Founded in 2008 and headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, KSM Consulting’s services offerings include management consulting, IT consulting, cybersecurity, data analytics, and project management for businesses and non-profits of all sizes and industries, as well as government agencies.
Mark Creighton, technology manager for KSM Consulting, is part of the MSP’s business technology practice, where he is responsible for managing a client base of 40+ businesses. “Since I joined KSMC five years ago, we’ve experienced tremendous growth,” says Creighton. “Providing IT solutions that support productivity and security continues to be an area where clients desire a dependable trusted advisor and Barracuda products are a dependable and important part of that solution.”
Increase in spam and phishing attacks present a security challenge
Not surprisingly, Creighton reports that when it comes to email security, one of the biggest challenges faced by KSM Consulting’s clients has been spam and phishing attacks. “We are finding this to be the case everywhere we go,” says Creighton. “For clients that don’t have any email protection in place, attacks are through the roof. We help them understand that all it takes is one employee to completely compromise the entire organization.”
For KSM Consulting’s clients, reputation is extremely important – and justifiably so. “We live in what I like to refer to as a ‘small big city’,” says Creighton. “Everyone knows everyone, and our clients can’t afford to have one employee open or mistakenly act on a phishing scam.”
Support and integration features help solve email security challenges
KSM Consulting leverages the Barracuda Email Threat Scanner, alongside Barracuda’s other email security platforms to solve its clients email security challenges. “We like all of Barracuda’s solutions because we are confident in the protection,” says Creighton. “Every time we implement Barracuda Sentinel or another Barracuda solution, our clients love it. They notice immediate results. Also, because 99 percent of our clients are using Microsoft Office 365, Barracuda’s support and integration with this platform is a great fit.”
“Decision makers in the executive suite often don’t understand that threats exist within their organizations,” says Creighton. “When we leverage Barracuda Email Threat Scanner, we provide clients with a snapshot of what is happening within their organization and help them understand what is needed for a secure solution. It is a tangible deliverable we can use to demonstrate the need for email protection – a tool that serves as proof that threats exist. And, the results are eye opening.”
Creighton reports that once the key decision makers see what’s happening within their organization, they want things cleaned up right away. “No one wants to fall victim to a phishing attack,” he says. “Being able to provide proof and immediate results through Barracuda has driven tremendous success for us.”
Easily demonstrate the value of email protection
“It is much easier to make the case for email protection with the reports that are available through the Barracuda Email Threat Scanner,” says Creighton. “For example, the first day I ran the Email Threat Scanner, it was for three different clients. In fact, one of the clients has been hesitant about additional security for over a year – all it took was one scan and they understood the importance of it!”
One of the things that Creighton and his team like most about Barracuda Email Threat Scanner is the ability to show their clients which of their employees poses the greatest risk. “They can see the person’s name along with the number of fraudulent emails they have received,” he says. “The risk they face jumps out immediately, and the client is almost always astounded by the volume of bad emails. I can’t think of a better way to demonstrate the importance of email protection and support our clients in understanding where training will be impactful.”
In addition to identifying at-risk employees, Creighton also explains that with Barracuda Email Threat Scanner they can identify which services are impersonated most. “We find our clients get a lot of fraudulent emails from bad actors posing as Microsoft, eFax, and DocuSign,” he says. “This is dangerous because employees often aren’t able to tell the difference between what is real and what is fake. Seeing how many of the emails impersonate these well-known senders is another reason to add the solution.”
Run a free Email Threat Scan for your customers.
To learn more about our email security portfolio, visit our Barracuda Essentials page.
To learn more about how to protect your customers with AI, visit our Barracuda Sentinel page.
To learn how other Partners are improving their businesses, check out Barracuda MSP’s collection of Success Stories.
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Photo: NicoElNino / Shutterstock.
