IT Support for Greater Fort Worth

More than just IT. We work to secure your business from the latest threats

24×7×365 cybersecurity protection and managed backup for businesses and organizations of all sizes

Your All-in-One Cybersecurity and Backup Solution

The complete essential protection you need to keep your business operating securely and safe from cyber threats.

Today's small to medium-sized businesses (SMB) are big targets

An estimated 82% of all ransomware attacks—one of the most costly and pervasive small business threats, with a combined 435% YOY occurrence rate increase since 2020—were targeted at businesses having fewer than 1000 employees; moreover, 55% of all ransomware attacks were targeted at businesses having fewer than 100 employees. Total ransomware payments exceeded a staggering $1.1 billion in 2023 alone.

And perhaps more surprisingly, while 46% of all cyberattacks are aimed solely at small business, only about 14% consider themselves prepared, aware, and capable of defending their networks and data. According to the most-recent major national SMB Data Breach Deep Dive report published in 2021, SMBs spent on average over $25,000 (between $826 and $653,587) in response to just a single cyber incident, in total incurring more than $12.5 billion in accumulated damages.

For many SMBs, their biggest cybersecurity risk factor may simply be not realizing the enormity of risk they face!

Think your business is too small to be targeted?

Many SMBs fall into the trap of thinking their organization is not large enough or high-profile enough to garner the attention of would-be attackers. While in the past malicious actors may have been more selective in seeking out their marks, attacks these days are much more impersonable. All they’re really after is your data—like user credentials, invoices and associated payment details, personal information, private health records or anything at all that could be sold on the dark web for profit or used to carry out a more sophisticated attack.

Maintaining operation and overall productivity are top priority for every business. Long considered the exclusive domain of large enterprise only, information security is now something for which businesses of all size must account and is becoming increasingly important to deploy comprehensive protections against interruptions in operation or production, data loss or compromise, and ransom due to cyberattack.

Next-generation threats demand next-generation protection

Effectively navigating today’s intricate landscape of sophisticated threats demands a complete, multifaceted approach to cybersecurity.

Yesterday’s so-called all-inclusive security software suites, primarily intended for home and personal use, in actuality, provide very little in the way of true business protection. And while other cybersecurity providers may claim they “do enough” to keep you safe, there are no half measures when it comes to being prepared.

We offer a better choice: Cybersecurity Complete, a comprehensive all-in-one solution specifically designed to satisfy your complete cybersecurity need, keeping your business secure, productive, and primed to respond in the case of a cyber incident.

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24×7×365 Protection
Keeps You Secure

Threat actors don't follow a 9-to-5 schedule, and neither do we—24×7×365 Real Time Threat Monitoring guards you day and night

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30+ Years in Technology...
and Counting!

With experience in both the defense and commercial enterprise sectors, we have the requisite expertise to keep you safe

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Unrivaled Support for
All Your Devices

Call, email or submit a support ticket right from your desktop. We're here to address all of your technology needs

Is your business a prime target for cyberattack?

If you answered yes, our managed IT and cybersecurity services may be right for you.

Gain the confidence to guard against frontline assaults.

Have you provided your team the essential knowledge they need to keep the business safe?

Cybersecurity starts with your employees. Educating your team is the first line of defense against cyber threats.

Greater than 90% of all cyber incidents begin with a simple phishing email. In fact, about 60% of company employees will fall for a spear phishing attack, costing the business on average more than $130,000.

In addition to providing robust protection against business email compromise, we provide your whole team with continuing education in the proper application of cybersecurity best practices, and how to effectively recognize and identify real-world threats. Monthly email phishing simulation campaign reports serve to provide proof of training and give valuable insight into your team’s growing ability to take the right appropriate action for avoiding loss.

Not all backup solutions are created equal.

Ransomware merchants are constantly working to overcome security and backup defenses

Backups have long been touted as the best defense against ransomware. Unfortunately, cybercriminals know this, too.

The latest malware variants use a phased approach designed to defeat or overcome traditional backup solutions. Backups stored in our secure cloud are verified free from infection and immutably retained, safeguarding your data from the dangers presented from today’s cyber threats.

01

Gestation

Modern ransomware does not detonate and encrypt immediately. The gestation period is designed to give the malware time to spread as widely as possible from machine to machine, typically by using the permissions of the systems it has infected.

02

Deletion

Once the ransomware has spread as far as it can, the next phase involves deleting network-accessible backups. Backup files have known signatures that make them easy to target and encrypt. In addition to targeting file signatures, ransomware uses APIs published by backup vendors to delete backups autonomously.

03

Dormancy

With access to data, threat actors may begin extracting data to later use for extortion. The malware may lie dormant for a month, three months, six months or even longer before detonation. Dormancy poses a challenge because malware is backed up along with legitimate data, creating an attack loop. When infected backups are used in recovery, the malware re-presents itself and will detonate again.

Flying Blind is Risky Business

Trying to manage your cybersecurity needs on your own may cost you

Without the help of seasoned experts, your business could:

How would a breach or data loss impact your business?

Post-breach repercussions begin to look similar regardless of the type of compromise

The actions that businesses and organizations take after a breach can vary widely depending on different factors. One driving factor is whether the breach involved personal or corporate data; regardless, repercussions for cyber insurance were among the top effects.

There is also a larger impact to data itself—security decision-makers who reported breaches in the past 12 months also reported the effects, including business interruption, insurance repercussions, data manipulation, theft of data, destruction of data, and extortion/ransom of data as being some of the top consequences.

1

Personal data was compromised (N = 416)

2

Corporate data was compromised (N = 281)

Interruption of a corporate business process

32%
36%

Manipulation of data

29%
33%

Cyber insurance repercussions

28%
31%

Extortion of data

27%
32%

Theft of data

26%
30%

Interruption of an industrial process

26%
26%

Destruction of data

24%
26%

Ransom of data

23%
27%

Greater difficulty attracting new customers

22%
22%

Denial of service

21%
23%

Theft of money

20%
25%

Diminished employee experience

20%
23%

Lost business partners

20%
22%

Lost customers

10%
12%

What does your business do to protect data in the cloud?

The Shared Responsibility Model and the Importance of Cloud Backups

Many businesses and organizations mistakenly believe that cloud data is automatically protected by Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) vendors such as Microsoft and Google. In reality, 1 in 3 companies report losing data stored in cloud-based applications due to malware or ransomware attacks, malicious end-user activity, and accidental data overwrites. SaaS providers ensure they won’t lose your cloud data with built-in redundancy and other high availability measures; however, they do not take responsibility for restoring data if you lose it.

Ransomware isn’t only an on-premises problem. It can and does spread into SaaS applications, especially Microsoft 365. Unfortunately, many businesses and organizations still believe that these tools make backup obsolete… this simply isn’t true. Backup is just as important for data in SaaS apps as it is for data hosted on-premises.

Common SaaS Myths and Misconceptions

While SaaS applications have built-in redundancy that protects against data loss in their cloud servers, this doesn’t protect against user error, accidental and malicious deletion, or ransomware attacks. While accidental deletion of files is by far the most common form of data loss in SaaS apps, ransomware can be the most damaging. That’s because ransomware is designed to spread across networks and into SaaS applications, impacting many users.

SaaS providers ensure they won’t lose your cloud data with built-in redundancy and other high availability measures; however, they do not take responsibility for restoring data if you lose it. Microsoft calls this the Shared Responsibility Model for data protection. That’s why Microsoft recommends third-party SaaS backup in its user agreement.

The Shared Responsibility Model places the onus of data protection squarely on businesses that rely on SaaS applications. SaaS providers are responsible for keeping their infrastructure up and running, but businesses are responsible for the preservation and security of their data.

Google Vault retention and eDiscovery cannot replace a data backup solution. It’s true that the retention and hold features that Google Vault provides can secure your business data from being lost and deleted. But that is only part of the solution. Google Vault is a retention service and should not be confused with a backup solution. Even though both retention and backup involve securing data for longer periods or indefinitely there are a few differences.

One major difference is that a retention solution is only concerned with retaining data while a backup solution offers an easy method to restore this data back into your account. Google Vault is a retention solution that was intended to preserve critical business data for legal and litigation purposes. Google Vault should never be a replacement for a backup solution for your Google Drive data.

While file sync tools like Microsoft OneDrive or Google Drive do create a second copy of files and folders, they are not a replacement for backup. File sync automatically copies changes to synchronized files. So, if a file or folder is infected with ransomware, the malware will automatically be copied to all synced versions of that file.

File sync services do offer some restore capabilities via versioning, but they fall short of a true SaaS backup solution. Here’s why:

  • Versions are not immutable recovery points. So, if a file is deleted, older versions of the file are deleted as well.
  • Versioning doesn’t enable centralized management of user data. In other words, you don’t have control over backup and recovery—it’s left in the hands of end users.
  • Versioning doesn’t maintain recovery points across files, folder, settings and users. If you only need to restore a couple of files, no big deal, but large restores are a time-consuming, manual process.

Beyond simply lacking the restore capabilities of a backup solution, file sync can actually introduce ransomware to SaaS applications. File sync and backup are not competitive solutions, rather they can and should be used side-by-side. Remember: file sync and share is for productivity and backup is for data protection and fast restore.

While SaaS apps are highly reliable, outages do occur. In October 2020 alone, Microsoft 365 had three significant outages that impacted businesses worldwide. Last year, a massive Google outage affected nearly one billion Gmail, Workplace, and YouTube users.

Outages and slow restore times aren’t just an inconvenience. When businesses can’t access important business data, productivity falls, and revenue is impacted. Creating backups that are independent of a SaaS provider’s cloud servers is the only way to ensure access to essential files in the event of an outage.

Why Microsoft Alone is Not Enough to Protect Your Data

With Exchange Online, deleted items (emails, tasks, contacts, and calendar items) can always be restored from the Deleted Items folder; however, once removed, they can only be recovered for a period of 14 days by default. This can be increased up to a maximum of 30 days, after which they are no longer recoverable by any means. In addition, the Recoverable Items folder is subject to a quota, meaning older items may be purged sooner than anticipated.

When an employee account is deleted, the contents of their OneDrive are generally available for 30 days before being moved to Second-Stage, where it is kept for 93 days. Likewise, when individual OneDrive or SharePoint files/folders are deleted, they are moved to the recycle bin; however, if they are hard deleted or the recycle bin is purged, they are moved to Second-Stage and subject to the same 93-day retention policy. Following expiry of the retention period, these deleted files are no longer recoverable by any means.

Malware and other malicious actors will typically hard delete files, so they are not visible in the recycle bin for identification and restoration. Unless the deleted data is noted missing within the retention period, and without a viable backup available, this data may be permanently lost.

1 Week

1 Month

3 Months

1 Year

2 Years

5 Years

1

1

1

1

1

1

Inbox or Folder Data

Deleted Items

Auto-Archived Items

Deleted SharePoint Objects

OneDrive Files/Folders

Employee Turnover

In Microsoft 365

Moved to Archive

In Microsoft 365

Permanently Deleted

In Microsoft 365

Moved to Archive

In Microsoft 365

Second-Stage

Permanently Deleted

In Microsoft 365

Second-Stage

Permanently Deleted

In Microsoft 365

Second-Stage

Permanently Deleted

Average Data Compromise Discovery Period: 140 Days

Why Google Alone is Not Enough to Protect Your Data

When a user soft deletes an email, file/folder, or other item, it remains in the Trash folder for 30 days, unless it is first manually purged. After a 30-day period, items in Trash are automatically purged. Items removed (purged) from Trash are retained for a further 25 days. Following expiry of the 25-day retention period, these items are permanently deleted from Google Workspace and are no longer recoverable by any means.

Malware and other malicious actors will typically empty Trash following delete, known as ‘Delete forever’. Unless the deleted data is noted missing within the restore period, and without a viable backup available, this data may be permanently lost.

1 Week

1 Month

3 Months

1 Year

2 Years

5 Years

1

1

1

1

1

1

Deleted Emails

Deleted GDrive Files/Folders

Restore Items (from Trash)

In Google

Permanently Deleted

In Google

Permanently Deleted

In Google

Permanently Deleted

Average Data Compromise Discovery Period: 140 Days

How would your business respond to a novel cyber incident?

After a breach, businesses are primarily spending on incident response and other new technology

Respondents who experienced a breach in the past 12 months indicated increased spending on new technologies or services for incident response when personal data was compromised as well as when corporate data was compromised.

Businesses and organizations also typically increase spending on new technologies overall following a breach, including technologies spanning detection, protection, recovery, and log collection and retention. Unfortunately, sometimes it takes a breach to unlock security budgets.

1

Personal data was compromised (N = 416)

2

Corporate data was compromised (N = 281)

Increased spending on new technologies or services for incident response

42%
46%

Increased spending on new technologies or services for detection

40%
44%

Increased spending on new technologies or services for protection

39%
43%

Increased spending on new technologies or services for recovery

33%
38%

Increased spending on new technologies or services for log collection and retention

33%
36%

Augmented IT security staff
with managed services

23%
25%

Added required two-factor authentication
for all employees

22%
24%

Security and/or privacy are regularly evaluated/discussed

21%
23%

Switched security vendors,
service providers, or IT auditors

19%
20%

Invested in upskilling and/or training
for IT security staff

19%
19%

Hired additional IT security staff

19%
18%

Shifted security strategies

18%
21%

Greater focus on managing risk
of third-party relationships

17%
19%

Offered optional two-factor authentication
for customers

17%
18%

Created a dedicated insider threat program

16%
19%

Flying Blind is Risky Business

Your biggest cybersecurity risk may be not realizing the risk you face.

Long considered the exclusive domain of large enterprise only, information security is now something for which businesses of all size must account and is becoming increasingly important to deploy comprehensive protections against interruptions in operation or production, data loss or compromise, and ransom due to cyberattack.

Non-clients contacting us for help dealing with compromise due to breach reported effects including data manipulation, extortion of data, theft of data, destruction of data, and ransom of data as being some of the top consequences.

Don’t let perceived budget constraints leave your business unprepared to respond in the event of ransomware or other cyberattack. Our complete cybersecurity and backup services make protection and preparedness easy and affordable, with transparent pricing information provided up-front.

Request a Free Cybersecurity Assessment

Request a Free Dark Web Scan

The dark web gives access to underground forums and marketplaces where cyber criminals coordinate attacks, sell compromised data, and share pre-made attack tools. Contact us today for a free customized dark web scan report detailing your known compromised business credentials or other personal sensitive information potentially exposing you to breach.