Monitor, Detect, and Respond!

Yesterday it was raining, it was cold, and I was late. I saw a cab pulled over and knocked on the window. He rolled it down and yelled to me “NO COMPUTER!”

That was not something that I was expecting. I had no idea what he was talking about. I gave him a very confused look and he explained to me that his meter was not working and that he could only take me if I could pay in cash.

Thankfully I did and hopped in. We agreed on a price for the ride and got going.

We chatted the whole drive and he told me that his regular taxi wasn’t working so he was given the standby car. During his previous ride, the TV, meter, and credit card machine shut off. He continued to tell me that his last passenger didn’t have cash to cover the whole ride.

I’m pretty sure that I was the last ride he gave for the day.

His taxi company had a plan for when taxis had an issue. He was given the standby car, as per protocol. But what happened when that car broke down too? Business came to a halt. This guy was out of a job until someone could fix one of the two cabs that weren’t working.

The company had a business continuity plan (BCP) and a backup system, but it wasn’t enough. Even with some controls and plans in place, things can still go wrong. Detecting and responding makes the difference. That taxi driver was not getting back on the road until a car was fixed.

Perhaps some monitoring of the standby car could have predicted that the computers would stop working sooner. Maybe a daily or weekly battery and wire check would have saved an entire day's work.

How is your business detecting and responding to cybersecurity threats? How long would it take to notice that your file server is down? Are you doing anything to detect anomalies? Do you know the current health of your systems and vulnerabilities? If you have a backup, what would happen if that failed too? Is your backup stored in the same building as production?

These are all questions to ask yourself about your business. If you need help getting a plan in place, shoot me a message or visit getskout.com. I am happy to help anyone with their cybersecurity.