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Local Experts in Secure Managed File Transfer We are independent experts in data transfer - more than just software suppliers. Our curated suite of industry-leading solutions, coupled with our unparalleled experience and expertise, have made us the Asia-Pacific region’s most trusted partners in Secure Managed File Transfer technologies. Founded in 1993, we’re now proud to count among our clients some of the region’s most iconic brands, who rely on our unique skills and readily available local support to optimise their IT systems, hone their business processes and integrate their supply chains. Contact Us Secure, Reliable, Automated Data Transfers for Your Organisation It's never been easier to move data securely and reliably, inside and outside your organisation. Let us show you how a cost-effective, class-leading MFT solution will boost your team's productivity and your business's bottom line. Learn More Class-Leading Managed File Transfer Solution Centralise and secure fie transfers, streamlining manual processes and complying with data security standards. Enterprise Standard Cyber Security Safeguard file transfers and meet all your IT security and compliance requirements leveraging the latest encryption technology and authentication methods. Move Data Automatically Replace your manual processes, legacy scripts and outdated software with highly-configurable automated workflows. On-prem, in the Cloud, and anywhere in-between, our solutions fully integrate with your existing IT systems. Local Experts Our local technical experts have decades of experience helping organisations of all sizes design and deploy better ways of managing their data transfers. Protect Your Data from Escalating Cybercrime Automatically intercept and stop cyberthieves before they infiltrate your organisation. Prevent malware and phishing attempts from entering your organisation, and protect your employees from accidentally opening digital doors - all without disrupting the seamless transfer of business critical information between your team, customers and trading partners. Learn More Proudly Supporting Our Australian & Multinational Clients Since 1993 Leverage the Power & Flexibility of Fortra's GoAnywhere MFT At Generic Systems Australia we're your local experts in the world's #1 managed file transfer solution, Fortra's GoAnywhere MFT. GoAnywhere's advanced technical features, flexibility, and high configurability - within an easy to use central interface - have consistently led independent analysts to declare it the world's class leading MFT. Learn More Contact Us

RESOURCES INDEX "MFT's Role in Business: IT Leaders Weigh In" eBook In this eBook, nine leading IT and security professionals share their real-world experiences of leveraging GoAnywhere's many capabilities in their businesses. Read More New Cyber Laws Passed - What Australian Businesses Need to Know and Do What Australian organisations need to know - and do - to meet their new obligations under the nation’s new Cyber Security legislation. Read More Use APIs to Accelerate Your MFT's ROI How to boost the ROI of your MFT solution - and scale its deployment - by pairing it with APIs. Enhance automation, integration, and customisation. Read More MFT Local Buyer's Guide Ask the right questions, and consider the key issues, to identify the right Managed File Transfer solution for your organisation. Read More Independent Info-Tech MFT Quadrant Report (2024) Once again, respected tech analysts Info-Tech have evaluated the most popular MFT software and vendors, and found that GoAnywhere is the top MFT solution. Here’s their 2024 independent report. Read More 2024 Cybersecurity Insiders Survey Fortra's "2024 State of Cybersecurity Survey" shares the invaluable insights of more than 400 cybersecurity professionals from across the globe, including many in Australia, New Zealand and the Asia-Pacific region. Read More Best Practices for Cloud MFT Most modern organisations rely to an extent on the Cloud as they transfer files between employees, trading partners, and customers. Here are best practices for safeguarding your data on its way to, from and in, the Cloud. Read More Meeting CDR Requirements Australia’s Consumer Data Right (CDR) requires businesses to carefully plan how they handle, store and disclose the consumer data they collect. This primer explains your obligations, the breaches that can occur, and a strategy to avoid them. Read More Secure Your Cloud Data with MFT How a robust Managed File Transfer (MFT) solution helps protect your data transfers – in transit and at rest – without compromising the convenience or cost-effectiveness of moving your business to a cloud-based environment. Read More Why Automating Encryption and Decryption Makes Good Cybersecurity Sense How does encryption and decryption work? This handy primer explains. Read More Think Like a Hacker To win the fight against cybercriminals, it helps to think like a hacker. Read More Annual Upgrade and Health Check Service Take the time, effort and risk out of ensuring your GoAnywhere environment is up to date and running smoothly! Read More GoAnywhere Product Datasheet GoAnywhere MFT is the world’s leading Managed File Transfer solution. This datasheet summarises its key technical features. Read More Advanced Threat Protection Product Datasheet GoAnywhere MFT is the world’s leading Managed File Transfer solution. This datasheet summarises its key technical features. Read More GoAnywhere Gateway Product Datasheet GoAnywhere Gateway provides an additional layer of security when exchanging data with your trading partners, enabling you to keep file sharing services and documents safely in your private/internal network. Read More GA Modules for Licencing Product Datasheet GoAnywhere is a robust and complete managed file transfer solution. Modules are available that can satisfy a wide array of file transfer requirements –– you can choose to license only the modules you currently need, and easily unlock additional modules if necessary. Read More 'An Introduction to GoAnywhere' (video) In this brief video, our Business Manager Bradley Copson overviews GoAnywhere's key features and benefits. Read More 'Secure MFT Threat Protection Bundle' (video) Our Secure MFT Threat Protection Bundle can automatically catch and kill email threats before they enter or leave your organisation. This brief video shows how. Read More Independent Info-Tech MFT Quadrant Report (2022) Respected tech analysts Info-Tech evaluated the most popular MFT software and vendors. Read More

< News How to Protect Your Customers’ Personal Identifiable Information 8 Nov 2024 Protecting customers’ Personal Identifiable Information (PII) has fast become a critical duty of care for every organisation. What is PII, and why is it valuable? PII includes information such as Tax File Numbers, Medicare numbers and other health records, credit card details, student addresses and more. Cybercriminals attempt to access PII for financial gain, either directly – by selling it to data brokers on the dark web – or indirectly, by identity theft. Stolen PII can be used by hackers to open bogus credit card and bank accounts, and to socially engineer attacks using methods such as phishing and ransomware. Organisations need to zealously protect the PII provided to them by customers – not only for the sake of maintaining trust, but also to guard against heavy sanctions for non-compliance by regulators such as ASIC and the ACCC. And those compliance requirements are ramping up. Just last month, Australia’s federal government introduced legislation to parliament which will revolutionise Australia’s cyber security preparedness by imposing new protection standards and reporting requirements on local businesses. International Obligations However, compliance requirements for the protection of PII don’t stop at our national borders. For example, businesses with customers in Europe need to comply with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation. Local businesses trading in the US need to comply with America’s Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, Federal Information Security Management Act, Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, Gramm-Leach Bliley Act and California Consumer Privacy Act. Rising Risks and Impacts Recent statistics demonstrate the growing risk and significant impact of PII data breaches. Verizon’s Data Breach Investigation Report for 2024 shows that some 60% of data breaches involve some form of personal information. And IBM’s 2024 Cost of a Data Breach Report revealed the global average cost of a data breach now exceeds A$7 million. Protecting PII Stepping up to the needs of PII guardianship requires both technology solutions and sound business practices. Layered defences, with integrated solutions that address encryption, threat protection, and data loss prevention, enable safe collaboration without risking malware, mishandled data, breaches and non-compliance. Given most breaches involve a human element, technology solutions need to be automated and easy for employees to use. Software needs to be able to manage: How access to data is granted; How access is authenticated; How access is tracked and controlled; and How access be speedily revoked, when needed. Layered Protection A standalone managed file transfer (MFT) solution – such as GoAnywhere MFT - is a great first layer of defence. It provides security for files at rest and in-transit. However, integrating Threat Protection as an additional layer enables you to take appropriate action when there’s PII in the data moving in and out of your organisation. Based on rules you predefine, our Advanced Threat Protection Bundle can mask, remove, or permit PII to be moved within your organisation and beyond, via a Secure ICAP Gateway. Medical Case Study A medical enterprise needed to transfer attachments between employees and trading partners containing detailed billing information. They had long used a managed file transfer solution to exchange patient records within and outside the organisation. However, they realised they needed to further safeguard patients’ PII via deep content inspection. The organisation integrated GoAnywhere MFT with Secure ICAP Gateway, adding anti-virus protection as well as structural “sanitisation” of files being transferred. Their combined MFT/Advanced Threat Protection now works to: Inspect for malware and viruses; Intercept content based on threat protection and data loss prevention requirements; Run rule sets such as renaming, script removal, keyword searches to control if content is allowed in or is blocked; and Sanitise PII content to permit ongoing transfer (or block it, if content cannot be adequately sanitised). Thanks to layered protection, the organisation can now exchange patient records free from viruses and malware, while only disclosing a use-appropriate level of PII. Controlling PII Disclosure Adding granular rules-based controls to data handling is the “killer feature” of Advanced Threat Protection. For example: You can permit some specified individuals to transmit PII, but not everyone. You can apply role-based access to PII. You can audit who is sending what information. GoAnywhere MFT’s encryption can be enhanced by limiting who can transfer PII data and what that data contains. The automatic detection and sanitisation of files removes some of the human factor risks so that employees can focus on their work instead of fussing with manual interventions. Augmenting technical solutions with employee training further reduces human factor risks. Here to Help Generic Systems Australia are the Asia-Pacific region’s experts in deploying Managed File Transfer and Advanced Threat Protection. We’ve assisted dozens of organisations to protect their PII and secure their file transfers, while keeping their businesses running smoothly. If you’d like to discuss how we can help you, please feel welcome to contact me . I’m always happy to have an obligation-free chat and explain how simply we can transition you from outdated protocols and approaches. I can even arrange a simple, zero-cost Proof of Concept. Previous Next

< News 5 Signs You Need a Managed File Transfer Solution 14 Nov 2023 5 Signs You Need a Managed File Transfer Solution Does your organisation rely on transferring sensitive data between employees, customers and trading partners? Most do. And that means just one wrong move by an employee – for example, failing to encrypt a sensitive file – could land you with a huge fine, and lose you customers. So it’s worth spending a moment considering how your team is performing the regular, essential task of moving data around. And, to ask the key question: “Is it time I installed a better, safer and more efficient way to transfer data?” Here are some of the key signs that your business is ready for a Managed File Transfer solution. Sign 1: Still Using Outdated Ways to Send Data A surprising number of organisations still rely on outdated protocols and clunky scripts to move precious data around. However, as I explained in a recent article, these legacy methods increase the risk of human error, take time away from more critical tasks, and are difficult to maintain. A Managed File Transfer (MFT) solution like GoAnywhere MFT is easy to use, easy to audit, requires little maintenance, and removes manual tasks from your stretched IT team’s To Do list. Sign 2: Targeted by Cybercriminals Ask your IT team how much growth they’re seeing in attempted cybercrime incursions. Frightening, isn’t it!? With hackers escalating their efforts to extort your business and customers, it’s more essential than ever to secure your data and maintain a ‘circle of trust’ with your supply chain partners. A leading MFT, such as GoAnywhere MFT, employs the latest encryption algorithms to reduce the risk of data breaches during transit. Features like Access Controls, and Multi-factor Authentication, safeguard sensitive information from unauthorised access. Sign 3: Need to Comply with Government & Industry Regulations In response to escalating cybercrime, governments and industry regulators are imposing ever greater requirements on business to ensure they protect consumers’ personal data. From health data (hospital records, test results), to banking data (debit and credit card numbers, bank account details), to identity data (home address, government id), businesses that fail to take responsible measures to protect sensitive data face growing sanctions. Even worse, a breach may not only cost your organisation time and money to remediate, it may ruin your reputation. A leading MFT, such as GoAnywhere MFT, helps ensure your file transfers comply with regulatory requirements such as PCI DSS, HIPAA, HITECH, and GDPR. Features like auditing, reporting, role-based access, secure protocols, centralised security controls, encryption, and key management protect employee and consumer data from harmful security mishaps. Sign 4: Need to Exchange Data in the Cloud Many organisations are moving business processes to the cloud, and now need to exchange files with trading partners in the cloud. But how can transfers to and from the cloud, over public telecommunications networks, be protected? From streamlining and automating cloud file transfers to platforms like Amazon Web Services, and Microsoft Azure, to integrating with popular web and cloud services like SharePoint and Google Drive, working with a partner in the cloud using an MFT is a smooth, reliable and safe process. Sign 5: Need to Adapt to Changing Network Conditions Research by Rand Group found that a single hour of system downtime can cost a medium-sized business a six figure sum. As organisations and trading partners become increasingly integrated, it’s critical that file transfers are performed without delay or disruption. Whereas a document containing a batch of important transactions may once have been delivered over several hours, today’s fast pace of business requires it to take mere seconds. An enterprise-calibre file transfer solution should have a high availability plan in place. The right solution will provide active-passive and active-active (i.e. clustering) methods for organisations who need to keep their processes running no matter the situation at hand. Clustering provides the best high availability by running multiple servers simultaneously. Therefore, if one goes down, file transfers and workflows will continue to run on other servers so communication with your trading partners won’t be interrupted. Seen the Signs…? If you’ve observed any of the above warning signs in your business, it may be time to consider upgrading to a secure MFT such as GoAnywhere. The acknowledged leading Managed File Transfer offering, GoAnywhere is an all-in-one solution, automating and encrypting file transfers from a centralised dashboard. It not only simplifies the completion of critical business initiatives, but also reduces the time spent on manual file transfers and in-house processes. GoAnywhere saves businesses time, money, and reputation. If you’d like to learn more about how GoAnywhere MFT could add to your organisation’s bottom line, please feel free to contact me ( bradley@gensys.com.au ), or read more at the Generic Systems Australia website. I’d be happy to offer you an obligation-free discussion, no cost trial, or Proof of Concept. Bradley Copson, Business Manager, Generic Systems Australia “Local Experts in Secure Managed File Transfer” Previous Next

< News New “Threat Brain” keeps Cyber Security Briefed and Vigilant 10 June 2025 What if your enterprise IT systems were constantly informed of the latest emerging cyber threats, so they could proactively protect your precious data from cyber thieves? That’s what Fortra’s new Threat Brain does for GoAnywhere , the world’s leading Managed File Transfer (MFT) solution. Threat Brain provides a unique threat intelligence advantage over other MFT solutions. It aggregates indicators from a deep portfolio of cybersecurity solutions to continuously identify and block IPs with bad reputation or malicious intent before those threats enter your organisation. Other MFTs can only react to cyber threats. GoAnywhere proactively avoids them. Threat Intelligence With access to data from Fortra’s deep portfolio of cybersecurity products and vast customer network, Threat Brain continually aggregates, in real-time, risk information across all attack vectors so that GoAnywhere MFT. Generic Systems Australia is a long-term distributor of GoAnywhere across the Asia-Pacific region. Threat Brain’s enhancements to GoAnywhere enable our customers to benefit from: · Consistent re-verification : With lesser MFTs, once an IP address has been allowed, there’s no ongoing monitoring. With GoAnywhere however, IP reputations are checked with every new session to ensure they remain safe. GoAnywhere is the only solution in the marketplace that makes this proactive and consistent security feature available to all customers within the solution. · Massive threat intelligence database : Threat Brain continually aggregates threat intelligence from Fortra’s broad cybersecurity portfolio and its vast, worldwide (anonymised) customer database. No other MFT vendor offers such integrated cybersecurity tools capable of tapping into this collected threat data. · Layered protection : Fortra’s deep portfolio of cybersecurity intelligence and protection adds an additional layer of protection to customers’ sensitive data. Combined with Advanced Threat Protection , GoAnywhere sets the bar for protecting sensitive data in motion and at rest. Proactive Security GoAnywhere taps Threat Brain to perform on-demand IP reputation checks for incoming HTTP/S connections, AS2, and AS4 protocols. These checks are executed on the GoAnywhere Web Client and via API and API endpoints. GoAnywhere automatically blocks IPs with low reputation scores. This IP blocking can be fine-tuned through adjustable sensitivity settings, while provisioning allows for exceptions in case of false positives. When an IP address has been blocked due to low reputation, a system administrator can add an exception to permit the IP address to be accessed. Whenever GoAnywhere takes action to protect your systems and data, it’s recorded in an audit log detailing what was blocked and the reason it intervened. Stay in the Know When it comes to cyber security, it’s critical to be proactive vs reactive. While Brute Force or Denial-of-Service attacks may be detected automatically by traditional MFTs, this happens only after the system has been attacked. Local Expertise at the Ready If you’d like help tapping GoAnywhere’s proactive capabilities for your organisation, please feel welcome to contact me . I have decades of experience as a long term distributor of GoAnywhere in Australia and New Zealand, and I’m always happy to have an obligation-free discussion and demonstrate its impressive capabilities. At Generic Systems Australia , we’re your local experts in secure Managed File Transfer. Previous Next

< Case Studies How GoAnywhere Helps PMFresh Better Serve Customers & Partners PMFresh uses GoAnywhere MFT to handle its 20,000 weekly file transfers. They initially chose GoAnywhere as a solution to replace problematic custom-written and legacy programs to meet the requirements of their large customer, Domino’s Pizza. The robust solution has since proven itself with its flexibility, functionality, and ease of use both in and out of the organization. “GoAnywhere’s flexibility in being able to interact with the varied systems of our customers, allows us to effectively set up electronic trading partnerships with our customers,” noted Ashish Bhatt, IT Manager for PMFresh. “GoAnywhere is a flexible, secure file transfer tool that makes file transfers and other business processes easier.” “With four manufacturing plants and a small IT staff, GoAnywhere can straddle all the systems easily without specialized skill sets. By using more variable skill sets it’s been easier to manage file sending, receiving, and translating. GoAnywhere allows us to do more with less,” he added. Moving In-House Brought Reliability and Cost Savings Prior to installing GoAnywhere, PMFresh used a mixture of solutions, including a third-party provider, but experienced a lot of issues. “We were under a lot of pressure to bring the Domino’s ordering system and B2B communications inhouse to reduce the manual management needed for these processes. There were a lot of moving parts,” Ashish said. “Every time we wanted to interact with an external trading partner, we had to find a solution they were able to manage. When we started to work with Domino’s, we found our old process gave us lots of errors and our third party charged us considerably to receive those transfers,” noted Ashish. Simon Kuenstner, then a tech consultant to PMFresh, was tasked with finding a solution for PMFresh’s in-house system. “We were very satisfied with the options GoAnywhere MFT provided another customer in terms of reliability, logging, and encryption,” he said. “Since then, GoAnywhere has proved its flexibility and high reliability over many years. It is secure, very fast, and the scalability is great. It doesn’t matter what platform you need to connect to, it can easily communicate with whatever you or your partners have.” What used to take hours or even several days can now be accomplished in minutes or hours. And the Advanced Workflow engine gives PMFresh the ability to do everything from simple transfers to complex automation. Ashish said he also appreciates the logging and ability to integrate messaging and alerts into the file transfer process. “With GoAnywhere, we were able to get the set-up with Domino’s started over a weekend, had the ordering process automated on an FTP site, and that project is still running smoothly today.” A Mission-Critical Solution GoAnywhere is considered mission-critical for PMFresh and is now incorporated in all parts of the business from accounts, purchasing, production, and customer service. PMFresh has been able to reduce many of the manual tasks for processing electronic orders, invoices, business intelligence reporting, and more. “Without GoAnywhere receiving, moving, and translating files, the business would stop,” said Asish. “We are able to both reduce the hours needed for processes and save money. And with multiple systems, many trading partners in the industry, and a complex, distributed factory footprint, GoAnywhere allows us to be more flexible. It is the glue that connects our systems. “We continually look at our processes to see if GoAnywhere can help in any way. Our people – both in and out of the organisation – are very happy with what we have done so far, as it has saved them so much time. It’s a fast, productive environment, is stable, and integrates with all our systems,” he added. On-Premise Transferred Successfully to Azure Cloud In 2020, when increasing their cloud footprint, PMFresh migrated all their on-premises and data centre computer workloads to the Microsoft Azure cloud. Part of that migration included moving their six-year instance of GoAnywhere to Azure. With GoAnywhere implemented in Azure, PMFresh now hosts SFTP and AS2, (server and client) in the Cloud, to securely communicate with their external trading partners. They also run integrations between services hosted in Azure and on-premises, as well as their ERP systems which are also hosted. PMFresh utilizes virtual machines (VM) in Azure for their GoAnywhere instances and utilizes GoAnywhere’s Gateway within an Azure DMZ for optimal security with internet facing trading partners and systems. In addition, utilizing the Azure Cloud’s highly available architecture, backup options, and the ability to replicate the GoAnywhere environment into other regions, gives PMFresh infrastructure reliability that they did not have in their on-premises data centre. It enables PMFresh to serve their customers with reliable orders, invoices, and communications. “I’d highly recommend running GoAnywhere in the cloud if it is a critical component of your business, as it is for PMFresh,” Asish said. GoAnywhere MFT Helps PMFresh Deliver Service Excellence With GoAnywhere in place, PMFresh can process new orders in a timelier fashion and communicate more reliably with their partners. Said Asish: “The simplicity of the software enables us to onboard new customers and suppliers easily, saving us both a lot of time. The streamlined processes help partners as well. Some of our larger customers have large processing sites, and GoAnywhere enables us to align with their existing processes. “The solution’s flexibility gives us an advantage. We can say, ‘we can work with that’ and that flexibility has helped us a lot.” While already utilising many functions of GoAnywhere, SFTP, HTTPS, AS2, and GoAnywhere Gateway, Ashish anticipates adding process automation using Secure Forms. “We have plans to migrate some additional dated processes on old systems to GoAnywhere as well. We want to continue exploring its capabilities as it saves us time and money, and most importantly for our customers, it is highly reliable.” He added that, by using the Advanced Workflow engine, “Our only limitation is our imagination.” --- If you would like to explore how GoAnywhere MFT can help you better serve your customers and suppliers, please feel free to contact our Business Manager, Bradley Copson. He’s always happy to have an obligation-free discussion, explain how quickly and easily we can transition your organisation to the class-leading MFT solution, and offer you a zero-cost Proof of Concept. Previous Next

< News The Value of 3rd-Party Reviews 7 May 2025 Third-party review sites can be a valuable source of insight for IT teams tasked with selecting the best software solution for their organisation. Reputable and long-established sites such as PeerSpot , SoftwareReviews , G2 , and Capterra can help identify which solutions are most widely used and highest rated within your industry. This can in turn help you proceed quickly to a decision on which solution(s) to trial. Reliable Reviewers Whether you’re looking for Managed File Transfer (MFT) solutions or other software, it’s best to prioritise reviews on sites which have established themselves as trustworthy over the test of time and thousands of peer reviews. These sites capture the opinions of real product users sharing their real-life experiences – positive and negative. In fact, Gartner’s 2024 annual study of 2,499 software decision makers found that customer reviews and ratings were the most used information source by buyers, above personalised product demos, user guides, and case studies. More than a third of software buyers described reviews as “extremely important” to their purchase. Are Reviews Trustworthy? It’s illegal in Australia and New Zealand for businesses to create fake or misleading reviews or arrange for others do so. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission suggests the following red flags may indicate that a review is fake: · a spike in highly positive or negative reviews over a short period of time; · many reviews written from the same email or IP address; · similar reviewers’ names; · generic reviews without specific detail about the business or product; and · reviews written in similar language as other reviews for the same business or product. Thankfully, the trusted third-party sites I listed above have processes in place to weed out dubious software reviews. They also publish the measures they take to assure the validity of the reviews they receive. Other Sources of Insight Beyond peer reviews, here are some other useful resources to consult when selecting the right software solution for your business. · Case studies : Demonstrate how businesses are using the solution; · Product videos : Illustrate solutions’ features and benefits; · Webinars : Subject matter experts demonstrate the configuration and use of the solutions; and · Written Resources : Provide a variety of reader-friendly explanations and examples Local Advice and Guidance At Generic Systems Australia, we have decades of experience installing and supporting the world’s premier MFT , GoAnywhere, across Australia and New Zealand. Founded in 1993, we’re proud to count among our clients some of the region’s most iconic brands. Leveraging our unique skills and readily available local support, they rely on us to make their IT systems more secure and efficient, in turn, making their teams more productive. A long-term partner of Fortra (formerly Help Systems, and Linoma Software, the original authors of GoAnywhere MFT), our in depth understanding of GoAnywhere’s capabilities - including Advanced Workflows, data translation, auditing and compliance, automation and security - enables us to devise optimal deployment solutions, provide rapid Proofs of Concept, and move ahead quickly with implementation. In fact, we have exclusively managed GoAnywhere deployments for some of the region’s largest multinational corporations and Government departments, as well as small- to medium-sized businesses. Our Australia-based technical experts provide clients with the reassurance that local help will always be on-hand. If you’re exploring how to boost your efficiency and bottom line by leveraging Secure Managed File Transfer technology, please feel welcome to contact me for an obligation-free discussion. Or, if you’d prefer to read more, you can check out the many resources on our Generic Systems Australia website, including our exclusive Local MFT Buyer’s Guide . At Generic Systems Australia, we’re your local experts in MFT. Previous Next

< News Increased 3rd Party Data Sharing Increases Data Theft Risk 29 July 2024 The inability to track, control and report sensitive content shared with external contacts is a substantial risk for modern enterprises. And that risk appears to be rapidly escalating, as two-thirds of organisations each exchange sensitive data with more than a thousand third parties. These are some of the key findings from a survey conducted recently by Kiteworks, a US-based data security firm. Sensitive Content Kiteworks defines “sensitive content” as the wide variety of content commonly targeted by cyberthieves. It’s content which poses a significant threat to an organisation once bad actors get their hands on it. Sensitive content includes the data of customers and employees — personally identifiable information (PII), protected health information (PHI), and payment card industry (PCI) data. It also includes an organisation’s intellectual property (IP), legal communications and documents, financials, mergers and acquisitions data, and other types of private and confidential information. Kiteworks says that the key problem with sensitive content is how it does not stay in one place. During daily operations, it is shared not only among employees, but also with partners, suppliers, contractors, legal counsel, accountants, auditors, and more. More Comms Channels = More Risk Efficient organisations are always searching for more “frictionless” ways to move their data. However, as their number of communication channels with external parties grows, so too does the potential opportunity for bad actors to intercept and steal the data. That escalating risk is borne out by Kiteworks’ analysis. They found that organisations with more than seven communication tools experience ten plus data breaches, which is 3.5 times higher than the aggregate of those experiencing one to ten breaches. File Size Limits Exacerbate Risks The file size limits imposed by many content communication tools are a key contributor to the risks of moving data. Frustrated employees simply trying to do their jobs will sometimes use insecure and unauthorised consumer-grade file sharing services to bypass organisational limitations. Even for those employees who always follow the rules, the resulting workarounds can trigger significant waste of staff time. More than 30% of organisations surveyed by Kiteworks needed to implement workarounds due to file size limits for email, file sharing, and managed file transfers over 50 times per month. Around 10% said they must do so over 100 times per month. IT Teams Stepping Up Switched-on IT teams are increasingly focused on addressing their organisation’s need to protect sensitive content. A popular solution is to unify communication tools and channels to secure sensitive content communications. Their primary drivers for change may vary – from protecting intellectual property and corporate secrets to mitigating litigation, avoiding regulatory violations and protecting their brand reputation – but the way they are addressing these risks is similar… Control Through Consolidation Consolidating communication tools onto a single platform needs to be a foundational element of an organisation’s cyber defences. By reducing the number of disparate tools used for content communication, they can significantly lower the risk of data breaches and improve operational efficiency. Kiteworks’ survey shows that organisations with fewer communication tools experience fewer breaches. Tool consolidation significantly enhances security. MFT Consolidates, Automates, Improves Efficiency Managed File Transfer (MFT) software is a powerful technology which comprehensively addresses the risks and challenges of moving information within an organisation, and with external suppliers, partners and customers. MFT simplifies the complexities of data transfer by offering centralised control, encryption, and auditing capabilities. A significant advance on traditional approaches, MFT provides enhanced security protocols, ensuring data privacy during transmission and storage. And it does so via a user-friendly interface, which is easy to use for even non-technical employees. In addition to consolidating the plethora of disparate data exchange channels employees create during an organisation’s evolution, MFT technology provides an array of organisation advantages: Security: MFT employs robust encryption algorithms, reducing the risk of data breaches during transit. Features like Access Controls, and Multi-factor Authentication, safeguard sensitive information from unauthorised access. No Size Limit Straitjacket: The best MFT solutions enable organisations to set file size limits appropriate to their teams’ needs. They also offer “persistence protocols” which ensure large files are fully transmitted to their intended destinations. Efficiency: MFT automates repetitive tasks. This not only reduces human error, it saves significant staff time. Through scheduling of file transfers, monitoring of progress, and automatic error-handling, it enables a significant boost to operational efficiency. Compliance: In industries with strict regulatory requirements, MFT helps companies meet compliance standards (e.g. HIPAA and GDPR) by automatically maintaining detailed logs and audit trails. Scalability: Through its ability to handle large file transfers and an ever-growing number of users, MFT is able to grow in sync with an organisation's needs, while maintaining superior performance. Collaboration: In addition to improving business processes within an organisation, MFT facilitates seamless collaboration with external partners, suppliers, and customers, fostering strong relationships built on shared trust and reliability. The Best MFT At Generic Systems Australia, we recommend the industry’s class-leading MFT solution, GoAnywhere MFT . GoAnywhere is consistently declared by independent experts to be the best-in-class MFT solution. Besides achieving the highest overall score in the MFT category, GoAnywhere is also ranked highest for Vendor Capability Satisfaction, including the key dimensions of: • Business Value Created • Breadth of Features • Quality of Features • Product Strategy and Rate of Improvement • Useability and Intuitiveness • Vendor Support • Ease of Data Integration • Ease of Customisation • Availability and Quality of Training, and • Ease of Implementation GoAnywhere MFT's combination of versatility, security, ease of use, and budget-friendliness has propelled it to the top of the MFT market. Gain Expert Local Advice At Generic Systems Australia , we’re Australia’s and the Asia-Pacific region’s experts on MFT in general, and GoAnywhere in particular. If you’d like an obligation-free discussion about how we could help you keep your organisation’s sensitive content safe, please feel welcome to get in touch . We’re always happy to have an obligation-free discussion, and even offer a free Proof of Concept. Previous Next

< News “Scripting SNAFU” – A True Cautionary Tale 25 Feb 2025 A n anecdote shared by a local business dramatically demonstrates the danger of relying on old-fashioned file transfer scripts within your organisation. Million Dollar Mishap An Australian business was using legacy scripts to copy their customers’ Personally Identifiable Information (PII) between systems within their business. Now, PII – personal details such as name, address, phone number, date of birth, bank details etc – is the most protected kind of consumer information under Australian law. Businesses which mishandle it expose themselves to penalties potentially as high as $50M. One day, a staff member in this business accidentally deleted a customer’s data directory – an error that went unnoticed. When the legacy file transfer script ran as per its usual schedule, attempting to copy the customer’s updated PII to their customer directory, it couldn’t. The destination directory was missing. So the script copied the customer’s PII to a different customer’s directory! This meant the original customer’s PII was now visible to and accessible by the wrong customer – in breach of Australia’s Privacy Act. Better Managed File Transfers GoAnywhere MFT – the world’s leading Managed File Transfer (MFT) solution – would have prevented this error from occurring. It tightly controls where files are transferred from and to, with high levels of authentication and encryption. GoAnywhere remains vigilant. If it detects anomalies in its authorised file transfers, it doesn’t proceed. Instead, it sends an immediate alert to an authorised employee so that the issue can be addressed – before any data is lost or privacy laws broken. However, there are many more reasons why you should replace file transfer scripts with the world’s leading MFT… No Safe Scripts Scripts aren’t secure. For example, data sent via FTP is transferred “in the clear” – an easy target for external hackers, or curious employees and vendors. Worse, user credentials aren’t encrypted, putting your entire system at risk. Scripts lack advanced features. For example, automating file transfers with FTP requires adding a second solution, a time-consuming and complex prospect. It’s also difficult to build in re-try features, and lock down how users interact with sensitive data. Scripts don’t play well with new systems. For example, cloud-based computing environments require file transfers to be integrated with cloud-based solutions, and platforms such as Azure and AWS. Scripts are time consuming. Developing, maintaining, and troubleshooting scripts takes time, distracting valuable support staff from more important things. And if your support staff aren’t available when a script fails, it can bottleneck your organisation’s entire workflow. A Happy Ending So, what happened to the business whose missing directory accidentally exposed their customer’s PII…? After one of their customers reported that they were seeing a different customer’s PII, the business scrambled to quickly address the problem. They re-created the necessary customer directories and manually moved their customer’s data to where it belonged. Whew! But it’s what they did next that made the biggest difference… Determined to prevent the possibility of any such error ever recurring, the business immediately conducted a comparison of Managed File Transfer solutions. They selected GoAnywhere, the industry’s leading Managed File Transfer – and became a Generic Systems Australia customer! Leveraging The Experience If you’d like to learn more about how GoAnywhere MFT could put guardrails around your business’s handling of PII, please feel welcome to get in touch with me . I’m always happy to have an obligation-free discussion, or provide a quick and easy proof of concept. At Generic Systems Australia we’re your local experts in MFT solutions. Previous Next

< News Why Your Business Needs PROACTIVE Cyber Security 4 Apr 2025 Blocking cyber criminals before they gain access to your IT systems requires your cyber security solution to have access to, and pre-emptively act upon, the very latest intel on threats. It needs an early warning system. Activating the proactive features in your existing security solutions is a good first step to keeping bad actors out. However, layering security with solutions that guard your data – instead of merely alerting you to breaches after the fact – is much better. Six Reasons Here are six reasons your organisation should consider making a proactive Managed File Transfer (MFT) security solution the foundation for your layered data security. Traditional threat intelligence is reactive against cyberthreats rather than proactive. While Brute Force and Denial of Service (DoS) attacks can be detected automatically, that’s only after your systems have come under attack.  A vulnerability discovered by a cybercriminal in one business system can be quickly replicated across other businesses’ systems in a wave of copycat attacks .  Some attacks may only be detectable through (all-too-infrequent) manual inspection of activity logs.  New and previously unknown vulnerabilities can lead to Zero Day incidents , if cyber security solutions don’t continually check for bad IP addresses. Cybercriminals systematically probe MFT service endpoints to evade automatic IP blocking.  An Example A manufacturing plant with multiple MFT deployments was concerned about rising cyberthreats and the potential for their systems to be compromised.  While they were confident in their MFT solution’s ability to protect sensitive data while in transit and in motion, their system didn’t pre-emptively detect bad actors or threats before they entered their MFT environment. While they could add trusted IPs to their “allowed” list, that created a future level of risk. What if that IP address was subsequently compromised…? Thinking Ahead GoAnywhere MFT , the world’s most fully-featured MFT, offers a unique proactive threat intelligence advantage over other lesser solutions , mitigating the risk of persistent IP address trust. By simply turning on the feature in the latest version of GoAnywhere, organisations can leverage the dynamic intelligence database of Fortra’s Threat Brain . This “brain” is comprised of data and indicators from Fortra’s deep portfolio of cybersecurity solutions. It provides a forward-leaning approach to cybersecurity threats, blocking IPs with bad reputations or malicious intent before they enter the MFT environment. When activated within GoAnywhere, Threat Brain pre-emptively blocks bad actors across all attack vectors, continually checking trustworthiness with each new session. Proactive Security Benefits for MFT As a built-in module, Fortra’s dynamic cybersecurity intelligence database benefits GoAnywhere customers by: Consistent re-verification : An IP's reputation is re-checked with every session to ensure it remains safe”. Other MFT products don’t offer this ongoing monitoring of IP addresses once they are white-listed. Comprehensive threat intelligence data sources : Threats detected in one of Fortra’s many security solutions is shared with the Threat Brain, increasing the overall intelligence data available to GoAnywhere MFT. Layered protection : Combined with Threat Protection and Zero Trust File Transfer, GoAnywhere provides unmatched options to safeguard data throughout the entire data lifecycle. Stay A Step Ahead of Cyber Crims Blocking the door to your MFT environment can be as easy as enabling the Threat Brain module in GoAnywhere and determining which level of security you require to meet your organisation’s security mandates or compliance requirements. If you’d like help tapping GoAnywhere’s proactive capabilities for your organisation, please feel welcome to contact me . I’m always happy to have an obligation-free discussion, demonstrate GoAnywhere’s capabilities, and even offer you a zero-cost Proof of Concept. At Generic Systems Australia , we’re your local experts in secure Managed File Transfer. Previous Next