212. “Small Business Cybersecurity” with George Bakalov

Dawn Kennedy talks with George Bakalov, a cybersecurity professional and virtual CISO, and founder of Executive Solutions USA. They talk about small business “information security,” emphasizing that risk extends beyond phishing to protecting all business assets, reputation, and expanding attack surfaces across devices, cloud, and email. George explains common scenarios such as criminals hijacking domains or infrastructure to run malicious campaigns, identity-based attacks that compromise user accounts to access third-party systems, and the high recurrence rate of breaches. He recommends requesting vendor security certifications, using company-wide password managers, enabling multi-factor authentication, and running measurable employee awareness training since most attacks use email. He stresses starting with a security assessment, asset inventory, and prioritized risk-reduction plan, noting cyber insurance is increasingly standard and AI is already enabling more sophisticated attacks.

In this episode….

Who is George Bakalov, and whom does he serve? (00:57)

What InfoSec Covers (02:11)

Universal Business Risk (04:13)

Real Breach Stories (07:24)

Third Parties and Identity (11:03)

Password Manager Basics (14:07)

MFA and Training (17:59)

Too Many Security Tools (21:42)

Incident Response Planning (25:03)

AI and Future Threats (29:35)

Where to Find George (32:52)

Final Takeaways (34:66)

George Bakalov's Information:

Website: https://executivesolutions.us/

10% off for initial security assessment with coupon: DAWN10

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgebakalov/