A review of 2021 stories – and why your company should consider managed services in 2022.
Our realities have been changed dramatically recently, and it is amazing to realize that it has been almost two years since COVID reorganized our lives. The business was at the front line of the needed reaction, as workers were sent home en masse – with very little notice – in the first quarter of 2020. As we have discussed on this blog several times in the past, working remotely has therefore morphed from a “prestigious arrangement” to a necessary and preferred business model. We have also discussed that this arrangement, while more mainstream, has posed unique security issues for IT professionals trying to secure their network from hackers.
As we approach 2022 with remote work firmly established as a norm, we are also forced to acknowledge that cybercrime is not only a major problem – but the risk is increasingly a reality for everyone. For instance, just this week in the news:
- The US. State Department reported that nine of their employee’s iPhones had been targeted and hacked, allegedly with tools created by Israel’s NSO group. The Group has denied any involvement. No information was released as to the nature of the data compromised.
- A Los Angeles Planned Parenthood reported that their data had been hacked, and medical information for 400,000 of their patients was compromised.
- Finland is dealing with an unprecedented attack on personal cell phones. Millions of text messages of an unknown origin are spreading malware, linked to a virus named FluBot. The message states that the recipient has received a voice mail, prompting them to open a link. Android devices then allow the installation of an application that contains the malware, and Apple iPhones are directed to other fraudulent material.
How This Affects Your Business
These stories prove that cyber hackers are growing more emboldened – and no matter how much awareness is rising, the attacks just keep coming. This is because cybercriminals have organized and gotten more sophisticated. They use machine learning, study trends, and fine tune those methods which get the best results. Many aspects of cyber crime are compartmentalized, with some groups designing the attack and others implementing them. This advanced level of coordination is their full-time work, and businesses don’t have the depth of expertise to keep up. Very few organizations can afford the resources necessary to stay on top of the newest threats in order to prevent against them – or know how to respond if they become victims.
Managed Services Provide High-Level Services
Managed services not only provide the expertise you need to protect you against these high-level security attacks, but can also help with operational concerns, such as how to keep up with new hardware and software. While virtualized servers or the latest operating system licenses may seem outside of your budget, the infrastructure at a managed services IT company provides the economies of scale you can’t achieve on your own. Not only that, but their 24×7 operation provides the monitoring your business needs to stay up and running at all times. Although just a decade ago it was acceptable for a website to go down overnight, these days that downtime represents significant lost revenue for most organizations. Therefore managed services provides the round-the-clock attention you need to achieve close to 100% uptime, and maximized performance – without having to pay staff.
The team at Alliance IT provides exceptional IT services, consultation, and project management that helps our clients protect and grow their businesses. If you are in the Sarasota area, call today – and watch your business thrive in 2022.
