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Computers, Security, Software, Technology

Cybersecurity Advice for SMEs Adjusting To The New Norm And Workforce Trends

February 9, 2021 flashnewsrelease Leave a comment

Nijmegen, The Netherlands | February 8, 2021 — Modern businesses are adjusting to the rise and advancement of the digital era (and all that comes with it) more and more. In many ways, ensuring the ongoing longevity and success of a business in this modern era is very much intrinsically linked to being willing and able to adapt and realign with the way that the modern world is moving.

Like never before, we have seen a tremendous amount of attention to detail and overall emphasis that is specifically geared towards allowing businesses to enhance and improve from the ground up.

Modern workforce trends are also becoming more enhanced and improved all the time. In fact, the enhancement and improvement of modern businesses is intrinsically linked to the willingness and capability for modern businesses to adapt and overcome challenges, improving significantly in the process.

For many businesses, this is a learning curve that they are still navigating. For small businesses specifically, there is quite a lot to be said about how small businesses can adjust to this new norm and the workforce trends that are coming along with it.

Shifting or expanding online

Some small businesses, believe it or not, still operate largely (if not entirely) on a traditional foundation.

While this is not necessarily a bad thing, we are definitively evolving into the digital era with exceedingly rapid pace. So, adapting to the new norm is crucial. And one of the best ways that small businesses especially can achieve this is to shift or expand their business online.

With more focus on modernisation in the professional landscape, the heightened focus on the online platform is driving businesses to new heights. And small businesses can always utilise that to their advantage.

Prioritising cybersecurity measures

Of course, one of the biggest and most important ways that small businesses can adapt to the new norm and take advantage of workforce trends is to prioritise cybersecurity measures.

Whether it is the full scale use of consumer-focused VPN services or the incorporation of a business-created cybersecurity framework that entirely encapsulates a business’ approach to privacy and security in the digital era and beyond, prioritising cybersecurity measures makes a world of difference in all the right ways.

The more that small businesses focus their energy, money, efforts, and time online, the more important cybersecurity is going to come.

Investing in convenience and efficiency

The digital era has created an inevitable amount of investment and active prioritisation surrounding convenience and efficiency. For small businesses today and in the future and beyond, one of the best ways that they can adapt and thrive in the new norm and prioritise workforce trends now and into the future is to invest in convenience and efficiency.

These are the cornerstones to longevity and success for any business in the digital era and they are even more instrumental for small businesses of all natures, origins, shapes and scales. In many ways, this is expected to be just the tip of the iceberg with the best still yet to come.

Continual and Continuous Monitoring

Cybersecurity is never a one-off affair. It is important to maintain visibility over network endpoints, including employee devices and activities, while respecting their privacy. Apparently, most attacks begin on endpoints used by people—not the firewall or your servers. With the remote work trend, businesses have more endpoints to manage because opportunities for attacks are multiplied.

Endpoint monitoring should be continual (major assessments at regular intervals) and continuous (on-going process). The aim of monitoring details of activities taking place on your network, especially the movement of files is to ensure greater visibility and eliminate blind spots.

Risk Assessment

While transitioning a workspace in line with modern trends, it is crucial to identify the changing nature of risks as well as new loopholes that may have opened up due to such a transition. Therefore, the risk assessment required in this situation would be geared towards analyzing the extent to which business operations rely on certain security functions, as well as the manner in which such functions have become affected due to the transition.

That is basically about answering the questions: what risks were the business exposed to before? And what risks are the business exposed to now? Changes are being effected so rapidly now but security-blind transitions only lead to latter regrets.

Conclusion

No one knows precisely how long the COVID-19 scourge will last. But we know that it has altered the nature of work significantly for years to come. The recommendations above will help SMEs maintain a strong cybersecurity posture amidst the rapid changes taking place.

A summarized checklist for effecting transitions is the following:

* Incorporate privacy and security considerations
* Ensure continuous efficiency (business as usual, or the nearest to it)
* Monitor network activities always
* Evaluate risks and security gaps

Press & Media Contact:
David Janssen
VPNoverview.com
Groesbeekseweg 246A, 6523PJ,
Nijmegen, The Netherlands
+2348180575277
https://vpnoverview.com

Technology

School Security Threat Assessment Program helps Schools Identity Weaknesses in Security after Sandy Hook Shootings

December 22, 2012 flashnewsrelease Leave a comment

Schools around the U.S. have found it difficult to put strong security controls in place because of lack of funding and resistance by parents and staff, who, unfortunately, saw physical security controls as too restrictive.

Boca Raton, FL (USA), December 22, 2012 — Schools around the U.S. have found it difficult to put strong security controls in place because of lack of funding and resistance by parents and staff, who, unfortunately, saw physical security controls as too restrictive.

After the recent tragedy in Newtown, CT, it is critically important that every school do a security threat/risk assessment to see where their own vulnerabilites may be.

To address the situtuation and make it easier to do a simple, effective school security asssessment, Risk and Security LLC has announced a new School Security app, which can run on a tablet, smart phone or laptop.

The Risk-Pro for School Security© app is available for only $ 495.00 for non-profit healthcare organizations ($595.00 for others), and comes with an on-line user guide and free training.

The program is looks at the entire school, addressing areas like access control, entry controls, and incident response. The program was developed by Caroline Hamilton with the National Institute of Justice and Eastern Kentucky University to create an easy way for schools to use FEMA 428, How to have Safe Schools.

The web 2.0 program, Risk-Pro for School Security©, is affordable and simple to use. It includes fully-updated threat databases, and automated web-surveys based on security requirements from FEMA 428.

“With 3-year old twins in my family, I was high motivated to make sure they are safe at their pre-school, and have fielded calls from dozens of security professionals who are worried about their children’s school security posture. The Risk-Pro© model has been used for easy software applications with the Department of Defense and over fifty hospitals, health plans and government agencies.

About Risk & Security LLC:
Risk & Security LLC is a security risk assessment and risk analysis company with over 30 years of combined expertise in security risk. It specializes in consulting on risk assessment projects and global application development of risk solutions. Risk & Security partners with security companies around the world to provide state-of-the-art security expertise to analyze risk and recommend cost-effective countermeasures.

The team of risk and security experts is led Caroline Ramsey-Hamilton, who has created more than 18 security assessment software programs, and conducted more than 200 specialized security risk assessments in a variety of environments, including companies in the United States and around the world.

Press & Media Contact:
Risk & Security LLC
Boca Raton, FL – USA
1-800-860-8735
caroline@riskandsecurityllc.com

Welcome to RISK & SECURITY (and SAFETY)

Technology

eGestalt Announces Next Generation Security Posture Management with Aegify

December 13, 2012 flashnewsrelease Leave a comment

Cloud-based, Software-only solution is powered by Rapid7 technology.

Santa Clara, CA (USA), December 12, 2012 — eGestalt Technologies ( http://www.eGestalt.com ), a provider of IT security monitoring and compliance management for SMBs and enterprises, today announced Aegify, the world’s first completely integrated and unified IT-GRC and cloud-based Security Posture Management (SPM) product using a completely software-based solution.

Security Posture Management (SPM) is the art and science of monitoring and managing business security status by orchestrating process, people, and technological resources to achieve security objectives. This involves identifying business critical IT assets, evaluating their risks based on vulnerabilities and the impact of potential threats, and mapping results directly to controls to initiate appropriate countermeasures.

Aegify SPM is powered by Rapid7’s Nexpose vulnerability management technology, which scans physical and virtual networks, databases, operating systems and web applications, enabling customers to remediate vulnerabilities and misconfigurations and to enforce policies. Rapid7 ( http://www.rapid7.com ) is a leading provider of IT security risk management solutions used by more than 2,000 enterprises and government agencies in more than 65 countries.

Aegify is a complete integration of eGestalt’s HIPAA and PCI compliance tool SecureGRC, with security posture management capability using an innovative, patent-pending expert systems technology to automatically map the security vulnerabilities to compliance mandates. The tool can import data from other standard vulnerability scanners in the industry as well.

Says eGestalt President Anupam Sahai, “We are very excited about the strategic partnership with Rapid7. Aegify is the first true, software- and cloud-based unified security and IT-GRC solution on the market with end-to-end automation including vendor management and support for multiple compliance business frameworks such as PCI, HIPAA/HITECH, SOX, FISMA, and GLBA. This is also the first product in the market which can automatically map security vulnerabilities to compliance mandates using an innovative expert systems approach thereby eliminating manual work required and saving significant costs. It advances the state of the art in the industry besides still continuing to be 10 to 20 times more cost-effective than any other competing solution.”

There are thousands of security exposures identified and documented as ‘vulnerabilities’. Tools used by cyber-attackers are very sophisticated and attackers can breach the perimeter and steal data within seconds and minutes. Businesses are often caught unaware, discovering the breach only weeks and sometimes months afterwards.

“Aegify SPM brings a new cloud-based approach to managing security posture that is innovative, easy to use, and extremely valuable for defenders,” said Sheldon Malm, Senior Director of Strategic Partners and Alliances at Rapid7. “By leveraging Rapid7 technology, Aegify SPM provides a comprehensive view of exposure risk that is directly connected to business assets and compliance management. This is a complementary offering that will benefit our joint customers.”
A cloud application, Aegify’s SPM “all hands on deck” threat management approach performs asset discovery, vulnerability analysis, risk profiling, threat impact analysis and compliance mapping. It can identify 92,000 vulnerability checks for more than 31,800 vulnerabilities across physical and virtual networks, operating systems, databases, and Web applications.

The cloud-based Aegify engine is driven in large part by eGestalt’s flagship product Aegify SecureGRC, a unified security and compliance management tool that includes all of the necessary security and IT-GRC functionality required to gain control and improve compliance levels across more than 400+ regulations.

While the framework allows for the easy plug-in of any regulation or standard, eGestalt currently offers to the channel ready-to-roll compliance services with built-in frameworks to support the most stringent and popular regulations including PCI, HIPAA/HITECH, SOX, FISMA, and GLBA, as well as more country-specific regulations. Extensible with built-in frameworks, the Aegify SecureGRC solution offers a simplified approach for PCI, HIPAA/HITECH and other country specific frameworks ready-to-use out of the box. It provides automated mapping of a network’s security posture to compliance controls.

All told, the integrated Security Posture Management solution Aegify offers a single approach to security and compliance management, and because it is delivered as SaaS, it is available at low cost due to its “pay –as-your-grow” model.

A Community Edition for diagnostics is available as a free download at http://www.egestalt.com/. For further details please call (408) 689-2586 or email sales@egestalt.com.

About eGestalt Technologies Inc.:
eGestalt ( http://www.egestalt.com ) is a world-class, innovation driven, leading provider of cloud-computing based enterprise solutions for information security and IT-GRC management. eGestalt is headquartered in Santa Clara, CA, and has offices in the US, Asia-Pacific and Middle East. eGestalt SecureGRC was given a rating of 4.5 stars (out of a maximum 5) with 5 stars for Features, Support and Value for money by SC magazine in June 2012. In Feb. 2012 eGestalt President Anupam Sahai was named a Channel Chief by Everything Channel’s CRN. eGestalt has been ranked in the Top 10 Vendors for Compliance Management and Data Access & Security by Hypatia Research, Q4 2011. eGestalt was nominated Breakthrough Technology Vendor at XChange Americas, Aug. 2010, and selected by SiliconIndia among the “Top 10 Security Companies to Watch.” Its SecureGRC application was voted runner-up in the Managed Services Category at XChange Tech Innovators, Nov. 2010. In Sept. 2011 it was selected by Everything Channel as a 2011 CRN Emerging Technology Vendor as well as a 2011 Tech Innovator for Managed Services.

Press & Media Contact:
Victor Cruz, Principal
MediaPR.net Inc
For eGestalt Technologies
Santa Clara, CA – USA
+1 978-594-4134
vcruz@mediapr.net
http://www.egestalt.com

Technology

eGestalt Names James Watts Executive Vice President of Sales

September 8, 2012 flashnewsrelease Leave a comment

eGestalt Technologies, today announced it has named James Watts as its Executive Vice President of Sales, responsible for managing and growing the company’s sales and channel partner alliances.

Santa Clara, CA, September 06, 2012 — eGestalt Technologies ( http://www.eGestalt.com ), a provider of Cloud based IT security monitoring and compliance management for SMBs and enterprises, today announced it has named James Watts as its Executive Vice President of Sales, responsible for managing and growing the company’s sales and channel partner alliances.

“We’re very pleased to have Jim bring to eGestalt some 28 years of outstanding sales and business development leadership, with executive-level roles in sales management, channel and business development,” says eGestalt President Anupam Sahai. “He will help us launch our new unified managed security service that integrates with our existing IT-GRC compliance management solution.”

He was previously COO for AlienVault LLC, of San Mateo, a security management vendor for PCI/SOX compliance. Before AlienVault he was Vice President of Worldwide Sales for eTelemetry, Inc.

During his successful career he has held VP of sales, channel alliances and marketing positions for Force10 Networks, CP Secure, Securesoft, and ECTEL. He spent three years as Director of Sales for Bay Networks (Nortel), and began his career at AT&T/Lucent Technologies in various roles for 13 years.

He earned business and engineering degrees from California Coast University, Saint Leo University, and St. Petersburg Technical Institute. His LinkedIn profile can be found at http://www.linkedin.com/in/jwattsprofile.

eGestalt’s SecureGRC solution is a cloud-based, SaaS delivered, unified security monitoring and compliance management solution that includes all of the necessary security and IT-GRC functionality required to gain control and improve security and compliance levels across more than 400+ regulations. It offers a simplified approach for PCI/HIPAA/HITECH compliance management that provides low cost and peace of mind to channel partners servicing SMBs to large enterprises, including medical providers and their Business Associates.

The solution is designed from the ground up to make channel partners profitable within a week. Through enhanced content, the solution demystifies complex regulations and standards and is customizable for partners to add-on additional services.

For further details please call (408) 689-2586 or email sales@egestalt.com. For further details about the product, please visit http://www.egestalt.com/msp-mssp-partners.html.

About eGestalt Technologies Inc.:
eGestalt ( http://www.egestalt.com ) is a world-class, innovation driven, leading provider of cloud-computing based enterprise solutions for information security and IT-GRC management. eGestalt is headquartered in Santa Clara, CA, and has offices in the US, Asia-Pacific and Middle East. eGestalt SecureGRC was given a rating of 4.5 stars (out of a maximum 5) with 5 stars for Features, Support and Value for money by SC Magazine in June 2012. In Feb. 2012 eGestalt President Anupam Sahai was named a Channel Chief by Everything Channel’s CRN. eGestalt has been ranked in the Top 10 Vendors for Compliance Management and Data Access & Security by Hypatia Research, Q4 2011. eGestalt was nominated Breakthrough Technology Vendor at XChange Americas, Aug. 2010, and selected by SiliconIndia among the “Top 10 Security Companies to Watch.” Its SecureGRC application was voted runner-up in the Managed Services Category at XChange Tech Innovators, Nov. 2010. Everything Channel selected it as a 2011 and 2012 CRN Emerging Technology Vendor as well as a 2011 Tech Innovator for Managed Services.

Press & Media Contact:
Victor Cruz, Principal
MediaPR.net Inc
Santa Clara, CA – USA
+1 978-594-4134
vcruz@mediapr.net
http://www.egestalt.com

Technology

eGestalt Named a 2012 ‘Emerging Vendor’ by CRN and UBM Channel

September 7, 2012 flashnewsrelease Leave a comment

eGestalt Technologies today announced it has been selected by UBM Channel and CRN as a 2012 Emerging Technology Vendor.

Santa Clara, CA, September 06, 2012 — For the second year in a row, eGestalt Technologies ( http://www.eGestalt.com ), a provider of IT security monitoring and compliance management for SMBs and enterprises, today announced it has been selected by UBM Channel and CRN as a 2012 Emerging Technology Vendor.

The annual list features the most innovative vendors who not only deliver technology that is easy to use, but can generate the high margins solution providers require. The vendors that make up the CRN Emerging Technology Vendor list were founded in 2006 or later, have revenue under $1 billion and have an active U.S. channel strategy.

eGestalt’s SecureGRC product is a unified security and compliance management solution that includes all of the necessary security and IT-GRC functionality required to gain control and improve compliance levels across more than 400+ regulations. It offers a simplified approach for PCI/HIPAA/HITECH security and compliance management that provides low cost and peace of mind to channel partners servicing SMBs to large enterprises, including medical providers and their Business Associates.

Among these “Emerging Vendors” are companies that have already established themselves in their market segment and others that are already making an impact despite a recent launch. Each organization on the list represents a new partnership and go-to-market opportunity for solution providers looking to identify new vendor partners.

Completely automated with integrated IT security monitoring, SecureGRC offers a unified security assessment and compliance service delivered from the cloud, which means that the solution is constantly kept up-to-date with the latest versions and revisions of relevant regulations/standards. With no hardware involved, SecureGRC delivers to partners and their customers an assurance that compliance mandates are met with a solution that is timely and future-proof.

“We invite IT security service providers to join our Managed Channel Provider (MCP) program,” says eGestalt President Anupam Sahai. “We give all our partners a fast ramp-up to providing security and compliance services through a program based around our own “MCP Cookbook,” which gives a step-by-step plan on how to get started with delivering managed compliance services through creation of collateral, training, implementation, delivery and on-going playbooks as the business is up and running.”

For further details please call (408) 689-2586 or email sales@egestalt.com. For further details about the product, please visit http://www.egestalt.com

“Emerging doesn’t mean what it used to,” said Kelley Damore, VP, Editorial Director, UBM Channel. “With new innovations like cloud computing and virtualization speeding up the pace of innovation, and technology mainstays like storage and networking branching off into new directions, this list encapsulates a tectonic technology shift where the recently founded are starting to rule the roost and become household names much more quickly than in the past.”

Final selection to the Emerging Technology Vendor list was made by the CRN editorial team after a review of submitted information. To view a sample of the list and read the editorial accompaniment visit http://www.CRN.com.

UBM Channel ( http://www.ubmchannel.com ):
UBM Channel is the premier provider of IT channel-focused events, media, research, consulting, and sales and marketing services. With more than 30 years of experience and engagement, UBM Channel has the unmatched channel expertise to execute integrated solutions for technology executives, managing partner recruitment, enablement and go-to-market strategy in order to accelerate technology sales. UBM Channel is a UBM company. To learn more about UBM Channel, visit us at http://www.ubmchannel.com. Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ubmchannel.

Press Contacts:
Victor Cruz, Principal, MediaPR.net, For eGestalt Technologies, vcruz@mediapr.net .

Scott Regan, Everything Channel, scott.regan@ec.ubm.com , 508.416.1186 .

Press & Media Contact:
Victor Cruz, Principal
MediaPR.net Inc
Santa Clara, CA – USA
+1 978-594-4134
vcruz@mediapr.net
http://www.egestalt.com

Technology

eGestalt Partners Find Profitable Bundling Opportunities with New Cloud Security and Compliance Tool

August 11, 2011 flashnewsrelease Leave a comment

SecureGRC tool built for channel assumeslittle to no knowledge of PCI/HIPAA security and compliance rules.

Denver, CO (XChange Americas), Thursday – August 11, 2011 — eGestalt Technologies ( http://www.eGestalt.com ) last week announced version 11 of its HIPAA/HITECH and PCI risk assessment, auditing and remediation tool that meets security and compliance objectives for SMBs to large enterprises and that has been a boon to service providers and MSPs looking to find additional sources of revenuein the course of confirming and sustaining compliance mandates.

“During the course of taking a client through the steps of becoming HIPAA compliant, the SecureGRC tool sniffs out revenue-making bundling opportunities like nothing else,” says David Altizer, vice president of SOS Systems based in Memphis, Tenn., and an eGestalt partner.

“We invariably discover multiple areas that need our attention; we find our clients need written policies, they need endpoint security, they need Active Directory, and a host of other things that improves our perceived value and length of engagement.”

SecureGRC SB™v11 is offered in two versions: Enterprise and Small Business editions. Partners will immediately realize the benefits of using SecureGRC’s highly automated, scalable, and cost-effective security and compliance management solution complete with pre-audit and post-audit support, a real-time dashboard that offers multiple assessments, reviews and remediation: in short, a configurable policy-based risk model with real-time status that enables channel partners to deliver managed security and compliance services for SMBs to large enterprises.

Built from the ground up to profit the channel, SecureGRC offers ready-to-use, pre-packaged content such as policies which are continuously updated, a trove of best practices, and plenty of assessment questions that make it an easy step-by-step process to run the assessment and reach compliance, yet flexible enough to fully customize accordingly.

“Version 11 looks like it’s going to be a lot easier to deploy, a lot easier to manage, and will let us grow a lot faster. It’s a more intuitive user interface, and it’s easier for us to manage our clients,” said Altizer. “Every concern of ours has been addressed. That’s a refreshing change of pace. We are looking forward to version 11 and already have two deployments scheduled for it.”

Joe Dylewski, president of ATMP Solutions of southeastern Michigan, said, “Using eGestalt’s tool, SecureGRC, we created a HIPAA/HITECH Business Associate Compliance Assessment, which conducts an accurate and thorough analysis of an organization’s current compliance status. Thanks to our joint efforts with eGestalt, we can offer our customers a comprehensive solution that quickly and cost-effectively enables governance, risk management and compliance. We hope to sell 100 engagements of SecureGRC by year end.”

Reflecting on the significant improvements to Version 11, Jim Hare, eGestalt channel chief,said, “Version 11has truly demystified the complexity of solving the compliance problem. It is completely channel-centric. Partners can useit to manage theirown sub-partners. A master dashboard allows users to capture the risk and compliance status of each client in a single view, this helps to quickly determine what needs to be done to complete the compliance process.”

Pricing & Availability:
Built from the ground up using feedback from the channel, SecureGRC v11 was designed with MSPs in mind. Available immediately, the SB edition has an MSRP of $750 per year; Enterprise edition is $7500 per year. Please call +1-408-689-2586 or email sales@egestalt.com for further information.

Press & Media Contact:
Victor Cruz
Principal, MediaPR.net
For eGestalt Technologies
Denver, CO
+1 978-594-4134
vcruz@mediapr.net
http://www.egestalt.com