A Review of 2023

That was the year that was

Here are some notable events and stories from 2023:

A Guiding Principle

Bryley is a client of Bryley, President Garin Livingstone said in a 2023 interview. We have people at Bryley that need technical help. We also need to make sure that our computer systems are being maintained and updated. Among the benefits of adhering to this model?

• Updates and patching are as minimally disruptive as we can get them.
• New technologies are fully vetted before the tech is deployed

This principle of being one’s own client has been a standard that Bryley has observed over the course of its thirty-six years.

We Miss Mike Carlson

Mike Carlson, Bryley Systems’ Chief Technology Officer, passed in October. Manager of Client Services Tom Barnes wrote a beautiful remembrance. The Worcester Telegram’s obituary is here.

Bryley Presented a Cybersecurity Seminar through the Clinton Chamber

Garin Livingstone and VP Roy Pacitto presented on cybersecurity best practices. The seminar included ideas you can implement now and New England-region examples (because of its relative wealth, our area is hard-hit by cyberattacks). Roy presented on Business Email Compromise (when addresses you trust are spoofed to get you to divulge information or transfer funds to criminals). Garin shared steps you can take to protect your business from ransomware. The recording is available here.

Bryley Systems Achieves Worldwide MSP 501 Designation

For the 9th time Bryley has been ranked among the top in its industry in the MSP 501, an IT industry signifier that recognizes the highest operational efficiency and business models. The award is based on a sixty-point audit.

Corridor 9/495 Business Expo

Roy, Tom and Gavin and Cathy Livingstone participated in the April Corridor 9/495 Chamber’s Open for Business Expo at the Doubletree Conference Center in Westboro, Mass. They presented there about the value of an outside audit of an organization’s IT systems.

Kristin Pryor was promoted to Vice President of IT Operations

Garin expressed his appreciation for Kristin’s contribution to Bryley’s executive board: She’s proved herself. She figured out her place and took on more responsibilities and didn’t lose sight of her previous responsibilities. I like to say that we’re improving Bryley every day. Kristin’s been really helpful making that happen.

Patrick Walsh was promoted to Senior IT Field Tech

Kristin said of Patrick, he is both a skilled IT tech and a natural leader who through his enthusiasm and intelligence wins the support of others.

Courtney Leonard was promoted to a combined role as Client Experience Specialist and Marketing Coordinator

I love that process of listening and being able to find answers for clients so they are reassured, Courtney said when interviewed about her new dual-assignment. I try to understand what the client is experiencing so that I can provide them with current updates on their situation and have someone follow up more in-depth later on. I think giving them real information goes a long way in helping people know they’re being taken care of. And of her Marketing Coordinator role, Courtney said, marketing is an aspect of good communication … like all good communication, people want to be heard and understood, not talked at.

Up Times’ Highlights

Bryley’s Up Times newsletter (so named to emphasize Bryley’s role in your business’ continuity [and by “business continuity,” we mean the planning and process by which your organization maintains its operations, not severely disrupted by a disaster or other unwanted incident]). Following are some of Bryley’s most popular stories from 2023:

• Six Questions to Help You Make a Successful Technology Change Change brings with it the risk of destabilizing established processes and losing team members to burnout if you don’t use a sound change-management approach. In this post Bryley presents questions that can help tech changes work out better.
• Courtney Leonard (with a background in interior design) gave us a verbal tour of points of architectural interest in Bryley’s Clinton, Mass headquarters.
• Building a security-first culture in a hybrid environment takes time and effort, but it is worth it to help protect your organization’s data and systems from unauthorized access. Here are some of Bryley’s best recommendations to make hybrid more secure.
• Business Email Compromise (BEC) is audacious in the patience of the gangs of conmen and the scale of the money stolen. This blog post contains recommendations to help your organization avoid being victimized.
• You have to provide moral support and technical support at the same time, Patrick said as he let us in on the kind of attention he provides clients so that they realize tech success.
• As shown on Bryley partner SonicWall’s Live Attack Map, it’s possible to get a sense of the reality and severity of the cyberwar we’re in, the frequency of bombardment we face – especially in the northeast United States.
• On the Chris Voss podcast, Thomas Vartanian said, the business community is going to [fix the internet] when the profits from doing business on the internet are dwarfed by the expenses of vulnerabilities. Vartanian said that the internet wasn’t made for financial transactions or privacy and we need to restart our inter-connectedness with our current usage in mind.
• The Wall Street Journal reported on Finnish research that found a technique to lessen the likelihood employees will lie to themselves to disregard good cybersecurity practices. The study was conducted because human error remains at the root of many security breaches. The studied technique involves teaching about the inner monologues people go through in rationalizing our behavior.
• The FTC has created a plain-language overview of cybersecurity principles and practices with topics like email spoofing, ransomware and physical security. And it has a couple of videos and a reinforcing quiz.

Thank you for letting us be part of your world in 2023

We are grateful for the trust you put in us in 2023, whether that means reading Up Times or if Bryley manages your network. None of us here takes our role lightly in providing you with the resources for network dependability.