Information technology blog, cybersecurity blog

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.

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.

From Hurricane Irene in 2011 to the “blizzard of 2013” that dumped two feet of snow across much of the state, Connecticut has seen its fair share of extreme weather. Not only do these natural disasters disrupt people’s daily lives and prevent them from coming into work, they also disable or damage critical business infrastructure and utilities such as power, electricity, and heating.

With news of another cyber attack in the headlines every other week, it’s hardly surprising that businesses of all sizes and industries are growing more and more concerned. 68 percent of organizations believe that they are “very vulnerable” or “extremely vulnerable” to a data breach.

What Are Managed Services? Managed services are the IT operations, functions, and processes that an organization chooses to outsource to a third-party external managed services provider (MSP). The organization signs a contract with the MSP known as the service level agreement (SLA) that outlines the MSP’s roles and responsibilities when monitoring and managing your IT services.

Last month, I was thrilled to be invited back to the 94.9 FM CBS Radio airwaves for another episode of Real Estate Radio (listen to my first appearance here). I actually love this radio show. It seems so random—a full hour about real estate—but the hosts Byron Lazine and Pat Kenny use real estate as a jumping off point to talk about a wide range of topics that affect quality of life and where people choose to live. This time around we focused on hot topics in the tech world including Facebook privacy and the GDPR, ransomware, and phishing following high-profile cyber attacks in Connecticut.