The more we use technology, the more we’re exposed to potential cybersecurity attacks and breaches.
And let’s be honest, technology isn’t going anywhere.
If anything, it’s becoming a more important part of our lives and businesses, which exposes small and medium-sized business owners to more risk than ever before. And with this risk comes a need to tighten cybersecurity protocols and ensure they are protected from a potential attack.
To make that goal a reality for small businesses Greg Tomchick, spoke with us on a recent episode of the Stride to Freedom podcast. Greg is the CEO of Valor Cybersecurity and is on a mission to help any size business identify and manage potential risks.
Greg’s Story
His passion for cybersecurity didn’t just come out of the blue—it came from a very real and very costly cybersecurity breach.
While operating a software development firm, Greg and his team helped other companies manage their technologies—software, apps, websites, and everything else a business needs. But, at that time, he was not focused enough on protecting the things they were building.
Because of that, they were exposed to threats.
And, sure enough, Greg’s team suffered a devastating cybersecurity attack that impacted many of their clients and cost six figures to turn around. When seeking help, Greg couldn’t find any local companies that supported small businesses through cybersecurity breaches.
So, he set out to create one. Valor was born from the necessity of small companies to have support, knowledge, and expertise in the cybersecurity area.
Where to Start with Cybersecurity?
Many small businesses understand there are real threats out there, but the biggest question most have is—where do I even start?
Greg and his team at Valor always begin their engagement with a holistic cyber/economic risk assessment. This is the proactive side of cybersecurity because it evaluates potential risks and vulnerabilities. A risk assessment may look at:
- Product development lifecycle to ensure it’s secure from beginning concepts to the end product.
- Database protection through multi-factor login and access control.
- Business processes gaps where security threats can be exploited
- Potential areas of risk that can be adjusted and fixed
Then there’s the reactive side. If a cyber-attack does happen, what’s a business to do? Valor provides a 24/7 hotline service for their customers and can deploy experts to the worksite within 24 hours. They start right away to sift through information and figure out what happened. This allows them to quickly diagnose the issue and start to resolve it.
Every small business needs their proactive and reactive plan—cyber-attacks are too real of a threat to ignore it.
Cybersecurity to Save Money
If protecting private data is not enough of a motivation to prioritize cybersecurity, money definitely is.
In his own experience, a cyber-attack cost Greg six figures to fix and in the end, even that wasn’t enough to save his company. Cyber-attacks are terribly destructive, in terms of time, money, and resources.
There are two ways to save money by prioritizing cybersecurity in your small business:
- Avoiding costly cyber attacks through proactive security measures.
- Reducing cyber insurance premiums by demonstrating to insurance providers that your company is less of a liability to them is the other.
Valor helps clients both ways. The second is an interesting concept—Valor provides a comprehensive report for companies testifying that they’ve reduced their risk. This can then be brought to an insurance provider to negotiate lower rates, saving the business thousands of dollars in premiums.
There’s so much more in the world of cybersecurity. If you’re interested, listen to the full episode with Greg on the Stride to Freedom podcast. There we talk more about the differences between cybersecurity and IT, and how tools alone are not enough to solve a problem.
If you want to connect with Greg, find him on LinkedIn. Also check out Valor Cybersecurity, also on LinkedIn.
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Show Notes + Transcript:
Greg Tomchick: LinkedIn
Valor Cybersecurity: Website/LinkedIn
Greg Tomchick: Email
