Monday Morning Impact – October 18

Fortinet: Most Organizations Have Been the Target of at Least One Ransomware Attack

Fortinet, a Sunnyvale, California-based cybersecurity company, has unveiled its 2021 Global State of Ransomware Report, revealing that most organizations are more concerned about ransomware than other cyberthreats.

“According to a recent FortiGuard Labs Global Threat Landscape report, ransomware grew 1070% year over year,” said CMO John Maddison. “Unsurprisingly, organizations cited the evolving threat landscape as one of the top challenges in preventing ransomware attacks. As evidenced by our ransomware survey, there is a huge opportunity for the adoption of technology solutions like segmentation, SD-WAN, ZTNA, as well as SEG and EDR, to help protect against the threat of ransomware and the methods of access most commonly reported by respondents.”

However, while the majority of surveyed organizations indicated they are prepared for a ransomware attack, including employee cyber training, risk assessment plans, and cybersecurity insurance, there was a clear gap in perceptions of what constitutes adequate defense. Nonetheless, Secure Web Gateway, VPN and Network Access Control ranked among the top choices. Most concerning was the low importance of segmentation (31%), a critical technology solution that prevents intruders from moving laterally across the network to access critical data and IP. Likewise, UEBA and sandboxing play a critical role in identifying intrusions and new malware strains, yet both were lower on the list. Another surprise was secure email gateway at 33%, given phishing was reported as a common entry method of attackers.

The top concern of organizations regarding a ransomware attack was the risk of losing data, with the loss of productivity and the interruption of operations following closely behind. In addition, 84% of organizations reported having an incident response plan, and cybersecurity insurance was a part of 57% of those plans. Forty-nine percent of the respondents said their standard procedure is to pay the ransom outright, and for another 25%, it depends on how expensive the ransom is. Of the one-quarter who paid ransom, most, but not all, got their data back.

The report is based on a global survey of IT decision-makers conducted in August 2021 with 455 business leaders from small as well as mid to large-sized organizations worldwide.

Channel Impact^®
The high number of attacks demonstrates the urgency for channel partners to help their customers adopt the necessary defenses.

HP Introduces Channel Intelligence Platform

HP Inc. has unveiled “HP Amplify Data Insights,” a new partner platform designed to turn data analytics into useful business observations. Available on the HP Partner Portal, the new platform combines third party intelligence and partner data into one intuitive dashboard, enabling partners to benchmark performance, deepen customer relationships and solidify long-term strategies.

“The events of the past 18 months have dramatically altered how customers engage with brands and ultimately make technology buying decisions – data plays a critical role in our ability to both monitor and respond quickly to these evolving customer needs,” said Christoph Schell, HP’s Chief Commercial Officer. “HP is delivering on our collaboration promise by turning partner data into deeper insights, designed to deliver more positive customer outcomes and enable long-term partner growth and recurring revenue.”

Available data focuses on a variety of areas, including revenue and unit sales by industry and company size, rankings by industry and company size, ratios to hardware by industry and company size, inventory levels by HP product group, category, and product line, sales mix by customer industry, and compensation and rebate history.

Other features include product warranty and renewal heatmaps, customer buying intent predictions, customer engagement topic insights, engagement evolution by customer, customer engagement propensity and intent, and customer interest topics based on the past six months.

Recommendations on specific sales and marketing actions are also available.

Channel Impact^®
The new Insights platform is intended to help partners shape the customer experience and drive long-term growth strategies.

Comcast Business Closes Masergy Acquisition

Comcast Business has completed its acquisition of Masergy, a Plano, Texas-based company specializing in software-defined networking (SDN) and cloud platforms with more than 1,400 customers in nearly 100 countries worldwide.

“This deal fortifies our channel distribution strategy and redoubles our commitment to the channel partner community,” said Bill Stemper, president of Comcast Business. “The combination of our teams and complementary service portfolios will enhance the value we bring to large and mid-size companies worldwide.”

“On behalf of everyone at Masergy, we are thrilled to officially join the Comcast Business family and are extremely excited as we chart the future of Masergy together,” said CEO Chris MacFarland. “Our customers and partners can expect the same industry-leading customer experience and will benefit from accelerated innovation as part of Comcast Business.”

Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Channel Impact^®
The acquisition is intended to accelerate Comcast Business’s growth among large and mid-size companies, particularly U.S.-based organizations with multi-site global operations while bolstering the company’s position with the channel. The combination is also expected to enable Comcast Business customers to manage their international operations and networks more efficiently.