“The first time I experienced a cyberattack was in 1995. It almost bankrupted my startup ISP business.

Someone had started to make thousands of connections to my systems, causing a bug to trigger and freeze my systems. The only way to fix it was to reboot them. That would disconnect all users. My customers were so angry. I don’t blame them. It took me five days to figure out that it was a well-known issue and the fix was available two months ago. By that time, half of my customers had gone to the competitor. They didn’t want to, but they had to run their business.

This incident put an end to my entrepreneurial endeavour. I felt like a failure. This wasn’t the first time I had failed with a startup, but was a final blow. I sold the company for pennies on the dollar and moved on to work for large companies like JPMorgan Chase, GBM, and Afilias. There, I applied my business acumen and entrepreneurial drive to identify opportunities and implement IT and IT security solutions that provided value to the business. I also learned about the benefits of having plans and procedures.

When I look in retrospect, I realize that if I had plans and processes in place... if I had been proactive in keeping my systems up-to-date... I could have handled the cyberattack much better and would probably still be running my company (and reaping the financial benefits).

And it really hurts to see how many small businesses are still repeating what I had done almost 30 years ago. That’s why I founded DigiRISQ Consulting with the mission to prevent SMEs from going down my path.

Cybersecurity needs of SMEs are very different from large companies. SMEs need to see the business value for every dollar they spend. In my approach, I bring in the best practices of large companies and adapt them to meet the needs of the SME. I discover their business goals, fix their digital adoption strategy, create customer/employee journey maps, and then infuse security practices into those processes. The result is a cybersecurity program that provides value to the business. 

Want to take your business to the next level? Contact us now.”