World Password Day was celebrated globally on May 4th 2023 with lots of emphasis on the improvement of password safety against breaches digitally with little or no mention of manual and safer means.

Imagine a world beyond passwords, where users can securely access data at any place at any time without having to validate themselves manually. A post-password world is no longer a distant dream, but instead a closely approaching reality.

Data breaches involving social engineering and credential misuse accounted for 82% of breaches in 2022, according to a recent study by Verizon. Online security might seem impossible without passwords, however, many users still practice poor password hygiene, posing a huge risk when it comes to cyber threats such as brute-force and dictionary attacks.

“Treat your password like your toothbrush. Don’t let anybody else use it, and get a new one every six months.” – Clifford Stoll, Astronomer & Engineer

It’s 2023—Are passwords still relevant today?

Technology is fast-paced. A lot has evolved in cybersecurity over the last few years—security norms, device smartness, biometric authentication, and security best practices. But one thing has never lost its significance: the password.

Passwords still serve as the simplest and most effective means to guard access to data, privileged accounts, or most digital resources. Passwords never go out of fashion because they are easy to use, easy to change if needed, cost-effective, and do not demand additional software or hardware to function.

Thinking Beyond Passwords with ManageEngine.

Passwords alone aren’t enough to protect against attacks, regardless of whether you want to go passwordless or consider them indispensable. With our webinar, you’ll learn how to implement a context-based identity defence strategy that uses modern authentication factors for secure access to resources.

You’ll gain insight into the alternative methods that can help enhance identity protection on the internet and learn how to implement these strategies across your organization.

What are you waiting for? Sign up today for a solution from ManageEngine to be fully protected and proactively avert severe consequences such as reputational damage, loss of business data, and financial costs.

In a world where risks are on the rise, cybersecurity is key. Cybersecurity refers to the body of technology processes, and practices designed to protect networks, devices, programs, and data from attack, damage, or unauthorized access. Cybersecurity is the protection of internet-connected systems such as hardware, software and data from cyber threats. This practice is used by individuals and enterprises to protect against unauthorized access to data centres and other computerised systems. It can also be simply said that Cybersecurity is “Risk Management”.

Some reasons your business needs a cybersecurity system

•Protection against External Threats: Millions of cyber threats are created every year and at great cost to businesses. While primarily launched for financial gain, the reasons behind cyber-attacks vary as the perpetrators themselves. Whether it is cyber criminals, hacktivists, or industrial spies, the common ground these bad actors share is how agile, sophisticated, and stealthy their attacks are becoming.

•Protection against Internal Threats: The weakest link in the cyber security chain remains the human factor. Whether it’s accidental, negligent, or outright malicious, insider threats can come from current or former employees, third-party vendors, or even trusted partners. But with proactive monitoring of networks and managed access, detecting and responding to threats can cut down on costly incidents. Moreover, providing consistent, up-to-date training can help turn risks into another extension of the cyber security solution you need.

•Regulation Compliance: For industries that still remain under-regulated, there’s an opportunity for businesses to invest in cyber security and see compliance as more than an obligation. In fact, according to data privacy and cyber security law experts, leaders could approach cyber security in regulatory compliance as “a competitive advantage, getting ahead of industry competition before under-regulated industries become regulated.”

•Improved Productivity: Viruses and other cyber-attacks can slow networks and personal devices down to a crawl, making it virtually impossible for employees to work, for websites to function, and for businesses to operate. By implementing a range of cyber security measures such as improved firewalls, virus scanning and automated backups, you can drastically reduce violations and the downtime it takes to remedy the breach. Education and training can also help guide employees in identifying potential email phishing scams, suspect links, and other nefarious criminal efforts.

•Cost Savings and Value: As cyber-attacks only continue to grow more sophisticated and complex every day, it’s important to weigh the cost of dealing with one attack versus the value of taking preventative measures. By mitigating risks, you put your business in a better position to respond, recover, and keep existing customers happy, a far more cost-efficient option than attracting new ones.

•Brand Trust and Reputation: Perhaps the greatest case to make for cyber security in business is the reputation that you earn and keep. One of the most important factors in business growth is customer retention. Maintaining brand loyalty through a strong cyber security position is paramount for customers today and the shortest path to repeat business, recommendations, and higher per-ticket purchases. It also opens doors to potential future ventures and expansion, helping producers land on the vendor list with larger organizations as part of their supply chain that is only as strong as their weakest link.

As a business, looking to maximise diverse commercial opportunities, maintain a sterling brand perception, and grow, you must adopt cyber security to protect your networks, devices, programs, and data from attack, damage, or unauthorized access from potential cyber-attacks.

You can sign up for a tool like Acronis to be fully protected and proactively avert severe consequences such as reputational damage, loss of business data, and financial costs.

Patch management is the process of identifying, testing, deploying, and installing software patches (or updates) to computers. A software patch is a piece of code, tailored to fix existing bugs/vulnerabilities in the software, add new features, or enhance its security.

In general, the software patch management process includes scanning computers in the network for missing patches, testing them in a test group of machines, and deploying them manually or automatically via patch management tools.

Why is patch management important?

Here are some key reasons that state the importance of patch management:

• Preventing security breaches: Software patch management or software patching is one of the most important IT tasks in any organization, as patches fix vulnerabilities in the software and applications, keeping cyberattacks at bay.

• Ensuring compliance: With cybercrime on the rise, an integral part of a proper patch management strategy is to ensure that all the endpoints in an organization adhere to compliance standards.

• Feature updates: Besides providing security and bug fixes, patches also introduce new features and functions which enhance the end-user experience.

• Downtime prevention: Ransomware attacks and other cyber threats not only result in data breaches but can also cause system downtime but patch management ensures the endpoints are updated and secure, thereby preventing downtime due to security breaches.

ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus provides:

• Windows patch management: Automates Windows patching, mitigates security risks, and fixes vulnerabilities in minutes.

• MacOS patch management: Deploys and manages patches to all macOS endpoints from a single console.

• Linux patch management: Provides on-demand and scheduled patch deployment of Linux-related security fixes.

If you’re looking for an affordable patch management solution that offers everything listed above, look no further! Patch Manager Plus offers all these features to help keep your network patched and secured, all from one, central location. This patch management tool is compatible with Windows, macOS, and Linux and offers a FREE edition for up to 25 devices. In addition, it also provides server patch management to help keep data secure and up to date.

Our senior IT engineers are available to schedule a remote consultation/demo of our solution with you.

CONTACT US

Email: enquiries@tranter-it.com

T: 08183405221 or 09023416588

Educational institutions are less likely than others to detect in-progress attacks, which naturally leads to higher attack success and encryption rates.

The critical information they possess, like learning data that is supplemented with background data, provides information on how well students are learning, what variables are linked to achievement, and which groups perform poorly. This distinguishes them from the other numerous organizations targeted by the serious cyber threat. System analysis, better resource allocation, agenda setting, and the policy cycle can all benefit from this information.

According to a report by the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center, the average school spends less than 8% of its IT budget on cybersecurity, with one in five schools spending less than 1%. Cyber attackers find it easy to penetrate their networks as they have weak security compared to other industries.

9 security practices that should be followed in every educational institution.

1. Deploy stronger password policies and use two-factor authentication to keep your endpoints secured.

2. Eliminate software and firmware vulnerabilities by staying up-to-date with released patches.

3. Actively audit and monitor all activities in your network, auditing your ports, firewall, BitLocker and identifying suspicious incidents.

4. Uninstall outdated and high-risk software once identified on your network.

5. Allow installation of safe and secure applications on your network.

6. To avoid insider attacks, establish privilege management and just-in-time access controls for users.

7. Block malicious web extensions and web applications on your browsers to prevent browser-based attacks.

8. Monitor and manage peripheral devices on your network to prevent data leakage.

9. Backup your data at regular intervals

Enforcing these security practices can be a bit difficult, especially in a school environment that often has limited resources dedicated to IT security. Not all security solutions let you follow all the practices mentioned above, so it can be even more difficult for the IT admins of schools and educational institutions as they might need to maintain multiple solutions to achieve security.

It’s important to be aware of the most common IT challenges that can take place at home and the workplace, to remain productive everywhere.

The issues can be as simple as a slow-running computer and as complex as a smoking laptop (yes, that happens!) But, the good news is that many IT problems are pretty easy to fix and the more you know, the easier it’ll be to control and resolve them.

So, here are 7 of the most common IT issues that businesses and individuals face.

1. Forgotten Password: This seems like an inevitability in the workplace and it’s one of the top issues in IT support and troubleshooting. Coming back from holiday only to find that you’ve forgotten the key digits that’ll grant you access to your files is highly disruptive. To avoid this situation entirely, it would be a good idea to follow a strategy that would decrease the chances of you forgetting the password in the first place.

2. Accidentally Deleting Important Files: Accidentally deleting important files is also a common IT problem but it’s also one of the most avoidable. If it does happen, however, the first piece of advice would be to check the recycling bin. To provide additional layers of protection, you may benefit from using software, such as OneDrive or Dropbox, that syncs your files to the cloud. This means that a copy of your file is automatically saved to the cloud so that, even if you accidentally delete a file from your hard drive, the most recent version can still be retrieved. Although deleted files can be retrieved from synced files on the cloud, files can still be lost.

3. Slow Performance: Slow computers are a burden. Trying to complete work efficiently with a machine that is crippled by errors, weak software and insufficient RAM is a challenge to one’s patience. However, if you can get to the root of the problem, you will be able to re-energise it back to an optimal speed.

Here are the main issues you need to keep an eye out for:

• Not utilizing RAM effectively

• Not enough space for the hard disk

• Too many start-up programs

We conducted an interview with Peter French, General Manager, MEA & South Asia at Acronis, a leading data, applications, systems and productivity solutions provider. In this interview, Peter, a certified Level 2 CrossFit coach, speaks to Acronis operations in Nigeria, cybersecurity trends, data centre and sundry issues in the industry.

How will you describe the year 2022 for Acronis?

Peter French described the year 2022 as an exceptional year of accomplishment and growth for Acronis. Globally, Acronis experienced a 53% Year on Year total cloud annual recurring revenue (ARR) and 59% YoY cloud service provider ARR. “We’ve continued pushing for innovation in our roster of cyber protection solutions, with 2022 releasing over 60 new technical advances,” he said. More locally, in Africa, Acronis has seen significant growth in 2022. In Nigeria alone, Acronis has increased its partner base 10-fold. “Our partners are the heart of our business and across the globe, we’re excited to report 3,500 new global service provider signups over the past year, he said.

With over 3.5 million protected workloads, over the past year, Acronis cyber protection solution stopped over 100 million cyberattacks. 2022 marked the most successful year in Acronis history, with a new funding round of $250 million that brought the total value of our company to $3.5 billion.

Acronis launched a data centre early last year, what is the acceptance rating of the data centre?

As a result of Acronis Nigerian launch in 2022, Acronis is currently witnessing an increase in MSP participation and rapid adoption of our advanced cyber protection portfolio. Additionally, “our presence helps expand the cloud market in Nigeria” We seek out data centres of the highest quality globally to ensure our customers have the best possible experience.

There is a projection of a $6trillion loss to cybersecurity within and outside Nigeria by 2030, as a cyber-protection company, what can be done to avert this or reduce it?

At Acronis, we recognize the need to eliminate needless complexity in cyber protection, so we deliver a simplified, single-agent platform for MSPs to protect customers.

Our integrated solution not only reduces complexity but also reduces costs and risks with the ability to free up resources and time for our partners while closing potential security gaps.

Another vital facet to reduce losses posed by cybersecurity threats in today’s cyber threat landscape is proactive grassroots-level education and training.

By teaching and practicing responsible cyber awareness skills, intelligent security habits can be adopted and utilized by all parties. Similar to how someone might strive to improve their health and fitness by cultivating knowledgeable habits, digital hygiene can be trained and honed.

Acronis refers to this as being “#CyberFit”. No one is exempt from this, from a child using home devices to a professional working in a complex IT environment. Our software is built, tested, distributed, licensed, and stored in Switzerland, where we’ve always employed robust security processes and protocols that protect the information for Acronis and our customers. We are continuously pushing for new innovations to keep up with the developing threat landscape. As more companies and individuals become interconnected, we will continue to innovate to keep all data, apps, and systems secure.

Acronis has been doing business in Nigeria, how much of your local capacity are you leveraging to penetrate the market?

Acronis as a Swiss company with a worldwide presence, strive to think globally and act locally. At the start of 2022, Acronis had zero local presence in Nigeria. Fast forward a few months and we now have two distributors and over 10 employees in Nigeria. “We’ve also expanded their reach to help service businesses in the African region.

Acronis look forward to further expansion into this region. In 2023 “we celebrate 20 years of continued innovation from Acronis. We’re excited to see even more opportunistic growth and expansion into Africa and invite interested service providers to reach out to learn more about our partner program.

To Become an Acronis Partner in Nigeria, kindly CLICK HERE