His son Landen’s basketball team was trailing by 10 a few minutes after tip-off. Director of sales Todd Domres – in this scenario, Coach Domres – called a time out to get the players reorganized, reenergized, and refocused.
“We came back to win the game, but after the game we had a post-game huddle,” said Domres. “I told the players, ‘We can’t start games like this anymore. We have to come to the gym ready to play. We have to warm-up differently. We have to do a lot of things to better prepare ourselves. Does anybody have any questions?’”
One of his players piped up, “Coach, why don’t you call a time-out sooner?!”
Domres has carried this nugget of genius off the court and into cybersecurity conversations with DCN’s employees and customers as well as conference attendees at which he gives cybersecurity presentations.
“As companies, we don’t want to be a month, a quarter, a year from now saying, ‘I wish I would have called a time-out sooner on cybersecurity,’” advises Domres. “Especially when a time-out is the difference between falling behind or securing a win.”
Many businesses today rely on uninterrupted access to their networks and data. With the ever-changing landscape of cybersecurity threats, it’s become critical they routinely reevaluate their cybersecurity programs, ensuring their defense can block known and unknown (zero-day) attacks that may try to compromise their access.
Through his experience on the InfraGard North Dakota Chapter board, an organization comprised of public and private sector businesses working together to ensure the security and resiliency of local and national critical infrastructure, Domres shares businesses most successful in neutralizing cyberattacks are those that have built multi-layer cybersecurity programs.
These programs look different at every business, but often include these key steps:
GET EVERYONE ON BOARD.
Security is everyone’s job. Ongoing training reminds employees to “take a time out” before they do something that would make your business vulnerable to a cyber-attack.
CHECK. THEN CHECK AGAIN.
Schedule frequent reviews of your business’s applications, software, and hardware, and apply outstanding updates and patches.
ADD A SECURITY GATE TO YOUR NETWORK.
Add firewall and/or DDoS services to your network to monitor network traffic and help mitigate attacks.
CAN’T STOP. WON’T STOP.
Your business’s commitment to cybersecurity is ongoing. Following industry leaders and seeking out cybersecurity training and resources will help you stay up-to-date on what’s happening in the industry and give you the tools to continually enhance your program.
Domres and the DCN sales team have helped businesses of all sizes and industries build their multi-layer cybersecurity programs by incorporating DCN’s managed firewall and DDoS solutions into their network design. These managed solutions give businesses access to industry-leading protection supported by DCN’s highly-trained technicians who are available 24/7/365 and manage routine and real-time maintenance.
“The cybersecurity world is changing all the time, and our solutions adapt to these changes,” shared Domres, noting DCN’s firewall identifies known unknown global attacks and automatically blocks them.
For more information about DCN’s cybersecurity solutions, contact director of sales Todd Domres at 701-323-3039 or tdomres@dakotacarrier.com.
