749 Join Uncle Marv at the Florida Man Games!

What is up, MSP? Uncle Marv here with another episode of the IT Business Podcast, the show for IT professionals. And we share stories, products, and tips in an effort to help you run your business better, smarter, and faster. This is the Wednesday live show.

You probably didn't think I was going to be here, did you? Well, I am. And it is going to be a jam-packed show. It's going to be a short show because I don't have a guest but got lots of news and a big old announcement, Florida man style, that will be coming up.

So you'll want to stay tuned. I think it is going to be something you want to pay attention to. I am going to let you know that there will not be a live show next Wednesday evening.

And that is true because for most of us, next week is Thanksgiving. So Wednesday night, the night before, eh, you guys probably won't watch. And the wife will probably want us to drive up and see my mom the night before.

But I won't be doing a live show that Wednesday night. However, I will be doing my Black Friday preview show. And I believe I have two on tap for next week.

One is already set and ready to go on Tuesday at 12 p.m. Eastern. I have one more that I'm trying to get scheduled. It's either going to be Monday or Wednesday at 12 noon.

And that, for those of you that do not know, is the show where we come on and talk about tech gadgets, some of them for business, some of them for the home. And we just kind of give you some ideas as to what you could either get yourselves or get friends and family for the holidays. Now, it is a little self-serving for me because one of the things that I would like to do is to have you guys make more of your purchases using my Amazon link.

That is a great way that you can help support the show without any sort of monthly commitment or signing up for anything. You just shop on Amazon as you normally do, click the link first, and then any purchases that you make will qualify me for a commission on the back end. Amazon takes care of it.

There is absolutely no change in the way that you shop. So that is one thing that I'm trying to do is to get you guys to do that a little bit more. So the Black Friday preview shows next week.

That will be followed the following Monday. We are going to be doing a Cyber Monday show. And that is significant because we've never done that before.

It is the first time we're doing it. And my good friend Erin Lawrence, the Tech Gadget Canada girl, will be coming onto the show. Many of you have loved her doing the Black Friday stuff with me.

She wasn't able to do it last year. This year I was able to get her to do a very special Monday show. And that will be the Monday after Thanksgiving, 12 noon.

And we're going to be doing it here live. Now I do want to say one thing about that. This will be the first year.

And I've been testing and playing and making sure it works. I will be streaming live just like I normally do here on YouTube, LinkedIn, and the Facebook. However, I'm going to be doing a live stream using Amazon Live.

And why do I tell you that? It is because Amazon Live is a platform specifically for Amazon that allows me to live stream the product information, put QR codes. I can have a carousel of products. There's a whole bunch of stuff that is doable within Amazon.

And then those feeds stay onto the Amazon. So probably in the future, as you're searching for items in Amazon, you might come across a video of something that we do. So this is the first time I'm doing it.

I'm hoping it goes well. So yes, I will be live streaming as normal. But I will probably be trying to push you to go check out the Amazon Live stream.

I want to see how it works. I want to see how you guys like it and see if I'll be doing more of that in the future. So those are the big things that are happening next week.

Now, you might be asking, Marv, why don't you have a guest tonight? You're done with all the conferences and life is getting somewhat back to normal. Well, yeah, it's getting there. It's not yet.

I had my first week without a conference, but had a lot of catch-up work to do, and had a lot of client stuff. And then this past weekend, if you have been paying attention to the Facebook, you would have seen that Mike Smith was here. He also brought Michael Smith Jr. with him.

Mike has a client here in Fort Lauderdale that he asked me to do some work with him on. And I helped him install a firewall, a managed switch, wireless access point. And I helped him do the network upgrade.

And he wanted me to be involved because obviously here in Fort Lauderdale, even when he's in Florida, he's in Tampa, he's still four and a half hours away. So he wanted me to be familiar with the network and be able to help them if needed. And so we did that.

They came down last Thursday, spent the night. And then Friday, while Mike and I went over and did some initial setup with the phones and stuff, Jr. stayed here in the office and did all of the prep for their server and their workstations. And so we actually got some use out of the space here.

Michael Jr. was able to do all of that and get everything set up. They didn't have to worry about lugging it all from Tampa or shipping it to the client and then trying to figure out how to do that. They had it shipped here.

And then when they came down, they set it all up and did all of that. So I hope that they enjoyed that. I hope that it worked out for them.

I've actually not talked with Mike since he left, except on the way home, there was a bit of a mix-up in the directions to get back to Tampa. Instead of getting off at one exit, he went right past it and probably added up 30 minutes or so to his trip. But so that's what happened this past weekend.

So I didn't have a lot of time. Frankly, I know I sent out one or two emails about getting a guest for tonight, but that didn't happen because of that, as well as the fact that I've also got two major projects of my own coming up that I had to prep for. One of them is a cyber awareness training that I'm doing for a client tomorrow.

I am buying them lunch. And it is a multi-office location. So I will be at the main office.

And then we're actually going to set up a Zoom meeting with the offices, the other office on the West Coast. And then there's a couple of remote workers. They will Zoom in while we do the cybersecurity awareness training.

So today, this afternoon, I actually set up to buy them lunch. And it was a bit of a challenge because normally I use a service that you know, just I can just go and order, you know, rather than trying to go straight to a particular restaurant or whatever, you know, trying to order everything from, you know, a pizza place or whatever. I use Easy Cater.

But Easy Cater does not have a way to do one order to multiple locations. And I spent some time trying to figure that out today where I was trying to find a platform or something. And I know that there was one that I saw in the past.

If any of you know of this, let me know. Because I spent my time looking and I could not find it. So I ended up doing individual orders for each of those offices.

And then I had one, two, three orders that were going to individuals at their homes as remote workers. And I had a heck of a time doing that because each of the restaurants had a minimum amount that needed to be ordered. In some cases, it was $50 that needed to be ordered in order to use the app.

And I actually had one order cancel. Even though it said it had a minimum of $25, I met the minimum, placed the order, they said it was good. And then about 45 minutes later, I get a call.

Hey, the order's been canceled. I asked for a reason; they didn't give one. I assume it was because the store was like, you know what, we're not going out of our way for this tiny order.

So I ended up just sending that person a Grubhub gift card. And that way they can order whatever they want and they still get lunch on me. So that's what I ended up doing.

But I really wanted to find that app where I could just order once and have it go to multiple locations, but that did not happen. So that is going to be happening tomorrow. I have, like I said, I'm going to set up a little Zoom session.

So I'll be there live for the people that are in the office. We're going to do videos on a TV that they've got in their little kitchen lounge. And then I will have my laptop set up with a camera and connect that to the TV so the remote users can also participate through the Zoom meeting.

And then they can see the videos as I put them up on the TV. I will have a second connection that will actually show the video. So that hopefully will work very well.

We'll find out tomorrow. And what type of stuff do you do for a cyber security awareness training, Marv? Well, basically I do what we would do in a normal meeting with a prospect when we're talking about adding on the cyber security features. We're going to actually show videos to the client.

Some of them are going to come through my Defendify platform that I use. Some of them I actually went on to the YouTube and pulled some stuff there. And I was looking through my notes here because I just did some very simple videos.

And I'm sure you guys can find these and you have them all on here. But I went with three easy ones. The first one is going to be, I believe the name is, Why Am I Hacking You? Because that is always one of the questions that small businesses are like, oh, there's no reason for me to be hacked.

I don't have any information. Yeah, it doesn't matter. So I've got that video.

And then there's going to be a video on phishing awareness. And the third video is going to be How Multi-Factor Can Save You. So those are going to be just the starter videos.

And then, of course, I'll go through and give some information on what we'll be doing. This customer already has ThreatLocker installed. So they're aware of that.

I don't know if everyone is aware of it because I don't think that the office administrator told them. And so I'm going to explain that to everybody. They also have some new people.

So that'll be great where I can explain ThreatLocker in full, explain to them why we have it, and why we're moving to what we call the zero trust network mentality, and help them understand that. We're also, this is a customer that we just got them upgraded finally to 365 Business Premium. So they are all going to have multi-factor authentication turned on for their email.

They're already using TruGrid for secure remote access. So they're good there. And we're going to be adding some other things for some internal vulnerability scanning, some additional patching where we can check CVEs and all those sorts of things.

So that is what I'm doing with my cybersecurity awareness training tomorrow. Speaking of, there was some news that I read today. So, you know, I don't try to be a news station for you guys, but of course, I do monitor the news and anything big I'll either talk about or whatever.

But I got one of the press releases that came through and it talked about Cujo AI. And I had never heard of Cujo AI. So if any of you had, I'd like to know, maybe I'd like to reach out to them.

But they put out a press release. Basically, it was a report. So Cujo AI, the leader in AI powered cybersecurity and network intelligence for network service providers, today released the annual cybersecurity report 2024, Phishing Threats to Consumers on Home Networks.

So that's probably one of the reasons that we don't know about it. But in the report, I found it interesting that they made a comment that their AI product reported blocking over 3.23 billion cyber threats in the past six months, averaging 12,473 threats per minute. And of course, that is a huge number to tell home users and clients that, hey, it's out there, this is happening.

Now, again, I've never heard of Cujo AI, but apparently they've been releasing this report for a while. So I assume that it's a legit number that we can come up with. I'll have to ask my buddy Jay McBain if that's true.

But they also said that there is a high impact of phishing threats on home networks. Approximately 67.5% of home networks experience at least one cyber threat monthly with phishing being a significant risk. Now, they did talk about targeted industries.

So apparently this isn't just home networks. Phishing campaigns are increasingly targeting high trust sectors such as banking, which they say account for 16% of attacks and hotel reservations, which account for 11%. So of course, money we should take care of.

And our hotel reservations, if you're traveling, pay attention to that. They also talk about the role of NSPs. And so network service providers, another part of the industry that is doing managed services, are essential in safeguarding connected devices, offering integrated security solutions to enhance consumer protection.

Sorry, I'm checking my phone to see if somebody called in or texted me to let me know about this. And then after that was another report that Keeper Security had a press release also today. Let me get my paper works here.

So you can see I have a lot of papers. Cujo. Yeah, read that one.

Okay. Sorry about that. Keeper Security calls for action.

Week four of Cybersecurity Action Month highlights the critical role of software updates. So the first thing I want to say is I thought cybersecurity awareness was over because that was usually in the month of October. And without even going into Keeper's report, I actually went down a rabbit hole and tried to find out what in the world is Cybersecurity Action Month.

And apparently it is something that was just recently started. And I don't have that paper. And I thought I did.

So, the joy of live podcasting is when you have too many papers, no producer, and you didn't plan things properly. But let me see if I can pull up. So November is recognized as Cybersecurity Action Month, a time dedicated to reinforcing the importance of cybersecurity practices and encouraging proactive measures among individuals and organizations.

This observance follows Cybersecurity Awareness Month, which takes place in October and builds upon the themes and messages promoted during that month. So, of course, I'm like, I had never heard of this. When did this come about? Blah, blah, blah.

Well, I could never find when this actually came about, but apparently this emerged as an extension of the initiative started during National Cybersecurity Awareness Month by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the National Cybersecurity Alliance. And to do focus on action. So, because following the success of the Security Awareness Month, there was a growing recognition that cybersecurity awareness should not be limited to just one month.

As cyber threats evolve and become more sophisticated, the need for continuous education and action became apparent. Thus, November was designated as Cybersecurity Action Month to encourage individuals and organizations to take concrete steps towards enhancing their cybersecurity measures. So, I'm assuming that this is super new because I had never heard of it.

But, of course, if you have, you can email me. You can text me. You can put a note here in the chat.

And I see we have got a few people watching. Hello out there. Yeah, I did not know about this and didn't realize that there was going to be a whole set of things that we should swing into action for.

And it's really all the same stuff. So, this Keeper Security Report talks about cybersecurity best practices. Recommendations include using strong passwords, enabling multi-factor authentication, and staying vigilant against phishing scams.

Nothing new there. Proactive measures needed. The report indicates that 92% of IT leaders have seen an increase in cyber-attacks, underscoring the urgency for organizations to prioritize patch management.

And their call for global action, Keeper Security encourages individuals and businesses to adopt cybersecurity best practices as part of Cybersecurity Action Month and beyond. So, that was the reason I'm like, okay, do we really need to have an action month that really all it does is regurgitate what we got in Awareness Month. And there should be, you know, maybe some definitive steps or action, you know, call to action statements or something that comes up.

And there might be, again, this is something I just looked at earlier today as I was prepping and said, oh, interesting little thing. So, Cybersecurity Awareness and Cybersecurity Action Month. And I saw another press release.

This is technically it's old news. But late yesterday, Kaseya released its press release that it has stepped up its backup game for MSPs with free hardware for Datto Siris. And many of you probably heard that this was announced during DattoCon, where they are going to offer a free appliance of the Datto Siris 5X and the Siris 5X4 for free with any term, including month-to-month.

So, whether you sign a one-year, three-year, five-year or month-to-month, they are allowing you to get the hardware for free. And Frank DiBenedetto, I probably said that wrong and he'll let me know about it. We believe that every customer deserves Datto.

With free hardware for Siris, MSPs can now profitably protect all their customers. So, big announcement there, huge, except for the fact that I wish they hadn't put it out in a press release because now our clients are going to know that the hardware is free and we can't sell it to them, especially when the prices for the monthly retention are what they are. Full disclosure, I was a huge Datto person for many, many years.

I did have two 12-terabyte Siris units until last month in service. And I am off the Datto. And the main reason is because the client did not want to spend the money, which would have been five, six grand to replace each appliance.

And then their monthly was going to be almost $1,500 per month per location because they had, even though they had two, they were at different locations. And they were like, we've got to be able to find a way to do this cheaper. Had I known before last month that Datto was going to do this thing, I might have reconsidered.

I forget what my rep's name is, Brian David something. Don't reach out to me. Don't call me.

It's too late. We're done. I'll reach back out to you at the beginning of next year for something else.

But that might've been something to consider and keep the client using Datto. One of the things that was in this press release also, Kaseya has invested $10 million in its new backup concierge program, which is free for Kaseya Datto backup customers. Backup is the last line of defense and one of the most critical tools for MSPs, but it also represents one of the largest costs and highest risks.

So with this purpose-built program, MSPs can ensure they are optimizing their profitability and supporting technical needs throughout the data protection journey for new and existing clients. So it is official. We knew about it, but they put the press release out.

So now your clients know about it, that they can get free appliances. And if you're wondering, is it just the low-end models? Well, apparently they're saying all of the Series 4 and Series 5, which can be pretty significant. I believe that the two that I just got rid of would have fallen into the S5-12.

They were 12 terabyte units. We might have upsized them to the 18 terabyte. And I mean, those costs were significant.

I mean, for this customer, they were on the month-to-month. We did not do a monthly commitment to them. So the device, the 12 terabyte would have been $59.25, which would have been my cost.

And then I would have marked that up. And then the 18 terabyte was $8,685, which I would have marked up. So that is a significant savings.

I won't mention the cost for the month-to-month, because I don't want that to get out there into ether. Because if you guys want to mark that up and make some money there, just know that it's a big pill to swallow unless you are a large organization. My law firm that I was doing this with, yes, they're large.

But they actually just tried to get me yesterday to figure out how we can save money as we up the cybersecurity. So interesting there. So get rid of that piece of paper.

Get rid of that piece of paper. All right. We are coming up to the big old announcement that you guys are going to be wowed when you hear it.

But before we do that, let us do a little bit of paying the bills. So let me get my sponsor sheet, and we'll go through that. And we will be right back after this.

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So those are our sponsors. And of course, the mug that I drink out of is also sponsored by our good friends over at SuperOps. And they are a sponsor of the Florida Man segment, which comes up right after this sip.

Now, let us see. How should I do this? Let me do it this way. The premiere of the Florida Man Games, presented by Flogrown, became an instant Floridian tradition.

Over 5,000 people came from across the world to watch the headlines come to life. From running away from actual police officers to dumpster diving for copper and catalytic converters, 12 teens from across the state became modern-day gladiators. Next year's Florida Man Games will be happening on March 1st at the St. John's County Fairgrounds in Elkton, Florida.

And yes, I have no idea where Elkton, Florida is, let me tell you this. I have to find out, because I found out yesterday that I have been approved to be one of the media folks covering the Florida Man Games. And I will be getting a media pass, and I will be there live, on-site, perhaps live streaming from the Florida Man Games.

And I know some of you were, eh, kind of making fun of that. And wondering, yeah, can we do that? And some of you were like, oh, you should go. Well, guess what? I'm going.

March 1st, 2025, Uncle Marv will be the Florida Man at the Florida Man Games in Florida. So that is huge. That is big.

And if you guys have any ideas on what I should do while I'm there, let me know. I'm all ears. I probably will be looking for sponsors, because I got to travel up there.

I do know the general area. It is North Florida. It is probably three to four hours away.

I know that I go up north on I-95. I go past Titusville. I go past the MEMS exit.

And before I get to Jacksonville, I hang a left. And I'm guessing it is somewhere up in the part of the state that I probably would never go. So I got to figure something out, because I got to get a hotel.

I probably got to get protection or something. I don't know. But that is happening, folks.

And you will obviously be hearing more about that, because I'm going to be at the Florida Man Games. That is something else. So in honor of Florida Man Games, where is he? Let me give you a rundown of Florida Man stories from today.

And I have two stories, folks. I had one just kind of locked. But then two hours before I left the office, I had a video that popped up in my feed.

And I said, I got to show this video. So I have two Florida Man stories for tonight. The first story, if you were watching or trying to watch Mike Tyson and Jake Paul Friday, you may have experienced significant problems that included buffering and interrupted coverage.

Well, a Florida Man is coming to your rescue. Ronald Blue Denton has filed a class action lawsuit against Netflix due to streaming issues during the boxing match. Now, Ronald is seeking $50 million in damages.

Now, you say, that's a lot of money for one Florida Man. So it'll be interesting to see what happens. While Netflix has acknowledged the technical challenges and expressed regret for the poor experience some users faced, they have not explicitly offered compensation or made a formal apology to affected users.

So the lawsuit that Ronald Denton is putting forth will be out of Hillsborough County. And the lawsuit alleges deceptive trade practices. So you ask, Marv, I don't watch boxing.

I could care less about Mike Tyson or Jake Paul. What happened? Well, Netflix reportedly had 65 million live concurrent streams and 108 million total viewers globally. They acknowledged the streaming problems and stated there is room for improvement.

And that is a story that I'm sure we will follow to some degree. I don't think it's kind of goofy. A Florida Man is not going to get $50 million from Netflix.

But let me now go to story number two. And this, I got to bring up the video here. And you are not going to believe this.

Where is it? In videos. Here we go. Bring this up here.

I got you, buddy. Hold on. Now, for those of you that were not watching, I will play the video again for the live viewers.

A dramatic incident in the Florida Everglades has gone viral, showcasing a man rescuing an alligator from the clutches of a nearly 10-foot python. The rescue was performed by Mike Kimmel, who operates Martin Counting Trapping and Removals, a company that specializes in python removal. In the video, Kimmel arrives just in time to save the alligator, which was being squeezed by the snake.

He bravely picks up the snake and the alligator and manages to unravel the python from the gator and then carries the snake away, ultimately bagging it with the help of his partner, Jack Hubbard, who was volunteering to learn about python removal. And for those of you that might be wondering, oh my goodness, is that really a python? Yes, I have told you guys many times, the Burmese pythons have invaded the Everglades. They were not indigenous here.

And just in the past year alone, Kimmel and other contracted hunters have removed over 1,000 pythons from the public lands in the state. So there you go, folks. And that python, yeah, that's probably a normal size.

And you've heard that when we have the Python Challenge here every year, that pythons, basically the winning python is somewhere between 15 and 20 feet on a regular basis. That is huge. And yes, they do squeeze and take out alligators.

So I will have that video for you in the show notes that you can watch until your heart's content. All right, folks, that is going to do it for tonight's show. I told you it'd be quick.

And I just wanted to once again say kudos to Mike. You know, I probably should have said something. One of the things that, for those of you that, you know, you ask me a lot of times about how I work with subcontractors.

And usually I'm from the perspective where I'm the one sending the subcontractors out to my clients. And there's always, you know, everybody has the fear of, is the subcontractor going to try to take my client? Are they going to try to do something that I don't want them to do? And I always tell people, yeah, that's always a possibility. But you've got to have a great relationship with your subcontractors.

Now, I've had a couple in the past where we've had to have conversations with. And if you were listening, don't take this the wrong way, because I know two of them listen. But, you know, it always comes back to my client, my call.

So one of the things that I experienced while being there with Mike was just the, it's kind of interesting to have, you know, always being the one that is, you know, making the call and making the decisions with the client. I found myself having to hold my tongue. And it made me realize what subcontractors go through.

And I did it one out of respect to Mike. He's a friend. But I also do it because I have always taken the stance that it's not my customer.

So I'm not going to try to take them. But, you know, you're there and, you know, you're getting asked to do stuff. You're getting asked, you know, to make a decision.

And I found myself having to say, you need to ask Mike. You need to ask Mike. You're Mike's client, not mine.

And I just wanted to say from my perspective that it had been a while since I was in that sort of a servant role, you know, working with somebody else, they were in charge and, you know, allowing them to do things their way. Even if I, you know, I won't, no, let's get me get this straight. I think there was only one time that I thought, oh, I would do that differently.

But for the most part, it went fine. There was no friction or anything like that. But it is something where even a simple request that our customer, you know, or an employee asked, I had to stop and step back and say, okay, is this something that Mike would want me to do? Or should I wait and let him make the decision? And it's a unique perspective.

And if you are somebody that, you know, has not gone out to work for somebody else in a subcontractor role or just even a helper role, you should probably do that. I think it gives a different perspective and allows you to think about how you would treat your subcontractors going forward. Because there's a lot of times where I know that my subcontractors in other cities, a lot of times my customers may not see a tech for, forget days, it might be weeks.

And for them to see a tech in the flesh and say, oh, while you're here, can you do this? Most techs want to help and they want to say yes. And I have always told my subcontractors, any question that gets asked to you, ask me first. Don't just assume that it's something that can be done.

So just a little bit of perspective. If you're ever had to work with somebody and you are used to being the decision maker, but you got to be the helper, it's okay. And I hope Mike, like I said, I haven't talked to him in a couple of days.

They had to get back. Junior had to fly back. And I know that he has customers in his area that he needed to take care of.

But it was a good experience. I think everything went well. Mike said that the customer was happy at the end of it.

I've not heard anything for a couple of days. I assume all is good. But yeah, that should do it.

So I just wanted to get that out there. And if any of you talk to Mike, let him know it was a good job. All right, that's going to do it, folks.

We are going to be back. Let's see, I have a... Oh, I may have an interview with Paco LeBron in the next day or so. We're going to do a quick show about something I saw out on the forums.

I wanted to ask him about that. So we got that coming up. Of course, we've got the Amazon Lives next week.

Tuesday, definitely for sure. Maybe a Monday or Wednesday, but those will be at 12 noon Eastern. You'll have plenty of time to prep for those.

And you can watch, get some ideas, and use my Amazon link. You don't have to wait until the Black Friday preview to use the link. You can use it anytime.

Go to the website now, click it, save it, and shop away. And then, of course, we will have the Cyber Monday show with Aaron Lawrence. And you asked, who's going to be on the Tuesday show? Dawn Sizer, Third Element Consulting.

So that's going to do it, folks. Thank you all for watching. If you are listening, thank you for downloading and subscribing.

And look forward to talking to you guys soon. If you are behind in your shows, have a great Thanksgiving. Have fun shopping on Black Friday, Cyber Monday.

That's going to do it. We'll see you next time. Holla!