MSP, MSSP and IT Industry Notes December 28th, 2020

December 28^th, 2020

MSP, MSSP and IT Industry Notes

Sponsored by

Arcoa Group

Why partnering with ARCOA makes sense
Electronics Recycling is an important and profitable part of the IT asset lifecycle, but it can be overwhelming with all you already do, varying state regulations, and the limited resources at hand. That’s where ARCOA comes in. When you partner with ARCOA, you get all the benefits of a big company without any of the capital investment. We’ve been doing this since 1989 and have the expertise, certifications, and nationwide resources to get the most for all your clients’ retired IT assets. Plus, positioning your clients as environmental stewards not only elevates their appeal to consumers, it meets government requirements and avoids fines.

What partnering with ARCOA looks like
Our role is to make it easy for you to bring more value to your clients. We work with you to help stretch your clients’ IT budget by reducing the total cost of ownership of their electronics. We’re experts at identifying and implementing the solutions your clients need for the end-of-use remarketing, recovery, and recycling of their technology assets. The sooner you involve ARCOA, the sooner you and your clients will see better results.

IBM Announces Acquisition of Cloud Implementation Application Transformation & Managed ...

• IBM Corp., announced on Tuesday it has acquired Nordcloud, a European cloud implementation, application transformation, and managed services provider
• acquisition comes just days after IBM announced it acquired Expertus Technologies Inc., a Canadian Fintech company that assists clients with processing over $50 billion in transactions per day
• Nordcloud claims to be a European leader in public cloud infrastructure solutions and cloud-native application services

Sirius Captures No. 1 Ranking of Top Diversified Managed Services Providers

• Sirius Computer Solutions, Inc. (Sirius), a leading national IT solutions integrator, ranked first in the inaugural 2020 Channel Futures 2020 NextGen 101
• Champion Solutions Group, Inc., a newly acquired Sirius company, also made the list.
• Florida-based Champion ranked 31^st on the NextGen 101
• The 2020 MSP 501 and NextGen 101 lists are based on data collected by Channel Futures and its sister site, Channel Partners. Data was collected in 2020

Atos confirms expertise in Cloud services with renewed recognition as a Microsoft Azure Expert ...

• Atos announced that it has successfully renewed its status as Microsoft Azure Expert Managed Service Provider (MSP), for the 2^nd consecutive year
• Atos is one of less than 100 Microsoft Azure expert MSP partners worldwide and was amongst those that qualified early in July 2019

Konica Minolta Receives Four BLI Awards from Keypoint Intelligence

• Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc. (Konica Minolta) announced it has received four prestigious Buyers Lab Awards from Keypoint Intelligence
• BLI PaceSetter Award in Healthcare
• BLI 2021 Pick and Outstanding Achievement Awards
  • Outstanding Cost Accounting & Recovery Solution: Konica Minolta Dispatcher Paragon
  • Outstanding Achievement in Innovation: Return to Work
  • BLI 2021-2022 PaceSetter in Hybrid Workplace

Pharos updates solution

• Now offering version 5.3 of its Blueprint Enterprise solution
  • Provides administrative improvements
  • Touchless printing via Pharos Print mobile app
  • Mobile QR Code print release configuration
  • Sentry Print secure print support for Konica Minolta, Xerox and HP devices

Employees now more likely to expose data - Study conducted by Code42 Security

• 85% of employees are more likely to leak files today than before pandemic
• 76% of IT security leaders say their organizations have experienced one of more data
  breaches since work from home started
• 59% = insider threats will increase in next 2 years
• 54% = do not have formal insider risk response plan
• 40% = do not assess how effectively their technologies mitigate insider threats

Study on government use of paper - Research conducted by Center for Digital Government

• Survey of state and local government leaders
• 52% = paper documents make up 50% or more of initial records
• 68% = indicate eliminating paper is moderate to very urgent
• 70% = need for digital documents have increased due to pandemic
• 70% = accessibility on constituent-facing applications is either important or extremely important

Square 9 launches new services

• Square 9 Software, maker of DM and ECM solutions, and headquartered in New Haven,
  CT, introduced GlobalCapture Cloud Transformation Services
• Provides an end-to-end secure platform for digital transformation in the cloud
• Users have a complete cloud solution to capture, store and automate business processes

Boston Managed IT Outsourcing Cloud And VoIP Security Solutions Updated

• Newly updated IT outsourcing and managed IT services have been launched by the team at IT Management Solutions.
• Work with clients from Boston, New England

Ntiva and Southfield Capital Announce the Strategic Acquisitions of Forget Computers and Netlink ...

• Southfield Capital, announced that Ntiva Inc., has completed the acquisitions of Forget Computers and NetLink Systems
• Transactions represent Ntiva's ninth and tenth acquisition in the United States, reinforcing the company's continued growth in the MSP market
• Forget Computers, based in Chicago IL, is recognized as the top Apple Technology experts in the NidWest and have focused solely on helping organizations support their macOS and iOS users
• MetLink Systems, a provided of Managed IT services in Queens, NY, adds direct access to Manhattan and the surrounding Metro area,

AuthBridge, India's largest Authentication Technology Company unveils electronic signature ...

• AuthBridge Research Services Private Limited, India's largest authentication technology company, announced the launch of its new electronic signature solution, SignDrive, a cloud-based document management solution
• SignDrive is built on AI-driven optical character recognition (OCR) and the image recognition technology, and comes with an in-built signer verification
• SignDrive combines AuthBridge's AI-powered verification technology with MSBDocs' automated document processing capabilities and offers a hybrid signature solution which includes electronically generated signatures

Cybersecurity Updates

The federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) reported a large scale hacking incident involving government agencies and organizations that use SolarWinds supply chain software.

• “grave risk” to federal, state and local government networks
• Symantec has identified infections on over 2,000 computers at more than 100 of its customers
• Attackers delivered malware to possibly thousands of organizations in the U.S.

The FBI is reporting that the Wizard Spider hacking group of Russia is using Ryuk ransomware to extort $61 million in ransom from US healthcare firms.

Colbi Trent Defiore was sentenced to 3 years in prison for stealing PHI to resell while working for a Medicare enrollment company in Louisiana.

ThreatPost magazine reports that Microsoft Office 365 credentials are under attack by fax alert emails.

• Email impersonates eFax to coerce users to click on attached document to unleash malware.

Armis Security published report that 97% of devices affected by the Urgent/11 security vulnerabilities have not yet been patched

• 80% of impacted devices are still vulnerable to attack
• Relates to CDPwn flaws in the devices that use Wind River VxWorks code
• (could include printers and MFPs)

Weslaco Independent School District of Weslaco, TX notified an unknown number of students that their info may have been exposed after ransomware attack.

Researchers announced that they have found a way to turn RAM chips into WiFi cards to steal data from computers.

• Malicious code could be planted by attackers to manipulate the electrical current inside the RAM card in order to generate electromagnetic waves with frequency consistent with WiFi signal spectrum

Taylor Made Diagnostics of Newport News, Virginia notified an unknown number of patients that their PHI was exposed after ransomware attack.

Apex Laboratory of Long Island, NY and satellite in Florida notified an unknown number of patients that their PHI was exposed after ransomware attack.

The U.S. Treasury and Commerce Department announced that Russian hackers broke into network and monitored staff email for months.

The Jersey City Municipal Utilities Authority of New Jersey notified an unknown number of customers that their info may have been exposed after ransomware attack.

The City of Independence, Missouri notified an unknown number of citizens that their info may have been exposed after ransomware attack.

University Hospital of Augusta, Georgia reported that it is turning away 20% of all incoming emails due to security risks

• Averaging 550 cyber attacks per day

The City of Dade City, Florida notified an unknown number of citizens that their info may have been exposed after ransomware attack.

The Great Neck Yeshiva High School of New York notified an unknown number of students that their info may have been exposed after cyber attack.

Moderna Pharmaceuticals reported that hackers were able to access COVID-19 vaccine data.

The Wall Street Journal reported that on December 14th, Google had an outage which impacted Gmail, G Suite apps and other services.

Spotify notified an unknown number of customers that their info may have been exposed during recent data breach.

Twitter was ordered to pay a $544,600 fine to the EU related to recent data breach.

Helena Public Schools of Montana notifies some employees after burglar snatched USB with their time sheets.

Meharry Medical College in Nashville, TN, notified 20,983 patients that their PHI was exposed after an email phishing attack

MEDNAX Services Inc., headquartered in Sunrise, FL, is a provider of revenue cycle management and other administrative services to its affiliated physician practice groups that notified an unknown number of patients that their PHI was exposed after email phishing attack.

GenRx Pharmacy, headquartered in Scottsdale, AZ, notified an unknown number of patients that their PHI may have been exposed after ransomware attack.

The Pascagoula-Gautier School District in Mississippi notified 7,000 students that their info may have been exposed after ransomware attack.

The Gardiner Public School District in Montana notified 200 students that their info was exposed after ransomware attack.

Avast Security reported that 3 million users are believed to have installed 15 Chrome and 13 Edge browser extensions that contain malicious code.
American Bank Systems, a document management company headquartered in Oklahoma, is being sued by its banking customers when their data was exposed during a breach.