We’ re In It Together
Take Network Configuration Seriously
Beyond Tech
BRIGHT CLIENT
JESS HOWARD ELECTRIC COMPANY
By Abbey Kanellakis, content development specialist, abbey. kanellakis @ reacpa. com( Dublin office)
When Jesse E. Howard founded Jess Howard Electric Company in 1945, he couldn’ t foresee the threats his business would come face-to-face with. What started as a modest appliance retail and repair shop has grown to become one of the region’ s leading electrical contracting firms; growth that has come with its share of challenges.
In 2016, about half of all businesses reported they had suffered at least one ransomware attack over the last year. And almost 40 percent of those businesses had to pay a ransom to recover their data. Fortunately, today’ s leadership team at Jess Howard has the foresight needed to stay one step ahead of the bad guys.
Today, the Jess Howard Electric Company has beat ransomware – an unheard of statistic particularly among small, familyowned businesses.
But Jess Howard Electric Company’ s approach to IT and data security is anything but ordinary.
We’ re In It Together
“ No matter how much you spend on the best hardware, software and security devices, you will never be worry-free,” explained Scott Stottlemire, an independent senior network / IT engineer and software engineer for Jess Howard Electric.“ The best thing you can do is to prepare for the worst. You don’ t want the first time you have a problem to be the first time you have ever restored your data. You have to put your infrastructure in place and you have to test your procedures.”
Jonathan Howard, president and CEO of Jess Howard Electric, has taken an active role in the company’ s IT and data security effort – a stance not normally taken by other CEOs.
“ If something goes wrong, if your network is breached, it can cost millions to recover.
Money you don’ t have. Your data is your business. If you lose control over that, you have nothing,” said Jonathan.
Jonathan’ s relationship with Scott has been essential to protecting his company’ s data as it has empowered Scott to make security recommendations and identify solutions to many of the company’ s IT-related challenges. The results speak for themselves.
Take Network Configuration Seriously
Among other precautions, Jess Howard Electric utilizes three physical servers that enable the company to ensure up-to-date backups at all times. Removable hard drive media data backups are also copied nightly and taken offsite. Additionally, the company runs its own external Domain Name Servers, giving Jess Howard Electric control over which IP addresses are approved for internet access.
Separate from the company’ s network configuration, which limits user access to the company’ s entire network while providing a fail-safe in the event an attack does occur, the company takes steps to protect the network from viruses and ransomware. In fact, Jess Howard Electric’ s commitment to online protection includes a hardware appliance for virus and malware protection related to all inbound and outbound email and attachments. They also use client applications to prevent attacks on the team’ s PCs.
“ We are implementing a messaging gateway solution that will disassemble all emails and disarm and remove any malicious scripts or attachments, reassemble the email with the threat removed and then deliver the email as intended with a user notification indicating that an attachment or malicious items were removed from the email,” said Scott.“ This will help optimize real-time protection against cyber threats, which will also maximize our uptime.”
Beyond Tech
The hardware and software solutions implemented by Jess Howard Electric demonstrate the company’ s commitment to data security. But the most important investment the company has made has been in the continued education of its 120 + employees.
“ We recognized long ago that you can’ t solve a user or management problem with technology. After all, your systems aren’ t going to infect themselves,” Scott said.“ Your team, your users, are your first line of defense and educating the end-user is just as critical as all the other planning we’ ve done.”
To learn more about Jess Howard Electric Company, visit www. jesshoward. com.
You can check out the entire Jess Howard Electric Company case study at www. reacpa. com / jess-howard-case-study,“ How To Survive A Ransomware Attack,” to learn what else the company is doing to protect itself from cyberattacks.
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