“WannaCry” has certainly lived up to its name, as the ransomware attack has impacted 200,000 computers in more than 150 countries – and counting. Renault, FedEx, Britain’s National Health Service and the Russian Interior Ministry have been reported as among the victims.

The situation reflects the alarming growth of these incidents: There were 638 million ransomware attacks last year, up from 3.8 million in 2015, according to the SonicWall GRID Threat Network.

At Acendre, we realize that both the volume and the sophistication of cyber threats grows by the day. We also understand that the increasingly troublesome landscape may cause our customers to harbor concerns about the security of IT solutions in general. That’s why we work hard to reaffirm their trust, by investing in fully “locked down,” cloud-enabled talent analytics solutions which are subject to rigorous access controls, preventing any unauthorized software installations.

As opposed to clinging to vulnerable legacy systems – research from the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA) ranks the replacement of legacy tech with modern alternatives as a “top ten” cybersecurity priority – our Acendre Cloud employs Amazon Web Services (AWS) to ensure world-class security and privacy. We store all information related to recruiting, onboarding, training/development, succession planning, etc. in well-fortified AWS data centers. Because our solutions are completely scalable, we continue to protect this data no matter how much your organization grows.

In addition, our solutions adhere to the highest of world standards for information assurance, including the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) in the U.S.; the Information Security Registered Assessors Program (IRAP) in Australia and Asia Pacific; and ISO 27001 from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), which sets forth universally followed cybersecurity best practices and comprehensive controls. 

Among many cyber defense and optimal operability measures, our policies and practices support:

Data encryption. Encryption protects data in motion (as it migrates to the cloud) and data at rest (as it remains stored in the cloud). Through the flexible AWS Key Management Service, we offer customers the option of managing their own encryption keys or allowing AWS to do so.

Anti-virus scanning. We scan all uploaded files (job candidate information, employee records, HR administration docs, etc.) automatically upon upload. If a file is infected, we discard it and let our customers know that it’s suspect.

Identity access and control. You can define, enforce and manage user access via AWS, with permissions required for user accounts and multi-factor authentication for privileged ones.

Availability and redundancy. AWS automatically replicates data in multiple data centers to deliver seamless durability.

Disaster recovery. Our solution environment is hosted in two AWS Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) zones, which are isolated. With this, Acendre balances traffic so that – should one zone fail – the other can step in to handle the full load.

Physical security. The AWS data centers are housed in nondescript facilities with strict controls over physical access. Authorized staff must pass two-factor authorization a minimum of two times to access their floors.

We take much pride in our approach to data protection – not because we know everything that’s going to happen, but because we do not know. No one could have predicted anything with the magnitude of WannaCry, after all. Given this, we work closely with AWS to prepare for anything in “expecting the unexpected.” As indicated, we greatly value our customers’ trust – it’s an asset that we never want to lose, because it can never be replaced. If this sounds like the something you’d like to find out more about, then let’s talk.