Apex Computing Services is a well-established Computer Services Company established in 2003. Apex offers a full spectrum of IT services such as installation and support, repair and maintenance, email and internet, software development, and more. Apex supports many sectors in the northwest of England, including hospitality, legal, education, security, etc., specializing in primary school ICT support.
Unverified software compromised the security of user’s devices
Lack of cybersecurity awareness resulted in continuous breaches from a free version of a software
Increase in workload as the threat had to be constantly remediated
Better visibility on user endpoints
Easy deployment from a centrally managed platform
Zero trust controls that stop fileless malware and limits the damage from application exploits
A common issue faced by MSPs globally would be customers’ lack of due diligence before installing new applications on the internet. Nathaniel Gill, Head of Cybersecurity at Apex Computing Services recalls how onerous it became to properly secure their customer’s IT Infrastructure without the appropriate cybersecurity awareness training.
“We probably had about one customer on average every month that downloaded this file that they found online because it was a free version of the software that they needed and they didn’t check it properly, causing issues for us, increasing workloads, just generally keeping the security of the devices low.”
This pivoted Nathaniel toward implementing Zero Trust controls to assist with securing the endpoints of their end-users, especially in Education. However, this opportunity to develop the company’s offerings also came with challenges.
“We wanted to carry on providing the best service that we can to our customers without being overly expensive and losing out to cheaper options out there in the market. We started looking towards different solutions as we just wanted to further protect our customers’ environments.”
It was essential for Apex to create a bundle of services that could enhance their end-user's cybersecurity stack. Looking for an application whitelisting solution, Apex purchased ThreatLocker in April 2022. “The main reason we wanted to partner with ThreatLocker® was it allowed us to kind of screen any software that’s being run or been installed on the networks and devices, as well as creating compliance lists for cyber essentials and ISO certifications because you can pull the lists of the approved software.”
Implementing zero trust controls to deny by default is the best way to prevent untrusted software from running regardless of customer actions. Being an MSP “I look at how easy it is to deploy and manage a centrally managed platform with a lot of clients. You can go from one to the other really easily and operating the clients are really easy; being support is second to perfect.”
The onboarding process at ThreatLocker® was seamless. The Cyber Hero team provided support from the trial period until now. “No issue was too small. So even if we had a tiny issue affecting what we see, they would jump straight on, help us out, and get results for us as quickly as possible.”
It was important for Apex to partner with a company that aligned with our shared values and beliefs. When we looked at ThreatLocker’s mission, we felt like it was very much in line with ours as we want our customers to be the safest and happiest they can be.
By implementing Zero Trust, Apex’s business has benefited exponentially. “The main metric that I look at is how often our customers are being breached. Since installing ThreatLocker® on our customers, we’ve not had a single customer report a breach or virus.”
ThreatLocker® significantly reduced Apex’s global ticket volume, which was predominantly coming from user helplessness from things they could mistakenly do that would create issues. “The product is great, and it helps protect our customers without being overly expensive. Our customers also don’t need to worry about paying big fines due to their damages.”
Going forward, Apex will create a cybersecurity bundle to better protect its customers with ThreatLocker® in its baseline. “We would definitely recommend ThreatLocker® to our peers. The team is super great, the product is incredible, and we’ve not had any issues” Nathaniel concluded.
