How Jones IT Ensures Security and Compliance for Our Clients
The cost of cybercrime worldwide is $9.22 Trillion, according to statista.com. Organizations have to worry not only about getting back data lost in the cyberattack but also about downtime, disruption in operations, and loss of customer trust.
As of 2024, the average cost of a data breach is around $4.88 million, but this figure can vary greatly depending on the industry, region, and business size. For example, in the healthcare industry, the average cost of a data breach is around $10.1 million. As businesses rely more and more on the Internet, user data, cloud computing, and new technologies, the risks and consequently the costs of data breaches will keep increasing.
Therefore, from a business perspective, it is prudent to invest in cybersecurity and regulatory compliance to minimize the risk of data breaches and associated regulatory fines. In their endeavor to defend against the ever-evolving cybersecurity landscape, businesses can benefit greatly from partnering with a managed IT service provider like Jones IT.
In this blog post, we discuss how Jones IT’s security and compliance services help businesses balance security and compliance while focusing on resilience and scalability.
The Case for Managed Security And Compliance Services
As the threat landscape and regulatory compliance requirements continue to evolve, organizations need a greater focus on protecting digital assets and infrastructure than what typical Managed Services Providers (MSPs) can offer. This greater focus on cybersecurity and compliance is necessary for responding quickly to threats and staying ahead of the curve.
Cybersecurity Threat Management
Cybersecurity threat management is the process of preventing, detecting, and responding to security incidents. Businesses today face a wide array of security threats not just from external threat actors but also emanating from internal business processes or policies and the adoption of new technologies. From advanced persistent threats (APT), and insider threats to vulnerabilities around remote work and social engineering, businesses have a lot to deal with.
Against this dynamic backdrop, organizations need a cybersecurity threat management system that can counter a wide variety of as well as sophisticated and novel attacks.
Jones IT’s security team works with many organizations across industries, giving them much greater visibility into what’s happening in the cybersecurity landscape. Working across networks on thousands of endpoints and between clouds gives us access to a large amount of security data. This makes us much better informed and better placed to identify trends, spot data at risk, and discover new vulnerabilities across organizations.
Regulatory Compliance and Standards
Navigating regulatory requirements is a challenge for any business. Compliance is more than just about avoiding fines, it's about safeguarding business operations and earning customer trust. As your MSP, we ensure that your systems and processes align seamlessly with these standards, offering both protection and peace of mind.
Here’s how we help:
Conducting Security Risk Assessments
Compliance starts with understanding your vulnerabilities. Our security risk assessments identify gaps in your security framework, providing a clear roadmap for mitigation. By addressing these risks early, we ensure alignment with key regulations like GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI DSS, reducing your exposure to fines or breaches.
Investing in the Right Technologies
A strong compliance foundation begins with the right tools. We help organizations implement a technology stack designed to secure their network, protect endpoints, safeguard data, and manage access effectively. The right set of technologies not only addresses current compliance requirements but also adapts to meet future needs, keeping you ahead of the curve. Additionally, we guide you in selecting scalable systems and tools that not only simplify compliance but also evolve with changing regulations.
Developing Policies and Implementing Controls
Effective compliance requires more than technology. It needs robust policies and actionable controls. We assist businesses in crafting policies tailored to their unique needs, covering areas like data protection, access management, incident response, etc. Using security controls such as two-factor authentication (2FA), encryption, and identity and access management (IAM), these policies are effectively enforced, reducing risks and ensuring regulatory alignment.
Streamlining Audit Preparation
We ensure that third-party audits don’t become a headache by establishing systems to document and retain critical compliance evidence, such as access logs, security configurations, and activity records. This simplifies the audit process, ensures your organization is always prepared, and demonstrates accountability to regulators.
Maintaining Continuous Compliance
Compliance isn’t a one-time project. It’s an ongoing process. To maintain compliance, we conduct regular internal audits to identify emerging gaps, while our remediation efforts promptly address issues to keep your business compliant. Through continuous updates to policies and controls, we ensure that your organization remains secure and aligned with evolving regulatory landscapes.
Risk Management
Today’s rapidly evolving threat landscape means that organizations can no longer treat IT risk management as optional. It has become a necessity. IT risk management is critical for balancing the economic and operational costs of technology while ensuring security and business continuity. It applies to both negative and positive risks. Negative risks, such as security breaches, threaten to disrupt business operations, while positive risks, like adopting innovative technologies, offer opportunities to enhance business value.
Here’s how we assist organizations in navigating the complexities of IT risk management:
Identifying Potential Risks
The first step in managing IT risks is understanding what could go wrong. We work with you to identify potential risks, from external threats like cyberattacks to internal vulnerabilities in your systems and processes. But external threats can pose a risk only if there are internal vulnerabilities that they can exploit. So it’s vital to address these weaknesses proactively. By conducting thorough assessments and leveraging security audit reports, we uncover vulnerabilities before they can be exploited.
Assessing Vulnerabilities
Identifying vulnerabilities goes beyond recognizing risks. It involves determining their likelihood of occurrence. This deeper understanding helps us transform the question from “What can happen?” to “What is likely to happen?” and brings us closer to effective risk management. By continuously monitoring IT systems and conducting regular audits, we help keep your organization one step ahead of potential threats.
Evaluating Impact
After identifying the risks, the next step is evaluating their potential impact. We help assess the scope and severity of each risk, determining which business functions are at stake. For instance, losing an application for a single user might be a minor inconvenience, but losing it across the entire organization could result in significant operational disruptions and financial losses. We help you understand these nuances so that we can ensure that the most critical risks are prioritized.
Deciding on Risk Treatment
Not all risks are equal, so managing them effectively requires tailored solutions. We work with you to address the identified risks using one or more of the following approaches:
Risk Avoidance: Eliminating activities or conditions that introduce risk.
Risk Mitigation: Implementing controls and processes to reduce the likelihood or impact of risks.
Risk Retention: Accepting certain risks when the cost of mitigation outweighs the potential impact.
Risk Transfer: Shifting risks to third parties, such as through insurance or outsourcing.
By aligning these strategies with your organization’s priorities, we create a balanced risk management approach that minimizes threats while enabling growth.
Systematically identifying, assessing, and addressing risks helps to safeguard your operations, ensure compliance, and unlock opportunities for innovation. With our expertise, managing IT risks becomes a streamlined and strategic process that strengthens your organization’s resilience and drives sustainable success.
For a deeper understanding of IT risk assessment and management, check out the following resources:
Jones IT’s Core Security and Compliance Services
1. Network Security Monitoring and Management
Be it sophisticated tools, robust policies, or keen eyes, we use a variety of tools and systems to watch over your network infrastructure, identifying and addressing potential vulnerabilities and neutralizing threats in real time before they can inflict serious harm.
2. Endpoint Protection and Management
With the rise of remote work, securing endpoints such as laptops, tablets, and mobile devices has become a major priority. Using a combination of security measures including antivirus software, firewalls, encryption, and access control, we ensure that all devices are actively protected.
3. Managed Detection and Response (MDR)
Keeping up with the times requires utilizing advanced security systems using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to monitor, identify, and respond to potential security incidents in real time. As an MSP, we stay at the cutting edge of security technologies, which allows us to deliver swift incident response and remediation services, reducing the impact of security incidents.
4. Security Awareness and Compliance Training
Cutting-edge security systems are only part of the puzzle. Attackers mostly target the users, who are typically the weakest link in your defense. In fact, 74% of all breaches include the human element. Therefore, investing in the human element is essential for a strong security posture.
To help organizations inculcate a security-conscious culture, Jones IT is adept at delivering extensive security awareness training programs that empower employees with the necessary skills and knowledge to recognize and counteract potential threats, mitigating the risks of security breaches.
5. Data Backup and Recovery
A robust backup and recovery strategy is essential for strong cybersecurity. It not only mitigates the risks of data loss but also gives your business the ability to quickly bounce back from ransomware attacks or disasters, like fires or flooding.
Jones IT creates an effective backup and recovery strategy to mitigate a variety of business risks, including data loss, system failure, application failure, and loss of physical space due to disasters.
6. Cybersecurity Expertise and Resources
As a trusted security partner of hundreds of businesses, we maintain a team of security and compliance experts who stay up-to-date with the latest happenings in the IT security landscape and regulatory requirements. Our security consultants are also constantly learning and testing new tools and technologies so that we can assist our customers in staying at the cutting edge of security technology.
How Jones IT Strengthens Your Security Posture
1. Implementing a Robust Cybersecurity Strategy
A solid cybersecurity strategy helps organizations transition from a reactive to a proactive approach, which is more suited to dealing with the uncertainties and challenges brought about by changing market and technology landscapes.
2. Creating a Comprehensive Incident Response Plan
An Incident Response Plan (IRP) helps organizations respond to cybersecurity incidents quickly and efficiently. A comprehensive IRP helps organizations not only respond to and recover from security incidents but also effectively manage and mitigate the impact of those incidents.
3. Tracking Security Metrics
Tracking key security metrics helps us identify and prioritize the risks of potential threats. This enables us to focus our efforts and your organization’s resources on addressing the most critical vulnerabilities and mitigating the most severe risks. Examples of key security metrics include Intrusion attempts, Security incidents, Mean time to detect, Mean time to resolve, Mean time to contain, Mean age of open vulnerabilities, etc.
4. Promoting a Security-Conscious Culture
A cybersecurity-conscious culture is arguably the most important cyberdefense for any organization. It goes a long way in enhancing security by instilling behaviors that mitigate potential threats. It includes good password hygiene, an understanding of common types of cyber attacks, and familiarity with the organization’s key security policies.
5. Regularly Updating Your Security Posture
An organization’s cybersecurity posture is dynamic and needs to be regularly updated in response to changing technologies, processes, and threat landscape. We regularly assess your organization’s security posture and make necessary changes to address technological developments and the emergence of new threats.
Conclusion
Security and compliance have become increasingly important to the sustainability of any organization. While maintaining a strong security posture may not be very difficult to achieve for small businesses, the requirements start becoming extremely complex as the business grows and matures.
Partnering with a Managed Service Provider (MSP) like Jones IT alleviates the stress of maintaining a strong security posture and meeting evolving regulatory compliance requirements. The cybersecurity expertise and years of experience allow MSPs to balance security and compliance without compromising on scalability and resilience.
About The Author
Hari SubediMarketing Manager at Jones IT
Hari is an online marketing professional with a focus on content marketing. He writes on topics related to IT, Security, and Small Business. He is also the founder and managing director of Girivar Kft., a business services company located in Budapest, Hungary.
