Thomas McClendon

An IT person may configure the firewall, manage the computers, reset passwords, and handle backups.

• But that doesn’t answer how much downtime the business can survive, what happens if customer information is stolen, which risks are acceptable, or who is ultimately responsible for keeping the business operating.
• McClendon’s answer to each question is the business owner.
• Owners don’t need to understand every protective technology, but they do need to know what to ask the people who do.

One post sets two lists side by side: the configuration work an IT provider handles, then four unanswered business questions, each answered with “the business owner.”

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The intended reader is the owner who believes technology is handled because there’s an IT person, the computers and email work, and files appear to be backed up.

• The problem isn’t that owners don’t care about security; it’s that they don’t know which questions to ask.
• So the book is organized around questions, not a technical manual.

A book announcement says the book is not “a 300-page technical manual filled with cybersecurity jargon,” lists what owners assumed was being handled, and concludes that they need only know enough to ask the right questions.

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Servers, hardware, and technology will fail; the question is what happens to the business when they do.

• In the case described, the technology failed but the recovery strategy held, and preparation made the difference.
• The post leaves owners with one testable question: do we hold a copy, or a thought-through plan?
• It focuses on that distinction rather than the technical details of the restore.

A recent server failure serves as the teaching case: the hardware failed, the recovery strategy held, and the outcome is summed up as “the technology failed. The recovery strategy didn't.”

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In the case described, a local business shut down after a cyberattack and told customers it was working with the FBI.

• That can create a false sense of security: investigators document the crime but don’t restore systems, recover data, or prevent lost revenue.
• McClendon advocates preparation, sound security practices, and suitable cyber insurance arranged well before an incident.
• The post distinguishes investigation from recovery and presents insurance and preparation as complementary, not interchangeable.
• It’s the only post here that discusses insurance; ask what advisory services, if any, McClendon offers in this area.

The post contrasts what the FBI does—document the crime—with what it doesn’t: restore systems, recover data, or prevent lost revenue.

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The sequence: restore fast, verify hard, keep moving; then protect what matters, document what happened, improve the system, repeat.

• Written for practitioners rather than owners, the posts set out a response posture without case details, timelines, or a named environment.
• They show the other side of McClendon’s audience, alongside the owner-education material.

The post addresses “the operators, not the spectators” and lays out the recovery loop: restore fast, verify hard, keep moving—then protect, document, improve, repeat.

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A newcomer who reads only one post should start here: everything else builds on the same premise—owners do not need technical mastery; they need the right questions for the people who have it.

McClendon introduces the book by drawing a line between what it is and what it is not: not a 300-page technical manual full of jargon, but a guide for the person on the other side of the desk—the business owner.

• The post describes a pattern they say they have seen repeatedly: owners who believed their technology was handled because they had an IT person, working computers and email, and what they thought were backups.
• The problem, they argue, is not that owners do not care about cybersecurity; it is that they do not know which questions to ask.
• The book's thesis, in one line: you don't need to become a cybersecurity expert, you just need to know enough to ask the right questions.
• The post includes a direct purchase link to the book on Amazon.

For brands planning a campaign

A natural anchor for a co-branded webinar on cybersecurity questions for small business owners: the framing, audience and call to action are already in place. A training firm could structure the session around the questions and offer the book as a takeaway, rather than forcing a new theme.

It is the shortest, most direct statement of McClendon's central argument.

The post opens with a blunt pair of lines: cybersecurity is not an IT issue, it is a business issue.

• It lists what an IT person may legitimately handle—configuring the firewall, managing computers, resetting passwords and managing backups—then asks what those tasks do not answer: how much downtime the business can survive, what happens if customer information is stolen, which risks are acceptable, and who is ultimately responsible for keeping the business running.
• Each time, the answer is the business owner.
• The argument closes by distinguishing what an owner does not need from what they do: not every piece of technology, but the questions to ask the people who understand it.
• The post points back to the book as its inspiration.

For brands planning a campaign

Lead a webinar with this argument: it shifts the conversation from tooling to decision-making, where a training provider can help owners who are not technical. It also positions the webinar as preparation for a conversation with an existing IT provider, not a replacement for one.

It is the most concrete example in these posts, tied to a specific event rather than a general argument.

McClendon opens with a sequence of failures—servers, hardware, technology—and reframes the question: what happens to the business when they fail?

• The post draws on a recent server failure to make a distinction they say they repeat to business owners: having a backup and having a recovery strategy are not the same thing.
• In this instance, they write, preparation made the difference: the technology failed, but the recovery strategy did not.
• The post does not name the business or give technical details of the restore, so ask for those before treating it as an auditable case study.

For brands planning a campaign

Use this as the practical, scenario-driven segment of a webinar. It gives owners a memorable test—do we have a backup, or do we have a recovery plan?—and pairs well with a short exercise in which attendees check which one they have.

It is the sharpest myth-correction in the reviewed set and helps readers understand McClendon's view of cyber insurance and preparation.

The post describes a local business that shut down after a cyberattack and reassured customers by saying they were 'working with the FBI.' McClendon argues that this creates a dangerous false sense of security: the FBI documents the crime but does not restore systems, recover data or prevent lost revenue.

• They point instead to preparation, strong cybersecurity practices and the right cyber insurance, put in place long before an attack.
• The business, attack and insurance coverage are not identified; ask for those details before using this as a case study.
• The argument is that investigation and recovery are separate responsibilities.

For brands planning a campaign

Use this as a discussion prompt for a webinar or follow-up piece: it addresses a belief owners may already hold. Keep the distinction between documenting an incident and recovering from one, and avoid implying that insurance replaces preparation; McClendon presents them as complementary.

Unlike the owner-facing posts, it speaks to the other half of their audience.

Written for what it calls the operators rather than the spectators, the post reads like a reflection after an exercise or incident.

• Its short, instructional sequence: restore fast, verify hard, keep moving.
• McClendon says that in cybersecurity, perfect is rare and disciplined response is everything, then gives a compact loop: protect what matters, document what happened, improve the system, repeat.
• Ask for a case, timeline or named environment before presenting it as an account of a specific response; the post offers a method, not a verifiable incident report.

For brands planning a campaign

Use this when a partner wants to show operator credibility alongside owner education. It can support a technical track or practitioner segment without blurring the distinction from the owner-facing book theme.

In one post, they list what the IT person typically does: configure the firewall, manage computers, reset passwords and handle backups.

• Then they ask who decides how much downtime the business can survive, what happens if customer information is stolen, which risks are acceptable and who is ultimately responsible for keeping the business running.
• The answer: the business owner.
• The framing is deliberately non-technical: an owner does not need to understand every protective technology but does need to know what questions to ask the people who do.

Draws the line between configuration work (IT) and risk acceptance (owner), teaching through that contrast rather than product features.

For brands planning a campaign

This is the strongest available hook for a co-branded small-business webinar. The training firm can supply the technical answers while McClendon frames the issues from the owner's perspective—the reason a business owner would attend rather than delegate.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2

Its stated audience is the person sitting on the other side of the desk: an owner who assumed technology was handled because computers, email and backups appeared to work.

• The book addresses a lack of knowledge about which questions to ask and promises to make readers fluent enough to ask them.
• A second post repeats the rationale and links to the book, calling it one of the reasons they wrote it.

For brands planning a campaign

Build a webinar around the seven-question structure, with the firm co-branding the questions and answering them live. The book provides a ready-made agenda and an existing handout.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2

The FBI documents the crime, in their account, but does not restore systems, recover data or prevent lost revenue. They describe real protection as preparation, strong security practices and the right cyber insurance, arranged long before an attack.

Ask whether McClendon has a broader insurance advisory offering; this is the only post in the corpus that discusses insurance.

For brands planning a campaign

Supports a webinar segment or follow-up piece on what an insurance policy does and does not cover, and why training and preparation must come before an incident.

Examples: Source 1

In that case, the technology failed but the recovery strategy did not, and preparation made the difference. Servers, hardware and technology will fail; the question is what happens to the business when they do.

Uses a concrete operational event as a teaching case, then links it to the owner's decision about resilience.

For brands planning a campaign

Use a tabletop or disaster-recovery exercise in the webinar or a follow-up workshop: walk owners through a failure scenario and test whether they have recovery, not just backup.

Examples: Source 1

Perfect security is rare, so disciplined response carries a business through: protect what matters, document what happened, improve the system, repeat.

For brands planning a campaign

Relevant to the more technical half of an audience—internal IT and operations staff—and can anchor a segment on response discipline and documentation after a simulated breach.

Examples: Source 1

Ask whether Thomas McClendon owns, works for, or partners with the company.

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Ask whether the link reflects an affiliate, sponsorship, or publishing arrangement.

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They write about protection before, during and after an incident: preventing it, responding and recovering.

Policastro writes from inside a managed-detection provider, promoting a named partnership and a warranty offering attached to specific services. McClendon writes owner-facing questions and a book, with no product to place.

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Richards teaches through named attacker techniques, such as exploited VPN vulnerabilities and privileged Active Directory abuse, and writes from a customer-success role at a security provider. McClendon avoids technical detail and keeps the owner as the decision-maker.

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Bisagno explores specific control approaches—device trust, identity validation and a phased route to Zero Trust—and links to vendor articles explaining them. McClendon focuses on the questions an owner should ask and whether recovery has actually been planned.

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Two posts describe a Pondurance partnership with HSB - Hartford Steam Boiler in which selected managed detection and response offerings now include up to $250,000 in warranty coverage for eligible expenses following a covered security breach, alongside 24/7 MDR and immediate access to incident-response specialists.

• The other post argues that cybersecurity is a leadership issue rather than a technology one and lists the questions executives should be able to answer: do we understand our risk, can we detect an attack quickly, do we know how we will respond, and can we keep the business operating.
• A co-branded session on resilience and financial recovery after an incident, pitched to the leadership team and featuring a named insurance-backed example, would build on the strengths shown in the posts rather than rely on borrowed framing.

The audience changes.

• McClendon answers the owner-level question of who is responsible and provides a ready-made structure of questions and a book.
• Policastro's posts target executives and focus on a company partnership and a quarterly threat download.
• They read as announcements, not a teaching curriculum, so the training firm would need to supply most of the session content.
• The warranty and MDR specifics belong to the Pondurance offering and need to be handled clearly in any co-branded material.
• Ask Policastro for audience composition, event history and commercial terms before proceeding.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2

Richards's posts examine the mechanics: ransomware groups exploiting known Fortinet VPN vulnerabilities while organisations rely on MFA alone, and a PAYLOAD ransomware case that used compromised domain credentials and Active Directory Group Policy to disable security controls without dropping malicious software.

• The posts also offer a diagnostic question that translates directly into a webinar: if a known vulnerability existed in your environment today, how confident are you that it would be identified, prioritized and remediated before attackers found it?
• The stated position that identity protection, privilege management and recovery readiness matter as much as prevention gives a session a clear spine.

The material draws on a third-party publication, TechDecanter, and a vendor's customer-success perspective.

• A co-branded session would inherit both that framing and any permissions required by the publication relationship.
• It targets security and IT functions, not owners deciding how much downtime the business can survive—the audience a small business awareness firm is selling to.
• Ask about permissions, audience makeup and partnership terms before proceeding; a session would need to be built around these themes rather than an existing owner-level structure, as no book, checklist, training asset or event history is documented.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2

Bisagno's posts argue that bring-your-own-device programmes are a governance initiative balancing productivity, security, compliance and employee experience, not an IT decision, and that Device Trust—validating the security posture of the device as well as the user's identity—reduces risk without a wholesale infrastructure rebuild.

• The second post sets out a phased route toward Zero Trust aligned to real business goals, aimed at business leaders and touching on regulated industries and Microsoft 365.
• A co-branded session on governing personal devices and building toward Zero Trust incrementally would draw on framing that already exists.

Both posts are short introductions to longer articles, so the substance sits outside the material available and would need to be collected and rebuilt for a session.

• The angle is policy and adoption for organisations of some size, not the small business audience or the owner-versus-IT-provider split McClendon's material addresses.
• A small business awareness firm would be reframing the topic rather than building on it.
• Ask about event history and partnership terms before proceeding; no book or registration history is documented.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2