Ep. 181 INTERVIEW – Roy Richardson

LOWER RISK – Cybersecurity Tips You Need to Know -INTERVIEW with Roy Richardson. He is Vice President and CTO of Aurora-Infotech LLC. Get your pen out & take notes as Roy’s info could save you hundreds of thousand of dollars. With more than 20 years of executive management and engineering experience, Roy Richardson is an expert consultant in the Cybersecurity, IT, and telecommunication industries.

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Get ready for an unfair advantage over your competition. This is the sales edge podcast. Where globally recognized sales expert and trainer Joe Pici helps you sharpen your skills for booking more appointments and closing more deals. And now here’s your host Joe Pici.

Joe Pici (JP):
Welcome back to the sales edge. I am your host Joe Pici and we are excited to have you with us in excited about the growth and it’s because of you spreading the Getting us around the world and and we just really appreciate everything you’re doing and your loyalty. This sales podcast is sponsored by Pici and Pici, which is a speaking, coaching, training, consulting company, which is really specializing in this climate that were in, in helping our clients recapture lost Revenue, recapture momentum, you know gain an unfair advantage over the competition and the smv platform sell more Virtually. This is a membership program, Whereby we do a live coaching or training every Thursday night. tremendous downloads, interviews.

This interview today is going to be posted to the four components of it. But make sure you check that out today folks. I’m going to tell you we have somebody I have been wanting to put in front of our audience for years. The Roy Richardson is special. I’m going to give you Just some of the highlights and as we continue this this four-part interview, you’re going to want to get in touch with this guy, you know with more than 20 years of executive management and Engineering experience.

Roy Richardson is an expert consultant in the cybersecurity IT and Telecommunications industries. From overseeing business units to telecommunication Networks On an international level. His career exemplifies an adaptable, intelligent, and driven technology professional. Most notably Roy founded a technology company that captured 60% of the international telecommunication market share in just Ten Years. After successful sale of this technology company and on The Hunt For A new challenge Roy pivoted his career to focus on cyber security and IT management. Folks we are going to be talking to Roy in depth. I can never think of a better time to have an expert on cyber security. Hey welcome Roy!

Roy Richardson (RR):
Hey Joe.
Thank you very much appreciate being here and then and really looking forward to to sharing, you know to this conversation and sharing knowledge with with your audience.

JP:
Well, we like to get right to it. We don’t small talk. And so we’re going to ask you some serious questions here. You can share with our audience exactly what your company does. Okay who you do it for and maybe what your uniqueness is?

RR:
Sure. So my company’s Aurora infotech and we specialize on helping businesses first and foremost align their goals and their technology and you’re Goals together. Because a lot of times what ends up happening is we got into business we start investing in technology business start scaling and before you know it, you know, here we are we have all these goals that we’re trying to achieve but we’ve not made any investments in the technology. And so that that difference there becomes a drag but that’s also the area where we see a lot of cyber, you know, security-related issues data breaches and you know exploitation of vulnerabilities at cetera. So a lot of times when we engage with businesses we’re going in from the standpoint of saying hey, you know, what are your goals? What are you looking to accomplish? What do you have today? And let us create a plan that will help you overtime, marry those two together and make sure that they’re constantly aligned to ensure infinite growth.

Everything that we do Joe is from the standpoint of cybersecurity. Yes, we provide IT Support Services to business, but that it support service comes actually is a benefit of all cyber security service. And the reason being is that You know cyber security. Is that huge umbrella that encompasses IT services and it support and so, you know, every little IT problem has the potential to become a major cyber security issue. And so if we address it at this level here, we’ve dealt with with the finite issues and you know, we leverage over 25 years of experience of managing, you know, International telecommunications networks what we call, you know, Mission critical infrastructure spanning multiple different countries. And you know some of our clients, you know, where military Air Traffic Control Systems, police, you know Etc all required banking systems Etc all required extreme levels of security when you’re in Telecom, that’s a cyber that’s you know, we were in Cyprus. I tell people we were in cybersecurity before it became known as cyber security. So we weren’t a lot of that Acumen now from from the Enterprise and carrier root level networks down to the small to medium sized business. So that they can afford and be as secure as some of the big guys out there.

JP:
Is there a specific target market you like to work with?

RR:
So, you know cyber security is such a horizontal issue, you know and the sense that it touches all different markets. I mean really it does not discriminate but I will tell you this. We specialize a lot with the construction, architectural, engineering niches. We do have customers who are legal. We have customers who were and distribution manufacturing. So, you know, I would say that it’s a little bit of everything and particularly because this is this is one of those subject areas that really there’s no discrimination there. No guardrails would regards to you know, it’s only applicable to this particular industry.

JP:
Right? Well, you know the way you and I met okay. We were both asked to speak at a CEO Round Table.

RR:
That’s right.

JP:
And you spoke before me and my jaw dropped. First of all, I had never met a technology guy, that spoke so well, you know if it was amazing.

RR:
Thank you

JP:
But the what you illuminated, but tell us about that you are what you do when you’re invited in to speak give us a little background on but I know that must be a way that you utilize your sales and marketing. but can you speak on that for us?

RR:
Yeah sure Joe. so you know we we are really passionate about education and sharing knowledge. and and you know when you look at the fact that you know out there today and this is prior to covid you know it was forecasted at in 2021 there would be two point three million jobs available in cybersecurity it’s a massive shortage and covid now has even you know taking that number higher. So we try it we realize of course that the only way that we can put a dent and try to have some type of impact is to educate people as much as we can to hopefully you know bring about some change in the way that they you know they go about their day-to-day interaction with technology. And that that’s the crux of the issue with with cybersecurity and with the number of data breaches that we see out there. Is people are too trusting of Technology it becomes second nature.

They don’t show it love and over time, Of course, they hackers are sitting there saying hey, if you’re not going to show it the love we’re going to show it the love of we’re going to get in there. Right? So yes, we do use speaking engagements a lot, to to you know position ourselves in front of prospects. It’s a lot about bringing them through a very quick but effective way of understanding the different things that they should be looking for with regards to cybersecurity. things that they can do right away to Improve their security posture and to keep themselves safe and hopefully not become a victim of cyber crime. you know at the end of the day and I’m sure that everybody has heard this is not a matter if you will ever become a victim. It’s when you become a victim.

But you know, I share a story a lot Joe when I tell people I’m a licensed pilot. When you’re doing Flight Training, you know, there are a lot of different exercises you go through and one of which is how to recover the aircraft from a stalled engine or how to recover from something called spatial disorientation where you have no visibility. And so that’s something that you know, we go through and we practice over and over and over and the purpose of that is so that becomes second nature and be goes into muscle memory so that when that incident happens we know exactly what to do and we’re not at that point in time trying to come up with a plan. And this is this that’s the whole basis of our cybersecurity speaking engagements.

JP:
Okay, so now somebody contacts you, they hear you speak. Okay. Can you walk us through the beginning process of because I can tell you that I’ve heard people that never contact people like you because they’re afraid to hear the answers or they’re afraid of, you know, are you going to charge you for that initial conversation? Can you give us kind of a process of how you work with people?

RR:
Sure, so, you know first and foremost, you know. No, we go through a qualification process. look security is a very important topic. One of the first things I should say is that, you know, my initial discussion with with a prospect is a discovery call. and we typically do a 15 to 30 minute Discovery call there’s no cost for that. But it’s more for me to gauge, Hey, you know what you’ve expressed an interest. I want to see and make sure that we’re the right match for each other. because if I’m going to invest time and you I need to make sure that when I come to you with an issue. You’re taking this subject matter very very seriously.

JP:
Right

RR:
you know, unfortunately Joe what we what we see from time to time. Is that security as particularly as it relates to cybersecurity and it security gets relegated into the same realm as you know, the IT Help Desk guy or or you know, this is my IT guy he’s going to take care of everything. We don’t need to be at that level. I, I, I my position is being more to trusted advisor so that you know, we’re Going to take a look at things from a holistic level and when I come to you and I say for example, we have an issue here that you know that we’re not trying to upsell you. It is indeed a major issue. So there’s a discovery call. if we get past the discovery call we sit down and we take a look at mapping out what the next steps are. and then next steps are usually a security assessment. We need to take a carry out a security assessment of the environment to have an understanding of where all the vulnerabilities are? What can be exploited by attackers? And so we type we look at that true. They are, you know from the standpoint of you know, as much as we can Through The Eyes of an attacker. you take we establish a baseline.

We analyze the environment and then based on the findings we look at okay, what are the best practices where the issues? How do we marry up and we come together at that point with a long-term plan on okay. This is where you are. This is the what we call the Baseline for cyber security. And we align that to the National Institute of Standards and Technology cyber security framework, The Nest. Okay, this is the Baseline acceptable Baseline. This is where you’re at. This is the gap and this is the plan we’re going to take together to get you or what it will take to get you from this point to this point, you know, realizing of course that their constraints budget time, but then let’s prioritize and say, okay. Well if you have a laundry list of 25 deficiencies, maybe if we Knock off these seven first. We’ll put a major dent and increasing that that security posture.

JP:
That’s great. So before people can get to you, you know people are listening to this right now. And and okay now they want to get to you. However, would you mind imparting for the general public three tips on what they can do themselves right now prior to getting to you on things they can do to protect themselves with security?

RR:
Sure, Sure. Well, I will tell you look first and foremost. Let me start at the most basic level. passwords we We’re lazy, as humans. And we we tend to take the path of least resistance, right? So what do you mean that we have 400 or plus that’s the average online accounts that we are, you know, we’ve logged into at one point in time, but we’re using the same login and passwords across all these domains and I like to use the analogy of the front door of your house the front door of your house, If you have two locks on that door and the two locks open with the same key and you lose that key well guess what? The person finding that key now has access to your home. If you have a different key per lock now, the person may have found the one key, but they still need to find or get past the second lock so you can at least go to sleep at night knowing hey, you know what? I may have lost that key, but I got a second lock on there and it’s going to take them some time to get through. So first and foremost stop re using passwords and logins across all your accounts. use a password manager.

There are many of them out there, Dashlane.com offers a free one. There are several others out there. Installs on your phone, installs on your computer, your tablet. it synchronizes and embeds in your browser. That’s the second tip. I’m coming through in beds in your browser. And when you go to a website that your need to put in credentials, it will actually create a unique password for you encrypt it and store it. You don’t have to worry about reusing that password. Because at the end of the day Joe, I’m sure and I’ve been guilty of it. You know, we’ve used the name of our dog which is easy to find out on social media or mother’s name, you know school. We went to the favorite sports team. All of this information is so easy to find out. that’s number one. Number two stop using and it’s this is related to passwords. Stop storing passwords in that file within your browser because of an attacker gets into your computer and look the FBI shares with us. An attacker could actually infiltrate your system and sit in your network for six months at a time 179 days average is what the FBI reports without raising a red flag this mean they’re sitting there waiting to do something for 179 days.

During that time, they’re exfiltrating your data and copying your files and moving out your stuff and getting into your emails and trying to figure out how they can use your system to propagate their crimes. Okay. The first thing that I would do is a hacker as I would go for that browser file because I know You store all your passwords in there and if I get my hands on that I have access I have the keys to your kingdom. Okay, the third thing that I would tell you is when you’re signing up for accounts every time you sign up for an account. They always ask you for some questions so that they can prove that you are who you are and it’s almost like they all subscribe to this one. You know, she quit questions, right? Because they’re all the same your mother’s maiden name the mascot of your school, the high school you went to, what road you grew up on it. Et Cetera. folks if I was a hacker, it would be very easy for me to find out that information. I just need to go on their social media profile. If I don’t find it on your social media profile.

If you don’t have your school listed you probably are connected with someone else in your social media profiles that I can find out who which school you went to I can find your mother’s maiden name. I can find a street that you grew up on etcetera. So I always tell people if there’s one time in your life that you need to lie is on those questions. by one Robinson High School, you know choose something else. I went to you know, Johnny’s, you know Red Robin school, you know lie on those questions because it will make it a lot more difficult for somebody to social engineer you and take away take control of your life.

JP:
You know, that’s that’s incredible. I mean, you know, it’s true everything you’re saying. the passwords how people can find you you can’t hide anymore.

RR:
No

JP:
you know, that’s an awesome. You know, I I will have to say, you know, I’ve met a lot of cyber security people that are geeky and you’re not I mean you when you spoke that day, I’m looking around I’m going to this guy is got really great speaking skills. Who what we’re gonna do. Here is I want you we’re going to be transitioning over to the SMV site here in a second with your second interview. But before that I would like you to take this time to promote whatever you want to promote especially your company. I think people ought to have a discovery meeting with Roy. So right can you promote yourself and give them an idea on how they can connect with you

RR:
We’ll give a 15 to 30, Minute Discovery called you can book that with me and I’ll make it easy for you. You can send an email to RoyRichardson@Aurorainfotech.com. That’s one way to get them to me, the second thing and I’ll make it very easy for you as if you take out your phone right now. Send text the word secure, s e c u r e, as one word to 407 759 7997. you’ll get a text back and ask you for your name. It’ll get another text with your email and then we’ll send you a link to my calendar where you can actually book that Discovery call. and during that call will go through my checklist of the things you need to have in place. I’ll give you some advice and also run a free dark web scan to make sure that you don’t have any credential exposure and you know, give you tips on how you can protect yourself your organization your employees and their families. and keep you know, you’re you’re Realm safer. And lastly, of course is just give me a call at 407 995 6766, or you can find me on LinkedIn @ Roy J Richardson.

JP:
Thank you so much. We’re going to make that call. We’re going to get one of those complementary assessments and thank you so much, Roy. We’re going to be moving you over to the sell more virtually platform. Thanks for this first interview, and we’ll see you in a few minutes.

RR:
Appreciate you. Thank you.

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