Steel Plus Network Connections Issue 3 | Page 24

CONCERNED ABOUT CYBERSECURITY ? DEFINITELY !

that you wanted to share , our computer system would not accept this . This applies to any individual and any memory stick across our entire premises . That means that whatever I want to view , I have to wait until it has been downloaded onto the central server and verified as safe . I find this an inconvenience at times , but one that I accept . Measures that are introduced into a business model can often be inconvenient or cause a certain level of disruption in some shape or form . Inconveniences can cost us money , but this is a small price to pay for protection from hacking and the financial impact and major disruption this would cause .
One of my personal concerns as a business owner is how secure it is to store information in the cloud . Up until 2 years ago , all our information went to our on-site servers . The IT manager has convinced me as best he can that the cloud is now the most efficient and safe method , but I am still skeptical ! So we have effectively come to a compromise : we still keep very important and key information on servers , but use the cloud as well , which is particularly useful as well as being secure for the sales team and other personnel who travel a lot . n interview with Colleen Doucette and Martin McVicar , Managing Director of COMBiLift :
CD : How do you feel about cybersecurity in 2022 , and how are you dealing with it ?
MM : The fact that we now have six people running our IT department today compared to just one 10 years ago is indicative of the role that this now plays in our day-to-day in-house operations . Our business model is designing , fabricating , painting , and assembling our products , and we are totally in control of the manufacture of our vehicles . Like many companies , we have integrated more systems in the past few years , and our design teams have access to solid works with 54 sets of 3D design packages .
Our head of IT has put a number of measures in place which are all there to ensure cyber protection . For example , if , in our meeting , you had brought in a memory stick with a video or documents
Maybe I am a bit too “ old school ,” but I find it hard to get my head around the cloud and how secure it actually is . Our business model is based on a policy of managing as much as we can in-house . And just as this applies to the design and manufacture of our products as mentioned above , it also applies to many of our suppliers . Providers of our electronic components , for example , could do the programming of these components for us , but we prefer to do this ourselves so we have control and are less reliant on a third party to transfer software and files . It doesn ’ t mean we can do everything in-house , but we do as much as possible so we can keep the control within our own four walls .
CD : If there is one takeaway from this interview about cybersecurity , are you now thinking about something you haven ’ t really thought about before ?
MM : You have reinforced that I must engage more with the cloud and what it can offer . After this meeting , I will be more concerned about cybersecurity than I ever was ! +
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