The MetroHartford Alliance’s “Pulse of the Region” radio show recently dedicated an episode to the IT collaboration between Kelser Corporation and Hoffman Auto Group. The conversation is a great example of a premier Connecticut company taking a proactive approach to cybersecurity and technology infrastructure through a partnership with Kelser.

I recently had the chance to help Reader’s Digest update an article titled “11 Things IT Professionals Don’t Want You To Know”. It’s no secret that IT is a little misunderstood. Part of our mission at Kelser is to connect IT strategy to the overall business strategy of our clients. When integrated into the company as a whole, IT can be a major business enabler, helping achieve goals across the business. It starts with viewing IT as more than fixing things when they break.

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.

Earlier this year, a simple thought occurred to me. Hackers are the new mafia. Cybercrime is the newest part of the organized crime business model. How could looking at things this way change the cybersecurity landscape?

In late July, three Connecticut school districts experienced or became aware of data breaches or cyberattacks. The school districts of New Haven, Wallingford, and Pomfret were affected. NBC Connecticut interviewed Kelser for a story that covers each of the three school districts.

Less than 12 hours after the massive Capital One data breach was announced on a Monday night, Kelser CTO Jonathan Stone was on the phone with a reporter from The Washington Post helping break down the role of cloud storage in the story. In the days that followed, Kelser experts were on all four local Connecticut TV networks to provide perspective on this breach.

As part of my role as CTO at Kelser, I am also vCIO for some of our clients, such as Hoffman Auto Group. A vCIO, also called a virtual or fractional CIO, performs the strategic function of a tech executive for an organization that doesn’t necessarily need a fulltime CIO in house.

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