May 2023: A Month of Cybersecurity Events

Gear up for a busy month of cybersecurity events and happenings with your favorite IT team at Synagex! Here's the line-up of events this month:

☞ May 1st, 2023—Join Synagex and the Berkshire Innovation Center (BIC) for a webinar intended to help MA manufactures meet the stringent compliance requirements of the DoD from 2:30 am – 3:30 PM— FREE ONLINE ↳ Register to join here: eventbrite.com/e/a-compliance-solution-for-massachusetts-businesses-tickets-612388308917

☞ May 4th, 2023—May the Fourth be With you! Join us, along with our friends at Adams Community Bank, for breakfast and cybersecurity tips & best practices at the Berkshire Hills Country Club. ↳ Register for the event by emailing kcarmel@adamscommunitybank.com and protect yourself from the digital dark side!

☞ May 12th, 2023—We’ll be at the Colorado Manufacturing Summit in Golden, CO.

The summit is a special opportunity for Colorado manufacturers to learn more about innovative solutions to address today’s biggest challenges—from Industry 4.0 to cybersecurity, business strategy and more! If you’re looking to talk tech strategy, cybersecurity defense methods, or pave a pathway to CMMC compliance… we’re your people 🤓

↳ Come out to learn, mingle or just say hello 👋 Learn more & register here:

https://manufacturersedge.com/event/colorado-manufacturing-summit/

☞ May 19th, 2023—It’s MassMEP’s Annual Manufacturing Your Future Smart Manufacturing event! The team will be back at Polar Park in Worcester, MA—and John and Pete will be speakers in a special breakout sessions on (you guessed it…) cybersecurity! ↳ Register at massmep.org/manufacturing-i40/

We hope to see some of you at any of these very informative events—and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram to stay up-to-date on all things Synagex! Come get your cybersecurity on with us!

Identity Management Tips & Advice from Synagex

Celebrate Identity Management Day 2023 with us!

Happy Identity Management Day! Identity Management Day is a day invented by the National Cybersecurity Alliance and intended to bring awareness to the importance of identity management as a part of cybersecurity protection 🛡️

Here's why Identity Management is important:

👤 We all have a digital identity composed of huge amounts of personal data that exists online—and our information is really valuable to cyber criminals.

🎣 Cyber criminals can use our personal information to steal our money or our identity—and they can also use this information to target OTHERS in our network with phishing attempts.

⚠️ 79% of organizations have experienced an identity-related security breach in the last two years—the majority of which were 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲.

Preventing Identity-Related Security Breaches

Individuals can make small adjustments to our awareness practices to fortify against identity-related cyber attacks. Make to you follow this checklist to cover your basics and keep you accounts—and your identity—secure 🔒

• Adjust your security settings—Hackers are likely to use default settings and credentials to access accounts.

• Think before you click—We say this all the time, but remember to always pay close attention to message and hyperlink details before clicking on anything!

• Think before you SHARE—We all share a lot of information online... consider adjusting the privacy settings on your social media accounts, and thinking twice before sharing any personal information.

• Keep strong password hygiene—Use password managers to create and store complex and unique passwords to all of your accounts. And remember to always use multi-factor authentication whenever possible.

• Keep your software up-to-date—We know it can seem cumbersome, but always update your software rather than ignoring the notification that the update is available. They often are patching the software for discovered security flaws!

Identity Management for Businesses and Organizations

This year, identity management day specifically recognizes the need to bring more awareness to identity and access governance within organizations. When it comes to great cybersecurity strategy, governing and protecting access to different areas of an organization can be key to fortifying against cyber attacks.

Our Recommendation? A ZERO-TRUST approach—ask ALL the questions!

• Who are you?

• What can you access?

• What are you accessing?

• Are you authorized to access this & why?

A zero-trust approach to identity management and cybersecurity assumes nothing is safe or secure—questioning access continuously for identity verification, rather than a single, one and done permission.

Implementing Zero-Trust

At Synagex, we know that migrating to a zero-trust approach to security policy and procedure can be overwhelming, to say the least. Most organizations—and many that need to adopt zero trust the most—don’t really know what data they have and where it all is… especially now that everyone has adopted cloud technology so quickly.

The answer? A risk assessment.

We will root for a thorough cybersecurity risk assessment ANY day to identify the gaps in any existing security structure—it’s the only way to start down the right path to tackle IT. Give us a call today to get started! 413-650-5230

Facts & Stats for Cloud Security Day

Today is ☁️ Cloud Security Day ☁️—here’s why it’s important:

Cloud technology has become so ubiquitous that most of us are using it at work and at home every day… and haven’t put much thought into the SECURITY of these convenient cloud-based services... meanwhile Cloud Account Compromise is the #1 Cybersecurity Risk in the US. 😨

This risk has a lot to do with work culture being powered by remote working which drastically increased possible attack surfaces.

What is the cloud, anyway?

The Elusive Cloud ☁ Where is it? Is it someone else's computer? Are we all safe in the cloud? Is the cloud... in the sky?

The cloud is the Internet, basically.

We store, access and run things off of the internet, rather than a physical piece of equipment. It's on-demand, and it's remotely accessible anywhere we have an internet connection — making all things computing more convenient than ever!

You are probably using the cloud way more than you realize. Things like the entire Google Drive (Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Maps etc.) are all on the cloud, as well as streaming services like Netflix. And SO. MUCH. MORE.

The Cloud Needs Security

While we may have been overlooking Cloud Security, hackers definitely have NOT. Brute force Cloud Attacks target 95% of organizations—and succeed around one third of the time. Yikes!

What can you do?

Stay cybersecurity-AWARE 👀 People are the strongest defense against cybersecurity attacks, so as always proceed with CAUTION! Think before you click! Trust your gut!

Here’s some things to think about when it comes to protecting your data:

• Keep Strong Password Hygiene 💪 (We can’t emphasize this enough!)

• Back-up Files Elsewhere 🔄 (Better safe than sorry.)

• Set Permissions for Cloud Access 👥 (Not everyone needs to access EVERYTHING, right?)

• Encrypt Sensitive Data Before Storing on the Cloud 🔒 (Planning for the worst!)

Happy #CloudSecurityDay from the team at Synagex! As always, if you need help securing the cloud infrastructure of your business, don't hesitate to reach out. We promise we make the world of cybersecurity, compliance and general information technology efficient, easy-to-understand and FUN!

Just trust us. ✆ ℡ 413.650.5230