MSP, MSSP and IT Industry Notes December 13th, 2020

December 13th, 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.

TPx Combines Fortinet's Industry-Leading SD-WAN and Security in a Powerful Single Offering

• TPx, announced today that it now offers MSx Managed Firewall service with Fortinet's integrated SD-WAN
• Secure SD-WAN enables organizations to leverage multiple transport services – including broadband internet, 5G and others – to connect users securely and economically to applications and devices
• Founded in 1998, TPx provides access, communications, collaboration and managed service offerings such as firewalls, Microsoft 365, SD-WAN and endpoint security

Ripcord Acquires Engine ML, Transforms Access to Intelligence in Exiled Data

• Ripcord,today announced the acquisition of deep learning company Engine ML
• Backed by Kleiner Perkins and Catapult, Engine ML builds distributed deep-learning infrastructure designed to scale
• Steve Wozniak commented: “The best acquisitions are the ones that capture your imagination. This acquisition strengthens Ripcord’s ML and AI technology, allowing us to deliver more value for our customers. Our technology is always learning and improving to make better decisions – and with this acquisition, it’s now deep learning on an entirely different level.”
• Revenues for Ripcord up 200% YOY
• In September, Ripcord announced an innovative joint venture with Fuji Xerox, to help organizations in Japan and APAC find the meaningful business insights in all of their data no matter where – or in what form – it resides
• To date, Ripcord has raised $147M in added growth funding led by CDK Global (Nasdaq: CDK) with participation from existing investors Kleiner Perkins, GV, Steve Wozniak, Silicon Valley Bank, Lux Capital, Tyche Partners, Icon Ventures, FujiFilm, Kitty Hawk and Baidu.

'Fax Express' Has Leaked the Credentials of Half a Million of Its Customers

• Reported on Technadu.com. A fax machine vendor from the US was included in last month’s humongous Cit0day leak
• There are 560,000 records in the database containing email addresses and passwords in plain-text form
• The company has not responded to the notifications and has failed to inform its customers of the compromise
• he New Jersey-based fax machine reseller ‘Fax Express’ has leaked the email addresses and passwords of about 560,000 of its customers

Sharp Introduces Sleek, Affordable Large-Format Ultra-HD Collaboration Display

• Sharp Imaging and Information Company of America (SIICA), a division of Sharp Electronics Corporation (SEC), introduced the new Sharp 4T-B70CT1U AQUOS BOARD^® interactive display
• TAA compliant 70" Class (69.5" diagonal) Sharp 4T-B70CT1U AQUOS BOARD interactive display is manufactured in Mexico
• Plug and play feature provides quick integration with various cloud-based connectivity options, such as a Chromebook to present Google Classroom on a large-scale format inside the classroom
• The Sharp 4T-B70CT1U is available for order immediately and is expected to ship in January 2021

Digitech Systems Recognized as Top Content Services Platform

• Digitech Systems announces that they have been selected by Insights Success as one of the Most Promising Content Services Platform Providers for 2020
• Insights Success is a magazine for entrepreneurs and C-level executives
• The magazine reviewed dozens of content services providers and selected those they felt best helped companies to tackle their information challenges with effective and collaborative solutions
• Digitech Systems, LLC enables businesses tomore effectively and securely manage, retrieve and store corporate information of any kind using either PaperVision Enterprise content management (ECM) software or the world's most trusted cloud-based ECM service, ImageSilo

Supply Chain Sector Recognizes Toshiba's Sustainability Excellence

• Supply & Demand Chain Executive celebrates Toshiba America Business Solutions' firm and continual commitment to a more sustainable planet by presenting the manufacturer its 2020 Green Supply Chain Award
• Green Supply Chain Award recognizes companies that emphasize sustainability as a core element of their supply chain strategy while working to achieve measurable sustainability goals internally and within their customers’ operations and supply chains

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

Swiss Enterprises Look to Service Providers to Manage Complex Cloud Installations

·         Enterprises in Switzerland are looking for cloud service providers to help them manage their growing use of hybrid and multi-cloud environments, according to a new report published today by Information Services Group (ISG)

• 2020 ISG Provider Lens™ Public Cloud – Solutions and Services Report for Switzerland finds Swiss companies often using multiple public cloud providers
• Current average at 1.5 public cloud providers per enterprise
• Many mid-sized companies see these services as critical to the success of their digital transformations

Syntax Earns Amazon Web Services Managed Service Provider (MSP) Designation Through ...

• Syntax, a provider of cloud-managed ERP services, announced its acceptance into the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Managed Service Provider (MSP) Program
• Designates it as an AWS Advanced Consulting Partner that helps customers solve complex business
• “With our extensive ERP on AWS managed services experience, and our unique, serverless platform built on top of AWS, our customers can feel confident that their ERP cloud migrations are in experienced, knowledgeable hands. Being accepted into the AWS MSP Program confirms and solidifies our standing as a dependable, technical and functional services provider that can support customers through their entire digital transformation.”

Modern Managed IT Closes $1000000 in Venture Funding as It Adds 100th Customer

• Modern Managed IT today announced that it closed a one million dollar investment round led by Geekdom Fund with participation from 186k Ventures
• Will allow the team to scale hiring and expand marketing efforts for small business managed IT services
• Modern Managed IT recently added their 100th customer while operating quietly with pre-seed funding from Porthcawl Holdings

FireEye, a Top Cybersecurity Firm, Says It Was Hacked by a Nation-State

• Reported on NY Times
• The Silicon Valley company said hackers — almost certainly Russian — made off with tools that could be used to mount new attacks around the world
• Hack was conducted "by a nation with top-tier offensive capabilities," FireEye CEO Kevin Mandia said Tuesday in a blog post
• Milpitas, California-based FireEye, which is publicly traded, has more than 9,600 customers globally including more than 1,000 government and law enforcement agencies

ezeep Introduces Mobile Print to Bring Cloud-Based Managed Printing to iPhones and Android ...

• ThinPrint, headquartered in Germany, with office in Colorado, now offering “ezeep”
• Advertised as the industry’s only 100% cloud print solution
• Claims is superior to Microsoft’s Universal Print solution
• “enabling any device to print to any printer – whether with the ezeep printer driver from PC or Mac, via app for smartphones and tablets or even by web-based drag and drop for the occasional user”
• Offers the ezeep Hub, a compact appliance-like solution that combines a Raspberry PC with ezeep Connector software
• Cost is $8.99 per month, plus per user fees which start at $1.00/month

Ricoh reports on future plans

• Ricoh, headquartered Tokyo, Japan, published its Ricoh Group Integrated Report 2020
• President and CEO Jake Yama****a stated: “Slowdowns in office print volumes and falling print volumes are hitting Ricoh hard.”
• “We understand we will not go back, but instead be prepared for a ‘new normal.’”
• “In predicting changes, we started restructuring our business in various ways”
• “Will continue to grow out of being an office equipment manufacturer and transform to a digital services company.”
• Claims to have existing global printer/copier customer base of 1.4 million customers
• “Eliminated most of the balance sheet structure and financial stability issues that beset us in the past few years.”
• “We seek to become a digital services company. This approach will enable us to survive and prosper well into the future by growing out of being an office equipment manufacturer and transforming into an entity that collaborates with customers to create new value and deliver new services”

Lead for IT Services in New Jersey

• https://www.p4photel.com/topic...ices-in-new-jersey-3

Cybersecurity Updates

• The PHI (protected health information) of more than 16 million Brazilian COVID-19 patients was exposed a hospital employee uploaded a spreadsheet on GitHub
• Spamhaus Security reported that more than fifty networks in the North American region suddenly burst to life after being dormant for a long period of time o organization is focused on tracking spam, phishing, malware, and botnets
  • noticed last week that 52 dormant networks in the ARIN (North-America) area were resurrected concurrently
  • each of them has been announced by a different autonomous system number (ASN), also inactive for a significant period of time
  • chances are almost zero for 52 organizations to suddenly come back online, all at once, although (a rare occurrence as well) some organizations might resurface after taking their network offline for a while.
• The New York City Bar Association and the Chicago Bar Association have both reported data breaches this year, according to reports filed with the Maryland attorney general’s office.
• Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft Law Firm reported a data breach incident to Massachusetts state officials.
• Timothy Dalton Vaughn, 22, whose online aliases included “WantedbyFeds” and “Hacker_R_US,” of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, was sentenced by United States District Judge Otis D. Wright II to 95 months in federal prison
  • The well-known hacker pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to convey threats to injure, convey false information concerning use of explosive device, and intentionally damage a computer; one count of computer hacking; and one count of possession of child pornography.
• HP Inc. released its 2021 predictions on security threats:
  • human-operated ransomware, thread hijacking, unintentional insider threats, business email compromise, and whaling attacks – are set to increase in the next 12 months.
  • “We can expect to see hackers identifying and taking advantage of any holes in processes that were created, and still exist, after everyone left the office.”
  • “if attackers are successful with destructive attacks on home devices, remote workers won’t get the luxury of having someone from IT turning up at their door to help remediate the problem.”
  • “innocent actions – such as reading personal email on a company machine – can have serious consequences.”
  • “What we’ll see is a rise in ransomware-as-service attacks where the threat is no longer the ‘kidnapping’ of data – it’s the public release of the data.”

• “The rise of ‘double extortion’ ransomware, where victim data is exfiltrated before being encrypted, will particularly hurt public sector organizations, who process all manner of personally identifiable information.”
• “Even if a ransom is paid, there is no guarantee that a threat actor won’t later monetize the stolen data.”
• One of the most at-risk verticals in 2021 will be healthcare. “Healthcare has been a perfect target – society depends on it and these organizations are typically under-resourced, change-averse and slow to innovate”
• Ardit Ferizi, a computer hacker serving 20 years for giving ISIS personal data of more than 1,300 U.S. government and military personnel, has been granted compassionate release because of the coronavirus pandemic o will be placed in ICE custody for prompt deportation to Kosovo
• Ryan S. Hernandez, a computer hacker from Palmdale, CA, had pleaded guilty to stealing confidential Nintendo files o stole confidential information about popular video games, gaming consoles and developer tools
• IBM is reporting that unknown hackers are launching malware attacks on the “cold chain” of refrigerated vaccine distribution o urging those who are involved in shipping, storing, refrigerating, and delivering COVID-19 vaccines to beef up their security
  • Many of the attempts involve emails impersonating an executive of a China-based biomedical firm whose contract attachment steals user credentials.
• The Wall Street Journal is warning drugmakers in the U.S., that they are being targeted by North Korean hackers o Hackers are looking to steal info on COVID-19 vaccines, treatments
• Liv-On Family Care Center of St. Paul, Minnesota reported that it was the victim of a robbery that may have exposed the protected health information of 1,580 people.
• Methodist Hospital of Southern California (MHSC) notified patients of a data breach involving third-party technology vendor Blackbaud.
• Chesapeake Regional Healthcare of Virginia notified 23,000 patients that their PHI was exposed after data breach against its fundraising and data hosting vendor, Blackbaud.
• Advantech of Irvine, CA reported that its confidential company info was posted to the Dark Web after a ransomware attack.
• Gardiner Public Schools of Montana notified an unknown number of students that their info was exposed after ransomware attack.
• Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital of Massachusetts reported that Zaosong Zheng, 30, was detained at Boston Logan Airport after CBP agents discovered 21 vials of cancer cells in his suitcase apparently stolen from hospital
• Huntington City School District of Alabama notified an unknown number of students that their info was exposed after a ransomware attack.
• Stuller Jewelers, headquartered in Lafayette, LA, notified an unknown number of customers that it was hit by a cyberattack.
• NTreatment, headquartered in San Francisco, CA, which manages PHI for doctors and psychiatrists, left 109,000 records exposed to the internet because one of its cloud servers wasn’t protected with a password.
• ZDNet magazine is reporting that a hacker is selling access to the email accounts of hundreds of C-level executives o Access is sold for $100 to $1500 per account, depending on the company size and exec role.
• McLeod Health of South Carolina is notifying an unknown number of patients that their PHI was exposed after email phishing attack
• AspenPointe, a Colorado mental health services provider, notified an unknown number of patients that their PHI was exposed after ransomware attack.
• Fairchild Medical Center of Yreka, CA notified an unknown number of patients that their PHI was exposed after ransomware attack.