Security, Security, Security.The theme of the latest “IT Nation” Conference in Florida was firmly on security.
This is an important conference for us and we now go each year to what is possibly the biggest gathering of IT firms like Kinetics, to learn the latest trends and tools to ensure we’re at the forefront of best practice for our clients.
As with previous years, we pick up a few hints on how to run ourselves better, and on what other IT businesses are experiencing. It was encouraging to see how our Kambium Advisory tools like “FlightPlan”are world leading – so much so that we were delighted to share them in turn with some of our friends in the US!
There were two constant themes prevalent at the conference. One was the level of merger and acquisition activity, which reflects our activities as we grow and the second theme was security. Digital / Cyber Security is the number one concern of businesses. It’s that simple.
Here’s just one survey we saw :
So, what do you do?
Firstly, you need to KNOW your IT firm has your back. That means seeing the evidence. It needs something like our
KARE for Security service with its monthly reporting. This is an add-on to an existing KARE contract providing additional protections. The challenge we’re collectively going to find is that the tools and techniques will continue to develop, and be added to, and that may result in increased costs. It’s an unfortunate reality of the need to keep responding to new threats as they emerge. Personally, I find this utterly frustrating because it means your IT budget is being used to stand still, rather than to explore newer, smarter ways of working – although often those newer smarter systems will tend to generate the efficiencies to pay for the security!
Secondly, make sure you have cyber-security insurance. The insurance will expect that you are taking all reasonable steps, like the managed security noted above, but because nothing is fool-proof, insurance gives you that little added reassurance.
Thirdly, check your IT partner is prepared for an onslaught to ransomware and cyber-attacks.
Can they prove their staff are trained, and certified, and they have response mechanisms ready to go? Do they have a track record of identifying and responding to attacks? (rest assured, Kinetics does!)
To know more, or to attend our next free cyber-security presentation, please contact us today.
