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Cybersecurity is serious business. The consequences of a successful attack on an organization’s network can be enormous. That doesn’t mean training staff members to reduce cyber risks has to be grim or boring.

Businesses and other organizations have had to step up their defenses, including planning, to reduce the risks of being victimized.

The Sioux Council of the Boy Scouts of America plans to raise nearly $1.6 million to improve scouting facilities at its regional center in Sioux Falls and SDN will play a role in making it happen.

Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks have become more sophisticated, which is forcing businesses in the region to deploy more advanced defensive strategies.

Twenty years atop any organization might age a lesser CEO. Not Mark Shlanta. His hair might be grayer, and he shaved off the mustache, but his steady hand and outlook has changed little in two decades.

Data centers are among the key industries in the Sioux Falls area with growth potential. And there are many advantages of doing business in the community.

SDN Communications' crews are digging away, steadily expanding and improving the company’s regional, fiber optic footprint.

SDN now has two staffers readily available to assist clients with large and often complex businesses or institutional networks: Lenee McQueen and Mary Pfaff

Jon Scarbrough stresses the need for businesses to closely screen their software providers and monitor software coding on an ongoing basis to become quickly aware of newly reported vulnerabilities so that needed updates can be applied.

Keeping up with cybersecurity changes is easier for companies with ongoing access to experts and good, well-maintained equipment. SDN's managed services offer that high level of protection to companies that might lack IT staff time or expertise.

Nationally, only about 11 percent of the people working in cybersecurity are women. Dr. Ashley Podhradsky, a faculty member at Dakota State University, doesn’t like to talk about the gender imbalance, however.

A fresh class of interns is settling in at SDN Communications. Four new interns recently started work, and three previously hired interns are either staying on longer or wrapping up their time with SDN.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr spent two days in Sioux Falls during a multistate, information-gathering field trip.

Greg Robinson jokes that he’s living proof that old dogs can be taught new tricks. He is SDN Communications’ new network account executive in Rapid City.

RASDak 2018, the sixth annual Ride Across South Dakota, will be held that week. Bike riders will see and experience scenic, friendly nooks and crannies across the middle of the state. “Tales on historic Trails,” is the slogan for the ride from Sioux Falls to Hulett, Wyo.

The subject might not come up often in everyday business conversations, but Sioux Falls is directly connected to one of the biggest and best data center networks in the United States.

Rod Bowar has perhaps the most unique career path in South Dakota telecommunications. Rod has taken his entrepreneurial spirit and created numerous business divisions for Kennebec Telephone Company Inc. as the major owner of (KTCI).

Seventy-six percent of organizations experienced phishing attacks in 2017 according to a recent report and nearly half of all the respondents said the attacks are increasing.

This month Rob Swenson filed his 500th blog for SDN. They all come in bite-sized chunks, describing everything from our company’s growth and culture to cool gadgets and not-so-cool cybersecurity hacks.

Not surprisingly, attacks intended to disable computer systems in South Dakota schools increase about the time of semester tests. The culprits, presumably, are students who are smart enough to launch Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks but are too lazy or mischievous to study for exams.