Without IT process documentation, companies risk being held ‘hostage’ by IT
As cybersecurity breaches surge, it's important that company leadership know what IT is up to. Kevin McDonald explains why IT process documentation is a must-have best practice. It seems that not a day passes without news of another high-profile hack, [...]
Orange County Register Opinion Column on “Ransomware: Pay now or pay later”
Ian makes several very important points including, “Whether it is your home computer or a large organization’s network, ransomware does not care. It will block access to the computer, encrypt your data and if that computer has access rights to the network, then it will lock down the entire network and hold it all hostage.” Additional he says “The threat of ransomware will continue to grow because cybercriminals recognize it as a profitable business model and the online payment methods afford anonymity.”
If you want to read more about ransomware and how to protect you and your company, check out these links:
1) Attend free our live lunch and learn on How to Protect You and Your Company from Ransomware. Whether you have already gotten ransomware or have yet to be infected, this is a must attend event. In 90 minutes you will come away with a rich set of action items to be better prepared. Ransomware Lunch & Learn
2) Here is the Ransomware defense framework for P-D-R, Protect, Detect and Recover.
Here’s the ransomware cybercrime scenario that has many business owners worried
Here is a news column featuring Alvaka/Noloki EVP and security expert, Kevin McDonald. It’s a business owner’s worst nightmare. You arrive for work, sit down at your computer and find that you can’t access any of your files because cyber [...]
This New OpenSSL v2 Protocol Flaw Merits Watching
Fortunately OpenSSL is publishing a fix on Tuesday - OpenSSL versions 1.0.2g, 1.0.1s - to deal with the protocol flaw. Many systems are vulnerable to an attack that may be comparable with Heartbleed. “This flaw is more than a product [...]
Do you have Cisco ASA firewalls and VPNs? “…this is as bad as it gets.”
If you have Cisco ASA firewalls and VPNs you better assess your patching on these devices. Click here to read the story: Firewalls running Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) software can be compromised remotely with malformed UDP packet
Can IT Staffers Really Help Marketing?
Arcadia, CA - One of my favorite authors to follow is Dave Berkus. He has been a great mentor of mine for about 20 years. I am on his Berkonomics blog list. Weekly, with Berkonomics, he share tips and anecdotal experiences [...]
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.