Coleman Technologies Blog

Perhaps predictably, the word “insure” has roots that tie it closely to “ensure,” as it is meant to ensure a level of security after some form of loss. Nowadays, that loss often pertains to data, making cyber insurance an extremely valuable investment for the modern business to make.

However, in order to obtain this kind of insurance, businesses commonly need to meet some basic requirements. Let’s go over some of these requirements now.

What Are Insurance Providers Looking for to Approve Cyber Insurance?

It’s important that your business is not only meeting the requirements that an insurance provider expects from you, but that you also have it fully documented. This helps make it easier for everyone to stay on the same page, as well as to evaluate how prepared the business is to protect its data. What follows are some of the preparations that many insurance providers expect to see from businesses seeking coverage.

Multi-Factor Authentication Protecting Email (at a Minimum)

It should come as no surprise that email is a major target for cybercriminal activity. It’s popular, it’s convenient, and—as countless attacks have proven—it works. If a cybercriminal manages to gain access to a target’s email account, they effectively have the keys to the castle, as any accounts tied to that email can then be altered and adjusted.

This is what makes it so important that if you have multi-factor authentication protecting anything, your email is a good candidate… although, we recommend that it’s implemented wherever it is available. Multi-factor authentication reinforces your security by adding additional requirements to a login process before access will be granted, ideally by also requiring a user to confirm their identity, often through a secondary key or by providing a generated code or biometric proof.

The long and the short of it is that MFA is a very effective means of eliminating unauthorized access, which is something that insurance providers want to see before they offer coverage.

Testing and Training for Cybersecurity Awareness

On a related note, insurance providers want to see staff engagement where a business’ cybersecurity is involved. After all, all the protection in the world won’t matter if one of your team members leaves the door open or allows an attacker in. This makes it critical that your team knows about the threats they face and—crucially—how to appropriately identify and react to these threats as they encounter them.

Due to the evolving nature of cybercrime, this needs to be an ongoing process. You should be regularly evaluating your employees with and without warning, providing immediate education to anyone who misses one of your simulated threats. Your potential insurance provider will likely want to see documented proof that these steps exist and are enforced as they consider your application.

Incident Response, Backup and Disaster Recovery, and Similar Defenses

In order for these policies to stay profitable, insurance companies will want to see that every precaution has been put in place. After all, the less likely a policyholder is to suffer the damages that their policy covers, the less likely it is that the insurer will have to issue a reimbursement payment. As a result, insurance providers like to see that businesses are as prepared as possible, so they don’t just want to see preventative measures, but mitigations as well.

Therefore, your insurance provider is going to want to see everything you have in place as a part of your incident response plan. They’ll want to see that your backups are situated and updated appropriately, they’ll want to see established processes and systems, and they’ll want to see that you have different people assigned to carry these processes and systems out.

Applicable Compliance Gap Assessments

Chances are pretty good that you process credit card information as part of your business operations in some shape or form. This means that you presumably need to align to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), which dictates what businesses need to do to protect the information of their cardholding customers. A gap assessment is a process that helps you identify anywhere that you fall short of true compliance, allowing you to more effectively resolve these issues to reach the standards expected. Because of this, insurance providers will want to see the results of your gap assessments and documentation of any steps that you’ve taken to fix the issues present regarding any applicable compliance requirements.

We can help you maintain the standards that an insurance company will be looking for to approve your business for cyber insurance coverage. Learn more about our managed IT services by giving us a call at (604) 513-9428.

What is Consulting?

Like we’ve established, it isn’t uncommon for people to recruit an expert or a professional with the capability to assist them with a task that the person cannot do. There are many reasons that people do so: they may not have the skill to safely work on whatever process is required of them, they may lack the technical know-how to complete it. Sometimes, it is simply to ensure that something is done the right way.

Whatever the reason may be, bringing in an expert (often referred to as a consultant), is a great way to help reinforce your chances of a positive outcome.

What You Should Expect When Working with Consultants

First and foremost, the consultants you work with need to have a better grasp on their area of expertise than you do, and should be motivated to give you the value that you are looking for in a provider. Coleman Technologies qualifies as a consultant for managed services, working with businesses to ensure their information technology solutions are optimized.

As such, we are committed to using the experience and expertise that we have built up to deliver the solutions and services that our clients need to be successful. After all, the success of a managed service provider is dependent on the success of its clients, providing the motivation to deliver services that deliver the positive outcomes these businesses are looking for.

There are a variety of services we offer to help accomplish this shared goal through our consultation. If the technology you use could stand to see an upgrade, following through with us allows the decision makers we work with to take the data on their past and present IT strategies. As a result, we can make the best decisions for them that will help to cement their business’ future.

Here are some of the consulting services that we offer:

Virtual CIO

One of the biggest concerns that businesses come to us with regarding their technology is (predictably) the cost associated with their IT implementations. There are a few reasons that that they’ll do so… some are looking to upgrade, others will want to scale their technology to match their business’ growth without outpacing their budget. Whatever the reason, there is one fundamental motivation why they do so:

In essence, these companies want to make sure that their investment will provide them with the value they require (or really, demand) of it.

Working with you as your Virtual CIO, we can oversee your complete IT strategy. Our seasoned professionals will evaluate your current technology, identify which products and services will serve your needs best without breaking the bank, and work with you to strategize your approach to your IT from top to bottom. As a result, you aren’t saddled with the responsibilities to research and come to decisions - duties that you probably have neither the time nor the practical experience to take on.

Business Process Management

One of the major benefits of any business technology is the positive effect it has on efficiency. When working to streamline your processes, your in-house resources may not have the perspective to see the big picture and come up with an efficient and effective plan. An outside resource, like a managed service provider, has that needed perspective. Pair that with the experience they have in optimizing business resources, and you have a winning combination.

By working with a partner who is committed to equipping you with the processes and tools from start to finish, you can shift your productivity/waste ratio in the right direction - and the better your productivity, the higher your revenue.

Vendor Management

How much time has your business sunk, in total, into working with your vendors? How much has that cost the business? You need to keep in mind that vendors are - in most cases - effectively salesmen. Not to say this is a bad thing, but it does mean that the majority of vendors will prioritize making a sale over ensuring you get what will serve you best. However, with Coleman Technologies, you will no longer need to deal with vendors … we’ll do it for you. Anything you need, you’ll be able to call us and get it, simplifying and streamlining your procurement.

Find Out How Else We Can Help

By working with a managed service provider, a company has a simpler means of handling their crucial technology. Whenever they need a problem solved, they simply lean on their provider to see to what’s needed… whether that’s support, resource management, or a representative to speak to vendors. Coleman Technologies can be that for your business.

To learn more about our consulting services, reach out to us at (604) 513-9428 - and don’t forget to check back here on Wednesday for part four of this series!

There are a few kinds of vendors, offering various things to businesses like assorted supplies, equipment, and services. One kind of vendor that has grown increasingly crucial in particular, is that which delivers cloud services to businesses. Due to the expansion of the cloud’s utility in all kinds of business purposes, the choice of a vendor has also expanded in importance.

How to Select the Right Vendor, for Cloud Services and Otherwise
This is going to require some preemptive research and consideration of your own goals. Once you’ve determined your priorities in both the short and long-term, you and your IT resources should examine your available options to see which vendor is most compatible - and that’s in more ways than one.

Not only should your vendor offer what you need at a reasonable rate, there should be some consistency in the goals that your organization and theirs have. You also need to be able to trust your vendor to attend to the services agreed upon, whether that’s a managed agreement or a simple equipment procurement.

How Cloud Services are Different
However, your vendors for your cloud services should be held to a somewhat higher standard - after all, your data is going to be at stake. Therefore, it is important that they be graded differently than your other vendors would be.

Before committing to a cloud service provider; or a cloud strategy in earnest, there are two considerations that must be examined. First, what data is your vendor going to be able to access, and second, what applications can your vendor access as well?

After this initial consideration, you need to also take other factors into account, like how business-critical a said process is, how compliant they are to certain policies, and how much risk is involved in a given action. From there, you can establish if a particular cloud vendor is a good fit or not.

At Coleman Technologies, we can technically be considered a vendor ourselves, as we provide our managed services to other businesses. As such, we’d like you to consider us a candidate for your IT needs. Give us a call at (604) 513-9428 for more information.

A popular automotive dealership software platform has recently become the target of a cyberattack, resulting in the solution going down for several days. Any business that has a solution it relies on can sympathize with the situation. After all, if you lose access to your critical business apps for several days, would your operations be able to recover?

Let’s dive into the situation.

CDK Global Outage Takes Down 15,000 Car Dealerships

Most businesses have specific solutions that they rely on to keep operations efficient, and car dealerships are no exception. While various platforms are available, moving from one to another can be costly and time-consuming, making a last-minute pivot next to impossible without a serious financial burden. It involves data migration, system implementation, inventory configuration, and user training.

These platforms are essential for operations, and each industry will utilize them differently. Some might use them for payroll, customer relationship management, inventory management, financial management, marketing, and so on. CDK Global is one of these solutions but for the automotive industry. 1 in 5 car dealerships in the US rely on it.

This outage started on Wednesday, June 19th, bringing down CDK’s systems for hours. On Thursday, yet another cybersecurity incident occurred. As of this writing, most of 15,000 dealerships had their systems restored, in line with a memo issued by CDK that the systems were unlikely to be restored before the end of June. 

Before the restoration, however, it was recommended that dealerships plan to adopt other software for their month-end financial closing processes in the short term.

As you can imagine, this was not an easy task for the car dealerships who rely on this software.

Dealerships Couldn’t Operate, and People Can't Register Cars

If you were a customer ready to pull the trigger on a new vehicle purchase, you’d be disappointed when only one of the five dealerships you visit can help. It’s also problematic if you cannot legally drive it. CDK Global’s software can help car dealerships register cars with the state. Still, depending on state laws, new customers must make an appointment with their local motor vehicle department to legally drive their car home.

Let’s be realistic: no one likes going to the Department of Motor Vehicles, regardless of how quickly or slowly the line moves. The fact that this outage forces customers to engage in this way is not good for CDK users.

Whose Fault is This, Really?

It’s easy to think that CDK Global is at fault, but it’s not necessarily the case (at least as of this writing). While it’s been severe enough to force most car dealerships to work on pen and paper, it’s important to note that cybersecurity issues are an inevitability.

There are ways to prepare for such attacks, but there is always a risk, however miniscule it might be. Even organizations that are well-prepared to handle cybersecurity threats can fall victim to them. What you can do, however, is judge how they respond to such attacks.

Here are some lessons that businesses can learn from this incident.

1. Cyberattacks can have a massive impact on your business and the lives of those you work with.
2. Cyberattacks can happen to literally any organization, large or small.
3. Proper preparation and proactive prevention can minimize the risk of a cyberattack and reduce the impact.
4. Communication during a cybersecurity incident is critical!

If your business relies on specific applications, then it’s time to consider what would happen if those applications were suddenly unavailable. It’s better to be prepared for the worst and never experience it than to be unprepared.

If cybersecurity concerns you, we’ve got your back. Coleman Technologies offers security solutions for your business. Call us at (604) 513-9428 to learn more.

How Did the Attack Happen?

In short, an IT management company known as SolarWinds was breached back in March, affecting a massive number of organizations—18,000 in all. These organizations include the likes of Microsoft, Cisco, and FireEye, as well as many states and federal organizations, including:

• The U.S. Department of State
• The U.S. Department of the Treasury
• The U.S. Department of Homeland Security
• The U.S. Department of Energy
• The U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration
• The National Institutes of Health, of the U.S. Department of Health
• The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration

When the attackers gained access to SolarWinds’ network, they were able to use what is known as a supply chain attack to introduce their malware to these departments and organizations by pushing it through the company’s automatic software update system for their Orion products. These kinds of attacks can be particularly effective since the threat is introduced to an environment via a trusted application.

Making this situation worse, many SolarWinds customers had excluded Orion products from their security checks on SolarWinds’ recommendation to prevent their other security products from shutting them down due to the malware signatures that these security products contain.

While (at the time of this writing) it is unclear what the attackers responsible used this access to do, the potential ramifications are truly terrifying. While government departments were targeted, it also needs to be said that this attack could have potentially continued from the major providers like Microsoft and Cisco to their clients, and so on and so forth. That’s why there is still no estimate of this attack’s true scope.

This attack was seemingly only discovered when an employee at FireEye received an alert that their VPN credentials had been used from a new device, and a little digging revealed the much larger situation playing out.

This Wasn’t the Only Attack, Either

Another attack was also discovered on SolarWinds’ network when the company performed an internal audit of its systems. On December 18, a second malware was found to have used the same tactic to infiltrate SolarWinds, but as of this writing does not seem to come from the same source.

What This Needs to Teach Us

Frankly, the most important lessons to be learned here are painfully obvious. First off, cybersecurity needs to be prioritized above all else, and all potential threats should be considered a likelihood. After all, the U.S. government was warned about the viability of exactly this kind of threat back in 2018 by the Government Accountability Office.

Secondly, the concept of your employees being a huge part of your cybersecurity strategy needs to be reinforced. This was only discovered when an employee was alerted of unusual activity and took that alert seriously. Your team needs to know what they are looking out for, and how to proceed if they spot it.

We may not know the scope of these attacks for a while. That shouldn’t stop you from reaching out to the IT professionals at Coleman Technologies to get an assessment and a consultation. Call us today at (604) 513-9428 to get started protecting your network, infrastructure, and data.