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Information Technology Navigator

Tips, Advice & Insights from Technology Pros

How Much Will CMMC 2.0 Compliance Really Cost?

Many companies are currently evaluating how they might fund initiatives necessary to move their businesses towards compliance with the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC). There are a few ways to fund these initiatives, but many key items have the potential to impact the amount of funding needed to prepare your organization for certification. So, where do you start to appropriately scope the project, and how do you know how much it will actually cost?

Whether your company plans to meet the CMMC objectives or to stop doing business with the Federal Government, keep in mind that cybersecurity is an important part of maintaining your business health and ensuring resiliency in the future. When businesses suffer a cyberattack and cannot afford the cost to recover, they often go bankrupt. In addition to the new federal regulations being pushed out by the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulations (DFARS), many states have laws requiring levels of protection for different types of information. Other federal governments have also enacted cybersecurity protection measures for their citizens (such as GDPR). Not doing so can also leave you open to lawsuits in the event of a breach or incident.

5 Phases for Cybersecurity Compliance

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Tue, Mar 12, 2024
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Copilot for Microsoft 365…Are You Ready?

Over the past few months, Microsoft has slowly rolled out Copilot for Microsoft 365 through their many channels, making it available to all customers. As I mentioned in my last blog, "Copilot for Microsoft 365 – What You Need to Know," there are still some prerequisites for purchasing, including a minimum term of 1 year, however, the minimum purchase quantity of 300, which was a limiting factor for most, has been eliminated. This major shift by Microsoft resulted in a sharp increase in activity with most organizations being very interested in the promise of the significant productivity gains touted by Microsoft.

However, those same organizations tend to fall into one of two camps:

  • First are those that are fast-tracking a pilot or internal testing.
  • Second are those that are concerned about data privacy and protection and will not allow Copilot, or any other AI, to be used in their organization.
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Wed, Feb 28, 2024
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Copilot for Microsoft 365 – What You Need to Know

The ever-increasing impact of AI is everywhere you look. We at Daymark are excited by the prospect of leveraging AI to help us and our clients optimize their businesses. One technology we are particularly enthusiastic about is Copilot for Microsoft 365. We are very excited to announce that Copilot for Microsoft 365 is now available to organizations of all sizes. This will enable all customers to purchase Copilot for Microsoft 365 and leverage the AI advancements Microsoft has integrated into the world’s most popular productivity suite, Office 365.

Microsoft is making significant investments in AI, and we believe they are ahead of the curve on many fronts, so there is a lot to unpack. In fact, we plan to write several blogs on Copilot for Microsoft 365 and the many other Copilot features coming to all Microsoft platforms as the technology continues to mature. This blog is intended to provide an introduction to Copilot for Microsoft 365 with basic knowledge on what Copilot for Microsoft 365 is, how it works, and how you can get started.

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Fri, Jan 19, 2024
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Burlington Food Pantry Gets Boost from Daymark Employee Donations

It’s a priority for Daymark and its employees to give back to the local community. The food pantry in Burlington, Massachusetts, espouses “People Helping People,” and that’s exactly what Daymark employees did last month to assist in making sure the families in Burlington have enough food and essential supplies as winter arrives. The employee-driven Daymark food drive resulted in multiple carloads of food being donated to those with the greatest needs.

 The pantry serves between 150 and 200 Burlington families per month, or around 550 people. 40 percent are children, and 15 percent are seniors. The pantry has more than 200 volunteers and operates as a drive-thru, where food is largely custom-packed while families wait in their cars. Each family is asked a list of questions about their food preferences for the week. This list guides the volunteers as they custom pack the food from what is available at any given time and within family size allocations.

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Mon, Dec 11, 2023
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Public Company CISOs Beware: The SEC Is No Longer Playing Nice

 

On October 30, 2023, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced fraud charges against SolarWinds and its former chief information security officer (CISO), alleging that “SolarWinds’ public statements about its cybersecurity practices and risks were at odds with its internal assessments.” This comes on the heels of the SEC’s newly implemented rules for disclosures relating to cyber risk. Publicly traded companies (along with pre-IPO and foreign private issuers) must now adhere to new and prescriptive rules requiring the disclosure of “material cybersecurity incidents” as well as annual disclosures relating to “cybersecurity risk management, strategy, and governance.”

There is a lot going on with all the recent SEC and cyber headlines, so let’s break it down piece by piece. This blog outlines several high-level calls to action that CISOs and their stakeholders should consider as they work through their cyber risk strategy and their cyber and/or directors and officers (D&O) insurance renewals.

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Tue, Dec 05, 2023
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Azure Retirement Updates – Public IP SKU and Default Internet Access Changes

Microsoft has recently issued some retirement notices that impact VM default internet access on Azure and Basic Public SKUs. While there is runway on both of these notices, Microsoft recommends planning all new deployments with these changes in mind. We at Daymark agree. Here’s a quick summary of the announcements:

Default Internet Access Retirement

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Tue, Nov 28, 2023
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Exciting Announcements at HashiCorp’s Annual Conference

HashiCorp recently held their annual conference, HashiConf 2023, in San Francisco (and virtually) to unveil some exciting enhancements to their suite of multi-cloud infrastructure automation software. Key themes revolved around infrastructure and security with an emphasis on how to use the cloud operating model to achieve operational cloud maturity and improve the developer experience while enabling platform teams to put controls in place to manage risk and cost.

 

Here are some of the important enhancements to their products that we think will benefit Daymark customers (with links to additional information at the end of this blog):

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Wed, Nov 01, 2023
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Back to School Program – A Reminder of Teachers’ Dedication

Teachers everywhere demonstrate their unwavering dedication to educate the next generation in countless ways. Selflessly going above and beyond on a daily basis, year after year, frequently without acknowledgment or adequate compensation. One of the ways many teachers support their students is by spending their own money to ensure their students have the school supplies they need to learn.

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Tue, Oct 31, 2023
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5 Ways to Increase Your Ransomware Resilience

 

The risk of a ransomware attack continues to increase at a frightening triple-digit annual growth rate. How bad is it? Bad, really bad. Businesses based in the U.S. face an 80% chance of an attack, compared to 31% chance in EMEA and 9% in the Asia-Pack region. As the attackers’ sophistication increases and cybergangs are forming, it is important to understand what the attackers are going after and how to increase your ransomware resilience.

 

Ransomware Demand and Payment Trends

  •  In 2022, companies with $10 million in revenue or less had an average payout of $690,9961
  • Large enterprises (revenue of $5 billion plus) took a bigger hit, with an average $2,464,3392 ransom payout
  • Recent ransom demands have been as high as $30 million with payouts that have exceeded $8 million
  • Threat actors are increasingly focused on extortion techniques—often layering them on top of each other
  • Harassment is another extortion tactic being used in more ransomware cases. Ransomware threat actor groups will target specific individuals in the organization, often in the C-suite, with threats and unwanted communications3
  • Cybercriminals threatened to leak stolen data in about 70% of ransomware cases involving negotiation in late 20224
  • The United States is still the most severely impacted, accounting for 42% of the observed leaks in 20225
  • As of late 2022, threat actors engaged in data theft in about 70% of cases compared to 40% in mid-20216 

Don’t Count on the Government for Help

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Thu, Oct 26, 2023
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A Game Changer: Azure Government with Azure OpenAI

Government organizations today face an unprecedented need for innovation and efficiency. From delivering public services to safeguarding national security, the challenges are immense, and the stakes are high. This is where Microsoft's Azure for US government (Azure Government), a proven and trusted cloud for US government agencies, in conjunction with Azure OpenAI, can step in as a transformative force. In this blog post, I’ll explore why government agencies and organizations that support the government should be taking note of the capabilities and benefits of Azure Government with Azure OpenAI.

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Tue, Oct 17, 2023
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