This new law prohibits the Superior Court of Connecticut from assessing punitive damages against an organization that implements reasonable cybersecurity controls, such as the NIST Cybersecurity Framework or CIS Critical Security Controls.

Essentially, as long as the cybersecurity approach utilized by a business is up to industry standards and considered reasonable in its capacity as a security platform, then neither the cybersecurity firm nor the businesses utilizing their services can be held legally liable in the case of a damaging cyberattack that exposes PII or other sensitive information.

This law, along with federal laws under discussion, highlight that C-Level Executives and Boards of Directors need to be as concerned with cyber risk as they are traditionally with fiscal risk. The stakes are just as high and proper approaches to risk mitigation are required to maintain business solvency.

So if your business is located in Connecticut, Ohio, or Utah (or if you want to proactively follow best practices to help protect personal data and shield your company from legal harm), what steps should you be taking?

1. Assess Your Current Cybersecurity Security Posture Against the NIST or CIS Frameworks

Both the NIST and CIS frameworks provide valuable direction to an organization’s overall approach to assessing and improving its cybersecurity posture. Beginning with the identification of vital assets in need of robust protection, these frameworks serve as actionable guides to enhancing the defense of that data & continually evolving protocols as more information becomes available. These frameworks lay the ground for organizations to begin by implementing essential security services and further implement more full-spectrum advanced engineering coverage.

2. Prioritize Solutions and Services that Help Comply with the Framework

The CIS framework takes a priority-based approach with regards to security protocol, whereas NIST is considered to focus more heavily on assessing and reducing overall risk. Whichever framework you choose for your organization, prioritizing and protecting your most valuable assets first is the goal. Complying with your chosen framework may include implementing a NextGen firewall, end-user workstation security, or advanced patching services. Thrive offers these services unbundled to enable the creation of a custom solution tailored to the needs of each client.

3. Create a Plan to Stay Up to Date as Frameworks Evolve

To help keep organizations protected, the CIS and NIST frameworks are continually updated, which is reflected in HB 6607. Organizations have six months from when the changes are published to re-comply with the frameworks to maintain compliance under the law.

Perhaps one of the biggest benefits of working with a security-first MSP is that their team of Certified Information Systems Security Professionals (CISSPs) can focus on staying up-to-date on the latest threats and breaches while you focus on your organization’s operations. In an ever-changing technology landscape, keeping up with best practices can be a headache. But no matter what approach you take, ongoing testing, validation, management, and reporting are key to its effectiveness.

Conclusion

By financially incentivizing adherence to well-established frameworks, these laws make cybersecurity a C-level, and even board-level, area of concern. They help establish clear targets for companies, which is critical in an era of non-stop marketing hype around new technologies and the constant news cycle around the latest attacks and bad actors. Plus, these laws should ultimately help safeguard all of our data, making criminal actions less of a moneymaker.

If you’d like to talk with a Thrive cybersecurity expert about how to navigate laws like Connecticut HB 6607, please contact us today and request a free assessment.

The post What Do Cybersecurity Laws like Connecticut HB 6607 Mean For Your Business? appeared first on Thrive.

As Vice President of Channel Sales at Thrive, Erik is responsible for the success of Thrive’s Partner Program, including onboarding, client engagement, and management of the channel partner sales team and support team. He joined the Thrive team in 2017 and has been the driving force behind the company’s channel growth.

Erik has built a white-glove, partner-centric Channel Program at Thrive that allows the company’s trusted advisors to leverage Thrive as a true extension of their IT team. With over 20 years working in the space, his expertise is pivotal for Thrive to deliver and empower customers in a new landscape of security-driven decision-making.

“Thrive has taken the channel to new levels to empower all partners regardless of their technical competency,” said Young. “As a trusted cyber security advisor, we lead our partners to new areas of revenue that they traditionally haven’t been exposed to. This takes the partners up the technology stack and makes their relationships more valuable to the client. Thrive has expanded nationwide and has entered the UK channel markets with our master agents. We are also expanding globally with the channel.”

“CRN’s 2022 Channel Chiefs recognition is given exclusively to the foremost channel executives who consistently design, promote, and execute effective partner programs and strategies,” said Blaine Raddon, CEO of The Channel Company. “We’re thrilled to recognize the tireless work and unwavering commitment these honorees put into fostering outstanding business innovation and building strong partner programs to drive channel engagement and success.”

CRN’s 2022 Channel Chiefs list will be featured in the February 2022 issue of CRN Magazine and online at www.CRN.com/ChannelChiefs.

The post Thrive’s VP of Channel Sales Named 2022 CRN® Channel Chief appeared first on Thrive.

By the end of 2020 there will be more than 26 billion active IoT devices such as Ring doorbells, Nest cameras, digital assistants and Smart TVs. While these devices provide the latest in smart home technology and convenience, they also provide a massive attack surface that cyber adversaries are actively exploiting for nefarious purposes.

This past week, Ring made news headlines after it was reported by the Washington Post that perpetrators had compromised home security cameras to terrorize young children. Cyber criminals target IoT devices because they are often rushed to market with security features disabled in the interest of simplicity and functionality. Once compromised, these devices provide a means to gain access to other connected devices within the home network.

Due to the proliferation of IoT devices, the FBI recently issued guidance on securing IoT devices within home networks. For employees remotely accessing company data from home it is essential to implement proper cyber hygiene to mitigate firm risk and maintain personal privacy. It is important to understand how to mitigate this risk by following a few essential steps.

Five Essential Steps for Improving IoT Home Security

1. Change all default passwords to a unique password for each device and enable MFA (multi-factor authentication) wherever possible.
2. Configure privacy settings for IoT devices and apps.
3. Ensure home IoT devices are running on the latest firmware and if supported, enable automatic updates.
4. Segregate IoT devices on a network that is isolated from computers with access to client data or your corporate network.
5. Be mindful of microphone and camera usage and settings.

The post IoT Devices: Your Data is only as Secure as your Weakest Link appeared first on Thrive.

On Halloween night parents walk around with their children collecting candy, from mostly strangers, to consume later.  When the children and adults arrive back at their home the adults normally spend a few minutes checking the wrappers of the candy to ensure no foreign objects have been placed in the candy, which may harm their children when eaten.

While the parents are looking for opened wrappers or worn labels on the Halloween candy you should be looking for similar things in emails you receive that are not normal.  You may be looking for things as simple as an email address that has one character changed, such as O being changed to a 0 (zero), or as complicated as your CEO requesting a large money wire from what very well may be their account as his or her email account has been compromised.  Research by email security vendor Proofpoint has shown 99% of all cyberattacks need the assistance of a human to be successful.   A human must follow a link in an email, open a document, accept a security warning, or complete other actions like divulging their login credentials or personal information for the attack or breach to be successful.

If you inspect each email you receive for suspicious indicators with the same vigor that parents approach inspecting each piece of Halloween candy you will substantially decrease your chances of becoming part of an attack or breach.  While October is a good month to remind ourselves to be more aware, we MUST check every email, every day of the year with the same the level of urgency as the bad guys have figured out that humans are the best way to get into any organization.

The National Center for Cybersecurity Careers and Studies is a great resource for learning more about cybersecurity during the month of October. The cybersecurity landscape is rapidly changing and Thrive can help you navigate the enormous number of options available today please contact us or call 866-205-2810.

The post Halloween Candy and Cyber Attacks appeared first on Thrive.

Fourth-Annual List Reveals Leading MSPs In Healthcare, Government, Financial Services, Manufacturing & More

Foxborough, MA, April 29, 2019 — Thrive, a premier provider of Next Generation Managed Services has been named to After Nines Inc.’s ChannelE2E Top 100 Vertical Market MSPs list and research for 2019. The annual list and research identify and honor the top 100 managed services providers (MSPs) in healthcare, government, financial services, manufacturing, legal, not-for-profit and additional vertical markets.

The Top 100 Vertical Market MSPs rankings are based on ChannelE2E’s Q4 2018 and January 2019 readership survey, and ChannelE2E’s vertical market industry coverage. MSPs featured throughout the list and research leverage deep vertical market expertise to drive annual recurring revenues (ARR) in specific market segments.

This year’s research revealed several key MSP market trends. Among the Top 100 Vertical Market MSPs for 2019:

• Honorees generated a combined $699.1 million in vertical market annual recurring revenue (ARR) for 2018, up from $277.3 million in 2017. The surge involved organic growth combined with aggressive merger and acquisition (M&A) activity.
• Honorees are managing nearly one million devices.
• The most successful vertical market MSPs are zeroing in on financial services and healthcare, while manufacturing, legal and not-for-profit vertical activities are accelerating.

Thrive was ranked #11 among the top vertical market MSPs overall, and fifth in the Financial Services market.

“After Nines Inc. congratulates Thrive on this year’s honor,” said Amy Katz, CEO of After Nines Inc. “Through a vertical market focus, top MSPs are generating stronger profit margins and increased customer loyalty, while increasingly attracting acquisition and investor interest from peer MSPs and private equity firms.”

Thrive has grown their Financial Services Practice over the past year by expanding their solutions portfolio to include the highly regarded InfoHedge Hosted Platform. As one of the largest managed service providers (MSPs) in the United States, Thrive focuses upon mid-market clientele with a strong concentration in the Financial Services sector. In addition to the Private Equity, Hedge Fund, Banking and Asset Management, Thrive also has strong practices in Life Sciences, Healthcare, Higher Education, Retail & other industries known for having extensive storage needs and strict security requirements.

The ChannelE2E Top 100 Vertical Market MSPs list and research are overseen by Content Czar Joe Panettieri (@JoePanettieri). Find the online list and associated report here: https://www.channele2e.com/top100/ 

About Thrive

Thrive is a leading application enablement provider for enterprises in a Cloud and SaaS-based world. As one of the largest Managed Services Providers in the United States, Thrive optimizes business application performance with their Suite of Next Generation Managed Services; which includes Public, Private & Hybrid Cloud management, Cybersecurity, Networking, Disaster Recovery and more. Thrive’s Next Generation Platform helps compliance-driven businesses solve complex IT problems by delivering peak application performance around the globe, 24×7. For more information, visit www.thrivenetworks.com.

About After Nines Inc.

After Nines Inc. provides timeless IT guidance for strategic partners and IT security professionals across ChannelE2E (www.ChannelE2E.com) and MSSP Alert (www.MSSPAlert.com). ChannelE2E tracks every stage of the IT service provider journey — from entrepreneur to exit. MSSP Alert is the global voice for Managed Security Services Providers (MSSPs).

• For sponsorship information contact After Nines Inc. CEO Amy Katz, Amy@AfterNines.com
• For content and editorial questions contact After Nines Inc. Content Czar Joe Panettieri, Joe@AfterNines.com

The post Thrive Named to ChannelE2E Top 100 Vertical Market MSPs: 2019 Edition appeared first on Thrive.

Thrive proudly announced today that CRN_®, a brand of The Channel Company, has named Thrive to its 2019 Tech Elite 250 list. This annual list honors a select group of North American IT solution providers that have earned the highest number of advanced technical certifications from leading technology suppliers, scaled to their company size. These companies have distinguished themselves with multiple, top-level IT certifications, specializations, and partner program designations from the industry’s most prestigious technology providers.

To compile this annual list, The Channel Company’s research group and CRN editors work together to identify the most customer-beneficial technical certifications in the North American IT channel. Companies who have earned these elite designations— which enable solution providers to deliver premium products, services and customer support—are then selected from a pool of online applicants.

Thrive is dedicated to the education and advancement of our engineering team. Our process, Thrive University, offers bimonthly training sessions hosted by our certified engineers and technology partners, as well as exam assistance. Having a culture that promotes advanced certification is an integral part of the company’s mission.

“CRN’s Tech Elite 250 list recognizes solution providers with extensive technical knowledge and premier certifications,” said Bob Skelley, CEO of The Channel Company. “Pursuit of vendor certifications and broader skill sets in a wide range of technologies and IT practices, proves a solution provider is committed to delivering maximum business value from those technologies and giving their customers the highest level of service.”

Coverage of the Tech Elite 250 will be featured in the April issue of CRN, and online at www.CRN.com/TechElite250.

The post Thrive Named One of 2019 Tech Elite Solution Providers by CRN® appeared first on Thrive.

Read his bio and interview below.

Channel Chief Bio and Background:

Erik Young is responsible for the success of Thrive’s Partner Program from on-boarding, client engagement and overall management and success of the channel partner sales and support team. Erik’s mission is to enable our partners to sell across our suppliers and products/solutions with ease, creating sage harbor for their revenue, with long term support and commitments for both our partners and their clients. Erik joined Thrive close to 2 years ago.

Erik has worked for Access Northeast, Xand & TierPoint. Erik has a B.S. in Business Economics from the University of Rhode Island.

Number of years in current role: 1.2 years

Number of years with the company: 1.2 years

Number of years involved with indirect sales: 17 years

Number of employees in channel organization: 3

Number of Worldwide Channel Partners: 3000

Number of North American Channel Partners: 3000

List your top products/services sold through North American channel partners: 

1. Cloud
2. Cybersecurity
3. Networking
4. Disaster Recovery
5. Managed IT

Name your partner organization’s top accomplishments in the channel over the past year and specify the role you personally played in them.

Thrive has successfully entered into the 3 largest master agencies in the country in 2018; Avant, Intelisys and Telarus.

Describe how your partner community has grown over the past year either in average revenue per partner or overall expansion of your partner base or in specific market segments: 

In 2017, our channel community was comprised of about 20 regional partners. In 2018, we have nationalized the channel and grown our partner community to over 3000 partners nationally.

Provide one example of how you personally worked to help or solve a problem for a solution provider over the last 12 months.

As the VP of Channel Sales, I lead all partner development within Thrive and have personally taken each Master Agent and developed the business case and strategic alignment within the channel community to ensure success within the Thrive portfolio.

What one market force is having the biggest impact on your company’s channel strategy for 2019 and how are you accommodating for it?

The demand for Cybersecurity based solutions is having the biggest impact on Thrive’s Channel Strategy. Our ability to provide Security based solutions in a consultative fashion is allowing our Channel Community to leverage Thrive as the trusted advisor when it comes to Security based planning.

What’s the key to success for your channel partners in 2019?

2019 is the year that the Channel recognizes Thrive as the “Trusted Advisor” to increasing your Security Posture and allowing Thrive to guide you on your journey to the Cloud.

Do you expect your channel sales as a percentage of your company’s overall sales to increase, stay the same or decrease over the next 12 months?

Increase

Do you expect the number of channel partners you work with to increase, stay about the same or decrease within the next 12 months?*

Increase

Describe how your organization’s strategy around channel Market Development Funds (MDF) is changing in 2019 compared to last year.

Thrive intends to add more ‘educational value’ within the use of MDF for our strategic partners.  Thrive is doubling down in 2019 with these forward-thinking partners to ensure that our brand is a known leader in the Security & Hosting markets.

My organization’s 2019 budget for MDF compared to 2018 is:

Increasing

What are your top channel goals for 2019?

1. Increase overall percentage of company revenue that comes through the channel
2. Migrate partners to cloud solutions
3. Improve partner technical skills

Name the single most innovative initiative for which you and/or your team were responsible in 2018 and describe its impact on your partner community. 

In 2018, Thrive has introduced the Next Generation of a Managed Services Provider. Thrive’s ability to deliver a consultative based Security plan integrated with Cloud Hosting will allow our partners to position themselves as the Trusted Advisor.

What were the key channel/partner investments you made over the past year?

Key Channel Investments in 2018 consisted of in depth training for our partners that allowed them to become Expert Generalists in the eyes of their client. Training accompanied with Sales Promotions to help drive a cadence of identifying deals is the fuel that will continue to ignite the channel in 2019.

What’s the most important lesson you learned from your first job?

Most important lesson that I have learned is to build long standing valued relationships fueled with honesty and integrity. I have applied this lesson throughout my career and it has been most valuable to my success and to the success of the businesses I worked for.

What is the best business book you read this year and why?

Raving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach to Customer Service by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles

This book can be applied to all aspects of your life for positive results. It is a must-have for anybody who sells anything or works for a company that has customers of any kind.

It reminds us that we are here to serve our customers. This book tells us how to have a vision of customer service we want to deliver, find out what our customers really want, then make a plan to satisfy both our needs and desires. We must always live up to our vision of the customer service we want to deliver.

Fun Facts:

I have in the past worked for a solution provider organization.
I am an extrovert.
I have recently done volunteer work.
I love roller coasters.
I have a great idea for a start up.

The post Erik Young Recognized to CRN’s 2019 Channel Chiefs List appeared first on Thrive.

We have reached our final blog post for 2018; so what better time to review all of the development we’ve experienced this year at Thrive? Before we head into a very promising 2019, we would like to reflect on the growth we’ve had, and initiatives we’ve started in 2018. Here is Thrive’s 2018: A Year in Review.

Strength in Numbers

We expanded our Northeast presence to Maine with the acquisition of the highly respected and fast growing managed service provider, BizCompass. Led by CEO Tony Correale and CTO John Burghardt, BizCompass has served the greater Portland area since 2009. Their focus on superior customer service, private cloud hosting and technical expertise has been a natural fit for Thrive as we continue to expand our geographic and service delivery coverage.

In further news, our New York City footprint has grown with the transaction made between Thrive and InfoHedge. InfoHedge has become the alternative investment hosting division for Thrive with a focus on alternative investment management and the hedge fund community. InfoHedge is a leader in the financial services sector through servicing nearly 400 hedge fund, REIT, asset management and family office customers for dozens of years.

New Leadership

March marked an exciting time for two of our company’s leaders, Marc Pantoni and Michael Gray, both of whom received promotions into new roles.

Marc Pantoni, former CEO of Precision IT was named as Thrive’s new president. Based out of our New York office, Marc has overseen Service Delivery, Integration, Operation & Engineering. He has well established himself in this critical role and will be introducing some of Thrive’s key initiatives for the new year.

Michael Gray, a decade-long Thrive veteran, was introduced as our new Chief Technology Officer, based in Massachusetts. He has taken lead on Thrive’s product roadmap, as well as Cybersecurity, Cloud, Compliance and Application Development. Michael has been a vocal thought leader in our space this year; speaking at events and panels in many areas across the northeast.

Making the List

We’re honored to be recognized by all of the below lists as an industry leader in providing next generation, value-added services to our clients, and for our continued growth.

Channel Future’s Talkin’ Cloud 100

Channel E2E’s Top 100 Veritcal Market MSPs

Elite 150 of CRN’s MSP 500 List

Channel Future’s Top 501 Global MSP List

Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Companies

MSSP Alert’s Top 100 Managed Security Services Providers List

Best of Blogs

The Low Hanging Fruit of Cybersecurity – Three Part Series

Disaster Recovery – Datacenters, the Cloud, and Winning Over the Business

Clear Skies Ahead for the Cloud

The Fundamentals and Future of Blockchain and Bitcoin – Four Part Series

Stop Running Your Business Like It’s 2001

We at Thrive have been thrilled with the internal growth we have experienced, and the strength we see in our client relationships. We hope that you look back at 2018 as fondly as we will. From the Thrive family to yours, Happy New Year, may it be filled with peace, good health and prosperity.

The post 2018: A Year in Review appeared first on Thrive.

InfoHedge: The Revolutionary Investment Hosting Division for Thrive

Skill, luck and networking—elements that played a crucial role in a hedge fund manager. That was in the past. Fast forward to today, one more factor is quintessential, technology skills—because the introduction and proliferation of technology into the hedge fund space such as the usage of database and analysis platforms, websites, and teleconferencing among others, for the process of marketing, analyzing, and monitoring hedge funds has made the tasks more manageable. That being said, today’s hedge fund market success can be attributed primarily to higher volatility, the rally in energy prices, the influx of cryptocurrencies, and the continually advancing hedge funds technologies and the solution providers leveraging them, like New York-based InfoHedge Technologies.

With its state-of-the-art flagship cloud platform and solutions, InfoHedge is a premier Infrastructure-as-a-Service (“IaaS”) Managed Service Provider (“MSP”) to the financial services industry. “The idea behind the inception of InfoHedge Technologies was to build one large enterprise-grade infrastructure, classify them up into smaller units for every small and large-scale enterprise to implement, execute, and benefit from it,” narrates Alexander Kouperman, Managing Partner, InfoHedge Technologies. This idea gave birth to the world-class InfoHedge Hosted Platform, providing clients with an end-to-end private cloud infrastructure tailored explicitly for this investment vertical.

A team of highly experienced technology professionals from the Alternative Investment industry developed the InfoHedge Hosted PlatformTM in the year 1990. The platform can control the entire investment lifecycle via InfoHedge Technologies’ sole custody private cloud.

The private cloud delivers enterprise-grade service from multiple SSAE 16 SOC 2 data centers. Incorporating disaster recovery and compliance features, integrated with the firm’s standard diligence document provides clients with tools corresponding to potential regulatory or registration process with SEC, FINRA, SIPC, MSRB, and NFA. Another unique specialty of InfoHedge is that it does not outsource any features of its solutions as all systems are designed, maintained, and managed by the firm’s in-house team of engineers. The platform also grants clients with consistent, recurring charges without increased cost surges, recording 99.9 percent uptime, and around the clock access for the client to the user support and helpdesk services.

“When we sell our solution to the clients, we secure reliable and scalable infrastructure, that will be fully supported and certified with compliance, disaster recovery, cybersecurity, everything under one roof,” assures Kouperman.

The platform executes every necessary encryption with all the financial services out there, from banks to exchanges to brokers to market data vendors—the entire financial service ecosystem. InfoHedge Technologies also houses its infrastructure in top tier data centers like Equinix, and its primary location is Equinix NY4, which maintains the firm’s connection within the market across six networks like market data networks, trading systems, and several others. InfoHedge also provides file audits, ascertaining all the audits are backed-up, secured, and retained, even after several years.

Forging ahead, InfoHedge Technologies will continue to expand sales globally and deliver efficient services to prospects and clients under Thrive, becoming its Alternative Investment Hosting Division. Thrive is a next-generation managed services provider utilizing Cloud, Cybersecurity, Networking, Disaster Recovery, and other pioneering managed services to help compliance-driven businesses solve complex IT issues.

“We were the first private cloud vendor, with an extensive amount of in-house expertise, specifically around the financial services,” states Kouperman. With this kind of expertise and experience, InfoHedge is now a leader in the financial services sector, recently winning the 2018 Alternative Investment Award for excellence. InfoHedge has acquired a well-deserved reputation as an innovator in Cloud, Application Hosting, and Managed Services, serving more than 300 hedge funds, REIT, and asset management over the years.
InfoHedge: The Revolutionary Investment Hosting Division for Thrive article can be view online at Capital Markets CIO Outlook.

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• 73% of cyber-attacks were done by outsiders, and 50% of those are organized criminal groups.
• 76% of breaches are financially motivated. Cryptolocker, stealing data, etc – it all comes back to money.
• 4% of people will click on any given phishing campaign. According to the Verizon Breach Report, people who click once, tend to click again.
• 68% of breaches took a month or longer for the company to act. Since most breaches happen within a few minutes, time is of the essence.

All of those numbers are fairly scary, but there are things you can and should do to protect your company.

What should you be doing?

• Monitor your network for abnormal behavior by looking at your Logs. Anything out of the norm could be an indicator of a vulnerability that cyber-criminals can take advantage of.
• Train your people! Security awareness training does work and if you are not doing it, you should be!
• Patch your systems – an unpatched system is asking for someone to hack it.  Make the cyber-criminals work for their money.
• Setup Two-Factor authentication on everything – this includes your domain account!
• Encrypt your hard drive. Every modern operating system allows you to do this, so do it.
• If you are a bank, financial institution or retail, pay attention to physical security.  About 34% or more of your criminal activity is done physically.

Cyber security is hard, but ignoring it doesn’t make it go away.  The only thing you can do is take a realistic view of your systems and determine the best way to protect them.  A cybersecurity professional can really help in this instance. Professionals should be able to assess the vulnerabilities in your environment and make the best recommendations that are unique to your business. If you would like Thrive to assist in securing your organization, contact us today to set up a consultation.

The post Welcome to Cyber Security Month appeared first on Thrive.