TeamLogic IT, a national provider of comprehensive information technology (IT) management services for businesses, is working to champion awareness of the threat cyber attacks pose to all organizations, in particular small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Social engineering techniques such as ransomware and phishing abound, and SMBs and leadership often lack both the resources and awareness around risks and what to do to prevent attacks and what to do when they happen. This leaves many in the dark regarding data breaches and measures to ensure business continuity.
In 2016, according to a “State of SMB Cybersecurity” research report, nearly one half of all small businesses in the United States had been breached over the previous 12 months, and security software firm Symantec recently reported that small businesses are the targets of cybercrime 43% of the time.
“Cybercriminals are most often looking for vulnerabilities in organizational behaviors – lack of IT management sophistication, lack of policy or enforcement of policy and lack of cybersecurity awareness – more than weaknesses in hardware or software,” said Chuck Lennon, president of TeamLogic IT.
In response, business technology is evolving rapidly from tactical support to the need for a strategic initiative to address issues of security and compliance. Managed Service Providers (MSPs) are championing the need for data backup and disaster recovery, managed security, cloud, mobility, and other IT services. Further, MSPs are arming business owners with risk mitigation tools and identifying operational inefficiencies with services like these, which are no longer trends, but imperative to success in today’s cyber world.
Some of the key issues TeamLogic IT sees SMBs confronting are:†
- Nonexistent or inconsistent network security monitoring. An SMB may be watching the performance of its network but not the network’s level of cybersecurity.
- Nonexistent or inadequate mobile policy. For example, what happens when an employee loses a smartphone or tablet tied to the company’s network? And how soon does it happen?
- Sloppy software maintenance. The updates and patches to a firm’s software applications may not be applied on a timely basis – or at all.
Lennon added, “Digital technologies enable SMBs to operate at a scope and scale similar to a large corporation, but the typical SMB leader doesn’t have the same resources and breadth of staff available. Meanwhile, all businesses today rely heavily on seamless, uninterrupted connections, website performance, and a structured IT framework. The right MSP can help a company of any size adopt security best practices tailored to their specific needs.”
For four years running TeamLogic IT has been recognized on the MSPmentor 501 list of global managed services providers, ranking number 36 in 2017, and recently earned a spot in The Channel Company’s CRNÆ MSP 500 list of North American managed services providers. Franchise Business Review has ranked TeamLogic IT a Top 50 franchise for 10 years and the number 1 technology franchise for the last six years. The company was ranked number 143 in Entrepreneur magazine’s 2016 Annual Franchise 500.
