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What is a Security Operations Center (SOC) and Why Do You Need It?

Kaseya — Mon, 02 May 2022 21:19:40 +0000

The global average total cost of a data breach in 2021 was a whopping $4.24 million. According to the trends over the last couple of years, this figure is expected to rise in 2022. That said, it is becoming increasingly important to always have eyes on your systems and networks to make sure you can identify and remediate any potential threats and vulnerabilities before they cause any significant damage to your business. However, given the volume of work that IT management entails, it can be very difficult for your IT team to have complete visibility of your IT infrastructure all of the time. And that’s why we have SOC.

What is a Security Operations Center (SOC)?

A SOC is a centralized facility within an organization that houses an information security team responsible for continuously monitoring, detecting, analyzing and responding to any cybersecurity incidents on a 24/7/365 basis. The team makes use of a set of predefined processes and a variety of solutions to prevent and remediate cybersecurity incidents and strengthen the organization’s security posture.

A SOC is often confused with a variety of similar IT functions. Let’s take a look at the differences between a SOC and some other IT functions below:

NOC vs. SOC

A NOC or Network Operations Center is a facility that’s responsible for maintaining optimal network performance and ensuring that the organization’s IT infrastructure duly meets SLAs. On the other hand, a SOC is tasked with protecting an organization against cyberattacks that could otherwise cause business disruption.

In essence however, both a NOC and a SOC are similar in the sense that both are focused at protecting the organization against potential threats and risks to corporate productivity and network performance.

SIEM vs. SOC

SIEM or Security Incident Event Management solutions collect and aggregate data from a variety of different sources and implement data analytics to detect and identify probable cyberthreats to the network. On the other hand, a SOC monitors an organization’s network to identify and remediate cyber incidents. SIEM and SOC work in tandem with each other to alert companies about any potential cyber incidents and help them prevent data breaches.

MDR vs. SOC

MDR or Managed Detection and Response is a managed security service that is typically outsourced to enhance the protection of your IT infrastructure against cyberthreats. It’s basically an advanced, round-the clock security control that is useful for businesses that do not have their own SOC. As discussed above, a SOC is responsible for security device management, incident qualification, threat and vulnerability management and proactive monitoring, among other functions.

How does a SOC work?

The first step towards setting up a SOC is for the organization to define a detailed strategy and then design a suitable security architecture to support that strategy that the SOC team will work with. The strategy must include clear business-specific goals for the different departments.

The SIEM system works in tandem with the SOC and gathers events and logs from hundreds of organizational systems and security tools and creates actionable security alerts. The SOC team analyzes these data logs and responds to the security alerts generated by SIEM.

In addition to this, the SOC also monitors endpoints and networks for vulnerabilities in order to stay in compliance with industry regulations and protect critical data against cyberthreats. Some SOCs also leverage malware reverse engineering, cryptanalysis and forensic analysis to detect and analyze security incidents.

What is the primary goal of a SOC?

According to the 2022 Global MSP Benchmark report, the percentage of MSPs who said they feel their business is at greater risk from cybercriminals than in the past increased from 39% in 2021 to 50% in 2022. SOC is a critical component of an organization’s security system and data protection strategies. With continuous 24/7 monitoring, a SOC helps reduce the level of exposure of an organization’s systems and networks to both internal and external risks.

In the absence of an efficient SOC, cyberattacks can end up going unnoticed for a long time and wreak havoc on systems since most companies do not possess the solutions to detect and respond to cyberthreats in a timely manner.

A SOC allows organizations to have better visibility of their environment and also implement suitable strategies and procedures to curb cyberattacks. With timely detection of vulnerabilities, organizations can be better prepared to remediate cyber incidents before they aggravate.

What are the three major elements of a SOC?

The success of a SOC depends on three major elements, namely people, processes and technologies. In this section, we’ll discuss what each entails.

People

The most important pillar for any organization’s cybersecurity strategy is its people. It is also very difficult to find the right people to manage your SOC most efficiently. In order to set up an efficient SOC, you need people of different skill sets to perform different roles. In the absence of the right people, even the most sophisticated of your security systems and processes will fall flat and not yield the required results.

Processes

For the SOC to perform to its highest potential, you must have a set of pre-defined processes for the SOC operators to follow. These processes help the operators understand what needs to be done in a particular situation and also include protocols for documentation to track data, security measures for transferring confidential data, managing client data and user authentication to bolster data security. In addition, there should also be processes that define how to monitor networks for vulnerabilities and how to mitigate risks associated with security incidents.

Technologies

Having a set of powerful, well-integrated technologies is imperative to building an efficient and effective SOC. Businesses must aim for a layered approach to building a fool-proof security architecture that repels even the most sophisticated cyberattacks.

Some of the most important technologies for building a strong SOC are cloud security, data encryption, endpoint security, application security, malware detection, vulnerability scanners, network security, firewalls and so on. The most successful SOC creates an interconnected security system with these tools to achieve a well-rounded cybersecurity posture.

What is a SOC team?

A SOC operates as a hub or a command center that monitors an organization’s entire IT infrastructure including appliances, devices, information storage systems and networks. A SOC houses a team of skilled operators that are responsible for continuously monitoring, detecting, analyzing and responding to cyberthreats.

Organizations that understand the importance of cybersecurity invest adequate resources in building a strong SOC team and providing it with the necessary tools to handle potential cyberthreats. The roles and responsibilities of a SOC team are fairly well-defined and straightforward. The goal of a successful SOC team is to implement the right skills and employ minimum resources to gain visibility into active and emerging threats.

SOC team: Roles and responsibilities

In this section, we will discuss some of the main roles of a SOC team and what each is responsible for:

Incident Responder

As the name suggests, an incident responder is tasked with configuring and monitoring security solutions and leveraging them to identify threats. As the Tier 1-level profile in a SOC team, the incident responder examines hundreds of alerts every day in order to segregate them based on level of prioritization. Once classified, this information is then forwarded to the security investigator.

Security Investigator

After a security incident, the security investigator employs the use of sophisticated resources, such as threat intelligence, to find out what happened and why. Working closely with the incident responder, the security investigator identifies the affected devices and hosts. The security investigator also carries out an in-depth investigation to identify the attack source, methodologies employed to launch the attack and so on.

Security Analyst

A security analyst is responsible for compiling and analyzing data around a security incident to review past incidents, detect unidentified vulnerabilities and investigate possible resolutions. Security analysts not only report any potential cyberthreats but also suggest changes required to bolster the cybersecurity posture of an organization.

SOC Manager

The SOC manager is tasked with managing the SOC team and supervising SOC operations. They hire and train other members of the SOC team and are responsible for designing and implementing a strong cybersecurity strategy. The SOC manager also orchestrates and supervises the organization’s response to major cyberthreats.

Auditor

Like most other IT processes, SOC operations too fall under the scope of certain industry and government regulations. As such, the SOC team comprises an auditor who is certified in compliance mandates and can ensure that the organization stays compliant with the required regulations to avoid hefty penalties owing to non-compliance.

Security Architect/Engineer

A security architect or security engineer is a hardware/software specialist who is responsible for maintaining the organization’s security architecture and keeping systems and tools up to date. They might also be responsible for designing, documenting and updating security protocols to be followed by the organization.

What are SOC services?

According to Cybersecurity Ventures, the imperative to protect increasingly digitized businesses, Internet of Things (IoT) devices and consumers from cybercrime will propel global spending on cybersecurity products and services to $1.75 trillion cumulatively for the five-year period from 2021 to 2025. It is likely that more businesses will turn to SOC services to reinforce their cybersecurity stance and protect their IT infrastructure from emerging cyberthreats.

There are an array of security services and functions that a SOC team typically provides. Here’s a roundup of some of the common SOC services that you must know about:

Incident response

Incident response is one of the primary services provided by SOCs. Once a security incident occurs, the SOC team is responsible for identifying and remediating it as soon as possible. Quick response to an incident is imperative to minimize business disruption and ensure quick recovery to normal operations. The SOC team builds a robust security incident response plan to ensure immediate and effective response to an incident.

Threat monitoring

The SOC team is also responsible for employing adequate tools and resources to scan the organization’s entire IT network to detect any threats, suspicious activities or abnormalities that might lead to a security incident. This round-the-clock monitoring helps the SOC quickly identify emerging threats and take immediate actions to minimize the potential damage.

Vulnerability scanning

The SOC team employs the use of advanced vulnerability scanning solutions to examine computer networks, identify any system weaknesses and vulnerabilities and fix them before they can be exploited. Since infrastructural changes and business growth can lead to new vulnerabilities popping up every day, vulnerability scanning is a constant process that needs to be carried out regularly to identify and remediate any system exposures as and when they occur.

What is managed SOC?

Also termed as SOC-as-a-Service, managed SOC comprises cybersecurity experts that are outsourced by an organization that does not have in-house SOC. This team of external experts monitor your network, logs, devices and cloud environment to identify, analyze and remediate threats and vulnerabilities.

Managed SOC services are usually employed on a subscription basis where the organization pays a regular (monthly, quarterly, yearly) fee to ensure that their IT environment is safe and well-protected against emerging cyberthreats and vulnerabilities. Organizations that do not have the budgets to invest in security software, experts, hardware, training and more can still ensure 24/7 monitoring of their IT infrastructure and enhance their security posture at a fraction of the cost.

Managed SOC from Kaseya

Managed SOC is a white labeled managed service offered by Kaseya that helps you stop attackers in their tracks with Kaseya’s powerful threat monitoring platform to detect malicious and suspicious activity across three critical attack vectors namely endpoint, network and cloud. Kaseya’s well-rounded team of security veterans hunt, triage and work with your team to discover actionable threats through continuous monitoring, breach detection, threat hunting, intrusion monitoring and more. With Kaseya’s managed SOC, you get comprehensive protection against modern threats and can sleep better at night knowing that your network is being monitored and protected against threats, 24/7.

Want to know how Kaseya’s SOC can help you achieve a holistic and layered approach to cybersecurity? Get in touch with us today.

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The Role of a Help Desk: Understanding Its Function, Benefits, Goals and Best Practices

Kaseya — Fri, 29 Apr 2022 17:22:02 +0000

What is a help desk?

An IT help desk is a platform or tool that enables businesses to organize customer communication and respond to IT-related queries quickly and effectively. The IT help desk tool helps your IT team track and resolve IT issues generated from different channels from a single console. The tool saves time and promotes faster and more effective resolution of issues, thus enhancing the overall user experience and driving business growth.

What is the difference between help desk and service desk?

Although often used interchangeably, help desk and service desk are different from one another. Let’s take a look at what differentiates the two.

Help Desk

A help desk provides technical support to end users, troubleshoots customer and user issues, and/or guides them through specific tasks and actions. Help desks can be incorporated with larger service desks or exist as a separate operation. The definitive goal of a help desk is to provide resolutions for user requests as efficiently as possible. Help desks are designed to be reactive in nature and are often considered a subset of the service desk.

Service Desk

An IT service desk encompasses a broader set of functions as compared to a help desk. It is essentially a single point of contact between the service provider and the end users. As opposed to a help desk that is focused on problem resolution, a service desk is designed to take care of the overall business needs.

In addition to managing service requests and resolving incidents, a typical service desk also facilitates user communication. It focuses on improving the efficiency and performance of IT technicians, meeting service-level agreements (SLAs) and shaping the way IT professionals deliver their services to both internal employees and to customers.

What is the function of a help desk?

Most organizations deploy help desk management software to create, manage, process and resolve tickets. Here’s how a typical help desk management software resolves customer queries:

A user registers an issue by raising a ticket in the help desk management software.
The help desk team is then notified of the ticket via email, push notifications or SMS.
Next, based on the rules set by the team, the ticket is either automatically assigned to a technician or manually picked by one based on the skill set and availability.
Next is the ticket processing stage, where the technician assigned to the ticket will try to fix the issue. The technician may:
- Interact with the user by posting replies and updates to the ticket
- Attach files to the query for more information
- Escalate the ticket to another team
Once the issue is fixed, the technician notifies the end user of the same and marks the ticket as resolved or closed.
Depending on the type of the ticket, the issue and its resolution may then be posted to the knowledge base to help other technicians troubleshoot the same issues in the future.

Why is a help desk important?

An efficient IT help desk is a quintessential part of any successful organization. The fundamental aim of an IT help desk is to provide swift and effective resolutions for user queries. It is a critical business resource that helps in reducing downtime associated with customer support services, increasing efficiency and enhancing customer satisfaction.

The help desk software prioritizes issues based on category, nature, level of criticality and more, enabling the technicians to multitask. Ticket management, which is the core function of a help desk platform, helps sort customer interactions based on demographics, date and urgency. By automating ticket management, you can easily speed up the process of case resolution.

Having a full-service help desk is critical for businesses to be more holistic in terms of services offered. While a service desk is more strategic in nature, a help desk is more tactical. As such, you need to get the tactical aspect right to build a strong foundation for your business.

What are the benefits of a help desk?

Now that you understand that a help desk is a vital part of any business, let’s discuss some of its benefits:

Streamlined operations: A help desk solution acts as a one-stop shop to manage all your customer queries, complaints, needs, requests and support. It is essentially a single point of communication between you and your end users and helps resolve any IT issues swiftly and effectively.
Increased customer satisfaction: Customer experience is at the crux of any business operation. That said, an IT help desk facilitates seamless experience for your customers when they interact with your business by providing them a uniform business response and predictable business response times as committed in the SLA. In addition to this, most help desk management solutions today provide similar experiences across various platforms including smartphones, tablets, desktops and the like.
Knowledge repository: A library or knowledge base that stores comprehensive information on IT issues and ways to troubleshoot them is an invaluable resource for businesses. An IT help desk management software helps curate this knowledge repository, thus helping IT teams resolve similar issues quicker in the future. Additionally, your end users can directly troubleshoot their common IT issues with help from the knowledge base. This will lead to lower ticket volumes in the long run.
Improved ROI: Although deploying a help desk solution involves additional investment, these costs are offset by the high return on investment through higher team efficiency, greater productivity, enhanced product quality and greater customer satisfaction. An IT help desk also helps get real-time feedback on service and product issues, thus eliminating the costs associated with conducting post-release surveys.
Strong reputation and brand image: As mentioned earlier, an IT help desk provides a seamless customer experience that leads to greater customer satisfaction. Happy customers are loyal to your business and are more inclined to recommend your brand to others. As such, deploying an IT help desk can be very helpful in establishing a strong brand image and building a good reputation in the market.

What are some goals and objectives for a successful help desk?

Now that you understand how beneficial a help desk can be for your business, let’s discuss some common KPIs that you must track in order to evaluate how effective your customer support efforts are.

Average resolution time: The average resolution time is an effective measure of how long it takes to resolve a user query. Evaluating the average resolution time helps you analyze whether you are providing your customers with the level of service promised and identify any potential opportunities to ensure faster and most effective service delivery.
First response time: The first response time is the average amount of time a technician takes to provide an initial first response to a support ticket or query raised by a customer. It is important to minimize your first response time as much as you can to ensure customer delight.
First contact resolution rate (FCRR): The FCRR is the percentage of help desk queries that are resolved during the first interaction with the customer. As such, the greater the FCRR, the better the customer experience. As such, it is imperative to continually track and improve your FCRR in order to enhance customer satisfaction and build a stronger brand image.
Cost per ticket: Another important help desk metric, cost per ticket is a measure of the average costs involved in resolving a request. Tracking this metric will allow you to evaluate the efficiency of your help desk technicians and the resources you most commonly use to fix issues.
SLA compliance rate: The SLA compliance rate is the percentage of IT incidents that are resolved within the agreed upon SLA parameters. This metric is an effective measure of how compliant you are to your SLAs and when you must make an effort in order to improve it.
Customer satisfaction: One of the most important help desk KPIs you must track, customer satisfaction can be measured by providing your customers with a way to rate your services and provide feedback on their overall help desk experience. Tracking this metric will help you ensure that you are delivering help desk services to the best of your capabilities.

What are help desk best practices?

Implementing an effective and efficient help desk is a major challenge that most growing businesses face today. Here’s a list of best practices that you must keep in mind to ensure your team makes the most of your help desk to minimize business disruptions, drive efficiency and enhance customer experience.

Deploy a robust help desk solution: One of the major prerequisites of building a strong help desk is deploying the right help desk management solution that works for you. The right help desk solution will not only enable you to seamlessly handle large ticket volumes but also help control your overall IT costs.
Automate common processes: A robust help desk software will allow you to automate common, low-value help desk workflows and processes and free up time for your technicians so they can focus on more critical issues at hand. For instance, by automating ticket distribution, you can ensure that any incoming tickets are automatically routed to the relevant technicians. This leads to faster ticket resolution and greater customer satisfaction.
Establish your SLAs: Setting your SLAs is imperative to establishing standards for your help desk team and helping your technicians prioritize their work. These SLAs help set timeline expectations for customers and ensure that your support team is consistent with the support offered.
Measure help desk KPIs and metrics: As mentioned earlier, measuring your help desk metrics and KPIs helps you analyze whether you are providing the best possible help desk support to your users or not. It also helps in identifying key areas for improvement to ensure the most effective and efficient help desk support for your users and enhance overall customer experience.

Build a full-service help desk with Kaseya

Kaseya BMS is a professional services automation (PSA) tool that not only provides you with all the fundamental help desk functionalities to help you crush tickets but also enables you to connect your help desk to the rest of your IT, including service desk, quoting, project management, billing and more.

Getting your help desk to accurately resolve tickets and crush all the key KPIs is the foundation of any successful IT team. BMS does this with the seamless integration of Kaseya VSA (RMM tool) and IT Glue (IT documentation) that lets you optimize your daily IT operations with 30% fewer tickets that are resolved 40% faster, saving you time and money in a way no other solution can.

Run your help desk and IT operations confidently and efficiently with BMS. Request a free demo today!

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System Integration: Purpose, Types, Methods & Benefits

Kaseya — Thu, 07 Apr 2022 09:28:27 +0000

What is system integration?

System integration is the process of uniting all virtual and physical components into a single cohesive infrastructure to ensure that all the individual pieces of an organization work as a whole. While the physical components consist of all computer hardware modules, virtual components consist of all the data that is stored in software, applications and databases. System integration is also referred to as software integration or IT integration.

What is the purpose of system integration?

Why is system integration important? The primary reason why businesses implement system integration is to ensure that all systems work together in harmony to boost productivity and enhance the quality of day-to-day operations. The goal of system integration is to streamline and simplify communication between not only the organization’s internal systems but also the third parties the organization works with. System integration helps accelerate the outflow of information and cut back on operational costs.

What are the different types of system integration?

Now that we’ve explained why you must implement system integration, let’s take a look at the different types of system integration that you can leverage.

Legacy system integration

Many organizations continue to use outdated legacy systems to perform core business functions to avoid disrupting their day-to-day workflow. Businesses can resolve this problem by implementing legacy system integration. This process enables the modernization of legacy systems by facilitating a seamless communication channel with newer technology solutions and information systems.

Enterprise application integration (EAI)

When businesses scale, they tend to incorporate more enterprise applications to streamline their front-end and back-office processes. This results in many disparate applications that do not share any point of convergence and store volumes of data separately. EAI combines these different subsystems into a single business environment and facilitates the real-time exchange of data between different applications.

Data integration

Most companies store data from a lot of different sources or databases. As the name suggests, data integration enables you to gather data from all different services and aggregate and transform it into a central point of access to facilitate interactive reporting.

Business-to-business integration

B2B integration is the automation of business communication and processes between multiple organizations. This integration enables these companies to trade and work more efficiently with their business partners, suppliers and customers through business process automation.

Electronic document interchange (EDI)

Electronic data interchange (EDI) is the intercompany exchange of business documents in a standardized format. Alternatively, EDI can be described as the standard electronic format that companies use to replace their paper-based documents such as invoices or purchase orders. Automating paper-based transactions helps companies not only save time but also avoid costly errors that might result from manual processing.

What are system integration methods?

Just as there are different types of system integration, there are also various methods used to accomplish it. Let’s discuss each in detail:

Point-to-point integration

As the name suggests, point-to-point integration is typically a connection between two system components. Since it lacks the complexity of “true” system integration, it is often considered to not be system integration. Such types of integrations are typically used to handle a single business function at a time and do not involve any complex business logic. However, point-to-point integration systems can quickly become unmanageable as more systems get added and new connections must be implemented.

Star integration

Also known as the spaghetti method, star integration operates by connecting each subsystem with other subsystems by means of point-to-point connections. This type of integration allows for greater functionality. However, with an increase in the number of integrated systems, the number of integrations also goes up, resulting in greater complexity in the management of these integrations. Star integration is a sound choice when there aren’t too many subsystems in a business environment.

Hub-and-spoke integration

In the hub-and-spoke model of integration, every system is directly connected to a single, central hub that mediates requests and decouples receivers and senders of data. Given its unique architecture, hub-and-spoke integration greatly simplifies the sustainability and security of a business environment.

Vertical integration

Under vertical integration, the different subsystems are connected by creating a functional “silo” that starts with the basic function at the bottom with the functions becoming progressively more complex as you go upwards. Vertical integration is a relatively easy and simple method that involves only a limited number of systems. However, it is also fairly rigid and becomes progressively more difficult to manage in the long run given that any new functionality requires its own functional “silo.” Vertical integration is best for creating simple integrations that address only a single function.

Horizontal integration

As opposed to vertical integration, the purpose of horizontal integration is to facilitate communication between subsystems. This type of integration is achieved by using a single specialized subsystem known as an enterprise service bus (ESB) that acts as a common user interface layer that connects to all other subsystems.

Since the subsystems are connected through the main system indirectly rather than directly, vertical integration requires relatively fewer connections. Fewer connections reduce the amount of money, effort and time needed to build the system.

Common data format integration

Common data format integration can be implemented by creating a new data language. This language is a universal format used by all subsystems to process and transfer data with one another. This type of integration helps eliminate the need to have more than one adapter within a system for every subsystem.

The primary benefits of this type of integration are that all subsystems communicate seamlessly and operate independently. However, the one downside of this integration is that it is fairly complex and requires comprehensive coding skills.

What is the role of a system integrator?

A system integrator specializes in connecting internal and external disparate applications, systems, cloud-based software solutions and data storage. The main goal of a system integrator is to bring together different subsystems into a single integrated solution and ensure that they function in tandem with one another. This streamlines data sharing in real-time and improves efficiency.

What are the steps in system integration?

Now that we’ve covered the various types and methods of system integration, let’s take a look at how system integration is implemented. Here are the various steps in system integration:

Determine requirements: The first step in system integration is determining your expectations of the integrated systems and sharing your requirements with the system integrator. You must ensure that everyone concerned is aware of how to use these integrated systems to the best of their capabilities.
Analyze feasibility: Once you have outlined your requirements for your future software, you must proceed with conducting a comprehensive analysis to determine whether or not it is operationally feasible.
Architect design: Next, the system integrator develops a strategy to integrate the various components into a single, unified system that functions as a whole.
Develop the management plan: After the architecture has been designed, the management team collaborates with the relevant teams to create a timeline for integration, determine alternate options and calculate potential risks.
System integration design: The longest and most challenging of all phases is the system integration design. The system integrator performs the actual system integration based on the architectural design, ensuring that there is no data loss.
Implementation: Once the integration is complete, the systems are verified and tested for bugs and errors. Any bugs detected are fixed and the operational testing is done once more to make sure that the integrated system is free of any errors.
Maintenance: Possibly the most overlooked step of all, routine maintenance is also one of the most important to ensure the smooth operation of the newly integrated system. Both system integrators and system users must take up the responsibility of running scheduled diagnostics to detect any new errors and to report any problems to the IT team.

What are the benefits of system integration?

Some of the major benefits of system integration are:

One of the most obvious advantages of system integration is the aggregation and streamlining of all correlated data. This further simplifies the retrieval and processing of data across the various subsystems.
System integration also improves the accessibility of data and eliminates the need to wait for the data to be manually synced across the different subsystems.
System integration eliminates the need for repetitive manual data entry and helps boost efficiency.
System integration enables data storage on a single, centralized system. This eliminates the need for setting up multiple data storage spaces for the same data, thus cutting back on the costs of keeping unnecessary data storage.

What are the challenges of system integration?

Some of the drawbacks of system integration are:

Integration can become a challenge for organizations that run on legacy, monolithic systems.
Given the variety of system integration tools available in the market, choosing the one that makes the most sense for your unique business requirements can be a challenge.
The process of integrating different systems is complex and time-consuming.
System integration might prove to be a costly affair for many businesses.

IT system integration with Kaseya

One of the major highlights of Kaseya’s next-gen solutions is the fact that they are all seamlessly integrated with one another. Deep workflow integrations between applications like VSA (remote monitoring and management), BMS (professional services automation) and IT Glue (IT documentation) not only simplify IT management but also save technicians a ton of time that they would otherwise spend switching between multiple disparate applications.

System integrations are a boon for both MSPs and internal IT teams alike since they help streamline critical IT processes, boost efficiency and enable technicians to focus on revenue-generating activities.

Want to know more about Kaseya’s powerful workflow integrations? Request a free demo now!

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What Is IT Process Automation (ITPA) and How Does It Work?

Kaseya — Thu, 24 Mar 2022 10:09:26 +0000

What is IT process automation (ITPA)?

IT process automation (ITPA) makes use of technology to automate complex business processes, such as IT services, administration and support, into workflows to avoid the costs and time involved in otherwise managing them manually.

ITPA solutions are designed to eliminate bottlenecks and unify infrastructure by bridging the gap between multiple platforms, applications and systems. In addition to improving transparency and increasing cross-department communication, ITPA also helps reduce errors, prevent data loss and improve processing speed.

What is an IT process?

IT processes are essentially standardized workflows that help streamline all information technology-related activities within a company. With these IT processes in place, you can ensure efficient delivery of services regardless of who executes them.

On the other hand, in the absence of clearly defined IT processes, you run a higher risk of errors in your routine, IT-related activities. Examples of common IT processes include ticketing, asset management, patch management, service desk operations and more.

What are the different types of process automation?

Although ITPA is often confused with other types of process automation, it is very different in several aspects. Let’s discuss some of the different types of process automation and how they differ from ITPA.

IT process automation (ITPA)

ITPA is focused on improving efficiency by cutting back on the manual work involved in measuring and executing routine IT tasks such as executing security policies/backups, configuring new network devices or servers, patching systems and so on.

ITPA systems help reduce service delivery times and enable the perfect orchestration of multifunctional processes and workflows. In addition to this, ITPA also facilitates consistency and standardization of the different technologies and software versions available in the company. Also, in the event of a service disruption, ITPA dramatically simplifies problem-solving through automation and reduces the time needed to resolve the incident.

Robotic process automation (RPA)

As the name suggests, robotic process automation (RPA) enables all repetitive administrative activities and processes to be handled by robots that act as “virtual workers.” RPA systems involve the use of bots that have been trained to perform high-volume, repetitive tasks using machine learning. These bots are adept at performing routine IT tasks such as form checking, data entry and so on.

RPA promotes cost-saving and greater efficiency and reliability in processes. RPA systems are also great at managing workflows that involve extensive documentation and which are generally more prone to human error. Industries like healthcare, banking, human resources and supply chain benefit greatly from implementing RPA.

Business process automation (BPA)

Also known as digital transformation, business process automation (BPA) may be described as the technology-enabled automation of complex, multistep business transactions/processes. BPA can help you achieve an array of goals such as achieving digital transformation, streamlining business to make it simpler, boosting service quality, improving service delivery, reducing costs and more. BPA systems are usually tailored to suit the unique requirements of a business.

Some of the common business processes that can be automated through BPA include new employee onboarding, data entry, invoicing purchase orders and approving loan applications.

Digital process automation (DPA)

Digital process automation or DPA involves automating processes that need to be performed using multiple different applications. DPA systems may be used to automate a variety of business processes that typically require some kind of human interaction.

DPA is often considered to be the evolved version of BPM. Having said that, companies that have already implemented BPM find it easier to implement DPA. DPA is often used in enterprise digital transformation initiatives to optimize customer journeys and streamline business processes. Common business functions that can benefit from DPA include workflows such as production, IT, management, marketing and sales.

How does IT process automation work?

ITPA tools usually operate on an action-reaction system. As such, for ITPA to work, IT departments must plan for predefined events that will trigger ITPA systems while setting them up. Common events that can be set up to trigger ITPA tools include:

Routine daily checks and upgrades
Frequent technical issues such as system errors and bugs
Predefined workflows such as service desk

Once the triggers have been defined, ITPA systems are ready for use. Let’s look at the step-by-step process of how an ITPA system works:

Monitoring: ITPA systems regularly monitor business applications and track system performance metrics. ITPA systems continue to run on this step until a predefined trigger is detected.
Trigger: Once a predefined event occurs, the ITPA system detects it and kick-starts an automated workflow.
Reaction: The ITPA system automatically performs a task as a reaction to the trigger event. This reaction can be anything from steps to restore system performance, directing workflows to service desk, automated spreadsheet operations and so on.

What are some IT process automation use cases?

ITPA helps organizations quickly resolve IT issues and streamline management of low-value-adding activities to focus more on business priorities. Let’s discuss some of the characteristics of IT tasks that are suitable for IT process automation:

Error-prone
Involvement of limited human intervention
High transaction volume
Easily broken down into multiple explicit tasks
Existing in a stable environment

Some of the common use cases of ITPA include:

User management
Automating routine tasks
IT-related onboarding and offboarding
Password reset
Service desk automation
Data access management
System health check
Data management

What is an example of IT process automation?

Automatic management of service requests is one of the most common examples of ITPA. Businesses can leverage automation to receive and organize help desk queries, emails and customer grievances. ITPA can also help weed out duplicate queries, automatically address FAQs and more.

What are the benefits of IT process automation?

Now that we understand what ITPA is and how it works, let’s dive into the reasons why businesses must implement it.

Reduced operational costs: Businesses waste a lot of resources on repetitive, manual IT tasks every day. Implementing ITPA can help you automate most of these routine tasks and streamline IT management without having to increase headcount.
Fewer human errors: By automating IT processes, you can significantly reduce the scope of human errors and minimize the risk of system malfunctions and security events. Also, since standardized best-practice responses are largely embedded within the ITPA system’s workflow, it helps further minimize the risk of errors.
Increased productivity and efficiency: ITPA implementation help offload routine tasks from your IT department, thus boosting technician productivity and efficiency.
Quicker detection and response rates: With constant monitoring of systems and business processes, ITPA enables faster detection of predefined trigger events. With faster detection of trigger events, you are better equipped to quickly remediate the issue before it aggravates into a bigger problem.
Improved service levels and user experience: ITPA helps automate time-consuming manual tasks, which in turn helps improve service levels. Implementing ITPA helps businesses reduce costs and improve profits, enabling their IT departments to provide better service to their clients and enhance overall user experience.
Superior IT services integration: ITPA facilitates seamless integration of people, processes and tools through automated workflows, thus streamlining IT management.

What are some drawbacks of IT process automation?

Having discussed the benefits of implementing ITPA, let’s now look at some of the potential cons associated with it.

Fewer jobs for IT staff: One of the most obvious drawbacks of ITPA is the fact that automation brings with it a reduced need for IT technicians to do the same tasks. By automating most of your routine, manual IT tasks, you take away the need to have more people on the job.
Potential for complacency: Knowing that most of the routine tasks will be taken care of automatically can end up making your IT technicians complacent about their job.
Loss of human element: With automation replacing most of the manual tasks, ITPA brings with it a loss of human element that is fairly crucial for businesses to succeed. ITPA systems react to trigger events based on predefined processes. However, sometimes it can be more beneficial to have a human make reactive decisions based on their intuition and impulse.
Implementation and maintenance needs: Another major drawback of ITPA is that it needs constant monitoring and maintenance to make sure it’s working properly. As such, you must test it thoroughly not only before but also after implementation. Ongoing testing and maintenance are imperative to ensure that the results of your ITPA system are either the same or better than the results you would get from employees doing the same activity. In order to achieve this, you need to constantly update your workflows.

What are IT process automation tools?

ITPA tools help streamline IT operations by automating repetitive, manual workflows, tasks and processes and bridging the gap between disparate applications. These tools can be implemented across multiple databases and systems and can help automate processes between them without the need for human intervention. In essence, ITPA tools help create a more uniform and standardized IT infrastructure.

Based on predefined control workflows, your ITPA tool can automatically remediate a system issue or send alerts or escalations to the relevant IT technician for immediate action. ITPA tools are a boon for both internal IT teams as well as MSPs struggling with multiple disparate workflows and spending too much time on routine manual tasks. ITPA tools provide your IT technicians with the flexibility they need to configure and modify processes as needed.

Automate key IT processes with Kaseya

With Kaseya VSA’s powerful policy-based automation, you can automate common IT processes, such as routine server maintenance and patch management, to reduce manual effort. Moreover, you can also auto-remediate IT incidents by running scripts in response to an alert. And that’s not all! Kaseya VSA scales with the growth of your business by allowing you to manage tens of thousands of endpoints on a single SaaS instance.

Want to know more about Kaseya’s powerful automation? Schedule a free demo with us today!

The post What Is IT Process Automation (ITPA) and How Does It Work? appeared first on Kaseya.

2022 MSP Benchmark Survey Highlights: What High-Performing MSPs Do Differently

Kaseya — Mon, 21 Mar 2022 11:05:20 +0000

Although the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic seems to be behind us, its impact on the way businesses operate is here to stay. With most businesses implementing long-term remote or hybrid work, there is a growing demand for managed services, such as cybersecurity, cloud management, compliance and remote monitoring, that can help streamline IT management for their remote workforce. Having said that, there is a wealth of opportunities for MSPs to tap into in 2022 and beyond.

Our highly anticipated 2022 Global MSP Benchmark Survey results are here, and we have some interesting insights to share. With responses from over 1,200 MSPs, we examined the changing MSP landscape, discovered emerging new patterns and challenges, and how the industry is preparing to capitalize on them.

In the survey, we asked our respondents to describe their average monthly recurring revenue (MRR) over the past three years. The results indicated that, over the last three years, nearly 15% of MSPs experienced MRR growth of over 20% while nearly half of the respondents experienced monthly recurring revenue (MRR) growth of more than 10%.

If our survey respondents are to be viewed as a barometer, now is the ideal time to be an MSP.

In this blog, we’ll examine what these high-performing MSPs do differently to set them apart from their peers.

General profile

Among the respondents that recorded more than 20% MRR growth over the past three years, 74% identify as general managed service providers (MSPs) and 13% identify as managed security services providers (MSSPs). This differs slightly from the total respondent pool, in which 67% identify as MSPs and 17% as MSSPs.

Importance of RMM and integration

More than three-fourths of high-performing MSPs consider integration among core business applications (RMM, PSA and IT documentation) critical or very important. Interestingly, 40% of high-performing MSPs cited integration among core business applications as critical, in contrast with less than one-quarter (23%) of all respondents.

This trend is also visible in our next question where we asked the respondents how vital RMM is to their success. While 47% of all respondents said that RMM was critical to their success as an MSP, a whopping 70% of high-performing MSPs said RMM is critical to their success. Having said that, it’s arguable the MSPs that identify the importance of a good RMM solution and invest accordingly are more likely to perform better in terms of growth and profitability.

Business challenges

Acquiring more customers is the topmost challenge all MSPs face, and high-performing MSPs are no exception. Hiring and dealing with advanced and sophisticated security threats are the other two major challenges MSPs consistently face.

Providing cybersecurity advice

With cybersecurity remaining a fundamental concern for MSPs in recent times, we asked our respondents to share some of their cybersecurity practices with us to better gauge how well they understand their customers and how well-prepared they are to address their cybersecurity concerns.

We asked our respondents to share with us the extent to which clients have turned to them for advice on cybersecurity plans and best practices. Nearly 69% of the high-performing MSPs said that they offered advice to all or most of their clients. On the other hand, 60% of all respondents said that they offered advice to all or most of their clients. This data indicates that high-performing MSPs record a higher percentage of their clients turning to them for cybersecurity advice.

M&A strategy

When asked to describe their merger and acquisition (M&A) strategy, nearly half of the high-performing MSPs said that they were either investigating selling their MSP or looking to acquire other MSPs within the next three years. This is in contrast to just over one-third of all respondents who said the same. This speaks of higher maturity levels among high-performing MSPs.

Final thoughts

The focus of this analysis was to identify what differentiates high-performing MSPs that had more than 20% MRR growth over the past three years from their peers in the industry. The data indicates that high-performing MSPs believe in the power of RMM in driving success and also understand that integration of core MSP applications is crucial for streamlining IT management. Higher-performing MSPs are also more likely to be thinking about M&A from either a buyer or seller perspective.

For more detailed insights into the 2022 Global MSP Benchmark Survey results, download the full report now.

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The FBI Was Our #1 Partner During the Worst Time of Our Company’s History, and They Should Be Yours Too

Guest Author — Wed, 09 Mar 2022 15:40:17 +0000

As the CEO of Kaseya, I have intimate and detailed first-hand experience of what it’s like to deal with a cyberattack. In July of 2021, our company was attacked. We had the distinction of being on every major news outlet around the world, discussing the incident. It was a 24X7 media frenzy for a few days, until the facts were revealed, and the impact of the attack proved to be minimal. However, when an assault like that happens, regardless of the preparation and “doomsday scenario” planning exercises that are a part of most companies’ playbooks, it is VERY frightening and VERY real. Over the past 8+ months since the incident, I have been asked by many people from government, the private sector, even academia about the experiences, and what advice I can give to people who are dealing with cyberattacks.

While every company is different, and the nuances of each business require unique levels of preparation and response, the one constant that I tell EVEYONE without exception is that the VERY FIRST call should be to the FBI to get them and all their full resources to help IMMEDIATELY. That call should be prior to calling the board, lawyers, or anyone else.  Call the FBI and bring them in right away.  

That often is surprising for people to hear – they act stunned. I have had many people tell me that they were advised AGAINST bringing in the FBI by colleagues or even their legal counsel. Often, it is rooted in the fear that the FBI will come in and start an investigation on every aspect of the company looking to find wrongdoing in any, and all, areas of the business. I have also heard people claim they are concerned that the FBI might uncover poor investment levels or poor cyber prevention measures, and they may be “punished” by the FBI.  The FBI did none of that. Their goal was to help us, and they assured us they would do nothing to jeopardize our mission to restore operations – and they were true to their word.

Often, once an organization suffers an attack, everyone in the company is on edge, and the idea of bringing in the FBI further increases stress and anxiety. It is normal. I think it’s safe to say that everyone gets a little nervous when they see a bunch of people with FBI on the back of their windbreakers.  However, it is in that EXACT vulnerable and dire moment when making that FIRST call to the FBI is the MOST important. And the reason is simple. The FBI has more experience dealing with cyberattacks than anyone in the world.  Period. They are THE experts. They have more resources within the agency, as well as relationships with every major private and government organization that can help – very deep, and very real, relationships.

When an attack happens, a million questions run through the minds of executives at that organization. As mentioned earlier, regardless of the preparation, it is the FIRST TIME that it is real. Stress sets in. Panic sets in. With stress and panic come BAD decision making, driven by fear and resistance to logic and reason. The FBI eliminates that fear and doubt and most importantly, the panic. 

When we were hit, our playbook had as a standard process (luckily) to call the FBI the second something seemed suspicious. And we did just that. To this day, it was the single best decision that I, as the CEO, and we as a company, made. They were 100% professional, and ONLY INTERESTED IN HELPING address the company’s cyber issues. In addition, they were on point for everything. They had answers right away. They framed everything for us immediately, allowing our fears and stress levels to come down instantly because we had a partner in this. Neither I, nor anyone in my company, ever felt anything but partnership from our engagement with them. Even things that I thought the FBI would not care about, from issues related to our business reputation to communication strategy with the press, etc., they were incredibly helpful, just as you would expect a true partner to be.

As I look back at the past 8 months, I can attest that the collaboration with the FBI was the single most important partnership on our journey. To this day, we team with the FBI helping them with other cases, as any, and all, resources at Kaseya are now available to the agency for the next organization that gets hit. The FBI should be the first call for any organization, big or small, that experiences any cyber-related incident. For Kaseya, and for me personally, calling the FBI 30 seconds into our incident was the best professional decision I have ever made.

On another note, many who read this may remember the Kaseya cyberattack of July 2021.  However, a few short months later, the FBI, working with partners around the world, CAUGHT the people who executed the attack against my company. Now that, in itself, is a real-life James Bond scenario!

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Patch Management Policy Features, Benefits and Best Practices

Kaseya — Tue, 22 Feb 2022 11:41:33 +0000

In 2020, Ryuk Ransomware operators shut down Universal Health Services by exploiting the zerologon vulnerability to gain control of domain controllers. In mid-2021, cybercriminals exploited an old, unpatched memory corruption vulnerability in Microsoft Office that allowed them to remotely execute code on vulnerable devices. This vulnerability was disclosed in 2017 and found to be one of the most exploited by nation-state hackers. The above-mentioned cases illustrate the importance of patching software vulnerabilities immediately, especially those that have already been compromised.

In this blog, we’ll discuss patch management policy best practices and explain how they contribute to a better patching environment for large and small organizations alike.

What is a patch management policy?

Patch management involves identifying, sourcing, testing, deploying and installing patches for all systems and applications in an organization. Patches are applied to improve the efficiency and functionality of a system as well as to mitigate security vulnerabilities. Since unpatched vulnerabilities create weak links in a company’s IT infrastructure, cybercriminals target them frequently.

Modern IT environments are intricately structured, resulting in patching becoming a far more complex and time-consuming task than in the past. It takes about 200 days to apply a patch to a regular vulnerability and 256 days to fix a severe vulnerability.

That’s not all though. It takes 15 days on average to patch a vulnerability that is being used in active attacks, according to data collected by Google’s Project Zero. The challenge is even more daunting for smaller companies, which are always strapped for resources and talent. The result is that hackers manage to discover and exploit vulnerabilities before they can be patched.

This is where patch management policies come into play. The policies define the steps, procedures and best practices to follow, especially when patching vulnerabilities that pose a security risk. The goal is to produce a standardized patching process so that technicians can make informed decisions during any stage of the patching process, including when correcting mistakes and handling contingencies.

In the absence of a patch management policy, businesses may have difficulty identifying critical patches. Moreover, without a process to follow, patches can be installed incorrectly, resulting in the shutdown of applications and devices, leading to business disruption.

What is the importance of a patch management policy?

Unpatched vulnerabilities are the cause of one in three breaches around the world. Having an effective patch management policy can help minimize the risk of cyberthreats and business downtime caused by improper patching practices. The Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) describes patching as one of its eight essential strategies to mitigate cyber incidents and ensure security. Let’s look at the benefits of having a patch management policy.

A patch management policy ensures risks are managed promptly so companies can avoid falling prey to cyberattacks.
Managing patches can be a colossal task that often hinders the work process and leading to clashes between departments over patch timing. When resolving a crisis, time is of the essence. An effective patch management policy anticipates scheduling conflicts and gives guidance on how to resolve them so that work downtime is kept to a minimum.
A good patch management policy helps ensure that all patching work is completed on time and that the process is well documented. Patching is one of many compliance requirements, and failing to do so can lead to audits, fines and even denial of insurance claims in the case of a breach.
A company that sells technology should provide timely patches for its solutions in order to manage vulnerabilities. Addressing software bugs quickly helps maintain serviceability and boosts customer satisfaction.
Patching plays a vital role in enhancing company revenue and reputation by driving product innovation and upgrades.

What should a patch management policy include?

A patch management policy is unique to every company and their systems and processes, but at its heart, it must include the following components to be effective.

Asset tracking and inventory

The security of any device, be it a laptop, a server or a network endpoint, can be compromised if left unpatched. To keep tabs on endpoints that connect to an organization’s network, the IT department should use an automated IT asset discovery tool.

The first step in developing a successful patch management policy is to take inventory of your IT assets. It becomes even more important in remote and hybrid environments where employees connect to the corporate network using various devices and locations. There is no doubt that as the line between personal and business devices blurs, corporate networks will become vulnerable to grave threats.

Teams, roles and responsibilities

Patching is a multistage process that should flow smoothly. Therefore, all stakeholders’ roles and responsibilities should be clearly defined. To make patch management ideal, each step of the process, from identifying vulnerabilities to applying patches, should be handled by a dedicated team. It is also important for management to be actively involved in the patching process and escalate issues when patches aren’t applied on schedule. Even though patching may seem simple, it should not be handled by employees, but rather only by IT experts who follow set guidelines.

Risk classification and prioritization

Besides the routine patches, IT technicians must also identify patches for critical software vulnerabilities on a regular basis. Since patches must be applied to several applications and systems, technicians should learn to prioritize and classify patches according to their vulnerability risk and impact on business continuity. Take the example of a company whose servers are vulnerable to cross-site scripting. In this case, servers that host business-critical data must be patched before servers that host internal websites and less critical business applications. Classification and prioritization of assets and patches helps technicians approach patch management in a systematic manner and ensure that critical assets can always remain operational.

Patching process and schedule

The previous sections provide the framework for establishing an enterprise-wide patch management policy. Patching and scheduling outline how to execute the patching process. Patching is a multistep procedure. It includes:

Monitoring for new patches and vulnerabilities: Monitoring applications, software and devices that require patching or are at risk because of software vulnerabilities. Patch management policies should specify when and how often this task should be performed.
Patch sourcing: Once the patch is released, you need to obtain it from the vendor. There should be a dedicated person or team for the task since a delay in obtaining patches that fix critical vulnerabilities can spell big security problems for the company.
Patch testing: The patch should also be tested in an environment very similar to the original IT infrastructure of the company. There are times when patches will not work in certain IT environments. Test environments allow you to study the impact of a patch before applying it to the entire environment. It is crucial that IT managers take backups of their systems prior to applying patches so the old system can be rolled out in case of a problem.
Configuration management: The goal of this step is to document every change that will occur when the patch is applied. This helps identify devices that don’t respond correctly to the patch or show an anomaly.
Patch roll out, monitoring and auditing: After a patch is applied to the entire IT infrastructure, its results are monitored to ensure that everything works as expected. Audit your patching process to identify any failed or pending patches, and keep an eye out for unexpected performance issues or incompatibilities.
Reporting: Update all relevant documentation after a patch is applied. There should be a detailed and in-depth report of every patching session and step. This report can be used for compliance audits, insurance claims and even to demonstrate value to clients.

What are the benefits of a patch management policy?

By having a defined and documented patch management policy, you will be able to improve the process and ensure that it gives the desired and required results. This will also help you identify the best practices. Check out some of the advantages of implementing a patch management policy.

Promotes accountability

A clearly defined chain of accountability will help mitigate problems faster if there is a breach due to a software vulnerability or a problem during the patching process. A common theme that emerged in the wake of Equifax’s 2017 data breach, which was the result of a security flaw the company should have patched weeks earlier, was lack of accountability. The absence of accountability was also a factor in the company’s lax security posture.

Documented processes and expectations

When the patching process is well documented, it is easier for new and long-time employees alike to follow it carefully. An absence of a written process can cause confusion on how to proceed and too many ideas can make matters worse.

Ensures security and compliance

Government agencies are cracking down on companies to ensure that they comply with all security requirements as cyberattacks become more common. Integrating security and compliance standards into your patch management policy will help you stay compliant with the rulebook and keep you on the good side of everyone from the government to the cyber insurers.

Supports uptime and SLAs

Following the wrong patching process can wreak havoc on your operations, cause system downtime and damage your SLAs with your clients. Patch policies detail the steps that need to be followed even when a patching session goes awry. Patching policies translate to a more accurate and efficient patching system at work, more support uptime and happier customers.

Provides a framework to build upon

A documented patch management process reduces ambiguity and makes day-to-day operations easier to follow. This can also be an effective way to identify best practices while ensuring that employees are not left in the dark when they assume responsibility for various patching tasks.

Patch management policy best practices

Each company will have its own patch management policies, and the process will change as technology and business change. However, the following are considered best practices within the industry and should be taken into account when creating a policy at work.

Update systems regularly

A company’s IT systems and assets need to be updated on a regular basis for them to function smoothly. Any disruption can severely impact revenue, profitability or customer service. With a sound and updated IT infrastructure, a company is better positioned to capture opportunities and growth while remaining safe from regulatory fines and cyberattacks.

Track common vulnerabilities

Being proactive is the key to keeping your IT environment secure. Documenting your patching process means you will have a record of all vulnerabilities your company encounters. This information can be used to plan security setups, strengthen your IT infrastructure and derive great learnings for the future.

Document security configurations

A configuration management record should document all the details about patches, tests and configuration changes. Using these documents, one can determine whether immediate action is necessary to mitigate a vulnerability.

Stay current with third-party vendors

Every company, no matter how large or small, uses a variety of third-party software. As the name implies, third-party patching consists of applying patches to third-party applications that are installed on one or more of your endpoints, such as a server, desktop or laptop. Many organizations are proactive in patching their OS software but aren’t as diligent when it comes to patching and updating their third-party software. Therefore, third-party applications have emerged as a popular attack vector for a variety of cyberattacks including malware. According to IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report 2021, it takes 210 days to identify a breach caused by a vulnerability in third-party software, and 76 days to contain it. Thus, it is imperative for businesses to embrace third-party patching to minimize the attack surface for cybercriminals.

Take a comprehensive approach

Your patch management policy should cover all aspects of your IT infrastructure and not just software and operating systems. You should take an inventory of all of your software and hardware, including servers, applications and network devices, as well as operating systems, databases and security systems.

Monitor and assess continuously

The process of patching is continuous, and with each patch, you will learn something new. By documenting each step of the process, you will be better able to identify trends, challenges and opportunities that can further enhance your policy outline. The result will be streamlined business operations and enhanced security.

Automate when possible

The old-fashioned method of manual patching gives you a slim chance of identifying and installing all the patches you need. It is simpler and more efficient to automate all steps in the patch process. The asset inventory process should be easy to repeat regularly, so automating it helps ensure that every new device and piece of software is quickly discovered and patched. The automation tool should gather all required patches and install them based on the specified policies and priorities. To avoid software conflicts, you may want to test the patch before deploying, and this should also be automated through acceptance testing and the ability to roll back.

Build a strong patch management policy with Kaseya

You can easily address the difficulties associated with patch management by automating the entire process using Kaseya VSA. The tool gives you the ability to review and override patches and see patch history. What’s more? This scalable, secure and highly customizable policy-driven approach is location-independent and bandwidth-friendly. With VSA, you can also automate the deployment and installation of software and patches for both on- and off-network devices.

Patching your software and devices is, without question, necessary. We’ve put together a checklist that will help you optimize your patch management policy and build a robust security stance for your IT environment.

Ready to automate your patching? Request a VSA demo today!

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3 Google Analytics Basics for MSPs

Dan Tomaszewski — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 23:29:12 +0000

As a managed service provider, you offer more to your clients than just great service. From improving operational efficiency to maximizing productivity while maintaining IT security, you help clients deliver better customer experiences. However, if your clients cannot find you, how can they hire you?

Increasing your website’s visibility should be one of your top priorities when it comes to driving higher lead conversions. Any online business thrives on quality traffic and the majority of businesses wish they could drive more traffic to their websites. In that regards, Google Analytics is an incredibly effective tool that can boost your online presence if you know how to leverage it.

It can be overwhelming once you’ve installed the Google Analytics tracking code on your website because there are so many different metrics you can use to analyze and enhance your website’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or paid search campaigns. However, you are not required to examine each and every data point.

It is crucial to your success that you know how to navigate Google Analytics’ complex platform and get beyond the basic vanity metric reports. Concentrate on the metrics and insights that deliver actionable business insights and aid you in identifying the right growth opportunities.

Here are the top three ways MSPs can use Google Analytics to improve sales and marketing outcomes:

1. Start with the basics to track organic activities on your website

When you start using Google Analytics to study your website, the amount of data that affects your MSP website’s visibility may astound you. Conversion rate, bounce rate, user return rate and the overall ratio of new versus returning visitors are some of the things you need to look at to map the organic activities on your website. Then you may decide which of them are the most crucial and useful for your company.

Your MSP website’s page views are one of the most crucial pieces of information you should be aware of. With Google Analytics, you can discover significantly more about your page views than you ever could previously.

The analytic tool will provide you with real-time data on how many visitors visited a specific page, where they came from and how long they stayed on the page. After reading your page, you can also observe where the user went next. In general, this will give you a fair idea of how well the website was received by visitors.

2. What metrics matter most?

It is essential to keep a close watch on which source channels bring in the most and least traffic to your site. This will help you make informed decisions about where to direct your efforts to achieve the greatest return on investment (ROI) from your marketing tactics and budget. Here are four metrics to check on a regular basis:

The Google Analytics Social Media report compiles all of your social traffic statistics into a unified, easy-to-understand dashboard, allowing you to evaluate how your social media content and paid initiatives affect visitor growth and conversions. You can assess:

Your current bounce rate
Traffic across channels
What pages your audience is looking at
Which social channels attract the most monthly visitors

All of this data can assist you and your marketing team in determining which channels to prioritize, which require further attention and which may require paid advertising to attract more visitors. This should ensure that your audience continues to grow.

Mobile Conversion Rate

People today are increasingly utilizing their mobile devices over desktops to conduct research or make purchases. That’s why understanding how mobile customers engage with your website is critical. A terrible mobile experience can reduce a customer’s likelihood of engaging with a company by 52%.

If your conversion rate is substantially higher on desktop, it might mean your mobile experience needs some work. Enhancing the mobile view of your site will help you boost the user experience for mobile users.

Visitor Behavioral Flow

Regardless of how good your content is, most of your website visitors will not convert right away. They will most likely take their time and look over your website to see what you have to offer first. To enhance the possibility of conversion, you need to analyze user journeys from the Google Analytics Behavioral Flow and make them seamless.

Using this data, you can assist users in navigating your website by including call-to-action (CTA) buttons in your content to urge them to take the next step. You can also track where visitors leave your site and improve those pages to boost engagement and conversions.

Goal Reporting

The metrics that really matter to your business and marketing plan are sales – or impressions, or unique page views. Using Google Analytics to create goals allows you to keep track of your conversions and figure out which marketing channels are the most effective.

A goal might be anything from product purchases to email signups to any other action you wish to track. You can find out which channels are providing the best return on investment, which ones aren’t and which ones have room for improvement.

3. Evaluate the quality of your website

Finally, one of the most useful features of Google Analytics is that it may provide you with an assessment of your website’s general quality. All websites are graded on a number of parameters, including content quality, frequency of updates and refreshes, and other elements. Your website will appear lower in the search engine results pages for your keywords if it does not have an exceptional rating.

You can figure out what is working and what needs to be improved with your website based on the information you receive from Google Analytics.

3 Mistakes to avoid while using Google Analytics

There are several common blunders that prohibit MSPs from gathering reliable data on Google Analytics, appropriately understanding data and making effective changes based on that data.

#Not using Google Analytics: The biggest error you can make with Google Analytics is not using it to its full potential. Even if you have the tracking code installed on your website, you may not be using the platform correctly if you aren’t logging in on a regular basis to check for changes in website data.

It isn’t necessary to log in every day, especially since you’ll want to look for long-term trends rather than short-term data fluctuations, but you should check in at least once a week to see what’s changed and what hasn’t, especially if you’re in the middle of a big campaign.

#Relying on a single report: Logging in and merely checking only a specific section of the platform is a mistake. Updating, expanding and reviewing reports on a regular basis gives a fuller picture.

#Not filtering out internal traffic: By default, Google Analytics tracks all traffic to your site, including visitors from your own internal team. If you have a team that visits your site on a frequent basis through numerous channels, you may be reporting false data based on those visits.

Set up filters to prohibit internal visitors to screen them out. You can also use filters to exclude data sources from your metrics that you don’t want to include. This can be extremely useful in assuring the accuracy of your data.

While using Google Analytics isn’t a magic potion that can boost your conversions overnight, it is an important tool that helps MSPs develop a solid digital marketing strategy in the long term. It helps you generate high-value traffic that has the potential to lead to more new and recurring engagements.

Ready to gain access to 2,000+ sales and marketing assets that you can use to drive traffic to your website? Ask your NCA Rep or Account Manager about signing up for Powered Services Pro today!

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Is Your MSP Living Up to Its Potential?

Dan Tomaszewski — Fri, 11 Feb 2022 10:36:28 +0000

2022 is here and we’re all hitting the ground running! But before you get ahead of yourself, are you sure your MSP is living up to its full potential?

As an MSP, it isn’t easy building long-term relationships with your customers and prospects. Being in the “problem solving” business means you need to frequently interact with clients when they’re already stressed. We’ve all been in situations where you’re dealing with a technical issue and go above and beyond to remedy it, but the customer is still unhappy.

However, it isn’t about consumers being dissatisfied with the outcome of your service, but rather with the failure to achieve their expectations. When trying to build your business, skewed customer expectations can be a major problem, so it’s important to understand why this happens and how you can mitigate it.

It’s beneficial to be aware of technological trends. You can use your skills and resources to help your clients capitalize on emerging trends if you know what they’ll need to do in 2022 to stay relevant and competitive. Without wasting any time, you need to recalibrate your managed services operations to meet client expectations.

Here’s a quick rundown of some of the most promising opportunities for MSPs in 2022:

Automated Billing Systems

It’s can be frustrating for your employees to put all invoices together if you don’t have a good MSP billing system in place. There’s a good possibility they’ll overlook something, resulting in incorrect billing, duplicate bills and inefficiency, ultimately slowing down your business and making you appear unprofessional to clients.

Over time, these inefficiencies stifle corporate growth and hinder your employees from concentrating on high-value tasks. You need a cloud-based managed services invoice and billing system that ensures timely, quality delivery and boosts your employee and customer experience.

Cybersecurity Solutions

Cybersecurity has become the talk of the town, and it will continue to be a source of concern for MSPs as cyberattacks grow by leaps and bounds. Increasing your services and sophistication will help you boost your sales while also providing your customers with a far stronger layer of security than they currently have, protecting them from bad actors and vulnerabilities.

With enterprises planning a return to work and adopting a hybrid work model, MSPs need to be prepared to support their clients with VPNs and remote desktop services for their workforces. Also, with BYOD practices rising, MSPs should offer solutions that provide round-the-clock vulnerability scanning and patch management for customers.

Unified Solutions

MSPs waste a lot of time switching between applications, websites and products in order to get things done. This has prompted them to look for unified solutions that can save valuable work hours, boost workforce productivity and improve operations. Platforms that allow MSPs to work without having to switch between different tools would be welcomed.

Technologies For Ensuring Business Continuity

Since the onset of the pandemic, businesses have faced a significant problem in terms of business continuity. Many firms have been experiencing downtime due to the continual threat of ransomware attacks and the inconvenience caused by remote work.

MSPs must ensure their clients and business prospects receive the finest solutions for business continuity and disaster recovery, even if they are hit by ransomware or experience a data breach or system failure. The industry has been preparing for a new era of digitization for the past two years, and 2022 will be all about running the show with tried-and-true solutions.

In such a volatile market, you need to prioritize your customers in order to stay ahead of your peers. Conduct a detailed analysis of industry trends and refine your offerings accordingly to address post-pandemic customer needs and augment your sales and marketing efforts.

To learn more, listen to this episode of the Powered Services Podcast as hosts Dan Tomaszewski and Will Bishop chat with Dave Goldie of Gradient MSP about how MSPs can make sure they’re not leaving money on the table with their clients.

The post Is Your MSP Living Up to Its Potential? appeared first on Kaseya.

Endpoint Security Basics: What It Does, How It Works, Controls, Technologies and More

Kaseya — Wed, 09 Feb 2022 11:51:30 +0000

Each new endpoint added to a corporate network expands its security perimeter, and since endpoints serve as gateways to a company’s network, they must be protected adequately.

Remote work culture has greatly expanded the security perimeter of companies, making them more vulnerable to external threats. According to Global Workplace Analytics, 69% of U.S. employees worked remotely at the peak of the pandemic. In remote and hybrid work environments, where employees can access a company’s network through unsecured channels, the need for endpoint security has become even more pressing.

In this blog, we’ll discuss topics such as the significance of endpoint security, endpoint security controls and technologies, what sets endpoint security apart from network security and more. Let’s get started.

What is endpoint security?

An endpoint is any device that communicates and shares information with other devices and end users over a network. Endpoints include laptops, desktops, tablets, mobile devices, servers, medical devices and IoT devices. You can think of endpoints as nodes that connect with each other to form a company’s security perimeter.

Organizational security has become one of the biggest concerns in the business world today due to increasingly sophisticated and systematic cyberattacks. In light of these developments, endpoint security has become a top priority for companies.

What is an endpoint in cybersecurity?

The proliferation of smartphones and a growing number of IoT devices being used at work has increased not only the number of endpoints connecting to a company’s network, but also the type of endpoints. Statista reports that the number of mobile devices operating worldwide reached roughly 15 billion in 2021, up by 1 billion since the previous year. At 7.9 billion people worldwide, that amounts to about two mobile devices per person. Listed below are some of the most common endpoints you’ll find in any organization and how they can serve as an attack surface for a cyberattack.

Laptop: A breach, theft or loss of a company’s laptop can give unauthorized people access to company data and information. Threat actors can get their hands on company login credentials and launch a cyberattack easily while confidential information found on the laptop can be sold on the dark web for a high sum.

Mobile devices: Most people use their personal tablets and smartphones to check work email and handle simple office tasks, even when they haven’t registered their devices with the company’s IT department. Considering these devices are not secured in accordance with company policy and protocol, and that employees use them to browse the internet freely, using them for office work poses serious threats to company security.

Internet of Things (IoT) devices: IDC predicts that there will be 55.7 billion connected devices worldwide by 2025, 75% of which will be connected to an IoT platform. IoT devices are sort of mini-computers that use sensors to collect data and use machine learning to improve their functionality and performance. Because these devices connect to the internet, they are vulnerable to malware and hacking.

Switches: Switches connect multiple devices so that they can communicate and share information with each other. They do this by receiving network packages and sending them to the devices for which they are intended. Since switches serve as information highways, hacking one can lead to loss or theft of data and communication disruption between devices, which could cripple the work process.

Printers: Even printers can be exploited to launch a cyberattack. Since printers store and transmit data as part of the printing process, they become crucial data hubs. Unless you patch your printer on time and protect web access to it using the right security software, you could leave your home or office network vulnerable to data thievery and more.

Servers: Servers are necessary for almost everything including checking emails and connecting to the internet. When a server is compromised, a business can incur considerable losses. Even something as simple as a weak password or lack of an antimalware solution can compromise server access and lead to loss of critical business data and functions.

What is the difference between endpoint security and network security?

A complete cybersecurity defense requires that network and endpoint security work together since one without the other could prove insufficient against well-designed cyberattacks. The two can be considered subsets of each other.

Network security involves using tools and technologies to protect data, devices, files and information stored or shared over a network. The purpose of network security is to protect the integrity, confidentiality and availability of information, and to ensure that only authorized people have access to a certain network. By being proactive, network security detects, blocks and neutralizes threats on an ongoing basis, preventing them from reaching an endpoint.

Endpoint protection, on the other hand, entails the use of advanced security tools and processes to secure various endpoints like servers, workstations and mobile devices that connect to a corporate network.

What does endpoint security do?

When data is the new oil and competition is fierce, cyberattacks can result in businesses paying millions of dollars in ransom, or even experiencing a complete shutdown of their operations. Chicago-based CNA Financial Corp, one of the largest insurance companies in the United States, allegedly paid $40 million in March 2021 to regain control of its network following a ransomware attack. Since cyberattacks almost always have severe consequences, securing endpoints becomes extremely important because they can become gateways into a company’s network, databases, servers, and other parts of the larger IT infrastructure.

In the bigger cybersecurity plan, endpoint security is seen as protecting a company’s front line. By utilizing advanced tools, technologies and processes, companies can prevent both internal and external threats from using their endpoints as an attack surface. Since managing hundreds and thousands of remote and on-site endpoints can be overwhelming, companies use endpoint security tools to manage this laborious process.

Modern day endpoint security solutions are built on traditional antivirus solutions that detect viruses based on their signature. Advanced endpoint security platforms not only help identify viruses but also neutralize them along with a broad range of other threats like ransomware, polymorphic codes and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks that can cause severe financial and reputational damages to a company.

Why is endpoint security important?

According to IDC, 70% of breaches begin at an endpoint. Cybercriminals can take advantage of an unsecured endpoint to break into a network and steal confidential information. In addition to theft, threat actors can engage in corporate espionage and cyber extortion as well as a number of other criminal activities that could adversely affect business operations and brand reputation. Organizations can no longer ignore endpoint security, especially since it plays a pivotal role in protecting them from the increasingly dangerous threat landscape. Benefits of endpoint security include:

Securing endpoints: The primary goal of endpoint protection is to keep the data on endpoints safe and secure from theft or manipulation. This includes protecting it from both external threats and from malicious insiders.

Secure remote and diversified workforce: As companies’ security perimeters become more porous thanks to remote and hybrid work and a diversified workforce, they need a greater level of visibility and control over their endpoints. A security solution installed and managed on the endpoint itself allows administrators to keep a closer eye on any suspicious behavior, even remotely, and resolve issues as soon as they arise. Moreover, the practice of bring-your-own-device (BYOD) is becoming more commonplace. By implementing a stringent endpoint security system, IT administrators can take effective measures to secure these devices and prevent them from being exploited.

Advanced threat protection: To counter cyberattacks, one needs to do more than react to an incident. It’s about constantly monitoring for unauthorized activity and unusual device and application behavior that can point to a breach in action. Endpoint protection tools combine the functionality of various security solutions, such as antivirus, antimalware, firewalls, antispyware and intrusion prevention, into a single package to provide comprehensive protection.

Protecting identity: Endpoint security ensures that even if a device or application falls into the wrong hands, it cannot be misused. The use of multifactor authentication (MFA) and biometric identification ensures that only authorized personnel can access the company’s network. Although cybercriminals aim to crack these codes, the multiple layers of security make launching an attack difficult, allowing the company to defend itself.

How does endpoint security work?

Rather than managing their endpoints using separate products, businesses use Endpoint Protection Platforms (EPPs) that combine the functionality of several security products.

To make it easier for companies to manage multiple security components from one place, EPP platforms come equipped with vulnerability and patch management, configuration management, disk and encryption facilities, backup and disaster recovery features to name a few. In addition to monitoring execution processes and log files on various endpoints, EPP tools can analyze variances and redress incidents automatically.

Unlike traditional antivirus and antimalware tools, endpoint protection tools today combine features of both AV and AM tools as well as the capabilities of cloud computing and remote monitoring to offer comprehensive network and endpoint security. Detection of more advanced threats, such as polymorphic attacks, file-less malware and zero-day attacks, is also possible with some solutions that offer Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) capabilities.

What are endpoint security controls?

Endpoint security controls are features and functionalities that define which information, files and devices are allowed to communicate with an endpoint and to what extent. Listed below are some common endpoint security controls.

Device control: This feature controls how an external device connects and communicates with an endpoint, for example a USB drive and storage drive, so that malware coming from external devices does not harm the endpoint.

Network control: A reliable firewall is an example of network control. It examines and filters all incoming traffic for different types of malware.

Application control: This control allows only safe listed or harmless files to be downloaded or deployed on an endpoint. All blocked or harmful files are denied access to the endpoint and cannot be downloaded. The feature is ideal for securing single-purpose devices like Point-of-Sale (PoS) devices and Programmable Logic Controlled (PLC) devices that have limited capabilities.

Data control: Using technologies such as encryption, this function prevents data leaks and helps maintain the integrity of data.

Browser control: A website can host malware, including malicious JavaScript and phishing pages to steal login credentials. Browser controls allow you to set a web filter so that you can control which websites employees can access when connected to the corporate network.

User control: A user control system ensures that only authorized personnel can deploy, run or manage programs or software. As a result, endpoints can be protected from potentially harmful programs and software.

What are endpoint security technologies?

Endpoint security technologies consist of tools and solutions that can detect, respond and neutralize threats. Modern and more sophisticated endpoint protection products offer a combination of these technologies, so clients do not have to buy and manage several products. Common endpoint security technologies are:

Antivirus & Antimalware (AV/AM): Antiviruses are programs that detect and eliminate viruses on a computer system or other endpoints. An antimalware program works against all types of malware, including viruses, worms, trojans, etc.

Data Loss Prevention (DLP): DLP is the process of detecting and preventing data leaks, unauthorized destruction of sensitive information and illicit transfer of data outside the organization.

Endpoint Protection Platforms (EPP): EPP solutions not only prevent malware, worms, Trojans and other intrusive software from making their way into endpoints, but also help maintain a high level of endpoint health and functionality. They provide investigation and remediation capabilities along with protection against malicious activity and file-based malware attacks to ensure a secure and robust business environment.

Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR): By using EDR tools, organizations can identify and respond to cyberthreats before they happen or even while they are in progress. In addition, it is effective at identifying malware with polymorphic codes that go undetected by traditional security tools. Monitoring endpoints continuously allows EDRs to collect and create high-quality databases, which are then analyzed so that the root cause of a problem can be identified, and new malware detected. EDRs also come equipped with machine learning and built-in analytics features that can detect and neutralize threats at a very early stage.

Managed Detection and Response (MDR): Companies can add an extra layer of security by signing up for MDR, which is an outsourced cybersecurity service. In this system, cybersecurity experts use advanced analytics and threat intelligence to identify and respond to cyberthreats that slip past a company’s security controls. The MDR approach provides a more comprehensive and robust cybersecurity solution. It can be useful when internal resources are insufficient or overburdened.

Intrusion Detection and Prevention System (IDPS): An IDPS allows organizations to detect potential cyberattacks early and respond to them automatically.

What is unified endpoint security?

Security tools work better together when they are unified. A unified endpoint security tool combines the features of EPP, EDR, antivirus/antimalware and other threat defenses into a single, centralized administration console. In other words, it’s a modern endpoint security tool that lets IT technicians manage hundreds of endpoints from a single interface.

By managing endpoints in this way, IT experts not only get a bird’s eye view of their endpoint network but can make better security decisions. With a greater understanding of the endpoints and network map, security weaknesses can be identified quickly and addressed in less time.

Secure your endpoints with Kaseya

Kaseya VSA is a unified remote monitoring and management (uRMM) platform that enables IT teams to manage core security functions from a single interface. VSA comes with features, including:

• Automated software patch management
• Deployment and management of AV/AM and EDR solutions
• Integrated backup and disaster recovery (BDR) management

But that’s not all. By leveraging Kaseya Unified Backup integration in VSA, you can reduce downtime with instant recovery, ransomware detection and automated disaster recovery testing. In addition to these integrated security functions, Kaseya VSA includes built-in product security features like two-factor authentication, data encryption and 1-click access to safeguard your IT environment. When you use Kaseya’s suite of security solutions in conjunction with VSA, you can resolve vulnerabilities before they can be exploited by cybercriminals.

Click here to get started with a VSA demo!

The post Endpoint Security Basics: What It Does, How It Works, Controls, Technologies and More appeared first on Kaseya.