Managed Service Providers (MSPs) have become prime hunting grounds for sophisticated ransomware groups that have evolved far beyond opportunistic attacks. The Acronis H2 2024 Cyberthreats Report exposes a chilling reality: 1,712 ransomware cases emerged in Q4 2024 alone, demonstrating how fast cybercriminals are intensifying operations.
Furthermore, what’s troubling about these attacks is that when threat actors compromise an MSP, they also gain access to their entire client portfolios, turning trusted connections into attack vectors that can simultaneously impact multiple organizations.
In this article, we explore how integrating NetBird's Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) with Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud addresses these critical MSP security challenges through automated deployment, granular access controls, and real-time threat detection.
The Cyberthreat Landscape for MSPs
Today, no MSP is too small to escape cyber threats. This represents a shift in the threat landscape where attackers once focused exclusively on high-value enterprise targets. The reason for this radical shift is simple: modern ransomware groups now recognize MSPs as force multipliers that provide access to dozens or hundreds of clients through a single breach.
That explains why over 20% of major attacks now involve lateral movement mechanisms that transform isolated incidents into portfolio-wide disasters capable of destroying an MSP's entire reputation overnight through multi-tenant service outages.
This strategic pivot has transformed how attacks unfold. Sophisticated threat actors first launch multi-stage phishing campaigns to compromise credentials or vulnerable RDP connections. Then, they weaponize the very tools MSPs depend on for efficiency: RMM platforms like N-Able, Ninja, and GoTo, which become delivery mechanisms for unauthorized agents. These techniques prove devastatingly effective: attackers propagate between client networks using PowerShell abuse, account discovery, and scheduled task creation, methods that blend seamlessly with legitimate administrative workflows.
The Helldown ransomware group attack on Hug Witschi AG in Switzerland demonstrates this cascade effect perfectly: a single compromise triggered substantial data loss and business disruption across multiple client environments.
Compounding this threat, cybercriminal groups now employ double extortion tactics and AI-automated attacks, rendering traditional perimeter-centric defenses inadequate against adversaries who exploit the trust relationships MSPs have established with their clients, demanding a fundamentally different security strategy.
Securing and Segmenting Remote Access & RMMs
Safeguarding MSP remote connectivity isn't just about keeping the doors locked; it's about ensuring only the right people have the right keys at the right times. Many breaches start with RMM (Remote Monitoring and Management) exploitation, making this an urgent area of focus.
The RMM Security Challenge
RMM tools are indispensable for MSP workflows, but also mark a prime target for threat actors seeking privileged access. Unchecked, these solutions (N-Able, Ninja, GoTo, etc.) can be hijacked, granting broad network control and amplifying supply chain exposures that cascade across entire client portfolios.
How NetBird and Acronis Address RMM Vulnerabilities
NetBird's Access Control Policies, Groups, and Networks enable MSPs to partition their remote access environment into isolated segments governed by granular, identity-aware access policies. These policies control traffic flow based on source and destination groups, protocol, and port, ensuring only pre-authorized users and devices, organized into groups like or , can interact with RMM interfaces or management endpoints.
Meanwhile, Acronis Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) continuously monitors RMM-related activity for behavioral anomalies, flagging unusual logins, privilege escalations, or unauthorized agent deployments. Acronis Active Protection provides additional self-defense for backup files and software, detecting and blocking ransomware and cryptomining processes.
How NetBird and Acronis Prevent Lateral Movement
When an attacker compromises a junior technician's workstation and attempts to access servers or client production environments, NetBird Access Control Policies create strict network microsegments, allowing the group to reach only designated testing resources via specific ports like TCP 22 for SSH. Unauthorized server access attempts are blocked while Acronis EDR simultaneously detects the suspicious connection patterns and credential harvesting attempts.
For its part, NetBird Networks creates complete isolation boundaries that prevent lateral movement during breaches. A compromised endpoint in Client A's network cannot traverse to Client B's infrastructure, even if both share the same physical MSP location. The platform's routing peers enable automatic failover between network paths, ensuring business continuity during incidents, while high availability configurations maintain connectivity even when primary gateways are compromised. Moreover, Integration with Identity Providers like Okta, Azure AD, and Google Workspace centralizes access management, allowing MSPs to revoke compromised credentials across all client networks instantly. Meanwhile, Acronis EDR's AI-driven behavior analytics monitors process activities across these isolated networks, detecting lateral movement indicators like unauthorized task scheduling, PowerShell abuse, or account discovery attempts, and Traffic Events Logging captures detailed network flow data for incident response analysis.
Advanced persistent threats often use legitimate administrative tools for lateral movement. Acronis EDR analyzes the behavioral context of tools like PsExec, WMI, or Remote Desktop, distinguishing between legitimate activities and malicious attempts. When suspicious patterns emerge, incident responders use existing NetBird Groups to immediately isolate affected devices or user groups, containing threats while maintaining legitimate business operations through granular access controls.
Automated, Multi-Layered Ransomware Defense & Rapid Recovery
Ransomware has evolved beyond simple encryption attacks; modern variants disable backups, interrupt recovery processes, and demand multi-million-dollar ransoms while spreading rapidly across interconnected MSP environments. Legacy backup systems often crumble under these coordinated assaults, leaving organizations paralyzed and hostage to attacker demands.
How NetBird and Acronis Defend Against Ransomware
When ransomware strikes a client workstation, Acronis Active Protection's AI-based detection engines identify encryption patterns and malicious process injections within seconds, immediately triggering automatic file recovery from local cache. Simultaneously, security teams can use NetBird Groups to isolate the compromised device by revoking its network access to backup servers and other client systems, preventing the ransomware from reaching critical recovery infrastructure. This coordinated response contains the infection while preserving clean backup repositories.
For MSPs managing distributed environments during ransomware incidents, NetBird Networks serve dual purposes: creating isolated channels between client environments and their dedicated backup systems, while establishing secure incident response corridors. When ransomware attempts to traverse from compromised networks to target backup repositories, NetBird's network segmentation blocks this movement entirely, ensuring Acronis's immutable backups remain inaccessible to attackers. Simultaneously, Acronis Safe Recovery scans backup images for malware before restoration, while these same NetBird Networks enable secure communications between incident response teams and affected client sites without risking further contamination through compromised infrastructure.
Business continuity during ransomware recovery requires coordinated system restoration while maintaining security controls. Acronis's centralized Cyber Protect console orchestrates recovery workflows, prioritizing critical business systems for restoration. NetBird Groups like can receive temporary elevated access to restored systems through time-limited Access Control Policies, enabling rapid validation and system hardening without compromising the broader network security posture that contained the initial ransomware spread.
Unified Policy Management, Monitoring, and Compliance
Fragmented security controls and scattered telemetry create policy drift and operational inefficiencies across MSP networks. The NetBird-Acronis integration addresses this through centralized policy orchestration: NetBird Setup Keys enable automated device enrollment with pre-configured Access Control Policies that apply consistent network segmentation across the entire client network, while Acronis's centralized Cyber Protect console simultaneously deploys standardized security policies, backup schedules, and vulnerability scanning.
Furthermore, NetBird's Audit Events Logging and Traffic Events Logging automatically capture every policy change, group modification, and network flow with timestamped details, while Acronis reporting provides compliance dashboards showing patch status, backup success rates, and security event timelines. Both platforms stream coordinated alerts to SIEM platforms like Datadog or Amazon S3 for unified incident tracking, transforming compliance from a manual burden into an automated byproduct of consistent security operations.
From Reactive Defense to Proactive Resilience
The threat landscape for MSPs is more perilous than ever, with adversaries specifically targeting them as force multipliers to compromise entire client portfolios. Traditional, perimeter-based security like VPN is no longer enough. The integration of NetBird Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) with Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud provides a comprehensive, multi-layered defense strategy designed for the modern MSP. By combining NetBird’s granular access controls, network microsegmentation, and automated policy enforcement with Acronis’s AI-driven threat detection, active ransomware protection, and rapid recovery capabilities, MSPs can build a truly resilient security posture. In our recent webinar, we explored the critical impact of lateral movement and how modern ransomware can devastate business operations and reputation. Watch the webinar on-demand to learn more.