Objective: Strengthen cyber security and prevent future attacks
With an ever-growing reliance on cloud systems, cyberattacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated. For many small and medium businesses, the IT environment is looked after by office managers and staff who don’t specialise in IT or security, leaving businesses incredibly exposed to consistent malicious attacks. This particular professional service organisation was no exception.
So, what exact challenges was this particular business facing?
- Several coordinated and sophisticated cyber-attacks resulting in malicious players compromising important contracts
- Threat actors compromised email chains and fraudulently diverted funds during a
property settlement, resulting in the loss of millions of dollars - Fraudulent supplier URL and invoices created, resulting in payment being made to
malicious parties and not authentic suppliers
Laying the foundations of rock solid cyber defence
Having seen themselves as a small business, this professional service unfortunately believed they would not draw the attention of sophisticated hackers – an extremely common mistake. And although this particular business had an existing IT partner, they had no active eyes on glass monitoring, nor any dedicated cyber security solution in place. So, like some of the businesses that look to partner with the team at Nexio Group, they finally sought help once their infrastructure had already been compromised.
To begin the security measures deployment, the business wanted to know how and why their systems were compromised. And although these questions had come after the fact, knowing these exact points was a critical launch point for the project roadmap.
Smart Security by the Nexio Team
Wanting to provide a flexible, scalable and agile solution to this business’s ongoing security issues, the team at Nexio Group tailored a fit for purpose Smart Security plan. By leveraging the tools within Microsoft 365, the Nexio team were able to guide their client using tangible action points to prevent further malicious attacks. Beginning with Office 365 licence upgrades, the Smart Security solution switched on any additional features, including conditional access and geographic based permissions. This allowed seamless integration within the client’s existing work environment. While many professional services, including this particular business, believe that Office 365’s default security settings will keep them secure, this is simply not true.
Essential Eight
Using the ACSC Essential Eight framework, the team at Nexio Group tailored a Smart Security package that was split into three main focus areas:
- Being proactive to prevent malicious damage
- Ensuring the basics are done right to reduce risk factor
- Preparing for a possible data loss
Following the Essential Eight framework and working with the business to understand their exact feature requirements, the Nexio team deployed advanced security measures to protect the business’s Microsoft Windows based internet connected network. This enabled the business to select which features would work best within their environment without having a negative impact on productivity or efficiency.
In addition to the Essential Eight framework, the Nexio team were able to recommend extended features, including comprehensive ransomware and DNS filtering, offering the most robust IT security solution possible.
Plans for the future
After securing their IT environment, the business will now continue working with the team at Nexio Group in a managed services capacity. This includes monitoring on an ongoing basis, using the right tools to ensure their systems are always performing and updated.
