Author Archives: Thrive

Secure remote access safeguards sensitive data transmission when applications are accessed from devices outside of the corporate network. It also enhances cybersecurity by introducing complexities for threat actors. In many cases, vulnerabilities in software applications, especially critical ones, may become harder to exploit as the configuration of the service begins to move away from the generic default to a more customized configuration.

What is Secure Remote Access?

Secure remote access is an umbrella under which a number of security strategies reside. It can refer to any security policy or solution that prevents unauthorized access to your network or sensitive data.

With more remote workers, different techniques may include the use of both VPN and RDP together (using different authentication mechanisms), implementation of multi-factor authentication (MFA), restrictions on which accounts may use remote access, during what times, with what password strength, and internal operating system controls that manage and protect passwords and authentication processes.

Why is Secure Remote Access Important?

If an organization does not implement any other layers of authentication besides the standard login with a username and password, there is a higher probability of a successful ransomware attack which could result in encryption and exfiltration of data, demands for payment, damage to reputation as well as lost data and revenue.

Read our Ransomware Best Practices eBook for insights on security threats and steps that you can take to mitigate your risk and rapidly recover from an attack.

Remote Access Risk Mitigation While Keeping it Simple

Some of the most effective ways to potentially reduce the risks associated with remote access systems are also some of the simplest:

1. Disable remote access technologies if not required for the business.
2. Restrict remote access to only the users that require such access, and restrict individual user access to only the services/systems that such users may require.
3. Use current versions of operating systems and applications, and regularly update and patch. Critical patches should be applied to remote access systems within 3-7 days.
4. Enforce a strong password policy with regular password changes. A strong password policy means both the strength of the password and its complexity, lock-out policies, and similar settings.
5. Restrict and segment remote access services based on data classification.
6. Use a VPN with MFA if you do use RDP.
7. Where possible use multiple account login credentials as opposed to configuring all layers to authenticate via the same active directory.
8. Implement internal monitoring tools to ensure that access is being used correctly and that systems are not being accessed outside of normal parameters.

Thrive Can Help

Old access security measures are no longer enough to ensure that your cybersecurity strategy is protecting your data and business continuity and must be replaced with safeguards that allow employees and other verified users safe and secure access from anywhere, at any time, from any device.

We can provide your business with a suite of customized options to safeguard your business. Contact us now to get started.

Thrive to the Rescue

Your Backup and Disaster Recovery Heroes

Thrive is a trusted global provider of comprehensive cloud, data protection, and security services.

Since 2001, Thrive has provided these robust and secure managed cloud and disaster recovery solutions from a scalable multi-tenant infrastructure, supported by our first-class in-house technical team. Thrive delivers highly flexible and responsive solutions with outstanding value and service, using state-of-the-art technology to offer ultimate protection and peace of mind.

We are driven to be your trusted partner and to ensure that we deliver a Thrive Experience that meets your business requirements with the reliability, scalability and support that your business demands.

Contact us today to discover your options around data loss prevention and rapid ransomware recovery with services such as DRaaS Veeam managed appliance for VMWare and HyperV, DRaaS physical server replication, and other Thrive DR services. Ensure your business continuity by meeting your operational demands while protecting and recovering your most valuable asset – your data.

Between market volatility and the imperative for a sudden and prolonged shift to remote work at scale, pension funds, like many other firms, are facing uncertain times. Now more than ever, having reliable technology infrastructures in place is essential for remaining productive in order to weather the storm. With the corporate perimeter having expanded to include (potentially) tens of thousands of employees’ homes but regulatory standards—and the real-world consequences of a data breach—remaining as severe as always, it’s critical to ensure that your pension fund has access to all the resources it needs, both human and technological, to continue to maintain its security posture and support its personnel.

Given this climate, it may be time to consider the benefits of outsourcing responsibility for some key functions to a highly qualified managed service provider (MSP) with deep experience in your specific industry. Avail your firm of the benefits of this type of outsourcing, and you’re likely to see a substantial reduction in costs as well as risk.

Here’s a detailed rundown of the top five benefits you stand to gain. 

#1: You can leverage economies of scale to reduce procurement costs and get advantageous pricing for services.

Even though a pension fund may be managing hundreds of billions of dollars in assets, every dollar of its operating expenditures will likely be subject to strict controls and a great deal of scrutiny. Compliance auditors and the pension’s administrative organization typically require detailed and granular cost reporting and demand that funds economize wherever possible. It’s therefore essential to find the best possible pricing for hardware and outsourced helpdesk support.

Turn to an IT service provider with longstanding relationships with the leading vendors who sell to firms in the alternative investment and financial services space, and you’ll be able to avail yourself of better pricing than you’d get if you were buying direct from the vendors. This is because the service provider or reseller is procuring hardware for the entirety of their global customer base and can offer lower per-unit prices as a result. An industry-leading reseller will also offer rapid turnaround on quotes, and will be able to have in-stock equipment delivered the very next day. This enables your pension fund to be more operationally agile while maintaining low overhead costs.

The same general premise holds true for outsourced 24x7x365 helpdesk support. A pension fund can take advantage of the always-on services that an MSP’s experienced support team can provide for a tiny fraction of the costs you’d incur by building an on-site 24x7x365 support center and retaining the talent needed to staff it yourself.

#2: You’ll see a meaningful reduction in vulnerability and risk, which can even be extended to investment decisions.

The pension funds industry generates and handles enormous amounts of sensitive data. And retirement plan sponsors hold a fiduciary duty to the fund’s participants: they’re required to protect their personal and financial information at all times. Regulators are taking notice, and institutional investors are increasingly aware of cybersecurity risk as well. In this climate, it’s vital to partner with an IT service provider with industry-specific expertise—and one that’s long proven trustworthy.

Even if your fund handles cybersecurity risk management internally—especially at a strategic level—there will likely be many times when your team might benefit from the wide-ranging insights that an active partner can share. When your IT partner has working partnerships with hundreds of hedge funds and other alternative investment firms around the globe, they’ll have a firm grasp on industry standards and best practices. You can also leverage that expertise by asking their team to perform vulnerability or risk assessments on other firms that you’re considering for investment, and you’ll know that their opinion will be impartial—but conditioned by their extensive experience in the industry.

#3: You’ll reap the rewards of high-quality support, including greater productivity and less downtime.

Some people think of IT helpdesk services as a commodity, but if your employees are spending countless hours of their limited and valuable time on hold or waiting for an email reply, the advantages of having a professional and highly available support team at the ready will be clear. If an IT service provider can offer helpdesk support in multiple regions (including yours), you won’t have to worry about language barriers or long wait times at hours that are busy for you but are “off” hours in another time zone. What’s more, a top-tier MSP with an industry-specific focus will be able to seek out support professionals with financial industry or alternative investment experience, which means they’ll already be familiar with your employees’ most common challenges and most pressing issues—even before they answer the phone.

#4: Your partnership with an MSP will enable you to free up internal resources for higher-level tasks.

Digital transformation is more of a journey than a destination: it’s a far-reaching process that will ultimately impact every facet of the organization. Not all pension funds have internal expertise in all areas where it’s needed. You might, for instance, have a top-notch security team but lack resources when it comes to cloud configuration management. Much as you’d partner with outside compliance consultant to streamline the process of meeting regulatory requirements or engage a law firm to provide legal advice, you can avail yourself of a qualified MSP’s deep internal resources in every area of technology. This means you can supplement your own team whenever and wherever you need to—without making the commitment or facing the expenses associated with hiring permanent employees.

#5: You’ll become more agile, flexible and ready to meet your industry’s ever-changing demands.

Turning to the cloud enables you to spin up new services at a moment’s notice. Employees working remotely for the first time? Cloud applications can support their productivity at home temporarily as well as back in the office when it’s time for them to return. But what you gain in flexibility you may also lose in security and control if you don’t have the internal expertise to manage cloud configurations and settings on an ongoing basis.

Partner with an IT service provider with a team of experts who understand these services and their constant evolution, and you’ll be able to manage the security risks without needing to find scarce talent or invest in salaries and compensation packages. For many pension funds, it’s easier to draw upon a services budget for outsourcing than to get an internal hire approved. And, if the MSP offers flexible contract terms, you can scale up or down services to suit the fund’s needs and budget as circumstances change.

Want to learn more about how Thrive can help your pension fund realize cost savings, new efficiencies and a stronger security posture? Contact us today to set up a free, zero-obligation consultation.

As businesses pursue digital transformation, their key assets are shifting from physical infrastructure to data. Artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and other kinds of analytics rely on data to power their algorithms. Data is now the most valuable asset for many businesses; not just customer and financial data, but operational data as well. Loss of that data for even a short time can bring operations to a standstill. And yet, legacy disaster recovery services and solutions such as offsite tape repositories don’t provide the immediate and dependable response needed to meet today’s business demands.

It is no surprise then that the latest trend in disaster recovery is Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS). Relying on the cloud to provide flexible, scalable backup resources, DRaaS is always on and always available. Disaster recovery services provide the fastest options for restoration of operational and other kinds of data, and it can automate many of the tasks. Along with the agility and speed of recovery that DRaaS makes possible, it also provides increased flexibility, improved security and saves you money. Having access to your backup data without having access to computing to run your business is only part of the equation in a disaster.

In traditional disaster recovery, IT maintains or has access to a second, standalone data center for the disaster recovery operations. This duplication includes storage and compute resources as well as duplicate network resources such as firewalls, routers and switches. There are also extra operational processes such as configuration, maintenance and support. In addition, there is the time needed to access the equipment at the second site as well as the time needed to re-route network traffic to this new location.

The manual side of disaster recovery can be the Achilles heel for many businesses because their backup operations are manual. This puts the burden on data center employees, who unless the business is very big, are often caught up in other day-to-day operational tasks. It is not always easy to ensure backup tasks remain on the daily to-do list despite more pressing short-term issues.

Rapidly growing businesses also need to expand their redundant data center to match the growth of the business. This can impose the need for significant expenditures at a time when all available Capex is being used to increase productive capacity. As with manual operations, long-term strategic issues such as disaster recovery often fall lower on the priority list when the business is consumed with short-term issues.

Cost-effective and Reliable Disaster Recovery Services for Businesses of all Sizes

Disaster recovery services address most of these shortcomings. The pay-as-you-go approach of cloud services is one of the principal drivers of the trend to the cloud, and it is no different with DRaaS. It moves disaster recovery to the expense side of the ledger where it can more closely match the ebbs and flows in revenue, and it ensures that precious capital resources are available for expanding productivity to meet growing demand.

Disaster recovery services can automate the tasks associated with replication, backup and restoration. The cloud provider takes over the day-to-day operations, administration, and maintenance of the DR data center and associated services, which frees IT to focus on the more pressing concerns of managing the fast-growing digital operations side of the business.

In addition, disaster recovery services can also assist in disaster avoidance. Failing over just one or a few Virtual Machines (VM) and running those workloads from a Cloud site without having to formally declare a disaster and initiate all of the associated actions with disaster declaration can be invaluable.

Documenting and automating the restoration process or “run book” of Virtual Machines (VM) with your DRaaS provider through the use of features such as Failover Plans can ensure that the appropriate steps are taken more rapidly and without having to make those decisions during the disaster declaration process, since they were determined well in advance.

The DRaaS provider also brings their expertise and experience in handling disaster recovery and prevention daily; whereas most business’s IT departments will only occasionally deal with data restoration tasks and may never experience a full-blown loss of data — at least, not until it happens.

Your DRaaS provider can work with you to develop your Disaster Recovery Plan. They can help you to assess the risks and business impacts, lay out the best ways to prevent data loss from occurring and help your IT staff to prepare for how best to respond and recover from various disaster scenarios. Finally, they can help you to test these systems regularly to ensure that the plan is comprehensive and update it when new threats emerge.

This last point is perhaps the most significant. Cyber-security threats are the area most prone to rapid change, and the area where it is most difficult for IT departments to stay current. Again, the DRaaS provider is singularly focused on the security of their data center operations and is completely attuned to the current state of security threats. Their infrastructure is also separate and apart for that of the businesses they serve which offers additional protections through these barriers.

In this era of digital transformation, the cloud is playing a key role in the development of information and operational technologies. It allows businesses to be more agile, responding quickly to shifts in demand and enabling them to be more flexible and adjust their offerings and services to optimize the customer experience. Cloud providers offer the latest capabilities and leverage the most advanced technological platforms. Every business today needs to put cloud at the heart of their business strategy and, now more than ever, that includes disaster recovery services.

Thrive to the Rescue

Your Backup and Disaster Recovery Experts

Thrive is a trusted global provider of comprehensive cloud, data protection and security services.

Since 2001, Thrive has provided these robust and secure managed cloud and disaster recovery solutions from a scalable multi-tenant infrastructure, supported by our first-class in-house technical team. Thrive delivers highly flexible and responsive solutions with outstanding value and service, using state-of-the-art technology to offer ultimate protection and peace of mind.

We are driven to be your trusted partner and to ensure that we deliver a Thrive Experience that meets your business requirements with the reliability, scalability, and support that your business demands.

Contact us today to discover your options around DRaaS Veeam managed appliance for VMWare and HyperV, DRaaS physical server replication, and other Thrive DR services that can help you to meet your operational demands while protecting and recovering your most valuable asset – your data.