That’s why DMC Technology Group has partnered with the Arctic Wolf platform to provide our clients with top-of-the-line cybersecurity coverage.

Even when all this information is accessible to an IT security team, existing systems often generate too many alerts and false positives, so alerts are ignored. This is how many high-profile breaches occur. Cyber alert fatigue and a lack of 24/7 IT security coverage amount to significant data breach risk. 

Here’s a statistic that proves how vulnerable many organizations are to cybersecurity threats. When we deploy the Arctic Wolf managed detection and response solution, its concierge security team finds latent threats lingering in 73% of business environments within the first 90 days of engagement. 

What you don’t know about your cybersecurity status will eventually damage your business. 

The good news is, an around-the-clock “security advisor” is within reach and can integrate seamlessly with your existing IT environment, so you do not necessarily have to invest in new systems or equipment. 

How Does Arctic Wolf Secure Your IT Environment?

Arctic Wolf is essentially a security advisor as a full-service incident response partner providing continuous risk management, detection and response. Its concierge security team works as an extension of your IT security team or managed services provider. 

What makes Arctic Wolf different than other incident response vendors? 

A lot of incident response companies will identify cyber threats. But, they do not analyze the root cause of security incidents or restore your business to pre-incident operations. Arctic Wolf stands out because it is a full-service wrap-around cybersecurity solution that provides comprehensive digital forensics and data recovery. 

Basically, Arctic Wolf is a three-legged cybersecurity solution that stabilizes your business IT environment with threat detection, incident response and recovery. We’ll explain how. 

Detect: Hunting Down Cybersecurity Threats

Today’s highly motivated, malicious cybercriminals use social engineering skills to trick your employees, or they simply slip through gaps in existing security controls. While you’re focused on running your business and serving customers, these bad actors are hard at work finding backdoors to feed on your data. Even IT environments with security solutions in place are prey for increasingly sophisticated breaches. 

We know, it’s frustrating and overwhelming to think you’ve got your IT environment covered only to discover there are many weak links. Detection is an integral part of a three-step, full-service cybersecurity risk management solution. 

There a number of essential risk detection actions your business needs to secure your IT environment. Some of those include: 

• Security risk scoring: You need to know if your secure posture improves or declines over time, so you know where you stand. 
• Account take-over risk detection: By scanning the dark and gray web for breached data, action can be taken to secure compromised accounts. Arctic Wolf provides details such as the source, data breach description and exposed emails. 
• Asset criticality and tagging: Arctic Wolf labels assets based on their importance, such as critical, high, medium, low or unassigned. This allows for prioritizing risks for hardened security. 
• Asset inventory: Your attack surface is ever-changing as you add IT assets to your environment. You need to be sure your managed risk platform identifies, profiles and classifies IT assets automatically and continuously. 
• Vulnerability assessment: Continuous scanning is essential for understanding your company’s digital footprint and quantifying business risk exposure. Additionally, audit reporting and security controls benchmarking elevate threat detection. 
• Advanced threat detection: Machine learning with adaptive tuning allows Arctic Wolf to detect advanced threats and provide forensic analysis. This improves efficiency and broadens the scale of threat detection. 

Cybersecurity threat detection is one aspect of a full-service risk management solution. But it’s not enough to identify the threats. How will you respond to incidents and strategically delete future risk? 

Incident Response — Now What?

When a threat is detected, how will your risk management partner investigate the incident and rapidly respond to the alert to contain the threat? This requires 24/7 monitoring, alert triage and prioritization. 

What your business needs is a team of digital forensics analysts, which is how Arctic Wolf determines the root cause of cybersecurity compromises and can determine if data was accessed, deleted or stolen. This intel allows for targeted incident response, recovery and future risk mitigation. 

When vetting managed risk vendors, we recommend partnering with a provider that can deliver these incident response services: 

• Dedicated Incident Director: Arctic Wolf assigns an Incident Director to every case. This expert has an intimate understanding of your cybersecurity situation and is a primary point of contact that is in constant contact. 
• Progress updates: Communication is key during incident response, with progress updates and milestone tracking. 
• Forensics findings: Clear explanations of forensics investigation findings will inform risk management strategies to prevent future attacks. 

Strategic Recommendations — Recover from Cybersecurity Incidents

Many incident response vendors drop the ball after detecting and responding to cybersecurity threats. But what was the root cause of the attack? What digital forensics were discovered during incident response that can inform your cybersecurity strategy? How is a provider working diligently to restore your business to pre-incident operations? 

Ultimately, what did you learn about your IT environment because of the security incident so you can prevent future data breaches? 

We believe a critical part of the incident recovery process involves remediation guidance and strategic recommendations to harden your security posture over time. It’s a full-circle cybersecurity approach that starts with understanding your “attack surface” and security posture, and continues with ongoing cybersecurity scans to maintain full visibility, measure progress and mitigate incidents.

Level Up Your IT Cybersecurity Profile 

At DMC Technology Group, we are committed to doing the right thing for our clients and providing a high level of hardware solutions, managed services and cybersecurity solutions such as Arctic Wolf. We take pride in our talented staff of engineers and IT specialists with strong communication skills that allow us to develop long-term relationships with clients, who see us as a vested partner in their success. 

Let’s talk. Arctic Wolf + DMC Technology Group can create a secure business IT environment so your Ohio or Michigan-based business can focus on what you do best. Contact us to learn how.

Posted by Greg Gomach, Business Unit Manager at DMC Technology Group

The post Arctic Wolf Helps Manage Your Cybersecurity Risk 24/7/365 appeared first on DMC Technology Group.

Business continuity demands proactive security measures and comprehensive IT resources. We offer more than just IBM Power i solutions because modern businesses require a holistic approach to IT.

Consider common scenarios: Losing your sole IT lead leaves your business vulnerable, or a dedicated IT team struggles with daily tasks, neglecting critical projects. We bridge these gaps with tailored solutions.

We provide IBM i services alongside Windows environments, ensuring seamless integration and comprehensive support. Our team of experts delivers project-based and scalable managed services, enhancing security and efficiency.

Managed services offer full IT support, ideal for IBM i-powered companies seeking comprehensive solutions beyond in-house capabilities. Co-managed services support businesses with existing IT staff, augmenting expertise and ensuring continuity.

Mid-sized businesses benefit from our co-managed services and project-based support, addressing vulnerabilities and allowing internal teams to focus on core functions.

Our services extend beyond IBM i, covering hardware installation, network management, cybersecurity, and more. We offer flexible solutions tailored to your needs, ensuring business continuity and growth.

Partner with DMC Technology Group to secure your business continuity and drive innovation. Contact us to learn how we can empower your IBM i-powered business in Ohio, Michigan and beyond.

Patrick Sheehan, Owner, DMC Technology Group

The post EMPOWER YOUR BUSINESS WITH IT MANAGED SERVICES BEYOND IBM I appeared first on DMC Technology Group.

Let’s explain the new rules organizations must comply with to successfully send emails, and why more stringent requirements for email authentication is an important protection for your business and clients. 

In fall 2023, Google and Yahoo announced new, stricter email authentication standards to fight spam, prevent phishing and spoofing, and otherwise establish a greater level of security for senders and recipients of bulk mail. While email authentication has always been advised as a cybersecurity best practice, not until 2024 was outgoing email authentication in the Domain Name System (DNS) required. 

At DMC Technology Group, we are committed to doing the right thing for our clients and providing a high level of hardware solutions and managed services that meet their needs 24/7/365. We take pride in our talented staff of engineers and IT specialists with strong communication skills that allow us to develop long-term relationships with clients, who see us as a vested partner in their success. 

Let’s talk. DMC’s expertise and industry knowledge can help your Toledo, Ohio-based organization develop and execute a robust IT environment with reliable, customized hardware solutions that drive growth and innovation. Contact us to learn how.

Why Is Email Authentication Important for Your Business?

In today’s dynamic cybersecurity environment, sophisticated bad actors are constantly designing tactics to steal information and data. Now more than ever, email authentication is mission-critical for any organization to ensure emails are safe, prevent email phishing and spoofing attacks, and combat fraudulent activity. Email senders and recipients must have an email authentication policy and architecture in place to protect themselves, clients and anyone receiving their emails.

Email authentication verifies email messages are legitimate and sent from a safe domain. It protects recipients from malicious messages, and it improves the success of email campaigns by reducing Non-Delivery Reports. With email authentication, there is less of a chance emails will get rejected or marked as spam. 

Google and Yahoo now require those sending more than 5,000 emails daily to meet authentication standards to ensure secure delivery. If your organization sends bulk emails to addresses ending in gmail.com or yahoo.com, you must adhere to new restrictions. 

Important Email Authentication Compliance Dates

April 1, 2024: Any unauthenticated email will start being rejected.
June 1, 2024: Bulk senders must implement one-click unsubscribe.

Email Authentication: Does Your Business Need SPF, DKIM and DMARC?

DNS email authentication records validate mail sent from your Microsoft 365 account, verifying messages were not altered or compromised during transfer. DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) and Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance (DMARC) are essential components of email authentication that your business needs now. Sender Policy Framework (SPF) is also an email authentication protocol that aligns with DKIM and DMARC. By implementing SPF with DKIM and DMARC for a multi-layered email authentication strategy, you are covering all your bases. 

How does SPF Stop Email Spam?

SPF prevents unauthorized messages that illegitimately use your domain name. An SPF record includes verified senders, so if it detects a sender not included in the record, those email messages are usually marked as spam. 

How Does DKIM Verification Improve Bulk Email Delivery? 

DKIM scans key parts of outgoing messages: From, To, Subject, Date and other fields, along with the body of email messages. When a server receives email messages, DKIM verifies messages came from the actual domain owner. DKIM alone is not enough, but it is an essential component of effective email authentication. SPF and DMARC configuration is also critical for additional validation. 

How Does DMARC for Email Authentication Work?

DMARC validates emails sent from your Microsoft mail to prevent business email compromise, phishing attacks, impersonation and other fraudulent activity. Basically, DMARC works on the receiving end by verifying domains in “mail from” and “from” addresses. Important to note: DMARC messages “pass inspection” only after verification from DKIM and SPF, which is why you need all of these tools in place.

The bottom line: Implement SPF in conjunction with DMARC and DKIM for the highest level of email authentication protection for your organization and email recipients. 

How Can My Business Implement New Email Authentication Protocols?

There is a level of complexity and ongoing maintenance required with implementing aligned SPF with DKIM and DMARC. At DMC, a turn-key approach with email fraud protection solutions and email security monitoring ensures compliance without business interruption. First, we recommend an assessment of existing email protocols and your overall technology ecosystem. We will review DMARC Reports to identify issues related to authentication and spam detection. Details extracted from these reports can help inform email delivery best practices

At DMC Technology Group, we are committed to doing the right thing for our clients and providing a high level of software, cloud and hardware solutions and managed services that meet their needs 24/7/365. We take pride in our talented staff of engineers and IT specialists with strong communication skills that allow us to develop long-term relationships with clients, who see us as a vested partner in their success. 

Let’s talk. DMC’s expertise and industry knowledge can help your Toledo, Ohio-based organization develop and execute email authentication compliance without taking your time away from serving clients and growing your business. Contact us to learn how.

The post New Requirements for Email Authentication - April 1! appeared first on DMC Technology Group.

Businesses operate in a constant state of change. Is your technology evolving to align with security demands, increased traffic and growth?

Did you resolve to work smarter, reduce costly downtime and enhance security in 2024? Then it’s time to evaluate your business IT hardware and the health of the central nervous center of your technology environment. 

When a server goes down, the cost of downtime for your business can be exponential when you add up lost revenue and productivity, reputational damage, customer dissatisfaction, and the cascade of negative consequences associated with data loss. 

But servers are just one aspect of your tech hardware arsenal. Routing and switching are essential to your network, along with firewalls to monitor, filter, control, and protect your IT environment. Wireless networks also require access points and controllers, and the technology engineering and business planning expertise to design and implement custom hardware solutions.

Ready to give your IT hardware a comprehensive checkup to secure your environment, maximize uptime, and get the most out of your tech investment? Let’s address the four key components of tech hardware: 

• Servers and storage
• Routing and switching 
• Firewalls
• The complete wireless environment 

Server and Storage Solutions

IT is swiftly moving toward the cloud, but some businesses maintain on-premise servers for various reasons. For example, security or compliance demands might require your business to maintain full control over hardware and the data it stores. This is often the case in highly regulated industries. Sometimes, there are workloads that cannot be shifted to the cloud, or doing so would not be cost-effective. In other instances, some workloads are moved to the cloud and others maintained on on-premise servers. Businesses with an aging server that must stay on-premise could require updating. Replacing servers calls for monitoring and analysis to identify the right amount of storage for the near term and the next three to five years. 

COMMON SERVER PROBLEMS

Server storage sizing – During server analyses, we frequently run into servers that are overburdened, increasing the risk of downtime and data loss. Another storage-related error we frequently discover is multiple servers with roles that are not properly divided. One server is running on not enough storage and another is underutilized. By running storage assessment tools for one or two weeks on-premise, we can identify the appropriate size for servers and storage. 

Lack of shared storage – If one server goes down, can others on-premise run your business IT environment while the other is repaired and brought back online? If the answer is no, your business needs to be “N +1,” meaning a closed loop so if one server fails, redundancies are in place so your data is still fully accessible and secure. 

Lack of customization – An out-of-box server solution might have worked for your business before, but now your needs have changed. When you partner with an IT hardware and managed services provider with robust hardware partner vendors like DMC, you unlock concierge services. We design and implement storage and servers on-premise to accommodate your data consumption now and down the road based on industry standards. Plus, DMC is a Dell Gold partner and can also customize servers. 

Routing and Switching: Essential IT Hardware 

When routing and switching are not properly designed for your IT network infrastructure, your network can get congested with data that moves more slowly because of bottlenecks and there are significant security vulnerabilities. Inadequate routing and switching capabilities are a welcome sign for unauthorized users and traffic sniffers that intercept data. We frequently address these routing and switching issues in businesses’ tech environments. 

RED FLAGS

We frequently address these routing and switching issues in businesses’ tech environments. 

Lack of redundancy – When routing and switching design is not executed with redundancies in place, there can be multiple points of failure that increase the risk of network outages and result in downtime. 

Poor customer service – When a network is poorly designed with inadequate routing and switching, this impacts video and voice quality along with your ability to serve customers in a timely manner. 

Expansion challenges – Your IT network’s routing and switching might have reached its full capacity or beyond and require updating to manage more data. The key is to work with an experienced IT solutions partner that can assess your organization’s needs and implement first-class hardware by vendors such as Cisco Meraki, which is cost-effective, seamless to implement, long-lasting and easy to manage. 

Effective Firewalls Protect Business Data

The firewall guarding your IT network is mission critical for protecting your system from cyber threats and unauthorized users, and it should be built to prevent the most sophisticated attacks. An effective firewall successfully monitors network traffic patterns for suspicious behaviors and then limits or blocks access. At DMC Technology Group, our knowledgeable team of IT specialists and experienced IT engineers consider firewalls your first line of defense in securing your IT environment. We partner with best-in-class providers like SonicWall and Cisco Meraki, which are ideal for businesses that have multiple locations. 

Firewall updates — Your business might be subject to regulations that require updating firewalls within a required frequency. 

Adding a firewall – When your network grows, so should your firewall capacity, which can mean adding another firewall for increased traffic or redundancy purposes. 

Mitigating threats - If your business experienced a security threat or vulnerability, we recommend implementing firewalls with specialized threat detection and prevention. Your existing firewall might not include advanced security that would better secure your IT network. 

A Secure, Robust Wireless IT Environment

Servers, routers, switches and firewalls contribute to your overall wireless business environment, along with components including access control systems that manage user authentication and authorization, and network monitoring tools to track performance, availability and security. 

IT hardware is the foundation of your wireless network, and a lot goes into customizing solutions that align with businesses’ capacity and growth potential. 

HOW LONG DOES AN IT NETWORK UPGRADE TAKE?

At DMC, the process begins with running specialized tools that analyze storage and network performance, along with other metrics depending on the business. This helps identify gaps in the network. 

• Weeks 1 to 2: We generally run these tools for one to two weeks. For businesses that experience especially busy seasons, we like to analyze traffic during those peak times to evaluate the server and overall network load.    
• Weeks 3 to 4: From there, we can present analytics to begin hardware selection and design, followed by delivering cost estimates from our partner vendors, which can take up to two weeks. So, from the initial meeting to delivering a quote, most businesses can expect three to four weeks of time. Remember, this includes the analysis period, so results and figures are provided rather quickly.
• Weeks 4 to 12: Once IT hardware is in hand, implementation can take two weeks to several months depending on the project scope. We maintain ongoing communication with clients undergoing hardware upgrade or IT network expansion efforts, ensuring a seamless process that is on budget and supports their business objectives. 

Customizing Hardware Solutions for Your Business Needs

At DMC Technology Group, we are committed to doing the right thing for our clients and providing a high level of hardware solutions and managed services that meet their needs 24/7/365. We take pride in our talented staff of engineers and IT specialists with strong communication skills that allow us to develop long-term relationships with clients, who see us as a vested partner in their success. 

Let’s talk. DMC’s expertise and industry knowledge can help your Toledo, Ohio-based organization develop and execute a robust IT environment with reliable, customized hardware solutions that drive growth and innovation. Contact us to learn how.

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