New cybersecurity consulting group focuses on being proactive
Courtesy / Solaris Consulting Group
Newly formed Solaris Consulting Group includes, from left, Carlos Solari, Kathleen Lucey and Patrick Dunn.
A group of cybersecurity consultants, including one who held a position in the George W. Bush administration and another from Augusta, have partnered to form Solaris Consulting Group.
The firm will focus on corporate cybersecurity, business continuity and disaster recovery, privacy and security regulatory challenges, the principals said.
Combining forces "gives us a broader reach and the ability to bring our experience to more clients," said Patrick Dunn, of Augusta, founder of Cushnoc Resiliency Advisors and a senior partner and managing director with Solaris.
The partnership also includes founder and Managing Director Carlos Solari, based in Virginia, a former chief information officer for President George W. Bush, FBI senior executive and, most recently, a vice president for Comodo Cybersecurity. It also includes partner and Managing Director Kathleen Lucey, founder of Montague Risk Management II, of New York City; and senior partner and Managing Director Matthew Silveira. The company operates out of Augusta, Virginia and New York, where the principals are located.
"We each had our own companies, and we've all worked for larger companies in the past," Dunn told Mainebiz. "[The new firm] puts us in a position to meet the more complex needs of large corporations."
Solaris Consulting specializes in privacy regulations such as GDPR [General Date Privacy Regulation, the European rules for digital privacy], cybersecurity compliance and business resiliency-continuity/disaster recovery. The firm offers consulting, on-site training, assessments, fractional CISO and related services. Services are designed to reach U.S. national and international clients.
"In the constantly evolving business world, corporations are facing challenges for privacy-responsible operations. Regulations such as the European Economic Area’s GDPR are having a global impact and companies must adapt. In the U.S.," the firm said in a press release. "State and expected federal regulations are making similar requirements for responsible privacy behaviors. Penalties for non-compliance are severe and liabilities can devastate a company’s finances.
"This is not the only challenge," the firm stated. "Ransomware attacks have companies and organization of all sizes recognizing the absolute importance of business continuity and disaster recovery capabilities that actually work. Advanced forms of attacks often enabled by geopolitical motivations and the advent of crypto payments means there is no letup. The challenges will become greater."
Dunn said that urgency was highlighted a couple weeks ago in Augusta, when a cyber attack shut down city government, while at the same time it was made public that the Arby's restaurant on Western Avenue had a data breach sometime between November and February.
"It's increasing, and no one is immune," he said. He added that, aside from cyber security, business resilience can mean creating an operating plan and knowing how to survive if an illness epidemic hits a company, or its effected by a natural disaster. "It's about being proactive."
Dunn, aside from founding Cushnoc Resiliency Advisors, has also held senior consulting roles with Cognizant, SunGard Availability Services and CapGemini.
Lucey is also the sole practitioner to date to have received both the IBM BC Practitioner of the Year Award (1998) and the CPM Business Continuity Hall of Fame award (2005).
“The time is now for a laser focus on limiting information access to authorized persons only," she said in the release. "Well-designed and effectively implemented cybersecurity is an essential part of that strategy.”
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