August 2, 2022

Episode 15: Jeff Chandler – Cybersecurity & How Small Businesses Can Protect Their Data and Reputation from Cybercriminals

Summary

Founder and CEO of Z-JAK Technologies, Jeff Chandler joins the show to share his over thirty- five years of experience as a developer, systems architect, and consultant. Jeff is also an expert in cybersecurity, serving previously as Chief Technology Officer for Jefferson National Financial. Jeff was part of the startup team that built that company and, most recently, Jeff authored the book Hacked .

Today, Jeff talks all about cybersecurity, ransomware and best practices small businesses can implement to make themselves a ‘hard target.’ Jeff shares his own entrepreneurial journey, including advice he would give to other aspiring founders.

Key Takeaways

01:09 – Jeff introduces today’s guest, Jeff Chandler, who joins the show to discuss his background in technology, cybersecurity and consulting
14:37 – Cybersecurity, ransomware and how small businesses can combat these risks
16:46 – Best practices for making yourself a ‘hard target’
21:32 – Jeff Chandler shares his thoughts on the future of technology and how it will impact businesses
23:30 – The evolution of the CTO role
26:45 – Advice Jeff Chandler would give to his younger self
32:40 – Jeff talks about the work he’s doing at Z-JAK Technologies
34:03 – Jeff thanks Jeff Chandler for joining the show and lets listeners know where to learn more about Z-JAK Technologies

Tweetable Quotes

“So, as they’re filling out the application and answering those questions about their health history and so on, in the background we’re making decisions in real time and tracking it as we go. And then we had an underwriter who we took all of her knowledge that we could, fed it into our rudimentary AI engine to make a decision. And this AI engine would even pull credit reports or motor vehicle report. If you weren’t a great driver, maybe you weren’t a great risk for buying life insurance.” (07:20) (Jeff Chandler)

“We found that building a brand new insurance company from scratch is really, really hard and takes a lot of money. We were constantly out fundraising and getting new capital investment. So, what we did was we ended up buying another insurance carrier.” (10:10) (Jeff Chandler)

“It’s not that they’re particularly targeting small businesses; they’re targeting everybody. But if a small business doesn’t do some of the best practices, like changing the password on a firewall or running the most current version of antivirus, those are the ones who pop out on these scans that they do.” (15:58) (Jeff Chandler)

“Ninety something percent of all the hacks happen because someone clicked a link they shouldn’t have. So, what can we do to help them recognize those links and what doesn’t look good.” (17:31) (Jeff Chandler)

“Again, it’s looking at what you can do with what you have. So, it’s taking the tools that you have and using those most effectively to grow your business.” (26:24) (Jeff Chandler)

“Done is better than perfect. Get something out there. Get some feedback and talk to people and see what you can do better. Just put it out there and take some chances.” (31:49) (Jeff Chandler)