Are You Properly Backing Up Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace Data?

Cloud Backup

Data protection is a paramount concern for every dealership – or least it should be.  Loss or corruption of critical information will lead to severe consequences, ranging from financial losses to reputational damage. This is why dealerships need a robust and easy to use backup solution like Spanning Backup. Spanning Backup is a cloud-to-cloud backup … Read more

Dealerships Need An Identity & Access Management Solution

What-Is-Identity-And-Access-Management

Does your dealership have an Identity and Access Management (IAM) solution implemented?  If you do not, then you’re most likely not in compliance with the new FTC Safeguards Rule.  And, even worse than non-compliance, is the fact that not having a IAM solution in place is a major cybersecurity vulnerability. So, what is IAM?  Azure … Read more

A Secure Solution For Dealerships To Receive Customer Files

Secure File Transfer

Dealerships face challenges when it comes to securely receiving customer files. Often, employees ask customers to send files via text, email, or other unsecured methods.  This will violate the new FTC Safeguards Rule’s regulations regarding the secure transfer, storage, and restricted access of Personally Identifiable Information (PII). However, there’s an easy solution to this problem … Read more

Dealerships Are Drowning In Security Debt

Drowning

Auto dealers – like many other businesses – are facing a serious problem when it comes to cybersecurity. They’re drowning in “security debt,” which means they have a multitude of unaddressed technical vulnerabilities that need to be addressed to protect their dealership from a cyberattack.  These unaddressed security vulnerabilities include things like unpatched software, unmanaged … Read more

Can Just Anyone Claim To Be “Qualified?”

IT Guy Trying To Repair

There’s some bad information floating around regarding the FTC Safeguards Rule, its intent, and cybersecurity best practice.  This misleading information is related to the FTC’s use of the word “qualified.”  More precisely, the FTC’s use of the term “qualified individual” and “qualified personnel.” The claim that is spreading is that because the FTC doesn’t specifically … Read more

Artificial Intelligence – Social Engineering on Steroids?

deep fake

Everyone seems to be talking about Artificial Intelligence (AI) like ChatGPT.  This technology – along with other generative AI models – present us with a wide range of potential benefits and some very serious potential concerns.  In this blog, we look at how AI can be used by cybercriminals to steal from your dealership, destroy … Read more

The Right Way To Do MFA

Multi-Factor Authentication

As the incidence, severity, and sophistication of today’s cyber threats continues to grow, the appropriate use of multi-factor authentication (MFA) is becoming increasingly important.  Add to this that new government regulations – like the FTC Safeguards Rule – now requires that businesses implement MFA.  The result is a lot of confusion, inefficiency, and quite frankly … Read more

Effective Cybersecurity Demands Visibility & Comprehension

Magnifying glass focusing a forest - Environmental conservation concept

In today’s world, cybersecurity threats are an ever-present danger to dealerships, both large and small.  The good news is that many dealerships are taking action to improve their cybersecurity posture and they’re implementing a variety of software, devices, and assessments in an attempt to protect their data, finances, and reputations.  But unfortunately, this just isn’t … Read more

5 Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities That Will Impact Your Dealership

cybersecurity vulnerabilities

As dealerships scramble to comply with the new FTC Safeguards Rule it’s important to remember why the new rule exists – to drive businesses to implement more effective cybersecurity practices that will protect consumer data.  The new rule doesn’t exist just to annoy businesses. Unfortunately, many dealerships are solely concerned with finding the easiest, cheapest … Read more