IT budgets grow despite economic uncertainty

IT Budgets

For years — maybe decades — management viewed IT as primarily a cost center. A necessary evil, at an often heavy expense, to enable the rest of the company to simply function. Given that prevalent mindset, most business leaders strove to keep IT budgets down as much as possible. The thinking went that if it wasn’t actively improving sales or … Read More

Living off the Land cyber attacks — your newest nightmare

Living Off The Land

We talk a lot about looming cyber threats out there. It’s a huge operational concern for businesses large and small. Insurance, backup, protection, you name it — we’re writing about it and talking about it with our clients and partners. What was a relatively small part of our managed services portfolio not too long ago has become a central tenet … Read More

Safari hack shows browser security key to cyberdefense

Safari

In news you may have missed, Apple awarded a bug bounty for more than $100k back in January. The bug identified was a clever and creative vulnerability in the Safari browser system which could have allowed hackers to exploit target systems, implant malicious files and code on host computers, impersonate users with accurate credentials, commandeer webcams and microphones, etc. This … Read More

Russia increasing cyber attacks globally — how to protect your business

Russia

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drags on — and global sanctions against Russia take firmer hold — cyber attacks coming from Russia have started to both increase in frequency as well as severity. For nearly a decade, Russia has perfected state-level cyberwar by practicing on Ukraine. Now, however, Russian-originated cyber attacks are leaking out to government entities and private corporations … Read More

Microsoft debuts New Commerce Experience, changes to 365

New Commerce Experience

The various Microsoft 365 offerings are the backbone of many enterprises. A huge percentage of our clients and partners rely on some combination of Microsoft 365, Office 365, Dynamics 365 and Power Platform subscriptions. To that end, Microsoft has recently changed how these products are purchased and how they’re priced. The company is calling this the “New Commerce Experience” (NCE), … Read More

The stages of vulnerability management

Vulnerability management model

Cybersecurity and organizational preparedness have never been more important than they are right now. Both will become more important with every passing week. More advanced, more pervasive and more destructive cyber threats crop up every single day, and your vulnerability management plan has to be up to snuff to keep your company and its clients safe. But where do you … Read More

Cybersecurity tiers: how to move from Tier 1 to Tier 4 of preparedness

Cybersecurity tiers

Back in 2018, the National Institute of Standards and Technology released a report with a pretty bland name: Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity. But in that report is one of the most useful guides for how to think about organizational cybersecurity, how to improve your cybersecurity and how to stay secure even in a rapidly evolving threat environment. We … Read More

2022 Cybersecurity Predictions

cybersecurity

Sometimes, I wish I didn’t have to write about cybersecurity quite as much as I do. If it wasn’t such a dangerous and pervasive menace, I wouldn’t have to spend so much time researching it and writing about it. But as you can imagine, cyber threats are only getting more common, more widespread and more destructive. And for business owners … Read More

Your biggest cybersecurity threat in 2022 may just be… burnout?

burnout

There might never have been such a ripe time to experience professional burnout. We’re rounding the corner into Year 3 of a global pandemic; we’ve spent much of the last two years in some form of lockdown, juggling a new working reality all while figuring out child care, education, you name it… add in trying to maintain some semblance of … Read More

How Russian cyber weapons could impact your business

cyber weapons

Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine is far from the first time Russia has exhibited hostilities toward Ukraine. Beyond the annexation of Crimea in 2014, Russia has been practicing and perfecting its cyber arsenal using Ukraine as a training ground for years. From physical infrastructure system attacks (like on Ukraine’s power grid), to devastatingly simple rogue worms that escape Ukraine’s borders … Read More