OTAVA®’s Statement on the Crisis in Ukraine

 As the situation in Ukraine continues to evolve, we are taking immediate action to further strengthen our operations and environments to account for the impending threat of nefarious cyber activities and the risk they present to our business and our customers. We have proactively executed our emergency tactical response plan and are revising it to reflect the current world events. The security and continuity of your business operations through these trying times is our top priority. 

We are anticipating the escalation of cyberthreats from abroad and actively responding to protect our customers and our business from malicious intent. For security purposes, we will keep this information high-level. The following activities are tactical response measures and already underway. 

• Deeper centralized log review  
• Deeper vulnerability scanning and reviews (internal and external)  
• Health checks on all disaster recovery methods. 
• Additional Infrastructure hardening  
• Advanced system monitoring 
• Proactively reviewing all system and network point configuration to ensure strictest methods of access 
• Further hardening of all perimeter defenses  
• Further hardening of all approved remote access methods 

For helpful technical information on addressing the threat of cyber warfare in your environment, please review this reference documentation from our partners at Fortigate.   

Otava is committed to offering tactical and educational resources on cyber preparedness, cybersecurity, and cyber resiliency for business continuity to our clients. Our recently recorded webinar on Critical Data Security Measures offers great reference information for proactively preparing for cyber threat. The below are considered immediate best practices for maintaining data integrity: 

• Keep all systems and software up to date 
• Keep all critical systems properly backed up  
• Immediately test the health of your most recent backups 
• Require multi factor authentication for system and network access 
• Proper use of data encryption  
• Perform a threat analysis with your security team 
• Train and educate staff on cybersecurity best practices 

If you lack confidence or expertise in the security of your environment or ability to maintain business continuity, please reach out immediately to OTSales@otava.com and we will be happy to discuss options that are right for your business. 

The crisis in Ukraine is fast-evolving and we are monitoring it closely. We will continue to proactively communicate our response as the situation unfolds. Please do not hesitate to reach out with questions. For questions regarding our response to the crisis in Ukraine, please email [email protected]. 

If you have additional questions on methods to improve your environment and its security posture, our solutions experts are prepared to prioritize your immediate needs. If you require Support or further technical assistance securing your internal systems, please contact Otava Support at [email protected] or call us at 877-740-5028 option 3. 

Our thoughts are with Ukraine and the well-being of its people.   

Sincerely,  

TJ Houske, Vice President of Operations