Information technology blog, cybersecurity blog

Thrive Global recently conducted a Q&A with Kelser President Jim Parise as part of the outlet's series on “5 Things You Need to Know to Optimize Your Company’s Approach to Data Privacy and Cybersecurity.” The article also ran in Authority Magazine.

Senior consulting engineer Andrew Tyler was a panelist for a recent cybersecurity virtual forum presented by the Hartford Business Journal. The theme of the forum was how the pandemic has forced a change in the way many businesses approach cybersecurity in this new work-from-home world.

The novel coronavirus pandemic has taught us several lessons already and there’s likely more to learn. We’ve learned the definition of essential businesses and personnel during a time of crisis, the term “social distancing”, which employees are able to perform their duties remotely, and more. We’ve also learned that pandemics need to be included in every organization’s business continuity/disaster recovery (BCDR) plan. If you already account for them in your business plan, kudos to you! I recently wrote about how to go about this for the Hartford Business Journal and have included more detail below. When putting together a BCDR plan, I think many of us focus on the more typical potential disasters that come to mind like weather, human, and data related incidents. When gathering my thoughts for this, I even subconsciously put pandemic last when listing out types of plans to consider making. Did you have a plan in place that’s helped get your business through this crisis?

It’s been a difficult summer for Connecticut public schools when it comes to cybersecurity. In addition to the three Connecticut school districts hit by cyber attacks in late July, it recently came to light that the Wolcott public school district suffered a devastating ransomware attack months ago from which it has not fully recovered. No data was stolen, but a great deal of data was locked and held for ransom, much of which was not backed up. As a result, teachers are starting the new school year without key materials.

Many business owners simply don’t think about the topic of business continuity and disaster recovery, assuming that they’ll be fine just because they haven’t yet faced a catastrophe. Others argue that their IT department’s budget is too small to spare any funds for a hypothetical future event.

From tornadoes and floods to security breaches and employee error, unexpected catastrophes can befall any type of business. While you may not be able to prevent or even anticipate disaster, you can be well-prepared before it strikes in order to minimize the impact and downtime. The importance of testing your plans for disaster recovery and business continuity can’t be understated.

According to a recent study, 48 percent of small businesses lack a business continuity plan—even though they are most at risk of going under when disaster strikes. While unexpected crises can happen at any moment, their impact can be minimized and mitigated through careful planning.

Managed services providers (MSPs) offer 24/7 support for your entire IT infrastructure: software, hardware, and configurations. These services are remotely monitored and managed in order to keep a pulse on your IT environment at all times.