Dan Rowbottom

I talk to businesses every day, and I’m still gobsmacked by how many don’t have DMARC configured. Worse, their IT hasn’t even mentioned it. If you’re not familiar, DMARC is a FREE email security standard that stops cybercriminals from spoofing your domain. In simple terms, it helps ensure that when someone gets an email from your company, it’s actually from you and not some scammer trying impersonate your brand. We personally use a service to help us manage DMARC efficiently for all of our clients, but here’s the thing: you don’t NEED a paid tool to configure it. It’s a fundamental security measure that should be in place regardless. If your IT hasn’t set this up, what else are they missing? Doing the basics right matters. And if your IT isn’t handling something as straightforward (but crucial) as DMARC, it might be time to ask some bigger questions. ✌🏼 NexGen IT Solutions PS - Setting your DMARC record as none doesn’t count 🤬

22

8 Comments

Snow day checklist I use as a measure of resilience — because a storm will tell you the truth faster than any audit. 1) Identity holds up If MFA/SSO is solid, people log in and get to work. If it isn’t, your whole day becomes password resets and “I’m locked out.” 2) Access doesn’t bottleneck Can the teams who keep the lights on actually reach what they need… or is everyone stuck behind a slow VPN and “I can’t get to the system”? 3) Endpoints are trusted Are laptops healthy (patched, protected) without turning security into a productivity killer? Snow days are when people start improvising. 4) Communication is centralized One place for updates. One way to escalate. Otherwise it’s chaos: Slack, texts, email, and half the company guessing. 5) Tier-0 apps are clear (and practiced) Everyone knows what absolutely can’t go down, who owns it, and how it gets recovered. Not “we have a doc somewhere”… actually tested. Heavy snow doesn’t break organizations. But it does the weak spots. What went sideways first today: identity, access, endpoints, or comms? DM me and I’ll share a clean one-pager you can reuse. #CIO #BusinessContinuity #Resilience #ZeroTrust #Cybersecurity #ITOperations #RiskManagement #DigitalTransformation

95

Every day I get connection requests and immediately after accepting I get an automated message from them thanking ME for my interest and then asking a question / can I sell XXX to you. While I understand that sales people have to sell, what confuses me with this current approach, is that it is typically followed by a number of increasingly passive aggressive messages, sometimes cumulating in "Simon?", "?" I have not engaged in the conversation to warrant being chased 7 times - why do salespeople think that this method will actually generate a result? Interestingly - these are the same people from whom I NEVER get a cold call pitching their product / services. While the modern salesperson has an array of prospecting methods available - the right approach is surely a blended approach where HUMAN engagement is the desired outcome?

225

68 Comments

Reformed IT clients have once again got an upgrade to their security, at no additional monthly charge to them. We've just signed a 6-figure commitment to add to the existing endpoint protection from Huntress that we've been providing for the last 3 years. All Reformed IT clients will now also get protection for their Microsoft 365 accounts as standard. Although we have comprehensive protections in place already, to ensure that any logins are from trusted devices, we still feel that additional layers of security can only be a good thing. Furthermore, we've added the Huntress SIEM (Security Information & Event Management) to our inclusive services stack. This is particularly important for our regulated clients, like the solicitors firms we look after. For solicitors, it's getting harder and harder to get Cyber Liability insurance and the premiums are rising. If you don't have all of the security layers in place that Reformed IT provides as standard, you might find you are refused insurance or you fall outside of compliance with your regulatory body. Professional services firms choose us because we take care of everything from an IT & Cybersecurity point of view, keeping things simple and allowing you to focus on what you're good at.

158

17 Comments