How The Shifting IT Landscape Gave Rise to the Era of Co-Managed IT
It’s no secret that technology moves fast. But what a lot of people don’t realize is that the very idea of what it means to be an IT professional often changes just as quickly. When my father started TSI Support in 1989 and before the advent of managed services, all MSPs were essentially the exact same thing – computer fixers. They would sit back with their fingers crossed, just waiting…
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Two Birds, One Stone: Here’s How to Address ISO 27001 and 13845 at the Same Time
As someone who has been providing IT support to SMBs for nearly 30 years, there’s one topic that seems to come up with my clients over and over (and over) again: Compliance. We all understand that compliance is important – there’s really nobody on the other side of that issue. But where people start to get frustrated has to do with how unclear compliance requirement can sometimes be. I was…
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MSPs vs. MSSPs: What are the Differences, and Which One is Right For YOUR Business
While TSI has been working with local area businesses, with all of their technology support needs, for nearly three decades, I’ve always seen my primary job as an educator first and foremost. I don’t just want to help you get the most out of your technology – I want to help you understand why that technology is so important to begin with. I was reminded of this again just the…
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MSPs are Giving Clients Ransomware; The Top Questions to Ask Your MSP YESTERDAY!
A part of my week here at TSI is always spent wading through news stories to stay ahead of all the latest trends and best practices in our industry. After all, how can I provide clients with the most complete, accurate and actionable information to work from if I don’t have access to that data myself? Most of the time, the trends I spend so much time researching fall squarely…
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Viewpoint: Manufacturing and Cybersecurity – Know the Essentials
It’s no secret that the security climate on the internet is becoming more dangerous by the day. This is especially true for business professionals in the manufacturing space, where cyber attacks are only becoming more frequent and more costly with each passing year. According to a study conducted by the Ponemon Institute, 70 percent of all organizations said that their security risk increased significantly in 2017 alone. About 230,000 new…
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Just How Important is a FTE IT Security Expert? Let’s Break it Down
I’m often struck by just how quickly the cyber security landscape continues to advance. Hacks and other types of threats are getting more sophisticated, yes – but so are the tools used to defeat them. Cyber attackers and the businesses they’re targeting are making every effort to stay one step ahead of one another, in a relationship that shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon. I was talking to…
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ISO 27001 – Why, What is it, and How to Get Started
This article was written with contributions from Timonthy Woodcome, director of NQA, a leading Global Certifications Body as well as the technical staff here at Technical Support International. Also officially known as ISO/IEC 27001:2013, ISO 27001 is a specification for a set of policies and procedures that outlines all of the legal, physical and even technical controls that make up a business’ information risk management process. This type of framework…
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Your Firewall Doesn’t Work the Way You Think It Does. An Introduction to Log Monitoring and Auditing
As part of my role at TSI, I meet with a wide range of different businesses. More often than not, when I ask about their current log monitoring efforts, people aren’t even sure what this really does, and are surprised to find how unequipped they’re cyber security strategy is. In this piece, I’d like to go into detail on what firewall log monitoring is, what it does and why it’s…
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Congress Revisits IoT Legislation: What You Need to Know
I was having lunch with one of my long-term MSP clients the other day, and we were discussing what the next ten years of his business might look like in relation to the technological advancements taking place all around us. He was particularly excited about the implications of the Internet of Things (or “IoT” for short), and with good reason. If you had to single out a trend that has…
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Don’t Sue Your Employees. Train Them
As someone who handles a lot of IT and cyber security-related fixtures for small businesses every day, I spent a lot of my time on the phone talking to clients about all of the latest attacks. It happened again just the other day – one of my long-term clients called me up and wanted to discuss a story he’d read that was giving him concern. The first was the case…
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Cyber Security Policy Starter Kit:
10 Critical Policies That Every Company Should Have in Place
