Does your business (or do your clients) need a cybersecurity solution?

Whether you are a business or a managed service provider (MSP), you know the answer to this question. It does not matter whether your organization is a small-to-medium-sized business (SMB) or enterprise company, you need a cybersecurity solution. Read on and discover why making an investment in cybersecurity now is more important than ever.

To stay ahead of modern threats that are becoming more dynamic and sophisticated, cybersecurity solutions are advancing fast. Here are six of the latest technologies being incorporated into next-generation solutions.

Behavioral heuristics analysis detects malware based on analysis of what a program does and if the program “misbehaves” (e.g., changing other files, modifying legitimate files to behave different, etc.), it is flagged as malware. This approach has now evolved into behavioral heuristics where rules can now track the programs’ behaviors. For example, if legitimate software is not intended to inject itself into systems processes but, in fact does so, behavioral heuristics detection will flag the software as infected.

Behavioral heuristics analysis is starting to analyze user behavior as well. For example, if the typing style of a certain user suddenly looks different, the technology can detect this change and flag the user as suspect.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Deep Learning (DL) is being incorporated into many types of software applications – and cybersecurity software is no exception. An AI approach is like heuristics analysis except that the ML algorithm not only analyzes what the program/file does, but also analyzes what it looks like and some of its static characteristics. The simplest way to accomplish this is to train the system with millions of classified good and bad samples so that the system can learn what a malicious file looks like and create a model for it. Any new file can then be compared to the trained model and decide if it is similar or not. The same principle can be applied to events on the network or observed behavior traits. The most sophisticated systems can continuously improve their own classification algorithms by constant training. AI-based systems are good if you are looking to automate manual tasks and for analyzing large data sets to quickly find similarities or abnormal activity.  

Zero trust, also known as the principle of least privilege, is not necessarily new but is becoming more popular these past few years. Zero trust is a strategy that assumes no one and nothing inside or outside the network can be trusted. For example, you only trust an employee to have access to the data they need to do their job. If the employee believes they need access to more data, they can submit a request to the Chief Security Officer (CSO), who can grant or deny access based on the circumstances.

Data loss prevention (DLP) has also been around awhile but is becoming one of the most popular cybersecurity technologies. All businesses are recognizing the need for it, especially with extortion gangs, who are incorporating ransomware, data theft leaks, DDoS attacks, anything they can do to extort a business. DLP will alert a company if data is being pulled out of its systems. Typically, there is some type of AI involved, which can recognize and stop unusual behaviors on the network (e.g., unusual flows of data). 

Advanced email security blocks email-borne threats, including spam, phishing, business email compromise (BEC), advanced persistent threats (APTs) and zero-day attacks before they reach end users. Email is a primary attack vector; many ransomware attacks begin with an email.

Hardware authentication is a new approach to ensuring data security. It requires a security chip that is embedded in a user’s device and ensures the device is approved for use to access a specific system. This adds another layer of security on top of password use. One issue with hardware authentication is that employees would be required to load the software on their mobile phones, which can lead to privacy implications.

Cybercriminals are not going away. In fact, they are stepping up their attacks, constantly changing tactics and using the most advanced technologies. Attackers do not discriminate based on an organization’s size, location, or industry. Instead, they look for the best opportunities to steal data and money and if your organization does not have adequate data security in place, it is a certainty that your business will suffer a breach and the costs can be significant. These include:

• Costs to recondition your systems (e.g., upgrading your systems, preparing for the next attack, implementation of lessons learned, the costs for internal IT attack response and remediation, consulting fees to recover from the current incident), lost orders, and loss of market value
• Loss of customer trust, negative press reports, and brand damage
• Legal consequences and compliance penalties through data protection regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
• Follow-on attacks that misuse stolen data such as passwords
• Blackmail by cyber criminals who threaten to publish the data
• Loss of proprietary information, secret financial data, and patents

The right solution can stop an attack before it even starts.

If you have been selling backup to your clients, cybersecurity is the next logical step. With the right solution, you can enhance your backup service with essential cyber protection that secures all client workloads at no cost. This can help you stay ahead of your competitors and improve your profitability. By consolidating multiple point solutions from different vendors, you can also cut your cyber protection costs by up to 50%, simplify software management, improve workflow automation, and reduce the security risks caused by using a patchwork of tools.

While cybersecurity can protect your business from a breach, it does not fully protect your systems, applications, and data. Alternatively, cyber protection is an integrated solution that combines cybersecurity, backup, and disaster recovery, ensuring your systems, apps, and data are secure and protected, no matter what happens – a malicious attack, deleted data resulting from human error, corrupted data due to hardware/software malfunctions, a human-made or natural disaster – any event that causes data loss.

Acronis offers both businesses and MSPs an integrated cyber protection solution that natively integrates cybersecurity, data protection, and management to protect endpoints, systems, and data.

Acronis Cyber Protect provides businesses with:

• Cybersecurity and endpoint protection management, vulnerability assessments and patch management, remote desktop, and drive health
• An advanced, next-generation anti-malware, including URL filtering and automated backup scanning
• Fast and reliable recovery of your apps, systems, and data on any device, from any incident

Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud provides MSPs with one integrated solution that eliminates complexity, so service providers can protect clients better, keep costs down and:

• Reduce risk. Minimize your clients’ security risks with integrated cyber protection covering 100% of their endpoints and unlock unique capabilities not available from your current security vendor.
• Increase profitability. Strengthen your security services and unlock easy upsell and cross-sell opportunities built on one integrated solution.
• Lower costs. Cut cyber protection costs by up to 50% by consolidating vendors instead of purchasing multiple point solutions from multiple vendors.