The recent hack at technology company, Solar Winds, reached far and wide. Impacted companies and institutions included at least one university, a hospital system, US government agencies, numerous technology giants all the way down to smaller companies these larger companies provide services to.

Immediately upon learning about the hack, TNTMAX checked all its clients’ technology and none were affected by the compromise found in SolarWinds. The version of the software that was compromised was not being used by any of our clients. We maintain a high level of vigilance and are always on guard for incidents like this because these types of attacks leverage the trust our clients have in their IT provider. We are continuously vetting the solutions we roll-out to our client and keep a close eye on any vulnerabilities being identified so we can address them right away. The challenge is the zero-day vulnerabilities that are exploited by hackers that the software vendors are not aware of, and that put everyone at risk.

TNTMAX strongly believes in using multiple layers of security to provide multiple layers of protection for a client. In today’s cybersecurity landscape, we face extremely sophisticated hacker groups, organizations, and countries (China, Russia, and several in the Middle East, etc.) that have unlimited resources and can craft extremely lethal attacks that are undetectable by most security mechanisms for many months. Compartmentalizing and moving to Zero Trust architecture is a promising solution that we are focusing on.

This constant battle lays a big cost on companies, as they must spend large amounts of money on security mechanisms, cyber insurance, on-going monitoring, and consultants to try to stay one step ahead of those who seek to do them harm. This is very challenging and there are no truly safe places unless you completely disconnect your computer from any networks (wired, wireless, Bluetooth, etc.). Since we live in connected world, this is not a practical solution. The key is to always be on your guard and know that you are never 100% secure in any technology environment.

Frederic Farcy, President
TNTMAX