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IT Security Gone “WFH” – Now What?

IT Security Gone “WFH” – Now What?

by | Apr 28, 2020 | Managed IT Services, Network Security, Security

 

Recent “Work From Home” (WFH) mandates have quickly pushed manufacturing and distribution employees out of the familiarity of their work offices and into a new realm of IT security needs.  Currently, statistics are saying that 70% of the workforce that can work from home is and, after this crisis is over, more than 40% will STAY at home.  With this transition, IT security principles become part of a critical conversation, especially for companies with remote workers supporting on-site manufacturing or distribution activities.

What is your WFH IT security policy?

 

Many distributed businesses have responded to the telecommute directive without many changes, especially those companies with data residing in the cloud.  These companies have already established work-at-home policies and invested in the remote access/remote desktop technology to enable telecommuting with IT security in place.  Folks who invested fully in the Office 365 space are feeling little pain, but businesses with legacy on-premise servers, workstations and printers are probably still scrambling.

 

Don’t be fooled—the hackers have followed you home!  The increase in suspicious emails, bad websites, and malicious advertisements has skyrocketed, and the cybercrime community is just waiting for your users to click on something to ransom your hard-earned data away.

 

Without a written and agreed upon IT security policy, you are at the mercy of your users’ good intentions.  Imagine a home PC with a saved password left on the VPN all day while the kids are stuck at home from school.  The amount of data that could be lost or compromised is staggering!  At a minimum, make sure you have a document that instructs your WFH users to lock the keyboard when they step away (or implement a screen saver with a password).  Ensure your users don’t download documents to their local hard drive or USB drives.  The list goes on, but the human element is the riskiest of all!

 

If a home user gets infected on the VPN, their malware is the company’s malware!  Let me write that again:  If a home user gets infected on the VPN, their malware is the company’s malware.

 

How to connect securely to your enterprise data?

 

Many businesses have NOT invested in expensive VPN or Remote Desktop solutions, and now it might seem either too late or too expensive.  You need a low-cost, secure, and easy-to-deploy strategy to connect your home users with their corporate data:  desktops, servers, and printers at the office.  Many options exist, but without a budget and a vision, you’ll get lost in the storm.

 

 

Keeping your home PC safe!

 

Home computers are more vulnerable than corporate PCs.  Home PCs tend to fall behind on patches and updates.  Moreover, the computer might get repurposed for things like the kids’ Xbox.  Home firewalls never measure up to those provided by your IT department.  Most have no web filtering to speak of, and bad websites abound!  You’ll need that enterprise class security in a mobile-friendly package.

 

 

Productivity

 

Another blog could certainly be written about home offices, with a good webcam and a quiet space, but that’s for another page.  People are people, and the distractions from working from home are numerous and easy to fall prey to.  We recommend easy-to-deploy software to ensure that your users arrive to their home office on time and ready to work (even if it’s in their PJ’s), ensuring that they are productive and not on YouTube or getting the latest Amazon order completed.

 

 

 

Looking to provide IT security for your remote workers?  Deploy the EstesCloud PC Security Stack on your home users’ PCs and rest easily, knowing that your WFH users are protected and productive!

 

Endpoint Security: A Powerful Endgame

Endpoint Security: A Powerful Endgame

by | Apr 8, 2020 | Managed IT Services, Network Security, Security

 

You already know you need protection from the cybersecurity threats circulating the market, but you might not have the time to know the specifics—like what endpoint security is or why you need it.  If you have devices accessing a network, then you have an endpoint that needs protection.  This elusive endpoint is simply any device that interacts with your network—the touchpoint between your network’s perimeter and the outside world.  The bring-your-own-device (BYOD) movement that’s currently shaping the business world makes network security challenging because it creates a high demand for comprehensive endpoint security.  You need to protect your customers and your business by protecting your team, and this begins with endpoint security.

 

Bring Your Own Disaster

 

The BYOD movement introduces a number of specific challenges in securing networks.  The proliferation of devices interacting with a network, both in kind and in number, increases the number of endpoints and thus also increases the potential vulnerability of a network.  Each new endpoint is a potentially exploitable gateway.  The propagation of vulnerabilities demands a solution that can address this new circumstance.  The solution that companies are increasingly utilizing to address their evolving needs has come to be known as endpoint security.  Endpoint security helps ensure that all devices interacting with a network are compliant to the necessary security standards, protecting both the network and the devices themselves.

 

Endpoint security differs from traditional antivirus in the way that it detects and responds to threats.  Traditional antivirus operates by comparing a program’s signature to a database of known malicious programs.  Programs flagged as malicious would be stopped by the antivirus agent.  This method of threat prevention is, by design, a step behind the attackers.  Traditional antivirus can only detect malicious programs that have already been logged in the antivirus agent’s database.  This creates problems in detecting new threats—what are sometimes called zero-day attacks.  This also creates problems with newer “signatureless” attack methodologies that work to obscure their signatures, to work around the known signatures that antivirus looks for.

 

The question here is one of prevention vs. one of detection:  antivirus focuses on preventing attacks.  While this sounds logical, the tools available at its disposal, as we have seen, are limited.  Should a malware attack slip through, antivirus is ill-equipped to deal with it once it’s inside the network.  This brings in the need for more dynamic, behavioral-based detection methodologies that can leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning to detect suspicious application behaviors and react accordingly.

 

Leveling Up

 

Modern endpoint security platforms operate in a multi-level manner, protecting networks and network devices in multiple phases of vulnerability and response.

  • The pre-execution phase: This level is for threats as they enter the network.
  • The on-execution phase: This step is for threats that have entered the network and are in the process of acting out their program logic.
  • The post-execution phase: This involves the steps to mollify threats that have executed.

Combining static prevention with dynamic detection, modern endpoint security platforms leverage machine learning to detect threats on execution.  This becomes beneficial, not only for signatureless attacks, but also for “file-less” attacks that are operating exclusively in memory.

As part of our EstesCloud security stack, we work with several vendors to provide broad and comprehensive endpoint detection and response.  AI, combined with our SOC (Security Operations Center), provides the level of endpoint security that cannot be addressed by traditional antivirus.  Our cybersecurity solution comes with a strong warranty—cyber threat protection provides you with financial support of $1,000 per endpoint, or up to $1 million per company, securing you against the financial implications of a ransomware attack if your company indeed suffers an attack and our team is unable to block or remediate the effects.

 

 

 

Is your company in need of a security assessment?  Learn more about how EstesGroup can protect your business.

What Are My ERP Private Cloud Options

What Are My ERP Private Cloud Options

by | Feb 10, 2020 | Cloud, Epicor, Epicor 10, ERP Risks and Challenges, ERP Selection, Hosting, Managed IT Services, Prophet 21, Security

Not All Clouds are Created Equal: Reviewing Your ERP Private Cloud Options

 

It’s no secret that cloud computing has been increasingly finding its way into businesses by providing reliable solutions to increasingly challenging problems.  But for ERP customers with complex environment maps, an unmitigated move to the cloud might feel risky.  For this reason, some customers look for middle options between full cloud deployments and on-premise installations.  Private cloud hosting is one such midpoint, and it’s not uncommon for customers to approach the opportunities of cloud computing in search of a private solution.  But will this option leverage the obvious benefits of the cloud, while effectively providing the necessary support for your complex ERP ecosystem?

 

Your ERP installation is rarely an isolated entity—it is part of an integrated ecosystem of applications and processes, with various third parties, bolt-ons, and in-house applications interacting with the core ERP system.  As such, an ERP system is not always easily extracted from its ecosystem, as such an extraction is something akin to major surgery.  If you’re looking at handling this complexity with private cloud ERP deployment options, there are basically two management directions you can take.  You can build a private cloud using AWS, Azure, or Google, or you can work with an already established team of experts in private cloud hosting.  Let’s explore these options in greater detail.

 

Private Cloud in AWS/Azure/Google

 

The big players in cloud computing entered the application hosting game a while ago – Amazon, Azure, and now Google.  The option here would be to build out your virtual machine architecture within one of these clouds, and install your applications within this architecture, while working in turn to integrate your company-specific application ecosystem with the new ERP infrastructure.

 

While this eliminates the hardware investment of an on-premise install, you are still responsible for all the administration activities, at the server, application, and database levels.  And if your Epicor Admin should win the lottery, you are left scrambling for options.  If you lack the internal resources and need to bring in assistance in the administration of the application, you are now adding another party to work within this ecosystem.  Moreover, to your monolithic cloud provider, you are still just a number, and the service levels you can expect to receive will indicate as much.  Will the hosting company be responsive and listen to your apps and your business needs?  Is there a human voice to reach out to when issues occur?

 

Private Cloud Through the Estes Group’s ECHO Managed Hosting

 

EstesGroup’s EstesCloud Hosting, or ECHO for short, is our hosting platform. For one monthly price, we include all the functionality and support you need to keep your hosted applications running properly for your business.  While providing the access level that companies look for in private cloud solutions, we also provide the support and expertise that a big box store cloud partner can’t provide.  One phone call puts you in touch with our support team.  Well-versed in Microsoft’s full stack, we cover your servers with 24x7x365 EstesCloud Monitoring.  We cover the backups and disaster recovery, and we protect your users with EstesCloud identity management under the security of EstesCloud-managed Firewalls.

 

We have experience in moving many customers to a private cloud environment, while working with them to integrate their hosted ERP platform with their family of related applications.  With this experience comes the knowledge in working with protocols, networks, VPNs, and database connections, and we leverage this knowledge when engaging a customer.

 

In summary, some of the benefits of the EstesGroup’s ECHO Private Cloud Hosting solution include:

  • Known monthly expense, with no large capital expenses
  • Growth with your business supported by continual and customized service
  • Proven backup and disaster recovery playbooks
  • Easy, secure access from anywhere you wish
  • No Server Maintenance
  • No need to upgrade or repair hardware

 

When it comes to deploying your ERP architecture, there are clearly a number of different options, and the implications of the decisions made will have a lasting effect on your company’s future.  Are you considering spinning up your own private cloud to host your ERP application?  Drop us a line first, and let us help you explore your options.

Interested in learning more about Managed Hosting for Epicor ERP or Prophet 21 ERP?

Visit our Managed Epicor ERP Hosting page

Visit our Managed Prophet 21 ERP Hosting page

Epicor MRP Keeps You On-Time and Customers Happy

Epicor MRP Keeps You On-Time and Customers Happy

by | Feb 5, 2020 | Cloud, Epicor, Epicor 10, ERP Risks and Challenges, ERP Selection, Hosting, Managed IT Services, Prophet 21, Security

ERP!  ERP!  How do I love thee?  Let me Count the Ways: A Robust Materials Resource Planning ( MRP ) Engine

 

 

One of my favorite movies growing up was The Wizard of Oz.  One of my favorite scenes was when the “Wizard” was exposed as the “man behind the curtain,” pulling levers and revealing the secrets of the kingdom.  In the business world, this phrase has morphed into meaning a person who elusively controls the intricacies of a large enterprise—and no one really knows the who, what, when, or how of the magic behind the success.  MRP (Materials Resource Planning) is like this “man behind the curtain.”  Incredibly powerful, MRP manages the forces of supply and demand, keeping everything under control.

 

 

There are basically three questions that a manufacturer has, and MRP answers:

  • What does the customer want?
  • How many do they want?
  • When do they want it?

 

While those three questions seem relatively simple in nature, executing them in an efficient and profitable manner can become an extremely daunting, or even impossible task if you don’t have the correct tools.  Fortunately, the Epicor MRP Engine is a highly sophisticated but user-friendly process that can help companies increase on-time performance, lower inventory and improve efficiency.  MRP takes all three of these questions and looks at them holistically, to manage all variables that can occur on a shop floor.

 

What product does the customer want?

 

To answer this, MRP first looks to see if the part is purchased or manufactured.  At the core of the system is the type-attribute of the part.  Epicor defines a part in three ways: purchased, manufactured or sales kit.  Purchased Parts can have a defined lead-time and are used in determining when product can be available if stock is not available.  Manufactured Parts are built-up with routings and bills of materials.  MRP will take into account the time it takes for each operation, dependent on the quantity and material availability, to determine when the product will be available to ship, based on capacity on the shop floor.  Sales kits can be a combination of purchased and manufactured Parts and will use either or both types of logic to determine availability.

 

What quantity does the customer need?

 

Based on demand from forecasts or actual Sales Orders, the system looks at the current inventory level.  If there is insufficient inventory, it will suggest to the Purchasing Department to buy some if it’s purchased or will suggest to the Planning Department to create a job to make some, if it’s manufactured.

 

What is the customer’s timeline?

 

This is where the Epicor MRP logic will take the first two questions and analyze two things: If we don’t have it in stock, can we buy it in time to deliver it, or do we have enough material and resources available to build how many they want?  And it does this by taking into account not just one particular Sales Order, but all of the Sales Orders, and all of the inventory stocking levels and Job demands within a plant.  Obviously, this is a very tall order, and in a dynamic manufacturing environment, things are often changing on a daily, if not hourly, basis.  Because the MRP process can be such an intensive hardware resource demand, Epicor can be configured to run on a schedule (often times at night), either by looking at net change (to only work on those things that have changed since MRP was last run) or by being regenerative (to recalculate all demand).

 

Epicor also has the ability to run MRP for a specific part.  Have a customer that needs a part ASAP?  Now instead of having to wait for MRP to run, management has the ability to see the potential status of a job in a matter of minutes, and not hours, as MRP only has a single part to analyze.  The MRP process can also be limited to a plant, product family, or commodity class—reducing the time and resources required to generate the needed supply records.   Epicor MRP also supports multi-level pegging, which gives users the ability to trace the supply to each discrete source of demand.  This process also drives the projected Sales Order shortages and is an incredibly powerful tool to manage customer satisfaction.

The Epicor ERP system, in conjunction with its versatile and powerful MRP process, allows your organization to “see behind the curtain” at an organizational level, revealing what the current demands for your products are and if you have the necessary supply to meet demand in a timely and profitable fashion.

 

There are lots of things to love about Epicor’s E10 ERP application.

 

Want to know a few more?  Read our “ERP! How do I love thee?” series and give us a call with any questions you may have. 

5 Ways EstesGroup Helps with Your CMMC Compliance

by | Jan 5, 2020 | Epicor, Epicor 10, Managed IT Services, Prophet 21, Security, Uncategorized

You might be reading this post if you are researching Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC), your company needs to become compliant, or your company is already compliant with CMMC but you have need of more IT services. In 2019 the Department of Defense announced a new cybersecurity protocol named CMMC that all DoD contractors (and some of their supply chains) would need to adhere to starting in 2020. There are 5 Levels of CMMC Certification, and EstesGroup can be an asset to companies in any of the levels.

 

5 Ways EstesGroup Helps with Your CMMC Compliance

  1. EstesGroup helps you identify the technology and/or services you need to meet your CMMC Level Requirements.  
  2. EstesGroup can improve your Process Maturity by helping evaluate your Procedures, Policies, or Practices. Once we’ve reviewed those processes, we can help update them to ensure you meet your CMMC Level and other compliance requirements. 
  3. There are 17 Domains that CMMC is built on. EstesGroup has the experience, tools, and services to support your business across nearly all of these domains.  
    • EstesGroup routinely deploys tools and managed services that directly support these CMMC domains: 
      • Access Control, Asset Management, Audit and Accountability, Configuration Management, Identification and Authentication, Maintenance, Recovery, Risk Management, Security Assessment, Situational Awareness, Systems and Communications Protection, and System and Information Integrity. 
    • EstesGroup can consult on and support technology used in these domains as well, but these domains typically require internal personnel or a third party on-site.  
      • Awareness and Training, Incident Response, Media Protection, Personnel Security, Physical Protection, and Risk Management 
  4. EstesGroup Managed Services (ERP Hosting ECHO & Managed IT) employ many of the standard Cybersecurity measures required for CMMC. We regularly monitor our internal and client assets for threats, perform preventative maintenance, and update technology or processes to meet or exceed cybersecurity requirements.  
  5. EstesCloud Hosting (ECHO) services enable many CMMC requirements without significant impact to you, your users, or your bottom line. By hosting your servers or software solutions in a managed cloud environment, you can compartmentalize your compliant systems and protect them at the highest CMMC levels, without locking down your whole office. For more details, see our page on EstesCloud Hosting for Aerospace & Defense  

 

 

To Learn about CMMC, read our blog “What is CMMC: Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification?”

 

EstesGroup is a Managed Services Provider working with Manufacturing and Distribution companies by providing ERP Hosting (ECHO), Managed IT, Epicor ERP, and Prophet 21 ERP services.

 

Have questions about CMMC or do you want more information on how EstesGroup makes companies more secure? Contact us today!

 

What is CMMC: Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification?

What is CMMC: Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification?

by | Jan 5, 2020 | Epicor, Epicor 10, ERP Risks and Challenges, Managed IT Services, Network Administration, Prophet 21, Security

CMMC: The Looming Cyber-Security Certification that Affects 60,000+ Companies

 

In 2019, the U. S. Department of Defense (DoD) announced a new security protocol program for contractors called Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC). CMMC is a DoD Certification process that lays out a contractor’s security requirements, and it is estimated that between 60,000-70,000 companies will need to become CMMC compliant in the next 1-3 years.  

 

CMMC is basically a combination and addition to existing regulations in 48 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 52.204-21 and the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) 252.204-7012, and includes practices from National Institute and Technology (NIST) 800-171, the United Kingdoms’ Cyber Essentials, and Australia’s Essential Eight requirements. International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) will remain a separate certification from CMMC – though companies that are ITAR Compliant will need to adhere to CMMC as well. 

 

CMMC Version 1.0 was released late January 2020. To view the latest CMMC document, visit the CMMC DoD site. To get help now with cybersecurity and compliance regulation, talk to our EstesCare Guard team.

 

CMMC Notables 

  • There are 5 levels of the security maturity process (basic is 1 and most stringent is 5). 
  • Any company that directly (or even some that indirectly) does business with DoD will adhere to CMMC –and that means direct DoD contractors and high-level CMMC companies’ supply chains must also adhere to, at minimum, base level requirements. 
  • There is no self-assessment (unlike NIST), and companies need to get certified through a qualified auditing firm. 
  • DoD will publish all contractor’s certification level requirements. 

Is My Business Affected by CMMC? 

 

This is easily answered with a 2-part question: 1) Is your business a direct contractor to the DoD, or 2) does your business do business with a company that is a contractor to the DoD*? If you answered “yes” to question 1, then your business will need to be CMMC compliant. If you answered “yes” to number two, then it is very probable that your company will need to be CMMC compliant. 

What are the 5 CMMC Levels? 

  • Level 1 – “Basic Cyber Hygiene”  
    • Antivirus 
    • Meet safeguard requirements of 48 CFR 52.204-21 
    • Companies might be required to provide Federal Contract Information (FCI) 
  • Level 2 – “Intermediate Cyber Hygiene” 
    • Risk Management 
    • Cybersecurity Continuity plan 
    • User awareness and training 
    • Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) documented 
    • Back-Up / Disaster Recovery (BDR) 
  • Level 3 – “Good Cyber Hygiene”
    • Systems Multi-factor Authentication 
    • Security Compliance with all NIST SP 800-171 Rev 1 Requirements 
    • Security to defend against Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) 
    • Share incident reports if company subject to DFARS 252.204-7012 
  • Level 4 – “Proactive” 
    • Network Segmentation 
    • Detonation Chambers 
    • Mobile device inclusion 
    • Use of DLP Technologies 
    • Adapt security as needed to address changing tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) in use by APTs 
    • Review & document effectiveness and report to high-level management 
    • Supply Chain Risk Consideration* 
  • Level 5 – “Advanced / Progressive” 
    • 24/7 Security Operations Center (SOC) Operation 
    • Device authentication 
    • Cyber maneuver operations 
    • Organization-wide standardized implementation of security protocols 
    • Real-time assets tracking 

One important thing to note about CMMC is that unlike NIST and other current certifications, CMMC will require certification from an authorized 3rd-party CMMC authorized certification company. Currently, most companies can self-certify for DoD-related securities. EstesGroup is not a CMMC Certification Company, but we can help companies prepare and boost security up to meet new requirements.

For more specifics on CMMC, access the latest DoD’s CMMC revision.

Learn more about CMMC with “5 Ways EstesGroup Helps with Your CMMC Compliance“

 

Do you have questions about CMMC or about how EstesGroup can help your company with CMMC or other cybersecurity, compliance or data issues? Contact us or chat with us today.