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Vulnerability Management: A Roadmap for IT Leaders
In today’s rapidly evolving cyber threat landscape, vulnerability management is more than a compliance requirement—it’s a critical, ongoing process that directly impacts the security and resilience of an organization. For IT leaders, it represents the first line of defense against [...]
Best Practices for Protecting OT Environments from Cyber Threats
Operational Technology (OT) plays a critical role in industries such as manufacturing, energy, transportation, and utilities. These systems control and monitor industrial processes that keep essential services running. As industries adopt digital transformation, OT environments are becoming more interconnected with [...]
Managing Ransomware Risks in Hybrid Work Environments
The shift toward hybrid work—where employees split time between remote and in-office settings—has transformed the way businesses operate. This flexibility brings productivity benefits and improved work-life balance, but it also introduces new cybersecurity challenges, particularly when it comes to ransomware. [...]
Responding to Ransomware with Cyber Insurance
Why Cyber Insurance Matters in the Age of Ransomware Ransomware has evolved into one of the most disruptive cyber threats facing organizations today. These attacks can encrypt or steal critical data, halt business operations, and demand costly ransom payments to [...]
How Cybersecurity Frameworks Guide Compliance
In today’s digital landscape, the stakes for cybersecurity compliance have never been higher. Organizations across industries face an evolving maze of regulations, from data privacy laws to sector-specific security requirements. Cybersecurity frameworks play a critical role in navigating these obligations, [...]
How to Develop a Ransomware Recovery Communication Protocol
Ransomware attacks continue to rise in both frequency and sophistication, making clear and coordinated communication essential during a crisis. In the first moments of an attack, confusion can lead to missteps, delayed responses, and greater damage. A Ransomware Recovery Communication [...]
You want to enter in a fully burdened labor rate for this field. What that means is that you want to take the base hourly rate, plus 25-30% for employer payroll taxes, benefits, vacation/holiday time, etc.
Smoke testing is a type of software testing performed by Alvaka after a software patching sequence to ensure that the system is working correctly and to identify any misconfigurations or conflicts within the patched system.
Smoke testing is a term used to describe the testing process for servers after patches are applied. 
Estimating an average time for patching servers and PCs can be a bit tricky. It can vary from one month to the next, depending upon the number and complexity of the patches released by your software vendors. You must consider all versions of operating systems and have a complete inventory of all your application software to do this job correctly. Our experience has shown that manual patching of systems takes on average of about 1.5 hours each.
This is a basic cost calculator for you to compute your typical monthly cost for patching your servers, PCs, laptops, tablets and associated application software. It also forms the basis for you to begin calculating your Return on Investment for software patching, or for comparison with alternatives to the manual process of patching operating systems and application software—such as Patch Management as a Service, also known as Vulnerability Management as a Service.
