11.8.18
ConnectWise is providing a cybersecurity risk assessment tool and a vulnerability scanner free of charge for three months to members of the IT Nation, according to Arnie Bellini, the company’s CEO. ConnectWise is a software company that connects technology teams to the solutions, services and resources necessary for success.
Bellini shared the news during his keynote address at IT Nation Connect, the company’s premier thought leadership conference for IT business owners. He said the coming cybersecurity tools will provide a means for technology solution providers (TSPs) to quickly evaluate a company’s ability to combat a variety of malicious cyber threats.
“The idea is simple: We want every member of The IT Nation to be able to understand where they and their customers stand in terms of cybersecurity,” Bellini said. “Our partners are responsible for the security and technology footprints of hundreds of thousands of companies, and we want to help them be successful. These tools will give our partners additional opportunities to position themselves as trusted and valued strategic advisors to their clients in an ecosystem where security risks continue to exponentially grow.”
ConnectWise has partnered with Sienna Group, a leading data-centric managed security services provider, to offer the Cybersecurity Risk Assessment Tool to their partners. The two companies also collaborated on the development of the agent-based vulnerability scanner, which will identify and catalog weaknesses across IP addresses.
Bellini said that the tools align with the Cybersecurity Framework prepared by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which provides a way for organizations, including small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), to assess security risks and provide guidelines for protecting, detecting and responding to cyber threats. These new tools will analyze the critical controls as defined by the Cybersecurity Framework, provide a risk score, indicate areas of strengths and weaknesses, and provide remediation options conveyed in a language that can be easily relayed to the end user.
Members of the IT Nation are invited to join an online training event on Dec. 6 when Bellini and John Ford, CEO of Sienna Group, provide best practices about how to set appropriate expectations with customers on where customer cybersecurity liability falls, what to do in the event of a breach, and the role the TSP can and should play.
“In today’s world, TSPs should be proactively working with their customers to instill a high level of security confidence. These tools are a great first step to help customers better understand how the software will make them safer against all types of security threats,” Bellini said.
Wade Kilgore, Vice President of Technical Operations for Axxys Technologies, said he’s looking forward to taking advantage of the Cybersecurity Risk Assessment Tool and the vulnerability scanner.
“More and more, our clients are turning to us for advice and solutions that will help protect them from cyberattacks. Being able to deliver the right security defenses must start with a thorough assessment, and the vulnerability scanner will allow us to ensure that they understand the risks and what needs to be done to mitigate those risks. The new tools from ConnectWise will make it possible for us to accomplish this first critical step in an inexpensive and timely manner, and will go a long way toward strengthening our relationships with our clients,” he said.
