Houston Cybersecurity - a hot topic Cybersecurity is considered a high priority for many businesses across industry sectors. With cybercrime frequently in the news and on the increase, proactive measures to protect a business from malicious threats are critical as the consequences of a security breach can be expensive in terms of money spent to remediate the attack, time lost in repairing the damage, and reputational damage as clients find out their data may have been compromised. The question of cost can be viewed from either side of the dilemma: “How much will it cost to protect my business and have robust cybersecurity in place?” and “How much could it cost if I am the victim of a cybersecurity attack?” The first question can be tackled predictably with a budget set aside to install concentric layers of secure protocols and processes. For business owners who do not have the expertise in-house to plan and then implement a strategy, there are Managed Service Providers who offer their services to bring IT up to the level required to be secure and, in many sectors, compliant. AVATAR Managed Services is a Houston-based MSP offering a range of IT services including managed cybersecurity, here we take a closer look at some of the particular challenges across varying industry sectors.
Cybersecurity for the Manufacturing and Distribution Industry The manufacturing industry is widespread and often critical to the upstream provision of products and equipment that other business entities or groups then utilize. Reliant on supply chains and often involving a network of many connected devices that could be spread over a wide geographical area, there is little room for downtime and disruption. The databases of a manufacturing company are also likely to hold personal information for clients, vendors, business partners, and staff. Likely to have been using information technology for many years, there is a chance that moving to newer infrastructure and software has lagged behind in some areas, meaning there could be vulnerabilities yet to be remediated even if there is a plan to improve cybersecurity. Ransomware is a common form of cyber threat encountered by the manufacturing industry. For businesses that operate 24/7, it is important to be able to respond any time a possible threat is detected. AVATAR Managed Services is available 24x7x365, always on hand to respond immediately, offering clients peace of mind that a professional response is one call away no matter when a cyber threat is suspected. Find out more about AVATAR’s Houston Manufacturing and Distribution IT Services.