Cloud Security for Manufactured housing: Protecting Data in a Multi-Location World

It’s no secret that growing industries are prime targets for cybercriminals.

According to a recent report by Mordor Intelligence, a market research company, manufactured housing is expected to grow from a $27.28 billion dollar industry in 2025 to $36.20 billion in 2030. The United States is in a housing affordability crisis and more and more consumers are turning to manufactured housing as the solution.

People displaced by natural disasters, retirees, and first-time buyers are driving demand, but with increased demand come increased risks. Especially considering the fact that manufactured housing companies often operate in several locations. The question now becomes:

How can you protect your data in a multi-location world?

In this blog, we’re going to focus on how ramping up your cloud security can save you from becoming the next data breach casualty.

Manufactured housing’s unique cybersecurity challenges

“The ERP holds highly valuable, confidential information about company operations and resident data, and not having it properly secured could lead to catastrophic loss of data, release of highly confidential customer data and significant risk of reputation loss.” – John Olson, VP Sales & Operations, Network Thinking Solutions

If you are in the manufactured housing industry, then you’ve likely heard of Ascentia, a real estate company that specializes in manufactured housing communities. In May of 2023, Ascentia learned that an unauthorized party accessed PII (personal identifiable information) stored in its systems via a security breach.

The data these cybercriminals stole went beyond names and email addresses. They stole social security numbers, driver’s license numbers, and health information. In the end, the breach cost them more than just money, their reputation took a hit as well.

Because of the multi-location nature of manufactured housing, you’re dealing with data access across multiple sites, diverse endpoints, and in some cases, outdated legacy systems. This makes it difficult to track vulnerabilities and be proactive in your cybersecurity approach without overextending your teams.

What should manufactured housing companies do to prevent something like the Ascentia attack from happening to them?

It’s time to migrate to the cloud

We’ve written at length about why cloud migration is essential for manufactured housing companies, but in the context of cybersecurity benefits, here are more reasons to convince you.

Centralized security controls: Instead of managing multiple layers of security across all of your different sites, you’re able to leverage tools like firewalls, encryption, and access control directly from your cloud provider. This makes management easier and ensures a higher level of security across the board.

Think of it this way: sensitive tenant and financial data is protected, no matter where it’s being accessed from.

Automatic updates mean automatic patches: If you’re using on-premises systems, they require manual intervention to stay updated. When you’re on the cloud, vulnerabilities are automatically addressed through regular updates and patches. This means that you would always be running on the latest and most secure version of software.

Data redundancy: If your hardware fails or a natural disaster happens, you want to make sure your data will be secure and still accessible by authorized users. The cloud offers a built-in backup system that not only protects against ransomware, but also ensures that your operations can continue without disruptions.

If you want to learn more about cloud migration for manufactured housing companies, read the blog here.

Make cloud security easy with a Managed Service Provider (MSP)

Cybersecurity and cloud migration might sound like a whole lot to add to your already too-long to-do list. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be complicated. This is where having a Managed Service Provider really helps.

MSPs like Network Thinking Solutions provide the expertise and tools you need to make sure that your cloud environment is secure, efficient, and always resilient against threats. We specialize in managing cloud security for manufactured housing businesses with complex operations, ensuring consistent and reliable protection across all sites.

We make sure that your cloud security extends to the endpoints and networks that have access to your cloud. We also implement and manage firewalls, VPNs, and endpoint protection for the devices that are accessing your network.

Partnering with manufactured housing experts who understand what it takes to protect a multi-location business like yours can be make or break in the event of a breach. Don’t wait to amp up your cloud security. Contact us to learn how we can help you protect what matters most– your business and your customers.