2021 Grand Rapids IT Symposium

2021 Grand Rapids IT Symposium

October 21, 2021

Grand Rapids IT Symposium

DeVos Place, Grand Rapids, MI

Aunalytics debuts new managed services offering with embedded security at the Grand Rapids IT Symposium

Aunalytics is excited to showcase its new Secure Managed Services offering at the Grand Rapids IT Symposium. The new service stack combines mission critical IT services leveraging zero trust end-to-end security to ensure people and data are protected regardless of location.

2021 Grand Rapids IT Symposium

Aunalytics Unveils Secure Managed Services with Integrated Security

Next-Generation Technology Suite Delivers Secure Managed IT to Power Business

South Bend, IN (September 27, 2021) – Aunalytics, a leading data platform company delivering Insights-as-a-Service for enterprise businesses, today announced the company’s Secure Managed Services offering. The new service stack combines mission critical IT services leveraging zero trust end-to-end security to ensure people and data are protected regardless of location.

Organizational data is extremely valuable to the longevity and success of a business. The ever-changing threat landscape presents serious risks to organizations because of bad actors working to steal and encrypt important operational data. In addition to phishing scams and other common threats, security incidents over the last 12 months have included malware, ransomware, and crypto-jacking – made worse through compromised accounts and exposed data. In 2020, malware attacks increased by 358% and ransomware attacks by 435% over attacks in 2019.

As a trusted partner, Aunalytics is no longer offering its enterprise-class IT services without integrated security. Next generation managed services now must include embedded security that adapts as threats emerge. Next generation security requires focus on users and access to corporate data by a distributed workforce often working from remote locations, home offices or using personal devices to access company systems and data. Aunalytics understands this requirement and has developed the new Secure Managed Services stack with a full suite of managed IT and integrated security services to empower business with a complete, all-encompassing approach.

New Aunalytics Secure Managed Services features include:

  • 24/7/365 Monitoring & Management – Mitigate risks to valuable infrastructure going down or becoming unavailable. Aunalytics manages hardware and software, and works proactively to address any issues.
  • Synchronized Network Security Platform – Protect networks and endpoints from advanced threats with next-generation anti-virus protection and management.
  • Workstation & Server Patching – Ensure servers and workstations are always protected through operating system security patching, including feature releases.
  • Internet Protection – Guard against Internet threats with Sophos Central and Cisco Umbrella combined solution providing website protection, DNS filtering and roaming DNS protection.
  • Email Filtering and Security – Protect email inboxes for all employees with Microsoft Defender (Advanced Threat Protection).
  • Office 365 Management and Security – Manage and protect Office 365 instances with Microsoft Defender and Azure Security.
  • Multi-Factor Authentication – Control Identity and access management with Duo or Okta based multi-factor authentication solutions.
  • Data and Device Encryption Management – Encrypt data and control privacy with Sophos Central Encryption.
  • Security Awareness Training – Prepare employees to be more security-aware. As attacks are more people-focused than ever, Aunalytics will help drive effective security training and testing campaigns.

For highly regulated industries, a managed security operations center (SOC) is typically the most important requirement of modern IT security. However, SOCs are expensive, complicated, and far beyond the reach of most small and medium size enterprises. Aunalytics now offers an Advanced Security services stack, so that clients can focus on growing their businesses while Aunalytics experts provide an SOC to continuously monitor and manage threats. Similarly, Aunalytics now offers Advanced Compliance managed services to provide guidance and expertise for clients to meet compliance standards such as SOC, HIPAA, PCI, FFIEC, and NIST 800-171, 800-53 (CMMC & FedRAMP).

“A large number of organizations are not appropriately equipped to handle 24×7 monitoring of network, systems infrastructure, and security operations,” said Paula Musich, Research Director, Enterprise Management Associates. “The integration of these and other important capabilities into Aunalytics’ managed services suite is a critical step to ensuring resilience in the event of a potentially destructive attack.”

“We have made the paradigm shift from trying to operationalize a collection of IT and security tools to a holistic view of stability and security that adapts as ever-changing threats evolve,” said Kerry Vickers, Chief Information Security Officer, Aunalytics.

To learn more about the Secure Managed Services Platform, contact Info@Aunalytics.com.

Tweet this: .@Aunalytics Aunalytics Unveils Secure Managed Services with Integrated Security
#Managedservices #Datasecurity #Malware #Ransomware #Phishing #Crypto-jacking
#Dataplatform #Dataanalytics #Dataintegration #Dataaccuracy #ArtificialIntelligence #AI #Masterdatamanagement #MDM #DataScientist #MachineLearning #ML #DigitalTransformation

About Aunalytics
Aunalytics is a data platform company delivering answers for your business. Aunalytics provides Insights-as-a-Service to answer enterprise and mid-sized companies’ most important IT and business questions. The Aunalytics® cloud-native data platform is built for universal data access, advanced analytics and AI while unifying disparate data silos into a single golden record of accurate, actionable business information. Its Daybreak industry intelligent data mart combined with the power of the Aunalytics data platform provides industry-specific data models with built-in queries and AI to ensure access to timely, accurate data and answers to critical business and IT questions. Through its side-by-side digital transformation model, Aunalytics provides on-demand scalable access to technology, data science, and AI experts to seamlessly transform customers’ businesses. To learn more contact us at 1 855-799-DATA or visit Aunalytics at https://www.aunalytics.com or on Twitter and LinkedIn.

PR Contact:
Denise Nelson
The Ventana Group for Aunalytics
(925) 858-5198
dnelson@theventanagroup.com


Ransomware, cloud attacks, phishing icons

Top 10 Cyberattacked Industries in 2020

Share of cyberattacks by industry
Source: IBM Security XForce

According to IBM in its X-Force Threat Intelligence Index, the top 10 industries suffering the most cyberattacks in 2020 were:

1. Finance and Insurance

Most Common Type of Attack: Server access attack

Since 2016, the finance and insurance industry has been the most attacked industry. In 2020, attacks increased over 2019 by 238%. Hackers seeking to profit financially from attacks often hit this industry. Paralyzing banks is usually less of a goal with attacks on this industry, but accessing internal systems can yield hefty illicit returns. However, during the pandemic, hackers seeking to paralyze infrastructure including nation-state cyber criminals also hit banking institutions to cause chaos.

2. Manufacturing

Most Common Type of Attack: Ransomware

The attacks against manufacturers doubled in 2020 compared to 2019. 21% of all 2020 ransomware cyberattacks hit the manufacturing industry. However, this industry also saw 4X more BEC attacks than any other industry, and a significant number of data theft attacks. Hackers renewed interest in this industry, likely trying to take advantage of supply chain disruption and operational chaos caused by the global pandemic, as consumers saw (and continue to experience) shortages in manufactured goods.

3. Energy

Most Common Type of Attack: Data theft

35% of attacks in the energy sector involved data theft, while only 6% involved ransomware. This was likely indicative of hacker motivations to hit this industry including IP theft, customer data theft and extorsion. BEC and server access attacks were also notable in this industry.

4. Retail

Most Common Type of Attack: Credential theft

Attacks on the retail industry were actually lower in 2020 than in 2019. This was likely due to fewer retail transactions taking place during the 2020 (less room to hide as a hacker). Retail is typically a target because of the high volume of credit card and financial transactions.

5. Professional Services

Most Common Type of Attack: Ransomware

Professional services saw the highest percentage of attacks from ransomware attacks of any industry. Data theft and server access attacks were also common in 2020. These organizations are typically attractive to cyber criminals because they serve as a path to further victims and often hold confidential data about customers.

6. Government

Most Common Type of Attack: Ransomware

Government received the second highest number of ransomware attacks of the industries, totaling a third of the attacks that this industry faced. Yet, only 38% of state and local government employees have been trained on ransomware prevention. This industry also faced a large burden in moving operations to accommodate work from home environments, as much of this industry had all team members working on site, and was not equipped for moving a remote workforce. Data theft attacks were also notable.

7. Healthcare

Most Common Type of Attack: Ransomware

The healthcare industry suffered twice as many cyberattacks in 2020 than in 2019, likely due to hackers taking advantage of operational chaos caused by the global pandemic, shifts in workforce to cover emergency medical care while furloughing operational and administrative staff due to revenue challenges caused by elective medical services being put on hold. Hackers, including nation-states looking to disrupt and steal data from organizations in this industry, targeted those in medical research and development attempting to invent COVID-19 vaccines, as well as frontline providers.

8. Media

Most Common Type of Attack: Malicious domain name squatting

90% of malicious domain name spoofing attempts targeted the media. This sector includes telecommunications and mobile communications providers, as well as media and social media outlets that can play a critical role in political outcomes, especially during election years. The timing of 2020 being a U.S. presidential election year likely drove this type of attack in this industry.

9. Transportation

Most Common Type of Attack: Malicious insider / misconfiguration

Attacks against the transportation industry were much lower in 2020, likely because everyone was sheltering in place and travel bans existed across the globe during 2020. This industry ranked #3 in 2019 and fell to #9 in 2020.

10. Education

Most Common Type of Attack: Spam / adware

Education has historically been vulnerable to cyberattacks due to a large decentralized surface area of users hard to control with staff and students regularly logging into systems from home to complete and grade course work. However, the user and device based security measures that this distributed surface area drove for security protection before the pandemic, better equipped education for security operations during the pandemic than other industries accustomed to relying on firewall protection.


Aunalytics acquires NetGain

Aunalytics Accelerates Insights-as-a-Service Offering Through Ohio Expansion

South Bend, IN (July 15, 2021) - Aunalytics, a leading data platform company delivering Insights-as-a-Service to answer the most important business and IT questions, today reported expansion of operations into Ohio. Aunalytics acquired Ohio-based managed services provider NetGain in February 2021 and today announces integration and rebranding of the Ohio operations and data centers as Aunalytics. Leveraging NetGain’s footprint throughout Ohio, Aunalytics extends its solution portfolio, including AunsightTM Golden Record and the DaybreakTM Analytic Database, to new customers in the region.

With Aunalytics’ expansion, the company will continue providing IT and security expertise to government and mid-market businesses in the areas of financial services, healthcare, manufacturing and professional services. Aunalytics will continue to offer state-of-the-art cloud and managed services to companies in the region, adding data cleansing, data management and machine learning powered data analytics services that allow Ohio businesses to strengthen their competitive edge and achieve greater success.

The integration of NetGain allows for a greater footprint in Columbus and Dayton. Growing companies in the state will benefit from the additional technology efficiencies and features enabled, allowing for increased revenues and lower operational costs. Business leaders seeking sound IT foundations have relied on quality managed services for years with NetGain, and with digital transformation top-of-mind across industries, Aunalytics is poised to bring best-of-breed solutions to clients looking to advance their business objectives.

"Digital transformation remains a top priority for our organization and is absolutely critical to drive the business forward," said Tom Kiefer, CFO, Environmental Management Services, Inc. (EMSI). "We rely on the advanced insights available through our strategic IT partner, helping us to achieve a higher level of business intelligence from multiple data sources, across all operational areas."

“NetGain’s legacy as an ISP brings a strong network management/network engineering expertise and a technology suite for multi-site locations. Together, the integrated companies will offer ironclad redundancy, reliability, and IT solutions to meet any business challenge,” said Kelly Jones, vice president of Integration Services at Aunalytics. “This is complemented with the deep knowledge of our team, making Aunalytics well-positioned to deliver strategic computing services and build-out resilient IT stacks for all clients.”

 

Tweet this: .@Aunalytics Accelerates Position in Managed Services; Expands Ohio Operations Through NetGain Acquisition #Dataplatform #Dataanalytics #Dataintegration #Dataaccuracy #ArtificialIntelligence #AI #Masterdatamanagement #MDM #DataScientist #MachineLearning #ML #DigitalTransformation #FinancialServices

 

About Aunalytics

Aunalytics is a data platform company delivering answers for your business. Aunalytics provides Insights-as-a-Service to answer enterprise and mid-sized companies’ most important IT and business questions. The Aunalytics® cloud-native data platform is built for universal data access, advanced analytics and AI while unifying disparate data silos into a single golden record of accurate, actionable business information. Its DaybreakTM industry intelligent data mart combined with the power of the Aunalytics data platform provides industry-specific data models with built-in queries and AI to ensure access to timely, accurate data and answers to critical business and IT questions. Through its side-by-side digital transformation model, Aunalytics provides on-demand scalable access to technology, data science, and AI experts to seamlessly transform customers’ businesses. To learn more contact us at +1 855-799-DATA or visit Aunalytics at https://www.aunalytics.com  or on Twitter and LinkedIn.

 

PR Contact:
Denise Nelson
The Ventana Group for Aunalytics
(925) 858-5198
dnelson@theventanagroup.com


FedRAMP Certified

Aunalytics Announces FedRAMP Ready Status of Its Cloud

Cloud Hosting Services Are Tested and Confirmed to Meet the Trust Principles of Confidentiality, Availability, Security, and Privacy for Federal Government Agencies

South Bend, IN (June 29, 2021) - Aunalytics, a leading data platform company delivering Insights-as-a-Service for enterprise businesses, announced today that its Aunalytics Cloud solution has achieved Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) Ready status and is actively working toward FedRAMP certification. Certified cloud-based products help U.S. federal agencies meet increasingly complex regulations and defend against cybersecurity threats, prevent data loss, enforce compliance, and protect agency domains.

FedRAMP is a government-wide program which is an assessment and authorization process that federal government agencies have been directed to use to ensure security is in place when accessing cloud computing products and services. By applying the FedRAMP framework to their evaluation, government agencies have a uniform assessment and authorization of cloud information security controls, alleviated cloud security concerns, and increased trust in the validity of assessments.

“FedRAMP Ready status and, ultimately certification, represents one of the highest compliance standards and third party validations of our cloud hosting services, giving federal agencies the utmost confidence that our offering is tested and confirmed to meet the trust principles of confidentiality, availability, security, and privacy,” said Kerry Vickers, CISO Aunalytics. “Meeting these rigorous standards will benefit all of our clients in every industry and enable us to expand our footprint within the government sector by providing federal agencies, as well as defense contractors and others required to use FedRAMP certified suppliers, with a cloud infrastructure that is FedRAMP compliant.”

Listed as FedRAMP Ready on the FedRAMP Marketplace, Aunalytics is seeking an agency sponsor as it moves toward the second phase of being FedRAMP authorized.

 

Tweet this: .@Aunalytics Announces #FedRAMP Ready Status of Its Cloud #Dataplatform #Dataanalytics #Dataintegration #Dataaccuracy #ArtificialIntelligence #AI #Masterdatamanagement #MDM #DataScientist #MachineLearning #ML #DigitalTransformation #FinancialServices

 

About Aunalytics

Aunalytics is a data platform company delivering answers for your business. Aunalytics provides Insights-as-a-Service to answer enterprise and mid-sized companies’ most important IT and business questions. The Aunalytics® cloud-native data platform is built for universal data access, advanced analytics and AI while unifying disparate data silos into a single golden record of accurate, actionable business information. Its DaybreakTM industry intelligent data mart combined with the power of the Aunalytics data platform provides industry-specific data models with built-in queries and AI to ensure access to timely, accurate data and answers to critical business and IT questions. Through its side-by-side digital transformation model, Aunalytics provides on-demand scalable access to technology, data science, and AI experts to seamlessly transform customers’ businesses. To learn more contact us at +1 855-799-DATA or visit Aunalytics at https://www.aunalytics.com  or on Twitter and LinkedIn.

PR Contact:
Denise Nelson
The Ventana Group for Aunalytics
(925) 858-5198
dnelson@theventanagroup.com


Aunalytics named one of the 2021 Best Tech Startups in South Bend, IN

The Tech Tribune Best Tech Startups 2021

Aunalytics is named one of the 2021 Best Tech Startups in South Bend, IN

Aunalytics has been named one of South Bend’s Best Tech Startups for 2021 by The Tech Tribune. We are honored to have received this award the past four years. Consideration is based off revenue potential, leadership, brand traction, and the competitive landscape.

About Aunalytics

Aunalytics delivers insights as a service to answer enterprise and midsized companies’ most important IT and business questions. The Aunalytics cloud-native data platform is built for universal data access, powerful analytics, and AI. With the data platform deployed and managed securely, Aunalytics reliably turns disparate data silos into a golden record of accurate business information and uses its powerful analytics to provide answers.

Its Daybreak industry intelligent data mart combines the power of the data platform with industry-specific data models to provide access to timely, accurate data, and answer critical business and IT questions with advanced built-in queries and AI.

Through its side-by-side digital transformation model, Aunalytics provides on-demand scalable access to technology, data science, and AI experts to help transform its partners’ businesses.

The complete list of honorees is featured on The Tech Tribune website.


Six Steps Toward a More Secure Technology Environment

In the past few months, it’s become obvious that despite the world and our communities being hurt by the ongoing pandemic, hackers and bad actors are continually on the hunt for a good score. Ransomware attacks have been hitting hard at key infostructures; particularly schools. Schools have already paid over a half million dollars in ransom to some of these attackers.

In the last seven days, there have been over 20 attacks on these targets, ranging from inaccessible systems to full payouts to the attackers.

While there are no guarantees that your organization will not be hit, there are many things every organization can do to become less of a target and strengthen your own boundaries. Though some of these recommendations require an operations cost, many are free and only take a little time. ALL tactics are extremely valuable towards ensuring your organization is harder to hit.

Please contact Aunalytics if you’re interested in discussing the following steps toward a more secure technology environment.

  1. Only do work-related activities on work computers
  2. Check for password strength
  3. Review your spam and phishing filters (Microsoft Security)
  4. Train your users so they can maintain vigilance (in-house education, Knowbe4)
  5. Apply Multi-Factor Authentication (Microsoft, Okta)
  6. Put CXOs, VPs and organizational decision makers on an anti-spoof list (Microsoft Advanced Threat Protection)


Aunalytics logo

Coronavirus Response

Aunalytics Coronavirus Response

At Aunalytics, our clients’ success and our teams’ safety is a top priority. In times of natural disaster and other unexpected or challenging events, we have plans, processes and teams in place to ensure our services remain available and our team is protected. This approach should allow our clients to focus on their critical business goals and the well-being of their workforce.

Therefore, we find it appropriate at this time to share the following update:

COVID-19 Business Continuity and Crisis Management

We do not foresee any impact to the delivery of any Aunalytics services due to COVID-19, and as always, we are committed to keeping our solutions available and running for our clients regardless of their location.

Our cloud-based, multi-tenant architecture model and distributed data center approach is designed to operate without any service disruptions. We also have proactively formed an internal Coronavirus Response Team to mitigate any potential disruptions.

Working Remotely

Aunalytics team members have the resources and tools they need to perform their jobs securely from any location. Therefore, we are recommending that our team members do not travel to client worksites unless absolutely necessary. In the event that an onsite presence is required, we will work together with our clients to ensure we are putting safety first for all individuals.

To make determinations around remote work and office closures, we carefully monitor and consider advice from the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control, the U.S. Department of State, and government and health officials in local communities where our team members live and work.

Business Continuity Planning

As a cloud-based company with a dispersed team and flexible, remote workforce, we are prepared to virtually manage business continuity challenges. Our approach is designed to ensure that our services remain available to our clients during natural disasters or other unexpected and challenging events. Our business continuity planning is also intended to ensure we have open channels for timely communications with our clients and other stakeholders.

Service Operations

Our cloud services are designed with a high degree of redundancy and geographic fail-over capabilities to reduce the likelihood of significant impact. We maintain policies and procedures for responding to emergencies, including a disaster recovery plan. Aunalytics has data centers and technical support located in multiple locations to reduce the impact of a regional or local disruption.

We sincerely appreciate your faith in us and take the responsibility to our clients and team members very seriously. We will continue to provide updates as warranted.

Sincerely,

Richard F. Carlton
President

Terry A. Gour
COO