Web Protection Part 3: Deployment, Reports, and Usage

In part one of this series on Web Protection, you had a discussion with a client or potential client about implementing Web Protection. In part two, we covered setting up a demonstration policy and implemented it on a single device to begin collecting data for analysis. Now that you have had a few weeks to let Web Protection analyze the network traffic on your client's endpoint, the time has come to show the results of what type of information has been passing through this device. Bear in mind that while Web Protection has been deployed, it has been collecting and analyzing data. This data is available through the various reports within the MSP Remote Monitoring and Management Cloud Dashboard (MSP RMM Cloud). In the future, note that you can provide feedback on multiple levels. For the sake of this initial demonstration, you will only have tracking information for a single device.

Web Protection Part 1: Defining the Need

Recently the Web Protection feature of the MSP Remote Monitoring and Management Cloud Dashboard underwent some changes. Namely, gone are the day of the old Web Monitoring plugin that really only captured browser traffic. Given the advent of many applications accessing the internet, the Web Protection module now acts as a direct filter to the network interface and captures all traffic bound for the internet. This fundamental change to the product evokes a new conversation concerning Web Protection. This article is the first part of a three-part series. 

1. Web Protection Part 1: Defining the Need
2. Web Protection Part 2: Setting up a New Policy
3. Web Protection Part 3: Deployment, Reports, and Usage

Layered security: High-speed internet changed everything

Back in my day a good AV product was all you needed to protect a network. Patches were mostly bug fixes, and the internet was relatively safe.

High Speed Internet changed everything. Back in the days of dial up, the bandwidth did not exist to provide a cyber-criminal with decent access to your network. The connection wasn’t 24/7 either. Users connected to the internet, did what was needed, and logged off so someone could use the phone line to make a call.

By David Ianetta

Mastering User Security While Providing Dashboard Access to Contractors and Clients

Mastering User Security While Providing Dashboard Access to Contractors and Clients

By Andrew Crihfield

Often times you will need to provide restricted Dashboard access to an employee, contractor or client for many different reasons. This article will provide you the necessary information to provide the access you need while still providing a secure dashboard environment.

I'd like a System State Backup with a side of critical data and databases please!!

                 I'm sure all of you sit down with your clients periodically, if not you should, to go over their current state of affairs in regards to their network and their business technology needs and suggest what you feel is necessary; which should include some type of  backup solution. Translation - Tell them what they need with people skills :) These types of conversations need to be addressed because they don't have a proper working solution in place or if you've decided that you should be in charge of the backups since you will be blamed for it if your customer doesn't have the data they need when they need it. I call it the CYA (Cover Your Agreement) policy.  This scenario would give both you and your client piece of mind. So when it comes time to introduce possible solutions and alternatives, I'm also certain MSPs lead with some type of hardware appliance that does full images so that you can bring them back up rather quickly with either another image,some type of virtualization in the cloud capabilities, or maybe even both.  Then the new customer will probably give you one one of these three responses: 

We Don't Need No Stinking Group Policy!!

Yeah, so everyone's talking about pushing out the agent in a domain, but not every client has a domain, do they?  I mean, we've all had a Dentist office for a client.  And they're just smart enough to know that the big "wide telephone-looking cable" goes into the back of the computer and the other end goes into that  Link-gear or Net-sys box in the closet, right?

Ugh.  So while you (and all the engineers) may not want that kind of client, their money spends just as well as anyone else's, so let's get them up to (technical) speed as much as we can, OK?  But before I can do that, I need to get my agents on their machines without watching someone's root canal in living color.  So, how does that happen?

Quick Tip UPDATED: The Care and Feeding of your Hacker Check

"Oh, No! The Hacker Check went off! We're under attack!"

Not necessarily.

UPDATED!

Blocking software usage with GFI MAX

Some software is bad news. Nothing good can come of it, and neither you nor your customers want it on their systems. I'm sure you knew you could use Asset Tracking and software license groups to detect unauthorized installations of banned software - but did you know that you could prevent them from ever being used in the first place?

MAX and Security

A very well-written blog post by Mimic Media's Ian Trump about providing liability protection for your clients by leveraging your RMM tool.

GFI Max, Due Diligence and Liability Concerns

The term "legal liability resulting from a data breach" is a significant phrase that is used .... The phrase brings to mind several questions: What is liability and how could it result from a data breech? How is liability determined and what are the consequences for being found liable. The idea of liability and IT systems seems like a strange combination of ideas.

 Something every MSP (or IT consulting in general) really should be thinking about, and Ian shows it's easier to compensate for than most think.

Managing your RemoteManagement: Security Best Practices

Updated by David Ianetta

The default setup of MSP RMM is perfect for a one-man shop, where all installations, actions and policy decisions are performed by the same person. However, once you move into a multi-user system, the following must be considered: