What is an incident response plan? Cyber incidents are on the rise. This has been true and will continue to be true for the foreseeable future. It is important to have a solid incident response plan, regardless of the size of your organization. An incident response plan includes six key components: Preparation Identification Containment Eradication/Remediation […]
Most businesses have a business continuity plan (BCP). These plans range from well documented and routinely tested, to rough ideas about how a business will cope with unforeseen circumstances. Every single business in America has now grappled with how to continue operations during the COVID-19 crisis and it has changed BCPs forever. I now challenge business […]
Go West IT started business ten years ago today. I remember the day very well. The similarities between then and now are striking. We were faced with many unknowns. We watched cashflow very closely. We innovated and adapted quickly. Most importantly, we focused on taking care of customers and employees. We knew there would be challenges and we knew we would rise […]
Businesses are rapidly shifting to work from home strategies in response to the current COVID-19 situation. Many are already adept at working from home and have strategies in place to protect networks, endpoints, and systems. They have proven policies in place to keep tabs on business IT assets and ensure that systems are constantly patched […]
Third party VPN services do not secure your data. They may provide an additional brick in your security bunker but they are not the invisibility cloak they claim to be and in some cases they may actually do more harm than good. For starters, who is your third party VPN service provider? Are they trustworthy? […]
My tour of the @Microsoft Cyber Defense Operations Center (CDOC) this week was the highlight of my visit to the Microsoft campus in Redmond, WA. I was one of approximately 150 Microsoft partners invited to attend a small & medium sized business (SMB) partner executive briefing. The briefing provided @GoWestIT with a valuable road map […]
Your credentials can be phished, period. If you think you’re above being phished, you’re wrong. We all have weak moments and the criminals are really good at praying on our whims and emotions. Trust me, you can be phished. Don’t put so much pressure on yourself. Implement multi-factor authentication (MFA) wherever possible to protect your […]
Go West IT just completed our second annual SOC 2, Type 2 audit. This is an expensive and time consuming process and it absolutely makes us better every single year. SOC stands for Service Organization Controls and a Type 2 audit tests our use of and adherence to a defined set of controls over the […]