MMTA 2022 Basic Institute

MMTA 2022 Basic Institute

April 24-29, 2022

2022 Basic Institute

Michigan Municipal Treasurers Association

Mt. Pleasant, MI

Steve Burdick presenting "Mobile Offices & Working Remotely" at the MMTA 2022 Basic Institute

Steve Burdick, Vice President of Sales – Cloud, will be presenting “Mobile Offices & Working Remotely” at the 2022 Basic Institute event presented by the Michigan Municipal Treasurers Association. Steve will be giving tips on how organizations can keep their mobile workforce both comfortable and secure.

MMTA 2022 Basic Institute

Cables connected to computer servers in data center

Managed IT Services and Data Recovery Offerings from Aunalytics Solve Emergency IT Challenges for EMI

EMI logoOver the past several years, information technology has taken center stage at Ohio-based landscaping company Environmental Management Inc. (EMI). Established more than two decades ago, EMI has grown to be one of the largest landscape companies in Central Ohio. Serving major business and governmental customers throughout the region, EMI continues to grow, thereby increasing demand for managed IT services in multiple business areas.

Managing business-critical IT environments is a time-consuming process that many times can require specialists with the experience to deliver the highest performing infrastructure possible. EMI has seen this first-hand over the past several years as the company has had to recover from destroyed network infrastructure caused by a catastrophic lightning strike, a disruptive cyberattack involving ransomware with the encryption of important company information, and the need to reconfigure its computing endpoints quickly because of the occurrence of Covid-19 to accommodate “work from home” environments for its team.

Aunalytics provides a broad range of managed IT solutions, including network, server management, and PC management, as well as Office 365, data recovery and business continuity support. EMI employed several services which have helped to positively transform the company’s operations.

The side-by-side support model employed by Aunalytics has been an especially impactful benefit of this partnership. “While there are many important services provided, perhaps the most widely used and important for EMI is the 24×7 help desk which is essentially an IT department on demand,” said Tom Kiefer, CFO for EMI. “Whether it’s an employee who accidentally deleted a file or a catastrophic lightning strike, the team behind the Aunalytics Ohio help desk has been insightful and fast to act, allowing our employees to remain online and productive.”

Read the full case study to see how EMI further benefitted from the managed IT and data recovery services provided by Aunalytics Ohio.


22 OBL Security & Technology Conference

2022 Ohio Bankers League Security & Technology Conference

April 6-8, 2022

2022 Ohio Bankers League Security & Technology Conference

Embassy Suites by Hilton Columbus Airport, Columbus, OH

Aunalytics to Attend 2022 OBL Security & Technology Conference

Aunalytics is excited to attend the 2022 Ohio Banker’s League Security & Technology Conference. Aunalytics is excited to showcase our expertise in Enterprise Security and banking analytics. Daybreak™ for Financial Services enables community banks to use transactional data to more effectively identify and deliver new services and solutions for their customers so they can make smarter decisions and better compete with large national banks.

22 OBL Security & Technology Conference

Man in data center with laptop

Why Cybersecurity Should Be a Top Priority for Mid-market Businesses

Man in data center with laptopCybersecurity should be a top priority for mid-market organizations. With remote working at its highest, most businesses now hold some form of sensitive data in the cloud and workers access company data from remote locations. Zero trust security principles based upon a user’s credentials instead of a user’s location within a firewalled company facility are the new norm.

At the same time, the number of cybersecurity attacks has increased to its highest levels ever. It has been reported that ransomware attacks increased over 90% in 2021. Ransomware has hit new levels of sophistication, with demands for payment skyrocketing into the tens of millions. McKinsey reports that attacks are motivated by:

  • Vulnerabilities posed by pandemic weary organizations and workers logging in from unsecured home networks
  • Ever advancing connectivity driven by advancing digitization
  • Threat actors are now “dwelling” undetected within victims’ environments (instead of using a smash and grab approach) to better understand where the highest value data and information lives and then selling that to the highest bidder
  • More companies have been forced to pay ransoms to regain control of their networks and data, so hackers are further incentivized to innovate on this lucrative threat

Companies need to ensure they remain resilient by focusing on ransomware prevention, preparation, response, and recovery strategies. This is a journey—threats continue to evolve and staying ready means staying up to date with new threats of increasing sophistication, cyber security strategies, and best practices. Over time, increasing cyber maturity creates a resilient environment where attacks may still occur but do not have the same impact they would otherwise.

Mid-market businesses need expert skills in cloud security and data security, which is not standard in mid-market IT department skillsets. Keeping servers in a closet guarded by your IT department is extremely risky for data protection. With constantly looming cyber threats, organizations should make cybersecurity best practices a top business priority—and Aunalytics is here to help.


Financial institutions are frequently targeted in cyberattacks

Financial institutions are frequently targeted in cyberattacks—here’s how to protect your bank or credit union

Financial institutions are frequently targeted in cyberattacks Financial institutions consistently have been the most cyberattacked industry for the past decade. It is no surprise, given that banking enterprises hold large volumes of sensitive data about people, companies, and governments, and their transactional business revolves around massive volumes of money transfer. Hackers will continue to strike with increasing sophistication since the data held by financial institutions is of high value with the potential for extremely lucrative financial gains if stolen. For example, the Europe-based Carbanak and Cobalt malware campaigns targeted more than 100 financial institutions in greater than 40 countries during five years from 2013-2018, and the criminal profits yielded over a billion Euros. 

Attacks are increasingly sophisticated and cyber criminals continue to invest in new and complex criminal strategies and campaigns. Hackers in banking often take advantage of the interdependencies of financial institutions to service products such as credit cards and mortgages for other banks. From one bank breach, the cyber cartels jump to the partnered financial institution to steal its data as well. 

In some types of cyberattacks, criminals make slight changes to data, which may not be immediately detectable. Because nothing is stolen at the time, users may not recognize the attack. However, once the criminals gain access to this data, they can manipulate algorithms in the system for their own financial gain. Timestamp manipulation is a newer strategy, whereby criminals have found that they are more likely to evade detection if they manipulate time for an otherwise valid transaction. Changing timestamps can alter the value of capital and trades. Because the parties to the transaction appear to be legitimate, this type of fraud is harder to detect. 

Other criminals outright steal data for financial gain by selling it, hold data hostage for ransom profit, or pilfer intellectual property such as an organization’s competitive strategy and business plans to sell to interested parties. But the main goal in banking cyber-criminal activity is direct profit from a modern-day bank heist—stealing money from the bank. 

Despite the increasing complexity of cyberattacks against financial institutions, there are some tools and best practices that banks and credit unions can use to protect themselves from these threats: 

  • Continuously update security technology and protocols as threats evolve and adapt with the help of a dedicated full-time security team.
  • Employ 24/7/365 monitoring with remote remediation to quickly stop attacks in their tracks
  • Monitor endpoint devices to stop attacks before they hit networks.
  • Monitor cloud security including application use across the financial institution.
  • Monitor email and Office 365 using tools specially designed to thwart attacks on these platforms, such as proactively recognizing and removing phishing scams.
  • Have a dedicated security team and SOC, or hire an expert outside managed security services firm that embeds tools, technology and 24/7/365 monitoring to serve as your SOC.
  • Push frequent patches so that user devices are equipped with the latest security protections.
  • Adopt deep learning or AI monitoring, mitigation and context investigation that can more quickly identify threats.
  • Encrypt data so that it is not compromised even if a breach occurs.
  • Use multi-factor authentication to protect against unauthorized access.
  • Instruct employees and customers to only access bank data in a secure location over a non-public Internet connection.
  • Train employees on cybersecurity threats quarterly.
  • Develop a solid business recovery plan for when an attack occurs.

Learn more about how Aunalytics Advanced Security helps protect financial institutions, and businesses in other highly regulated industries, from cyberattacks.


Catalyst University 2022 logo

Catalyst University 2022

January 26 & 27, 2022

Catalyst University 2022

Radisson Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo, MI

Aunalytics to Attend 2022 Catalyst University

Aunalytics is excited to once again attend Southwest Michigan First’s Catalyst University 2022 in Kalamazoo, MI. Aunalytics is participating as a speaker sponsor this year, and is pleased to present Chip Heath, best-selling co-author and professor at Stanford Graduate School of Business, teaching courses on business strategy and organizations. He will be speaking about how to translate numbers into things our brains can comprehend and use to tell compelling stories.

Catalyst University 2022 logo

Citizens Federal Case Study

Citizens Federal Simplifies IT with Managed Services by Aunalytics

Case Study

Citizens Federal Simplifies IT with Managed Services by Aunalytics

Ohio Savings & Loan Automates and Improves IT Efficiency with
Comprehensive Managed Services Suite by Regional Technology Leader

Citizens Federal Case Study
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Cybersecurity Controls Checklist

Cybersecurity Controls Checklist

Article

Cybersecurity Controls Checklist

Cybersecurity standards are constantly evolving as cyberattacks get increasingly complex. The following checklist from the Center for Internet Security (CIS) will allow your organization to evaluate whether the correct controls and safeguards are in place to meet global cybersecurity standards.

Cybersecurity Controls Checklist
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PPEC Case Study

Managed Services is an IT Workforce Multiplier for Paulding Putnam Electric Cooperative (PPEC)

Case Study

Managed Services is an IT Workforce Multiplier for Paulding Putnam Electric Cooperative (PPEC)

Aunalytics Brings Professional IT Infrastructure Services Team
to Support Operations Throughout Electric Utility

PPEC Case Study
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