This article originally appeared in the Spring issue of New England Cyber Defender, which you can read here.
Welcome to the Spring 2024 issue of New England Cyber Defender Magazine. Featured in this issue, we have an article from entrepreneur, author, and former professional boxer George Foreman. In our exclusive interview on page 10, Foreman reveals his eye-opening rise to fame, the impact his fall to earth had on him, and how he got back on top, followed by his biggest lessons and how you can stay resilient in the face of adversity. Whether you run a small business, manage a department, or are a leader in your community, you will get inspiration and practical advice from this legend.
Actually, I had the opportunity to meet George Foreman a couple of years ago. I was one of ten people to get a pair of signed boxing gloves from him! What I’ll say is he is a kind, genuine, and down-to-earth person, and I’m proud to feature him in our magazine.
Now, with this being our fourth magazine, I want to start out with our “why,” the reason we continue to invest in this publication each quarter. First and foremost, we do it to help protect you. We also want to see you grow. By providing you with exclusive business insights and IT information, we hope to inspire you to protect your growing business with state-of-the-art technology and cybersecurity.
One way many companies are staying protected is through co-managed services relationships. In a co-managed relationship, you hire an IT services provider like Direct iT to work alongside your existing IT department. In essence, your IT department continues to perform the basic day-to-day IT tasks, while we assume responsibility for the higher-level tasks. Co-managed services are beneficial in some cases because it can be more cost-effective to have an internal IT department handling the basics, but at the same time, you still have access to all of the knowledge, vendors, and tools that we—as an established managed services provider—can provide.
We also recommend performing a penetration test at least once per year. Typically, companies bring us in to do this because it is too advanced for most IT departments. The idea behind penetration testing is to simulate an attack on your network and servers. In doing this, we can tell if and how bad actors can access your data and use that information to patch them out. I dig deeper into the benefits of penetration testing on page 8.
I’ll leave it there for now. To close, I would just like to personally invite you to attend our webinars on Microsoft Copilot—Microsoft’s artificial intelligence platform—which are coming up soon. You can view the dates and register online via our website or call in to the office and we’ll add you to the list. I look forward to seeing you there.
Enjoy the magazine!
David Javaheri | President & CEO
Direct iT - A Security Company That Does IT.