The ACCENT Learning Hub

Combining a lifelong passion with a successful career may seem like a dream for some, but for Ray, Support Services Manager at Accent Computer Solutions, it’s what he lives out every day. Ray combines his love of computers and people to effectively manage multiple teams of employees that provide the fast, friendly, frustration-free IT service that Accent clients expect. Ray tackles every challenge with humility and honesty, and he enthusiastically pursues the knowledge he needs to create strategies that solve problems.

If you manage IT at your company, then you have a lot of roles to fill. Whether you have a small team or it's just you, you could be asked to be the network administrator, help desk technician, IT project manager, business analyst, cyber security expert, and more at any given moment. And if your company needs to comply with the Department of Defense (DoD) Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC), you're likely going to get another role tacked onto your responsibilities.

Jason D’s official job title at Accent is Senior Systems Technician, but what he really is, is a road warrior. Instead of sitting behind a desk all day, Jason spends much of his time behind the wheel traveling to client sites to troubleshoot hardware and network issues that can’t be fixed remotely. It’s a job that he loves because there’s variety in each day and because he enjoys the face-to-face interactions he has with clients.

It’s that time of year in California. Dry brush and Santa Ana winds put thousands of lives, homes, and businesses at risk. The devastating fires in recent years remind us that wildfires can start any time and they make quick work of any area, destroying everything in their path.

Cyber criminals have access to sophisticated technologies these days, yet some of the most successful tried-and-true social engineering tactics continue to bypass technical security layers -- targeting the humans behind the technology.

January 14, 2020 marked the end of support for one of the most popular operating systems for businesses – Windows 7. It was released in 2009 and has served us well, but the end is here and it’s time to make your transition.

What would you say if you answered the phone, and it was the FBI investigating a cyber attack incident? “Hello, this is the FBI.” “Yeah, right...” When a call like this came into our office here at Accent, we were skeptical...but it turned out to be legit. The FBI was collaborating with Microsoft to shut down a global malware scheme, and they needed our help taking down one of the devices at a client’s site.

When you get started on your journey to Cybersecurity Maturity Model Compliance (CMMC), one of the first things that you’ll need to do is to perform a gap analysis. A CMMC gap analysis lets you know where your security controls are good and where you have, well… gaps. If you have expertise with NIST 800-171 security regulations along with a lot of extra time, then there’s no reason why you can’t do a DIY gap analysis, but many companies are finding that a facilitated gap analysis is more efficient and actually saves money in the long run.

Unless you know what goes on behind the scenes, you never realize just how much work goes into keeping IT systems running smoothly. That’s what surprised Philip, when he started his job as a Support Specialist at Accent Computer Solutions.

When you’re trying to understand what you’re supposed to do to follow Cybersecurity Maturity Model (CMMC) regulations, there’s a lot of information to digest. A lot. Unless you want to make CMMC compliance your full-time job, it would be nice to have all that information boiled down so that you get to the point where you can act. You must act because if you haven’t, you’re already late. Last year the DoD communicated with companies in their supply chain with a request to submit a CMMC Self-Assessment by the end of 2020, yet many companies have not been able to do that. Why? For many it’s a lack of knowledge and training to interpret CMMC into action.