EU Presidency Series: Securing Irish Government in a High-Stakes Year #5

Stolen credentials are involved in the majority of data breaches. Not sophisticated zero-day exploits. Not elaborate supply chain compromises. Usernames and passwords — obtained through phishing, credential stuffing, or purchasing them from other breaches — used to walk through the front door of organisations that trusted a single factor to protect everything behind it.

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is the most direct response to this risk. When implemented well, it means that a stolen password alone is not enough to compromise an account — an attacker also needs the second factor, which they typically don’t have. Microsoft has estimated that MFA blocks over 99% of account compromise attacks. For a control that costs relatively little to deploy, that is a remarkable return.

And yet, across Irish public sector organisations, MFA adoption remains uneven. Some systems have it; others don’t. Some staff use it; others have been granted exceptions. During a period when credential harvesting campaigns targeting Irish government are a credible and active threat, those gaps are worth taking seriously.

How credential attacks work in practice

Understanding why MFA matters requires understanding what attackers actually do.

Phishing remains the most common method of credential theft. A convincing email — referencing a real event, appearing to come from a trusted colleague or service, creating a sense of urgency — leads to a fake login page that captures whatever the user types. During the EU Presidency, the supply of credible pretexts for phishing campaigns is essentially unlimited: EU policy updates, interoperability briefings, calendar invitations, Microsoft 365 alerts.

Password spraying involves trying a small number of commonly used passwords against a large number of accounts. It avoids the lockout thresholds that catch brute force attacks and is often used against organisations with large numbers of users.

Credential stuffing uses combinations of usernames and passwords leaked in previous breaches — of which there are billions in circulation — against new targets, exploiting the fact that many people reuse passwords across personal and professional accounts.

In all three scenarios, MFA is the control that stops a compromised credential from becoming a compromised account.

Not all MFA is equal

When organisations implement MFA, they often reach first for the most familiar option: one-time codes sent by SMS. This is significantly better than no MFA at all, but it is worth understanding its limitations.

SMS-based codes are vulnerable to SIM-swapping attacks, where an attacker convinces a mobile carrier to transfer a victim’s phone number to a device they control. They are also susceptible to real-time phishing, where an attacker proxies the user’s login in real time and captures both the password and the SMS code before it expires.

Stronger MFA options — particularly full feature Identity Solutions (such as Cisco DUO) and hardware security keys (such as FIDO2-compliant devices) — are meaningfully more resistant to these attacks. For high-privilege accounts and senior staff who are attractive targets, these stronger options should be the standard.

The implementation challenges that matter

The technical deployment of MFA is generally straightforward. The harder challenges are organisational.

• Coverage gaps. MFA on Microsoft 365 is a good start, but it is only as useful as the systems it covers. VPN access, remote desktop, finance systems, HR platforms, and any other application that holds sensitive data or provides privileged access all need to be in scope. A partial MFA implementation provides partial protection.
• Service accounts and shared credentials. Many organisations have shared accounts — used by multiple people or by automated processes — that sit outside standard MFA policies. These are frequently high-value targets and need specific attention.
• Legacy authentication protocols. Older applications often use authentication protocols — basic authentication in email clients, for example — that cannot support MFA at all. These represent a bypass route around even a well-implemented MFA policy, and they need to be identified and either upgraded or blocked.
• User friction and exceptions. MFA adds a step to the login process. Without good change management and clear communication about why it matters, organisations frequently encounter resistance — and respond by creating exceptions that quietly undermine the whole programme. A culture where exceptions are easy to obtain is a culture where MFA protection is unreliable.
• Phishing-resistant MFA for privileged users. Standard MFA can still be bypassed by sophisticated real-time phishing attacks. For administrators, executives, and others with elevated access, phishing-resistant MFA — specifically FIDO2 hardware keys or passkeys — should be the standard, not the aspiration.

Your action this fortnight

Audit your current MFA coverage across all systems that hold sensitive data or provide administrative access. Identify the gaps — the applications not covered, the accounts with active exceptions, the legacy protocols still in use. Prioritise closing the gaps on externally accessible systems and privileged accounts first.

If MFA is already broadly in place, the next step is reviewing the strength of the methods in use and moving your highest-risk users to phishing-resistant options.

A single afternoon of honest audit work on MFA coverage is one of the highest-value security activities your organisation can undertake right now.

Paradyn works with Irish public sector organisations to design and implement MFA programmes that are comprehensive, practical, and sustainable. To set up a conversation about your identity security posture, reach out to the Paradyn team today.

The post One password isn’t enough: making MFA work across your organisation first appeared on Paradyn.

EU Presidency Series: Securing Irish Government in a High-Stakes Year #4

If patching is about fixing known problems, vulnerability management is about continuously finding them. The two are closely related — but they are not the same thing, and the distinction matters.

Many organisations treat vulnerability management as a synonym for patching, or as a once-a-year exercise tied to an audit or compliance review. In a threat environment as active as the one Irish government organisations are navigating right now, that approach leaves dangerous gaps. Effective vulnerability management is a continuous cycle, not a point-in-time event.

Patching versus vulnerability management

Patch management, as covered in the previous post in this series, is about deploying vendor-issued fixes for known software flaws. Vulnerability management is broader. It encompasses:

• Discovery: Continuously scanning your environment to identify vulnerabilities — including configuration weaknesses, missing patches, exposed services, and misconfigurations — before attackers find them
  Assessment: Evaluating the severity of each finding in the context of your specific environment, not just its generic CVSS score
  Prioritisation: Deciding which vulnerabilities to fix first, based on exploitability, asset criticality, and business impact
  Remediation: Fixing, mitigating, or formally accepting each risk — and tracking that to closure
  Verification: Confirming that remediations were effective and that the vulnerability no longer exists in your environment
• Patch management feeds into this cycle as the primary remediation mechanism for software vulnerabilities. But vulnerability management is the governance layer that ensures patching happens in the right order, at the right pace, and doesn’t miss the things patching alone can’t fix.

What continuous scanning reveals

Organisations that run their first thorough vulnerability scan are often surprised by what they find. Not because their IT teams have been negligent, but because complex environments accumulate risk in ways that aren’t visible without actively looking.

Common findings include:

• Forgotten or shadow IT assets. Systems that were stood up for a project and never decommissioned. Legacy servers that fell off the asset register but are still running. Test environments that were never properly secured. All of these represent real attack surface.
• Misconfigured services. A service that is correctly patched but incorrectly configured can be just as exploitable as an unpatched one. Default credentials, unnecessary open ports, and overly permissive access controls are consistently among the most common findings in public sector environments.
• Vulnerabilities in network devices and firmware. Routers, switches, and firewalls are often overlooked in vulnerability programmes that focus primarily on servers and endpoints. They are frequently under-patched and can offer attackers significant leverage if compromised.
• Third-party and open-source software risk. Modern applications commonly contain dependencies on open-source libraries. Vulnerabilities in those libraries — like the Log4Shell incident that sent shockwaves through the industry in 2021 — can be extremely difficult to track without tooling specifically designed for the purpose.

The role of penetration testing

Automated vulnerability scanning tells you what is there. Penetration testing tells you what an attacker could actually do with it.

A penetration test involves skilled security professionals attempting to exploit vulnerabilities in a controlled, authorised way — simulating what a real threat actor would do if they targeted your organisation. It is one of the most valuable investments an organisation can make in understanding its true security posture, and it consistently surfaces risks that scanning alone misses.

For Irish public sector organisations during the Presidency period, commissioning a penetration test of externally accessible systems is a particularly worthwhile step. Understanding your exposure from the outside — exactly as an attacker would see it — is clarifying in a way that internal assessments rarely are.

Prioritisation: the hardest part

The output of a mature vulnerability scanning programme is typically a large volume of findings. Without a principled approach to prioritisation, that volume can be paralysing.

Effective prioritisation takes into account:

• Exploitability in the wild. Is this vulnerability being actively exploited by real threat actors right now? ENISA, CISA, and other agencies publish threat intelligence that helps answer this question.
• Asset criticality. A critical vulnerability on a public-facing authentication system demands different urgency than the same vulnerability on an isolated development server.
• Compensating controls. Is there something else in your environment — a firewall rule, a network segment, an access control — that meaningfully reduces the exploitability of this vulnerability in your specific context?
• Remediation complexity. Some fixes are quick wins. Others require change management, testing, and planned downtime. Understanding the effort involved helps with realistic scheduling.

The goal of prioritisation is not to deprioritise risk — it is to ensure that the most dangerous risks get the fastest attention, rather than being lost in a queue of lower-severity findings.

Your action this fortnight

If your organisation does not have a scheduled, recurring vulnerability scan running against your environment, establishing one is the priority. If you do have scanning in place, review the age of your oldest unresolved findings — particularly any rated critical or high severity. If you have findings that have been open for more than 30 days without a remediation plan, that is a gap that needs to be closed.

Visibility is the foundation. You cannot manage what you cannot see.

Paradyn provides vulnerability management services tailored to the complexity and compliance requirements of Irish public sector organisations. To set up a conversation about your vulnerability posture, reach out to the Paradyn team today.

The post See your weaknesses before attackers do: vulnerability management done right first appeared on Paradyn.

The majority of successful cyberattacks do not exploit cutting-edge, zero-day vulnerabilities. They exploit known weaknesses — flaws that software vendors identified, issued fixes for, and published to the world. In many cases, the organisations that fell victim had the patch available to them for months before the breach occurred.

This is the uncomfortable truth about patch management: most of the damage it prevents is entirely avoidable. And for Irish public sector organisations operating under heightened threat during the EU Presidency period, “we’ll get to it eventually” is not a policy — it’s a liability.

Why patching falls behind

Before examining what good patch management looks like, it’s worth being honest about why it so often slips. The reasons are rarely negligence. They are almost always structural.

• Operational continuity pressure. Applying patches — particularly to critical systems — often requires downtime or restarts. In organisations where systems run continuously and downtime requires sign-off across multiple stakeholders, patches get deferred.
• Testing requirements. In complex environments, a patch to one system can break functionality in another. Proper testing before deployment takes time that busy IT teams frequently don’t have.
• Legacy infrastructure. Older systems may no longer receive vendor patches at all — they have reached end of support and are essentially undefendable through conventional means. Many organisations are not fully aware of how much of their estate falls into this category.
• Sheer volume. A mid-sized organisation might be managing hundreds of systems across servers, endpoints, network devices, and applications. The volume of patches released across all of those in any given month is substantial.

None of these are reasons to stop patching. They are reasons to have a proper system for doing it.

The risk of falling behind

When a software vulnerability is publicly disclosed, it typically takes threat actors a matter of days — sometimes hours — to begin scanning for and exploiting unpatched systems. This is known as the exploitation window, and it has been shrinking consistently over recent years.

During a period of elevated targeting of Irish government systems, that window matters acutely. Attackers who are actively looking for ways into Irish public sector networks will scan for known, unpatched vulnerabilities as a first step. An organisation that is weeks or months behind on patches is, in effect, advertising its weaknesses.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) in the United States publishes a list of known exploited vulnerabilities — a catalogue of weaknesses that are actively being used in real-world attacks right now. Cross-referencing your patch status against that list is a sobering exercise for most organisations.

What a mature patch management programme looks like

Effective patch management is not simply “apply all patches as fast as possible.” It requires a structured approach that balances speed, risk, and operational reality.

1. Asset inventory as the foundation. You cannot patch systems you don’t know exist. A current, accurate asset inventory — covering hardware, software, and firmware — is the prerequisite for everything else. This connects directly to the risk assessment work covered in the previous post in this series.
2. Prioritisation by criticality. Not all patches carry the same urgency. Patches addressing actively exploited vulnerabilities in internet-facing systems demand immediate attention. Patches for low-severity issues in non-critical internal tools can be scheduled. A good patch management process makes this distinction explicitly and consistently.
3. Defined SLAs for remediation. Best practice defines clear timelines for patch deployment based on severity: critical patches within 24–72 hours, high severity within two weeks, medium severity within a month. Having those targets written down and tracked is what separates a patch management programme from ad hoc activity.
4. Testing environments. Where operationally feasible, patches should be tested in a non-production environment before deployment to live systems. This is especially important for core infrastructure.
5. End-of-life system management. Systems that no longer receive vendor patches need a risk management strategy of their own — whether that is network isolation, compensating controls, or an accelerated replacement programme.
6. Reporting and accountability. Someone in the organisation needs to own patch compliance as a metric and report on it regularly. Patch management that is nobody’s specific responsibility tends to drift.

Your action this fortnight

Pull a current report on patch compliance across your estate. Focus first on internet-facing systems and anything that handles sensitive data. Identify your oldest outstanding critical patches and set a deadline to resolve them. If your team doesn’t have visibility into patch status across the full estate, that gap itself needs to be addressed urgently.

The goal is not perfection — it is reducing your exploitable attack surface to the smallest it can practically be, as quickly as possible.

Paradyn helps Irish public sector organisations build and operate structured patch management programmes that are realistic, measurable, and effective. To set up a conversation about your current patch posture, reach out to the Paradyn team today.

The post Patches aren’t optional: why patch management is non-negotiable in 2026 first appeared on Paradyn.

You cannot protect what you don’t understand. It sounds obvious, but in the day-to-day reality of running IT for a public sector organisation — with limited resources, competing priorities, and legacy infrastructure that has grown organically over years — it is surprisingly easy to lose a clear picture of what you actually have, what it connects to, and what would happen if it were compromised.

A structured risk assessment gives you that picture back. And during a period of elevated cyber threat — like the one Ireland is navigating right now as EU Council Presidency holder — it is the single most important thing you can do before anything else.

What a risk assessment actually is

A risk assessment is not a tick-box compliance exercise, though it can satisfy compliance requirements. At its core, it is a systematic process for answering four questions:

1. What assets do we have? Systems, data, people, processes — anything of value that could be targeted or disrupted.
2. What threats face those assets? Who might want to attack you, how, and why? During the Presidency period, this threat picture is more complex than usual.
3. What vulnerabilities exist? Where are the gaps in your defences that a threat actor could exploit?
4. What is the potential impact? If a given asset were compromised, what would the operational, reputational, and legal consequences be?

The output is not a report that sits on a shelf. It is a prioritised list of risks — ranked by likelihood and impact — that drives every subsequent security decision your organisation makes.

Why it has to come first

Every other security control in this series — patch management, vulnerability scanning, MFA, posture improvement — requires context to be effective. Patching everything equally is impossible and inefficient. You need to know which systems are critical, which are internet-facing, and which feed into sensitive processes. That context comes from a risk assessment.

Without it, security spending is essentially guesswork. Organisations end up over-investing in areas of low risk and under-investing where it matters most. A well-executed risk assessment makes every euro of security budget go further.

The Irish public sector context

Risk assessments for government organisations need to account for some factors that are less common in the private sector.

Legacy systems are the often the norm, not the exception. Many Irish public sector organisations are running infrastructure that was never designed with modern threat actors in mind. Understanding the risk profile of older systems — and being realistic about what can be patched versus what needs to be isolated or replaced — is a critical output of any honest assessment.

Interconnected networks create shared risk. Government organisations frequently share networks, data, or services with other bodies. A risk assessment needs to map these dependencies clearly, because a compromise of one organisation can propagate quickly through a connected ecosystem.

Data classification matters enormously. Not all data carries the same risk. Personal data held under GDPR obligations, sensitive policy documents relevant to the Presidency, and critical operational data each demand a different level of protection. A risk assessment should drive a clear data classification framework.

Supply chain exposure is often underestimated. Third-party vendors, managed service providers, and software suppliers all represent potential entry points. An assessment that stops at your own perimeter is incomplete.

What good looks like

A well-executed risk assessment for a public sector organisation should:

– Be conducted or validated by an independent party, not solely by the internal team whose work it will scrutinise
– Include asset discovery — you cannot assess risk to systems you don’t know exist
– Consider both technical vulnerabilities and organisational ones (process gaps, staff awareness, governance weaknesses)
– Produce outputs in plain language that are meaningful to senior leadership, not just the IT team
– Have a defined review cycle — a risk assessment is not a one-time event, particularly during a period of elevated threat

Your action this fortnight

If your organisation does not have a current, documented risk assessment — completed within the last 12 months — that is where your energy should go first. If you have one, now is the time to dust it off, pressure-test its assumptions against the current threat environment, and check whether the risk landscape has shifted since it was written.

The goal is not a perfect document. The goal is an honest, up-to-date picture of where you stand — so that every decision you make from here is grounded in reality rather than assumption.

Paradyn works with Irish public sector organisations to conduct structured risk assessments that are practical, independent, and directly actionable. If you’d like to set up a conversation about where your organisation stands, reach out to the Paradyn team today.

The post Know your exposure: risk assessment as your first line of defence first appeared on Paradyn.

EU Presidency Series: Securing Irish Government in a High-Stakes Year #1

For six months, all roads in European policy lead to Dublin. Ireland’s EU Council Presidency brings with it enormous diplomatic prestige, significant administrative responsibility — and a cyber threat landscape that looks very different to business as usual.

If your organisation is part of Ireland’s public sector, even at one remove, now is the time to take a clear-eyed look at your security posture. Here’s why the Presidency changes the risk calculation, and what you should be thinking about.

A bigger stage means a bigger target

State-sponsored cyber actors — groups affiliated with nation-states that have an interest in European policy outcomes — routinely increase their targeting activity around high-profile geopolitical events. An EU Council Presidency is exactly that kind of event. Ireland is now a hub for sensitive policy deliberation across areas including defence, trade, energy, and digital regulation. That makes Irish government systems significantly more attractive to actors seeking intelligence, looking to disrupt proceedings, or attempting to exert influence on outcomes.

This isn’t speculation. The European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) has consistently documented spikes in attacks targeting government and public administration during periods of elevated geopolitical significance. Ireland experienced this first-hand with the HSE ransomware attack of 2021 — a stark reminder that Irish public sector organisations are not too small, too obscure, or too peripheral to be targeted.

It’s not just the big departments

One of the most dangerous assumptions an organisation can make is that the risk belongs to someone else — the Department of Foreign Affairs, perhaps, or the Taoiseach’s office. In practice, the attack surface of a Presidency extends far beyond the headline institutions.

Threat actors frequently target peripheral or supporting organisations as a stepping stone into more sensitive networks. A local authority, a semi-state body, a shared IT services provider, or even a third-party supplier to a government department can all serve as an entry point. If your organisation connects to, shares data with, or provides services to any part of the Irish public sector, you are part of the attack surface — whether you think of yourself that way or not.

The threat landscape right now

The types of threats that increase during periods of heightened geopolitical attention include:

• Spear phishing and social engineering. Highly targeted email campaigns, often referencing real events or plausible professional contexts, designed to trick staff into surrendering credentials or installing malware. During a Presidency, there is no shortage of credible-sounding pretexts — EU policy updates, ministerial correspondence, stakeholder briefings.
• Ransomware. Opportunistic criminal groups take advantage of moments when organisations are stretched, distracted, or operating under new pressures. A busy, understaffed IT team during a major diplomatic period is an attractive target.
• Supply chain attacks. Rather than attacking a well-defended target directly, sophisticated actors compromise a trusted supplier or software vendor first. Irish government organisations should be asking hard questions about the security posture of their supply chains right now.
• Hacktivism and disruption. Not every attack is about extracting data or demanding ransom. Some actors aim simply to embarrass, disrupt, or undermine confidence in Irish institutions during a moment when Ireland is under the international spotlight.

The good news: the window to act is now

Heightened risk does not mean inevitable compromise. The organisations that weather elevated threat periods well are invariably those that used the time before the storm to get their fundamentals right. Strong security hygiene — the kind that comes from structured risk assessment, disciplined patch management, robust identity controls, and a clear picture of your own vulnerabilities — dramatically reduces the likelihood of a successful attack.

Over the coming weeks, this series will walk through each of those fundamentals in practical, actionable terms. Not theoretical frameworks, but concrete steps that Irish public sector organisations can take right now to reduce their exposure.

The EU Presidency is a moment of national pride and significant responsibility. Making sure that moment isn’t defined by a security incident is the job in front of us.

Coming up in this series

– Know your exposure — risk assessment as your first line of defence
– Patches aren’t optional — why patch management is non-negotiable
– See your weaknesses before attackers do — vulnerability management done right
– One password isn’t enough — making MFA work across your organisation
– Security posture — moving from reactive firefighting to proactive resilience
– After the Presidency — sustaining the security gains you’ve made

This article is part of an ongoing series on cybersecurity for Irish government organisations, brought to you by Paradyn. If you’d like to discuss your organisation’s current security posture, reach out to the Paradyn team and we’ll set up a conversation.

The post Ireland in the spotlight: why the EU Presidency raises your cyber risk first appeared on Paradyn.

Fergal Meehan, Chief Commercial Officer, Paradyn and Rory Hopkins, Head of Information Systems, Kildare County Council

Managed detection and response solution will leverage AI tools to enhance Kildare County Council’s cybersecurity posture

Paradyn, one of Ireland’s leading cybersecurity and managed service providers, today announces that it is delivering a managed detection and response (MDR) solution to Kildare County Council which will support the secure rollout of critical public services.

As the volume of cyber threats continues to grow, Kildare County Council needed to enhance and futureproof detection and protection levels across its entire organisation. Paradyn was chosen to deliver a new MDR solution, based on Sophos technology, which will leverage artificial intelligence (AI) tools to improve Kildare County Council’s ability to detect, respond to, and prevent cyber risks. Minimising business disruption, the Sophos MDR solution will integrate seamlessly into Kildare County Council’s existing IT environment.

Round-the-clock monitoring from Sophos’ security operations centre, backed up by Paradyn’s skilled teams, will secure operations, strengthen cyber resilience, and optimise IT resources for the council. The service will also boost compliance for the organisation in a changing regulatory landscape.

This advanced cybersecurity portfolio will, in turn, protect sensitive data for Kildare’s nearly 250,000 citizens and foster increased public trust as the council continues to deliver essential public services. It will also help to support the secure rollout of services including housing, roads, urban planning, and culture across the county.

Paradyn was recently named a Sophos Platinum Partner – the highest partner accreditation – for its expertise in delivering cutting-edge cybersecurity solutions to customers built on Sophos technology.

Rory Hopkins, Head of Information Systems, Kildare County Council, said: “It’s crucial that our cybersecurity processes protect and optimise our vital resources, and this new service is leading to a more secure, resilient, and efficient operation. It ultimately contributes to a safer and more secure experience for all who engage with our services. We have worked with Paradyn on previous IT and security projects and knew that the team was best placed to deliver on this next phase. We look forward to continuing to innovate, safe in the knowledge that our systems are protected.”

Fergal Meehan, Chief Commercial Officer, Paradyn, said: “In the face of increasingly sophisticated cyber risks, this solution will enhance the overall cybersecurity posture for Kildare County Council. Our Sophos MDR service consolidates cybersecurity tools and products into one managed service with proactive monitoring by our highly skilled team of cyber analysts, even outside of traditional office hours. It provides peace of mind for the council as it continues to deliver essential services to the people of Kildare.”

The post Paradyn supports secure service rollout for Kildare County Council first appeared on Paradyn.

Paradyn, a cybersecurity company based in Cork, anticipates reaching revenue of €10 million this year, representing a 25 per cent increase compared to 2024.

Founded in 2007 by Cillian McCarthy, Pat Dowling, Paul Casey and Rob Norton, Paradyn operates out of Little Island and currently employs 50 staff members. Last year, the company generated €8 million in revenue.

“We protect our customers from cyberattacks. We do this by providing them with products and solutions coupled with expert-level support. Through this we give them peace of mind that cyber criminals can not get access to their data,” McCarthy told the Business Post.

“We cover cyber defence with products from Palo Alto Networks, Cisco and Sophos. Then our team of cybersecurity engineers provide support so our customers can reach out to us at any time.”

The co-founders all had experience across the security sector prior to starting Paradyn. It was their familiarity with each other that led to the creation of this company.

“We had all worked together previously before going our separate ways. Then three of us had another business called Cadoo, which we sold recently, and once we saw the requirement for the skills we had that led to the start of Paradyn,” McCarthy said.

“The four of us saw an opportunity to provide this combination of products and support to businesses. We started out building high-capacity networks for our customers. We’ve evolved that into a cybersecurity company.”

The transition into cyber has proven quite beneficial, as the core organisations it initially collaborated with had specific needs in this area.

“We started out, and are still very strong in, working with the working sector. We were building out computer networks and high-capacity wireless networks. Then we transitioned into the managed cybersecurity practice, which we are today,” McCarthy said.

The company is supported by Enterprise Ireland and McCarthy praised the agency for the help it had provided Paradyn.

“Enterprise Ireland has been with us throughout the journey. They have provided us with funding, training and advice over the years. More recently, they have helped a lot with our launch of a new backup and disaster recovery product under a new venture called Vault365,” McCarthy said.

“That has been very successful in Ireland and we have released it in the UK, where it has been really successful for us. Enterprise Ireland has helped a lot.”

Vault365 is Paradyn’s first big move into international markets and McCarthy is confident the business can build on this success. In addition to the move into the UK, Paradyn is aiming to grow via acquisition.

“Between organic growth and some potential acquisitions, we hope to double the size of the business over the next 18 to 24 months. We’re at scale now and feel like we are generating enough revenue to grow substantially.”

The post Cork firm Paradyn eyes UK expansion and acquisitions first appeared on Paradyn.

What is Zero Trust?

The core principle of Zero Trust is simple yet profound: “Never trust, always verify.” This model assumes that no user, device, or application, whether inside or outside the network, should be implicitly trusted. Every access request, from any entity, is rigorously authenticated, authorised, and continuously validated before access is granted.

Zero Trust isn’t a single product you can buy off the shelf. It’s a strategic framework and a security mindset that requires a comprehensive approach to an enterprise’s IT infrastructure, encompassing policies, architecture, and technology.

Key Principles of Zero Trust Architecture

A successful Zero Trust implementation is built upon three foundational principles:

• Assume Breach: Acknowledge that a security breach is not a matter of “if” but “when.” This mindset drives a proactive approach, focusing on minimising the “blast radius” of a breach and containing any threats.
• Explicit Verification: All access requests must be explicitly and continuously verified based on all available data points. This includes user identity, device health, location, and the sensitivity of the data being accessed. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is a cornerstone of this principle.
• Least Privilege Access: Users are only granted the minimum level of access and permissions required to perform their specific job functions. This concept, often called Just-in-Time (JIT) and Just-Enough Access (JEA), significantly reduces the potential for lateral movement within the network if an account is compromised.

Core Components of a ZTA

Implementing a Zero Trust framework involves several key components working in concert:

• Identity and Access Management (IAM): This is the foundation of ZTA. IAM solutions, including SSO (Single Sign-On) and MFA, are critical for verifying the identity of both human and non-human users (e.g., service accounts, APIs).
• Micro-segmentation: This involves dividing the network into small, isolated zones with their own specific security policies. It prevents a compromised entity from moving freely across the entire network, effectively containing threats.
• Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA): This is a modern alternative to traditional VPNs. ZTNA grants secure, remote access to specific applications rather than the entire corporate network, enforcing per-request, policy-based access.
• Endpoint Security: Since devices are no longer inherently trusted, a ZTA must verify the security posture of every endpoint (laptops, mobile phones, IoT devices) before allowing access. This includes checking for up-to-date patches, antivirus software, and other compliance measures.
• Data Protection: Data should be classified, labelled, and protected with encryption both at rest and in transit. ZTA ensures that access policies are applied at the data level, regardless of where the data is stored.
• Automation and Analytics: Continuous monitoring and automated threat detection are vital. By collecting and analysing logs from various sources (SIEM solutions), organisations can quickly identify and respond to unusual behaviour and potential threats in real time.

A Step-by-Step Implementation Guide

Embarking on a Zero Trust journey can seem daunting, but a phased approach makes it manageable.

1. Define Your “Protect Surface”: Start by identifying your most valuable assets, or “crown jewels”. This includes sensitive data, critical applications, and key services. Instead of trying to secure your entire vast network at once, focus on the areas that pose the highest risk.
2. Map Transaction Flows: Understand how users, devices, and applications interact with your protect surface. Map out the typical paths and dependencies to identify all the potential access points and vulnerabilities.
3. Build a Zero Trust Architecture: Design your architecture around your protect surface. This involves placing controls at every access point, implementing micro-segmentation, and deploying ZTNA to secure access to your critical assets.
4. Create Policies: Develop a detailed policy based on the “who, what, when, where, why, and how” of every access request. This policy will govern who can access what, under what conditions, and for what purpose.
5. Monitor and Optimise: Once implemented, continuously monitor the network for anomalies and malicious activity. Use analytics to refine your policies, automate responses to threats, and ensure your ZTA remains effective and adaptable to new challenges.

Why Zero Trust is a Must for Modern Enterprises

Zero Trust is more than just a security trend; it’s an essential strategy for today’s dynamic business environment. Its benefits include:

• Reduced Attack Surface: By eliminating implicit trust, Zero Trust drastically shrinks the area an attacker can exploit, limiting their ability to move laterally within the network.
• Enhanced Data Protection: It protects sensitive data by enforcing granular, identity-based access controls, regardless of the user’s location.
• Adaptability to the Cloud and Remote Work: The borderless nature of ZTA makes it ideal for securing cloud-based applications and a globally distributed workforce, which are now standard for most companies.
• Improved Compliance: The continuous monitoring and logging of all access requests provide an auditable trail that helps meet various regulatory and compliance requirements.
• Increased Visibility: ZTA gives security teams a clear, real-time view of all network activity, allowing for faster and more effective threat detection and response.

Adopting a Zero Trust framework is a significant investment, but in a world where cyber threats are becoming increasingly sophisticated, it’s the most effective way to secure your organisation’s future. Start small, think big, and remember: in the world of cybersecurity, trust is a vulnerability.

Click here to discuss your cybersecurity for your organisation.

The post Zero Trust Architecture: A Practical Guide for Modern Enterprises first appeared on Paradyn.

L-R: Anas El-Houari, Presales Consultant, ManageEngine; Grace McCauley, Head of Sales – Managed Services, Paradyn, and Ger Cullen, Director, Servaplex

Paradyn, one of Ireland’s leading managed service and cybersecurity providers, today announces projected revenues of over €1.6 million in 2025 from its strategic partnership with ManageEngine, a global provider of enterprise IT management solutions. This marks a significant 100% increase from the €800,000 recorded in 2024. With a focus on the public sector, Paradyn forecasts continued momentum, anticipating 40% year-on-year growth in revenues from ManageEngine offerings.

Paradyn has successfully delivered ManageEngine solutions to more than 50,000 users across 40 public sector organisations and government agencies in Ireland, including the ESB, Teagasc, National Concert Hall, Dun Laoghaire County Council, Cork County Council, and Kildare County Council. The partnership has also enabled Paradyn to expand its public sector client base by 20%, underscoring the demand for robust, scalable IT management tools within government institutions.

ManageEngine, the IT management division of Zoho Corporation, provides a broad suite of more than 60 enterprise-grade tools that address the end-to-end IT operations lifecycle—covering network and server monitoring, endpoint management, IT service management (ITSM), identity and access management, and security information and event management (SIEM). These tools empower public sector bodies to increase automation, improve visibility across their IT environments, reduce operational costs, and bolster their cybersecurity posture—all while ensuring that services to citizens are delivered reliably and securely.

Paradyn’s in-depth knowledge of public sector IT requirements, combined with its cybersecurity consulting and professional services, ensures that ManageEngine implementations are aligned with Ireland’s evolving regulatory landscape, including the EU’s NIS2 directive. Together, the two organisations offer a comprehensive and scalable solution for managing IT infrastructure securely and efficiently.

Grace McCauley, Head of Sales – Managed Services, Paradyn, said: “Our partnership with ManageEngine allows us to deliver best-in-class IT management and cybersecurity solutions tailored to the public sector. As public services continue to digitalise, the need for reliable, secure, and cost-effective infrastructure becomes paramount. We’re proud to be supporting the government in delivering modern, resilient digital services to citizens.”

ManageEngine’s proven technology and Paradyn’s hands-on approach help public sector agencies future-proof their IT environments, safeguard sensitive citizen data, and achieve operational excellence in an increasingly complex threat landscape.

The post Paradyn forecasts €1.6 million in revenues from ManageEngine partnership in 2025 first appeared on Paradyn.

But how do you cultivate this culture? It’s not a one-time training session; it’s an ongoing, evolving process.

1. Leadership Sets the Tone:

• Lead by Example: Cybersecurity must be a priority at the highest levels. Leaders should actively demonstrate their commitment by adhering to security protocols and promoting awareness.
• Communicate Clearly: Regularly communicate the importance of cybersecurity and the organisation’s security policies. Explain the “why” behind security measures, not just the “what.”
• Invest in Training: Allocate resources for regular, engaging cybersecurity training programs.

2. Educate and Empower:

• Tailored Training: Generic training is ineffective. Customize training to different roles and departments, focusing on the specific threats they face.
• Interactive and Engaging: Move beyond dry lectures. Use simulations, quizzes, and real-world scenarios to make learning interactive and memorable.
• Phishing Simulations: Conduct regular, simulated phishing attacks to test employees’ vigilance and identify areas for improvement.
• Promote Open Communication: Encourage employees to report suspicious activities without fear of reprisal. Create a safe space for questions and concerns.
• Provide Regular Updates: The threat landscape is constantly changing. Keep employees informed about emerging threats and best practices.

3. Foster a Culture of Responsibility:

• Make it Relevant: Connect cybersecurity to employees’ daily work and personal lives. Show them how protecting data benefits them and the organisation.
• Recognise and Reward: Acknowledge and reward employees who demonstrate strong cybersecurity practices. Positive reinforcement can go a long way in motivating behaviour.
• Establish Clear Policies: Develop and enforce clear, concise cybersecurity policies that are easy to understand and follow.
• Incident Response Plan: Ensure everyone knows what to do in the event of a security incident. Have a clear, well-communicated incident response plan.
• Continuous Improvement: Regularly evaluate the effectiveness of your cybersecurity training and policies. Adapt and improve based on feedback and changing threats.

4. Tools and Resources:

• Password Managers: Encourage the use of strong, unique passwords and password managers.
• Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Implement MFA for all critical systems and applications.
• Security Awareness Platforms: Utilize security awareness platforms to deliver targeted training and track progress.
• Up-to-date Software: Ensure all software and systems are patched and updated regularly.

The Benefits of a Strong Cybersecurity Culture:

• Reduced risk of data breaches and cyberattacks.
• Improved employee awareness and vigilance.
• Enhanced reputation and customer trust.
• Increased productivity and efficiency.
• A more secure and resilient organisation.

Building a strong cybersecurity culture is an ongoing journey, not a destination. By prioritising education, communication, and a sense of shared responsibility, organisations can transform their employees into a powerful line of defence against cyber threats. It’s about fostering a “security-first” mindset that permeates every aspect of the organisation.

Click here to discuss cybersecurity training for your organisation.

The post Building a Fortress of Awareness: Cultivating a Strong Cybersecurity Culture first appeared on Paradyn.