Three Issues in the Cyberspace Solarium Commission Report
The March Cyberspace Solarium Commission report advised that businesses and the U.S government should incorporate layered cybersecurity into their defense strategy. Additionally, the report insists that Congress, “pass a law establishing that final goods assemblers of software, hardware and [...]
Is Cyber Insurance Unintentionally Increasing Ransomware Attacks?
Each year the total ransomware cases and money demanded, either through bitcoin or other monetary means, increases. Attacks can cost businesses and governments millions of dollars in recovery fees, and the enormous payout is why the ransomware industry is so [...]
Cybercrime: Non-Personal and Potentially Deadly
Written by Oli Thordarson, President/CEO of Alvaka Networks Mimi Grant, President of ABL Organization, wrote to me asking if a recent Red Cross plea to cyber-criminals to not attack hospitals with ransomware and extortion will help reduce cybercrime activity. [...]
Essential Steps for Ransomware Recovery
Are you a victim of ransomware? Or have you been one in the past? If so, the following will help you understand what activities you should expect during the course of your ransomware recovery in the days following an attack. [...]
Is Your Business Prepared for Remote Work? Take a Readiness Self-Assessment
As COVID-19 (Coronavirus) continues to disrupt and create uncertainty in our daily lives and business, Alvaka Networks wants to focus on helping companies keep their employees, community, and businesses safe by educating and assisting in remote work strategies. Alvaka [...]
New York Aims to Prevent Cities from Paying Ransomware Demands
If Senator Boyle and cosponsors—Senator George M. Borrello of the 57th Senate District and Senator Sue Serino of the 41st Senate District—get their way, municipalities in New York will be banned from paying ransomware demands to get their vital public [...]
Smoke testing is a term used to describe the testing process for servers after patches are applied. 
Estimating an average time for patching servers and PCs can be a bit tricky. It can vary from one month to the next, depending upon the number and complexity of the patches released by your software vendors. You must consider all versions of operating systems and have a complete inventory of all your application software to do this job correctly. Our experience has shown that manual patching of systems takes on average of about 1.5 hours each.
This is a basic cost calculator for you to compute your typical monthly cost for patching your servers, PCs, laptops, tablets and associated application software. It also forms the basis for you to begin calculating your Return on Investment for software patching, or for comparison with alternatives to the manual process of patching operating systems and application software—such as Patch Management as a Service, also known as Vulnerability Management as a Service.
