COO and CISO of Alvaka Networks, Kevin McDonald, sits down with Brian Sherman of IoTSSA for a very candid conversation on building a successful cybersecurity offering. He offers some great advice in this episode, such as using law enforcement as a valuable business resource to protect your clients first, and of course, yourself. Listen to the podcast at the link below and learn why cybersecurity is an organized behavior.
Kevin’s extensive resume consists of:
- Member FBI Infragard
- Member, High Tech Crimes Consortium
- Member, Exec. Advisory Board, OC Homeland Security Council
- Member, DHS Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Working Group for Los Angeles
- Member, US Secret Service’s Los Angeles Electronic Crimes Task Force
- Chair, Orange County Sheriff/Coroner’s Technology Advisory Council (T.A.C)
Kevin refers to himself as a practitioner, rather than an expert, as the landscape is rapidly changing on a daily—even hourly—basis. This requires all IT Service Providers to become a student in the field, and adopt an ongoing practice of staying educated and up to date.
Fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) is a reality, not a sales position. Only 1 in 5 companies will survive after a cyber attack. From a data breach to ransomware, they can be equally as crippling. Cybersecurity needs to be in the threat column of any organization’s SWOT analysis…from start-up to enterprise.
Brian and Kevin also discuss the value of accreditations and vulnerabilities that a third party analysis can provide for you and your clients. Alvaka Networks has earned the CompTIA Security + Trustmark, which is based on the NIST Framework.
Click here to listen to the Podcast at IoTSSA.com
Kevin McDonald, COO & CISO – Alvaka Networks
Kevin B. McDonald is the chief operating officer and chief information security officer at Alvaka Networks. Kevin is a trusted technology and security practitioner and public policy advisor to some of America’s most influential people and organizations. He advises corporate executives, federal and state legislators, law enforcement, high net worth individuals and other business leaders. He is a sought after consultant, writer, presenter and trainer on the issues surrounding personal, physical and cyber security, compliance and advanced technology. Kevin has written for and been interviewed by dozens of national publications and on major television, radio and digital outlets.
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.