Synagex President & CEO Joins Board of Local Bank

Adams Community Bank recently welcomed Synagex President and CEO, John Sinopoli, to their board. Adams community bank is a community-focused, mutually owned savings bank providing banking services to the people and businesses of the Berkshires.

As an IT executive with over 20 years of technology consulting and leadership experience, John will bring immeasurable assets to the local community bank, combining his deep expertise in cybersecurity and compliance with his extensive banking background.

In his prior position as Senior Vice President of Information Technology at Berkshire Bank, John led the IT team during the company's aggressive merger and acquisition-based growth across the US. Now, as President and CEO of Synagex, Inc., John focuses on simple, result-driven technology and cybersecurity solutions for small to medium sized businesses.

Identity Management Tips & Advice from Synagex

Celebrate Identity Management Day 2023 with us!

Happy Identity Management Day! Identity Management Day is a day invented by the National Cybersecurity Alliance and intended to bring awareness to the importance of identity management as a part of cybersecurity protection 🛡️

Here's why Identity Management is important:

👤 We all have a digital identity composed of huge amounts of personal data that exists online—and our information is really valuable to cyber criminals.

🎣 Cyber criminals can use our personal information to steal our money or our identity—and they can also use this information to target OTHERS in our network with phishing attempts.

⚠️ 79% of organizations have experienced an identity-related security breach in the last two years—the majority of which were 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲.

Preventing Identity-Related Security Breaches

Individuals can make small adjustments to our awareness practices to fortify against identity-related cyber attacks. Make to you follow this checklist to cover your basics and keep you accounts—and your identity—secure 🔒

• Adjust your security settings—Hackers are likely to use default settings and credentials to access accounts.

• Think before you click—We say this all the time, but remember to always pay close attention to message and hyperlink details before clicking on anything!

• Think before you SHARE—We all share a lot of information online... consider adjusting the privacy settings on your social media accounts, and thinking twice before sharing any personal information.

• Keep strong password hygiene—Use password managers to create and store complex and unique passwords to all of your accounts. And remember to always use multi-factor authentication whenever possible.

• Keep your software up-to-date—We know it can seem cumbersome, but always update your software rather than ignoring the notification that the update is available. They often are patching the software for discovered security flaws!

Identity Management for Businesses and Organizations

This year, identity management day specifically recognizes the need to bring more awareness to identity and access governance within organizations. When it comes to great cybersecurity strategy, governing and protecting access to different areas of an organization can be key to fortifying against cyber attacks.

Our Recommendation? A ZERO-TRUST approach—ask ALL the questions!

• Who are you?

• What can you access?

• What are you accessing?

• Are you authorized to access this & why?

A zero-trust approach to identity management and cybersecurity assumes nothing is safe or secure—questioning access continuously for identity verification, rather than a single, one and done permission.

Implementing Zero-Trust

At Synagex, we know that migrating to a zero-trust approach to security policy and procedure can be overwhelming, to say the least. Most organizations—and many that need to adopt zero trust the most—don’t really know what data they have and where it all is… especially now that everyone has adopted cloud technology so quickly.

The answer? A risk assessment.

We will root for a thorough cybersecurity risk assessment ANY day to identify the gaps in any existing security structure—it’s the only way to start down the right path to tackle IT. Give us a call today to get started! 413-650-5230

Facts & Stats for Cloud Security Day

Today is ☁️ Cloud Security Day ☁️—here’s why it’s important:

Cloud technology has become so ubiquitous that most of us are using it at work and at home every day… and haven’t put much thought into the SECURITY of these convenient cloud-based services... meanwhile Cloud Account Compromise is the #1 Cybersecurity Risk in the US. 😨

This risk has a lot to do with work culture being powered by remote working which drastically increased possible attack surfaces.

What is the cloud, anyway?

The Elusive Cloud ☁ Where is it? Is it someone else's computer? Are we all safe in the cloud? Is the cloud... in the sky?

The cloud is the Internet, basically.

We store, access and run things off of the internet, rather than a physical piece of equipment. It's on-demand, and it's remotely accessible anywhere we have an internet connection — making all things computing more convenient than ever!

You are probably using the cloud way more than you realize. Things like the entire Google Drive (Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Maps etc.) are all on the cloud, as well as streaming services like Netflix. And SO. MUCH. MORE.

The Cloud Needs Security

While we may have been overlooking Cloud Security, hackers definitely have NOT. Brute force Cloud Attacks target 95% of organizations—and succeed around one third of the time. Yikes!

What can you do?

Stay cybersecurity-AWARE 👀 People are the strongest defense against cybersecurity attacks, so as always proceed with CAUTION! Think before you click! Trust your gut!

Here’s some things to think about when it comes to protecting your data:

• Keep Strong Password Hygiene 💪 (We can’t emphasize this enough!)

• Back-up Files Elsewhere 🔄 (Better safe than sorry.)

• Set Permissions for Cloud Access 👥 (Not everyone needs to access EVERYTHING, right?)

• Encrypt Sensitive Data Before Storing on the Cloud 🔒 (Planning for the worst!)

Happy #CloudSecurityDay from the team at Synagex! As always, if you need help securing the cloud infrastructure of your business, don't hesitate to reach out. We promise we make the world of cybersecurity, compliance and general information technology efficient, easy-to-understand and FUN!

Just trust us. ✆ ℡ 413.650.5230