Nearest Solutions

08/14/2026

The most useful moment in a tabletop exercise is right after the scenario ends, when someone quietly realizes they'd assumed the wrong person was in charge of a decision.

Question for the group: if your team had to respond to an incident tomorrow, does everyone actually agree on who makes the call, or is that still an assumption?

08/08/2026

The Problem With Growth Through Friction
Onboarding a new client works, but it lives in three different people's heads and produces a different result every time. An acquisition closes and suddenly there are two PSAs, two documentation standards, and two ways of doing everything that used to be simple. Growth exposes exactly the processes that were never built to scale, and every workaround your team invents to cope becomes one more thing that only works as long as the person who invented it stays.

This advisory role exists to fix that at the source: analyzing how work actually happens, then designing and building the automation and standardization that makes it repeatable, regardless of who's on shift.

Process analysis and automation design for MSPs navigating client onboarding, mergers and acquisitions, and service delivery standardization.

08/07/2026

Something I've learned after 12+ years in this industry: almost every security incident I've been called into had a moment where someone knew something was off and didn't say anything, not because they didn't care, but because they didn't feel it was safe to speak up.

Question for the group: at your workplace, if something looked off, would people actually say something, or stay quiet and hope it wasn't a big deal?

08/05/2026

Quick one for anyone who's been told "you need a SOC 2 report" without much explanation: Type I is a point-in-time check, Type II proves your controls actually ran over months, and Rescue is for audits that stalled out. Which one you need changes everything about the timeline.

Question for the group: has a customer or partner ever asked for a "SOC 2 report" without telling you which kind?

08/03/2026

HHS delayed the HIPAA Security Rule overhaul to 2027. Good news if your to-do list needed one less item this year, except the actual risk (breach counts nationally are on pace for 3,600+ this year) didn't get the same extension.

Question for the group: has your business actually looked at where PHI or sensitive data lives, or is that on the list for "after the deadline"?

07/31/2026

A new ransomware campaign is impersonating Interpol and pricing the ransom to the size of the business it hits. Wild, but also a good reminder: the businesses that come out okay aren't the ones with the fanciest tools, they're the ones who already know who does what in the first ten minutes.

Question for the group: if something like this hit tomorrow, does your team actually know the first three calls to make, or would you be figuring it out live?

07/04/2026

Happy Fourth from Nashville. Where the fireworks are, predictably, spectacular.

Grateful this week for people who take the time to show up for each other: personally, professionally, in the community, and (apparently) at book launches.

If you're in Middle Tennessee today, be safe and enjoy the show.

07/02/2026

If you're running a mid-sized business and your cybersecurity strategy is basically 'we have antivirus,' let's talk.

Nearest Solutions specializes in practical, right-sized security for organizations that don't have a full IT department but still need to protect their data, their clients, and their reputation.

No jargon. No overselling. Just honest assessment and a plan that makes sense for where you actually are.

Free initial conversation. Link in bio.

06/01/2026

The HIPAA Security Rule is getting updated.

If you're in healthcare IT (or you support healthcare organizations as a managed service provider), the 2026 proposed rule changes are not optional reading. They're operational.

Two ways to get up to speed:

The HIPAA Security for Healthcare Technologists course ($59) is a full deep-dive updated to cover the new requirements, written for people who actually have to implement the controls (not just document them). → https://nearestsolutions.com/education/course.php?slug=hipaa-security-healthcare

The HIPAA Security Audit Checklist ($15) is a practical checklist covering all required and addressable implementation specifications, risk analysis documentation, and workforce training requirements. Immediate download. → https://nearestsolutions.com/education/store.php

Cybersecurity workbooks and toolkits built for immediate action. SOC 2 readiness, NIST implementation, vendor risk assessment, and more.

05/30/2026

Quick question: do the people on your team know how to recognize a phishing email?

Not "they've seen the warning poster in the break room" familiar. Do they actually know what to look for?

I built a free, no-fluff cybersecurity course for business professionals. Not IT people. Regular people who need to understand what they're up against without sitting through a certification program.

It covers what cybersecurity actually is, how attacks happen in plain English, and why individual decisions matter more than most software your company will ever buy.

Free. No strings. Go take it:

A practical, jargon-free introduction to cybersecurity for business professionals. Learn what it is, how organizations manage it, and why your daily decisions matter more than any software your company buys.