Multi-factor authentication setup for a small business takes roughly two weeks of real work, and the order matters more than the tool: administrators first, then a pilot group of five to ten people, then everyone else, with at least one break-glass account deliberately left out and its password locked in a safe. Use an authenticator…
The five vendors a Chicago-area small or mid-market business will realistically be choosing among are SentinelOne, CrowdStrike Falcon, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Sophos Intercept X, and Huntress. Four of those are endpoint detection and response platforms you can buy head to head. Huntress is different, and worth understanding as a managed detection layer that runs…
Cyber insurance carriers now treat a short list of security controls as the price of admission: multi-factor authentication on everything (email, remote access, VPN, and administrator accounts), endpoint detection and response on every machine, backups that are offline or immutable and have been test-restored, email filtering, security awareness training, a documented patching cadence, and separated…
A SOC 2 audit asks your IT function for eight categories of evidence: user access reviews, documented offboarding, logging and log retention, vulnerability scanning and remediation, change management records, vendor and subservice organization oversight, incident response with proof it was exercised, and security awareness training records. For a Type II report, you have to produce…
Zero trust architecture means no user, device or network location is trusted by default, and every request to reach an application gets evaluated at the moment it is made. In practice, an MSP building one for a Chicago business is doing five things: putting phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication on every account, blocking the legacy protocols that…
You’re three hours into a five-hour drive to visit family for the holidays. Your daughter asks, “Can I play Roblox on your laptop?” Your work laptop. The one with client files, financial data and access to your entire business. You’re exhausted from packing, you’ve got three more hours to go and, honestly, keeping her entertained…
Even in good times, scammers circle around generosity. But during the holidays, when giving increases and emotions run high, they truly pounce. A few years ago, a massive telefunding fraud was shut down after authorities discovered that the perpetrators had made 1.3 billion deceptive donation calls and collected over $110 million from unsuspecting donors. (Federal…
Last December, an accounts payable clerk at a midsize company got an urgent text from her “CEO”: Buy $3,000 worth of Apple gift cards for clients, scratch the backs and e-mail the codes. It sounded odd, but the request came from the boss’s name, and it was peak holiday chaos. By the time she double-checked,…
You wouldn’t leave your office unlocked overnight. You wouldn’t send confidential client files without encryption. So why go online without multifactor authentication (MFA)? In today’s digital-first business environment, MFA is no longer optional—it’s essential. For professional services firms that handle sensitive financial, legal, or client data, MFA acts as a second lock on your digital…
Smart cameras and connected devices have become a staple in modern offices and small businesses. From monitoring entryways to keeping tabs on inventory rooms, these tools offer convenience and peace of mind. But as their popularity grows, so do the risks—especially when security is overlooked. In one chilling example, a family in Mississippi discovered their…
