I recently visited the set of Good Morning Connecticut to talk about the biggest cybersecurity stories in the news right now.

Here at Kelser, we’ve been in the IT consulting business for nearly four decades. By now, we’ve heard every excuse in the book from companies who don’t want to take a proactive approach to network security services.

Many managed service providers (MSPs) will tell you that they offer network security services—but how do you know that their offerings are actually high-quality and useful to you as an organization?

Your network is one of the most critical parts of your business—which means that any technical issues will come at a high price. According to a study by ITIC Corporation, 81 percent of organizations estimate that a single hour of downtime would cost their business $300,000 or more.

Only twice has Microsoft issued a patch for old, out-of-support versions of Windows: in 2017, just before the massive WannaCry cyber attack, and just recently. With newly discovered vulnerabilities from Intel, and even one in Windows 10, a very high number of computers around the world are potentially exposed right now. While we haven’t seen exploits yet to take advantage of these vulnerabilities, they likely aren’t far off. Conditions have scarcely been better for a massive cyber attack on the scale of WannaCry. Last week, I had the chance to break this down for listeners of the Brad Davis Show.

If you're a supplier, contractor or subcontractor with the federal government, you or your colleagues have no doubt heard of NIST 800-171. If you haven't, check out "Everything You Need to Know About NIST 800-171." for all of the details, and how it may affect your business contracts.

It’s well known that cyber attacks on businesses are increasing every year. The fact that the number of city governments falling victim to hackers as well is just coming to light. In Connecticut alone, the City of West Haven, the Derby Police Department, and the Bridgeport School District have all experienced cyber attacks in the past year inflicting varying degrees of damage.

Kelser was in news outlets across the world this spring when the Associated Press quoted CEO Barry Kelly in an article titled “6 things small businesses can do to improve cybersecurity” which ran in the New York Times, Washington Post, ABC News, Daily Mail, Fox Business, and many more.