The audience will hear from the leader of an organization that has helped thousands of businesses automate and secure their information with data backups.
Have you ever heard the sentiment "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure?" This technology dependent world we live in carries lots of risk for SMBs. It has never been more important for business owners to build a strong security and data protection foundation, upon which their business can grow and prosper.
Our special guest looks to raise the level of 'digital literacy' for business owners by helping them acquire the tools and skills necessary to survive (and thrive) in today's digital business world.
We are joined by Cathy Miron, President & CEO at eSilo. eSilo helps entrepreneurs, franchisees, and SMBs of all types prevent catastrophic data loss that would otherwise cripple daily operations of the business.
Cathy and her team feel that every small business owner deserves to have the peace of mind that comes from knowing their vital information is protected and secure.
Tune in for this pragmatic conversation at TalkRadio.nyc or watch the Facebook Livestream by clicking here.
Show NotesSegment 1Our host, Steven Frey, opens the show with a . Introducing his special guest, Cathy Miron, CEO of cybersecurity firm eSilo, who talks about her path to entrepreneurial success.
Early in her career, Cathy flew around the world doing audits and assessments on GE business units in various fields (healthcare, banking, energy, etc.), she never really thought she would become an entrepreneur. Then, the skills she learned were broadly intuitive about learning how to be an effective student of the world and think critically. Cathy loved using technology to solve business problems. She wanted to be more on the business-facing side of the work, working directly with the teams she was contracted to support. Eventually, she knew that if she continued the track she was on, with her ethic, she would soon be tapped for her boss’ position, one she wasn’t so keen on. Despite her pacing and accolade, it was no longer fulfilling her desire to make an impact or be happy. Instead, the workable opportunity to start a family, move to South Florida, and purchase a business came in the midst of her indecision. Now, Cathy employs her Fortune 10 business scope in the open marketplace, exposing her audience to maybe a different corporate mentality than they have been used to.
There is such a thing as a business MLS (Multiple Listing Service) that is a list of private businesses in your area that are up for sale (similar to the real estate market). If you have a nest egg or savings and have been looking to invest or purchase, it is a good place to gather information about location, marketability, and logistics. Not starting from scratch and instead refining other’s work is where she felt her calling lay.
Segment 2It's not just about the tools you're using, have a PEOPLE-first mindset; it's about the people advising you to engineer the best responses that create resilience for your business.
Multiple factors make SMB targets for cyber crime: limited employee awareness, failed training on best practices for cybersecurity, lack of expertise of cybertools, heavily outsourced IT groups, and inability to survive prolonged stretches outside of key systems. 70% of [ransomware] attacks from (2018 data) targeted SMB, the odds of an SMB being attacked in a fiscal year are ⅓.
Cost of insurance: your business might have commercial general liability insurance thinking that would help mitigate the costs relating to a breach or attack but contracts may include an electronic data EXCLUSION clause– meaning insurance will not cover costs regardless of how data was lost, damaged, or corrupted. If this is a concern, you might purchase 3rd party cyber-liability insurance to supplement.
Cathy’s company helps business leaders protect their data with simple easy-to-understand concepts, automated tools, and with a foundational focus on their people-processes and devices. Training your business how to do it, and then providing the tools and infrastructure to support it is the way to build a robust security system. Offered are offsite backups, cybersecurity training and awareness, audits and consulting. Often working with IT consultants, the jack-of-all-trades umbrella groups that mediate for their clients, are often stretched thin so often Cathy’s company is called in to partner behind them and manage the security aspects of the services provided or simply receive client referrals.
Segment 3The most targeted information for ransomware is Healthcare information. On the black market, a stolen social security number is worth about $1 per number, a bank account ~$50, but a health record could be upwards of ~$1000! Misused information is linked to identity theft for insurance fraud purposes. The value of a social media profile is also more than a bank account.
Design your cybersecurity program with resiliency in mind. Business leaders ought to have the paranoia, or at least the ability, to think like a bad guy, “how do i prioritize the things that are most likely to go wrong with/in my business, and where do i align my budgets/limited resources to address those probabilities?” It is not necessarily about perfection but progress and resiliency.
They say there are only two categories of businesses, the ones who have been hacked and the ones who have been hacked and don’t know it yet. The choice becomes: at what point do I continue doing what I have been doing or allow the risk to my business, or do I make the decisions that will People often don't know where to start or think it is too expensive–cybersec. is usually more affordable than assumed. Cathy finds that reminding a business of the mundane ways they might lose their data (outdated servers, disgruntled employees, poor maintenance, etc.) that usually gets them over the hump into action.
