Author Archives: Tori Pazda

SolarWinds, a monitoring software company, recently released information regarding a security incident that impacted their enterprise monitoring application, Orion.  Orion is one of the most common monitoring applications used by internal IT teams and MSPs all over the world. However, Thrive does NOT use Orion in any of our service offerings, but rather a different product called “N-Central”.  This is a completely different platform, formerly known as N-able, which was purchased several years ago and runs as a separate division within SolarWinds.  The source code for Orion and N-Central are not shared and they each run independently on separate operating systems.

Thrive has spoken directly with SolarWinds leadership and they confirmed to us that their investigation has found no threats to N-Central or other SolarWinds MSP products.  In addition to that investigation, the Thrive Security Team has completed our own review of this exploit.  Based on our analysis of currently available public information, we determined that the N-Central technology was NOT susceptible to the same attack methodology that was used against Orion.

If any of our Customers are running SolarWinds Orion on your networks or within your organizations, please use the following link to get more details on how to remediate the issue, along with some additional background on the exploit: https://www.solarwinds.com/securityadvisory

If you have any questions, please feel free to CONTACT US.

As the volume of suppliers continues to grow at a rapid rate, Partners have access to a multitude of different technologies and services, with Master Agents providing expert guidance and a strong set of resources to aid in the selection process. The negative side of this influx of vendors is that without a carefully considered approach, it creates an environment where the focus is less on understanding each Partner’s unique needs and each Supplier’s core offerings and instead limits it to the singular opportunity.  This narrow view contributes to less relationship development and continuity within the Channel, something Thrive believes is vital to the partner experience and to winning business.

Thrive has worked over the past year to build an account ownership element to our Channel Program to provide added value to our Partners and enhance their user experience. As a part of this new approach, when a partner reaches out to us in any form, they are assigned to a Thrive Sales Representative who then becomes the dedicated POC for that Partner moving forward. We also set up introductory calls that focus solely on understanding each Partners’ business, expertise, and client base to form a high-level partnership strategy and maximize efficiency.  Our goal is simply to provide a user friendly, relationship-driven experience for our partners as we continue to help guide them toward finding the right solutions for their clients.

Yes, the goal is always to put ourselves in a position to receive opportunities that fit our core services and then work with our partners to win that business.  However, for us it goes one step further.  Regardless of whether the given opportunity is even a fit, we want to ultimately form a lasting relationship with that partner, one that generates repeat business, and gives us a chance to most effectively align with them by understanding the key elements of their business.  This added cadence also enables us to be available for guidance and to exhibit our consultative approach to their customers. This approach has resulted in an ever-growing group of partners that understand exactly when to bring Thrive into an opportunity, as well as a dramatically increasing win rate.

We look forward to continued Channel success, and want all of our partners to know that we are always available.

Interested in learning more? CONTACT US TODAY!

Microsoft Office 365 is one of the most robust business solutions available, offering just about everything enterprises need to communicate, collaborate and enhance productivity.

With such a powerful tool, customization is key to leveraging it to its full potential. From simple document sharing to project management and social collaboration, every business has unique needs that are best served with a thorough understanding of the software’s capabilities.

DOWNLOAD our white paper today!

Hospitals in the northeast are on high alert after cyber attackers recently launched phishing emails to send malware to healthcare executives. As a result, several hospitals in Massachusetts either shut down email systems or installed more aggressive email filters. There have also been recent reports of phishing emails targeting hospitals and healthcare providers in New York and New Jersey.

Hospital executives received an email on Oct. 29 looking for hospital coronavirus statistics, and claiming to be from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. However, the email was fraudulent and if one employee clicked on a targeted link, the entire hospital IT system could have been paralyzed.

The healthcare system has become one of the biggest victims when it comes to Cyber Security. According to HealthcareIT, the lack of Cyber Security awareness among healthcare organizations has translated into healthcare systems being exposed to hackers and phishing.

Cyber attacks are more frequent with the pandemic and the president election as cyber criminals try to exploit busy hospitals and administrators working from home. In fact, the FBI and government officials have warned of an imminent cybercrime threat to U.S. hospitals, putting patient care operations in jeopardy.

Without continual upgrades or the proper monitoring, Norton predicts that cybercrimes will cost the world $6 trillion a year by 2021, with healthcare among the most impacted.

While the solution to hire an internal CISO, seems obvious there is an overall shortage of security professionals across all sectors. This means an administrator, not a trained specialist, must maintain ongoing security training or the company simply won’t be able to keep up with the latest trends or threats.

Also, COVID-19 opened hospital doors and doctors’ offices to thousands of new patients in 2020 which increased the volume of data being processed daily. Telehealth provided the opportunity for healthcare professionals to still treat patients but from the safety of their homes, which also created new access points through the use of apps on phones, tablets, and desktops leaving sensitive information traveling back and forth between patients and medical professionals, often unsecured.

Training is not the only issue when preventing cyberattacks. Organizations need to be just as concerned about the age of their systems as they are about staying updated with their training.

Healthcare centers are often using older systems that are embedded within other devices and can’t be easily upgraded. Without the ability to properly upgrade equipment, healthcare centers are more vulnerable than ever.

Thrive’s team of experts provide customized solutions based on the specific needs of each healthcare organization, from a secure Cloud that meets the privacy needs of HIPAA and other regulations, or Cyber Security solutions that deliver comprehensive protection around patient data.

Thrive’s NextGen services provide each customer with a unique strategy to optimize and protect their business data and applications, including access to the latest Cloud and on-premise technologies, advanced Cyber Security best practices, advanced networking solutions, compliance, and governance assistance.

Interested in learning more? CONTACT US TODAY!

Thrive has released Hybrid Cloud Director to optimize multi-Cloud workloads.

CHALLENGE

Glass Jacobson Financial Group is a full-service financial services and accounting firm with 85 employees and two offices in the greater Baltimore and Washington, D.C. area. The firm’s management team was seeking an experienced and forward-thinking IT partner with a solid understanding of financial applications to manage its IT infrastructure, so the firm could utilize internal resources to focus more on serving clients and expanding business opportunities. In addition, the firm’s existing technology footprint did not match the increasing demands of its business. The financial group needed a scalable computing platform that could be accessible anywhere/anytime with increased security and the ability to leverage Microsoft 365’s entire stack of services.

SOLUTION

After assessing Glass Jacobson’s current IT infrastructure and discussing the firm’s business needs, the Thrive engineering team recommended a Cloud solution that consolidated servers, applications, email and security applications, all while reducing capital spending. Thrive’s fully-managed NextGen Cloud and security services also provided a remote access solution for all Glass Jacobson employees, as well as increased security by leveraging Thrive’s security stack and 2FA/MFA for all desktops and email.

RESULT

Glass Jacobson employees now leverage virtual Cloud desktops to securely access all 45 of the firms’ applications from any office, computing device or location – giving the team full flexibility to work remotely if needed. Team members no longer need to rely on internal resources to manage their onsite servers, as they can count on Thrive to provide 24/7 support and monitoring, which frees up more time to commit towards supporting their clients and growing their financial services and accounting business. The solution also adds the benefit of comprehensive Disaster Recovery, so the firm’s management team has the peace of mind that its files and applications are backed up and fully-accessible if a man-made or natural disaster were ever to strike.

“Thrive’s expert team quickly evaluated our needs and offered a modern cloud solution that turned our support technology into an asset, not a liability. Not only is our IT infrastructure able to keep up with our busy firm, our team is able to work in the cloud from anywhere – creating efficiencies and flexibility we were never able to realize before.” ~ Michael Cohen, CFO, Glass Jacobson

How can Thrive help your business?

Thrive is a leading provider of outsourced IT Infrastructure designed to drive successful business outcomes with our talented engineering teams and suite of Cloud-First, NextGen Managed Services.

To learn more about our services, CONTACT US

Enable your workforce to confidently return to on-site work by deploying Microsoft’s Return To The Workplace app. The app allows managers to view location readiness, conduct employee health screenings, and ultimately ensure a safe environment to return to. Return To The Workplace is available in the AppSource, and is deployed as a Dynamics 365 App within your environment.

The App includes four separate solutions, all of which are interconnected through Common Data Services (CDS) and are all essential to use together to make the solution effective. These four solutions include:

1. Location Readiness dashboard (Power BI)
2. Workplace Care Management dashboard (Power BI)
3. Facility Safety Management app (PowerApp)
4. Employee Return to the Workplace app (PowerApp)

Learn how to use the other sections of the solution in this Return to the Workplace Solution Overview.

Prerequisites

The Return To The Workplace app requires two prerequisites:

1. Global Administrator: Required to install the app and deploy it within an environment.
2. PowerApps Per-App Plan ($10/Month): Required to have at least 1 per app plan to run this app.

Using the App

The first screen gives users the options to get a day pass, look up the status of a facility, or register a guest for entering a facility. There is also an optional self-assessment to select how safe the employee feels to return to work (Yes, No, Neutral). The selection is saved inside a CDS entity and factored into the app’s pre-configured algorithms. Organizations can modify those algorithms with the PowerApp studio to customize how it behaves and/or handles the user’s inputs.

Day Passes

The Day Pass feature allows users to search for active facilities and select one they want to enter. Users can follow the below steps to book a day pass:

• Select Get Day Pass.
• Search for the facility they would like to enter.
• Select Book A Space.
• Select Accept to agree to take the Daily Health Check questionnaire which will be given upon arrival at the facility.
• Select I Agree to confirm that the users’ current health meets the requirements to enter. NOTE: Selecting I Disagree will deny the user from being able to book a space.
• The day pass is generated.
• If a user needs to cancel, they can do so by selecting Cancel.

When it comes time to enter the facility, the user must first complete the Daily Health Check to ensure they are healthy enough to enter the facility.

Then, the user must choose which facility they’d like to enter.

They are given a pass for the facility of choice.

Register A Guest

This feature allows users to generate a day pass for guests to enter facilities. To do so, a user should:

• Select Register A Guest.
• Fill out the guest info and select Next.
• Proceed with the same steps as Get Day Pass.

Look Up Status

This function allows users to view the current status of a facility. The status of facilities is pre-configured by ‘Phases’ inside the Facility Safety Management app.

To utilize the Look Up Status feature, follow these steps:

• Select Look Up Status from the home screen of the app.
• Search and select the facility in question.
• View the current Phase.
  • NOTE: If the facility is open and active, the Book A Space button will be enabled.

Safely Get Back To The Workplace

Give your team the ability to control their return to workplace operations with custom safety parameters set through the Microsoft Return to the Workplace app. Employees will have increased confidence in management’s ability to control potential risks and management will feel confident in their ability to control the return to work process and give some responsibility to the employees.

New service enables seamless migration of workloads between Cloud platforms for performance and cost optimization.

As cybercrime continues to rise, so does the growing list of misconceptions. The pandemic drove internet usage up by 50% compared to last year, and experts say until businesses prioritize Cyber Security, the number of cyberattacks will keep climbing.

Thrive’s CISO, Chip Gibbons, reviews the most common misconceptions about Cyber Security and debunks the myths.

Cyber Security – Misconception #1

When your system is compromised, you will notice the breach immediately.

Gibbons: A majority of the compromises are from issues that have been lingering for a while. A company could have a server on the internet that they didn’t either realize or know about or it hasn’t been patched in a long time. Those are the areas where you want to strengthen your Cyber Security. Its crucial businesses know where all their assets are, that they’re patched and they’re secure.

Cyber Security – Misconception #2

The bigger the company, the better the security.

Gibbons: Not necessarily. The size of the business doesn’t mean they’re better or worse at security. I’ve gone into enterprise businesses where I am frankly frightened and I’ve gone into small businesses where I am thinking, wow, they’re really good. It depends on at what level that company has prioritized security. It’s difficult because businesses don’t want to spend money right now but, in this instance, but they have to.

Cyber Security – Misconception #3

Cyber Security is not worth a huge investment.

Gibbons: A lot of businesses aren’t keeping up with their Cyber Security because perhaps years ago when they got an initial quote, they couldn’t afford it. But that’s not the case anymore. It is affordable and companies just need to do some research. A breach at a large company can cost millions of dollars and suddenly the two thousand dollars a month it would have cost to just update and monitor their Cyber Security does not seem so outrageous.

Cyber Security – Misconception 4

Viruses are the biggest cyber threat.

Gibbons:  Right now, in Cyber Security, we’re seeing a huge increase in account compromised types of attacks. Phishing, where cybercriminals attempt to collect confidential data through emails and websites, has always been somewhat of a big area for cybercriminals and it’s growing rapidly. Phishing was the number one cause of data breaches in 2019, and in 2020 phishing attacks have become even more sophisticated and highly targeted.

Cyber Security – Misconception 5

Company information can’t be as easily compromised with employees working from home.

Gibbons: It was a big change to move employees from the office to a remote setting and when it happened, it happened very quickly. But just because you send your employees home doesn’t mean they are secure. Cybercriminals are banking on a lack of security for remote workers so employers need to make sure employees have antivirus and all the standard security precautions they would in the office. During the COVID-19, a great deal of our time at Thrive has been spent working with clients to make sure that their end-users are safe, and they are connecting securely into their network.

Whether your company is in the office or remote, Thrive provides IT security solutions that deliver proven comprehensive protection for your business.

Click here to learn more about how our comprehensive cyber security plan can protect your vital data, SaaS applications, end-users, and critical infrastructure.