Microsoft will be ending patch support for Windows 10—what does that mean for you?
Preparations to end patch support for Windows 10, and eventually end of support entirely, have been in process for quite some time on Microsoft’s part. As far back as 2021, in an article by The Verge which talks about the then upcoming Windows 11, the author commented on the end of support date for Windows 10. The current version of Windows 10, 22H2, will be the final version of Windows 10, and all editions will continue to receive monthly security update releases through the end of support on October 14, 2025. This information applies to all of the following editions of Windows 10: Home, Pro, Pro Education, and Pro for Workstations
With the end of patch support for Windows 10, vulnerabilities will begin to appear, leaving your network more exposed than ever. The number of bad actors encrypting and stealing data can be overwhelming on the best of days and can cause massive issues and downtime for your company. Any hole in your cyber security could spell disaster for your company.
While it may seem like you have plenty of time to prepare, deadlines can quietly slip by, leaving your network and machines suddenly vulnerable because they are no longer receiving support or security patches. The rate of ransomware attacks remains high, with 66% of respondents across all industries indicating they had been hacked within the last year, says Sophos in their State of Ransomware 2023 report.
With a total of 36% respondents, Sophos also reported exploited vulnerabilities as the number one root cause of ransomware attacks within the last year. Knowing that 66% of companies surveyed in the last year were attacked by malicious actors, the number of ransomware attacks with the root cause of exploited vulnerabilities is quite large.
It’s hard to admit that your network may become unsafe at any point in time, but it’s necessary if you want to be prepared for when your Windows 10 network will no longer be supported. If you can keep track of those important dates, your cyber security should be on the right track. However, it can be a huge undertaking to efficiently manage patching or replace workstations in a timely manner.
With the right partner, you can stop worrying about missing important updates, especially as the end of patch support for Windows 10 is nearing. Aunalytics has a team of security experts, as well as technical support, with the ability to act as your Network Operations Center (NOC). Aunalytics also offers Co-Managed Patching-as-a-Service and many other ways to support the technology that keeps your business up and running. With the support of an experienced Managed IT Services partner, you can rest easy knowing that your cyber security is working hard to keep your data and network safe.
A Managed IT Services Partner Gives In-House IT Teams Much-Needed Support
Managing IT environments is a little bit like a box of chocolates—you never know what you’re going to be faced with on any given day. Regardless of the size of your business, your company still has a unique IT infrastructure that can be difficult to manage easily and efficiently. Those variabilities are where a beneficial relationship with an experienced managed IT services partner comes into play.
Partnering with a managed services provider gives you many advantages, including support and improvement for your security initiatives, increased efficiency in your everyday technology environment, and a happy partnership can lead to cost savings in the long run.
Let’s dive a little deeper into the advantages mentioned above:
- Improved security initiatives and better support – Business organizations are often targeted by bad actors due to not only the amount, but also due to the value of the data that can be gained from stealing your important information. By providing security services, an experienced partner can better protect and insulate your company from cyberthreats. Those security services could include constant vulnerability scanning, manning a Security Operations Center (SOC) when your team is too small or too spread out to do so, and even work with you on patch management.
- Increased efficiency – By reducing downtime in case of attack and bringing productivity back online as quickly as possible, a managed IT services partner helps keep your company up and running efficiently. In addition to keeping your company up and running from a security standpoint, a managed services partner can also help keep your data safe in case of disaster, system wipe, and more, allowing you to get back to doing what you do best as quickly as possible.
- Cost savings – By giving your company access to advanced cloud-based technology and a drove of experts right at their fingertips, you can reduce large capital expenditures and avoid hiring more expensive full-time employees (FTEs). Let the experts do the work for you, giving your team the ability to focus on your internal initiatives instead of attempting to defend your network while shorthanded.
Regardless of your needs, enlisting the help of a managed IT services partner can help ease the burden on your business in both the short- and long-term, allowing your team to focus on working toward the future of your company with experts at their sides, helping them every step of the way. Not only is it a burden off of your team’s shoulders, but it’s also a burden off of your shoulders. Knowing that your company is secured by both your team and a trusted managed services partner gives you the peace of mind that, no matter what happens, your company is safe from serious cyber threats.
From Backup & Disaster Recovery to Cloud Storage and Advanced Security, Aunalytics offers a wide variety of managed services products, all backed by our certified and talented technology experts. We are here to work with you through both your everyday needs and those moments when disaster strikes.
How State and Local Governments Can Use Technology to Overcome Economic Challenges
How State and Local Governments Can Use Technology to Overcome Economic Challenges
At present, state and local governments are confronted with significant challenges stemming from the current state of the economy. This includes a decrease in tax revenues, sustained high inflation, and a shortage of proficient IT personnel, who are vital to their day-to-day operations. Industry experts consider technology as an effective solution to address inadequacies during challenging economic periods.
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Aunalytics is a data platform company. We deliver insights as a service to answer your most important IT and business questions.
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How State and Local Governments Can Use Technology to Overcome Economic Challenges
How State and Local Governments Can Use Technology to Overcome Economic Challenges
At present, state and local governments are confronted with significant challenges stemming from the current state of the economy. This includes a decrease in tax revenues, sustained high inflation, and a shortage of proficient IT personnel, who are vital to their day-to-day operations. Industry experts consider technology as an effective solution to address inadequacies during challenging economic periods.
Local and State Government Cyberattacks Prove that Security is a Necessity
Cyberattacks are a constant threat to organizations of all sizes. State and local governments are no different, having experienced significantly more cyberattacks than they did in previous years, and are at very high risk of bad actors slipping into their networks. To gain a better understanding of the current attack environment and track changes over time in ransomware trends, Aunalytics security partner Sophos commissioned an independent, vendor-agnostic survey of 5,600 IT professionals across multiple industries in mid-sized organizations across 31 countries. While it’s true cyber insurance has been playing a greater role in helping organizations improve their ability to recover from attacks, survey responses clearly indicate that ransomware poses a rising threat to government organizations.
Government Cyberattacks Increase From Previous Years
Ransomware attacks have increased significantly over the past year—58% of state and local government organizations surveyed were hit by an attack in 2021, up 70% from 2020. Bad actors are now considerably more capable of attacking organizations and executing harmful tactics at scale. The Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) model is one cause of last year’s increased attacks, as the required skill level for bad actors to hamper the day-to-day operations of an organization has gone down significantly.
The top ten states that had to deal with the maximum amount of total ransomware attacks in the public sector in 2021 were California, who experienced the most attacks total, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, and Missouri. While California took the lion’s share of attacks, with 8 major ransomware incidents, the other six states had four major incidents each.
FBI Cyber Division Survey Lists Examples of Ransomware Attacks
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Cyber Division lists examples of several ransomware attacks that impacted state and local government organizations in their 2022 Private Industry Notification. This list contains evidence showing the impact these attacks can have on local communities.
For example, in January 2022, following a ransomware attack, a US county had to take all their systems offline and close all public locations in order to run an emergency response plan and restore all their data from backups. This action disabled all the cameras in the local county jail and deactivated automatic doors, resulting in severe safety concerns and a complete lockdown of the facility. A different county had their data—with residential and personal data—held ransom in an attack. When the ransom was not paid, all of the data was posted on the Dark Web in retaliation.
Rising Complexity of Ransomware Attacks
Apart from the rising prevalence of these attacks, the sheer complexity of each attack is also on an upwards trajectory. While the manufacturing and production industry reported the lowest rate of ransomware attacks, over half of all respondents reported their organization was injured by bad actors. The reality is that every organization is at high risk of cyberattack. In 2021, 59% percent of government organizations who experienced cyberattacks saw the complexity of the attacks increase, while a similar 59% saw an increase in the overall volume of cyberattacks.
Data Recovery Rates Are Improving
While the increase in cyberattacks paints a bleak picture, there is a silver lining to this dark cloud. Ninety-nine percent of government organizations were able to get at least some of their encrypted data back. The top method used to restore data was performed via existing backups, which were used by 63% of organizations whose data was encrypted in an attack. Unfortunately, despite the utilization of backups, 32% of the affected organizations still had to pay a ransom to ensure that more of their data was restored.
While paying a ransom typically allows organizations to get some data back, it is proving to be less effective than in years past. On average, in 2021, organizations that paid a ransom only got back 58% of their data, a considerable drop from 70% in 2020.
In April and June 2022, respectively, the states of North Carolina and Florida were the first states to prohibit state and local government organizations from paying ransoms to any bad actors. Arizona, Pennsylvania, Texas and New York are considering similar legislation. While the exact impact of this cannot be determined yet, this is expected to dissuade ransomware attacks on all organizations.
This highlights the importance of employing multiple methods to restore data—utilizing backups in particular can improve the speed of recovery and increase the amount of data that can be recovered in the event of an attack.
But It Doesn’t End There
The Sophos State of Ransomware In State and Local Government 2022 survey has revealed that ransomware continues to be an imminent threat for state and local government organizations. For many, choosing to work with an experienced partner with expertise in cybersecurity not only improves your chances of getting approved for the right amount of cyber insurance coverage, but can also ensure that companies see a higher return on investment, and improved ability to both prevent and mitigate attacks in the future. Aunalytics provides Disaster Recovery Services, which is further coupled with a comprehensive backup and archival strategy. This allows state and local government organizations like yours to remain confident so that you are prepared should you encounter a disaster event. We partner with industry leaders to replicate your critical infrastructure so you are prepared for anything.
Security Maturity Improvement is Imperative as Cyberattack Risks Remain High
Security Maturity Improvement is Imperative as Cyberattack Risks Remain High
While advancing technology offers significant benefits, it has also made it easier for those who seek to gain an advantage by exploiting others. An attack can be devastating for any business and impact it for many years to come—today’s organizations need to move toward security maturity by utilizing multiple lines of defense against cybercrime.
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Aunalytics is a data platform company. We deliver insights as a service to answer your most important IT and business questions.
Security Maturity Improvement is Imperative as Cyberattack Risks Remain High
Security Maturity Improvement is Imperative as Cyberattack Risks Remain High
While advancing technology offers significant benefits, it has also made it easier for those who seek to gain an advantage by exploiting others. An attack can be devastating for any business and impact it for many years to come—today’s organizations need to move toward security maturity by utilizing multiple lines of defense against cybercrime.
When Was the Last Time You Checked on Your Internet Security?
Internet security—a combination of security measures put into place to protect any transaction or activity made over the internet—is one of the most necessary forms of security your business could possibly have.
Everything we do, every day, is virtually always online—even though we sit next to Deborah, we usually send her files through a document sharing program like SharePoint or Google Docs. We don’t walk over with a paper file and hand it to her often, if ever. When thinking of our daily interactions with the internet in corporate environments, it becomes more and more startling that many of us are not aware what our role in our company’s corporate security actually is. Some think it’s remembering to change your password, while others know there are specific steps you can take to better secure your network from the malicious creepy crawlies.
They're Everywhere
Security threats are as widely varied as the content on the internet and can include everything from the well-known malware and phishing to Wi-Fi threats, computer worms, and botnets.
How many people do you know that take their work devices with them to coffee shops for a change of pace? As safe and normal as this may seem, there are multiple kinds of Wi-Fi threats that can piggyback onto public Wi-Fi and open networks. The three most common types of Wi-Fi threats are Man-in-the-Middle (MitM), Rogue Networks, and Packet Sniffing.
Let’s break this down a little bit:
- Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) attacks are generally the most common type of Wi-Fi threat. In its most basic form, a MitM attack is when a bad actor is able to intercept and read messages between users who believe they are only speaking to each other privately, essentially eavesdropping on their conversation and any confidential information that is being shared.
- Rogue Networks are fake Wi-Fi networks that attackers set up to confuse users into giving hackers access to their devices. Rogue networks can easily masquerade as trusted networks, especially those at locations like your favorite bookstore or coffee shop. If you see a guest network, only use it if the network is secured and you need a password to log into the network. This can help ensure your computer and other tech is better protected and is less likely to end up on a rogue network.
- Packet Sniffing, sometimes known as Packet Analyzers, can monitor traffic on a network. This malicious attack can intercept data while it is being transmitted across your network and provide hackers with details on the data package’s contents. Using this method, bad actors can also introduce errors that can corrupt your system.
Wi-Fi threats aren’t the only internet threats to your corporate security. Botnets, a network of private computers that are infected with malicious software and often controlled by a single user, are most often used for denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, and sending out spam messages for users in your network. Similarly, a computer worm, a software that can copy itself multiple times, can spread across your network quickly, leaving mass destruction in its wake.
What Now?
With the threat of bad actors finding a hole in your network at any point in time, it’s impossible to ignore your cyber security. Risks are becoming higher as viruses and malware become increasingly complex, setting companies up for difficulties when navigating the process of recovering data, and further difficulties of finding easily obtainable cyber security insurance following a security event. Finding and utilizing a trusted partner can help you keep your network safe and consistently monitored with services like a 24/7/365 monitored Security Operations Center (SOC), help attaining industry security compliance requirements, and developing a Backup and Disaster Recovery (DR) plan for when the unexpected strikes.
Overcome Hiring and Talent Challenges to Get Ahead of the Competition in 2023
Overcome Hiring and Talent Challenges to Get Ahead of the Competition in 2023
Hiring and retaining staff is going to be the most difficult task facing CFOs for much of 2023. This is particularly true for IT departments. In today’s economy, highly skilled IT and data experts are a scarce and expensive resource. The mid-market organization requires another option that provides access to the right tools, resources, and support.
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Overcome Hiring and Talent Challenges to Get Ahead of the Competition in 2023
Overcome Hiring and Talent Challenges to Get Ahead of the Competition in 2023
Hiring and retaining staff is going to be the most difficult task facing CFOs for much of 2023. This is particularly true for IT departments. In today’s economy, highly skilled IT and data experts are a scarce and expensive resource. The mid-market organization requires another option that provides access to the right tools, resources, and support.
