Platte River Networks, Partners Strengthen Security with Webroot

Colorado-based MSP Platte River Networks (PRN) says it and its partners have been able to beef up their cybersecurity capabilities through the company’s ongoing partnership with Webroot, a provider of endpoint security and threat intelligence.

PRN partners with technology vendors, including hardware, software, service and strategic providers. With Webroot, the company says it is able to better protect against ransomware and phishing attacks, while also saving its staff time responding against those threats and handling client onboarding and technology integrations.

Elon Grad, PRN’s director of technology and innovation, tells us a wave of “invasive and crippling” cryptolocker ransomware infections back in 2014 caused his company to re-evaluate its antivirus solution, and “we realized we didn’t have adequate protections in place.”

Platte River Networks’ Elon Grad

“We ultimately selected Webroot … for two reasons — first, it was the only antivirus product that enables our administrators to make logical decisions about what kind of things happen on our network,” he said. “Second, we appreciated how Webroot really seemed to understand the channel. They know our community better than other antivirus vendors, and regularly speak to MSPs to gather feedback and incorporate it into their solutions.”

PRN eventually subscribed to Webroot’s full suit of security products, adding their domain name system protection and security awareness training, Grad said.

“What our channel partners value most is the improved protection Webroot provides against ransomware and phishing attacks,” he said. “Our partners that use Webroot’s antivirus protection and follow their recommendations have gone from suffering a couple ransomware infections a month to not suffering a single infection in the past two-and-a-half years.”

Also, PRN partners that use Webroot’s security awareness training have been able to reduce their susceptibility to phishing attacks by better knowing how to identify and avoid phishing emails, Grad said.

A hot topic in the channel right now is MSPs and MSSPs needing to ramp up their security capabilities to tackle increasing threats and growing market demand.

“Webroot’s SecureAnywhere Business Endpoint Protection helps us and our [partners] defend against the ongoing and continually growing threat of ransomware,” Grad said. “We and our [partners] have also seen a surge in phishing attempts, particularly direct phishing attempts that are heavily targeted, such as emails to the accounting department asking for a wire transfer. Webroot’s security-awareness training has enabled us and our [partners] to better identify phishing emails and differentiate them from harmless emails. We’ve seen an incredible reduction in phishing victims among our (partners) that implement Webroot’s security awareness training, so we’ve been recommending including it in our security bundles for every [partner].”

Since partnering with Webroot, PRN has reduced the average time its technicians spend on responding to malware from 30-40 percent of their day to 3-5 percent of their day, he said.

“At Webroot, we actively solicit input from our partners via regular one-on-one interactions and event participation, but also through more formal events like our Webroot forums and our customer advisory boards, which we host across the globe,” said Charlie Tomeo, Webroot’s vice president of worldwide sales. “Platte River Networks is a trusted member of our advisory board and we value the input they provide to our products. It’s because of partners like [PRN vice president of sales and marketing] David DeCamillis and Elon … that we focus so much on deep integrations with platforms and a simple, one-stop platform.”