The road traveled

’22 in the Rearview

Here are some highlights of what’s been covered in this space in the year gone bye-bye.

Bryley at Thirty-Five

This was the second year under Garin Livingstone’s leadership. Garin has set Bryley’s trajectory: “to make the complexities of networking and security easier for clients to understand. Without the give-and-take of good communication, it’s easy to miss information that might make network management better for our clients …” [7 min. read]

Rylie

A Few Minutes with Rylie, Field Technician

As researcher Sherry Turkle has observed, it’s in the awkward silent seconds that communication (which means, to have something in common between us) happens. We need those pauses in conversation to process what the other has said, to let the words and our thoughts about those words affect us, to consider a reply and then choose our words. These silences along with other non-verbal signals do the connective work when we speak to each other: you know you are talking to a real person.

Turkle’s work has been an inspiration to Field Technician Rylie. At the University of Rhode Island Rylie achieved a bachelor of science degree in Computer Science and became fascinated working in Python and C++ with Artificial Intelligence … [5 min. read]

Should we M365?

Should We Switch to M365?

You’ve probably heard about Microsoft 365 (sometimes called Office 365), the cloud-based subscription service that has Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive and other applications.

But is it worth the time, effort and cost to switch to a cloud-based version? Here are some reasons to consider this Microsoft offering? [4 min. read]

Elf shopping

Last-Minute Elving?

That’s When We’re Most Easily Fooled One in three American adults (34%) admit to taking more risks when online shopping during holiday season compared to other times of the year … 36% of Americans have fallen victim to online shopping scams during the holidays, losing $387 on average … most frequently cybercriminals connected with them via email (40%), through social media (38%), third-party websites (32%), texts (28%) or phone calls (23%).

Along with whatever else the holidays bring, they also now bring a pile of socially-engineered attacks aimed at taking our credentials and money … [5 min. read]

Tom Barnes

A Few Minutes with Tom Barnes, Manager of Client Services

Tom Barnes was recently named Manager of Client Services. Tom joined Bryley Systems in 2020 as a Business Development Representative. Within a year he transitioned to a role as a Client Success Specialist where his success advocating for Bryley clients earned him favorable notice and his current role.

Tom has had a diverse career that has included software troubleshooting, RV sales and running his own business. He achieved a BS (Summa Cum Laude) in Psychology from UMass Amherst … [4 min. read]

Old Man Server

Upgrade Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2

Microsoft will stop patching and updating Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 on October 23, 2023. Running these server systems after that date exposes you to security and compliance risks. These Microsoft moves usually also mean the end-of-support for third-party applications built to integrate with these server products … [4 min. read]

Tire tracks

Only two other cars had Positraction …

… and enough power to make these marks

–Mona Lisa Vito, My Cousin Vinny

MFA: Each Criterion Brings You Closer to the Truth

A Decatur, Illinois manufacturer that had been hit with ransomware in May, was in July sued by Travelers Insurance for having misrepresented the extent to which it was protected by MFA (multifactor authentication). Travelers said the manufacturer had violated the terms of its cyberinsurance policy. The parties came to an adjudicated agreement to nullify the policy; Travelers did not need to cover any of the ransomware losses. … [6 min. read]

Bike

Mixing Up Vulnerabilities and Risk

A bike is resting against a lamppost without being locked. Is the bike at risk of being stolen? To answer that question, you’d need to find out: Is the bike valuable? Is it in desirable condition? Who would want the bike? What’s the crime rate by the lamppost? Are people around? Is it daytime? Is there a security camera? Also, what effect would it have if someone were to take the bike?

An unlocked bike resting on a lamppost is not a risk, but, in the words of cybersecurity, it is a vulnerability that might be exploited … [5 min. read]

suspicion

Zero Trust: Painful, Slow and Inevitable

Most corporate networks are structured the same way: highly reinforced perimeter, and highly vulnerable interior

“In the zero-trust model, every network and every user are considered hostile,” said Bryley engineer Myk Dinis. Windows 11 offers new ways of achieving zero trust, but Myk said, “baked into Windows is an easy-to-see instance of zero-trust. You have three default network security levels: private, work and public. Depending on which of those network types that you declare you’re in, right down the line it strengthens the firewall. So in a private network your firewall is going to be the least restrictive; it will allow the most access both ways. Work allows a little less access. And with public nothing’s allowed; everything has to be proven with certificates; public is built according to a zero-trust networking model …” [5 min. read]

And behind the curtain was a door

Considering a Business Purchase or Merger?

Here’s Why a Tech Risk Assessment Should Come First

When looking to buy a business or merging with another business, part of the process should include doing due diligence – checking everything top-to-bottom about the other party’s business. Due diligence includes making sure the other business is operating within the law and the guidance of its industry’s regulatory bodies. And because of societal reliance on technology, due diligence ought also to mean scrutinizing the business’ IT practices … [5 min. read]

Loooove!

Embracing Compliance

Yes, Compliance Is Like Eating All Your Vegetables

Compliance is something someone else makes you do, AKA yuck.

Compliance is laws, regulations, contracts and insurance policy terms. And failure to adhere leads to penalties, lawsuits, investigations and the chance insurance won’t cover your claims. Yuck.

But Compliance Is Meant to Keep You from Being Easy Pickings to a Hacker

Think about it from the other point of view. By making nice with compliance (like eating your kale) you can avoid fines and penalties, improve operational safety, cut your risk of cyber-attack, improve public relations, prevent attrition of clients who will more and more need their suppliers to be compliant and, if needed, make sure liability insurance claims are paid. So really compliance is one of those business rarities that can demonstrate a measurable return-on-investment … [5 min. read]

Ill-prepared

Taking Cybersecurity Seriously Too Late

Is your IT staff usually prioritizing the problems of their co-workers: ‘my email doesn’t work,’ ‘I can’t print,’ ‘I lost a file?’ If so, by dealing with the urgent, they’ve traded away the time they’d spend doing the important, proactive work of IT – building and maintaining your secure network to advance your business’ goals … [6 min. read]

Can what's in your mobile device get out?

Twenty-Two Percent Have Suffered a Mobile Compromise

The Same Verizon Study Showed Fifty-Nine Percent of Businesses Have Sacrificed Security for Employees’ Flexibility – Going Mobile Has Increased Our Exposure

It used to be our precious assets were protected behind layers of security: Cash was in a steel safe, customer lists and bank records were in a locked filing cabinet and HR records were behind a locked HR office door.

Of course electronics revolutionized the workplace. Employees then used computers to navigate a digital file system which contained the business’ confidential info. The sensitive documents that were once tangible were now within the network for users to access. The data was protected by passwords and limited permissions. These were useful means when computing devices were stationary and did not leave the physical office. Yes, employees used to report to the office for work and only there and then be granted access to confidential information. It was rare for the data that companies prized to ever leave the premises.

And of course this is no longer true. Because of their convenience, mobile computing devices are part of most working environments … [7 min. read]

Worcester Business Journal Top IT

Bryley Again Ranks Among the Top IT Service Providers

The Worcester Business Journal (WBJ) annually analyzes and publishes a resultant list of IT Service Providers in Central Massachusetts. The recently-published 2021 report ranked Bryley Systems among the top ten … [2 min. read]

Bryley's Clinton offices

Bryley’s First Thirty-Five Years

Since 1987 when Bryley was incorporated, the world looks different: we now have immersive virtual reality, AI that converses with us and cell phones that have more computing power than 1980s mainframes.

Looking back on thirty-five years, who can deny that the ubiquity of the internet has been the big game-changer for us all? How can we estimate the value of our new-found ability to time-travel – to instantly be in each other’s presence – even across the globe? And imagine the pandemic without that connectivity?

Bryley’s past trajectory might be summed up by noting its shift … [9 min. read]

Takin Care of Business

The Backup Chronicles

Working data-sets are not fixed. They change and grow and shrink and experience events (like component failures and breaches). So you need to have plans, policies and trained people in place to ensure your backup is ready to restore your organization at any time … [6 min. read]

MSP 501 2022

Bryley Systems Achieves MSP 501 Designation

Bryley Systems has for the eighth time been ranked among the top in its industry in a worldwide evaluation. MSP 501 is an IT industry signifier that recognizes the MSP (managed service provider) industry’s highest operational efficiency and business models. The MSP 501 award is based on a sixty-point audit

Success Summit

POSTPONED: Exhibiting at Realtor Summit June 14

Hope to see you there! Bryley will exhibit at the Realtor Assoc. of Central Mass’s Success Summit 1.0 Tuesday, June 14 at the AC Hotel, 125 Front St, Worcester, Ma, 8:30 – 4:30 … [1 min. read]

2022 and 2008 covers mirror one another

Mounting a Defense Against Ransomware

The jaw-dropper from the recently released annual Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report is the thirteen percent rise in the incidence of ransomware. This represents a single-year increase equal to the rates of the past five years combined … [4 min. read]

aaghhhh!

P.U.D.R. – Some of the Worst Backup Practices

You are backing up, right? Because there’s file corruption, drive failure, natural disasters, employee errors, employee anger, theft, ransomware … But are you backing up right? Because, as an example, “organizations that paid [ransomware criminals] got back only sixty-one percent of their data … only four percent of those that paid the ransom got ALL their data back.” So be sure you’re doing things well to realize a successful recovery from your backup.

Over the course of Bryley’s years our engineers and techs have witnessed some bad set-ups when it comes to backing up. Here are some examples and tips about how to do it better … [5 min. read]