FAQs

Cybersecurity maturity is a discipline. It requires persistent, ongoing, and repeatable actions to protect your firm against the continuously evolving cyber threat landscape.

Specifically, cybersecurity maturity refers to how well an organization integrates security safeguards throughout their business operations and stages of growth.

Gone are the days when cybersecurity was a one-and-done solution against malicious actors. There is no one tool, strategy, or policy that is effective enough to withstand the onslaught of today’s threats. You need a comprehensive cybersecurity program and a way to track and measure your safeguarding actions. Learn more here and here.

NIST is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce and is one of the oldest physical science labs in the nation. They provide technology, measurement, and standards on a variety of subjects, including cybersecurity, to numerous industries.

CIS is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to sustaining best practice solutions to protect organizations against cyber threat.

The certification process requires an extensive audit to ensure STS’ operational alignment with the Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements (SSAE) No. 19 including CIS 20 certified critical security controls.

Recognized as the gold standard for security, organizations must exhibit a methodical and continued approach to handling restricted information if they want to acquire this certification. STS is currently one of the first MSP and private cloud providers with expertise in working with the legal community to receive such a certification.

Working with an MSP that has SSAE-19 certification has many benefits, which include:

• Knowing your data and confidential information is solidly secure
• Access to greater cybersecurity knowledge, experience, tools, and strategies
• Better understanding of how to address client and insurance company audits
• Expert guidance on meeting and maintaining industry regulatory compliance

Learn more here.

Service Organization Controls (SOC) 2 is a compliance standard that outlines how organizations should manage client data. Developed by the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA), the SOC 2 is voluntary. Since data centers manage and store all types of data (private, proprietary, etc.), it’s essential that they put standards in place to secure this data keeping it safe from cybercriminals. SOC 2 controls address security, availability, and the processing integrity of the systems used to process data as well as the privacy and confidentiality of the data being processed.

Multitenant hosting is also known as, “shared hosting.” This means a single physical computer, virtual machine (VM), database, application server, or infrastructure is shared among multiple users or client organizations. Though each client is pulling from shared resources, their data remains separate via tagging and a partition. The multitenant hosting relationship is like that of one apartment to the whole apartment building. Though all tenants share similar resources like a parking garage, fitness, or party room, they still have their own apartment that has its own key. The benefits of shared hosting are simplicity and affordability. Learn more here.

In general, virtualization is a technology that enables you to use the full capacity of a physical machine. For example, traditionally, every physical server was assigned to run one task, whether that be for email, web, or legacy applications. In the past, you’d have three servers, one for each of the tasks. HOWEVER, each task doesn’t require 100% of the server’s capacity and oftentimes, the task only used one-third of the server’s running potential.

Virtualization allows you to split each server into various parts to handle more independent tasks. The benefits of using the full capacity of each server are numerous – you can cut down on the amount of hardware required thereby increasing your IT efficiency and agility and reducing costs.

Learn more about the diverse types of virtualizations here.

IaaS allows companies to rent basic computing, storage and networking resources on demand and pay only for what you need. This service allows you to reduce your IT infrastructure and hardware maintenance costs.

A cloud provider, such as Microsoft Azure, manages the IT infrastructure for you, while you’re still responsible for purchasing, installing, configuring, and managing your own software, operating systems, middleware, and applications. 

IaaS benefits include optimized costs and improved scalability, performance, stability, reliability, security, and disaster recovery.

Businesses that develop, test, deliver, and manage software applications use PaaS. The reason is because PaaS cloud providers set up, manage, and maintain the IT infrastructure (servers, storage, network, and databases) needed for software development. This leaves the company responsible only for their applications and data. Using PaaS helps developers work more quickly to create mobile and web apps, which is a coveted benefit for this industry.

SaaS offers software applications via the internet and on demand and are typically set up on a subscription basis. SaaS cloud providers handle all software and hardware requirements, including the IT infrastructure, software upgrades and security patching. Companies can access this software via a web browser or on a variety of devices (mobile phone, tablet, or PC).