Insights

Last week, Brian Meek sat down with Patrick Kelley and asked the following questions in regards to How Remote IT is really working for teams around the world. Patrick provided the following insight. Brian: Is remote IT a long-term trend or simply an emergency tactic? Patrick: I believe much of the reactionary remote workforce will return in 2021. In the short term, a fully remote workforce can be an effective answer to an emergency. However, the long-term, negative psychological impacts of a fully remote workforce are too significant to ignore. As the line between home and work begins to blur, the hours required to support a remote workforce become less defined. This makes capacity planning for support teams more challenging. Brian: What kind of metrics should IT consider using to gauge how well its remote IT workforce is performing? Patrick: That's a great question. I would recommend that IT and…

You know you should do more to prevent cyberattacks against your small business, but there’s never enough time. However, statistics show that without proper precautions, an attack likely could put you out of business: 60% of small businesses will suffer from some type of cyberthreat, and 60% of those businesses will shut down within six months of the breach. As the number and complexity of cyberattacks rise, all small businesses should make security measures a priority as soon as possible. - Patricia Staino   “With over a billion leaked credentials per year, humans are the point of entry,” says Kelley. “Using leaked credentials can provide access to the VPN, remote desktop services, and cloud accounts. The value is in the data, not the hardware.” Your best defense? Explore the best endpoint security software, then use password managers and two-factor authentication. - Patrick Kelley Read more on Fool.com

Cloud Computing and Remote Work Excerpt: This is an important point as COVID-19 has changed a great deal about how we approach infrastructure builds and the ongoing support in the enterprise. In many ways, organizations look at cloud-based opportunities as a direct alignment with remote workers and cost-cutting, Patrick Kelley, CTO at Critical Path Security in Canton, Ga, told us. It is often viewed as an opportunity for organizations to transfer some of the capital and operational expenses that are typically viewed as a loss. Additionally, as platforms and the underlying technology becomes increasingly advanced, it shifts technical debt away from the organization and onto the 3rd party vendor, requiring fewer highly specialized resources. The real cost issue, he said, is centred around Shadow IT and project scope creep. Traditionally, adding new servers and storage capacity would require a request through a Change Control process, where several sets of eyes…

Critical Path Security is thrilled to be an active member of the COVID-19 CTI League!  We are currently providing the only Zeek Threat Intelligence Feed from this group, as well as a full Darkweb Intelligence Processing Engine targeted directly at COVID-19 and Work From Home threats! "Cyber threats related to Covid aren’t limited to vulnerable hardware at hospitals or malicious emails with attachments claiming to list cures. The dark web was exploding with hospital network administrator credentials—both real and fake—for sale. There were piles of stolen patient data. People were selling hydroxychloroquine pills and supposed Covid vaccines. “They shift their business tactic to whatever is the hot item at the moment,” says Sean O’Connor, an Atlanta-based league member who specializes in dark web infiltration. “And the hot item at the moment is Covid.”" "Just a week after Zaidenberg had messaged Warfield, the league was fielding dozens of membership requests a…