabilities due to lack of scheduled assessments regular updates, like OS and 3rd-party application patching
• Risk of not meeting regulatory requirements, which are constantly changing and require an agile approach to cybersecurity

How Managed Service Providers Bridge the Gap

Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and Managed Detection & Response (MDR) can offer a more comprehensive solution to these security challenges by providing outsourced IT professionals who bring specialized cybersecurity expertise to the table, across all industries. According to Gartner, by 2026, 70% of midsize enterprises’ security portfolios will be outsourced, up from the 40% of outsourced security portfolios today. Here’s how MSPs can help MSEs maintain a robust IT stack:

• Access to Expertise: MSPs allow access to cybersecurity experts who stay up-to-date with the latest threats and security technologies. Partnering with an MSP allows MSEs to tap into a wealth of knowledge without the overhead costs associated with hiring full-time staff.
• 24x7x365 Monitoring and Support: MSPs offer round-the-clock monitoring and support, ensuring that any suspicious activity is detected and addressed promptly, so that businesses can operate as usual. 24x7x365 vigilance is critical in mitigating the impact of potential breaches.
• Scalable Solutions: As MSEs grow their businesses, their cybersecurity needs may evolve. MSPs provide scalable solutions that can be tailored to meet changing requirements and can adapt to the needs of their clients.
• Regulatory Compliance: MSPs have extensive experience in helping businesses comply with industry regulations. They can assist in implementing the necessary controls and documentation required to meet compliance standards, reducing the risk of costly penalties and reputational damage.
• Cost-Effective: Hiring a full-time cybersecurity team can be expensive for MSEs. MSPs offer a cost-effective alternative by providing access to top-tier cybersecurity talent on a subscription basis. This allows MSEs to benefit from expert services without the financial burden of maintaining an in-house team.

How Thrive Can Help

Hiring an MSP, like Thrive, can be the answer for many MSEs looking to build out their IT infrastructure, without having to hire FTEs. Unlike security vendors that only focus on MDR, Thrive can provide companies with IT outsourcing that taps into experts in all three roles: CIO/CISO; Infrastructure and Operations; and MSSP/MDR/EDR. With Thrive, MSEs have access to first-in-class solutions that will allow them to feel confident in their security framework so they can focus on meeting their business goals. With Thrive, organizations have access to:

• vCISO: Thrive’s virtual CISO offering aims to design, develop, and maintain a customized Information Security Program that complements your business’s overall strategy and risk tolerance
• Infrastructure and Operations: Thrive works with you to tailor a cybersecurity and cloud infrastructure plan to help meet your business goals. Thrive’s team of experts work round the clock to help bolster your IT operations with solutions, such as vulnerability management.
• Managed Detection and Response (MDR): Thrive’s MDR solution continuously monitors your network, endpoints, and other critical assets for signs of suspicious activity or security breaches
• Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR): Thrive’s 24x7x365 support from our Security Operations Center (SOC), ensures that after the EDR solution identifies gaps in your IT stack, our experts move in to remedy the issues, ensuring business continuity

Contact Thrive today to learn more about how our managed IT services can help your organization better round out your IT stack.

A smart cybersecurity stack is built on layers. By providing multiple checkpoints in milliseconds, these layered solutions are critical to protecting your employees from malicious cybercriminals. A new security report from DNSFilter shows how harmful web content can cause unnecessary disruptions to your organization, and put your servers, endpoints, and sensitive data, at risk. Thrive’s DNS web filtering service, powered by DNSFilter, adds a strong outer layer to our customers’ cybersecurity stack. It enables you to block inappropriate content from reaching your employees’ computers and prevent any unwanted risk from creeping in.

The average user is likely to encounter 5 malicious queries per day—or 1,825 every year.

According to the DNSFilter 2024 Annual Security Report, users access roughly 5,000 DNS queries per day and for every ~1,000 queries more than one of them is likely to be malicious.

The cybersecurity landscape is constantly changing, with threats increasing every day. The Annual Security Report also found that:

• Malware traffic is up 40% and growing
• Phishing traffic increased by 106%
• Cryptojacking is up over 300% in 2023
• Fake cryptocurrency & NFT scams are still rampant

What Is DNS Filtering?

DNS filtering is a web filtering solution that uses a domain name system to block and filter malicious websites and content from reaching your company-managed networks. This includes any harmful or inappropriate web content on the internet. Using DNS filtering as part of your security defense can help ensure that your company and employee’s data remains secure and gives you control over what your employees are able to access online. With over 12 million threats blocked daily, DNSFilter is a proven web monitoring and filtering solution that is the ideal fit for Thrive customers.

What Is the Domain Name System?

A Domain Name System (DNS) matches up domain names, such as thrivenextgen.com, to a series of IP addresses, allowing those IP addresses to access the domain. No web content is able to load without the user’s IP address being checked first. Once scanned and approved, the web content will load as normal.

How Does DNS Filtering Protect My Organization?

By preemptively scanning and blocking any website with potentially malicious or harmful content from being accessed by users in your network, DNS filtering takes the guesswork out of managing site access through its zero-trust approach.

With DNS filtering, your organization can:

• Stop potential cyber threats in its tracks before it reaches your network
• Insights into what types of sites or cyber threats may try to impact your network
• Overall increased work productivity due to blocked time-wasting websites
• Reporting on what sites and applications your employees are visiting the most
• Maintain CMMC and other compliance standards for your industry

How Thrive Can Help

Today more than ever, it’s important to monitor the web interactions made on your network to keep it safe. Thrive’s Secure DNS Service utilizes DNSFilter, so you can feel confident and in control of your network. Secure DNS is available as part of Thrive’s cybersecurity bundle, which leverages best-in-class technologies to deliver a layered end-user security solution that helps prevent ransomware, data exfiltration, and social engineering attacks. Contact Thrive today to learn more about how we can optimize your web filtering services with DNS Filter.

CHECK OUT OUR ON-DEMAND WEBINAR “DNS Sees it First! Why DNS Filtering is Critical to Your Cybersecurity Defense” HERE!

Build a Patch Management Outsourcing Plan to Protect Your Business

Patching directly remediates software vulnerabilities, ensuring your IT systems remain secure. Regular patching, usually on a monthly cycle, is crucial for preventing unwanted cybersecurity breaches.

Having a Patching and Vulnerability Management Plan in place will put you ahead of cyber criminals and better safeguard your organization’s IT stack. With Thrive’s Patching and Vulnerability Management Services Guide, you can feel confident that your organization is in great hands.

Just a year ago, the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted rules requiring registrants to provide annual enhanced and standardized disclosures regarding “cybersecurity risk management, strategy, governance, and incidents.” This ruling aims to bring greater transparency and accountability to how public companies handle cybersecurity threats, which have become increasingly sophisticated and prevalent. The consistency and transparency dictated by this ruling benefit investors, the company itself, and the greater market connecting them.

As we are coming up on the ruling’s first anniversary, it’s important to reflect on its impact throughout cybersecurity and governance.

The Impact of the SEC Cybersecurity Disclosure Rules

The SEC’s transparency ruling, effective July 26, 2023, marked a significant shift in the regulatory landscape for public companies. The rules mandate that registrants must have a comprehensive understanding of their position within the threat landscape. Specifically, companies are required to manage their cybersecurity risk through well-defined policies and procedures that identify and address cybersecurity threats. They must also develop and implement a cybersecurity strategy that integrates cybersecurity considerations into their overall business strategy, financial planning, and capital allocation.

Governance is a top priority under this ruling, as companies must disclose information about their board’s oversight of cybersecurity risk, including the expertise of their board members and their roles in managing these risks. Finally, companies are required to provide a timely and accurate disclosure of any cybersecurity incidents, detailing their impact on the company’s operations and financial performance.

Over the past year, these requirements have prompted companies to re-evaluate and enhance their cybersecurity frameworks, ensuring that they are robust, effective, compliant, and transparent to stakeholders.

The Challenges of the Ruling

While the SEC’s ruling is a significant step forward in protecting investors and the broader market from cyber risks, compliance and continuous transparency can be challenging due to the many moving parts involved. Registrants must maintain ongoing vigilance, continuously monitoring and updating their cybersecurity practices to stay ahead of evolving threats.

How Thrive Helps Businesses Stay Compliant Under SEC Demands

At Thrive, we understand the intricacies of regulatory compliance under the demands of the SEC. Our mission is to empower businesses to excel in these conditions. With Thrive by your side, you will have 24x7x365 access to:

• Managed Cybersecurity Solutions: Our comprehensive cybersecurity suite is an all-encompassing set of solutions designed to help businesses identify vulnerabilities and swiftly implement effective risk management strategies.
• Incident Response and Reporting: In the event of a cybersecurity incident, Thrive provides Incident Response and Remediation Services to mitigate damage and support recovery in the face of unexpected disasters, enabling you to promptly disclose the incident and ensure that you meet regulatory requirements while maintaining stakeholder trust.
• Consulting Services: It’s important to have the team and expertise in place to stay in line with extensive regulations. Thrive addresses any gaps that may exist in your organization by providing a variety of expert professional and consultative services. Long story short, Thrive has your back.
• Compliance Regulation: Our goal is to help you meet the stringent requirements set forth by the SEC while ensuring that your risk management framework is both comprehensive and compliant.

Looking Ahead

As we look back on the first year of the SEC’s cybersecurity disclosure rules, it’s clear that public companies are now made more accountable for their cybersecurity practices and are required to be transparent about their efforts to protect themselves and their stakeholders.

At Thrive, we are committed to helping businesses navigate this new chapter of cybersecurity regulations. Our comprehensive suite of managed services ensure that your organization will comply with the SEC’s requirements while also building a resilient and secure foundation for the future.

Let Thrive be your partner in cybersecurity excellence. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help your business succeed in the face of the SEC’s evolving regulations.

As you may remember from our first blog post on strengthening financial IT resilience, the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) was enacted on January 16, 2023, and will be enforced soon, with supervision starting January 17, 2025.

“That’s a big step towards ensuring that there is resilience in the system. It’s not about crimes, it’s about resilience,”said José Manuel Campa, Chairperson of the European Banking Authority, one of three EU institutions behind DORA. The DORA regulation’s goal is to ensure the IT resilience and security of any financial entity (FE) in Europe and their Information Communications and Technology (ICT) providers, such as banks, crypto, insurance, and financial firms, even during severe operational impacts like denial of service (DDoS) cyber attacks and ransomware.

Today, a big challenge for the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) in the EU is to put together their own team for overseeing DORA.

On April 10, 2024, the ESAs launched their first recruitments to set up a DORA joint oversight team. This announcement came as part of the establishment of a fully integrated team within the 3 ESAs to carry out the oversight of critical third-party providers (CTPPs) required by DORA.

The joint oversight team includes a Director, Legal Experts and ICT Risk Experts. The EU has set up numerous consultations with FEs in Europe and conducted dry runs with a list of financial markets participants, such as very well-known banks in each EU member state and outside entities that do business in the EU. Much like GDPR’s scope, DORA is not limited to those based in the EU but applies to any companies working with EU FEs.

As DORA nears its enforcement date, the focus has been on the third-party risk management process and expectations. The feedback is contained in very detailed spreadsheet entries:

• Responses to public consultations on DORA.xlsx
• Responses to public consultations on DORA 1st batch.xlsx 
• ESAs published second batch of policy products under DORA | European Banking Authority

It is worth noting that the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) in the UK also has operational resilience regulations coming into force in March 2025, and NIS2 requirements come into effect for all businesses in October 2024. In the US, the SEC is also mandating rules that focus on technology management and compliance expectations, especially around incident management and the definitions of severity, response and more. DORA also focuses on these points – for example, DORA introduces consistent requirements for FEs on management, classification, and reporting of ICT-related incidents.

DORA also details primary and secondary criteria for these incidents, and when they should be considered major incidents, with suitable thresholds. These include the percentage of FE clients impacted and the associated financial value of the impact. If they cannot be easily determined, estimates based on available data are acceptable.

Duration of the event (longer than 24 hours) and ICT service downtime (more than 2 hours) is another factor in classifying an incident as a major event.

One of the more challenging requirements, is that DORA states that all FEs are required to maintain and update a Register of Information (ROI) in relation to all contractual arrangements on the use of ICT services provided by ICT Third-Party Service Providers (ICT TPPs).

This is a complex document as shown from EU documentation below. Not least because most contracts may need to be re-written to accommodate DORA requirements, not least numbering each service for identification purposes, and highlight any critical service therein.

In May 2024, the EU organised a voluntary exercise for the collection of the registers of information (see above) of contractual arrangements on the use of ICT third-party service providers by the financial entities. Under DORA and starting from 2025, financial entities will have to maintain registers of information regarding their use of ICT third-party providers. In this dry run exercise, this information was collected from financial entities through their competent authorities, as preparation for the implementation and reporting of registers of information under DORA.

DORA Title II provides further harmonisation of ICT risk management tools, methods, processes and policies, as shown below. This categorization and harmonisation is aligned with ISO 27001 as we shall examine in part 3, when we look at various ways to achieve DORA compliance.

DORA Title II: Further harmonisation of ICT risk management tools, methods, processes and policies (Article 15)

The most recent big date in the DORA calendar was July 17, 2024. It is when the EU released its latest analysis of expectations and obligations for DORA, in terms of the EU systemic cyber incident coordination framework (EU-SCICF), kickstarting the process of how cyber incidents should be mitigated, with relevant DORA requirements met and reasonably achieved.

The EU’s ESAs have also recently been processing the most recent public consultation, with a view to determining further Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS), not all of which are information technology related, but technical in a business sense. Many are extensions of existing regulatory technical details, and as such, have built on lessons learned from earlier legislation.

Looking to the Future

The guidelines have already been adopted by the Boards of Supervisors of the three ESAs. The final draft technical standards have been submitted to the European Commission, which will now start working on their review with the objective to adopt these policy products in the coming months.
Many lessons have been learnt and challenges raised, where the EU believes that requirements are reasonable, but the industry may have other views, based on the cost of doing business to meet such requirements, and other considerations. It is not inconceivable that some FEs or ICT third parties will look to reduce or cease business in the EU, if the DORA requirements are overly onerous, as happened for previous regulatory legislation, for example, following the 2008 banking crisis.

In simpler terms, DORA ensures that financial institutions and technology partners are well-prepared to effectively handle disruptions and cyber risks.

It’s all about making sure our FEs stay strong and resilient!

Thrive has a crucial role in bolstering our client’s operational resilience through our own operationally resilient platform and business, reducing dependency on single systems, teams, or procedures, and enhancing risk management in the financial sector in alignment with DORA’s objectives. Contact Thrive today to learn more about how we can further support your organisation’s DORA compliance requirements.

As businesses grow and technology continues to make advancements, managing your IT stack can become convoluted and lead to overlap or blind spots. Maximizing the efficiency of your cybersecurity tools may require you to reevaluate the software solutions you have, prioritize those with the most impact on your security posture, and consolidate your systems where it makes sense. Simplifying your IT stack can be a helpful strategy for increasing business agility and reducing unnecessary costs. A streamlined cybersecurity system minimizes redundancy, reducing the likelihood of errors while also making it easier to implement across your organization.

“The average organization works with 10 to 15 security vendors and 60 to 70 security tools”

Know Your Security Goals

The first step in consolidating your IT stack is understanding what your security goals are as an organization. Determining which aspects of your cybersecurity posture need to be prioritized and which may be redundant or outdated can help your organization formulate a game plan for consolidation.

There are several factors you need to consider when determining your security program goals. Organizations need to consider their business risks and compliance requirements to select must-have security controls. However, these controls need to be implemented with the lowest total cost of ownership by weighing different metrics, such as cost of tools used, time dedicated towards maintenance, and your team’s ability to keep up with critical IT functions like identifying and managing data breaches. Another way you can determine what aspects of your IT stack you should prioritize is by conducting a cybersecurity risk assessment, which will give you a better understanding of your IT vulnerabilities and potential gaps in your security controls.

Mindful Security Consolidation

Consolidating your organization’s IT stack may seem contradictory to the growing corporate budgets towards cybersecurity. In fact, “CIOs expect [cybersecurity budgets] to grow: 80% of respondents to the 2024 Gartner CIO and Technology Executive Survey said their funding for cybersecurity will increase in 2024 compared to 2023”. A larger budget doesn’t mean that your IT stack should necessarily grow to use more and more tools. Having a meaningful consolidation plan will help better streamline your business processes while achieving your security goals.

“Consolidation projects should aim to improve risk posture for the organization, by simplifying it”

Taking a look at what vendors and tools your organization currently uses and deciding which vendors are the best for your security strategy and if there are any products they offer that address your security needs that you can consolidate from other less strategic vendors can help streamline your business processes. Additionally, identifying your organization’s “must-have” products can help you determine which platforms you should be allocating your cybersecurity budget towards.

Evaluate and Plan

Evaluating your IT stack, consolidating components, and planning ahead are critical steps for maintaining a competitive edge. By assessing your current IT infrastructure, you can identify inefficiencies and areas for improvement. Consolidating tools and platforms not only streamlines operations but also enhances security and can reduce costs. Planning ahead can ensure that your cybersecurity program remains agile and capable of adapting to future advancements, positioning your organization to leverage new technologies and innovations effectively. Working with a managed service provider, like Thrive can help you evaluate and consolidate your infrastructure, while still achieving your business goals.

To learn more about a framework for cybersecurity consolidation, read the Gartner report, Simplify Cybersecurity With a Platform Consolidation Framework.

Contact Thrive today to learn more about how you can streamline your security plan and stay ahead.

For those of us with enough gray hair to remember back that far, it is reasonable to compare the explosive growth of Web1.0 and the proliferation of the Internet in the 1990s, to that witnessed presently in cybersecurity. In both eras, stressed-out, harried leaders and their teams were asked to perform miracle after miracle, to learn and deliver at unprecedented, unsustainable rates, and to always do so without error and all too often without a clear vision or plan. Sadly, we failed to learn from that past and now seem condemned to repeat it, this time in the context of information security.

Things are vastly more complicated today. Thanks to speed-of-light news cycles carrying a daily deluge of ransomware horrors and stories about massive information security breaches, we have a convergence of justified concern and irrational hype. The result is a contagion that infects boardrooms and C-suites, and ultimately trickles down to already overworked and understaffed information security or technology organizations who are directed to defend against the raging, malevolent cybercriminal hoards at the gates. That unfortunately has become business as usual in many organizations.

Information security leadership’s caffeine and adrenaline-addled responses often lack adequate forethought or planning, all in an attempt to satisfy bosses, customers, and frankly, to just silence the din. In the process, nerves are further frazzled, relationships are tested and when all is said and done, the organization is only marginally more secure than before the bedlam ensued. It is here that the lesson of the “Tortoise and The Hare” can be applied.

Remember Aesop’s fable? The one where the rabbit mocked the turtle for being so slow and challenged him to a footrace. Off the rabbit charged to a quick lead and assured victory, only to pause for a nap while the turtle trundled along slowly and methodically behind him, ultimately passing the napping hare and winning the race. The moral of the story being that the race is not always to the swift. In the context of information security, it is during the most stressful scenarios that an effective leader is the one who wisely “goes slow to go fast.”

This is not an easy skill to develop and often is counter to our instincts to be ultra-responsive to minimize damage, move projects along, and be accommodating to bosses, customers, and stakeholders. That said, the notion that “speed wins” in the realm of cybersecurity, is a false premise. The benefits of an intelligently paced and reasonable approach to information security and incidents are numerous:

• Smarter, better-designed solutions to complex problems
• Reduced costs
• Lower likelihood of mistakes
• Increased team morale and engagement
• More satisfied stakeholders

The information security threats our organizations face are real, as are the losses in revenue and reputation that can accompany them. So, too are the pressures organizations face from stakeholders to respond aggressively, perhaps even hyperactively, to new security technology, projects, or threats that present themselves. Truthfully, there may be situations – likely involving a crisis, where an immediate, gut instinct response may be warranted and the proper course of action, but running an information security program or team effectively in the long term, requires a more sustainable and reasoned approach.

Even during a crisis, taking a few moments to gather the facts, bring together the right people, and methodically and unemotionally assess and respond to the situation, is the responsible and smarter course of action.It is at these moments that organizations must push back on those yelling the loudest and resist the urge to respond impulsively. Take that deep breath, filter through the “facts” and invest in at least a modicum of planning before responding to business-as-usual security requests and projects or incidents.

Replace speed-of-light, with speed-of-right.

By responding too quickly, your organization may play right into the hands of cybercriminals who excel at exploiting human nature and security professionals’ innate eagerness to help and artificially elevating the sense of urgency with which organizations feel compelled to respond. In all things information security, it is imperative that we go slow to go fast.

Having a cybersecurity plan in place can help mitigate the panic-fueled impulses your team may get when disaster strikes. Working with a managed services provider, like Thrive, to evaluate your current IT stack and identify potential weak points, can help you bolster your cybersecurity posture. This will help reduce your organization’s downtime and increase its productivity due to mitigated interruptions. Contact Thrive today to learn more about how you can plan ahead and win the race!

Thrive’s Microsoft 365 Learning and Adoption service, can help you optimize your organization’s investment in Microsoft 365. Thrive’s Managed Microsoft 365 Platform Services offers a holistic approach to implementing and adopting Microsoft 365 technologies by combining strategy, development, support, and now, end-user Learning and Adoption services so you can realize the maximum investment in your subscriptions.

Learning and Adoption services include the following:

• Advisory service to assist with developing an adoption plan for your organization
• A Learning Management System (LMS) to serve as the platform to drive adoption in your organization
• Analytics pulled directly from the Microsoft 365 Graph about feature usage and adoption metrics
• Live instructor-led trainings, Q&A sessions, webinars, and recorded short-form content delivered directly to your end-users
• “Right in time” content for when users need help in the moment

Empower Your Microsoft 365 End-Users

Embracing new technology is critical for organizational success. By adopting technology like Microsoft 365, organizations can better streamline their operations, enhance efficiency, and stay competitive in their industry.

But with any user-based solution like Microsoft 365, ensuring successful end-user learning and adoption is crucial for optimizing and driving awareness of critical software features. Accelerating and tracking the adoption of new technologies in your organization will allow for higher productivity and the ability to get new employees started off on the right foot. Having cloud-based learning management in place allows your organization to manage your corporate learning and be able to roll out new technology and monitor its adoption all from one platform.

Learning Management System Highlights

Like with any learning technology, an LMS is only as effective as the content it provides to its end-users and how it’s delivered to them. When implemented properly, there are many benefits to using a modern LMS platform like Thrive’s to create the ideal learning experience:

• Short courses to keep user attention
• Live-moderated webinars
• Automated communications
• Ability to upload and customize content
• LMS application for Microsoft Teams

No matter what industry your organization is in, driving Microsoft 365 adoption through Thrive’s Learning and Adoption service can improve your business’s processes and productivity, and ultimately help achieve your business goals. Utilizing the Thrive’s LMS and Learning and Adoption services allows you to:

• Develop Tailored Content: You can create different skill paths that relate directly to each end-user and the way they work
• Provide Proactive Communication: You can write and schedule automated messages that simplify and scale communications across your organization
• Create Customized Experiences: You have the ability to create different interactive experiences, such as integrated user polls, executive sponsor videos, and more!
• Analyze Graph Data Integration: You can see real-time data reporting on the LMS platform via integration with the Microsoft Graph API
• Content Updates: You can use evergreen content that reflects the latest updates from Microsoft

Contact Thrive today to learn more about how we can provide consulting and best practices around utilizing Learning and Adoption services and improve adoption of Microsoft 365 technology in your organization.

Staying current with the latest technology trends and industry regulations requires your organization to remain flexible and agile to changes. Ensuring that your organization’s cybersecurity is in good standing can help mitigate potential threats and reduce risk while remaining in compliance with regulatory bodies. Being prepared can also help your business stay on top of its goals and allow for better scalability and increased performance. Knowing where there are gaps in your IT stack can also help you make the right decision on partnering with a managed service provider to bolster your security posture.

When determining the current state of your organization’s technology infrastructure and security posture, you’ll want to look at the following cybersecurity metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs):

• How slow is your network? Slow performance can include frequent crashes, unresponsive or lagging software, long loading times, slow data processing, or slow data transferring times. If you’ve flagged any of these as an issue, you’re likely experiencing decreased productivity and frustration from employees – and ultimately – your customers.
• How old is your hardware? Legacy servers, workstations, and networking equipment can be incredibly inviting to hackers, making your business more vulnerable to data breaches. Determining how often the devices on your network are updated can help you figure out the percentage of devices that are compliant. If hardware or software is no longer supported, it’s time to look for new options.
• How quickly are you deploying patches? Studies have found high percentages of data breaches, and ransomware stem from exploits of known but unpatched vulnerabilities. Make sure you are deploying the latest updates and patches needed to stay in compliance and stay protected. If the average company takes around 3 months to patch a critical vulnerability, being more responsive makes you less of a target.
• Are there unidentified devices on your internal network? Any unidentified devices, such as Internet of Things (IoT) devices or employees’ personal devices can create an entry point for bad actors to infiltrate your environment.
• How many breach attempts have you had? Documenting the number of intrusion attempts can help provide insight into how frequent the breach attempts are and identify any patterns or common sources of entry that cyber attackers are using to attempt to gain entry into your network.
• What is your Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF)? Knowing your MTBF allows you to assess the durability and reliability of your IT stack. MTBF calculates the average time interval between two successive component or system failures.
• What is your Mean Time to Detect (MTTD) and Mean Time To Acknowledge (MTTA)? The MTTD metric determines the average time it takes for your organization to detect a potential security breach. It’s important to know how vigilant your security system is and how responsive the IT stack you have in place is should an attack occur. Your MTTA is the average time between when your organization has detected an incident and the time it takes to formally log the incident. This key metric can help you determine your organization’s readiness and ability to combat security threats.
• How many of your employees have received cybersecurity awareness training? Do you require your employees to regularly take training modules, spanning from entry-level employees to the C-suite? Maintaining good documentation for your employees to reference can help with audits and post-incident analysis. Additionally, having KPIs for cybersecurity training, such as knowledge improvement, employee behavior change, and employee engagement rates, can provide valuable insights for your organization and identify any areas that need improvement for your organization to be successful.
• Do you have a security rating? Getting an official cybersecurity risk assessment score can help you determine whether or not there are significant gaps in your infrastructure or overall cyber strategy that need to be addressed.

How Thrive Can Help

Knowing the current state of your organization’s cybersecurity posture can feel overwhelming, but analyzing key cybersecurity metrics can help identify potential issues quickly. Partnering with a Managed Service Provider like Thrive that evaluates your IT stack and builds a plan to address gaps is how many mid-market and SMB companies ensure their organization’s business goals are achievable while safeguarding their data. Contact Thrive today to learn how we can help you avoid being a statistic.