Protection
How do you pick security products?
By the gap, not the price. We vet the vendor on certifications, hiring and ownership, work out where each product falls short, and choose the next tool so it covers that gap.
Answered by Nate Weigel, Protection Director
Every product has a gap
There is no security tool that covers everything, and any vendor who says otherwise is selling. Endpoint protection misses what happens in a browser session. Email filtering misses the text message. Backup does nothing if the backup is on the same network as the ransomware. The question is not whether a gap exists; it is whether your IT company knows where it is and what it would do to your business.
Vet the vendor first
Before a product goes into a client's environment we look at the company behind it. Which security certifications they hold. How they hire, because their staff will have access to the tool that has access to you. Who owns them, because a vendor bought by a venture fund with an exit date behaves differently from one that intends to be around in ten years. The cheapest option to tick a box on a proposal rarely passes this.
Make the tools cover each other
Once we know each product's weakness, we choose the next one so its strength sits over that weakness. Conditional access covers the stolen password that multi-factor alone lets through. An immutable off-network backup covers the day the endpoint tool loses. Monitoring covers the gap between an alert and a person. The result is a set of tools that behaves like one system, with the gaps as narrow as we can make them.
Keep checking
Attacks change faster now, and AI is making them cheaper to build. A team here watches what the attackers are doing and re-checks the stack against it, so a product that was right two years ago gets replaced when it stops being right, before you find out the hard way.
Where we did this
A backup that has never been restored is a hope, not a plan. Ask for the date of the last tested restore.
What to actually test TechnologyMulti-factor on email but not on the remote gateway is a locked front door with the back door open. Do all of them.
Multi-factor everywherePeople also ask
How warm is too warm for our server room?
Equipment is designed for roughly 18 to 27 degrees Celsius, 64 to 81 Fahrenheit, measured at the front where it draws air in. The number that matters is not the one on a Tuesday afternoon; it is the one at 2am on a Sunday.
The full answerWhere should our server actually live?
In a space with airflow, stable power, no water above it and a door that locks. Heat is the most common environmental killer of business equipment, and the room that is fine in March is a different room in July.
The full answerWhat is a server room reorganization, and is it worth paying for?
It is making the room possible to reason about: inventory, cable management, labelling at both ends, documentation, power and airflow. It turns a two-hour outage into a twenty-minute one, and it is far cheaper scheduled than done in an emergency.
The full answer
"Such a speedy response to my emergency. Thank you Midwest IT. Your company always exceeds my expectations."
Client, 2024 surveyMore from the survey wall- A technician who knows your setup takes every request. Not a dispatcher, not a queue.
- Every closed ticket is surveyed and a partner reads every response.
- 99.5% of surveys come back positive.
- Family-owned since 2005. 21 years in the same corner of Wisconsin, not going anywhere.
"Another great job by Midwest IT. Our company just loves your fast response to our issues."
Client, 2024 surveyWant to know where your gaps are?
Ask for a review of what you already have. We will tell you honestly.
Talk to a partnerTalk to a partner, not a sales script.
Tell us what is going on. A partner will call you back the same business day, look at what you have, and tell you honestly whether we are the right fit. No pricing pressure, no pitch deck.