Security Sales & Integration April 2021 - 54

EXECUTIVE DECISIONS

Monitoring Matters by Peter Giacalone

Cybersecurity:
A Full-Time
Commitment
▶ GIVEN THE RECENT EVENTS of what is
characterized as potentially the greatest breach
in U.S. history with SolarWinds, cybersecurity
is a topic everyone should revisit. Maintaining
best practices as it relates to cybersecurity is essential for individuals, businesses and especially, the electronic security industry and central
stations. Many consumers and even business
owners tend to be confused on what is truly necessary to protect themselves against threats and
proper management of their internal and external networks.

Focusing on your own network security is one
element. Making sure and confirming what
outside vendors and networks you and your
company connect into or that connect into
you is equally important.

Peter Giacalone
is President of

Giacalone Associates,
an independent
security consulting
firm serving
central stations,
manufacturers and
dealers.

Cybersecurity is a priority that requires laser
focus of competent professionals. Focusing on
your own network security is one element. Making sure and confirming what outside vendors
and networks you and your company connect
into or that connect into you is equally important. Requesting certifications and details on what
your outside vendors and clients have in place for
security and protection is an acceptable business
practice. It is essential and must be taken seriously to ensure your outside network connections
are as secure as your networks and this must be
updated on a frequent basis.
Most organizations large, medium and small
take the smartest approach of partnering with
creditable, certified and compliant cybersecurity
professional organizations to protect and manage
their security. It is essential to trust procedures,
people and technology. This is a difficult balance
for most businesses with limited resources. Although this may be difficult, in no way is this a

Security Sales & Integration APRIL 2021

SS2104 pp54-55 Monitoring Matters.indd 54

viable excuse to ignore this essential element of a
business. Choosing a technology partner that will
give you maximum value and peace of mind will
pay dividends over the years and allow business
leaders to sleep better at night knowing that tried
and proven professionals are protecting them.
In addition to the necessity of monitoring
and protecting an organization from threats
for the sake of staying secure and operational,
many organizations are required to maintain
compliance with certain recognized standards.
Outside organizations provide this oversight,
assessments and guidance for continual compliance services that help businesses identify security weaknesses to meet these stringent requirements with services as SOC2, PCI, HIPAA,
CISA, CISSP and most important, penetration
testing on an ongoing basis.
Expanding my business a few years ago opened
my eyes to the depth of what's available. Now
that I am contracted to represent virtually every
major provider and carrier in the telecom, Cloud,
networking, cybersecurity and cable space, I see
the results of subscribing to these valuable services
firsthand.
Business continuity and disaster recovery are
essential elements to most businesses and governmental agencies. The first order of business to protect your business against unknown risks is frequent
and tested backups of your entire business infrastructure. To ensure business continuity, you need
the structure and ability to easily deploy a disaster
recovery plan that considers your complete network
in a very short time with a remotely configured and
managed firewall. If disaster strikes, you want the
ability to recover your data, servers, desktops and
the entire infrastructure to a virtual environment in
seconds. This would initially be through accessing
your virtualized mirrored environment while your
local environment is getting restored.

SOC as a Service
Although everyone conducts their business in
a world that is full of cybercrime, most could
never justify implementing and maintaining
their own security operations center (SOC). Regardless of your size, cyber criminals are betting
on your organization to not have the resources
to properly protect yourself or the presence of
mind to make security your top priority. With
outsourcing to a reputable organization, you can
accomplish both. These relationships provide the
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Security Sales & Integration April 2021

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