How Turning Point Maintains Trust with Security Solutions
Read how Turning Point worked with TierPoint to identify better backup solutions and protect vital customer data from bad actors.
Introduction
Turning Point of Lehigh Valley is a nonprofit organization that provides confidential resources to families and individuals who are survivors of domestic and intimate partner abuse. The agency offers a full range of services for people living in the region, including education, support, and advocacy.
Challenges
As Turning Point continues to grow, its Executive Director, Lori Sywensky, has made it a priority to improve the infrastructure of the organization, both to prepare for future growth and to make current services easier for people to access.
Turning Point relies heavily on government funding and grants, so they must adhere to strict regulatory demands. However, these grants necessitate a higher level of security than they had. And, as fiscal and operational systems were increasingly automated and new cyberthreats emerge, they were understandably concerned that they lacked the he necessary components for ensuring both security and anonymity, as required.
Based on experiences with previous vendors, Lori learned that her organization valued these principles from an IT perspective.
- Frequent Communication: Regular updates
- Planning: Creation of a long-term strategy with a roadmap to achieve her organization’s goals
- Cost Transparency: No surprises in costs or contract terms.
- Resiliency: Consistent and reliable backup services for important files and folders for a minimum of five years
- Security Measures: Establish a security posture that addresses all potential breaches and challenges in order to fulfill cyber insurance prerequisites
- Reliable phone systems: Set up reliable communication, so they can be available to securely respond to any calls in 15 minutes or less.
Turning Point did not have the in-house expertise to manage its IT environment. The nonprofit needed to work with a company that could break things down in understandable language and help them improve their security posture. They needed to work with a company that could restore their trust in managed IT.
Solutions
Paul Mazzucco, Chief Security Officer at TierPoint, reached out to the organization first. Paul was interested in making a difference as a community volunteer, which led him to offer a skill set that Lori didn’t know existed.
Paul was able to share an analysis of the existing network and infrastructure to demonstrate how Turning Point could improve on its established security measures. Turning Point needed a reliable backup strategy and an improvement in its security posture.
“Turning Point’s IT infrastructure was not getting the level of security and anonymity that their company mandates. Following our initial audit and discussions with the Turning Point team, we devised a comprehensive plan to enhance their firewall, access controls, and overall infrastructure. This empowers Turning Point to concentrate on their important work of helping people, free from the burdens of daily IT infrastructure management.”
– Paul Mazzucco, CSO, TierPoint
Knowing that the security situation was of the utmost importance, TierPoint started by setting Turning Point up with several CleanIP firewalls, in addition to multitenant cloud, backups, and storage services.
Turning Point has two main locations, and other employees work from different sites, either rented or working from home. While one building is publicly advertised, the other site is kept private and is further secured through frequent IP address refreshes. The implemented security measures also support the agency’s VPN and shared drives. Turning Point also hired local technical support. Their local IT support works alongside TierPoint to configure employee accounts, setting appropriate access levels and limitations.
Results
Understanding the importance of security processes often remains unclear until a pivotal moment arises. In one recent case, Turning Point systems were noticeably slow to respond around 5 p.m. on a Friday. Promptly, TierPoint alerted the organization that they were facing a Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attack, and their traffic was being re-routed in an effort to mitigate the attack. The plan worked as designed, with services fully and promptly restored, shortly after the attack started. This incident underscored the effectiveness of Turning Point's new security array.
Some businesses need to be back up and running in minutes. While Turning Point doesn’t need that high level of immediacy, they do benefit from backup solutions and disaster recovery measures that allow them to call people back in a timely fashion, as well as be able to retain records required by law.
Turning Point has successfully met the requirements for cyber insurance by boosting its security posture. Even though the cost of cyber policies has been rising anywhere from 50 to 200%, Turning Point saw its premium go down after implementing security measures from TierPoint. “I see a lot of nonprofits that haven’t even bothered to get cyber insurance,” said Sywensky, “and I’m very concerned for them.” Part of the reason Turning Point wanted to share its story was to convince other nonprofits to pursue additional measures to protect their systems. “If another nonprofit says ‘this is too complex,’ I believe they should reconsider.”
Nonprofit organizations in the social services sector, like Turning Point, handle a lot of sensitive data and work within a vulnerable client base need to meet several compliance requirements. The nonprofit not only has to be HIPAA-compliant, but also meet requirements for data privacy through the Violence Against Women Act, and standards established on the state level.
Since working with TierPoint, the organization’s legacy concerns about system failures and regulatory compliance have been successfully mitigated. “I want to run our protections in the background,” said Sywensky. “I want the peace of mind that our security is working as designed, protecting us and our clients, and that’s what TierPoint has enabled.”
At A Glance
Industry
Nonprofit Organization
Technology
Multitenant cloud services, CleanIP security services, backups, and storage.
Challenges
To meet its stringent backup and cybersecurity standards, Turning Point sought a new provider who could ensure customer trust in its systems, prioritize their security needs, and facilitate its acquisition of cyber insurance.
Solution
After running a comprehensive assessment, TierPoint and Turning Point found opportunities to enhance their backup practices. Immediate support included implementing several firewalls to protect the organization from cyber threats, plus the addition of a multitenant cloud, enhanced storage, and backup solutions.
Results
Since partnering with TierPoint, there have been significant improvements in the client’s regulatory compliance, satisfaction of cyber insurance requirements, and overall security posture. Even during a recent network attack, the firewalls performed as intended, protecting the agency from incoming threats. Turning Point wants to encourage other nonprofit organizations to consider working with a partner like TierPoint to help ensure the safety of their clients and donors.
Website
https://turningpointlv.org/
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