4 Questions Mid-market Companies Should Ask Themselves About Data Protection
4 Questions Mid-market Companies Should Ask Themselves About Data Protection
When the working world went remote due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many never returned to the office. This created new data-security challenges for many businesses, with an increasing amount of sensitive data now being stowed in the cloud, and workers continuing to access company data from off-site locations.
How safe is cloud security, which now often relies on “zero trust” security principles based on a user’s location rather than user credentials? While some worry that cloud security is less reliable than on-premise security, that’s not actually the case, particularly for mid-market businesses. The fact is that your data is actually more secure in a remote data center managed by security experts than by your in-house IT team.
You may feel a false sense of security by having your IT department guard your servers in a closet — but this strategy is extremely risky when it comes to data protection. It’s not standard for mid-market IT departments to possess expert skills in cloud security and data security, which are needed to properly safeguard data. Many mid-market companies, particularly those not in highly regulated industries, do not currently have Security Operations Centers.
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4 Questions Mid-market Companies Should Ask Themselves About Data Protection
4 Questions Mid-market Companies Should Ask Themselves About Data Protection
When the working world went remote due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many never returned to the office. This created new data-security challenges for many businesses, with an increasing amount of sensitive data now being stowed in the cloud, and workers continuing to access company data from off-site locations.
How safe is cloud security, which now often relies on “zero trust” security principles based on a user’s location rather than user credentials? While some worry that cloud security is less reliable than on-premise security, that’s not actually the case, particularly for mid-market businesses. The fact is that your data is actually more secure in a remote data center managed by security experts than by your in-house IT team.
You may feel a false sense of security by having your IT department guard your servers in a closet — but this strategy is extremely risky when it comes to data protection. It’s not standard for mid-market IT departments to possess expert skills in cloud security and data security, which are needed to properly safeguard data. Many mid-market companies, particularly those not in highly regulated industries, do not currently have Security Operations Centers.
What’s more, it came to light at the end of 2021 that cyber-insurance renewals are becoming at times prohibitively expensive for all industries due to the exponential increase in cyber-attacks seen last year. The only way for mid-market companies in all industries to lower cyber-insurance premiums and ensure coverage is to implement enhanced data security measures.
Since data protection has become the most prevalent challenge in the cybersecurity market, it’s no surprise to see that according to Insights for Professionals, data protection is the main focus in 2022 for 85 percent of businesses surveyed; 37 percent plan to invest up to $500,000 on data protection in 2022, and 31 percent plan to invest more than $500,000 on data protection over the next 18 months. McKinsey also reports that 85 percent of midsize enterprises plan to boost their IT security spend until 2023.
All-Time High Cybercrime
Still, it would be misleading to imply that cloud security comes with no challenges. One of the biggest ongoing concerns are ransomware attacks, which increased over 105 percent in 2021. Cybercriminals continue to attain new levels of sophistication, with payment demands skyrocketing into tens of millions of dollars. According to McKinsey, the costs related to cybercrime will continue to ascend in the coming years, with a 15 percent yearly increase leading to cybercrime costs reaching $10.5 trillion a year in 2025. Looking ahead over the next decade, by 2031, Cybersecurity Ventures estimates ransomware costs alone should reach $265 billion.
McKinsey reports that there are multiple motivations for these attacks, headed by the fact that pandemic-weary companies have become ripe for security vulnerabilities. Also, as advancing digitization continues to drive connectivity and employees now log in from anywhere — including unsecured home networks — it makes life easier for ransomware hackers. The traditional smash and grab approach is now being replaced with bad actors “dwelling” undetected within victims’ environments, which gives cybercriminals the lay of the land in understanding where the highest value information resides before selling it to the highest bidder.
Another motivation for the continued attacks is their success: as more companies are forced to pay ransoms, hackers are further incentivized to build on their well-paid victories and continue innovating on this lucrative threat. Specific sectors are particularly at risk; keep in mind that in the U.S., supply-chain attacks rose 42 percent in Q1 of 2021, victimizing as many as 7 million people, while McKinsey shared that “security threats against industrial control systems and operational technology more than tripled in 2020.” The war in Ukraine has taught us lessons about attacks compromising infrastructure, utilities and government that can debilitate nations and be weaponized.
Paying Up
These massive numbers can seem overwhelming, and can also make it difficult to tell how much a ransomware attack can affect an individual company. To give you some perspective, consider these stats:
- NPR reported that Colonial Pipeline paid a $4.4 million ransom after the company shut down operations.
- CNBC reported that global meat producer JBS paid ransomware hackers $11 million.
- Insider reported that global insurance provider CNA Financial forked over a reported mind-blowing $40 million post-cyber-attack.
- The Washington Post reported that a ransomware attack on U.S. software provider Kaseya targeted the firm’s remote-computer-management tool and endangered up to 2,000 companies globally.
These costs are also just the tip of the iceberg for the companies victimized by ransomware hackers. Additional costs of such an attack include everything from paying third parties (like legal, PR, and negotiation firms), not to mention the opportunity costs of having executives, staff, and teams disconnected from their day-to-day roles for weeks or months to deal with the attack’s aftermath. Perhaps the biggest unaccounted-for expense is the resulting lost revenue.
Ask These 4 Questions
What can mid-market companies do in the face of these threats to their data’s safety? They should focus on strategies that address ransomware prevention, preparation, response, and recovery. Since this is an ongoing journey, threats continue to evolve and improve — so it’s critical to keep up to date with new threats of increasing sophistication, while being ready with cybersecurity strategies and best practices. The goal is to continue to build cyber maturity that creates a resilient approach. You may not be able to stop attacks from occurring, but when they do, they won’t have the same impact if you’ve prepared in this way.
As a starting point, these are four questions that every mid-market company should ask itself to determine the organization’s readiness for data defense:
- When it comes to our people, do we have security focused IT leadership, trained cloud security experts, and data security experts?
- When it comes to our process, do we have defined IT security processes for proactively managing the security posture of our environments?
- When it comes to our technology, are we 100 percent confident in our security tech and our ability to actively monitor and detect threats around the clock?
- When it comes to our cloud architecture, are we confident that it allows for scalability without sacrificing security assurances?
If the answer is “no” or “I don’t know” to any of these questions, it is time to get your house in order — you are at risk. To stay alive, compete, and drive value, mid-market companies should shift their focus to data analytics, data management, security, and compliance. This requires a cloud-based data center, a cloud-native data management platform, and cloud-native analytics. Ensuring the right infrastructure to maximize the capabilities of data centers — and how they are able to manage and store data — is crucial to effective mid-market digital transformation.
Aunalytics Selected for Inc. Magazine’s 5000 List of the Nation’s Fastest-growing Private Companies for Two Years in a Row
Leading Cloud Data Management & Analytics Company Demonstrates Continued Momentum With its Focus on Helping Mid-market Businesses Accelerate Their Digital Transformation
South Bend, IN (August 18, 2022) - Aunalytics, a leading data management and analytics company delivering Insights-as-a-Service for mid-market businesses, has been named by Inc. magazine as one of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies included in its annual Inc. 5000 list. This marks the second consecutive year that Aunalytics earned a spot on the prestigious ranking, representing a one-of-a-kind look at the most successful companies within the economy’s most dynamic segment—its independent businesses. Facebook, Chobani, Under Armour, Microsoft, Patagonia, and many other well-known names gained their first national exposure as honorees on the Inc. 5000.
“The accomplishment of building one of the fastest-growing companies in the U.S., in light of recent economic roadblocks, cannot be overstated,” said Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc. “Inc. is thrilled to honor the companies that have established themselves through innovation, hard work, and rising to the challenges of today.”
The companies on the 2022 Inc. 5000 have not only been successful, but have also demonstrated resilience amid supply chain woes, labor shortages, and the ongoing impact of Covid-19. Among the top 500, the average median three-year revenue growth rate soared to 2,144 percent. Together, those companies added more than 68,394 jobs over the past three years.
Aunalytics offers a robust, cloud-native platform built to deliver enterprise data management, powerful analytics, and AI-driven answers. From the onset, Aunalytics has been dedicated to empowering enterprise and mid-sized businesses located in secondary and tertiary markets, with advanced data management and analytics tools. Typically in these markets, the technical talent needed to use, maintain, and achieve value from the solution is scarce. Aunalytics provides its technology as a managed service paired with the expert talent needed to achieve ROI.
The analytics portion of the platform represents Aunalytics’ unique ability to unify all the elements necessary to process data and deliver AI end-to-end, from cloud infrastructure to data acquisition, organization, and machine learning models – all managed and run by Aunalytics as a secure managed service. Aunalytics continues to gain traction in industries such as financial services, healthcare, and manufacturing where companies are challenged with undertaking the digital transformation required to succeed in the modern world.
“We’re thrilled to be selected for the Inc. 5000 two years in a row – this truly demonstrates the accelerated growth Aunalytics has experienced as a result of providing advanced talent and tools that are typically not affordable for mid-market businesses,” said Rich Carlton, President of Aunalytics. “Our goal from the very beginning has been to address the midsize business sector and we remain committed to serving the best interests of our customers in this category because it is so critical for both innovation and the economy.”
Complete results of the Inc. 5000 can be found at www.inc.com/inc5000.
Tweet this: .@Aunalytics Selected for Inc. Magazine’s 5000 List of the Nation’s Fastest-growing Private Companies for Second Consecutive Year #Inc5000 #Dataplatform #Dataanalytics #Dataintegration #Dataaccuracy #AdvancedAnalytics #ArtificialIntelligence #AI #Masterdatamanagement #MDM #DataScientist #MachineLearning #ML #DigitalTransformation #FinancialServices
About Inc.
The world’s most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Conference & Gala is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit www.inc.com.
For more information on the Inc. 5000 Conference & Gala, visit https://conference.inc.com/.
About Aunalytics
Aunalytics is a data platform company delivering answers for your business. Aunalytics provides Insights-as-a-Service to answer enterprise and mid-sized companies’ most important IT and business questions. The Aunalytics® cloud-native data platform is built for universal data access, advanced analytics and AI while unifying disparate data silos into a single golden record of accurate, actionable business information. Its DaybreakTM industry intelligent data mart combined with the power of the Aunalytics data platform provides industry-specific data models with built-in queries and AI to ensure access to timely, accurate data and answers to critical business and IT questions. Through its side-by-side digital transformation model, Aunalytics provides on-demand scalable access to technology, data science, and AI experts to seamlessly transform customers’ businesses. To learn more contact us at +1 855-799-DATA or visit Aunalytics at https://www.aunalytics.com or on Twitter and LinkedIn.
PR Contact:
Denise Nelson
The Ventana Group for Aunalytics
(925) 858-5198
dnelson@theventanagroup.com
Aunalytics Extends Its Presence in Greater Columbus Area
Leading Data Platform Provider Joins One Columbus Organization to Help Foster Economic Development in the 11-County Region, and Is a Featured Presenter at a Cybersecurity Forum in Sydney on August 19
South Bend, IN (August 17, 2022) - Aunalytics, a leading data platform company delivering Insights-as-a-Service for mid-market businesses, announced today its membership in One Columbus, the economic development organization for the 11-county Columbus, Ohio region. With an office in Bellefontaine, Aunalytics is committed to contributing its resources to foster the economic well-being of the broader Columbus region.
Working with local and state partners, One Columbus serves as the business location resource for companies across Central Ohio and around the world as they grow, innovate, and compete within the global economy. Its mission is to lead a comprehensive regional growth strategy that develops and attracts the world’s most competitive companies, grows a highly adaptive workforce, prepares its communities for the future, and inspires corporate, academic and public innovation throughout the greater Columbus area.
“As with other regions of the country, the organizations in the Greater Columbus area are interested in increasing their competitive advantage through digital transformation,” said Robert Lizotte, Ohio Local Market Leader for Aunalytics. “As a member of One Columbus, we look forward to demonstrating how this shift can be accomplished in a more secure and efficient way to drive a higher return on business initiatives.”
Aunalytics also announced that its Chief Security Officer, Kerry Vickers, will speak in Sydney, Ohio at the Sydney Shelby Chamber of Commerce cybersecurity forum, “Do You Have a Plan?” on August 19, at 8amET. Vickers is one of nine subject matter experts who will outline the threats and the measures that can be taken to mitigate cyber invasions which occur on a daily basis, to organizations large and small.
Tweet this: .@Aunalytics Extends Its Presence in Greater Columbus Area #Cybersecurity #FinancialServices #Banks #CreditUnions #Dataplatform #DataAnalytics #Dataintegration #Dataaccuracy #AdvancedAnalytics #ArtificialIntelligence #AI #Masterdatamanagement #MDM #DataScientist #MachineLearning #ML #DigitalTransformation #FinancialServices
About Aunalytics
Aunalytics is a data platform company delivering answers for your business. Named a Digital Innovator by analyst firm Intellyx, and selected for the prestigious Inc. 5000 list two years in a row, Aunalytics provides Insights-as-a-Service to answer enterprise and mid-sized companies’ most important IT and business questions. The Aunalytics® cloud-native data platform is built for universal data access, advanced analytics and AI while unifying disparate data silos into a single golden record of accurate, actionable business information. Its DaybreakTM industry intelligent data mart combined with the power of the Aunalytics data platform provides industry-specific data models with built-in queries and AI to ensure access to timely, accurate data and answers to critical business and IT questions. Through its side-by-side digital transformation model, Aunalytics provides on-demand scalable access to technology, data science, and AI experts to seamlessly transform customers’ businesses. To learn more contact us at +1 855-799-DATA or visit Aunalytics at https://www.aunalytics.com or on Twitter and LinkedIn.
PR Contact:
Denise Nelson
The Ventana Group for Aunalytics
(925) 858-5198
dnelson@theventanagroup.com
Sidney-Shelby County Chamber Cybersecurity Forum 2022
Sidney-Shelby County Chamber of Commerce
Cybersecurity Forum - Do You Have a Plan?
Sidney High School Auditorium, Sidney, OH
Kerry Vickers, CISO, speaking on on endpoint security and posture at Cybersecurity Forum
Kerry Vickers, the Chief Information Security Officer at Aunalytics, will be speaking during the Sidney-Shelby County Chamber of Commerce’s Cybersecurity Forum on Friday, August 19th. As cyber attacks are on the rise, improving your cybersecurity posture is a necessity in today’s world. Kerry Vickers has decades of experience in the field and will be sharing important information on how organizations can take proactive steps to remain secure.
2022 OBL Bankers Cup
2022 OBL Bankers Cup
Jefferson Country Club, Blacklick, OH
Aunalytics excited to sponsor the 2022 OBL Bankers Cup Golf & Cornhole Tournament
Aunalytics is excited to sponsor the Ohio Bankers League’s 2022 OBL Cup Golf & Cornhole Tournament. Aunalytics has developed Daybreak™ for Financial Services, a cloud-native data platform, to enable community banks to focus on critical business outcomes and make data-driven business decisions in order to compete with large financial institutions. Aunalytics also offers a complete suite of security and managed IT services to proactively protect and maintain organizations’ technologies, allowing staff to work without interruptions.
1st Source Bank Focuses on Serving Customers with the Selection of Aunalytics Secure IT Managed Services
Company Gains Full Suite of IT Services as Infrastructure Shifts to the Cloud
South Bend, IN (August 2, 2022) - Aunalytics, a leading data platform company delivering Insights-as-a-Service for mid-market businesses, today announced that South Bend, Indiana-based 1st Source Bank, is adopting Aunalytics Secure Managed IT Services so that it can quickly leverage cloud technology and also upgrade baseline infrastructure. Under the new arrangement, Aunalytics’ services will include data center infrastructure, server infrastructure, endpoint management, backup and disaster recovery (DR), and cybersecurity.
Established in 1863, 1st Source Bank assists its clients with building wealth and achieving financial security. The bank is a community financial services provider with community values and has held these same principles while providing outstanding customer service for more than 150 years. 1st Source operates across 81 branches in Indiana and Michigan and oversees a Specialty Finance Group that provides financing for aircraft, trucks, and construction equipment.
Prior to selecting Aunalytics, the organization conducted a thorough evaluation of its technology operations and decided to avoid locking the company into a hardware environment for another five-year period. The IT leadership chose to focus its IT resources on applications, data, and integration priorities of the business instead of continuing to support hardware internally. Additionally, the IT team at 1st Source Bank sought to deploy a near-term cloud option and expand upon its backup and DR options in order to build a more flexible and fully redundant computing environment.
Another draw on the bank’s IT staff was server management, which Aunalytics will also oversee. And with future plans to implement more advanced operational analytics, 1st Source Bank plans to start a full data management initiative, taking its data strategy to the next level.
“When it comes to IT infrastructure, there are several things that we need to maintain control over: The customer experience, data efficiency and innovation,” said Inder Koul, Chief Information Officer, 1st Source Bank. “Customers are intimately linked with their data so it must be closely guarded, and innovation will allow us to test new and compelling services that will provide a range of new and thoroughly secure services. With Aunalytics, there will be a 360-degree view of managed activities and greater context to deepen our relationships with customers.”
The Aunalytics Managed Services team provides ongoing support and security for 1st Source Bank servers, workstations, and networking equipment. The company provides 24/7/365 remote monitoring and management to mitigate the risk of valuable infrastructure becoming unavailable. Hardware and software are fully managed to proactively address any issues. The company's remote monitoring agent includes client-based interactive support, performance management, alerting, asset management and reporting, as well as on-site advisors to help mitigate any possible risks to the environment.
“Successful banks are flipping the script when it comes to IT management, bringing in managed IT and solution experts like Aunalytics to oversee an important range of tasks,” said Rich Carlton, President, Aunalytics. “By enhancing its IT processes with Aunalytics, 1st Source Bank will able to more efficiently and effectively service its clients. As a result, the bank’s customers will benefit from more sophisticated products and services in 2022 and beyond.”
Tweet this: 1st Source Bank Focuses on Infrastructure Modernization and Cloud Adoption with the Selection of @Aunalytics Secure IT Managed Services - https://www.aunalytics.com/category/pr/ #datacenter #datacenterinfrastructure #serverinfrastructure #endpointmanagement #backupanddisasterrecovery #DR #cybersecurity #Dataplatform #Dataintegration #Dataaccuracy #DigitalTransformation
About Aunalytics
Aunalytics is a data platform company delivering answers for your business. Named a Digital Innovator by analyst firm Intellyx, and selected for the prestigious Inc. 5000 list, Aunalytics provides Insights-as-a-Service to answer enterprise and mid-sized companies’ most important IT and business questions. The Aunalytics® cloud-native data platform is built for universal data access, advanced analytics and AI while unifying disparate data silos into a single golden record of accurate, actionable business information. Its DaybreakTM industry intelligent data mart combined with the power of the Aunalytics data platform provides industry-specific data models with built-in queries and AI to ensure access to timely, accurate data and answers to critical business and IT questions. Through its side-by-side digital transformation model, Aunalytics provides on-demand scalable access to technology, data science, and AI experts to seamlessly transform members’ businesses. To learn more contact us at +1 855-799-DATA or visit Aunalytics at https://www.aunalytics.com or on Twitter and LinkedIn.
PR Contact:
Denise Nelson
The Ventana Group for Aunalytics
(925) 858-5198
dnelson@theventanagroup.com
Aunalytics Managed IT Services Safeguard Local Government Against Disruptive Weather, Cyber, and Pandemic Events
Partnering with Aunalytics for managed IT services has proven to be an extremely beneficial decision for one Ohio county government. Logan County, Ohio, has faced several significant events over the past few years, including severe weather, cyberattacks, and of course the pandemic—all of which challenged the resiliency of the county’s IT infrastructure.
As a primarily rural area, the county is in short supply of experienced technology professionals available to assist with IT management. As a result, the decision was made to contract with a skilled managed IT services provider with regional operations. This has evolved into what is today a strategic relationship with Aunalytics where the IT services and solution provider is integrated both horizontally and vertically to oversee nearly all aspects of the county’s IT operations. This includes oversight of applications, as well as servers, storage, endpoint devices, security, networking, and data protection to ensure business continuity.
This partnership has been particularly beneficial as Logan County has faced a series of challenging events:
- A powerful storm damaged the county’s courthouse, resulting in a complete closure and relocation of court staff and systems. The IT and business recovery experts at Aunalytics helped to set up transitional offices, upgrade servers, desktops and laptops to enable remote access to all required information stores, allowing the court to proceed with operations. Once repairs to the courthouse were complete, relocation support back to the building began and re-orchestration of all IT infrastructure was completed by the Aunalytics’ IT services and support team.
- In early 2021, the Jobs and Family Services Office was also severely damaged after the weight of ice and snow collapsed the roof, necessitating evacuation to a temporary facility. As with the damaged courthouse, the managed IT services team coordinated with a rented facility prior to occupancy and wired the location for operations, minimizing downtime and facilitating the quick re-opening of the temporary office location in order to return services to the community.
- The past 12 months have also seen a recurring stream of cyberattacks, where Aunalytics has defended the county’s sensitive data and systems from downtime. However, in one instance, a server at the sheriff’s headquarters was struck by an attack, resulting in a printer issue. The attack occurred on a Friday when Aunalytics took immediate action and rectified the printer issue over the weekend, returning it to proper operation by Monday morning.
- Adding to the challenges, the COVID-19 pandemic began in March of 2020, causing a number of IT issues as county employees worked remotely, exposing a large number of computing endpoints in the form of laptops, desktops, printers and other network-connected devices outside of the county walls. Aunalytics assisted by improving virtual private network (VPN) services for much higher traffic volumes than usual and managed these systems so that county employees could re-establish their work environments from home where they would be protected against the contagious and, in some cases, deadly virus.
Measuring Success
The county measures the success of its outsourced IT operations by looking at uptime and risk mitigation. Aunalytics has provided an IT services foundation that reduces the number of internal employee hours allocated to IT management and monitoring. Aunalytics enables Logan County staff to work remotely in a much more efficient and reliable manner than otherwise possible. Furthermore, both the security and disaster recovery capabilities implemented have been exceptional, guarding the county against serious downtime for many years.
According to Jack Reser, Auditor of Logan County, “The causes of downtime in a distributed IT infrastructure can be innumerable and the county has definitely had its share of events putting its services at risk. However, Aunalytics has been a reliable IT services partner, quickly responding to our challenges and with expertise that ensures we are returned to the people’s business without delay. Aunalytics has been a steadfast IT partner that we plan to work with closely in 2022 and beyond.”
Learn more about how Aunalytics Managed IT Services have benefitted the Logan County government by downloading the full case study.
Lowering Cybersecurity Insurance Premiums with Managed Security Services
Lowering Cybersecurity Insurance Premiums with Managed Security Services
Midmarket organizations face the threat of cyberattacks that put every organization at great risk. As a result, a greater number of IT professionals are turning to managed security services to lower cybersecurity insurance premiums.
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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.
Lowering Cybersecurity Insurance Premiums with Managed Security Services - PDF
Lowering Cybersecurity Insurance Premiums with Managed Security Services
Midmarket organizations face the threat of cyberattacks that put every organization at great risk. As a result, a greater number of IT professionals are turning to managed security services to lower cybersecurity insurance premiums.