Vanguard Cyber

10/15/2026

Morgantown’s businesses are moving fast. Their IT should keep pace.

Between the research organizations, healthcare providers, professional services firms, contractors, and manufacturers across Monongalia County, there’s a lot of ambition in North Central West Virginia. As a business grows, its technology has to grow with it, or it quietly becomes the thing that slows everyone down.

Vanguard Cyber already supports clients in Morgantown with managed IT and cybersecurity, including an average time to a live technician of 3.5 minutes, 24/7 monitoring, and one flat monthly rate with no surprise invoices. We also support compliance requirements like PCI, WISP, and FTC Safeguards, and we work alongside internal IT teams that want a partner for the bigger projects.

If your technology is struggling to keep up with your business, give us a call at 888-989-0838. or visit https://www.vgcyber.com/morgantown-wv/

10/14/2026

In Sam's most recent talk, “Threat Vectors From the Trenches,” one idea kept coming back: most businesses aren’t compromised by one dramatic failure. They’re compromised by small gaps nobody was watching.

Here is the guidance Sam shared for closing them.

✅ Start from zero trust. Verify every user, device, and app, every time, and give each one only the access it needs. It takes effort to build, but it’s the model that holds up as threats change.

✅ Enforce your policies, don’t just enable them. Having a security feature available is not the same as having it required. Conditional access policies make sure the rules apply to everyone, every time.

✅ Harden the platforms you already pay for. Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace include strong protections, but the default settings aren’t enough. They need to be configured on purpose and monitored.

✅ Know who has access. Every vendor, contractor, and tool with admin access to your systems should be listed, reviewed regularly, and removed when no longer needed.

✅ Decide what runs on your computers. Don’t leave it to default. Approve what’s allowed and limit what approved software can do.

✅ Make verification a habit. Confirm any banking or payroll change with a callback to a number you already have, and involve a second person. A good process protects you even when someone is convincing.

✅ Be intentional about AI. AI can help your business compete, but know which tools your team is using and whether they’re company accounts or personal ones.

✅ Follow a framework. NIST CSF and CIS Controls give you a roadmap, and the same fixes tend to show up in every one. Nobody starts at 100 percent. Pick one and work through it.

A few questions worth asking this week:

1️⃣ When did we last review who has access to our systems?
2️⃣ Do we have a written process for verifying banking changes?
3️⃣ Which AI tools is our team using today?
4️⃣ Which security framework are we following?

You can’t fix everything at once, so start with the gaps that matter most. If you’d like help finding yours, call us at 888-989-0838.

10/13/2026

Tech Tip: Secure Your Smart Office Devices

Security cameras, the smart TV in the conference room, network printers and even smart thermostats all sit on your network. Most of them get plugged in and forgotten, still using the default password they came with.

Make a quick list of every connected device in the office. On each one, change the default admin password, turn on automatic updates if the device has that option, and unplug anything you no longer use. If your router allows it, put these devices on a separate network from the computers that handle company data.

Attackers look for the weakest device on a network, and it's rarely a laptop.

Want a second set of eyes on what's connected to your network? Give us a call at 888-989-0838.

10/12/2026

Most cyberattacks succeed because of something a business owner didn’t know to look for.

Our weekly cybersecurity briefing is written for the people running the business, not the IT department. Each edition takes less than five minutes to read and covers one topic in plain English: what’s happening with ransomware, the habits that put your team at risk, compliance changes that affect you, and the practical steps you can take without disrupting your operation.

It’s free, there’s no spam, and you can unsubscribe anytime.

Sign up here:

Weekly cybersecurity guidance written for business owners and operators, not IT professionals. Practical, plain-English insight that helps you make smarter decisions about protecting what you've built.

10/09/2026

“We’re too small to be a target.”
“Our team would spot a phishing email.”
“We’ll figure it out if something happens.”

We hear these from business owners all the time. All three are myths.

For Cybersecurity Awareness Month, we broke down six of them and what’s actually true:

October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, which makes it a good time to compare what you think you know about cybersecurity with what's actually true. A lot of advice has been repeated for so long...

10/08/2026

Q4 is when many businesses finalize next year’s budget, and IT often gets left until January.

Before the year ends, it’s worth taking stock of a few things: when your cyber insurance renews and whether your coverage matches what you actually have in place, which hardware and software are reaching end of life, and what projects you’d like to complete in 2027.

Going into the new year with a plan is a lot less stressful than reacting to problems as they come up. If you’d like a second set of eyes on your technology roadmap, we’re happy to help.

Reach out at 888-989-0838.

10/06/2026

Tech Tip: Use a Screen Privacy Filter in Public

Working from an airport, a coffee shop or a client's lobby means anyone sitting near you can read your screen. Client files, email and login pages are all in plain view, and you'd never know someone was looking.

A privacy filter is a thin screen cover that blacks out the view from the side, so only the person directly in front can see it. Most cost $20 to $50. Measure your screen corner to corner, order the matching size, and keep it in your laptop bag. If you don't have one with you, tilt the screen down and sit with your back to a wall.

No software setting can stop someone from reading over your shoulder. This is a cheap, simple fix for that.

Need help getting company laptops ready for travel? Give us a call at 888-989-0838.

10/05/2026

CPAs: the AI is already in your office. Here's how to use it and keep client data safe.

AI is now built into the tax and accounting software your firm uses every day, and your staff are already using tools like Claude, ChatGPT and Copilot. That's a huge productivity win. It's also a good reason to put some guardrails in place.

Our founder, Sam Vance, is speaking at Mind the Machine, hosted by the WVSCPA BIGC Committee, on November 5 in Huntington. His session is "The AI Is Already In Your Office: From Tax Software to ChatGPT, How to Use It Without Losing Control of Client Data."

Sam spent years running IT for a multi-location West Virginia accounting firm, so he knows what tax season pressure looks like. He'll cover:
🔐 How AI is changing the threats accounting firms face
🔍 What to watch for in the AI features inside tax and accounting software
📋 Practical policy and governance steps you can put in place now

He's joined by Barry Burgess, CPA and Chad Newell, CPA of Suttle & Stalnaker, PLLC.

📅 Thursday, November 5 | Check-in 12:30, sessions 1:00–4:00, reception 4:00–6:00
📍 Brad D. Smith Center for Business & Innovation, Rm. 315, Huntington
🎓 3.0 CPE hours | $29 WVSCPA members, $49 non-members

Seating is capped at 48, so register early:
https://www.wvscpa.org/cpe/231963km:mind-the-machine-part-3-presented-by-the-bigc-committee

10/03/2026

Day two of Charleston Zero Day, and Sam Vance just wrapped his talk, "Threat Vectors From the Trenches."

He shared real incidents from the field. Every one of them traced back to a gap that was easy to miss and expensive to ignore.

Five things Sam said every business should be doing:

1️⃣ Enforce Conditional Access Policies
2️⃣ Know every vendor and tool with admin access to your systems
3️⃣ Verify banking and payroll changes with a callback, never the
number on the email or caller ID
4️⃣ Harden your Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace tenant, don't
rely on default settings
5️⃣ Build toward zero trust, verify every user, device, and app, every
time

If your business isn't doing all five, that's not a reason to panic, it's a reason to call us. We'd rather help you close the gap now than help you clean up after someone else finds it first.

888-989-0838 | vgcyber.com

10/02/2026

Day one of Charleston Zero Day is in the books. Our team got to spend the day out of the office together, right in the shadow of the Capitol, talking shop with people across the cybersecurity world: SOC analysts, red team and blue team folks, and students just getting their start in the field.

One of our favorite sessions came from Digit3, who broke down Ohio's cybersecurity law for political subdivisions and what it's meant for local governments navigating real-world ransomware incidents. Always good to hear how other corners of this industry are tackling the same problems we see every day.

Up next for us: Sam Vance takes the stage tomorrow at 10 AM for "Threat Vectors From the Trenches." If you're in Charleston, come see us.