Entries by Lawrence Strauss

There’s maybe an AI for that

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Before 1960, postal employees cancelled stamps strictly by hand. When commercial mail volumes exploded, the post office introduced automated cancelling. It was poorly received – replacing people and that sort of thing.

Recently the post office announced it’s changing the date-stamping part of its automation. It now makes more sense to the USPS to hand-stamp the few pieces that still need today’s date recorded on the mailpiece. Automation routines are not permanent – it only makes sense when the volume justifies the complexity.
You may have looked around your place of business and thought, ‘there must be waste in the routine and manual.’ Three years ago ChatGPT arrived with an influx of automating-promising AI tools. Because of the endlessness and variety of internet promises, it’s easy to not think strategically about what AI can realistically do for your organization … [4.5 min. read]

CMMC is now active

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What defense contractors need to know about CMMC going live – As of November 10, the Department of Defense (DoD) activated the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program. The US government’s contracting officers can now require CMMC certification as a condition for awarding new contracts.

Without CMMC certification, businesses will no longer be awarded contracts or be able to work with the DoD when CMMC is specified in a solicitation (there is a window of grace and some exceptions). Understanding when this applies and how to prepare is essential to establishing or maintaining a position in the defense market … [8 min. read]

It takes AI to beat AI

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For anyone who’s wrestled with the right way to say a thing, AI chatbots come across like a magic trick. And while OpenAI tries to dazzle us with a new announcement, criminal organizations have been figuring out how these technologies can make their operations faster and more efficient.

But let’s take a detour back through the mists of time to 2018. Before commonplace chatbots and diffusion image generators, bad guys had unleashed morphing malware to evade antivirus and anti-malware programs. Polymorphic malware was programmed to shape-shift, followed by more advanced morphing types that could also recognize a system’s defensive software and use evasion strategies tailored to its findings.

These are the sorts of attacks (and others like fileless or hard-drive-avoiding malware and insider threats) that led to the development of AI or ML (Machine Learning) defenses … [7 min. read]

Lessons from the Louvre: strengthening cybersecurity

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On Sunday, October 19, 2025 at 9:30 AM four criminals approached Paris’ Louvre Museum and left seven minutes later with eight pieces of French royal jewelry containing 8,000 stones set in gold.

When these thieves targeted Napoleon-era crown jewels, they were exploiting specific vulnerabilities.

What in your organization is equivalent to France’s crown jewels? Meaning, what is most important? Is it your literal money in the bank? Is it advancements you’ve made in research and development? Is it your client data? What are you aware of that would make these vulnerable to theft? [10 min. read; audio available]

The Costs of Outsourcing IT

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Download Bryley’s report, The Cost of Outsourced IT. It’s available to download with no obligation. The report presents a look at:

Outsourced IT costs depend on your business size, industry requirements, current infrastructure, and growth plans.

For instance what works for a regulated business might be overkill for a startup, while a low price may mean unwanted gaps in protection … [6 min. read]

Awfully quiet

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A large part of Bryley’s mission is to make computer systems function so that the organizations that hire us can just go about their work with as few tech-related interruptions as possible. (The other large part is strategic consulting to optimize computer systems to help an organization achieve its goals.)

When you flip on a light, you expect it to work. Who considers the wiring in the walls, the breakers, the transformer outside the building, the larger transformer down the street, the overall grid? Electricity was meant to just work and around here it does. It’s invisible and reliable. And that’s how an organization’s IT systems should be, too … [6 min. read]

Taking Stock During Cybersecurity Awareness Month

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Georgetown professor Cal Newport argues that not January, but the fall is the right time to start new projects, recommit to goals and check in on initiatives that are still at the ‘to-do’ stage and still feel important.

In this spirit here is a list of five things you can do now to improve your cybersecurity defenses. Perhaps you already have some of these things in place. If you do, October is a good time to take stock of how your organization is faring in these areas. As an example, CIO Magazine reports that more than 30% of IT managers believe their businesses are experiencing cloud-subscription creep – maybe services are redundant or just no longer useful … [8 min. read]

Guide to the Uptime Mindset

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It’s hard to argue with the simple strategy of ‘fix it when it breaks.’ And when it comes to pencils and pens – absolutely. There is no risk in using these till you can’t anymore. Throwing a pencil away and picking up a new one is meaningless.

But the stakes are entirely different when it comes to how much organizations’ operations are now built on tech tools. If a server fails or becomes inaccessible or a database gets corrupted, the impact to many people in and outside of your organization can be great. And so the strategy for maintaining the operation of these tools should match the stakes … [6 min. read]

Summer retirement party

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In honor of Audrey Baker and Scott Gold – This summer brought the retirement of two of Bryley’s long-time associates Scott and Audrey. … [2 min. read]