Managed.IT - issue 57

SECURITY MANAGED.IT 19 www.managedITmag.co.uk significant growth over the last three years, with an average compound annual growth rate of 52%. Much of this Watson attributes to the company’s expertise in Citrix Workspace and virtual desktops. “Whereas in the past there would have been big managed services contracts and clients getting rid of staff in favour of small staffing groups, we are starting to see more strategic teams and IT teams in organisations and they are using a range of different suppliers – specialists rather than generalists. People are looking for MSPs that provide high value niche services to deliver strategic goals rather than someone just to manage problems they might have. Our niche is the workspace and virtual desktops – it is what we are known for, whereas a generalist MSP might struggle to differentiate itself in an extremely busy marketplace.” Watson says the new funding will enable Atlas Cloud to ramp up sales and marketing activities targeting larger organisations that are becoming more and more interested in Citrix Workspace as a way of meeting strategic goals around mobility and flexibility, as well as cost cutting. It will also enable the company to take on another 20 people, increasing its headcount to 55. Finding people with the right skills is not easy in the current climate but Watson believes the corporate culture at Atlas Cloud gives it an advantage. “In the North East there is a very big tech market. You have HP, Sage, DWP, which has thousands and thousands of staff, so there is always pressure around top talent and increasing salary demands. We address this by focusing very much on culture; we have flexible working so people can work from home whenever they want; and we provide very flexible holidays, so people get a lot of time off when we are quiet. We have an unlimited holiday policy, which sounds very glamorous, but we expect a lot when we are busy and want people to spend time with their families when we are not.” Balancing the needs of employees and the business has served Atlas Cloud well in its first decade and provides a solid foundation for another 10 years of success. to make sure you have the right partner and the right solution in place to protect yourself. MIT : Don’t you find it surprising that awareness is so low, because there has been a lot of publicity about the security risks of MFPs? JH: It is surprising, but people make a lot of assumptions when it comes to security. They tend not to worry about the details and just assume IT security is to do with computers or maybe their phone. Historically, they have looked at printers simply as bits of equipment that produce paper documents – nothing more than that. In fact, they are quite complex pieces of technology and obviously vulnerable in various ways to data breaches and document security. MIT : What do you think SMBs should be doing to secure their devices? JH: We worked with an ethical hacker called Jens Müller and he came up with three very simple tips for businesses to consider. The first is to enable encryption on the devices. Nowadays, most print devices and MFPs come with encryption, but ManagedIT (MIT): Why did Sharp undertake a survey into printer security? Julian Hodges (JH): The project was instigated and run by our European colleagues as an education piece, looking at the knowledge gap around security and MFPs, both network and hard copy security. We wanted to create a reassuring message around security, rather than something that is driven by fear, with some really positive messages about our technology and what it has to offer. We also wanted to make the point that we are here to help SMBs and our partners to protect the things that are important to them. MIT : What were the findings that really stood out for you? JH: The research was quite comprehensive, involving 5,000 office workers in seven countries, so there were a lot of interesting findings. One that stood out for me was that 95% of those surveyed didn’t recognise printers as a security risk. People think of network technology, like computers, as something criminals might want to hack, but don’t associate that sort of threat with MFPs. From that point of view, this research is a really useful reminder that MFPs are vulnerable and you need Print, copy, scan, secure Too many businesses are leaving their MFPs unsecured and vulnerable to attack, warns Sharp Julian Hodges Continued... More than half of small and medium-sized businesses are leaving themselves vulnerable to a serious data breach by not adequately protecting their office printers, according to new research from Sharp Business Systems UK. The pan-European survey shows that despite a great deal of publicity around the topic, office workers remain blind to the possibility of unsecured MFPs being used by hackers to access printed, scanned or faxed documents or launch sophisticated attacks across a company network. As many as 95% of UK workers surveyed do not consider printers and multifunctional printers (MFPs) as an IT security risk and only 18% are aware that printers can be hacked. More than half (54%) say that their printers can be used without any form of user authentication. To find out more about the survey and what Sharp is doing to help protect customers, ManagedIT spoke to Sharp Business Systems UK Group Product Marketing Manager Julian Hodges.