Ģ��TV

Knowledge is Power

When Andrew Fergus, managing director of New Zealand-based IT managed service provider Ultra IT, noticed a server login from Indonesia, he didn’t think much of it. The client in question was a global food company, with a team spread across New Zealand, Africa, and several European countries, so the login location wasn’t entirely unusual. Or so it seemed.

It was at that moment he received an alert from the Ģ��TV Managed Identity Threat and Response (ITDR) solution, noting that the activity was suspicious, coming from a command line from Azure—uncommon end-user behavior.

In New Zealand, business email compromise (BEC), known commonly as ‘email hacking’, is a growing concern. In fact, a recent study revealed that when asked to determine whether example emails were real or fake, only 5% of Kiwi IT decision-makers were able to correctly identify them all.

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“We’re hearing a lot about email hackers going in to set up fake email accounts and stealing proceeds from real estate transactions between agents and lawyers,” cautions Fergus. “Having an always-on email protection system is critical.”

Considering this, another current email phishing campaign affecting many small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in New Zealand is of particular concern. Its target? Finance teams.

Its mission is to hack into invoices, using Microsoft 365 login credentials: users receive an email with an attached invoice and when this fake invoice is opened, it calls for the recipient to log in to M365 to view it. Once the credentials have been swiped, the attacker then has full access to the account if multi-factor authentication isn’t enabled.

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A Fighting Chance

In the face of such security challenges, Fergus and the Ultra IT team had been waiting for a suitable solution to become available, at a price point that worked for a small- to medium-sized business like theirs. The firm needed the best protection possible, combining cutting-edge technology, innovation, and round-the-clock support with actual human beings on standby to quite literally ‘hunt down’ compromises.

“When we heard Ģ��TV was looking for alpha testers for their new Managed ITDR solution we signed right up,” enthuses Fergus. “Alternative BEC solutions out there are really geared towards protecting large enterprises and require security analysts on staff.”

With Ģ��TV Managed ITDR doing the detective work, monitoring for suspicious login events and other signs of BEC attacks, the Ultra IT team could see clients being able to breathe a little easier, knowing sensitive data was secured and access guarded.

“We liked that Ģ��TV Managed ITDR is purpose-built to meet the needs of smaller service providers like us,” says Fergus. “Ģ��TV understands that today, most small businesses are run from the Cloud, so, for our clients, email protection is absolutely critical.”

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Ģ��TV Managed ITDR is purpose-built to meet the needs of smaller service providers like us. Ģ��TV understands that today, most small businesses are run from the Cloud, so, for our clients, email protection is absolutely critical.

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