Aviva Zacks of Safety Detective had the honor of interviewing Andrew Lassise, CEO of Ruch Tech Support. She asked him about his company’s focus on securing small accounting businesses.
Safety Detective: What was your cyber journey like?
Andrew Lassise: My cyber journey started when I was in middle school playing computer games and learning how to modify and change the games with skins, sprites, and other coding commands. I later went on to take programming classes in school and became familiar with VB, C++, and Java. As I moved to college, I got a job at the university doing tech support and worked my way up. Eventually, I moved to Florida and got a job working in IT support, was quickly promoted to escalation technician. As word spread in my network that I was very skilled with computers, I was later asked to join my first startup. While it was short-lived, I got a lot of first-hand experience in running the business. A few months after the start-up was out of business, I started Rush Tech Support and that was in 2014.
SD: What kinds of services does your company offer?
AL: Our company offers managed services to accountants and small businesses. Our primary focus has been on providing IT support to those who don’t necessarily understand what is going on behind the scenes, but know that they need to be protected. We help bridge the gap between wanting to have good protection and knowing that you have great protection.
SD: How do you stay ahead of your competition?
AL: We stay ahead by focusing on our niche, small accounting firms <10 employees. We have the SOP built out specifically for compliance from the IRS and FTC which most companies wouldn’t take the time to build out. It is over 300 pages of regulations and settings that can put anyone to sleep. So we made our standard set up compliant with that and can focus on helping a smaller market than saying just we are the best at IT for everyone. While our skills really do transcend every industry, we have really made a mark in the accounting space and specialized.
SD: What are the worst cyberthreats today?
AL: The worst cyberthreats happen at the employee level. Very few issues actually happen that don’t have some sort of mistake that happens from an employee who doesn’t know any better clicking on a phishing email or accidentally installing fake software. Couple that with the mentality many small businesses have of “it won’t happen to me” and it is a recipe for disaster. Then not having a proper backup can completely ruin a business forever.
SD: How will the COVID-19 pandemic change cybersecurity for the future?
AL: COVID-19 has placed much higher importance on WFH and employee devices. Before, it was easy to lock down one office front to back, but now we need to focus more on locking down that office with great security AND securing all of the devices that access every piece of the business. Phishing and hacking have gone up stantially since the pandemic started and it will only continue to increase.
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