One of the most important assets in every business are the employees, but they can also be the weakest link in your cybersecurityframework. One wrong click in a malicious email can unleash malware into your entire network and compromise all of your sensitive data and confidential files. However, there is a way to ensure that your employees are capable of contributing to the safety and security of your business, and that is through user awareness training.

User awareness training is comprised of two essential components: educating your employees about cybersecurity threats and how to recognize and avoid them; and developing a comprehensive cybersecurity policy and regularly updating it. The first component, educating your workforce, is critical because they are the ones who can be the weakest link in the chain.

Cybersecurity is Everyone's Responsibility

Cybercriminals are clever, and they will do whatever they can to gain access to your data and exploit your network. Cybersecurity is the responsibility of every single person in your organization, and even the tiniest mistakes can have devastating results. So staying up to date on the threats that exist, regularly educating your employees, and even utilizing software to test your employees’ cybersecurity awareness is crucial for maintaining the integrity of your network and data.

In addition to educating your employees, you also need to develop a detailed cybersecurity policy to outlines all of your cybersecurity measures and best practices that employees must follow, and make sure they review that policy on an annual basis.

This policy should cover everything from acceptable use of company equipment; to password requirements; to what kind of firewall and antivirus protections need to be in place and how often they need to be updated. The difference between the policy and training is that the policy tends to be more formal and incredibly detailed, where the training needs to be more engaging and digestible for your employees to truly retain what they need to know.

User awareness training is something that every business needs but not every business actually does. One cybersecurity incident can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and can lead to loss of customers, loss of revenue, and even the permanent closure of your business. Don’t take any risks with your company – contact TAG Solutions today to learn how we can help educate your employees and establish a cybersecurity plan that ensures the safety and security of your network.

When evaluating an MSP, one of the biggest considerations needs to be whether or not they are equipped to keep your data and network safe and secure. One of the many ways to do this is to see what kind of security certifications they have. SOC-2 compliance is one of the most important certifications that any IT provider can have. It was developed by the AICPA (American Institute of CPAs), and when an MSP achieves this certification, it demonstrates their commitment to ensuring the safety and integrity of your business and network.

Trust Service Principles

There are 5 main “trust service principles” that make up SOC-2: security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy. Let’s delve into each of them in more detail:

Security

The security principle controls who has access to your data and your network, and helps to maintain the integrity of those. Often this principle employs access controls, which allows your business to customize who can access different files and sensitive data based on their user role and job level. Additionally, this principle will utilize antivirus software, firewalls, and multi-factor authentication, or MFA, to ensure that there is no unauthorized access into your system.

Availability

This refers to the accessibility of your business’s systems, processes, and software, specifically as stated in your SLA (service-level agreement). Essentially, this stipulates the minimum acceptable accessibility that both your business and your MSP have agreed upon. One of the keys to this principle is that it monitors your network for any kind of security-related incidents that may affect accessibility. This includes monitoring network performance, site failover, and any security incidents that would affect your ability to access your essential business processes.

Processing integrity

This principle is essentially measuring whether your network is doing what it should be doing. It needs to be delivering the data you need at the speed you need it. It makes sure that data processing is complete, valid, accurate, timely, and authorized. It is important to note that this principle refers to the integrity of how your data is processed, not the integrity of the data itself. If the data is corrupted, this will not be part of the processing integrity principle. So maintaining quality assurance measures, as well as monitoring the data processing itself, is still a critical part of your business.

Confidentiality

This principle is relatively straightforward: confidentiality ensures that your data is secured from people who are not authorized to access it, and that it is encrypted and only available to those who need access to it and other trusted entities. This can be achieved through the use of a variety of security controls, such as firewalls for both the network and applications, MFA, and other rigorous security measures. This is the best way to make sure that your data stays out of the wrong hands and that your sensitive data and company information is not compromised in any way.

Privacy

This principle is essential for every business, especially those who store sensitive customer data and privileged information. It covers the collection retention, use, disclosure, and disposal of this data. Often this is outlined in a company’s privacy policy. This data typically includes personal identifiable information (PII) such as names, contact information, email addresses, and even more sensitive data such as social security numbers, bank account information, and credit card data. Many businesses must comply with certain security measures to ensure that this data does not fall into the wrong hands, and if it does, the consequences can be catastrophic. In addition to being subject to fines and possible litigation, your business could lose customers, revenue, and deal with irreparable damage to your reputation.

Maintaining these 5 principles can be difficult and overwhelming for a business to maintain on its own. By hiring an MSP or IT provider who is SOC-2 certified, you can rest assured that your business is in the right hands and that the IT professionals you’re working with know how to keep everything safe and secure so you can focus on the other aspects of your business. TAG Solutions is proud to be SOC-2 certified, and this allows us to provide the highest level of service to our customers. To learn more about what we can do for your business and how our SOC-2 certification sets us apart from the competition, contact us today!

Cybersecurity initially began as an endpoint response system. What this means is that cybersecurity became a reactive part of the IT infrastructure of a company. When a cyberattack happened, it became a race against time for IT professionals to try and mitigate the damage from this attack and minimize the long-term consequences to the business. They operated in a reactive model, and while this was often helpful in responding to attacks once they happened, it didn’t do much to prevent the attack from happening in the first place.

In an effort to migrate from a solely reactive cybersecurity framework into a more proactive model, two solutions were developed: EDR (endpoint detection and response) and XDR (extended detection and response). Let’s delve a little more into these two solutions and see how they can impact your business.

EDR has a primary focus on a specific endpoint in a cybersecurity framework, and that focus includes constantly monitoring that endpoint for potential threats, ensuring that all necessary updates and patches are applied, and stopping any attacks before they infiltrate the system. This is a departure from the reactive processes of the past in that it doesn’t wait until the attack is already in process before taking steps to respond. Think of it as installing a security camera and motion sensor on the front door of your home. You’re taking steps to ensure that you catch any criminals or threats to your home before they gain entry and jeopardize your valuables, eliminating the need for costly responsive measures to replace or repair what was damaged in the attack.

While EDR maintains a primary focus on a specific endpoint in your IT infrastructure, many businesses rely on an enterprise system which has multiple endpoints and therefore needs a system to monitor all of them. If you think back to our analogy about protecting your home, you can take significant proactive measures to protect your front door against intruders, but if they can still gain entry to your home through other means, such as windows, patio doors, or the garage, then you’re not really providing comprehensive protection for your valuables. XDR differs from EDR in the fact that it provides protection for the entirety of your enterprise network, including endpoints, cloud storage, and mobile devices. Basically anything that you include as part of your business network is protected with XDR. Additionally, XDR is able to provide your IT team or MSP with an overview of the security status of your entire network at a single glance, greatly simplifying the overall cybersecurity implementation and maintenance.

Both of these solutions provide significantly more protection than the reactive cybersecurity models of the past, so the main question for most businesses is which solution to implement in their business. Although XDR might seem like the obvious choice given the fact that it offers a wider range of coverage, consider how large your network is. If you don’t have a massive enterprise system, then you might only need protection for one or two endpoints at most. In that case, an EDR solution might be the best option for your needs. However, if you have a more sophisticated network setup, or you rely heavily on your network to support multiple locations, remote workers, or essential customer services, then an XDR solution might be more appropriate.

Regardless of which solution is right for you, it is critical that you ensure your cybersecurity framework is operating on a proactive model, not reactive. The time to respond to a security breach isn’t when it’s already in progress; you want to stop cybercriminals from accessing your system well before your data and systems are in jeopardy. At TAG Solutions, we have the skills and know-how to help make sure that your network is safe and secure against cybercrime. Contact us today to learn how we can set you up for security success.