4 Core Elements of Supply Chain Resilience
July 11, 2024
It is more important than ever to choose an experienced managed IT services provider. Because technology has become more complex and critical to your business, it demands expertise, and verification by third-party audit. We perform various IT and security audits for our clients. Some audits improve the functionality, productivity and investment of their technology. Other audits assist businesses in achieving regulatory compliance and optimal cybersecurity.
The health of your technology and security is as important as your financial health. Would you hesitate to perform third-party financial audits? Businesses lose millions due to downtime, and more trying to mitigate a breach.
Bottom line. Your IT Provider can help your business avoid an incident, and survive one.
As a managed service provider (MSP), we strive to keep ahead of issues facing our business and the clients we serve. The cybersecurity and technical controls we put in place within our business are as important as the ones we put in place at client businesses. We want to prove to our clients that their data is secure, and “trust but verify” our own processes and controls.
We have received our SOC 2® report, which evaluated the processes and controls we have in place relevant to security and verified they met strict requirements.
To take SOC 2 a step further, we completed the more detailed and rigorous MSP Verify™audit process through MSPAlliance, the unified voice of the managed services industry. MSP Verify™ is a certification for managed service providers, designed to provide assurance, generate trust, and communicate transparency to consumers of managed IT services.
By investing in a third-party audit, we can objectively demonstrate to prospective and current clients that our information systems and processes follow stringent requirements in security, availability, integrity, privacy, and confidentiality. Our clients can rest assured that their IT needs are in the hands of a vetted, stable, and professional organization.
Hackers are super-charged and relentless. If your business is not seeing an increase in social engineering and phishing attacks, then you are a unicorn. Cybercriminals are more sophisticated and funded, so the threats increase, and the attacks reflect their sophistication. Hacking into your business systems and stealing your data is very profitable and will not stop until it is no longer. Ransomware is now Blackmailware – stealing it before encrypting it, impacting confidentiality even if data is retrieved.
Businesses hire managed IT service providers because business owners cannot be technical and security experts and find it difficult or cost-prohibitive to hire the expertise needed. Client put their trust and faith in their selected provider – but how do you know you are getting what you paid for? The IT industry is unregulated, so unlike selecting a cosmetologist, you do not have certifications and regulations to help guide you. The AME Group has always strived to be transparent, innovative, and well-educated when it comes to security, but times are changing.
In today’s threat environment, your company must evaluate the need to choose a SOC 2 provider. In the high threat levels of today’s environment, The AME Group takes the security of our company and our clients seriously enough to invest in not only a third-party audit, but one that understands the unique issues faced by managed IT service providers and challenges our business to excel. The AME Group is in the TOP 2% of MSPs with regards to governance, policies and procedures, confidentiality and privacy, change management, service operation management, information security, data management, physical security, billing and reporting and corporate health.
Any way you look at it, a breach can be costly and disastrous to your business – ransom, lawsuits, repair, reputation.
SOC 2 and MSP Verify test the competence of your IT provider. The AME Group welcomed that test and has become stronger as a result. With 35 years of experience being on the leading edge of technology, service models and security, we have proof The AME Group is here to stay and can weather the storms that threaten our businesses.
System and Organization Controls (SOC) is an Assurance and Advisory Service by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, AICPA. The SOC 2 third-party audit is based Trust Services Criteria set forth in TSP section 100 (AICPA, Trust Services Principles).
The UCS consists of 10 control objectives and underlying controls that constitute crucial building blocks of a successful managed services (and cloud computing) practice. Once the provider’s organization has completed all MSPCV (Managed Service Providers Cloud Verify) documentation on all applicable control objectives (with the assistance of MSPAlliance’s readiness assessments, gap analysis, helpful templates and consulting) the results are then examined by an independent third-party accounting firm for verification and signing of a public facing report.
As with any other substantive certification of this type, the MSPCV certification must be renewed annually. The MSPCV was the first certification created specifically for the managed services and cloud industry. Governmental agencies and regulatory bodies across the globe have reviewed MSPCV. 5 continents around the world use and accept the MSPCV control objectives.
Customers who select a company that is part of the MSPCV can also rest assured that their IT solution provider has met and exceeded the following standards, verified by a third-party audit process.
A third-party accounting firm signs the MSPCV certification report.
MSPAlliance® is a global industry association and accrediting body for the Cyber Security, Cloud Computing and Managed Services Provider (MSP) industry. Established in 2000 with the objective of helping MSPs become better MSPs. Today, MSPAlliance has more than 30,000 cloud computing and managed service provider corporate members across the globe and works in a collaborative effort to assist its members, along with foreign and domestic governments, on creating standards, setting policies, and establishing best practices. For more information, visit www.mspalliance.com
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Vincennes, IN 47591
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