Short Introduction to Cybersecurity Protection for the President or CFO of a Small Business.

If you are the President or CFO of a small business, not familiar with cybersecurity but want to dip your toe in and don’t have a large budget to spend on it, let me give you a short introduction.?

?First, you have to assume cyber security breaches will happen. ?Building higher “cyber walls” or deeper moats may delay some would-be attackers, but a determined hacker will eventually get in and access your sensitive data.

?The threat actors want your data, want to incapacitate your system so you cannot use it without paying them a ransom, or both.? We sell a really good solution to the first problem: protecting your data including your intellectual property as well as PHI and PII data, i.e. whatever you want to protect is “sensitive.”? Protecting your data also allows you to be compliant with privacy regulations.? The best way to protect your data is to encrypt the data so while your people can use it, the threat actors cannot.

?If you download the Center for Internet Security’s “Critical Security Controls” (https://www.cisecurity.org/controls ), which you can do for free, you will find a list of the controls you need for a complete solution.? Of course, that’s not your situation.? You do not have the budget for a complete solution.

?The first control is to know the devices are on your network.? Depending on your industry, this can be a pretty simple list of assets.? The second control is to know the applications running on your network.? That’s pretty simple too although more difficult because you don’t know the last application one of the people on your network just downloaded onto their laptop.?

?The third control is to keep track of your data and now we’re talking because your goal is to keep track of your data or at least some of it, what cybersecurity people call the “crown jewels.”? And this is complex.? First, there is a lot of it.? Secondly, just knowing the files isn’t the same as knowing the data in the files.? Thirdly, it is changing all the time i.e. an employee just downloaded a file from Dropbox that includes your intellectual property but this person has no reason to have this data.? It would be really good to know the dollar value of this data.? That way, you could understand the value of what you are protecting.

?This area of cybersecurity is called “Data Loss Prevention” and the major products in this niche are expensive.? LOL.? I was in a meeting recently where someone said the war in Ukraine is less expensive than one of the major and oldest products in this niche.

?My company resells the Actifile system which has revolutionized this data loss prevention space.

?Implementing Actifile is the fastest, lowest cost, easiest way to make sure:

1.???? All of your crown jewels, your “sensitive data,” intellectual property, PHI and PII and any other data you deep “sensitive,” is encrypted automatically, immediately, using advanced AI techniques.? This means if the threat actors get it, they won’t be able to do anything with it.? Had the NSA implemented Actifile, Edward Snowden wouldn’t be someone you have heard of.

2.???? Your sensitive data is tracked, at rest, in use and in transit.? This is a rich source of information, important when you want to analyze your environment.

3.???? The dollar value of the data is calculated continuously, automatically.? Rates from the FAIR Institute (https://www.fairinstitute.org/ ) are used.? Understanding the value of your data in terms of dollars allows you and the board to evaluate your operational, reputational, legal, and compliance risks in terms of dollars. This approach allows you to easily comprehend the information and approve strategic plans to minimize risks.

?Once implemented, Actifile starts working immediately.? When it was implemented on my laptop, I did nothing and it started to work.? Minutes later, my files had been analyzed, those with PHI and PII data identified and encrypted, and the value of this data had been calculated.?

?And Actifile is easy to administer.? We’ll do it for you if you want.

?If you want to know more and see a quick demo, please reach out to me.? Call 310-230-1722 or text me at 310-428-5748 or email me at [email protected] .?