It’s World Backup Day! And that means that once again, backup vendors, influencers, and pundits are talking about the importance of backing up your data. Of course, that’s important, as is testing your backups on a regular basis, and making sure you’re adhering to regulatory and security standards in the process. But in the 12 years since World Backup Day began, surely we’ve learned some lessons about how to do backup better?

The security industry may not have been making a lot of noise about Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) for long, but it’s not actually a new technology. Despite having been around now for roughly 10 years, it’s only recently that EDR has really come to the fore. This has been driven by the fact that traditional antivirus struggles to cope with the increasing sophistication of modern malware, and is certainly unfit to handle new types of cyber threats.

The best part about patching in N-able N-central is the ability to fully automate the process, but even if that is accomplished correctly there is still a need to have the right amount of sensitivity of patch monitoring in place. I have always monitored patches in terms of age, I did so with WSUS v3 (15 years ago) and have always done so in N-central.

As you likely be all too aware, there is a Microsoft Outlook zero-day vulnerability listed under CVE-2023-23397. With the increased attacks on Outlook this month, Microsoft has pushed out fixes for about 80 Windows flaws. More information on some of those patches can be found in my colleague Lewis Pope’s March 2023 Patch Tuesday blog. Lewis was also kind enough to send over the remediation script for both N-able N-central and N-able N-sight.

Network device monitoring is a crucial aspect of IT management and it helps organizations to ensure that their network infrastructure is running smoothly. Many people that use RMM solutions will often use an additional application to monitor their network devices. However, one of the huge benefits of using N-able N-central as your RMM solution is the way it allows you to monitor network devices through Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP).

MSPs own and process large amounts of sensitive data and act as gateways to the sensitive data and infrastructure of their clients, which is why cybercriminals view them as good potential targets. To adequately protect this sensitive data from today’s sophisticated attacks, it is crucial that MSPs leverage cybersecurity best practices to ensure the safety and security of their own systems and their customers’ systems.

Against a backdrop of constantly evolving cybersecurity threats, it’s essential that MSPs understand how to own the risk conversation if they are to really help their customers effectively manage their security posture. In this blog, I want to look at what we mean by “owning the risk conversation”, and how MSPs can achieve this. For me, I look at it from the perspective of my own job.

One of the things that I regularly get questioned about in my Operational Efficiency Boot Camp is the reporting in N-sight RMM and what MSPs should be presenting to customers to show that they are properly performing their work. I am a huge fan of monthly or quarterly business reviews to showcase your MSP client reports. I feel that for MSPs they are one of our greatest retention tools, and clearly demonstrate the value we provide.

The IT security landscape has been fundamentally transformed with the advent of cryptocurrencies, which have enabled hackers to easily monetize their activities without being tracked. This is one of the key drivers behind ransomware attacks becoming more numerous and more frequent.

Welcome to March! It’s a new month with a new MSP growth habit to start focusing on. In January, I encouraged you to Never Stop Learning to kick off our list of 12 MSP growth habits. In February, I urged you to go out and Find Love in the form of updating your MSP’s social proof for your website and social media feeds. For March it’s all about stepping out of your comfort zone and exploring new market opportunities to help expand your MSP business.