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Necessary cybersecurity habits such as software patching and vulnerability assessments/penetration tests should not be disregarded due to having cyber insurance. On a related note, Alvaka has recently acquired two clients who needed recovery from ransomware attacks, one client had roughly [...]
Schaumburg, IL, USA (29 April 2019)—Alvaka Networks will sponsor ISACA’s North America CACS Conference for information systems audit, assurance, control, governance and security professionals, taking place 13-15 May 2019 in Anaheim, CA. Patchworx by Alvaka [...]
Dave Cunningham, Alvaka's Business Technology Officer, was recently interviewed by Channel Partner Insight regarding Alvaka's narrowing focus on it's Patch Management as a Service offering. Below is an excerpt from the article. See link below to read full article. As [...]
Alvaka Networks Patchworx℠ Return On Investment [ROI] Calculator 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. Go to ROI [...]
Alvaka Community & Industry Events Our Community and Industry Events section is where you can learn about interesting events Alvaka is participating in nationwide. View our upcoming events below [...]
Written by Dan Tynan (Writer, Editor, and Consultant). Originally posted on CIO.com on June 25, 2018. Alvaka Networks CEO, Oli Thordarson, and CTO, Unnar Gardarsson, contribute to this discussion on what projects IT professionals dread the most. The projects that most IT [...]
For Immediate Release In This Message: What is this threat and why does it affect you? What you need to do.** A special offer for new patch management clients. A dynamic weekly updated list of Meltdown and Spectre solutions [...]
Dear Valued Client,
Before we begin, if at any point while reading the message below, you need assistance or are just not sure, call 877-662-6624 or contact us by email and let us know so we may assist you. If you are one of our Patchworx clients or that rare organization that is covered through other effective measures, we sincerely congratulate you for your efforts to protect your company.
Whether you request our assistance or do the work of protecting yourself, not acting could be a very costly choice.
Critical news:
As you have likely heard in the national news, networks all over the world (in more than 150 countries) have been infected by WannaCryp Ransomware also known as WannaCry since Friday 5/12/2017…in fact it is estimated that 100s of thousands of computers are already infected and potentially million more will soon be. So, before we move into the details of why this matters, please DO NOT OPEN any attachments, click on links in emails from unknown senders, bring in un-scanned USB drives or otherwise invite an infection into your network.
What does ransomware do?
There are different types of ransomware but, all of them will prevent you from using your PC or server normally. They will then ask you to do something such as pay money before you can access your systems and data. Not all but most make getting data back impossible without
Advanced Computer Network Services and IT Management Solutions Alvaka gathers the necessary talent, tools and resources your business needs so that you can focus on what truly matters Learn more JTNDZGl2JTIwc3R5bGUlM0QlMjJ0ZXh0LWFsaWduJTNBY2VudGVyJTNCJTIwY29sb3IlM0F3aGl0ZSUzQiUyMiUzRSUwQSUzQ2klMjBjbGFzcyUzRCUyMnBlLTdzLXBpZ2d5JTIwcGUtNXglMjBwZS12YSUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRmklM0UlMEElM0NoMiUyMHN0eWxlJTNEJTIyY29sb3IlM0F3aGl0ZSUzQiUyMiUzRU1hbmFnZWQlMjBDb3N0cyUzQyUyRmgyJTNFJTBBJTNDcCUyMHN0eWxlJTNEJTIybWFyZ2luLXRvcCUzQS0yMHB4JTNCJTIwY29sb3IlM0F3aGl0ZSUzQiUyMiUzRUNvbnNpc3RlbnQlMjBhbmQlMjBjb21wcmVoZW5zaXZlJTIwc3VwcG9ydCUyMGF0JTIwYSUyMG1vcmUlMjBwcmVkaWN0YWJsZSUyMGNvc3QuJTNDJTJGcCUzRSUzQyUyRmRpdiUzRQ== [...]
I am curious what Dye’s definition is for "cyber-attack?" One this is for sure, the motivation of hackers and malware has changed dramatically over the years. The threats are new and different today. Going back in history most malware was related to someone wanting cyber fame, making a political statement or just plain mischievousness. Now with the advent of ransomware, spam mailing bots and
Smoke testing is a term used to describe the testing process for servers after patches are applied. The process typically involves making sure servers are rebooted in the right order, making sure they have completely rebooted, restarting applications in the right order, and then testing to be certain everything is working properly when users return to work in the morning.
This typically takes 30 minutes per server, depending upon your environment.
PCs are not typically smoke tested, or if so, not all of them.
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.
There are many variables to consider. Some are:
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.
For example, someone making $80,000 per year will typically work 52 weeks of 40 hours, or 2080 hours. $80,000 divided by 2080 is $38.46/hour. Multiply that hourly rate by 1.3, and you get $50.00/hour. Of course, rates of pay, taxes and benefits will vary from city, state and company; but 30% is usually a good number to use. Don’t forget to account for time-and-a-half or after-hours rates of pay if patching is being done in the late evening, early morning, or weekends (in order to avoid impacting user productivity).
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.
If you are presenting to management for a budget, and using this calculator as the basis for a Return on Investment (ROI), you will need to do more homework. An ROI measures as a ratio of the cost of investment against its expected benefit. For patching, calculating benefit can be very difficult to determine. How do you measure the cost of a system breach you have not yet had? You can estimate what expenses, penalties, and losses a company might incur when a breach occurs; but there is no certainty of a breach event and what those costs actually are. There are also regulatory compliance issues and/or potential fines for not patching, but those, too, can be vague. For calculating these potential risks and costs, it is advisable to enter into a discussion with your management team.
