Cyber Security by Super Mega Systems

I used to do photography on the weekends and after work as a yea to get creative after a whole day of spreadsheets and grey computer screens.  People get so happy when they have a great photo of themselves... I loved the creativeness of it and the joy people got from my work.  Since moving to America, I've been missing my photography studio and equipment (all sold back in the move from Australia) so I thought I'd start another business.  This time in Cyber Security.

Maybe not as visually creative, but it's still provided that sense of helping people out... and like photography it feels like the technology is changing every second... and as daunting as that sounds, I find that exciting.

Anywho, I was interviewed for a blog called NYClady... welcome to America me.  The blog link is here.  I am, however, going to post the whole transcript here, cos, y'know, why not?  Also, super weird being called 'Mr Waring'.
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I sat down for an eye-opening chat this week with Adam Waring and learned a lot about Cyber Security and what I need to do to protect my computer and my life.

Mr. Waring worked in IT security for nearly 15 years, but mainly on massive databases for huge corporations.  In spare time he used to love doing photography, and would work in his photography studio on weekends.  His photography website was something he was really proud of, and had hundreds of photos on it.  Then one day it totally got hacked (someone turned it into a porn site, it was awful) and he struggled and tried everything but lost all his hard work that he took pride in.   The irony of an IT security person getting hacked wasn't lost on him.

He had to rebuild and it took ages, but through the whole process, he learned heaps about websites, and all their holes and gaps that some jerky hacker guy would use to take it over.  Adam learned that prevention is key, and so he started this Super Mega Systems to help people before they get into the situation he found myself in.  Even sites like Wordpress and Drupal have some holes that are easily fixed if you know what you're looking for. 

Super Mega Systems - Cyber Protection offers a few different services; the quickest and cheapest is a scan of your entire website (including backoffice) to see if there are any vulnerabilities.  The other service is far more to do with the set up of your business.  For instance, does your staff have access to systems where they could commit fraud? Of course everyone wants to trust their employees, but it's also about protecting your employees too. If something did happen and everyone has access, then everyone is suspect.  http://www.cyber.supermegasystems.com/ will work with your business to ensure you've segregated the system access and processes so that no one person can rip the company off.  Again, prevention is key.

Other IT Security firms are run by IT guys who know computer code inside out but don't really understand how the business runs... Super Mega Systems Cyber Protection is run by a business guy who just luckily happens to be really good at IT systems. The CEO worked for some of the biggest companies in the world, seen it all, and now wants to help everyone get good practices in place to help them become a great company that is protected.

Apparently estimates are that 95% of American companies were hacked to some degree in 2015 but only 40% of companies realized it. This is astonishing.  That means approximately 60% of companies in America have had someone poking around their data. One company Super Mega Systems worked a year ago had it's data stolen and held for ransom, and they literally had no choice but to pay that ransom. How crazy is that?  No business would survive long without the data it's built itself on, and Super Mega Systems wants to help make sure everyone who works hard to do good isn't at risk to sleazy hacker types.

I don't know about you but after hearing all this I am far more paranoid about my own cyber security. Everyone with a website should get it scanned. It's super cheap for the value you get out of it, and really, it's the responsible thing to do to protect your data, your customers, your suppliers, etc.