How do you build out a sophisticated, enterprise-level cybersecurity posture when your mid-sized organization doesn’t even have a dedicated cybersecurity team, and even your vendors treat you like a small business? Turns out, the answer is pretty old school. It’s all about building the right relationships and setting the right priorities. 

Today we’re talking with Tom Knutson, the self-described jack-of-all-trades for a Wisconsin-based manufacturing firm. He’s going to walk us through how he leverages his team and his own diverse skill set to keep his company safe. 

For obvious reasons, financial institutions have always been a top target for cyberattacks, and almost one half of all cyberattacks target small and medium-sized businesses. So, it stands to reason that if you’re going to be in charge of security for a regional bank, you’ve really got to know your stuff.

Today we’re chatting with Tyler Morgan, Chief Security Officer for Farmers and Merchants Bank, a regional bank based in Arkansas. As the CSO with a small team, he has responsibility for fraud, vendor management, physical security, and cybersecurity. He spends his time both in the weeds with the technology and at the 30-thousand-foot level, segueing from day-to-day incident response issues to higher-level priorities like compliance and security frameworks.

Municipalities, including local, city, county, and state government have unique challenges when it comes to cybersecurity. Often reliant upon IT generalists to perform the security heavy lifting, municipalities rely on an abundance of tools, and people, to get the job done.

We interviewed the IT directors of two city municipalities in Texas and learned that for these organizations it comes down to people - it's about trust and relationship building, up and down the org chart. And in the end, the human element might make a bigger impact on security than shiny tools.