One of Northern Ireland’s leading tech entrepreneurs has launched a new
specialist company focused entirely on delivering managed cybersecurity
services to client organisations here and across the UK and Ireland. Vantor
has been established by Gareth McAlister and is a sister company to Nimbus,
the IT support business established by Gareth in 2010.
Leading the businesses commercial operations is Paul McShane, who has a wealth of exceptional experience building and leading commercial teams over the past 20 years. Paul’s ability to build and lead high-performing teams across diverse markets has seen him holding senior commercial roles within Global Print and Document Management giant Xerox and more recently within other national and local market leaders.
Paul, who joined Vantor when it launched earlier this year says, “Adopting growth strategies that meet the demands of both international and local markets is something I have enjoyed greatly over two decades, but having the opportunity to get involved in a new startup business within the Cyber Security sector is something that I am very excited about”.
Nimbus have been hitting the headlines in recent years through an impressive list of awards, growth and innovation within the IT sector. “We been successfully providing the full range of Managed IT solutions to its customers for almost 14 years, including IT Support, Cloud, Connectivity, Video Conferencing and of course included IT security,” says Gareth McAlister. “The constantly increasing and evolving cyber threat to businesses of all shapes and sizes today made it easy to understand that there is a real need and appetite in the business community for that focused, dedicated, partner that specializes exclusively in cybersecurity.”
“We aim to be an important partner to business large and small, a strategic partner to internal IT teams in medium and large organisations and a vital support and resource to the leaders and owners of smaller businesses” adds Gareth McAlister.
Adopting new technologies is of course part of modern business strategy. “Reel back ten years and it was all about the cloud and what it could do for all of us,” adds Gareth McAllister. “Customers, at times were apprehensive about embracing this new way of working and in some cases had to alternative but to step into the cloud. “Flash forward to today and the continuing rise in cyber-attacks mean businesses have no choice but to invest in a strong security posture to protect their business and demonstrate to customers, insurers and stakeholders that they have done all they can to defend themselves.”
“There is a stigma to admitting you have fallen victim to something like a ransomware attack” adds Paul McShane. “Businesses don’t want to admit to that. They’re worried about reputational damage and customers viewing them as unhygienic and walking away. And there is some evidence to suggest that’s exactly what can happen.”
“Vantor aim to provide the tools and services to help our clients prevent the vast majority of attacks getting through, but critically to also detect and respond to the advanced attacks that are successful” “a timely and effective response to a successful attack is key to minimizing the impact on your business”
“Large multinational organisations have been protecting themselves against these threats for a long time, working with similarly sized security consultancy providers and investing in 24/7 detection and response services through inhouse and outsourced Security Operations Centres (SOC). This hasn’t historically been an option for most businesses in the domestic market” “As cyber criminals are now using AI and automation to attack our SMB business community on mass, we have brought these 24/7 detection & response services, through our outsourced Security Operations Centre, to the local business community in a practical and affordable way. Allowing them to focus on what they do best, growing their businesses, safe in the knowledge that they have round the clock protection”
Gareth McAlister paints a vivid picture of how Vantor’s team can jump into action. “Let’s say you find out, at 3 am on a Sunday morning, that your systems have been breached and you’ve become another victim of a ransomware attack. Your data and systems are inaccessible, and your business isn’t operational. What do you do? Who are you contacting? With solutions such as our Endpoint Detection and Response, threats like ransomware attacks are detected early using AI and machine learning, the effected device is instantly isolated from the rest of your system to prevent spread of the attack, and our 24/7 SOC maintain secure access to the effected device to remediate the situation, return the device to a safe state and importantly understand how the attack happened and provide actionable insights on how to prevent it happening again”
Paul McShane likens the Vantor’s approach to cybersecurity to that of the physical security. “Most businesses will have invested in alarm systems, CCTV, and many will have these monitored by a managed security company who can respond on their behalf should there be a break in or a fire for example” “I don’t have the numbers but I’d bet there are more cyberattacks on local businesses than there are burglaries, yet most businesses don’t protect their digital business as they do their physical premises and what is actually the most valuable part of modern business?” “Our services provide that same managed security service for your digital assets, we provide the alarms, CCTV and the managed response to incidents all delivered by highly skilled cybersecurity professionals”
Attacks meanwhile remain on an upward trajectory. They continue to grow in sophistication, and they’re being driven by criminal organisations who are commercially motivated like any other business. “These gangs are big commercial operations with a lot of people working for them. For these gangs it has become about volume, gone are days when ransomware attacks were only targeted at companies who could afford to pay millions of pounds. Nowadays, attackers are utilising AI and automation tools to efficiently and effectively target local SMB’s in volume and are much more likely to be demanding tens of thousands rather than millions” “the ransom fee is not the only consequence for local businesses, one, the payment of the fee does not always result in a happy ending with all data and systems returned, but there is also the cost of downtime, returning hardware and systems to an operational state, and reputational damage to consider”
The net effects of the Covid pandemic also haven’t helped. “while the move to remote or hybrid working is rightly seen as a positive one for many businesses it adds another layer of complexity to security. Employees are no longer safely sat behind corporate firewalls and accessing corporate data and systems from company issued devices. Protecting these employees and the data they can access remotely is something business need to seriously consider” says Paul McShane.
Both Gareth McAlister and Paul McShane have high hopes for Vantor and the value it can bring to local businesses. “I see good cybersecurity as a business enabler for local organisations. Establishing good practices and evidencing this through accreditations like Cyber Essentials say you are not only open for business but a safe business for your customers to work with. It will help maintain existing customer relationships and open doors to new ones” says Paul McShane.
“There are no geographical limitations with our services” adds Gareth McAlister. “Most of our customers are in UK & Ireland as things stand, but that will change as our reputation grows. We can support anyone, anywhere”.