With Coronavirus IT Security Threats Rising, MSPs Must React Wisely
… new malware and other attacks that are being created to hit victims at a time of crisis, said McKernan.
“The malware is getting better at evading the solutions,” he said. “So the idea of approaching security from the backup perspective allows us to plan better and be able to recover systems quickly when problems arise,” based on Acronis’ approach. “To be able to revert to the last known good backup can be a huge time saver and save time in coming back to operation.”
Brian Shield, vice president of IT for Major League Baseball’s Boston Red Sox, and another panel member, told Channel Futures that the team has been using Acronis products for IT security to protect its fans who do business with the Sox, as well as for staff members and players. The team has a large amount of private and personally identifiable information stored representing its fans and employees, and it works hard to protect it, he said.
“What you do have with Major League Baseball clubs is that you have well-known people and well-known brands,” said Shield. “That can be attractive to attackers. We have 3 million people a year who will come to events at Fenway Park, so we want to make sure we are safeguarding their information as well as our own.”
For the Red Sox, the first rollout of Acronis security products was last year to better protect some 125 baseball scouts who work for the team in different countries across the globe, where ensuring security can be more difficult, said Shields.
“We wanted the ability to rapidly respond to any problems they had around the globe,” he noted.
That includes the ability to take images of computers used by the remote scouts so if an attack or other security issue arises, their computers and data can be rapidly recovered so they can get back to work quickly.
“That is really critical to their overall effectiveness,” said Shield.
The Red Sox also are creating a calendar in the next two months to provide more training for the team’s employees on how to identify and avoid malware, phishing, ransomware and other attacks in their work, said Shield. That’s becoming even more important as more workers are doing their work at home due to COVID-19.
“Some trends we are starting to see are what are concerning, with more people working from home and attackers taking advantage of that,” said Shield. “Security awareness training right now is really critical in this period.”
And with many workers at home conducting their tasks, the Red Sox believe they can use this time to help drive home these messages of awareness, caution and safety when it comes to cyberattacks on the team’s IT systems.
“The coronavirus is an opportunity to bring more awareness now,” he said. “Most organizations struggle with awareness training, especially when everyone is distracted by their jobs. This is an opportunity for companies to really use this time to better educate and inform their employee bases. Workers also have a little bit of quiet time where some greater awareness can be stressed.”
- Page 1
- Page 2