- Case Study: How Cork Helped Birmingham Consulting Avert a Cyber Disaster
- After Renaming as GTIA, the Former CompTIA Community Gets to Work for MSPs
- Phishing Clicks Tripled in 2024, Giving MSPs Plenty to Worry About
- Perspectives: How Channel Partners Can Help Customers Navigate the New World of AI
Each week, MSSP Alert compiles a list of the top stories in the managed services market from our affiliate brand, ChannelE2E. These stories include vendor news, business stories, how-to content about building and selling your business, news about trends such as artificial intelligence, and more. Here’s this week’s round-up of news from ChannelE2E.
Case Study: How Cork Helped Birmingham Consulting Avert a Cyber Disaster
Amanda Groves, principal at Groves Law in Waterdown, Ontario, Canada, did something we all do every day: She clicked a link in an email from what appeared to be a trusted source. The link led to a SharePoint site that requested login information -- unfortunately, Groves fell for a cleverly disguised link in a phishing email.
For all the security awareness training, warnings and advice on how to avoid being a victim of these attacks, they remain incredibly common and successful. IBM research showed that phishing scams are the leading initial attack vector, responsible for 41% of incidents. And according to GreatHorn, 57% of organizations face phishing scams weekly or daily. Nearly 1.2% of all emails sent are malicious, accounting for 3.4 billion phishing emails daily.
And human error continues to play a significant role, contributing to 74% of security breaches, according to the Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) 2023.
Meanwhile, CSO Online reports that 80% of security incidents are attributed to phishing, with losses totaling $17,700 every minute due to these attacks.
After Renaming as GTIA, the Former CompTIA Community Gets to Work for MSPs
The former CompTIA Community is a busy group this month, rebranding and renaming itself as the GTIA, continuing its search for a new CEO to lead it, and charging ahead to drive and embrace its mission as a strong trade association for the global IT channel and MSP industry.
The new GTIA moniker – the Global Technology Industry Association – was born out of its roots as an arm of CompTIA, a 42-year-old non-profit 501(c)(6) organization that provides global IT training and certifications while also maintaining a long-respected trade association for its global members.
But in November 2024, CompTIA announced that it was being acquired by two private equity firms – H.I.G. Capital and Thoma Bravo – in a deal that split the organization into a for-profit CompTIA certification and training business unit and the now separate non-profit trade association, which gets the GTIA name and identity.
With renewed energy, the GTIA said it plans to build upon its legacy as a vendor-neutral, non-profit membership community that connects and represents the worldwide IT channel. Under its new moniker, the GTIA will continue to represent tens of thousands of IT professionals from more than 2,000 MSPs, solution providers, tech vendors, distributors and other companies across the channel, according to the group.
Phishing Clicks Tripled in 2024, Giving MSPs Plenty to Worry About
Despite increased employee awareness, phishing rates skyrocketed in 2024, according to a new annual cloud threat report by SaaS cybersecurity firm Netskope. Phishing rates are up by 190%, about triple the rate seen in 2023, giving MSPs plenty of work to do as they continue to provide critical cybersecurity protections for their customers.
The threat report, conducted by Netskope Research Labs, found that the growing phishing problems are complicated today by additional threats from generative AI adoption and covert attacks by cybercriminals who are covertly placing dangerous links in a wide range of web pages, ads and other innocuous places.
“Generally, this showcases that current employee training to assure security is ineffective, and that employees remain the weakest security link,” Rob Enderle, principal analyst with Enderle Research, told ChannelE2E. “Employee training on security has always been inadequate. You need regular Red Team testing where a friendly group of attackers tests security, and employees are ranked and rated on their security effectiveness.”
MSPs can help, said Enderle, by providing more security services and training that can get to the root of the deepest problems. “Pushing for regular employee security training, hard and enforced rules on application approval, and helping with Red Team tests are all things MSPs should advise and help accomplish,” he said.
Perspectives: How Channel Partners Can Help Customers Navigate the New World of AI
COMMENTARY: Channel partners are essential in guiding businesses to make informed, strategic technology decisions. Through deep industry and domain expertise, many channel partners have established themselves as trusted advisors - and are now wading into the territory of becoming true "success partners" for businesses. This subtle shift indicates the breadth of impact that channel partners can have in the B2B world.
This relationship is non-negotiable. To maintain and enhance their value to businesses in 2025 and beyond, channel partners play a key role in helping customers navigate the emerging world of AI. Over 40% of channel partners are optimistic about the business potential that AI presents. While it offers tremendous opportunities, AI also carries inherent risks and challenges. In this dynamic landscape, customers need expert guidance.
Channel partners will play a vital role in helping both current and prospective customers navigate the complexities of the rapidly evolving AI landscape by taking the following key actions.
