Blue Light IT

The MSP partner program market has grown significantly in a very short time. Organizations are frequently looking for managed services partnerships to meet their IT needs. Managed services are providing small and midsize businesses in particular a great alternative to the old and traditional in-house IT department businesses have grown accustomed to.

A True MSP Partner Will Ask the Right Questions

Your business is their business, which means they need to get to know you, your business and your goals. They should ask questions like:

What specific resources do you need from your provider?

Are there certain characteristics and specifications you need to support your workflows?

What sort of data sorage and migration challenges have you encountered?

What Services Should You Expect From an MSP?

It can be difficult for executives who are unfamiliar with the managed IT model to have a firm understanding of what exactly they should require and expect from an MSP partner.

There are a number of services which are a must when hiring managed IT, including:

On-site technical support and installation

Engineers are certified subject-matter experts who act as a second-level response when a business needs maintenance or repairs. They are responsible for planning and installing IT projects on-site and making check-up visits at your convenience to make sure everything is running smoothly.

Remote monitoring and troubleshooting

Support teams which are capable of proactively monitoring the business’ network functions.

If a client is experiencing an issue and needs an immediate resolution, a help desk should be on-hand or an engineer available to remotely troubleshoot a problem—often without intervention from the client. This support should be expected to be offered as a 24/7 service

A Commitment to Documentation

Make sure the MSP you hire or look at has strong documentation strategies in place. Your company is going to encounter unique situations that don’t always have a textbook “fix,” and it’s essential that your MSP can document them as they crop up.

Documentation makes a problem easier to solve and gives your company the context needed to avoid the same issue in the future. What’s more, an MSP that has a good documentation strategy in place can look back at the logs to observe problems your business has encountered before, and develop a plan to cope with it in the future.

Proactivity

A good managed service partner should always be proactively monitoring and anticipating the next problem. If a provider is only offering static monthly reports on what’s running smoothly and not what is potentially at risk, they aren’t proactively managing your network.

While your network management team should fix problems as they occur, it’s more beneficial to anticipate a problem and proactively take steps to avoid it, or in a worst case, have a solution ready before it happens.

Does the MSP deliver cybersecurity solutions?

Your business should be prepared for cyber-attacks. A good MSP should have a comprehensive security solution with best practices to reduce risk. Make sure you understand their security procedures (penetration testing, IP scanning, compliance, intrusion detection) and how they will be handling your information.

Does the MSP have tenure in its respective space and industry?

A good MSP should be a long-term fit so it’s important to ensure that they have a healthy relationship with their existing clients. This may require a nuanced approach so speak to a few prospective managed service providers and see how they differ.

Do they have blog posts, case studies, testimonials and other downloadable resources? A good MSP is a thought leader that drives the conversation forward among peers. Ask the vendor for a list of current and past customers as well as references. Research what publications and industry experts say about the company. Ask the MSP about their future and see if their values align with yours.

Conclusion

Bringing an MSP in your business can be a big decision and you should treat it as such. Choosing the right MSP Partner will help you time to perform up-front research can save you time, money and frustration in the long run.

Phishing scams can range from email schemes targeting companies to cold calling individuals and preying on their vulnerabilities by claiming to offer some sort of help or solution. The objective is the same: stealing user details to gain access to sensitive information.

These include Phishing, Vishing, Smishing, Spear Phishing, and Whaling.

Phishing Phishing ranges from scamming a group of user accounts such as anyone who has a Walmart account by sending a blast email, to contacting a particular individual by sending a direct email. Some are more obvious than others. Depending on the type of phishing strategy, the attacker may spend more time on an individual target than a group of users usually because of the access they may have. Some attackers are so sophisticated that even the most careful and paranoid individual can fall victim to such a scam. Phishing attacks are the most common of information security breaches.

Vishing Vishing is similar to phishing attacks, where attackers have the same objective of stealing one’s personal or sensitive information, but done through a Voice Call, hence the `V` instead of the `Ph`. The most common is when you receive a phone call from someone claiming to be a large company representative (amazon, apple, irs etc), informing you that your account has been compromised or has some security risks, and they need to verify it is you. The victim will be asked to give their credit card details and allow access to their computer to unknowingly install malware that could contain anything from malware to ransomware, giving the attacker access to bank details, passwords as well possibly blocking them from logging in to their own computer. This is a common case that many have fallen victim to.

Smishing Smishing uses the same tactics of vishing, except instead of a Voice Call, a text message is sent to your mobile phone also known as an SMS. Replacing the `V` with `Sm`. The attacker will send a text message claiming to be your bank informing you of a breach to your account and directing you to click on a link in the message or asking you to call a phone number to remedy the issue immediately. Once you follow the link or call the phone number, the attacker will ask you to verify your bank account details by asking for sensitive information such as your SSN. With this information the attacker will have access to your bank account.

Spear Phishing Spear phishing is when an attacker targets a specific group or type of individuals such as a company’s accounting or HR department. For example, if you are going fishing you can catch any type of fish, but if you go spear fishing, you target specific fish with your spear. In this case, the victims are a targeted group.

Whaling Whaling is similar to Spear Phishing being that it targets a specific group, except it goes after the “big fish”. In other words, Whaling targets big corporations or individuals who have access to big accounts, such as C-Level individuals. This may come in form of an email regarding a lawsuit. The email will include a link directing to another page asking for sensitive information about the company such as Tax ID numbers, bank account details and other confidential information. So while a whale is not a fish, the target is bigger and the means to catch it are as well.