SOC 2 (System and Organization Controls for Service Organizations) is important on many different levels.  Cyber Advisors received its SOC 2 Type 1 certification in 2021.  In early 2022, Cyber Advisors executed on our SOC 2 Type 2.  This audit was successful, and Cyber Advisors received compliance in Q2 2022.

In the battered security landscape, companies are doing all they can to transfer risk out of their organizations.  One of the most common methods to transfer this risk is to acquire cyber Insurance.  Since the 90's .com bubble, cyber Insurance has taken on many forms.  Let's dive into the insurance topic in detail. 

This month is another important month for Microsoft Patch Tuesday and subscribers of our Cyber Thursday blog, with 75 vulnerabilities reported, 8 of which are considered “Critical” (RCE or LPE) vulnerabilities.

Operational Technology (OT) has become a very common talking point around the Cyber Advisors office. For starters, let’s define OT.

OT is industrial level control systems that are typically outside of the IT realm. Some examples of OT are Energy Grids, video recording systems, security badges/fobs, elevators, fire sprinkler systems, and gas pipelines. Many of these systems are IoT based. Some are much more industrial based such as PLC controls for turning a switch on and off.

“Effective listening is more than simply avoiding the bad habit of interrupting others while they are speaking or finishing their sentences. It's being content to listen to the entire thought of someone rather than waiting impatiently for your chance to respond.”

~ Richard Carlson, Author of “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff”, MacMilian Publishing Company

In the past year, many companies have focused much of their efforts to make remote working a reality. Often times, we are asked to assist our customers with strategies pertaining to making WFH more efficient, secure, comfortable, and pleasant. Most of our customers tell us that half of their day or more can consist of Teams, Zoom, or other methods of virtually meeting face to face. When virtual meetings become your primary in-person meeting method, it is very important to make lasting impressions with applying some virtual meeting etiquette. Below are some of the standards that we see many customers put in place.

In the world of next generation and emerging technology, Edge networking is unquestionably a hot topic. With 70% of the worlds data created at a network edge, IT professionals are challenged with what platforms of technology are needing to be implemented on your network edge or branch locations.

Not only do we have to think about branches. What about a farmer sending GPS data to the cloud for more accurate planting and fertilization? The Edge is among us, and let the challenges of securing and delivering maximum WAN performance at the edge is key. SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) is the latest platform in delivering a secure edge.

Business Continuity Planning

It has been an interesting last few months. A common theme that we are seeing with our clients is that the Covid-19 pandemic has made business owners really scrutinize business continuity.  Some were caught without any pandemic plan.  Others had the plan, but it was outdated.  A select few had a good plan in place and are now on the recovery quicker than most other businesses.

We’re taking a modern approach to Business Continuity Planning. Our strategic businesses leaders and engineers have vetted out a solution to help our clients streamline their Business Continuity Planning. Plan4Continuity Business Continuity Planning is a dynamic Cloud based continuity planning solution that creates a new plan or converts manual and outdated business continuity processes into intelligent, automated workflows that can accelerate business continuity planning.

It is typical for businesses of today have their data and applications living in multiple locations among many clouds.  This multiple cloud strategy may include a significant amount of your applications living on premise as well.

Cyber Advisors has the unfair advantage of working with over 600 customers in various levels of IT modernization and transformation. We see many mistakes that are made. The most common mistake we are seeing is emersion into public cloud without the proper assessment of public cloud use.