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November 2022

Vulnerability Management Best Practices and Key Benefits

Vulnerability Management Best Practices and Key Benefits

By BlogNo Comments

Q and A with Graham Brooks, Senior Security Solutions Architect, Syxsense.  

What is vulnerability management? 

Vulnerability management is the process of mitigating configuration or code issues which could allow an attacker to exploit an environment. It can be deployed as on-premises software, delivered as SaaS, or as a managed services that is known as Vulnerability Management as a Service  

What are the benefits of using Vulnerability Management as a Service (VMaaS) compared to installing your own software and running it internally? 

VMaaS improves on traditional vulnerability management practices by placing an agent on managed assets. Traditional vulnerability management tools cannot review or remediate issues beyond the traditional business network perimeter. VMaaS circumvents this dependency by allowing assets to be monitored and managed regardless of network topography.   

What steps make up the vulnerability management lifecycle?  

Vulnerability management can be broken into five steps, four of which should be fully automated:    

  1. Scan for Vulnerabilities: This can either be a specific new priority threat, or remedial baseline scanning. This should be a fully automated and frequently deployed process. 
  2. Report on Found Vulnerabilities. Deliver a report to the Security Operations Center (SOC) team, showing the currently exploitable vulnerabilities affecting the environment. This should be a fully automated and frequently deployed process. 
  3. Deploy Remediations. At the foundational level, remediations can be service configurations, deployed patches, port blacklisting, and many other operational tasks. Remediating vulnerabilities should be an automated process, but it must be automated with oversight. As with all environment changes, remediations can cause unforeseen system behaviors. Therefore, this process should be automated only after a peer-review and change control meeting.  
  4. Validate Remediations. Many forget that they need to rescan environments after deploying remediations. Sometimes a remediation might not effectively resolve the issue as intended. This process should be fully automated and occur directly after the remediation deployment. 
  5. Report on Resolved Vulnerabilities. A report should be delivered to the SOC team showing actions taken on any vulnerabilities that have been removed (and validated) within the environment. This process should be fully automated.  

The process outlined above should be performed on an ongoing basis and should not be limited to a once-per-month basis, as is currently common among traditional on-prem vulnerability management tools. Many of these tools perform monthly vulnerability reports simply because each step is manually performed, and the SOC team does not have the man hours required to implement a more aggressive cadence. Adding automation into a VMaaS platform completely changes the narrative.   

What are some key vulnerability management best practices? 

Frequency is key. Furthermore, don’t simply resolve vulnerabilities that are listed as critical or high priority. Perform an association analysis to see if a concert of lower priority vulnerabilities can be used to exploit your environment. Most threat actors use more than one vulnerability in their kill chain, so make sure you aren’t just hitting the most prominent vulnerabilities in your attack surface.   

Beyond managing the severity of vulnerabilities, also consider developing a trend analysis process. What you measure you improve. Using trend analysis, you can see if you are improving your security practice over time, and see what improvements need to be made.   

How should businesses measure vulnerability risk?  

There are two primary sources of truth any SOC team needs to use when reviewing vulnerabilities:   

  1. What does the industry say about this vulnerability? Is this vulnerability being used by threat actors? Is it easy to implement? Does it provide lots of access to sensitive resources? These questions are addressed within the Mitre Corporations CVSS scoring system. 
  2. You also need to understand how a vulnerability interacts with your environment. For example, Log4J was terrible for many companies that use Java based applications. But, if your company does not use Java in production, the institutional risk associated with Log4J is significantly lower for your company than for the industry at large.   

The best way to measure vulnerability risk is via combination of 1 and 2.  

What does Syxsense offer in vulnerability management? 

Syxsense can perform every aspect of the vulnerability life cycle as discussed above on all compute devices such as laptops, desktops, servers, and smartphones. Syxsense Enterprise offers patch management, vulnerability scanning, IT management, and end-to-end vulnerability management. This includes integrated remediation features as well as mobile device management (MDM). Everything is now combined into one console via Syxsense Enterprise. Key differentiators include the ability to automate discovery and remediation workflows, as well as patch supersedence, patch rollback, and its ability to encompass any mobile devices, PCs, laptops, and servers.  

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Syxsense Named a Fast Mover in GigaOm Radar Report for Patch Management Solutions

By Endpoint Security, News, Patch ManagementNo Comments

Syxsense Named a Fast Mover in GigaOm Radar Report for Patch Management Solutions

We are excited to announce that Syxsense has been named a Fast Mover in the GigaOm Radar Report for Patch Management. This report is one of a series of documents that helps IT organizations assess competing solutions in the context of well-defined features and criteria, and provides a forward-looking analysis that plots the relative value and progression of vendor solutions along multiple axes based on strategy and execution.

This report synthesizes the analysis of key criteria and their impact on evaluation metrics to inform the GigaOm Radar graphic, which plots vendor solutions across a series of concentric rings, with those set closer to the center judged to be of higher overall value. The chart characterizes each vendor on two axes—balancing Maturity versus Innovation, and Feature Play versus Platform Play—while providing an arrow that projects each solution’s evolution over the coming 12 to 18 months.

As a Fast Mover in Patch Management, Syxsense provides full coverage of Windows, macOS, and Linux desktops and servers, as well as mobile devices and remote systems. Our strengths lie in lifecycle management, patch testing, patch deployment, patch prioritization, and a large number of third-party applications. Syxsense also supports an API, allowing integration with other systems such as ITSM and CMDB. Our Patch Management solution is deployed as a SaaS application with agents installed on your organization’s endpoints, and is a good fit for market segments including mid-market, large enterprises, and MSPs.

To see the full report breakdown, fill out the form below:

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Users

Users Continue to be the Weakest Link

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Companies invest millions to implement the latest and greatest security tools, yet bad user habits continue to expose them to cyberattacks. Users, it turns out, are the weak link in enterprise security.

According to research from Incogni:

· 74.1% of the company’s user base has heard of antivirus software, yet only 57.6% use it. · Only 31% of internet users have ever used a VPN.

· More than 40% of users are not using Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)as they believe that it is too cumbersome for them.

· More than 75% of internet users are re-using the same password on many websites at least once. They prefer passwords as short as possible despite the fact that the longer the password, the harder it is to crack.

· Users continue to fall prey to phishing attacks at an alarming rate. Some studies say as many as 20% of users have clicked on a phishing email over the past year.

Clearly, users remain a weak link in enterprise security. Here are some steps to take to guard against user slipups and policy violations:

Implement password managers

Users now have so many logins to so many apps, sites, and systems that manual setting of passwords is no longer workable. Letting users continue to set their own passwords opens the door to password reuse, writing passwords on Post-It Notes, and other security violations.

The inconvenient truth on passwords cracking is that those of eight characters that include upper and lower cases, special symbols, and numbers can be broken within less than a day. Password managers can extend that to 18 characters which is essentially uncrackable. They eliminate the burden of remembering lengthy passwords.

Insist upon Multi-Factor Authentication

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) adds an extra layer of user verification beyond a password. A text to a phone number, entering a code, or some other method is used to validate user identity. Though not infallible, MFA cuts down the changes of a breach considerably.

Continue to Use Antivirus

Antivirus gets a bad rap. Yes, it is fallible. Yes, it is somewhat reactive in that virus databases don’t contain the very latest malware signatures as they need to be added to the database. And yes, the technology is never enough on its own. But antivirus

catches a lot of malicious traffic and should always be included as part of the security arsenal. As there are more than a billion

malware strains now in existence, having AV in place guarantees catching a good percentage of the total.

Firewalls Make a Difference

Like AV, firewalls are not enough on their own. But they form one essential element of comprehensive cybersecurity defenses. They can protect systems from malicious connections and unwanted traffic and prevent lateral movement on the network should a breach take place.

Patch Management

Not only are users a weak link, those responsible for enterprise security can also sometimes let the team down if they are overworked or are held back by manual processes. Take the case of patch management. Organizations sometimes take months to deploy urgent patches. Why? Internal IT processes stall patch deployment due to laborious testing protocols, queuing systems that are incorrectly prioritized, or lack of enough manpower to distribute patches throughout the user base.

Patch management automation is the answer. Priority patches should be distributed within hours. IT managers should be able to deploy patches to all systems within a few clicks.

Vulnerability Management

Vulnerability scanning is another weak area within the enterprise. For whatever reason, some businesses only perform a scan at a set period such as once a month. But what happens if a vulnerability appears the day following that scan? Cybercriminals have four weeks to wreak havoc if it is exploited. Like patch management, vulnerability management systems should be automated, should continuously scan, and ideally should have automatic remediation features built in.

Syxsense Enterprise takes care of patch management, vulnerability management, and so much more. It is an advanced enterprise security solution that provides coverage for all devices. It offers complete cross-platform support for Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android devices, with mobile device management (MDM) included at no additional cost. Those managing it within IT can do so without the need for coding due to an extensive library of pre-built Cortex remediation workflow templates that can be deployed at the push of a button.

For more information visit www.Syxsense.com  

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flavors of patch management

The Many Flavors of Patch Management

By BlogNo Comments

Patch management used to be an internal duty that was manually intensive duty. For some, it still is. More recently, alternatives have emerged such as automated patch managed, hosted patch management, and patch management as a service. However it is done, patch management is about managing the process of patching software and applications. It encompasses functions such as testing patches, prioritizing them, deploying them, verifying that they are installed in all endpoints, and in general looking after every aspect of patching.  

Let’s take a look at each of the flavors of patch management.  

Manual Patch Management  

Perhaps in very small organizations, manual patch management has its place. The user or manager notices that patches are available from Microsoft and others and deploys them to the handful of devices used within the business. In some cases, updates can be pre-configured to automatically be installed.  

The downside to this manual approach is that some urgent patches are likely to be missed. Most businesses have one or more specialized application in use and they may not offer automatic updates. Further, when anything has to be done manually, the door is open for delays or even complete neglect. If the business is swamped with other traffic, routine security duties can be left “until later”. Cybercriminals can take advantage of such delays to install ransomware and other malware.  

Additionally, once the organization grows beyond a small number of devices, patching becomes time consuming. There are so many patches being issued to address so many vulnerabilities that it is very easy to fall behind.  

Manual patch management is also prone to human error. In some cases, it may lead to exposed vulnerabilities or decreased app performance when patches are overlooked or incorrectly applied. An effective patch management service eliminates these issues. By applying automation to track and install updates, patch management helps organizations account for and oversee all the software patches their systems and devices depend on. 

On-Premises Patch Management  

On-prem patch management tools have been in use for decades. They help IT to test, prioritize, schedule, and deploy patches throughout the enterprise. Features vary from vendor to vendor. The latest products offer automation features that take much of the time and effort out of patch management.  

However, some IT departments may configure then to run in such a way as to delay the deployment of urgent patches. They may institute testing protocols for all patches that cause long delays. They may even turn off automatic updates. The fact is that patch management has been found to be a weak point in many organizations. Despite constant news stories about vulnerabilities and Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) being released with such regularity, a surprising number of organizations fail to install urgent patches for months on end despite having patch management tools to hand. There are some high-risk CVEs that are years old and still unpatched in some enterprises.  

Cloud-based Patch Management  

Some vendors provide cloud-based patch management tools to simplify patching processes and minimize the work needed from internal IT staff. The provider keeps the patching software up to date, takes care of any maintenance, and delivers the same patch management capabilities as on-prem patch management. Lightweight, responsive agents give a clear picture of how many endpoints are in the network even if they’re remote, roaming, or in the cloud. 

Patch Management as a Service  

Patch management vendors and MSPs have harnessed the Software as a Service model to provide fully automated patch management services. These services do all the heavy lifting for organizations when it comes to patching. Patch Management as a Service (PMaaS) is a managed offering that aims to eliminate the hassle of patch management by taking care of the function automatically using a subscription model. It enables organizations to update their systems and applications, perform maintenance and repairs, and improve performance and usability of their software after it has been implemented.  

Syxsense offers cloud-based patch management as well as a managed patch management service. Known as Syxsense Active Manage, it offers patch management, as well as reporting and compliance services. It can detect missing OS and third-party patches, target groups of devices, and deploy updates automatically. A lightweight, responsive agent is used to give a clear picture of how many endpoints are in the network even if they’re remote, roaming, or in the cloud. It is hosted in Microsoft Azure, with cross-platform support for Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android. 

For more information visit www.Syxsense.com  

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Application secure

Would You Like Some Swiss Cheese with That Application?  

By BlogNo Comments

The old expression, “It has more holes than Swiss cheese,” seems more and more applicable to IT infrastructure and modern applications. The State of Software Security (SoSS) report concluded that 72% of applications contain vulnerabilities and as many as 12% percent are of ‘high severity.’ These findings were drawn from an analysis of 20 million scans across half a million applications in multiple vertical markets. 

The software security study also found that it is taking far too much time to remediate known vulnerabilities. Sectors such as manufacturing, healthcare, and IT scored the worst in terms of the number of unfixed flaws, as well as the time it takes to fix flaws once they’re discovered. Based on static analysis (SAST), dynamic analysis (DAST), and software composition analysis (SCA) 55% of flaws in manufacturing software remained unfixed after an entire year. Shockingly, the manufacturing sector consistently lags the overall average by four months, yet it has by far the lowest number of overall software security flaws. Clearly, manufacturing will need to up its game considerably if it wants to avoid being the subject of headlines such as those generated by the Colonial Pipeline breach.  

In addition, the report pointed out that flaws in third-party libraries found through SCA are the ones that stick around the longest. 30% percent of such flaws were found to still be unresolved after two years. That percentage is the average across all industries. For manufacturing, it is even higher at over 40% and takes 2.5 years to resolve these flaws.  

Part of the problem might be the fact that manufacturing tends to use highly specialized applications that are harder to fix.  

Sharp Rise in Data Breaches 

It is bad enough to have applications with more holes than Swiss cheese. But the situation is made much worse by the fact that there are now far more data breaches occurring than ever before. According to Surfshark’s data breach monitoring tool, data breaches have risen globally by as much as 70% during the July through September 2022 quarter. Some of the statistics highlighted include: 

  • In Q3 of 2022, 26 out of every 1,000 American internet users were breached, growing 4 times just in three months – that’s 8.5 million affected accounts. 
  • The United States remained the single most breached country of this decade up until Ukraine’s invasion at the end of February.  
  • The U.S. has seen 263.4% growth in breaches.    
  • Russia has been topping the charts this year, and now has as much as 22.3 million affected users. 
  • Belarus appeared in 19th position with more than 3x growth from the previous quarter.  
  • Ukraine experienced a 14% drop in breached users quarter-over-quarter, which took them to the 17th position globally. 
  • Europe also recorded 52 million individual breaches in Q3 alone – the highest of any other continent.  
  • 40% of them came from Russia and 27% from France. 
  • In Indonesia, breached user count has grown by 1370% in the last quarter, amounting to 13.3 million victim accounts after several large-scale cyberattacks. Related incidents have pushed Indonesia’s parliament to ratify the first Personal Data Protection Act. 
  • The ten most breached countries of Q3 2022 in descending order are: Russia, France, Indonesia, U.S., Spain, China, Brazil, Taiwan, Portugal, and India.  
  • The highest growth in user victims was spotted in Zambia (3886%), Bolivia (1913%), Chile (1852%), France (1710%), and Nigeria (1616%). 

Syxsense Enterprise with the Syxsense Zero Trust module is the best way to detect and remediate vulnerabilities in any applications and prevent data breaches. Its intuitive endpoint security and management technology combines the power of artificial intelligence with industry expertise to help users predict and remove security threats across all devices including mobile. Syxsense Enterprise is the first unified security and endpoint management platform that centralizes the three key elements of endpoint security management (vulnerabilities, patch and compliance) and layers on a powerful workflow automation tool called Syxsense Cortex. This is achieved through a single cloud-based platform that enables greater efficiency and collaboration between teams. The always-on technology performs in real-time so businesses can operate free of disruption from security breaches that cripple productivity and expose them to financial risk and reputational harm. 

For more information visit www.Syxsense.com  

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Need for Speed in Patch Deployment

The Need for Speed in Vulnerability Detection and Patch Deployment

By BlogNo Comments

“I feel the need, the need for speed,” is a famous line from the movie Top Gun. Back then it referred to fast airplanes. But it could equally apply to vulnerability management. The pace with which IT department detect breaches, deploy patches, and conduct vitally needed remediation actions leaves a lot to be desired. Cyber-attackers could be likened to a Top Gun F14 jet compared to IT’s vulnerability management horse and cart.

With so many reports of breaches, cyber-attacks, and successful ransomware attempts, it would be reasonable to assume that organizations would have scrambled to shore up their defenses – that they would be diligently improving the efficiency of their processes to detect potential vulnerabilities and initiate remediation efforts. Yet the oppositive appears to be true. Enterprises are failing badly to keep up with cyber-attackers.  

This data comes from the Ponemon Institute. It investigated the state of vulnerability response in the enterprise. Key findings included the fact that the severity and volume of cyberattacks is increasing yet most organizations are not doing a thorough or timely job detection and prevention.  

Here are some of the key findings:  

  • 39% said their organizations were aware that actual breaches were linked to known vulnerabilities.  
  • 50% didn’t believe their detection capabilities were fast enough.  
  • 56% didn’t give a good rating to their ability to patch in a timely manner.  
  • Most organizations lack awareness of vulnerabilities that could lead to a data breach.  
  • On average, it takes 43 days to see a cyberattack once a patch is released for a critical or high priority vulnerability.  
  • Organizational patching processes are under greater pressure because they have less time to patch vulnerabilities before being attacked.  
  • Silo and turf issues were cited as reasons for delays in patching. 88% said their team was not fully responsible for patching vulnerabilities and must coordinate with other teams. This adds 12 days to existing patching processes.  
  • CVSS scoring is often the only metric of patch prioritization and leaves out asset criticality and systems as a part of vulnerability response.  
  • The reasons why vulnerability patching was delayed included lack of resources, no common view of applications and assets, and inability to take critical applications and systems off-line so they can be patched quickly.  
  • Respondents believed attackers are outpacing their organizations with such technologies as machine learning/artificial intelligence.  
  • Too much time is spent navigating manual processes rather than responding to vulnerabilities.  

The Importance of Automation  

The study stressed the importance of automation as a means of improving patch management and vulnerability detection. Organizations that use automation noted that it helped them become better at patching.  

However, only 44% of organizations are using automation to assist with vulnerability management and patching. They typically use automation mostly for prioritization and patch deployment. Yet there are so many other ways automation could be used to enhance cybersecurity.  

Ponemon Institute findings were unequivocal. Patching prevents data breaches. Yet half of respondents had suffered one or more data breaches over a two-year period. 60% agreed that these breaches would not have occurred if an available patch had been applied. The vulnerability was known and a patch had been issued – yet it had not been implemented.  

Automation would certainly help speed patch deployment. It can take six weeks or more on average for organizations to patch a high priority vulnerability after a patch has been released. For medium or low priority vulnerabilities, the time factor stretches to 151 days. The time taken to patch critical security flaws is bad enough. But five months for medium priority vulnerabilities is asking for trouble. Cybercriminals have even developed tactics whereby they launch multi-faceted attacks that hit high, medium, and low vulnerabilities simultaneously. They know that many organizations pay the most attention to vulnerabilities with a higher rating. So, they go after lower priority vulnerabilities simultaneously as they look for a way into the enterprise.   

Syxsense provides fully automated vulnerability detection and patch management technology. Our advanced detection logic scans your network and identifies devices with missing updates. It provides organizations with the ability to close the time between identification and containment and spot critical threats early to enable instant deployment of remediation actions. 

For more information visit www.Syxsense.com  

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Cybersecurity Skills Gap Likely to Boost Managed Security Services

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Cybersecurity Skills Gap Likely to Boost Managed Security Services

Things have been tough on the cybersecurity talent front for some time. Organizations struggle to fill security positions. When they do, they typically find themselves in a bidding war for the best candidates. Salaries are escalating and the number of unfilled positions continues to soar. Unfortunately, the situation is likely to deteriorate further, according to a couple of new research reports.

The recent Fortinet Cybersecurity Skills Gap study found that 60% of organizations encounter great difficulty in recruiting cybersecurity resources. More than two thirds of those surveyed believe that the shortage of trained or experienced staff creates additional risk for their organizations. Those that manage to find personnel can’t rest on their laurels for long. A shocking 52% admitted to having trouble retaining qualified employees. Such findings make it clear that more and more organizations are going to look to managed security services to fill the void, whether engaging directly with security vendors to manage aspects of the cybersecurity landscape or to managed service providers (MSPs) specializing in security.

Widening Skills Gaps

The skills gap is rapidly trending towards becoming a skills chasm, according to another study by Skillsoft. The 2022 IT Skills and Salary Report takes an annual look at the most in-demand skills and certifications, average compensation, growth opportunities and career sentiment amongst IT professionals. This year’s survey found two thirds of IT decision-makers had gaping skills gaps in their teams. 53% of respondents stated that they are likely to look for a new job in the next 12 months.

Whether due to aggressive headhunting, the Great Resignation, quiet quitting, burnout due to the demands of digital transformation, or overwork due to operating with lowered headcounts, many IT and security personnel are not planning to stick around. No wonder McKinsey cites record rates of turnover across all industries.

Why They Leave

Whether it is recruitment or retention, all organizations face HR challenges that are only going to grow over the coming year. Skillsoft data shows the top reasons for leaving are a desire for better compensation, a lack of training and development, and a lack of work-life balance. Salary demands may place certain security resources beyond the means of some companies. But training is certainly an area where organizations can gain ground by educating their own resources via industry certifications, and incentivizing personnel to take cybersecurity degrees.

Yet the survey found the biggest reason behind a lack of IT and security training to be that management didn’t see a need for it. This finding stands in stark contrast to another data point from the survey: 97% of IT decision-makers agree that certified staff add value to the organization.

Further findings:

  • 80% say skills gaps pose high or medium risk to their team’s ability to meet objectives.
  • 63% have been unable to fill at least three positions in the last year.
  • The top factors driving skills gaps are difficulties with hiring skilled candidates (44%) and employee retention (33%). 26% say not enough is being invested into training.
  • The top three most challenging areas to find qualified talent are cloud computing, data analytics/big data/data science, and cybersecurity.
  • IT professionals cite the benefits of training to be improved quality of work (56%), increased engagement (41%), and faster job performance (36%).

Managed Service Boom

With such a dearth of a talent and the urgent need to secure the enterprise now, no wonder so many organizations are looking to managed services to fill the gap. Some engage with their existing security vendors and transition some tools from on-premises to being operated as a service by the vendor. Others are using MSPs to take care of security duties such as vulnerability management, endpoint detection and response (EDR), backup and recovery, and even Security Operations Center (SOC) services.

Syxsense operates in both arenas. It offers managed security services for patch management, vulnerability management, and remediation. These services provide real-time, 24-hour security coverage.  Syxsense also offers an MSP/MSSP program with a world-class platform that features an orchestration and automation engine to scale business without adding costs.

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News

Syxsense Names Jose Rangel as VP of Global Channels to Drive Unified Security and Endpoint Management Growth

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Rangel’s extensive worldwide channel leadership experience to drive company’s hyper-growth with partners across key regions

ALISO VIEJO, Calif. November 11 2022 – Syxsense, a global leader in Unified Security and Endpoint Management solutions, today announced the addition of Jose Rangel as Vice President of Global Channels. A B2B cloud and data management industry veteran, Rangel has a proven track record of building, leading, and managing vendor sales channels across the U.S. and EMEA, and will be responsible for global channel growth.

“Syxsense has seen hyper-growth over the last two years as organizations – and the partners serving them – have realized the value of consolidating endpoint security and management into a single solution. As we’ve added new capabilities around mobile device management and Zero Trust, the interest across the channel community has exploded,” said Ashley Leonard, Founder and CEO at Syxsense. “Jose brings a level of experience and leadership that will allow us to capitalize and expand on the channel success we’ve already had and help us build a world-class channel organization that will empower partners.”

Rangel has more than 18 years of channel leadership experience revamping and transitioning channel programs from fulfillment models to partner proactive ecosystems, increasing partner-initiated pipeline and robust deal registration co-sell opportunities by more than 50%. He has worked with established channels from EMC to start-ups like Nasuni, Datadobi, and HYCU, and has extensive experience building global partner ecosystems with VARs, service providers, system integrators, and value-added distributors. Rangel and his channel programs have been recognized multiple times by leading channel publications and he was named a 2021-2022 CRN Channel Chief.

“Syxsense is fundamentally changing how organizations manage and secure endpoints, and this presents amazing opportunities for channel partners and MSPs that are looking to give customers new solutions that save time and money, while increasing security and management efficacy,” said Jose Rangel, VP of Global Channels at Syxsense. “The company is experiencing massive growth, driven by real product innovation. I’m excited to step in and work with the team to help further expand a channel organization that will drive sales, empower partners, and ensure customers success.”

About Syxsense

Syxsense is a leading provider of innovative, intuitive endpoint security and management technology that combines the power of artificial intelligence with industry expertise to help customers predict and remove security threats across all devices including mobile. Syxsense is the first Unified Security and Endpoint Management platform that centralizes the three key elements of endpoint security management (vulnerabilities, patch and compliance) and layers on a powerful workflow automation tool called Syxsense Cortex,™ all through a single cloud-based platform, enabling greater efficiency and collaboration between teams. The always-on technology performs in real-time so businesses can operate free of disruption from security breaches that cripple productivity and expose them to financial risk and reputational harm. For more information, visit www.syxsense.com

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Security Spending Surge Driven by Zero Trust, Cloud-Based Services, and Remote Work

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Security Spending Surge Driven by Zero Trust, Cloud-Based Services, and Remote Work

Spending on information security and risk management products and services has never been higher. According to Gartner, it is forecast to grow 11.3% in 2023 to reach more than $188.3 billion. Cloud security is the category forecast to have the strongest growth over the next two years.

Gartner’s Forecast Analysis: Information Security and Risk Management, Worldwide drilled into the various factors that lie behind the tremendous growth in security spending. The rise of remote and hybrid work, the transition from virtual private networks (VPNs) to zero trust network access (ZTNA), and the shift to cloud-based delivery models are the big drivers in rising security spending.

“The pandemic accelerated hybrid work and the shift to the cloud,” said Ruggero Contu, an analyst at Gartner. “Demand for technologies and services such as cloud security, application security, ZTNA, and threat intelligence has been rising to tackle new vulnerabilities and risks arising from this exposure.”

Surge in Security Services

Security services are particularly strong. Comprising consulting, hardware support, implementation, and a multitude of outsourced services from MSPs and security vendors, security services is now the largest category of spending. It is worth almost $72 billion this year and is expected to reach $76.5 billion in 2023. Thus, services amount to almost half of all security spending, a big change in recent times.

Part of the reason is the continued health of remote work. Now that the pandemic is largely behind us, most organizations are allowing employees to work from home. Hybrid models, too, are emerging. Technologies that enable a secure remote and hybrid work environment are in demand.

Zero trust network access, too, is driving revenue. As the fastest-growing segment in network security, ZTNA sales should jump by 36% in 2022 and 31% in 2023. This ties back to the need to protect home workers as well as a general transition away from depending upon VPNs for secure access. By 2025, at least 70% of new remote access deployments will be served by ZTNA, according to Gartner. This is a huge leap compared to only 10% of enterprises using ZTNA two years ago.

Perhaps the mega-driver, though, is an overall shift to cloud-based delivery models. Enterprises are wrestling with the complexity of multi-cloud environments that bring with them increased security risk. A great many organizations are looking for outside help to keep them stay safe in a multi-cloud world. MSPs and vendor-based SaaS options have stepped up to fill the need.

Syxsense Offers Zero Trust, Cloud-Based Services, and Remote Work Security

Gartner names zero trust, cloud-based services, and remote work as the major trends driving security spending. Syxsense provides products and services that encompass all of them. Syxsense Enterprise incorporates an integrated Zero Trust module as a further way to enhance its vulnerability detection management and remediation capabilities.

Those organizations considering a Zero Trust strategy can utilize Syxsense Enterprise as a fast and reliable way to implement it. It consolidates patching, vulnerability scanning, remediation, mobile device management (MDM), and zero trust technologies in a single, integrated solution.

The Syxsense Zero Trust module within Syxsense Enterprise enables endpoint compliance using Zero Trust Network Access policies. This approach is vitally needed as traditional authentication solutions are not designed to evaluate device health, enforce granular policy compliance, or automate risk remediation. The Syxsense Zero Trust module serves as a trust evaluation engine for endpoints. It offers unparalleled visibility and control over network access policies, while enabling security teams to build sophisticated access policies and remediation workflows to ensure complete ZTNA compliance across the enterprise.

In addition to accepting or denying access based on device Security Posture, it can automatically apply fixes and remediate issues in real time to enable proper access. Actions that lie outside the range of the Security Posture automatically trigger alerts and the need for full device and user verification. This might include a laptop accessing a NetSuite server after hours from un unfamiliar IP address and location. Such a circumstance would be blocked immediately. But where Syxsense really differentiates itself from the competition is through automated remediation of non-compliant endpoints. Remediation actions might include deploying an urgently needed security patch, updating the anti-virus signature database, and alerting IT about unauthorized access attempts.

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Patch Tuesday Webinar | November 2022

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Watch November’s Patch Tuesday Updates On Demand

Watch the Replay

Wednesday, November 9th at 8am PST/11am EST

Join us as we dive into this month’s bulletins and show you strategies for tackling the latest and most important Patch Tuesday updates.  Our IT industry expert Rob Brown, Syxsense’s Chief Customer Success Officer, will be covering all of the latest updates live. Rob’s team of IT management experts has deployed over 100 million patches — be sure to register so you don’t miss out on the top patch strategies of the month!

Hosted by Rob Brown

During his 17 years at Syxsense, Rob’s role has evolved from onsite technical consultant through providing solutions around Patch Management, Vulnerability Management and Security Best Practices. His team have deployed over 100M patches to our global customers over the last decade.