S UMM E R 2 0 2 3 VOLUME 2 • I SSUE 2 3 WE SIMPLIFY THE TECHNOLOGY EXPERIENCE 3 EMPLOYEE PROFILE: SEDRIK BRENNAN 4 BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT: OUR ENHANCED SECURITY PACKAGE 6 DEAL WITH YOUR ONLINE IDENTITY CRISIS INSIDE CONTENTS OXEN NETWORKED Expertise is Key To Security
2 S UMM E R 2 0 2 3 This issue of OXEN NETWORKED is all about us. It’s not that the OXEN Technology team has big egos. We just think it’s important for you to thoroughly understand what we offer and how we can benefit your business or organization. As you’ll learn on page 3, We Simplify the Technology Experience. This is a big part of our mission at OXEN Technology and a top reason why customers choose us. While on that page, don’t miss the Employee Profile on Sedrik Brennan, who’s a Technical Engineer and one of our newer employees. Rather than feature a business customer on pages 4 and 5 as we typically do in this magazine, there’s a Business Spotlight on OXEN Technology’s Enhanced Security Package. This solution combines the nine security services many of our customers need into just one offering. Justin Nevins, Vice President of Engineering, offers his perspective on how our customers benefit from Enhanced Security. On pages 6 and 7, Terry Allen, CISSP Sr. Consultant – CIO/CISO Services, advises everyone to Deal With Your Online Identity Crisis. Based on an experience with a password manager breach, he shares his key takeaways and other online identity advice. While this issue is all about OXEN Technology, we’d like to know all about you. What security issues keep you up at night? What’s stopping you from implementing the security measures you suspect are needed? Contact us to talk it through. Sincerely, Kelle White Vice President, Sales OXEN Technology CENTRAL IOWA Ames Office hello@oxen.tech WESTERN IOWA Harlan Office / Corporate Headquarters EASTERN NEBRASKA Omaha Office hello@oxen.tech CENTRAL KANSAS Wichita Office hello@oxen.tech SOUTHWEST MISSOURI Joplin Office hello@oxen.tech OXEN NETWORKED is a publication of OXEN Technology. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, electronic, photocopying, recording, mechanical, or otherwise without the prior written permission of OXEN Technology. All rights are reserved. EDITORIAL AND CIRCULATION CONTACT: Kelle White, VP of Sales & Marketing 316.500.2362, kwhite@oxen.tech TRADEMARKS: All brand names and product names used in this publication are trade names, service marks, trademarks, or registered trademarks of their respective owners. ADDITIONAL ISSUES: Extra issues are available to business customers on a limited basis while supplies last. Contact Kelle White at 316.500.2362. POSTMASTER SEND CHANGES TO: Kelle White, VP of Sales & Marketing OXEN Technology Wichita, KS 67209 kwhite@oxen.tech Copyright © 2023 by OXEN Technology and Cornerstone Publishing Group, Inc. OXEN NETW RKED PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER
S UMM E R 2 0 2 3 3 OXEN NETWORKED WE SIMPLIFY THE TECHNOLOGY EXPERIENCE You understand your business inside and out—your products, customers, service area, competition, and more. You’re an expert at what you do. But you’re probably not an expert at everything. That’s where OXEN Technology comes in. OXEN Technology is a fullservice IT and managed services provider with a 38year proven track record. We know technology and it shows. Our experienced team helps local businesses and organizations across the Midwest get the technology they need to work most efficiently and securely. By doing so, OXEN Technology is strengthening our communities in western and central Iowa, southwest Missouri, eastern Nebraska, and central Kansas. Rather than expect you to decipher all kinds of technical jargon or try to pick the right IT services from a long à la carte menu, we keep things simple. (After all, you may not fully realize what IT services you even need.) OXEN Technology offers several bundles of managed services, carefully put together to include the recommended IT essentials for most of our clients. We’ll guide you toward the bundle that fits your requirements, or if needed, customize a solution for you. Then you can relax and focus on your key responsibilities, knowing your technology is in good hands and is being fully leveraged to meet your goals. Since we value collaborative thinking, we bring together the knowledge and experience of leading technology providers to give our clients a strong, team-based service that’s reliable and trusted. OXEN Technology is a Microsoft Partner, SonicWall Partner, HP Business Partner, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise Partner. These relationships, combined with the expertise of our 25 employees, give us a strong advantage. Speaking of strong, we chose the company name of OXEN Technology because oxen are strong animals which can carry heavy loads for long distances. Oxen also work together well as a team to get the job done. If that sounds like the work ethic you’d like from your IT provider, learn more at oxen.tech. EMPLOYEE PROFILE: SEDRIK BRENNAN Technical Engineer Sedrik Brennan joined our team in February 2023 and works from both the Omaha, NE and Harlan, IA offices of OXEN Technology. Prior to then, he was an IT Administrator for Sharp Electronics. He holds a degree in information technology with an emphasis on cybersecurity from the University of New Mexico. “I currently work directly with a variety of clients to resolve their technology issues. A lot of my job combines technical knowledge with customer service, which is something I enjoy. I’m always happy to help someone eliminate the technology issues that may be causing them frustration, as it’s a personal goal of mine to see that people have a positive experience with computers,” Brennan said. He added, “I really love working with computers. I’ve been interested in IT since I was a little kid, and my dad first showed me how to use a computer. I also enjoy working on cars and spending time with friends and family.”
4 S UMM E R 2 0 2 3 Remember the days when only simple cybersecurity measures were used? Well, they’re over. Today’s networks are more complex, and cybercriminals have developed more innovative ways to perform more devastating attacks. The IT environment has also evolved—due to user demands, legal regulations, the explosion of mobile devices, and other technological changes. Cybersecurity measures must be as complex as the threats they protect against. This is why OXEN Technology provides a comprehensive, integrated suite of security services to defend you and your network on multiple fronts. Our top service is the Enhanced Security package, which offers enterprise-level security features at a cost accessible to even small organizations. It includes the following: ENDPOINT SECURITY • Endpoint Protection (EPP) • Endpoint Detection and Recovery (EDR) • Fast Response and Recovery • Policy-based Device Control • Policy-based Firewall Control • Vulnerability Management and Application Inventory SECURITY OPERATIONS CENTER (SOC) • SOC2 Certified Virtual SOC • 24/7 Endpoint Monitoring and Alerting • Data Collection Justin Nevins, Vice President of Engineering, said, “The Enhanced Security package is ideal for organizations under regulation that requires endpoint protection and monitoring by a Security Operation Center (SOC), or those that are proactive with their IT, mindful of security, and desire a greater degree of protection against cyberattacks. OXEN Technology has Enhanced Security customers that range from five or 10 PCs to hundreds.” BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT Multiple layers of monitoring, security, and defense OXEN TECHNOLOGY’S ENHANCED SECURITY PACKAGE Technical Engineers Sean Gaines (left) and James Marcum
S UMM E R 2 0 2 3 5 OXEN NETWORKED Nevins added, “Many customers come to OXEN Technology because they don’t have the expertise and/or the time to address cybersecurity properly with everything else they have going on. We fill the gap in both experience and time necessary to address the cybersecurity needs of the organization.” What does Nevins consider to be the top three benefits a business or organization will experience by having the Enhanced Security package? “Number one is the proactive security monitoring, tools, and reporting. Next is the benefit of our IT leadership partnering with them for continual cybersecurity and other IT improvements. Finally, it’s peace of mind,” he replied. Given the many services included in the Enhanced Security package and the technology and expertise they require, OXEN Technology puts a team of people to work on this solution. As a customer, you’ll be supported by great minds: • Two Client Care Team Members are the first line of communication for issues, scheduling, dispatch, and project management to ensure clear communication, escalation, and responsiveness. • Two Service Team Leads ensure ongoing growth, innovation, and continual improvement of our services and capabilities. They also oversee escalation. • Seven Helpdesk and Project Engineers respond onsite and remotely to help solve problems and proactively handle issues to address the root cause. • Three Managed Service Engineers oversee onboarding, ongoing management, alerting, automation, reporting, and vendor management for 3rd party providers including our Security Operations Center (SOC). • Two Virtual Chief Information Officers, who are CISSP-certified consultants, help the OXEN Technology team regularly improve our security practices and integrate new and better controls. Clearly, with OXEN Technology on your side, you won’t be left alone to face cybersecurity threats. Want to find out what the Enhanced Security package could do for your organization? Call us at 888.296.3619 to set up a consultation. Many customers come to OXEN Technology because they don’t have the expertise and/or the time to address cybersecurity properly with everything else they have going on. We fill the gap in both experience and time necessary to address the cybersecurity needs of the organization.” — JUSTIN NEVINS, VICE PRESIDENT OF ENGINEERING, OXEN TECHNOLOGY YOU DON’T NEED TO UNDERSTAND SECURITY. WE DO. OXEN Technology has 17 team members who work together to provide Enhanced Security package services, some of whom are pictured here. Their combined knowledge, experience, and skills add up to one strong resource for you. Terry Allen, CISO Crystal Barngrover, NOC Engineer Tim White, TAM Jordan Bell, NOC Engineer Chet Hunemuller, Network Engineer Kevin Walter, TAM
6 S UMM E R 2 0 2 3 I used a very popular password manager for over 10 years until they announced in late 2022 that an unauthorized 3rd party obtained copies of encrypted and unencrypted customer data. In short, my encrypted password vault of 10 years and thousands of secrets was now in the wild. Fortunately, a strong master password and strong encryption were still protecting my sites, usernames, and passwords from being instantly useable to compromise my entire digital life. There were certainly a lot of changes through the years since entering my first password into the password manager system. But this experience revealed that I did not have a complete strategy in place to manage the quantity and changing complexities of my online identities. While it was a good start, I was only managing certain parts of my identity, like usernames and passwords, and not thinking about all the aspects related to managing my digital estate. COMMON ELEMENTS OF ONLINE IDENTITY The primary ways we authenticate ourselves online include usernames, email addresses, passwords, or cell phone numbers. Secondary or multi-factor authentication may involve text messages, emails with verification links/codes, authenticator apps, push notifications to a mobile app, security questions/ answers, a hardware token such as a Yubikey, or another physical device. There are three important categories you’ll want to think about: • Your account recovery methods – These are the methods you fall back to when primary or multi-factor methods fail, and we must “recover” access to an online account. Examples include primary/secondary email addresses, text messages, security questions, or multifactor authentication (MFA) backup codes. • Identity continuity, in the event of major life events – How do you manage online accounts with other people, such as a spouse or significant other, coworker, manager, co-founder or successor, survivor’s post-mortem, or an estate executor? Are you managing these details in a way that plans for a loss of access to your phone apps or text messages due to a theft, loss, or disablement? • Different contexts where your identities exist – It’s become necessary to develop a proactive plan for how to manage the numerous aspects that make up our online identities. These include employee accounts, cell phone app accounts/passwords, personal and home accounts, small business accounts, children’s accounts, online shopping, financial accounts, online bill payments, identity monitoring services, etc. While passwords might be the most frustrating and single greatest weakness in our online lives, there are so many other DEAL WITH YOUR ONLINE IDENTITY CRISIS By Terry L. Allen, CISSP Sr. Consultant – CIO/CISO Services Don’t wait for disaster to strike before you act
S UMM E R 2 0 2 3 7 OXEN NETWORKED things that need our attention. We need to better manage our online identities to ensure continual access, decrease our risks of compromise, and be consistent in how we authenticate or recover accounts. The price we pay for mismanagement can easily be account takeover fraud, business email compromise, pass-through cyberattacks, and/or financial fraud because of compromised online identities. And last, but not least, reacting to and dealing with identity compromise is frustrating and can require a lot of time to restore access and clean up any damaging effects. KEY TAKEAWAYS Here’s what I’d like to share with all of you: • Password managers are a necessary and vital component to digital estate management. • For usernames, where supported, use variations of a username—especially for critical accounts. • Create unique passwords or passphrases across all accounts, and make them 20+ characters long. • Enable MFA on all critical accounts. Get organized about how to manage your MFA codes and store them in an authenticator phone app. • Separate your personal and work email addresses. Use a separate email address for critical accounts. • For backup email accounts used for account recovery, dedicate an email address from a public email provider that’s different from the provider of your main email accounts. • Don’t accurately answer security questions, like your mother’s maiden name, since that information may be publicly available. Make up the answer instead. Treat every security question as a potential backdoor for a cybercriminal to reset your account. OXEN Technology can help you increase the security of the online identities within your business or organization. Call 888.296.3619 to learn more.
HAVE QUESTIONS ABOUT CYBERSECURITY, COMPLIANCE, AND BUSINESS CONTINUITY? OUR IT SECURITY CONSULTANTS HAVE ANSWERS. To schedule a free consultation, visit www.oxen.tech/contact or call 888.296.3619. Cornerstone Group © 2023
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