Last Thursday, Sentinel held our annual Security Summit at Arlington International Racecourse in Arlington Heights, IL. We were joined by more than 100 of our customers, who came to learn more about the many different types of security solutions available to help protect their organizations, as well as get their most pressing security questions answered by our panel of industry experts. It was a great day, and we hope everyone that attended came away with a better understanding of the current security landscape and steps they can take to improve their own security posture.

In case you missed it or were unable to attend, we wanted to share a brief summary of some of the topics that were discussed and questions that were asked during the event. If you are interested in learning more about any of these things, please don’t hesitate to contact us. A special thank you to our partners at Cisco, Attivo, AlienVault, and Duo for their hard work and expertise that helped make this day a success!

Endpoint Security

-The top two attack vectors today are email and malicious websites. Hackers will send a targeted phishing email that looks like it was sent by a friend, family member, co-worker, or boss, which contains harmful content or links designed to infect your system or obtain key personal information.

-Regular assessments, at least one or two every year, are essential to make sure your security is doing its job. Penetration tests are strongly recommended as well.

-Sentinel strongly recommends organizations have at least two endpoint security solutions installed in their environment, such as Cisco AMP with Umbrella. Multiple endpoint security solutions create layers of protection, as each one looks at different aspects of the environment.

-Segmentation in your environment is of paramount importance. If you have a server farm, for example, segment it. Segment as many things as you can, because it makes it much more difficult for attackers to move around and gain access to sensitive data.

-You not only need security to identify and help stop threats, but also to remediate and patch after an attack. If you don’t currently have a patching cycle already in place, you are already in danger. There are new vulnerabilities emerging every day/week, and regularly patching keeps your protection solutions up to date.

Cloud Security

-A public cloud uses the resources of outside organizations (such as Azure and AWS) to store and operate portions of your environment. Your business won’t be able to manage and adjust every aspect of the public cloud, but above all else you need to maintain control over who has access to private and sensitive data. Private cloud is fully controlled by your organization, meaning all responsibilities are yours, including security and access to data.

-A strong cloud security posture should emphasize visibility so you who has access to what. For example, if an employee downloads a tool or app, they might agree to terms of service that includes access to their private accounts or email and not realize it. Proper cloud security is designed to spot these vulnerabilities and make sure nobody is granting permissions that can open your organization up to danger.

-Cisco Umbrella offers cloud security to help identify what other security products are missing. It is a great add-on for all types of environments, including Microsoft Office 365.

-Cisco Stealthwatch Cloud will monitor your cloud environment using behavioral analytics and keep an eye on any strange activity that deviates from standard operations.

-Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) controls endpoint access to the corporate environment. If a user tries to log in to your network using an unapproved, non-corporate device, they may be denied access out of concern that device may not be secure.

Security Assessments and Security Advisory

-Your organization needs a security strategy and roadmap. Assessments, gap analysis, and penetration tests are so important. Vulnerability scans help identify dangers in your environment.

-If your organization is PCI compliant, quarterly vulnerability scans are required, though Sentinel recommends monthly vulnerability scans. If you’re non-PCI compliant, your organization should get security and risk assessments at least once or twice a year.

-If an attacker obtains your system administrator’s username and password, your whole network is likely going down, because they can exploit that to gain access anywhere and cause catastrophic damage across servers and systems.

-Having a two-factor authentication system in place is very important to protecting access and preventing attacks from spreading. A platform like Duo verifies the identities of users and the security health of their devices before they are allowed to log in to your environment.

Security Incident Event Management (SIEM) and Security Operations Center (SOC)

-High costs and a lack of manpower are the two primary reasons why many organizations haven’t yet adopted a SIEM. Those that do are often overwhelmed with SIEM products, which have all kinds of alerts and false positives that take too much time and energy to go through.  Sentinel offers a managed SIEM option that is inexpensive and only sends important alerts and updates to your IT team to help improve the focus on the security of your environment.

-Sentinel’s SOC monitors your environment 24x7x365 to ensure your critical data remains secure. Once an alarm is triggered, our SOC works closely with your organization to help shut down the attack.

-Quarterly quality assurance meetings for our SIEM and SOC offerings enable the Sentinel team to talk with you about security incidents and make recommendations on next steps and ways to improve your security posture. Sentinel wants to help you achieve your security goals, even if it takes years to build, piece by piece.

-In the event your environment is compromised, Attivo offers deception technology that creates decoys and other lures for attackers to follow, pulling them away from your critical data and systems so you can minimize their access and any potential damage.

It’s no secret that at Sentinel we place a high value on our employees. Their unparalleled expertise, strong work ethic, and dynamic personalities help us maintain our status as an Always Leading IT solutions and services provider. We are proud of the work they do on a daily basis, and hope our customers recognize the Sentinel difference.

Kelly is an Advanced Regional Territory Coordinator for Sentinel, and has been a valued member of our team since 1995. She got her start in the Parts department, helping in our warehouse to supply Sentinel technicians with the pieces needed to fix broken or malfunctioning computers, printers, and other technology assets. A desire to learn more about how all of those different parts worked drove Kelly to advance her education by taking classes at a local college. That eventually led to a position where she was able to interact with customers in the field and actively participate in equipment repairs.

Beyond the various jobs she’s held during her time at the company, Kelly appreciates that Sentinel encourages employees to further their education and apply for positions they want internally. She views Sentinel as an extension of her own family, as everyone is willing to do what it takes to help you succeed and maintain a strong work-life balance. Learn more about Kelly’s experiences and find out her advice for women in the technology industry by watching her “My Sentinel Story” below.

If you are passionate, motivated, and interested in joining the Sentinel team, you can learn more about our corporate culture and browse our current job openings by visiting our Careers page.

As your IT department continues to get bogged down by an ever-growing list of new duties and challenges, finding the time to achieve innovation and other business technology goals has become an extremely difficult task. Sentinel wants to help make everyone’s lives easier with our Managed Services offerings. We handle day-to-day monitoring, maintenance, optimization, and repair of your environment to help improve system health, stabilize costs, and ease the burden on your IT team. Learn more about the unique benefits of Sentinel’s Managed Services via the infographics below.