Latest / Be Locally Loved / 021-Greg Torosian: Why Cybersecurity Matters for Every Small Business

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021-Greg Torosian: Why Cybersecurity Matters for Every Small Business · Be Locally Loved

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Be Locally Loved, where we spotlight the people, places, and ideas that help communities thrive.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Moving to a new town can feel overwhelming.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: You don't know where to go, you don't know what to do, you don't know who to trust.
• 0:14
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• 0:16
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• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: And for local business owners, be local is like a matchmaker introducing them to new families who are ready to form long-lasting and local relationships.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: To grow your business by reaching newcomers, visit reachnewcomers.com.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: You know what would happen to your business if at one moment everything just stopped?
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's what actually happened to me.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: I was hacked and I didn't even know what to expect from that moment.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: And now looking back, I want other people to never have to go through this.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: I did post about it on social media and people said, My gosh, how did that happen?
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: And how do I keep that from happening to me?
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what we're gonna dig into today.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: My guest is a good friend of mine.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: His name is Greg Tarosian.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: He is the owner and president of Team Logic IT of Round Rock.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: Greg was by me through the entire process.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm so excited to have him on the show today.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: He has more than 25 years of technology leadership experience.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: And today his business helps local businesses protect their systems, their data, and their ability to keep doing business, which is really important.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, as you guys know, I'm Be Locally Loved, we're all about helping people, places, businesses, uh communities thrive.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: But you are not thriving when your technology goes down.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, it's the opposite.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: You are in great stress and everything stops.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: So, Greg, let's start with the question everybody asked me when this happened, which is how did this happen?
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome, Greg.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: Well, first of all, thanks for having me.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: And uh it's a great topic to uh to get into because a lot of people are being confronted with these situations.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: So, how it happened with you is uh you were contacted by somebody that you knew.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: So immediately you thought the information was coming from a trusted source.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: And it it wasn't either they were compromised or they were being impersonated, one of the two things.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: And then to make matters more challenging, they uh, you know, your friend had gone through a uh, you know, a personal, a real serious personal challenge, and they referenced that in the text, which again made you feel like there was some legitimacy to the communication, and you didn't think anything further, you know, before clicking that link because you you didn't feel like you know it was that it wasn't something you know nefarious.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: Not at all.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: Unfortunately, you got tricked by it and caused a lot of grief for you after that.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's exactly right.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: It was a trusted source and what I thought was a trusted link.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, prior to that moment, it's funny as now that it's happened and I'm on the other side of it, I'll say before the gra great hack of 2026 when I was naive and I just clicked on links, and now I'm very careful about links.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, even when they're coming from trusted sources, I feel like I'm just super careful.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I guess we'll start with the fact that anybody can get hacked.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like, right?
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't think that I was necessarily targeted.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was someone out there trying to do nefarious things.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I somehow got caught up in a a link that had bad intentions.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I for so just everybody on the show knows what happened was I clicked on a link and I got a pop-up that said, you've been hacked.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, nah, not me.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like I'm I don't have anything to hack.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I closed it and expected my life to just go back to normal.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: And that's not what happened.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: It was very quick.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: I reopened it and nothing was responding.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: My software was not responding.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: And then I started getting all of these prompts telling me that my password was being changed and I had to change my password.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: Before I knew it, they were in my email, they were in my social media, and I was being locked out of my stuff.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: And that's when I called you and said, What has just happened?
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's it's uh it's difficult, you know, because once those uh once that happens and they start moving laterally through all your applications and your email accounts, and they start locking you out of your stuff, it becomes a real challenge for you to prove your identity to those uh software manufacturers and and people who own the accounts who create these accounts and these uh technical systems that you want to make use of.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: And now you have a real problem because they don't believe you, because you don't have access to your email and can't prove you're you.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: And then it gets worse when you know they want you to show them some identity.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: Now you're sending pictures of your driver's license and other information to to try to have them agree with you that you're you and sending that information uh while somebody is watching is not also not a good idea.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: So it there it just starts to uh domino effect where one bad thing leads to another, and you know, these bad actors end up with a lot of really good information about somebody's identity.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and it it snowballs really fast.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I did try to get in there, like once I realized, wow, this isn't a joke.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't, I don't know, some kid trying to cause anxiety, like this is a real, someone's in my business.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: I can't run my business right now.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: I started to try to proactively change my pattern my passwords and proactively like prove my identity.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I, you know, I couldn't get into my stuff.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm trying to send two-factor authentications to my phone, but they had my understanding through the phone company is they had duplicated my eSTIM card.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: So everything that all those two-factor authentication codes that we're used to getting, we get those little six-digit codes and you put it in, it says it's me.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: They were getting those codes.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: I would see Yeah, that's called a swit uh sim swap.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: So they they basically had um the duplicate sim on their side.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: So everything that would be SMS texted to you, they had visibility to.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: So all they had to do was beat you to the punch to get the code.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: And uh and they're winning.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: So they were definitely winning.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, uh before we dive into like how to protect yourself from this, let me just talk tell you a little bit about the pain.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Greg told me I had a couple options.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, you can do this or we can help you do this, but either way, you got a tough road in front of you, right?
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's basically what you said.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: You might be looking at a new computer.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: What we chose to do was the scorched earth strategy after I had attempted to do it on my own, because I just I didn't have some protections like we're about to talk about.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I was just trying to do it on my own.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I just realized that everything that I touched, they were seeing and touching and getting.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: So the more that I tried to get in there and protect myself, the more I was exposing myself.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: So you and I discussed the best next step would be to wipe the devices.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: And at this point, I had infected two computers and a phone.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: I went to Verizon.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: I spent a good hour, hour and a half there because you have to wait to get a person to help you.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: And then they gave me a new East IM card so that at least we were kind of like shutting them down from being able to get into that two-factor authentication stuff.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: And then I went to, I also went to the bank to make sure that they had not gotten into all of my money, which luckily they I had not opened any of my bank account.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: So luckily, we never had to worry about that.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: But I still invested a good hour, you know, going to the bank, going through everything, changing all my passwords, changing all my codes.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: And then I drove to the domain to the Apple store in Austin.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I was there for several hours because you got to wait and you got to get worked in.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: And we had multiple devices to wipe.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I also was in tears.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: I had my son with me.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: The guy at the Apple store said, it's really not as bad as I've seen.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I'm sobbing because my whole world is, you know, blowing up.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: And he's like, it's not, I've, it's not as bad as I've seen.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, I've seen people who've lost money and you haven't lost money.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you've lost time, you've lost productivity, you've lost access to files.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: I was really scared about social media because that's a really important part of my business, not being able to get back into that for my business was huge.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: So, I mean, I'll just tell you not only did I have days of stress and anxiety, I lost an entire day of productivity while I was running around to the bank, the Verizon store and the Apple store.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: And then I took those wiped clean devices and I spent the next several days, even weeks, like rebuilding.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: I, you know, you call it a scorched earth strategy for a reason.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: Like I had to go rebuild it all.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: I had to, I couldn't just restore from a backup.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: I had to re-get, re-download my software, re-download my apps, reset all my passwords.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: And even to this day, it's been a couple of months since it all happened.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: I still will occasionally realize, well, I don't have that app anymore.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I I need it.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: I gotta go download it.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: I gotta go res retrieve the password that I don't have anymore and reset it.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: And so it has been a huge, huge loss of productivity and a huge amount of stress.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: So when I posted about this, everybody was like, what happened, which we've kind of talked about.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now, how do I make sure this never happens to me?
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about that, Greg.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: How can people protect themselves?
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so there's a lot of things people can do that are very inexpensive or free.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: And then there's some things that they can spend money on in addition to that.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: But before I start digging into that, do you have a sense for how much time in total this cost you?
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: We talked about, you know, 20 hours plus in just trying to get your arms around what is happening to me and all the back and forth in terms of trying to reset passwords and the time you spent in the store trying to get your computers and devices back under your ownership and control.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, most people will spend 20, you know, be beyond that, right?
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: Because a lot of times what what these guys will do is when they get in your systems, you won't even know it.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: The fortunate thing for you was you had a sense that that something happened.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: Plus, you know, they also put up a dialogue box that said you got hacked, you know.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: But a lot of times, a lot of times they don't afford you that that uh courtesy, let's just say, you know?
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: And and they will be in there and they will lurk and they will look for transactions that they can get involved in or ways to gather more information about bank accounts and and you know, more information about where your resources are, because ultimately that's what they're gonna be interested in.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, shifting gears to how to protect yourself.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: So there's a number of um a number of things people should be mindful of.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: So when it comes to security like this, there's not one thing you can do that will help prevent all the types of things that can happen, right?
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: You really need layers and tools of that will help you deal with all the entry points that are available to somebody to uh put you know, compromise your systems.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: So the what the one thing is to enable MFA on anything that you can, right?
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: Wherever it's available, you should take advantage of it.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: Even if it doesn't you feel like it's a an important account.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, this is just, you know, this is just an account that I use for chatting with people.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_01: There's no financial constraints or resources associated with it.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: You never know where an entry point might lead to another, right?
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: So protect everything that you can.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: If you're gonna have an account, use multi-factor authentication to provide to provide an extra layer of security when you log in.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: So multi-factor authentication is when you log in and you get a code, then you have to type the code in.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: Now, what's specific about your case is that the code was coming in from SMS text and they had your uh a duplicate sim.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_01: So they're watching all that.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_01: So SMS text as a as a MFA option is not a good one.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: In the beginning, it was an option, but obviously no good anymore because they are, you know, bad people are making active uh use of SMS and uh and uh SIM card swapping.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: So you don't want to choose SMS as your MFA option.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_01: You want to use an authenticator, like a microphone Microsoft authenticator or Google authenticator.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: When uh when you're encountering these accounts that provide an MFA, a lot of them are suggesting use a pass key, which is an option.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_01: You can use pass key also.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: That that's the storage of a key physically on a computer or a phone that will have to be used to access a website.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: The use of the authenticators are a little bit more convenient, so that's the one I would recommend, but either will be better than an SMS because it's more difficult to intercept.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: What is an authenticator and how does it work for someone who's like never even heard that word before?
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so uh an authenticator is an app that you can download.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: Now you want to get these from trusted sources.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: That's really important, right?
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: Because hey, if I'm somebody who wants to steal codes and stuff, why don't I just make my own authenticator and get people to download it?
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: And that way I can just have access to codes that way.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: So you want to make sure that the sources that you're going to for any tool is something is a place that you can trust.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're doing business with Microsoft already, I would use a Microsoft authenticator.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_01: If Google's your thing, then Google Authenticator will suffice.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's an application, you install it, and you can, when you log in, it will produce a code for you on the fly.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: So it'll look something like this.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you can see that or whatever, but you know, it generates a code automatically and independent.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: So it's not generated somewhere else and sent to you, it's generated locally on your device with that app.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: And when you put the code in, you can you you finish your login procedure and get into your accounts.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: And why that's good is because nobody has that.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_01: That's why it's called multi-factor.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's another factor that is in your personal control that is difficult for anybody else to have but you.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: Is that when you have to like scan a QR code to get that code?
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: Or like how do you get it to generate the code?
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's how you set it up.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: So when you set up the MFA with an authenticator, the product, let's just say Telegram.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: When you're in your account on Telegram, you choose security, you go to MFA authenticator, and it'll produce a QR code and you scan that with your authenticator app.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: And then it'll it'll create the entry in the in the authenticator app.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: So going back to the how many hours did you spend rebuilding your scorched earth?
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think the first time you asked me that, I said 20, but I want to say it was it was weeks.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was probably more than 40 hours.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like I lost days in the beginning.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: Like I probably lost three or four complete days just in the shock and awe of the whole thing.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then rebuilding just took hours because I had to go learn some new skills.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: I had to go download the apps, I had to go find old passwords, set up new passwords, change my whole way of doing passwords because I learned that don't have a file on your computer called passwords, you know?
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I, you know, you were helping me along that whole way.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I feel like I so let me ask you, one of the things that I've been doing, you could say the pros and cons to this is using my fingerprint.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: What are your thoughts on that?
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: That's uh that's a good option too.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's just like a pass key of sorts.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, but that works that works well too.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: As long as you don't hurt your finger.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: It could I would recommend that you put more than one fingerprint into the system because you might notice, like if you're gardening or something you didn't have your gloves on, your fingerprint is not going to work because you you kind of uh wore off the fingerprints that are on it.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: So that'll help.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: So you always want to pick, you know, a couple fingers on each hand.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, a couple fingers on each hand.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: So multi-factor authentication, get an authenticator.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: You recommend Google or Microsoft, depending on which one sounds like we could do that.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: So that's like step one.
• 16:59
  unknown: Yep.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: Then then what do we do?
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: So that's step one.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: And the of course that doesn't cost you anything, right?
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: So it's an easy thing to do, it's free.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_01: The next thing, you mentioned it already, which is a good segue into this, which is don't create a password and reuse it for all your accounts.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: That is such a bad idea on so many levels because when somebody gets into your system and they get access to that one password, they might not be interested in your Facebook, but they're gonna take that password and they're gonna go check out all the major banks and see if they can get in with that.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: And that's where the problem is.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: You know, they're way ahead of you because you're worried about your Facebook account, but they're over at Bank of America logging in with your account right now.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, and you know, getting access to your account and and messing up your identity there so that they can trick the bank into you know giving them some of your money.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: So and that gets difficult for people, right?
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: Because now how do you keep track of them?
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: You know, part two of that is well, don't put it in a file and store it on your computer because they're gonna find that file.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: And even if they even if you name it something, more difficult than calling it passwords file.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you could call it anything you want, but when they do a scan of your computer, they're going to find it.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's not hard to find these files.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: They're not looking for names.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: And and by the way, all the things that bad actors are doing to get access to this stuff is not a teenage kid doing this in the back room.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_01: These are these are Spotify businesses with resources and equipment and AI and all kinds of different tools that they can use to get what they need.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: So you're not in a hand-to-hand combat situation with a human.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: You're talking about yourself versus the a system of machines.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_01: So excuse me.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_01: So anyway, don't store your passwords in a file, right?
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: Even if you store it in a zip file and put a password on that zip file, that is not going to be good enough.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: So the problem is that when you have lots of accounts, like I have hundreds of accounts, and not one of them have the same password, right?
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, how do you keep track?
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_01: So you you need a pr you need a password manager.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_01: And password managers are they could be a cloud-based password manager.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_01: So you log into it in the cloud, you access your passwords.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of them have plugins that connect that get installed right into a Chrome or Edge or whatever browser you, Safari, whatever you use, and it will pre-populate the passwords for a particular account or site.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're a Bank of America and you're trying to log in, it will know that and it will pre-populate your username and password for you.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_01: And those are really handy.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we're talking about a company that produces a product on enterprise class servers.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_01: They're encrypted.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: They're going to apply all the security that they can to those passwords.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_01: So you aren't going to be compromised from that angle.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_01: Plus, it keeps it off your computer and out of your other accounts.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_01: So all you have to do is remember one password, which is to get into that application, right?
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_01: And make sure that you have backup codes and things so you can, you know, always access, always access that.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I had tried at one point, maybe a year ago, to have one password that was what I had chosen to try to be a password manager.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: And it got really frustrating for me because sometimes I'm in Chrome and sometimes I'm in Safari.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that Chrome and Safari have their own little password capture manager apps built in.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I felt like they were fighting with each other.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I ultimately like took one password off because I wasn't having an easier go of it.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what was I doing wrong?
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_01: Well, they were probably fighting over it.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: You you really were it would be best for you to disable the browser-based password storage mechanism or feature.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: Don't store your passwords in a browser because, again, those are stored locally.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_01: That's almost as bad as having a file stored on your computer.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: Because if your computer gets compromised, then the the hacker is just going to go to your browsers and export you all your passwords.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_01: So it I don't think it's a helpful feature to have.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_01: I would just uh I would disable it or, you know, when it's prompting you, set you know, answer it in in a way that says, never ask me for passwords again.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's just kind of stay out of my business.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: And then let the password manager own own that uh task.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_01: And again, with plugins, it could behave the same way to give you the the convenience of having the password pre-populated and things like that.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're already deep into the world of your browser saving all of your passwords, like how do you unwind that?
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: Just export them.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it most password managers will have a uh import export feature.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_01: So you could export them all out of uh Safari or or Google or Chrome or whatever, and uh and then import them into the password manager and then let the Password manager take over.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm just in my brain, I'm like, yep, more things I gotta do to that I don't really know how to do.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's gonna take time.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: It takes time to protect yourself.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: And it and one other thing about having a password manager involved in this, remember all that time you spent trying to remember what all your accounts were and all the apps?
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: Well, this gives you uh a catalog of all that with all the passwords and the URLs for everything.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_01: So that really makes it a good, a good place to go to help you recover from situations like that.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_01: And one point I want to touch on when you said we did the scorched earth, yeah.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody likes doing that.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: Uh but it's the it's the best way to fully remove the problem.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_01: And one thing about that is that you don't restore from backup unless you know that the backup that you're restoring from was at some time in the past, that is guaranteed to not have this bad actor involved in it.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_01: So it's really hard for a lot of people to know when that timing would be, which makes the backup not the thing to use to restore your uh, you know, your computer or your your uh phone.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_01: So scorched earth is the best way to go about it.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_01: And if you just you know restore from your iCloud, you're just bringing the guy back into your life.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you just reminded me that when I scorched earth, all my devices, I wiped everything.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: I also broke all of my connections to literally everything, including my family sharing with my kid.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: So um remember I said that I just I keep discovering over the course of weeks that I didn't handle that.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't handle that.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: So guess what happened?
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: Somehow he got my credit card on his phone and I no longer was managing it with family sharing.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: So there was no longer that stop that said I must approve purchases because he was used to clicking the buy now button and being told you have to get this approved.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then I'd make him bring me cash and I'd, you know, approve some and not approve others.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well, he was like, wait a minute, I clicked buy now and I actually got what I wanted.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: Woohoo! Like, seriously, he charged$400 of stuff in app purchases in a video game on my credit card in like four days.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: And then I was like, what?
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: It just happened.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I mean, there's real ramifications to having your technology just break down.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, what a struggle.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: What a struggle.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_01: So, well, that's the that's the password manager piece of it.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: So I mean something.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: You pay for that, right?
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_01: Like you pay for the Yeah, that's one that you would be paying for.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: So the first one, the authenticator was free.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: The password manager, you have to pay for how much does that roughly a year?
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: What should we have to budget?
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_01: Like uh for the password manager?
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I don't know.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_01: That I think maybe 10 bucks a month.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_01: So not too bad.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, they price most things are priced about around that ballpark for for cons consumers and you know, and small business owners.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: So and is that password manager able to handle multiple computers and phones and like your whole little ecosystem?
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, so if you're using, say, Edge or and Chrome, then you can get a plugin for both and it will it will feed information to both browsers.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_01: You know, if you're using a phone, it's it can be a little bit different.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know that they have plugins that will work on the phone.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_01: So on that one, you typically will have a uh the app, you'll copy it out of there and then paste it into the app on the phone if that's you know where you're you know where you're operating from.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: And where do we go from there?
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: So that's step one, step two.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: What do we do next?
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so you know, one of the other things that's free uh that a lot of people don't think about is making sure you're staying up to date on all the uh maintenance that a phone requires and a computer requires.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_01: These things they run on operating systems, right?
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_01: And those operating systems have flaws.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_01: When those flaws go unpatched for months, you could be left behind, and that would be an easy source for compromise, right?
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_01: Because like when you clicked on that link that your quote unquote friend sent you over text, over, I'm sorry, it wasn't it, it was uh it was SMS through Telegram, right?
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: Telegram, yeah.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, that that could unleash a set of code that goes to your computer and it's just looking for a particular flaw in the operating system.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_01: If you're patched, it might have failed.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_01: But if you're behind, say, two, three months and you're in your um your operating system updates, it's possible it found it would find a flaw and exploit that vulnerability on your machine to to you know put control in the hands of you know the hacker.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_01: So you want to stay up to date because every month, you know, Apple and Win, you know, Microsoft and apps on your phone, everybody's deploying updates to these things.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_01: And you want to make sure you're getting and operating on the latest so that you get all the security fixes in place.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_01: So you're you know, you have your devices functioning as good as they can be and the security along with it.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: So that includes all of the apps too.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like my son right now is coming, I've turned off the app store so that he couldn't go buy any more stuff.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: And now he's coming to me saying, I need the app store to update my apps.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: Is that true?
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_01: That I mean, if you're yes, you need a you need to be uh downloading apps from the Play Store or the App Store, depending on which platform you're using for your mobile phone.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_01: There are ways to get apps on the phone in other manners, but I would not suggest that.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_01: You know, because Apple and Google, they're also inspecting these apps when they go to the Play Store or the Apple store.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_01: So that's another you know layer of evaluation that you want to take advantage of.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_01: You know, if they're not perfect, none of these things in and of themselves are going to be perfect.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_01: That's why you need uh as you know, all of them, you know, so that they're all working on your behalf and you know, hopefully keep you safe.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: So so far we've covered MFA, we've covered the password manager, and we've covered keep your software updated.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: What else?
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_01: So now we're getting into more over-the-top services that would be important for people to consider making use of, especially if they're using a mobile mobile device in their business, and they do a you know a lot of transacting with that device.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_01: You know, when I say transacting, I don't mean just buying things, I mean interacting with other people through email and you know, uh doing sales proposals or sending invoices, you know, all kinds of different things that you do to operate a business normal.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_01: Mobile device management is something that's important for especially small business owners to be using.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_01: When I worked at Dell and uh ATT, when we were when we worked on our phones, our phone devices that the company provided us, they had these protections on them, right?
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_01: So that when we're confronted with security threats, we had something on the phone helping us evaluate the validity of that request coming our way, like a link that you might click.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_01: These things exist for small business owners.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have to have deep pockets like a like a Dell or an AT ⁇ T to afford these things.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_01: You know, things like for Apple, JAMF, JAF is a mobile device management product.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_01: It will have security features on it that will help evaluate links that get texted to you.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_01: Sophos Intercept X for mobile is an is another one.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_01: That one happens to be good for Android.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_01: JAMF is good for Apple.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_01: But those are that's another layer of security that you can put on an endpoint like a device in the case of a mobile phone, where you're getting texts that will help you know determine whether or not they're legitimate.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_01: You know, one one inexpensive way to to also do let's say you don't have mobile device management on on your phone.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_01: And you could take that link that you just got texted and you could email it to yourself.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe you maybe you have email threat protection on your email accounts, and you know, you you could make use of your email threat protection to evaluate that link.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: Gotcha.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: Is email threat protection is different though than the mobile device protection?
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_01: So we need a system.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, because we're really I'm kind of focused on focused on the mobile device because that's where that was the vector that they they were introduced to you on.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah right.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_01: But it could have been your computer, it could have been an email that came in talking about you know the tragedy with your friend, and you could have clicked the link there.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_01: That's why I mean on a computer, it would be email threat protection that you would want looking out for you when that email came in.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_01: And if you click on the link, in either case, if you click on the link, the software that's running on your computer or your phone is going to block you from going to the to wherever that link wanted to take you, right?
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_01: Or or if there was a malicious payload that was going to be downloaded as a result of that link, it would block that too.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: Is that the same kind of technology that we're seeing get built into the iOS?
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm an Apple girl.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: I know not everybody is, but in my text messages, it's kind of a newish feature.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: It will say like your inbox of your messages, and then it'll be like unknown senders where you can evaluate if you want it or not.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then there's like a spam section.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: And that has been super helpful because we do get spammed by text messages, and this is at least trying to figure that out.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_00: Is that the same kind of software that they're trying to build into the iOS?
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_01: It is, it's a start.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_01: So in the past, the compromises used to come through email, and they still do, not that that's gone, but the mobile device was left behind.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_01: Like people didn't think about that.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_01: We were all worried about emails coming in with links that were malicious and all that.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_01: So all the concentration was made, was put on computers and email.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_01: Well, then the threat shifted to mobile devices because there weren't as many tools to protect people from that.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, and now we can start spamming people with texts and links there too.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_01: And now the the the apples and the you know the uh androids are gonna catch up and put some protections in place to at least alert you that this is an email that c that's coming in from somebody that you don't have in your contact list or somebody from the outside, something to alert you to maybe consider not clicking that link or to be a little suspicious of it for at first.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: I have seen that kind of stuff from other people that I've sent to.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes they'll reply and you'll see that they that their email that they got from me had been flagged as outside the organization or whatever.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they might not have you in their contacts or something like that.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_01: You know, who knows where the information comes for putting that flag on there from, either the phone carriers or um, you know, or the uh, you know, the operating system itself.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, that's a first attempt.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know that it will block, you know, malicious attacks necessarily, but if it doesn't, then that's what's next.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, Apple and Google, these guys are gonna continue to build that security into these devices because that that's where the action is right now when it comes to security.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_01: They're trying to figure out how to protect their customers from the situation like you ended up in.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's nice to know somebody's working on it.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: Because we have a lot to do as business owners already, and having to worry about this is just another layer of, huh, so um, is there anything else like that we need to be thinking about related to protecting ourselves?
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you can always consider computing over a VPN, which is a which is called which is a virtual private network, or something that's really hot right now is something called SASE S-A-S E.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_01: That stands for Secure Access Service Edge.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_01: This is essentially putting a firewall in the cloud.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_01: So when you are on the internet, everything is encrypted between you and that server in the cloud.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_01: Again, these are things you can get a free VPN, right?
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_01: Our kids do it because they try to get, they want to have internet services while they're at school.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_01: And what this is what they would do.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_01: They would download a VPN so that they could look like they were computing from somewhere else other than inside the school.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_01: And so they would get internet access doing this.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, my kids would use um a free VPN to do this with.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_01: You do not really want to use a free VPN because you don't really know what that source is.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_01: You really want to invest in a VPN from a company that you trust that will that you know is gonna safeguard your data because what you're doing is connecting to a server that they own and they're encrypting your data for you, right?
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_01: So you don't want to connect to somebody else's server that could be watching all your data because all your data is gonna flow through this resource.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_01: So that's not you don't want to make a a choice to cut corners there and and use some sort of free tool.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_01: But SASE is pretty popular now because it's easy, it's for a couple for a company like me who manages these types of things, it allows me to manage the interaction between the user devices and things on the internet.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_01: So it uh it allows me to apply additional security.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_01: But you when you're on networks that are not yours, you know, you don't you don't really know who to trust.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_01: So you really want to make sure that the the things that you are transmitting with your computers and your devices are done so over a an encrypted channel.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what a VPN or a or a SASE product will will do for you.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_01: That'd be my that'd be my last piece of advice.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, just it's these are the things that we talked about are not things that should be uh you know cut corners.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_01: You shouldn't cut corners on them.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_01: You really need to embrace the inconvenience of them because they're gonna be the things that keep you safe.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_01: And you might get away with it for a while without without using these things, but eventually the the the circus is going to show up at your doorstep.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's just a matter of time.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you've experienced it.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_01: You know, busy it always happens to busy people who are trying to do things and get a lot done.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_01: And when you're moving fast, you're not going to think twice about clicking on a link that you thought came from a trusted source.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_00: 10,000%.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I say before the big hack of 2026 and after, because it changed me at a DNA level.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like before that, I just was happy go lucky doing whatever I was doing without a second thought.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_00: And now I'm skeptical, I'm untrusting, I'm inspecting, I'm slowing down, I'm being careful.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's just, it's put me into like a new normal.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: Even sometimes when a friend texts me a link, you're like, oh, check out this link.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_00: There's this great article you need to read.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, no, I'll look at the URL, I'll look at the domain, and I'll go look at the domain and find the article.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_00: I just, I, I just am scared to click on links now.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_00: So it is, it is, I call it PTSD.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like I went through something very traumatic that changed me at a DNA level.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's what the definition of PTSD is.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not a mental health, I'll have to get a mental health person on the show.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_00: But so Greg, uh you work with a lot of business owners.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like what percentage of business owners have gone through this inconvenience to protect themselves?
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_00: And and how many do you what percentage do you think are exposed right now?
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I mean, what we encounter a lot of is business owners who feel like since it hasn't happened to them yet, it's probably not going to happen.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_01: And you also made another comment earlier, which is why would they hack me?
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_01: And it's really more of a robotic thing rather than like a human deciding, oh, I might want to hack Laura today.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_01: It it really doesn't work like that.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_01: It's more of a a system that's looking for opportunity and and then exploits it, right?
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_01: And then and then once a machine gets in, right?
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_01: When you click on that link and code gets deployed, it now it's active.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_01: And a human might get behind it at that point and take over the reins and start doing real damage.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_01: But they're just gonna invoke other tasks on other systems to do more damage to you, right?
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_01: So it's hard to keep up with.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_01: What what was the original question?
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_01: Tell me that.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_00: What percentage of business owners do you feel that are protected or not protected?
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like, is this a major problem in our business community where people are just not realizing the exposure that they actually have?
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_01: I think they're starting to realize it more and more every day, but it still is.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's a huge problem.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_01: I would say more than half of the business owners that I talk to for the first time are usually very surprised that they need to amp up their game on the security front, which is really unfortunate.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_01: Uh yeah, most of the time they felt pretty secure that nothing has happened, so they are fine.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_01: And and and then they have an experience like you did, where they're devastated where their business is robbed of you know of a quarter of a million dollars.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_01: And now they have a new friend at the FBI who's trying to recover some of some of that money if they can.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I, you know, and it's really hard from my standpoint.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_01: Like I we get calls all the time.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I'll tell you two things.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_01: We'll get calls from business owners all the time who have already been compromised.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_01: And when I explain to them how much it's going to cost for the re remediation, most of them are like, I can't, we, you know, we can't afford that.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, I I get it, because it takes so much time to unwind everything that just happened if you if you want an IT company involved in it.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, you have to, you know, you're gonna do it yourself and and go to the different vendors and get help with it.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's a lot of work.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_01: And it the the message is, you know, is is it really worth waiting for something bad like that to happen?
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_01: Or does it make more sense to put measures in place and spend money to protect yourself from this happening, you know, at all?
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, we try to focus on the the preventative uh actions that we can take to to protect businesses.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's the key.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_01: Because I'll tell you, I don't think I have seen a compromise that would cost a small business owner of, you know, we're talking about like a a business that has like maybe five computers and they get compromised.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_01: Something like that is usually a fifteen thousand dollar on average remediation exercise to deal with their problems.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_01: And pro plus they're bringing in law enforcement and they're trying to, you know, a lot of times they get like a phishing email and they they weren't paying attention and they gave away their credentials, or they they they believed that they needed to reroute money and they they believed in email and they rerouted money to a bad actor's account, and now they want to try to retrieve it, and that money goes fast.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes the FBI is able to get it back, or some of it, hardly ever all of it, because the amount of time that goes by, but it's really difficult.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um I would so I would say a high percentage of business owners don't really recognize the the potential threat that is out there all day, every day, that is it's just a matter of time before it finds them.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_01: And we're trying to reach as many of them as we can, but there's it it's a it's a cottage industry at this point doing the doing this hacking.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, you know, it's it's it's tough to protect yourself without, you know, on your own.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well, hopefully this show will help raise awareness for the importance of this.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's definitely, to me, it's almost like the medical industry, you know, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, right?
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like let's invest in the prevention so we don't have to deal with the cure because the cure is painful and expensive.
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_00: I do remember, huh, this is for the people that think it can't happen to you.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_00: I do remember being in the Apple store while they're helping me wipe my devices and I'm crying and I'm I'm saying, how do I know this is gonna get them out of my life?
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like, how do I know getting a new East EM card and wiping my devices is gonna get them out of my life?
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_00: What about when I turn this thing back on and I put in my Apple ID that they have, that they're I'm just bringing them right back in.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_00: And the Apple guy said, Well, you'd be surprised how fast they move once they you figured out really fast that they had you and you were in the Apple store wiping your devices within 72 hours, you got them out before they got all the way into as deep as they could have.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_00: And the fact that you stopped them, you you cut off the East EM card, you you shut down these computers and had them wiped is what they're gonna do is be like, okay, on to the next person.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like they're not gonna try to keep chasing you because you just made it harder.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_00: You gave them a roadblock, you gave them some friction, and now they're gonna go find the next person.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_00: So for the person out there that thinks it's not gonna happen to me, just no, I stopped them from you know, tackling me and now they're gonna go find the next victim because they're not done.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_01: And there's just so much opportunity for them.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_01: They they there's nothing, there's no incentive for them to keep chipping away at you if you're already on, you know, if you're already two thirds of the way to resolving this issue, they're gonna abandon and move on to the next person because they're just so much.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_01: They're you know, there's so much opportunity for them.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_00: So, Greg, can you Do just a little commercial for your business right now.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_00: I know we've been talking about security, cybersecurity, and protection and all that, but you do so much more.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_00: So can you tell us for the business owners that are listening if they need to get these computer IT headaches off their plate?
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_00: What can you do for them?
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we're a we're a local IT company that does manage services for small business owners.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_01: We handle all the maintenance tasks for computers.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_01: We do man mobile device management.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_01: We back up systems and data and handle servers.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_01: We provide help desk services.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_01: So really anything technology related that a business is taking advantage of is something that we'll get involved with and help help them be more productive and be more secure while they're trying to operate their business at the top of their game.
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I really see you guys as the ounce of prevention.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like it might cost a little bit every month to have managed services for your IT, but if that keeps you from going down, like that's really the cost, right?
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_00: Like we just talked about.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, and it's an active service, right?
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_01: So we're always looking for opportunities like, okay, these systems, they need this patch or or you know, they are Microsoft or Google users.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_01: We want to make sure we'll we're monitoring who's logging in to those accounts.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_01: And if they're logging in from someplace, say uh, you know, Turkey, then we know they don't do business in Turkey.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_01: So we will disable the account on the spot before any damage is done.
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_01: So there's a lot of services that small business owners can take advantage of that won't break the bank and will prevent the, you know, a really bad situation from happening to them when it comes to cybersecurity.
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_00: So who's an ideal client for you?
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like if there's a business owner that's thinking I'm too small or I'm too big, like who's ideal?
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_01: Well, most of our customers are anywhere from five computers to 50.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_01: We'll do bigger and smaller than that, but that's mostly our wheelhouse.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_01: And we do a lot of healthcare.
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_01: Most of our portfolio is hell is is doctors' offices, orthodontics, dentists, you know, all kinds of healthcare practitioners.
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_01: So we're focused on HIPAA and making sure that they have all the protections in place to stay compliant and to uh you know be able to offer their services to their customers, which is you know great for everybody.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah.
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we're we're interested in making, you know, whatever the passion is for that small business, for them to be able to keep doing that and not have to worry about technology getting in their way, or God forbid, a hacker throwing sand in their gears.
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_00: Right, absolutely.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_00: Well, as an entrepreneur, I mean, I can tell you that we tend to be very passionate about whatever it is that we're doing, and worrying about things like cybersecurity and IT is not in that passion.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_00: So luckily we have people like you to help us.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_00: Is there anything else you'd like to share before we wrap?
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_01: No, I think we've covered it all.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_01: I really do appreciate the opportunity to speak with you about it.
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, not a lot of people would take the time to air the the the a situation like this and and help other people out there know that this could happen.
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_01: It it happens all the time.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you might this might be the one and the one time that this happens to you, hopefully, and it's done.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_01: But from my standpoint, because I'm on the inside helping people doing this, we are helping people deal with these problems on a weekly basis.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_01: It it happens all the time at all kinds of different levels.
• 47:43
  SPEAKER_01: Some a lot of times they're they're not so deep into it, and other times they've you know wired money off to you know someplace offshore that is not where they meant it to go.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_01: So it's an active problem for sure.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for opening our eyes to it and thank you for everything that you did to help me get through my personal chaos.
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_00: I still feel like every now and then I get surprised that it's not over.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like it's over and then something will pop up.
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you for the role you played in my personal journey.
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_00: For that business owner that's listening right now saying, I need some help.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_00: How can they get a hold of you?
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_01: Well, uh, the easiest way is to um, you know, find us online, you know, uh w dot teamlogic it.com slash R R T X.
• 48:31
  SPEAKER_01: That's R like Round and R like Rock and then Texas.
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_01: So R R T X.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_00: And you're serving the whole central Texas region, Greg.
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like how far do you are you how far do you go?
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_01: We'll we're serving people from uh Austin all the way to Waco.
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're a business in there and you need help, we'd love to hear from you.
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_00: Well, uh, it was really important to me to get you on the show because again, I'm all about helping people thrive, communities thrive, and there's nothing that shuts down that faster than having your entire system go down.
• 49:05
  SPEAKER_00: I hate that we have to rely so much on technology, but it is just the world that we live in.
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_00: And when all of a sudden you can't trust what you see online, it just it completely changes your ability to do business.
• 49:16
  SPEAKER_00: You can't do business, and we can't afford that, especially when we're small business owners.
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_00: We cannot afford this lost productivity and downtime.
• 49:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's an unfair situation.
• 49:25
  SPEAKER_01: And uh again, I just uh I appreciate you bringing this to light and doing everything that you do for the local community because uh it's great to have a podcast like this and a person like you in the community that uh that really cares.
• 49:37
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Greg.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_00: I really appreciate the kind words and thank you, everybody.
• 49:40
  SPEAKER_00: We'll see you next time.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining us for Be Locally Loved.
• 49:44
  SPEAKER_00: If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave us a review, and share it with someone who cares about building thriving communities as much as we do.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, love where you live.