A Q&A with Lansweeper's Head of Global Partnerships, Chistina Klein
Cybercrime is top of mind for IT professionals in every organization today, regardless of size, industry, geography, or market segment. Since the Covid-19 pandemic began in 2020, the number of cyber-attacks has skyrocketed, putting intense pressure on IT teams to implement security measures that prevent cybercriminals from launching attacks.
Here are some alarming statistics that underscore the urgency to combat cybercrime:
- A recent study found that 93% of companies were vulnerable to an external attacker breaching the network perimeter and gaining access to local network resources, and only 45% have a well-defined way to assess their exposure to risk.
- A recent study by Trend Micro found that 43% of global organizations said the digital attack surface is "spiraling out of control."
- 64% of all companies worldwide have experienced at least one form of a cyber attack.
- A ransomware attack happens every 11 seconds.
While this outlook seems dim, it doesn't have to be. Organizations that use Lansweeper's market-leading IT asset discovery platform have options. By leveraging our platform along with our extensive ecosystem of CyberSecurity partners, you can implement comprehensive solutions to help safeguard your IT infrastructure.
Lansweeper's VP of Global Partners, Christina Klein, recently shared some valuable insights about the biggest threats companies face today, and how our extensive partner ecosystem can help you bolster your security posture and combat cybercrime.
Q. What are the biggest threats that companies face today in terms of cybersecurity?
Klein: Human error. A single person can't do everything or see everything, and even those who are well equipped often use systems that are error-prone. Today, multiple divisions within an organization spin up new technology and software all the time. Someone in IT might forget to shut down a port correctly or spin up a new cloud instance for dev/ops then forget to shut it down. Or an employee outside of IT might open a phishing email that unleashes malware throughout the network. Hackers do an amazing job of masking phishing emails -- such as making them appear to be coming from an executive -- and well-intentioned people who want to be helpful and responsive but aren't trained to recognize potential threats can open the door for a security breach.
On top of this problem, a large portion of the workforce continues to work remotely. Remote workers are using an average of four devices to connect to the corporate network -- and the majority of these devices are unprotected. If you lack visibility into the hardware and software connecting to your network, it's nearly impossible to ensure the right security measures are in place.
To make matters worse, most IT teams are managing their IT assets manually or using disparate systems, and there's no way to standardize cybersecurity protocols across the enterprise when you can't see everything in a single view.
Finally, one thing we often forget is while we're all focused on managing our professional and personal lives, cyber-criminals are focused on finding new ways to infiltrate systems and launch attacks. There is no way we can keep up if we don't have accurate and complete visibility into everything that is touching the network.
"Our solution partners bring tremendous expertise in cybersecurity and know what customers should be monitoring and tracking on a regular basis to safeguard their infrastructure and prevent an attack. They know how to build reports that provide the right kinds of insights and can recommend best practices for taking action on those insights.."
-- Chistina Klein, Head of Global Partnerships
Q. How does a solid channel partner ecosystem help you plan and combat cyber threats?
Klein: Lansweeper is an IT inventory and discovery solution that gathers data continuously, and automatically provides immediate insight across the IT estate. But without a layer of analysis on top of it, it's just data.
Our ecosystem comprises solution, channel, and integration partners, all of which add tremendous value by providing that level of expert analysis to the data our customers need. Customers can leverage the knowledge and insights of experts or solutions that make that data easy to visualize and analyze, so it's easier to take action to fix any vulnerabilities that Lansweeper brings to the surface. They provide the ability to see the data through a specific lens and take action in an automated way, which is especially useful for overtaxed IT teams who already have too much to do. By leveraging our partner ecosystem, Lansweeper customers can fill in the gaps and gain the actionable insights they need faster. That's the true value of our vast partner ecosystem.
Q. Can you provide an example of how one of Lansweeper's channel partners helped customers combat cyber threats?
Klein: We have many cybersecurity partners that are using Lansweeper data to identify every device within their customers' IT infrastructures, then layering on software to make it actionable. For example, B2B Cyber Secure, a cybersecurity advisory company, installed Lansweeper agents on every student's device in a couple of school districts up in Canada. This enabled the students and teachers to work remotely while the IT team could ensure network security. The IT teams at the districts track every device that connects to the network and push out updates and patches to keep all the hardware and software up to date and protected.
Q. What are the top benefits customers who leverage our ecosystem partners receive?
Klein: Lansweeper's partners are familiar with our platform, and they know how to use it correctly to give customers full visibility across their IT estate. Our solution partners bring tremendous expertise in cybersecurity and know what customers should be monitoring and tracking on a regular basis to safeguard their infrastructure and prevent an attack. They know how to build reports that provide the right kinds of insights and can recommend best practices for taking action on those insights. Integration partners understand the value of Lansweeper data and how their customers can best leverage it using their software.
Partners can make recommendations around what software needs to be applied, and what checks and balances to have in place to maintain a solid, secure environment. They may also provide training to help employees understand what to look for when it comes to potential threats, and how to enforce security policies consistently.
The reality is, you can't protect what you can't see. Lansweeper optimizes our partners' visibility across the infrastructure, so they can apply their solutions and expertise in order to protect our customer's environment. While organizations can engage with our partners independently of Lansweeper, their ability to benefit from the partners' offerings will be greatly hindered without the rich, granular data and unparalleled insight that Lansweeper provides.
Learn More about the Lansweeper Partner Ecosystem
Interested in putting a Lansweeper partner to work for your organization? Send us an email at [email protected], or visit the partner section on our website.
