Matthew Connor, Founder and CEO of CyberLynx, began his programming career at 12 while working for his father’s company as a coder. His passion led him to develop his own company, which focuses on offering premium IT services — specializing in protecting growing businesses from ransomware. CyberLynx, previously known as Your IT Department, continues to provide cybersecurity and professional IT and support services for expanding companies. Matthew is on a mission to assist business leaders in increasing their profitability using cutting-edge technology.
Matthew served in the US Army for 17 years as a human intelligence officer and received his bachelor’s in business administration and management from the University of Maryland Global Campus.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
[1:58] Matthew Connor discusses how CyberLynx provides comprehensive IT and cybersecurity services
[2:57] How CyberLynx evolved from a small IT business to a cybersecurity powerhouse
[5:58] The importance of efficient system design for effective cybersecurity
[10:55] Leadership skills and team-building strategies Matthew learned during his time in the army
[18:26] The value of having mentors and learning from others’ experiences
[21:30] What are the real dangers posed by hackers and how can modern security mitigate these threats?
[27:42] The difference between managing security for large organizations versus small businesses
[32:09] Matthew's early beginnings as a teenage software developer
In this episode…
The complexity of technology and the rising cyberattack threats can leave many businesses vulnerable if not well-managed. Managing a company when the stakes are high, especially in the ever-evolving world of cybersecurity, can be challenging. What key strategies can you employ to protect and streamline your business operations?
Matthew Conner, a US Army cybersecurity veteran, shares his journey from a young programmer at 13 to a seasoned leader in IT and cybersecurity. By integrating IT management and cybersecurity, he illustrates how he grew his company from a small IT department to a key player in managing IT and cybersecurity for larger companies. Matthew emphasizes the synergy between IT and cybersecurity, suggesting that efficient IT design enhances security measures. He illustrates how he employs a team approach to customer service, ensuring personalized and comprehensive support, highlighting the importance of understanding one's limits, and building a robust team to compensate for personal weaknesses.
In this episode of The Customer Wins, Richard Walker interviews Matthew Conner, Founder and CEO of CyberLynx, about navigating the complex landscape of IT and cybersecurity. Matthew discusses how CyberLynx provides comprehensive IT and cybersecurity services, the importance of efficient system design for effective cybersecurity, the dangers posed by hackers, how modern security can mitigate these threats, and how to manage security for large and small businesses.
Resources Mentioned in this episode
Quotable Moments:
"Efficiency stems from good design, and that applies through IT, cybersecurity, and company processes."
"The Army taught me people skills are more valuable than anything in business."
"Appreciation is highly underrated and underutilized in today's day and age."
"If you're not doing the right things in cybersecurity, you should be waking up in cold sweats."
"We are therapists first and technicians second; someone's stress should be important to you."
Action Steps:
Enhance cybersecurity awareness: People should prioritize educating themselves and their teams about the latest cybersecurity threats and best practices for mitigating potential risks before they become serious issues.
Implement robust IT and security designs: Poor IT design can lead to inefficiencies and vulnerabilities, so starting with a solid foundation ensures both effectiveness and security.
Foster continuous learning and adaptability: Staying informed about new technologies and methods can address the challenges posed by rapid advancements in the tech industry.
Develop strong leadership and team dynamics: Understanding your limitations and building a team that complements your strengths can lead to better decision-making and more effective problem-solving in business operations.
Prioritize customer experience and empathy: Focus on understanding and addressing customer concerns with empathy, treating technical support as both problem-solving and emotional support.
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Episode Transcript:
Intro 0:02
Welcome to The Customer Wins podcast where business leaders discuss their secrets and techniques for helping their customers succeed and in turn grow their business.
Richard Walker 0:16
Hi, I'm Rich Walker, the host of The Customer Wins where I talk to business leaders about how they help their customers win, and how their focus on customer experience leads to growth. Some of my past guests have included Richard Walton of Outsell, Kate Guillen at Simplicity Ops, and Robert Sofia at Snappy Kraken. Today, I'm excited to speak with Matthew Connor, founder and CEO of CyberLynx. And today's episode is brought to you by Quik!, the leader in enterprise forms processing. When your business relies upon processing forms, don't waste your team's valuable time manually reviewing the forms, instead, get Quik!. Using our Form Xtract API, simply submit your completed forms and get back clean context-rich data that reduces manual reviews to only one out of 1000 submissions. Visit quikforms.com to get started.
So Matthew Connor is a US Army cybersecurity veteran who started programming professionally at age 13. We're going to talk about that. He's fluent in multiple languages, including Spanish and Mandarin Chinese. While working in army intelligence with a top secret security clearance, he applied his knowledge of tech to enhance intelligence operations. He combined his love for technology and business to create your IT department, helping businesses become more efficient and profitable through the better use of the right technology. Matthew, welcome to The Customer Wins.
Matthew Connor 1:40
Thanks Rich, thanks for having me.
Richard Walker 1:42
Oh, my pleasure. I'm excited to talk to you. So if you haven't heard this podcast before, I talked with business leaders about what they're doing to help their customers win, how they built and deliver a great customer experience, and the challenges to growing their own company. Matthew, let's understand your business a little better. How does your company help people?
Matthew Connor 1:58
Yeah, so CyberLynx, we are an IT and cybersecurity company. So specifically we focus on providing managed IT and cybersecurity, which basically means we do everything for you, everything on the IT side, from that help desk all the way up to a virtual CIO, and then on the cybersecurity side, it's everything from we've got a 24/7 security operations center where we've got technicians who are constantly monitoring everything that's going on in your cloud accounts, your computers, your networks, to see if there's any sign of intrusion or attack or, something's just not right. We do pen test just, you name it. We do kind of it's a one-stop shop for all things IT and cyber security. So that's what we do.
Richard Walker 1:59
So it sounds like you have two sides of your business managing IT and managing and preventing security challenges, etc, right? Does one drive the other? Like, did you start with one and figure out I got to do the other?
Matthew Connor 2:57
Yeah, absolutely. In fact, one really did drive and still to this day, they now, they compliment each other. But we actually started out kind of 14 years ago as your IT department, in little old Lexington Virginia. And it really was kind of a mom and pop, kind of just salt of the earth, you know, if you haven't been to Lexington Virginia, it is a very much a kind of modern-day Mayberry. And I started an IT company there, because there was really nobody else in town helping all of the small businesses with their it needs some boom. Started that. Fast forward to today, and we are CyberLynx, we are much bigger, much better. We're doing cyber security stuff and now we take, instead of just the little one, two user places. Now, we're doing 1000, you know, plus-size companies on their IT and cyber security. So we've come a long way. And I think, yeah, it was originally driven by IT, and then by being in there, helping them with their IT.
There's a natural kind of relationship between IT and cybersecurity, because while you could handle cybersecurity independently, the two bleed over, and when you're managing both of them, it gives you greater flexibility, greater access, greater security. So it's just a lot faster when something does happen, if you're also managing the IT, when something happens on the security end, you can take action right away, whereas for those clients where they have, say, in-house it and we're managing their cyber security, then we work with them, and they're still fast. Don't get me wrong, it's just that there's, when it's in-house, there's kind of that, those synergies there.
And in terms of driving business, yeah, it works kind of both ways now, the cybersecurity clients, when there's a need and a natural fit, whether it's to manage a company's IT, or do what we call a co-manage, where they have in house IT, but maybe just on the like help desk side, and then they need help with the more advanced stuff. Then we can help them there, or they need help with, let's say, they're growing, and they could use a CIO, but they're not cheap, and so having that fractional access becomes a really great way to kind of get those benefits. But now just hourly when you need it, versus paying somebody a handsome salary to be a CIO.
Richard Walker 5:27
So you can validate something for me, or you can refute it, because I might just be naive and ignorant, because I'm not the cybersecurity expert. So I have a saying in my company. My company is named, actually efficient technology, Inc. So this comes from that, and the saying is, efficiency stems from good design. And I kind of think of this, IT and security thing as the IT is the good design so that cybersecurity works more effectively and more efficiently, versus trying to patch it like a band aid on top of bad design. How do you feel about that?
Matthew Connor 5:58
100% agree. And it goes, I think on the IT side, you can really apply that. I mean, that's a beautiful saying, because if you have a poor design, it doesn't matter what happens, everything is going to be less efficient and not to beat up windows. But, I mean, you can take that whole Windows versus Linux, Windows versus Mac scenario and I think it's pretty well established that the Windows operating system has a less efficient design than a Mac or Linux. And so in that regard, you get things are a little sloppier. They are a little more challenging to secure. They become, don't get me wrong, it's a great platform, and everything's great, but now we're splitting hairs here and on the Mac side and the Linux side, just based off of their fundamental difference in design, it is more efficient in terms of security. Might not be the best thing for it's certainly not a you know the right tool for every job and Windows is not the right tool for every job, either, but great platform, not beating them up. But to your point, that's a really great, great saying, and I think it applies through and through on IT, on cyber security, on your processes as a company.
If you don't have good process, if you haven't designed your systems and process as well. Then it always struck me as funny, because with other IT companies, they're always looking to grow, grow, grow, grow. And in today's day and age, there's a lot of private equity money coming into the space, gobbling up these managed service companies, because generally they have very long-standing relationships with their clients, once you get in and you're providing a good service, they are happy. Everything works, and they stay there for years. I mean, we have our very first client from 14 years ago, even though we're month to month with all of our contracts, all of our clients stay for the duration. Now, interestingly enough, though, you get this private equity money that comes in and they want to gobble up all these MSPs, squeeze them together, because they've got all this monthly recurring revenue. And it makes sense from a private equity standpoint. What doesn't work well is the systems, when you squeeze all this in, put yourself in the customer's perspective, we just got a new client, a nominal group frame. They're a very cool kind of software platform company, phenomenal people.
They had a smaller MSP that was helping them out. They got gobbled up by a larger one that was equity back, and the service went to crap everything, it just was not even close to the same anymore, because they weren't getting that customer care that they were so used to and so then they, they brought us in, and our model is designed, at the smallest level, to be this team focus. We, not much like, like Amazon, we were from our very first days, when you're, you will take anybody because you're, we started the company with all of $200 and a dream, and every customer experience mattered. And so you ensured that you went the extra mile, that they were happy, that everything worked out well. And we built based on that, and we keep this small team structure so that all of our clients, they get that small MSP kind of feel with even though they're getting the support they need on many levels. So instead of going an IT company that maybe has one person and it's a one-man shop, like I was when we started you get now all of that with the benefit.
By designing it efficiently, you can have kind of the best of both worlds. So we've always kind of taken that approach, and I think that falls apart. I've seen tons of my peers that I've met through the years, just kind of they want to grow. And I'm like, you can't grow your stuff is all inefficient. If you do that, you're just growing your headaches. No thanks. I have headaches. I want them all squared away, everything very smooth, and then we can grow. So people do that all the time. I'm like, You're letting greed dictate. And that's not the path to success, that's a path to more headaches.
Richard Walker 10:22
It is. I'm glad you're talking about it from the standpoint, because I think a lot of companies go through this growth. Maybe as a founder, you're the only salesperson, therefore the only account manager. Then you need to hire account managers and the customer's like, but I want to talk to you, and how do you keep that personal service? So this team approach, I think is a really smart thing to do, because you're telling them it's not just one person, it's a whole team that's going that's going to help you. But I'm kind of curious, because your background in the army, and I haven't really talked to people who come out of the army and build such amazing careers like you're doing, did you learn that there is this something you brought from there?
Matthew Connor 10:55
No. In fact, you know what? It's funny. So my dad recently passed away, and he was the, you know how Edison had 10,000 ways to not make a light bulb. My dad was 10,000 ways to not succeed, kind of in things, right? So he was a great example of what not to do. Love him to death, great guy, but he wasn't a good businessman. So growing up, he always had these ideas, always, we didn't do well growing up, because he just wasn't a great businessman. And one of the things that he didn't do well was he didn't partner well with other people, right? So he always, he very smart guy, but figured he could think his way through anything, yeah, with enough time. I mean, we see computers can do that. They can iterate through and get, you know, very great results. But we have a finite amount of time on the planet, whether it's five more minutes before my heart gives out, or 50 more years, I don't know, right? And so you can't iterate 10,000 times your company to get it right. So you have to start learning.
And one, learning very rapidly from your own mistakes, learning from other people, learning from books, learn. And I think the biggest thing is bringing on good help and partnering with people under one, just understanding your own weaknesses, like where you're not strong. Because I think that getting your ego out of the way, and being like, I'm not good at that, and that's okay. You don't have to be Superman in everything. In fact, you're probably not Superman in even one thing, right? So that's okay, and just kind of acknowledging that. And so coming out of the Army, no, you don't learn that in the army. I was lucky, because while I was in the army, I got to go to the University of Maryland. And through their they've got this really great now, that's called their Global Campus. But back then, when I was it was stationed to Japan, that was my first time to actually get to go to school while I was in the army. And so, really worked extra hard there.
I mean, I was taking a double load of college while working 60 hours a week in the army. And then that was right around September 11, happened. It was just crazy. I don't think I slept for about four years out there. But the interesting part was going there and having, kind of getting that formal business education, even though it was kind of online and it was definitely not a Harvard MBA, but it's where I started to really kind of appreciate the difference between the way dad never really got it right, kind of the by the book thing in terms of business and how they should be run, and learning lessons there. So I had a lot of great, great professors who kind of helped there and gave lots of good advice. And then you start learning from books. And just, it's a constant evolution of learning. And kind of learning from your own mistakes, learning online, learning from and so, no, definitely not an army thing, but...
Richard Walker 14:00
So you can learn it from the army, but you learned it while you're in the army.
Matthew Connor 14:04
Kind of indirectly, yeah, the army did lead, you know, provide a lot of great there was a lot of great, I guess, learnings, we'd say nowadays, bringing a lot of great lessons learned from the army that are applicable, like in leadership data, you do things like, never ask somebody to do something you're not willing to do, right? So, and always being out front and leading the way, and so it was easy, kind of taking that mindset, you know, from the infantry division, where you're always, you eat last, but you're leading the way, and you're kind of working from that, that perspective in terms of leadership, I think that was really easy and natural starting a business and kind of taking on everything and leading the way, even as you bring people on. I think that was, I think the army did make that very natural. And there were a lot of great lessons in terms of leadership and also, I think in terms of team building that I got from the army that didn't, you don't really get from a book. I think that's one of those things you kind of have to experience and learn.
The army was actually really good in other ways too, because I was a human intelligence collector, which is a fancy term for an interrogator, while I was in there as well. And so we had, we'd learned all kinds of really cool things from the British. They had paid, these psychologists, this a cool story, though, to learn how we process thoughts and the physical reactions to lies and creating stuff. And so there's this whole field called behavioral symptoms analysis. And so we study this, and we learned all kinds of really great tricks about how to interact with people, not just interrogate them, but to understand and kind of work with them. And so it's paid off, I think hugely for me, in that I was this young, 18-year-old gung ho kid jumping out of airplanes, and was just wanted to be an Airborne Ranger, but they had the army had different ideas for me. They're like, eh, I think we could use you in other places. And so what was really interesting was going from that gung ho kid to a much more, I guess, informed person who could interact with people better and that was the one thing it taught me, and that the people skills were more valuable than anything when it came to business.
And I think that applies to the customer experience, whether it's and I tell all of our people, that we're you, we are therapists first, and then technicians second. So, somebody calls up and they're stressed out. It may be a simple thing, and it may be, seems silly, but it's important to them, and so it should be important to you, and you got to talk them off the ledge and then fix their problem. It doesn't matter if you fix their problem instantly, they may still be fuming. You got to have that kind of bedside manner, if you will, to go through that.
Richard Walker 16:58
I hadn't thought about that, Matthew, because you're right. Most of your customers, they're probably calling you under stress. And technology has a way of making people stressed out faster than most other things do, save maybe working in the ER when tech goes down there, forget it. My wife's an ER nurse. This is why I know this. But I hadn't thought about that. And in financial planning, that I felt like as a financial planner, part of my job, if not 90% was psychologist, therapist, and being there for people, because, hey, the market's crashing, or I didn't get in on time, or I don't know how to pay for college or whatever it was, and it's really about being there for the person to go through that process and then helping them solve the problem. You're right pushing a button and fixing the problem's not enough. And you know what, I think we do that in our own company too. We solve a problem for a customer that isn't good enough. They want to know what happened.
They want to hear about it. They want it sometimes. Look I've had several CIOs called me just to tell me they want to hear what happened, even though it's all written up already, it's already resolved. They want to hear it from me. So I get that. I want to go back to something else you said, which is about your dad, because I've learned you have to learn both sides of the story to be really good at something, right? You can't have the ultimate happiness if you haven't had the ultimate sadness. And what you kind of described was your dad. I don't know if you saw it this way, but it sounds like he was somewhat of a mentor, in a way of showing you all the things not to do so you could start doing the things that are better. It sounds like you have the right outlook like that.
Matthew Connor 18:26
Yeah. I mean, and I didn't see it that way growing up. And it was one of the things I learned in the army. It was one of the kind of the first lessons you hear is they're trying to groom the younger soldiers is that you're going to have lots of you're going to see lots of different leadership styles. You're going to have lots of different leaders, and you should be taking from each of them, things that you think are good, and things that you think are bad. You know, don't do and it's easy to make those mistakes, but always be looking and observing and learning from those around you. And it wasn't until then that I really and kind of, as I grew up and I looked at it, those were all the things not to do that, I wouldn't want to be that kind of husband, I wouldn't want to be that kind of, you know, entrepreneur. I wouldn't want to necessarily be that kind of father. And so how do I do that? And it was great. It's not bad. I mean, the guy wasn't a he wasn't abusive, don't get me wrong, right?
There was no, no horrible thing. It was just learning that, oh, those are all the things that I wouldn't do, and I don't think and I don't want that outcome. And so how do I go about that and actually appreciating that aspect? I think a lot of time, I think appreciation is highly underrated and underutilized in today's day and age. I mean, we live nearly like gods. I'd say kings, but kings that have never lived this, this good. We almost live like gods. We push a button and stuff just shows up immediately. Nobody's even got a sweat, like, not everybody's got a sweat, you know, you don't. We don't want for anything really. We live on this very high level of existence now and yet, people act like it's the end of the world when there's a problem, you know, with I don't know, they're arguing over something in Excel, who cares? Yes, it's a problem, and you'll work it out. But I think going back to the army, once you've actually been shot at, it helps put things in perspective.
Nobody's dying here. It's okay not to say it's not important, but it's not life and death, so let's keep it in perspective, and then let's appreciate the fact that this isn't life and death. And let's appreciate, all these great things and so, yeah, I'm a huge proponent of appreciation, and I think that makes all the difference in business and in your personal life. I don't understand people who aren't like we're we all have this even the poor people in this country have it so much better than the middle class had it 100 years ago.
Richard Walker 21:12
Yeah the majority of people through history, frankly, exactly. So, you actually helped me come to another question I wanted to ask you. So it's not life and death things that are happening, but come on, cyber is scary. How scary is it really? What's the inside scoop on cyber right now?
Matthew Connor 21:30
Oh, yeah, so the reality is, it's super scary because the they have access. They have greater access to more now than ever before. So on the one hand, if you're not doing the right things, it's terrifying.
Richard Walker 21:56
Sorry. You said they hackers.
Matthew Connor 21:58
Hackers, yeah, bad actors, yeah. So hackers have more ability to take, you know, almost unlimited amounts of money from, from trading accounts, from bank accounts. They're so much better now in terms of that, well, thanks to AI, you know, partially, I mean, they've kind of leveled up as well. And that's okay, because on the other side of that battle, we've leveled up as well. So the battle is being fought at a much higher level now than it was even five years ago, let alone 10 years ago. And so I think the reality is, it is very reassuring and it can be very, very safe now versus how it used to be, and as long as you're doing the right things now, there's so much that we can put in place that we just didn't have before. You couldn't monitor. Let's just take something as simple as your email account. So a business email compromise happens when somebody gets access to somebody else's email. It's so a hacker has gotten access to an email account, and they will sit there for days, weeks, even months. We've seen them.
It's sitting in there as long as years, waiting for you to enter into an exchange where money is being sent. And once they say, oh, send the wire to here, right? They then send it back and say, oh, sorry, use this account instead. And every single day, it's hundreds of 1000s, and sometimes millions of dollars in wires that get misdirected to a hacker, and that money is gone, they take it out. And the messed up part is the authorities don't even, they really don't even raise, there's nothing they do about it. They it's they do not get. You would think that the FBI would go into that local branch. They'd lock everything down. People would go to jail, nothing. Then they've had rings. It takes them forever to bust up a small ring, a local ring that's doing it at local banks, and it takes them forever. So you're out the money, and then it raises the legal question of who is liable for that money. I sent it in good faith that that was you. It was your email address. You provided the service, I provided that somebody stole it, but I've already spent the money paying you.
You didn't get the money. Who pays for this, right? And so at the end of the day, it's pretty bad, right? It's never a win, except for the hacker who stolen the money. And that's just one of many examples, but we now have such an easy time monitoring that and stopping that. Whereas they're in there for months, it takes us minutes, at most, hours, to identify and kick them out long before they can do any damage.
Richard Walker 24:58
You're not stopping the transaction. You're stopping before it even gets to a transaction.
Matthew Connor 25:01
Oh, way before we stopped the access. Yeah. So we were never able to do anything like that in years past. And that was the real, that was the real scary part. So rewinding 10 years ago, even six, seven years ago, it was really, it was always kind of, I wouldn't say terrifying, but it was stressful when anything would happen with a client. You never knew when, when they were going, you're going to get a call that that there was problem. Like the, all of their computers were, there was a virus on all their machines, and they couldn't work, right? Oh, crap, I know you got to go clean that up. They had antivirus, but it didn't work, right? And somehow this new virus hit them. Okay? We didn't have the technology to fight on that level. We do now, you never knew when if backups that were set on their server were actually working, and so it was terrifying when a client-server would go down, and you hope that the backup that was set years ago is still working, and then you find out it's not.
Now you've got to jump through incredible hoops to try to recover the data. Their whole business is very stressful stuff. Now all of those problems are solved. We now work at such a high level. On the security side, there's no reason to be worried, as long as you've got the supervision that you need, having all of your things monitored and now using great endpoint detection response. So we use AI even to be monitoring the computer, to be like, hey, look, that Carbonite backup is deleting stuff. That's probably not right. Let me stop that. And you know what? Most of the time it should be deleting, because it was an old backup and it was freeing up the space. But it's nice that it stopped it, and then was like, hey, you know what, I was just checking, and it's great that we could then say, no, no, that was the right thing for it to delete.
Yet, if a hacker gets into the carbonates code right at a supply chain, and they, they put their code in there, and we've seen this happen in other instances, now their malicious code is being pushed out into, you know, trusted code, and now they can do whatever they want. We've seen this in security products. So you need to have security products that can monitor and say, oh, wait, I know you say you come from the good place, but you're doing messed up stuff. I'm going to stop you and ask a grown-up if this is right. Now we finally have that technology?
Richard Walker 27:16
Did you just say you need security products to monitor your security products? Yes, you do. I love, I love how you present with so much confidence about this. Because I think to most of us, we're like, it's a big fear. It's a big risk. Because how many times you hear about ransomware? The hospital my wife works at was down for like, three weeks because of ransomware. But are you saying that if you do this right, ransomware is not much of a threat after all?
Matthew Connor 27:42
100%, and the problem with hospital will go directly into hospitals. The problem with hospitals is how they've got a few things. One is they have an attack surface that is, that is really broad, because these devices that then get connected that seem like dumb devices that just feed into the like the EMR, the electronic medical record system, those, but nobody's monitoring that, and so that's a great way to hack in. And so that's one part of their problem, the biggest part of their problem, and the reason they keep getting hit so heavily is it's the human side of management. The way they go about securing their stuff, their process of analyzing and implementing security solutions is their problem. So they'll get they have you go to any hospital, and this is why we don't play with them there.
They have so many different products that they've been, they've been sold and pieced together because somebody who, who didn't really know it's, it's like, if you got, I don't know, let's say you've gotten, let's say you got your pilot's license for a little Cessna prop plane. Great. And then, but everybody's like, look, we need the best plane, okay? And so they go out and they, they get you a, I don't know, a golf stream, great. Now you got a gulf stream. Well, you don't know how to fly that, and now you've placed that in there. Is it a problem with the golf No, the golf stream is great, but you now don't have the expertise to be able to use it, so they do multiple of these, and these things aren't working together, then they're working not only it's not like they're just like one small company with one headquarters, either, they've now gobbled up, and they're regional, and so they're all over the place, and they partners, and so it becomes a real mess. And it's a problem on this so hospitals.
Richard Walker 27:42
I think because hospitals have a lot of different types of technologies at play, MRI machines and patient records and intake and scanners, all these different things. So the more complex you make your system by piecing it together, the harder it is to manage from a security standpoint, is kind of what I'm gathering.
Matthew Connor 30:03
Yes and no. So in that, if we were to take a hospital and we just apply the basic standards, we put in, you've got Sentinel one going, you've got your firewall, you know, set properly. You've got great security operations that are monitoring all the activity you're good. It's kind of like, let's say I don't know, a simple virus, if you don't have antivirus on your computer, that simple virus is going to do its job, right? And so to compound this problem with hospitals, they've paid out and they've shown people that they've made themselves a bigger target, on top of the fact that they...
Richard Walker 30:54
They've paid the ransoms.
Matthew Connor 30:55
They've paid the ransoms, making themselves a big juicy target. And so now not only do they not have the best security and the best management of that security, but on top of that, they become a larger, more attractive target that is known to pay out. And so it's a real problem for a small business. So if you were to do they've created a real problem for themselves, small business, medium business, totally different. Those are very defensible.
There you can have in you can have great security that keeps you protected and great oversight. And it's a far simpler, better design hospitals, it's an unfortunate situation that that's created. I don't know how they undo it, other than to really that you've got to work on that management level and clean stuff up and streamline your security products, instead of being like, we've got all the best products, yeah, but they don't even work together. They may be the best.
Richard Walker 31:55
People are a key ingredient in most everything that you do, man, we're running out of time. And I actually said I wanted to ask you about being a professional software developer at age 13. So real fast, were you paid to do software development at age 13?
Matthew Connor 32:09
Yeah, so my dad brought home my first computer. He designed electronic circuit boards, and so he would design these boards, and he'd have these companies he's working with and he brought home his first computer, the old IBM 8088, and really was a VIC 20 and the Commodore 64 but then the first real one was the IBM 8088, and it boots into basic. And so they came with a manual, and I started programming basic. And so I wrote like a program. My brothers were always borrowing money from me. So I wrote this program to basically ATMs had just come out.
And so I created this ATM machine where they could go in, put in their pin, put how much money they wanted to borrow, and it would print out their payback schedule and how much it was going to cost them. And in any event, my dad saw this and he was like, hey, I've got this. You know, we're working with this company, and they need this. Can you do that? Like, yeah, I can do that. And so that was my first paying gig. And then I spent my nights and weekends in junior high and high school, working for these different companies, writing code.
Richard Walker 33:13
That's so cool. I love it. Um, look, we, I have one more good question for you, but a simple one first, what's the best way for people to find and connect with you.
Matthew Connor 33:23
Well, I'd say cyberlynx.com, LinkedIn, as well. Matthew Connor or CyberLynx and, yeah. And there's also the cyber business podcast. You can find us there. We, we have lots of great episodes. And, yeah, great way to great way to find me
Richard Walker 33:42
Awesome. All right, so here's my last question, who has had the biggest impact on your leadership style and how you approach your role today?
Matthew Connor 33:50
Ooh, that's a good one. Biggest impact on my leadership style. You know what I would say it was definitely the army. And there's a number of great, great guys who were a part of that, and so I couldn't put, put it down to just one. They've been great. But I'm gonna get-go with the good old US Army. They've had the greatest impact.
Richard Walker 34:15
Nice. That is awesome. Well, I want to give a big thank you to Matthew Connor, founder and CEO of CyberLynx, for being on this episode of The Customer Wins. Go check out Matthew's website at cyberlynx.com, and don't forget to check out Quik! at quikforms.com where we make processing forms easy. I hope you enjoyed this discussion, will click the Like button. Share this with someone and subscribe to our channels for future episodes of The Customer Wins. Matthew, thank you so much for joining me today.
Matthew Connor 34:44
Thanks for having me Rich.
Outro 34:46
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