Cybersecurity Awareness Month – See Yourself in Cyber at MSP Xperience
It’s the time of year again…the leaves are changing, the air is getting crisp, and pumpkin spice everything is hitting grocery store shelves. That’s right, it’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month! Maybe not what you were expecting, but since 2004, when October was declared Cybersecurity Awareness Month by the President and Congress, that’s what we cybersecurity vendors get jazzed up about. This year is especially exciting because Axcient’s third MSP Xperience is on October 20th – which aligns perfectly with Cybersecurity Awareness Month.
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MSP Xperience is Axcient’s annual virtual conference, where we give MSPs loads of actionable value in one easy-to-digest half-day. With the help of industry leaders, channel experts, and your fellow MSP peers, we’ve got a full agenda focused on preparing your MSP for the future – no matter what comes next. And since you can’t talk about cybersecurity without looking forward, MSP Xperience is the perfect event for Cybersecurity Awareness Month.
In this article…
- Get an overview of Cybersecurity Awareness Month – what it is and how you can get involved.
- Leverage the national awareness campaign to highlight cybersecurity with clients and reinforce a security-first approach.
- See the full MSP Xperience agenda – including this year’s theme, guest speakers, session topics, $2,000 cash giveaway, and first-ever Axcient Partner Awards.
What is Cybersecurity Awareness Month?
Cybersecurity Awareness Month was declared by the President of the United States and Congress in 2004 to raise cybersecurity awareness nationally and internationally. The intent is to help individuals protect themselves and their confidential data from threat vectors online. The effort is led by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the National Cybersecurity Alliance (NCA).
This year’s campaign theme, “See Yourself in Cyber,” emphasizes the human component of cybersecurity. As the number one cause of data loss, human error is often what ultimately allows bad actors to commit successful attacks. Due to this startling, albeit enduring fact, it’s no surprise that this year’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month focuses on the individual.
“The human element continues to drive breaches. This year 82% of breaches involved the human element. Whether using stolen credentials, Phishing, Misuse, or simply an Error, people continue to play a very large role in incidents and breaches alike.”
– 2022 Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) from Verizon
Leveraging Cybersecurity Awareness Month with Clients
Cybersecurity Awareness Month is an end-user-focused campaign that allows MSPs to highlight cybersecurity with clients. While it’s never the wrong time to discuss data protection, business continuity, disaster recovery, and the cybersecurity landscape, the national conversation is one that you can take advantage of. CISA and NCA recommend the following four key action steps for everyone:
- Enable Multi-Factor Authentication
- Use Strong Passwords
- Recognize and Report Phishing
- Update Your Software
While these recommendations are pretty basic from an MSP perspective, it’s clear from the statistics that not everyone is as savvy. So utilize these cybersecurity 101 protections in your marketing and sales campaigns, and upsell and cross-sell conversations to piggyback off the national campaign.
- Send an email reminding clients of these government-backed tips to start a conversation.
- Use it to encourage cybersecurity training and faux phishing exercises to test disaster readiness and identify vulnerabilities.
- Create social media posts highlighting the national campaign, and start and join cybersecurity-related conversations.
- Approach clients with aging servers and at-risk devices to encourage updates and modernization for rapid and reliable recovery.
- Emphasize cybersecurity and compliance with clients in regulated verticals to ensure they still follow those policies and standards.
>> Download The Full MSP Marketing and Sales Guide: 4 Ways to Grow Your Business on a Budget
Attending MSP Xperience for the Future of Your MSP
This year’s MSP Xperience is all about looking forward. Amid a looming recession, 40-year high inflation, wage expansion, international conflict, the tech skills gap, and of course, our evolving cybersecurity landscape, many factors impact how you do business. MSP Xperience is your chance to sit back, breathe, gain navigation skills, and approach the future with a new perspective.
Join the Axcient community, your fellow MSPs, cybersecurity experts, and industry leaders as we introduce strategies for accelerating business agility, MSP growth, and profitability now and into the future. Not only will you get actionable takeaways for business development, but you also get entered to win a $2,000 cash prize! Here are some cybersecurity-specific highlights to get you in the Cybersecurity Awareness Month mood…
>> Register for MSP Xperience 2022 on Thursday, October 20th, from 12 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. EST
MSP Panel Discussion | BCDR As Your Last Line of Defense: Preparing for Security Challenges
Moderator Kevin Hoffman, the Founder and CTO of Axcient is joined by Roddy Bergeron, CISO at Enterprise Data Concepts, and Justin Lightfoot, Director of Technology at STL Business and Technology Solutions.
Together, these longtime channel leaders are discussing…
- MSP expectations of clients in the face of changing cybersecurity risks. How do you protect clients who don’t take cybersecurity seriously, and can you grow your MSP if you’re closing the door to the “wrong” clients?
- New incident response planning best practices. Can you recover from something major – like a complete RMM breach that takes down both you and all of your clients? How do you know? What’s the role of tabletop drills in your current security playbook?
- The intersection between standardization and cybersecurity. How is the number of vendors and solutions in your stack affecting your ability to meet stringent SLAs and ensure business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR)?
- BCDR solution selection. When is it time to start looking at other options, and when you do, how do you see beyond the promises and get proof of capabilities? Does cybersecurity trump other factors like automation and innovation, tech happiness, support, and vendor stability?
Keynote | Rising from the Ashes: How One MSP Managed a Mass Scale Ransomware Attack
Robert Cioffi, COO of Progressive Computing, was one of the victims of the Kaseya ransomware attack in 2021. Progressive Computing and 100% of their clients were hit during the long 4th of July weekend, and business halted immediately. This wasn’t a scenario they’d planned for – heck, it wasn’t even a scenario they’d even ever thought possible. Thankfully, with the help of the channel community, their cyber liability insurance provider, and their BCDR vendor, Axcient, they recovered 100% with no data lost.
Hear how Robert and his team recovered 2,500 endpoints, including 200 physical sites, for about 80 clients across four time zones in just 17 calendar days. He’ll be recounting his tale from the front lines to help you prepare for the potential of a similar fate. Learn what he relied on most, how his MSP has changed since, and what they’re still dealing with due to the attack. In addition to his compelling and valuable story, Robert is one heck of a storyteller, so this should not be missed!
Check out the complete agenda for MSP Xperience and Register today to celebrate Cybersecurity Awareness Month and See Yourself in Cyber!
About the Author: Carissa Johnson // Product Marketing Manager, Axcient
Carissa Kohn-Johnson has a background in behavioral and physical healthcare technology and information technology and currently works as the Product Marketing Manager for Axcient. She has a lot of MSP Channel experience from planning and attending hundreds of conferences and tradeshows, and found her passion in technology, and working with MSPs in particular. She serves on the Information Services Advisory Board for her community and feels most at home with other technology-forward people. Connect with her on LinkedIn – perhaps you can contribute to the Axcient blog?
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