A long time ago in a movie theater far, far away, a little film by the name of “Star Wars” took the world by storm and changed the course of sci-fi, cinema, and pop culture for decades to come. But believe it or not, this intergalactic tale of droids and lightsaber duels can actually teach us a lot about the importance of cybersecurity. As it turns out, if the bad guys had been a little more security-savvy, the film might have ended quite differently.

Phishing isn’t what it used to be. Older, popular scams — like grammatically incorrect love letters and mysterious princes who just need a little money — have given way to sophisticated and dangerous social engineering attacks. In fact, phishing has become so prevalent and effective that it is one of the three primary ways hackers compromise credentials.

Achieving an effective bring-your-own-device (BYOD) program has been aspirational for many IT organizations. There are explicit security and privacy concerns, which have led many admins to sour on the concept, despite its benefits. Admins have even reluctantly accepted the risk of personal PCs being left unmanaged, which leaves gaps in management and visibility.

IT professionals are the people who Make Work Happen™ throughout their organization — so it’s important they have the right tools at their fingertips. We believe that the best tools are those that can adapt to meet their needs as they evolve. This ethos drives the continual investment in the JumpCloud platform based on regular user input and feedback. As we’ve collected and acted upon customer feedback over the last couple of years, the JumpCloud platform has grown significantly.

JumpCloud’s MSP partners are at the forefront of providing essential IT services to small and medium-sized businesses globally. In our interview series, we delve into conversations with these partners, exploring the dynamics of their MSPs and how JumpCloud plays a pivotal role in their operations. In today’s feature, we had the opportunity to speak with Chris Notley of FIFUM.

Microsoft’s Active Directory (AD) has been a mainstay of information systems for over 20 years, but it was intended for a different era of computing and business requirements. Its persistence affects IT’s agility, impacts security posture, and limits IT’s capacity to provide the best-of-breed tools that employees expect.

In the dynamic landscape of today’s digital age, companies face an array of challenges — from heightened security concerns and the proliferation of devices, to the complexities of managing distributed workforces spanning multiple time zones and native languages. Navigating these issues becomes even more daunting when the tools available to IT admins and managed service providers (MSPs) are spread across an array of point solutions.

Granting privileged access to an end user’s device is a common practice in organizations. Admins do it to give end users the ability to manage administrative tasks such as downloading applications and accessing resources on their devices. It can be done manually, which is cumbersome and introduces risks. Or it can be managed to improve user productivity without requiring additional IT help or intervention, so that IT can focus on higher priority tasks.

I recently saw a post on LinkedIn from a managed service provider (MSP) who had turned down an opportunity because the prospect used Google Workspace. While I understood their reasoning for doing this, it did get me thinking: Why are MSPs so hesitant to work with Google? I created a casual poll on LinkedIn and the results revealed a significant trend: a majority of MSPs seem to be bypassing Google Workspace as a viable service offering.