Before it Strikes – Assessing Ransomware Vulnerabilities for IT Professionals

Assessing Ransomware Vulnerabilities for IT Professionals

It was an honor to be asked to present at the Information Technology Alliance (ITA) Fall Collaborative.  The ITA s an independent, membership association of some of the highest regarded mid-market technology professionals, consultants, and product/service providers in North America that believe “knowledge increases in value when shared.” Although the ITA is a group comprised of technology professionals, IT leaders of CPA firms, leading ERP providers and third-party software companies, as well as consultants to the industry, the collaborative includes a variety of operational and organizational topics including:

• Human Resource Topics
  • “Leading from Anywhere: How to Build High Performing Remote and Hybrid Teams.”
  • Hybrid Model: Finding The Right Balance For Your Employees
  • Getting Ahead Of The Great Resignation
• Sales and Marketing Topics
  • Balancing Efficiency And Effectiveness in Customer Communication
  • Measuring Marketing Success: Pro Tip “Measure What Matters”
  • Finding A Great Client Account Manager: Is It Like Hunting Unicorns?
• Internal Operations
  • Why Should Our Clients Get all the Automation?
  • Effective And Collaborative Partnerships In The Modern Age
  • When The Chips Are Down: Navigating Supply Chain Shortages

Todd Perlman, President of BT Partners and ITA Board Member and I presented, “Before It Strikes – Assessing Ransomware Vulnerabilities For Your Team.”   This session was less about the steps taken by the technology professionals which harden infrastructure from attack and more on educating ITA members on how they can prepare employees, clients and their organizations against the inevitable attack. As we anticipated, a quick survey in the room indicated that over 80% of attendees had either been attacked or had a customer that suffered from a ransomware attack.   Accordingly, the ITA in its mission to share knowledge, engaged Todd and I to help prepare members and through members, the customers to defend themselves.  The highly interactive session included:

• Awareness education for employees
• Best practices for password security
• Cyber insurance and what carriers want and expect for coverage
• Contractual changes for consulting and reselling firms to “standard” agreements
• Protections when traveling or working on networks that are public or may not be properly secured
• Security for the consultants and their clients when implementing and supporting systems
• Tools for segmenting and protecting networks

If you are a Summit partner looking to improve your business operations and join a group of technology professionals who eagerly share best practices, I encourage you to learn more and apply on their website. If you are interested in learning more about how to protect your company against attack or utilizing an always-on, always secure Summit dedicated cloud platform contact us…