‍Tuesday, 30 April 2024 17:16 ‍

Hello  ‍,

We’ve been busy and it has been quite a while since we sent a newsletter, but there are a few important issues to address and we’ve got lots of other news and information to share. Let’s get right down to business:

1. Critical VMware vCenter (VCSA) security updates

2. VMsources expands vCloud

3. Affordable Business Cloud for SMB (5-50 employees)

4. Spooky Tales from the Data Center

Your Business Continuity Specialist,

John Borhek

CEO, Lead Solution Architect

VMsources Group Inc.

Mobile: +1 928.606.0483

Direct-dial office: +1 928.864.0850

Email: john@vmsources.com

Website: https://vmsources.com

1. Critical VMware vCenter (VCSA) Security Updates

On 10/25/2023 VMware released security advisory VMSA-2023-0023 describing a potential remote code execution vulnerability. This vulnerability was given a CVSSv3 base score of 9.8, meaning the need to update your vCenter (VCSA) is urgent.

Updating your vCenter (VCSA) is easy and won’t disrupt any running VMs:

1. Browse to: https://VCSA_URL_or_IP:5480

2. Take a backup of your vCenter (VCSA) with the embedded backup utility

3. Go to updates and select the latest available update

4. Click: Stage and Install

5. Wait until it is complete

The good news is that a patch is available for vCenter (VCSA) versions 7.0 and 8.0. The bad news is that there is no patch for any older/unsupported vCenter (VCSA) versions like 6.0, 6.5 or 6.7. 

If you would like VMsources to manage your supported vCenter (VCSA) update, give us a call and we’ll get it done.  

If you are running unsupported vCenter (VCSA) versions, it is critical to update to a supported version ASAP! If you are running unsupported vCenter (VCSA) and would like to get to a supported version, we can do that too, from the best pricing on HPE hardware to implementing a full vSphere refresh and getting your critical systems and data migrated to supported systems.

2. VMsources expands vCloud

Our VMware vCloud is becoming a popular choice for SMB and enterprise alike. One of the things that sets VMsources apart is the simplicity and straightforwardness of the migration process:

1. We provide a guaranteed quote and TCO with no overages or hidden charges.

2. When you commit, we roadmap the migration with your team.

3. We begin to seed your data to the vCloud with Veeam Backup and Replication.

4. At the appointed time, we fail-over from your legacy environment to the vCloud.

5. We work with your team to validate that all services and connections are online.

6. 30 days after solution acceptance, we bill what we quoted!

Due to the popularity of our vCloud, we recently doubled the capacity of our Compute environment in SV4 (Silicone Valley) and added 40GbE Spine switching capability.

Our vCloud is built for performance and stability, plus our dedicated management guarantees everything is always running smoothly. 

Give us a call to quote your migration to VMsources vCloud, any your systems could be securely hosted in as little as a week!

3. Affordable Business Cloud for SMB (5-50 employees)

The Challenge:

Business with 5-50 employees need real Information Technology services for their growing needs. Unfortunately, costs are often prohibitive or talent unavailable and needs go unmet. As a result, businesses often suffer issues ranging from Ransomware and lost data to functionality issues.

The Symptoms:

• Lost data due to lack of an automated backup solution (3-2-1 Compliant)
• Difficulty with shared files
• Problematic remote access
• Slow or no support 
• Users sharing accounts and passwords

The Solution:

VMsources Business Cloud is a focused solution where we bundle all of your applications (Office, QuickBooks, etc.) together on a multi-user Windows computer running in our 100% USA Dedicated Cloud. By doing this, not only are we able to provide support, but solve all of the typical issues faced by businesses on a day-to-day basis:

Standard features:

• Scheduled 3-2-1 backups for 30 days
• Working and reliable fileshare
• Remote (VPN) access
• Support with a team you know and trust
• Install your business management applications such as QuickBooks 
• Fully managed Cloud firewall
• Active Directory authentication (one account per user)

Optional features:

• MFA Authentication with DUO
• Managed enterprise firewall for your office(s)
• Full managed VoIP solutions
• Antivirus of your choice
• o365 Email and/or Office Applications
• Extra RAM, CPU, Disk

How does it work:

We build a separate Business Cloud for each customer with all of the resources and applications you need. Then we create a VPN tunnel to your office(s), so that when your users sit down at their workstations, it will be as if everything is right in the office!

If you are working from home or a remote office, no problem, we’ll provide you with a dedicated and secure VPN (remote connection) and as soon as you connect, you will have full access, not only to your applications hosted in the Business Cloud, but to devices like printers in your office.

Because we are hosting your Business Cloud on VMsources vCloud, we can guarantee that backups are performed on schedule, and your systems are working properly all of the time.

The Cost

Business Cloud starts at $200/mo. plus $10.00/mo. per user. 

The Result

You get peace of mind that your data is safe and protected, plus you get the functionality you need from your systems.

4. Spooky Tales from the Data Center

On this Halloween eve, we’d like to present three true tales of disaster in the data center, why the victims got in trouble and how the Villains got away.

All too often Organizations just like yours focus on the wrong things. They invest tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in Managed Security (which makes the Corner Office feel protected), without taking care of the simple stuff first.

“The Device Password Attacks”

Once upon a time there existed a major Energy Transportation company. They had all the best technology and spend hundreds of thousand dollars on a well-known Managed Security solution. Auditors had given them great marks on Active Directory password security and their Managed Security solution routinely ran email phishing tests, notifying managers when users opened suspicious attachments. They thought they were well protected.

Unfortunately, their IT team had neglected to harden passwords on devices like firewalls which were used to create VPN connections for users. Worse yet, they had used the same passwords for devices and systems like ESXi and local passwords on Windows. All the Villains had to do was brute-force a firewall password and they had cart-blanche access to the Energy Transportation company’s systems. 

The moral to the story is to check your device passwords and make sure they are all at least 16 character randomized passwords, stored securely.

“The Threat Actor Migrated Laterally”

In a faraway land existed a fun and friendly Automotive Sales Company with dealerships all over the USA. These were smart cookies who did everything right. Passwords were good, OS versions and firmware were up-to-date and they had a full Disaster Recovery plan with replication to a remote facility in case anything did go wrong.

What Automotive Sales didn’t count on was user apathy. A single Member of the IT team, an admin with access to the master password database, had taken it on his/her own to copy and store passwords in plain text on a document which was later found on Members desktop.

At some point, another (unprivileged) User had clicked a suspicious attachment, giving the Villain remote access to Users desktop.

You might think “no big problem here, because User was unprivileged,” but you’d be wrong! You see, Villain had weeks to snoop Users desktop and at some point an Administrator had logged on to Users desktop, probably to provide support or install an application.

Unfortunately, Active Directory (especially if not up-to-date and at latest Forest levels) is known for the ability to discover passwords of users and Administrators who log on to systems and then move sideways, escalating to other systems on the network with Administrators credentials.

Now this is already bad enough. Villain had weeks to steal information and browse the network, one system at a time. Villain had all they needed to deploy Ransomware right there and cripple Automotive Sales. But what about the Disaster Recovery site? Well, the Villain had discovered the plaintext passwords, including the password to the master database, which included the passwords to the Disaster Recovery environment as well!

When Villain was ready to strike, it was everything at once. Ransom all of the running systems, and then ransom the DR environment too! Automotive Sales came to a standstill.

Fortunately, Automotive Sales had chosen to protect a few of their most critical systems with Immutable Cloud Backups that Villain was unable to touch. While all of their day-to-day operations remained offline because they were protected only by Replication (which Villain destroyed), Automotive Sales was able to quickly recover the heart of their business and slowly rebuild functionality.

The moral of the story is two-fold: First, NEVER store any passwords in plaintext. Second, implement a 3-2-1 compliant backup solution which includes BOTH Replication and Cloud Immutable Backups for all systems.

“The Threat Actor Encrypted all our Backups”

In a dark metropolis existed an Analysis Firm where important things were analyzed every day. Thousands of companies counted on data from Analysis Firm.

One dark and stormy Friday night, a Villain gained access to Analysis Firms systems when one of their users clicked on an attachment from Villain (“you’ve won $1,000,000”).

Villain was able to deploy Ransomware within a matter of minutes, Rendering all of Analysis Firms AD systems useless. Unfortunately, Analysis Firms backup system was also a member of their AD domain, also rendering all of the backups useless as well.

Analysis Firm team members had a good and unknowing weekend, and when they returned to the office on Monday, nothing worked!

The moral of the story is that your backup systems SHOULD NOT be part of your AD domain, and it should use a separate, strong password which is stored securely. Also, this situation could have been prevented if Analysis Firm had implemented a 3-2-1 compliant backup solution, with at least one copy stored securely in the Cloud.

A Happy Ending?

If you contact VMsources, we can implement a full DRaaS solution for your Organization within a matter of days (a week at most) and protect all your critical data with both Replication and Offsite Immutable Backups (full 3-2-1 Compliance). And if Replication isn't in the budget, we can at least protect your data with Immutable Cloud Backups, so you can restore when something happens.

What's the difference between DRaaS (Replication) and Immutable Cloud Backups?

• With true DRaaS (Replication), you can fail-over to our VMware VCloud immediately when a disaster occurs, giving your Organization a RTO of 1-hour or less. Also, resources like IP addresses are pre-assigned, and networking is pre-configured, further speeding the process.
• With Immutable Cloud Backups only, the systems must be restored to our VMware vCloud before they can be failed-over to, giving a typical RTO of 12-24 hours. Also, resources like IP addresses must be assigned at the time of restore (before fail-over can occur) and networking must be configured.

Best of all, new customers get 90 Days Free with any DRaaS or Offsite Backup

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