Datalyst Blog

Data breaches are serious threats, particularly for businesses here in Massachusetts, where we have things like the Data Breach Notification Law to contend with. In the interest of keeping your business on the right side of the law, let’s review what this law requires of you.

A decade or so ago, IT security was as simple as buying antivirus software for each computer in a business. As long as you kept renewing your antivirus, kept it updated, and ran regular scans, your business would avoid 99 percent of the threats out there.

Over the last several years, things have changed and become much more complicated.

Ransomware and healthcare don’t mix, and cybercriminals are taking advantage of this fact to an alarming degree. Let’s consider the dangers associated with the presence of ransomware in the healthcare space.

Let me ask you something: how much do you think that data breaches have increased in Massachusetts in the past decade? 20 percent? 30 percent? Maybe even 60 percent?

Nope—they’ve doubled. They’ve doubled despite stricter policies for businesses that suffer from data breaches. They’ve doubled despite the fact that more and more businesses are required to meet certain levels of protection and compliance regulations. This makes it all the more important that you are prepared to prevent these kinds of breaches.

The Bay State has some of the most comprehensive data privacy laws in place, with additional legislation being debated at the time of this writing. Considering the projections concerning how cybercrime is expected to grow, it only makes sense to pay attention to how these laws take shape and could impact your business.

Massachusetts has taken the lead in the United States in terms of cybersecurity regulations, which in the long run, will hopefully aid to protect businesses and consumers from the Bay State. Let’s review what your cybersecurity needs to look like as we progress into 2022.

2020 was, obviously, a challenging year for healthcare providers. In addition to the obvious issue of the COVID-19 pandemic creating serious operational, financial, and supply chain difficulties, cybersecurity concerns didn’t go away during this time. Let’s consider some of the additional stresses that IT security needs can, will, and have placed on healthcare providers.

This might sound familiar for some of you, especially if you are in the construction, engineering, or architecture business, or any other industry that has pretty demanding computing needs.

Some industries require better hardware to handle the demanding software and work that needs to be done. Typical office workstations and infrastructure might work great for typical offices, but when you are working with AutoCAD, handling massive floor plans, accessing and sharing complex documents, and trying to get it all done within budget, the lower-end just isn’t going to cut it.

As South New England businesses continue to adapt to a post-coronavirus landscape, they face the reality that an increasing number of interactions will be occurring online. Moreover, with many now needing to accept payment online; these businesses must now follow strict credit card compliance rules or risk severe sanctions. If you're not sure how to comply, read on.

The days of the cash-only business are over. It doesn’t matter if your business is a multinational corporation or you cut grass for a living, accepting payment cards is not only convenient for your customers, most of the time it’s the most secure way to get paid. In an effort to protect the personal and financial information of consumers who have come to depend on their payment cards, the banks that back the credit card industry have developed a regulation that businesses who process cards need to adhere to. Today, we will go over this regulation and how it affects small and medium-sized businesses

Massachusetts has one of the strictest data protection laws in the country. Is your business compliant? A CPA is one of the few professionals who have access to the most desired information a cybercriminal is looking for: financial records. This makes your firm a prime candidate for cyberattacks, so our next question is: is your data secure? Here are five security steps your CPA firm should take to protect your client's data.

Of all industries, financial services may just have some of the highest regulatory requirements, along with healthcare. This makes a lot of sense, too… consider how much sensitive data CPA firms are privy to as a part of their daily operations and processes. While every business today needs to prioritize its cybersecurity, this is especially the case for these firms.

Most companies have some sort of regulation they need to stay compliant to, and 2020 seems to be a landmark year. This year, companies have to deal with end-of-life upgrades, the development of new privacy laws, as well as the existing regulatory landscape. Let’s take a look at why compliance is important and what to expect in the year ahead.

When we write about Net Neutrality, we typically write about how it is designed to keep the telecommunications conglomerates, who make Internet service available to individuals on the Internet, honest when laying out their Internet service sales strategy. One way to put it is that without net neutrality in place, the Big Four (which are currently Comcast, Charter, Verizon, and AT&T) have complete control over the amount of Internet their customers can access.