CYBER-TARGETTED EDUCATION CONTINUES INTO 2023

A letter dated December 22, 2022, went out to every student and staff member of a local state college informing them of potentially compromised personal data due to a breach that occurred over a four-day period in October but was not discovered until the following month.

Far from a Happy New Year for one of our local state colleges: their letter dated December 22, 2022 went out to every student and staff member informing them of potentially compromised personal data due to a breach that occurred over a four day period in October but not discovered until the following month. The school explains that this was “the result of unauthorized access to our network as a result of a cybersecurity incident that resulted in the potential exposure of data we maintain.”

The school’s IT staff contained the threat by taking appropriate measures then contracted incident response and forensics experts to determine the extent of data compromised and to restore systems back to normal. Two weeks later, it was confirmed that “certain files were removed from our network … that contained some of your personal information.”

The letter continues, “…as of now, we have no evidence indicating any of your information has been used for identity theft or financial fraud” yet the college provided: multiple phone numbers to the College’s PR/Tech help desk, 12 months free monitoring of recipients’ accounts, instructions for getting a free, real-time credit report, phone numbers to the three primary credit bureaus, and instructions for how to freeze (and unfreeze) one’s accounts.

Here’s a quick list of what you can expect when cyber-securing networks, infrastructure, and devices with and without a qualified cybersecurity partner.

With a Cybersecurity Partner, you can expect…

• Pre-negotiated monthly price per endpoint (endpoint = laptop, desktop, or server) for 24/7 monitoring of devices and network and documentation of all activity performed to cyber-secure the endpoints.
• Staff cyber-awareness training to improve organization’s cyber maturity level. This training may be included in the per-endpoint price or purchased separately.
• Professional advice regarding equipment replacement and potentially useful products/services above and beyond the partner’s cybersecurity solution. Industry and regulatory requirements are analyzed and redundancies eliminated so what is deployed to safeguard your data assets and operation is both affordable as well as ’biggest bang for the buck.’

Without a Cybersecurity Partner in-place, you can expect…

• Cost of potentially redundant licenses and products used to safeguard the organization’s data assets.
• Cost of any breach discovery and containment.
• Interrupted business operations.
• Increased internal costs to rectify breach fall-out as swiftly as possible.
• Expense costs for Incident Response, Remediation, and Forensics work.
• Cost to maintain current business while reconstructing attacked data repositories.
• Cost to inform victims about actions being taken to address and reduce further ramifications.
• Cost to manage business relationships and preserve your organization’s reputation.

”Going it alone” has proven to be an irresponsible choice for multiple cyber targets. Today, engaging a cybersecurity partner is surprisingly affordable. So affordable, in fact, that considering the cost of an avoidable cyberattack, the failure to protect your business is inexcusable.

You may ask, “How can Fortune 500 grade cybersecurity be affordable for learning institutions and companies of every size? How are we to choose the ‘right’ cybersecurity provider with so many choices?” The answer is simple once you’re informed:

Rock-solid cybersecurity for a price that fits your budget –

Engage a cybersecurity partner who offers a cutting edge platform as the core of their solution, with a staff of experienced cyber-career specialists and cyber-awareness trainers that will work with your IT team to develop a no-compromise solution at a price-point that pays for itself.

delivered by proven cyber-professionals your customers speak highly of!

Truly qualified cybersecurity partners have satisfied customers willing to talk openly about the company — their provider’s services rendered, professional capacity, how accessible their personnel have been in meeting the customer’s needs, and the no-fail cybersecurity performance the customer has experienced.

Using customer reviews as your measuring stick to identify fair market pricing and qualified cyber-professionals, you’ll decide who best can work with your IT team to deliver rock-solid cybersecurity.

Data-Guard 365 is a MSSP firm headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, with offices in Indianapolis, Atlanta, and other strategic locations across the globe. The company is a one-of-a-kind business partner whose people, processes, and technology provide invincible cyber security for a price point that pays for itself.
www.data-guard365.com / (317) 967-6767 / info@data-guard365.com