Delivering battle-tested cybersecurity and compliance solutions that simply work.
Chicago, IL
Joined March 2016
- Tweets923
- Following514
- Followers810
- Likes208
Viking Bob has a new title to add to his collection: 2026 Hot Company MSSP.
Cyber Defense Magazine named VikingCloud a Top InfoSec Innovator in the Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) category. The award recognizes how we run cybersecurity, compliance, and connectivity as one managed service, so a problem at one location doesn't become a problem for the whole brand.
Bob's taking a victory lap. The rest of us are back to keeping your locations protected, connected, and taking payments.
Thank you to Cyber Defense Magazine, and congratulations to this year's winners.
Read the announcement: bit.ly/47E8qW7.
#MSSP #Cybersecurity #InfoSec
Heading to the MURTEC Executive Summit this week? Your vendors are part of your attack surface. POS providers, delivery platforms, and third-party IT support all connect to your restaurant systems, and each connection can bring new threats and vulnerabilities.
VikingCloud is sponsoring MURTEC in Coronado Bay, CA, October 21 – 23. Find Kamran Chaudhary and Rhonda Fitch on-site to talk through third-party access, PCI compliance, or any cybersecurity question on your list.
Book time with the team: bit.ly/4hVSyUP.
#MURTEC #RestaurantTechnology #Cybersecurity #Compliance
ALT Promotional flyer for the Murtec Executive Summit with VikingCloud, taking place October 21-23, 2026, at Coronado Bay, CA. Features an aerial view of a coastal resort area and a button labeled "Meet the team.
80% of enterprises open a new location before central cybersecurity monitoring and enforcement reach it.
Forty-seven percent take more than a week, 18% more than a month, and 3% more than 90 days or have no mandatory protocol at all. Attackers don't have to hunt for that window, because new location openings are usually announced in advance: bit.ly/4hCLGdF.
#Cybersecurity #RetailSecurity #CyberRisk #CISO #SecurityOperations
ALT The image is an advertisement for VikingCloud's 2026 Cyber Threat Landscape Report. It features the VikingCloud logo, a statistic reading "80% of enterprises do not fully integrate a new location into central cybersecurity monitoring and enforcement before or on opening day," and a call-to-action button labeled "Download now." The image includes a cover design of the report with a cityscape at night.
44% of distributed enterprises own and operate every location. Of those, 41% still don't mandate a security policy across all of them. If you own the sites, what's holding you back?
For these brands, a mandate is a decision, not a negotiation: bit.ly/4hCLGdF
#Cybersecurity #CyberGovernance #CISO #RetailSecurity #CyberRisk
ALT A promotional image for VikingCloud's 2026 Cyber Threat Landscape Report. It shows a partially open magazine with graphs and text. A statistic highlights "41% of enterprises that own and operate every location still do not mandate a security policy across all of them." A "Download now" button is visible at the bottom.
51% of distributed enterprises mandate one security standard across every location.
Does yours reach the newest franchise?
The test is against the site that opened last month, not the flagship. Eighty percent of enterprises open a location before central monitoring and enforcement reach it: bit.ly/4hCLGdF.
#Cybersecurity #CyberGovernance #CISO #Compliance #CyberRisk
ALT An open booklet displays text and graphs under the headline "51% of distributed enterprises mandate one security standard across every location." A "Download now" button is labeled for VikingCloud's 2026 Cyber Threat Landscape Report. VikingCloud's logo appears at the top.
The largest brands aren't necessarily the most secure.
Among attacked enterprises with 2,500 or more locations, 89% say the intrusion spread beyond where it started. These brands have the most security capability, including the highest rate of real-time visibility (65%), yet that capability hasn't reduced how far attacks spread.
So what does? Our data points to one thing: bit.ly/4hCLGdF
#Cybersecurity #CyberResilience #RetailSecurity #CISO #CyberRisk
ALT The image features a promotional graphic for VikingCloud's 2026 Cyber Threat Landscape Report. It highlights a statistic: "3x of distributed enterprises experienced a cyberattack in the past 12 months." Two copies of the report cover are shown, displaying a city skyline. A "Download now" button is present.
77% of attacked distributed enterprises say the attack spread beyond where it started.
Consider how far an attacker could spread across your entire footprint. How strong your defenses are and how far damage can reach from a single compromised location are two different questions. Only the second tells you an incident's true cost: bit.ly/4hCLGdF
#Cybersecurity #IncidentResponse #CyberResilience #CISO #ThreatIntel
VikingCloud's new research, the 2026 Cyber Threat Landscape Report: The Distributed Enterprise Illusion, was featured in Cybersecurity Insiders, which reported that 86% of distributed enterprises experienced a cyberattack in the past 12 months, and 77% of those attacked saw it spread beyond where it started.
The piece highlighted five key challenges facing distributed enterprises:
1. Visibility is limited across locations: 47% lack real-time visibility across all their locations.
2. New locations create additional exposure: 80% do not fully integrate new locations into centralized cybersecurity monitoring and enforcement before or on opening day.
3. Ransomware and AI-generated attacks are increasing: 88% say ransomware attacks have increased in frequency, severity, or both, and 87% say the same of AI-generated phishing and deepfakes.
4. Material incidents often aren't escalated: 91% acknowledged that at least one material cybersecurity incident in the past year was not reported to executive leadership or the board.
5. The financial impact is significant: 47% estimate a breach would cost $11 million or more, and 22% put it at $101 million or more.
Security tools alone weren't linked to containing attacks. A mandate was. Among brands with franchised locations, attacks spread 64% of the time when corporate required one security standard at every location, and 89% of the time when it didn't.
Read more in Cybersecurity Insiders: bit.ly/4eeqwl3.
#Cybersecurity #DistributedEnterprise #Franchising #SecurityGovernance
You can't stop every attack. But you can control how far it travels.
One enforced standard makes an attack 3x more likely to stay where it started.
The five steps to get there in 60 seconds. Full research in the report: bit.ly/3T3TEV7.
#Cybersecurity #DistributedEnterprise #CybersecurityPolicy #CybersecurityReport
"Stop treating quantum computing as a problem for the 2030s."
Regulators in the U.S., U.K., and EU have set post-quantum migration deadlines. The first milestone in each is the same: know what cryptography you run and where.
Michael Aminzade says most organizations can't do that yet.
The standards are settled. NIST has published its first three post-quantum encryption standards. What's missing is the map.
In our compliance and assessment work, we ask a simple question: which of your systems rely on public-key cryptography, and which suppliers protect your data with their own? The answers come back partial, assembled by hand, and months out of date.
That gap, not quantum hardware, will decide who meets the deadlines.
Read the full blog: bit.ly/46WEeFr.
#Cybersecurity #QuantumComputing #PostQuantumCryptography #RiskManagement
There's something to win at Booth #8 in Edinburgh.
VikingCloud is giving away a Plaud Note Pro, the AI notetaker that turns a conversation into a summary before you've left the room.
One visit to the booth, one entry, all three days. Find us at Booth #8 in the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.
Meet the team: bit.ly/4ryl2r4.
#PCISSC #PCICompliance #PaymentSecurity #Cybersecurity
40% of security leaders admit they would likely miss active threats at their least-monitored sites.
Another 5% believe a breach could remain undetected for days. These gaps come from the same leaders who rate themselves as confident in their overall security posture.
Confidence measures the program. Coverage measures the footprint: bit.ly/4hCLGdF
#Cybersecurity #ThreatDetection #CISO #SecurityOperations #CyberRisk
83% of security leaders at brands running 500+ locations say they're confident or very confident in their cybersecurity posture. Yet 86% were attacked in the past 12 months, and 77% of those attacked saw it spread past where it started.
Confidence lives at headquarters. The breach travels across the footprint: bit.ly/4hCLGdF
#Cybersecurity #CISO #CyberRisk #SecurityLeadership #ThreatIntel
48% of distributed enterprises lack real-time visibility across all locations.
Visibility improves with scale, but the gap doesn't close. Among operators with 500 to 999 locations, 44% have real-time visibility everywhere, rising to 65% among those with 2,500 or more.
Visibility is worth building. On its own, though, it wasn't tied to less spread when an attack hit. A corporate mandate was: bit.ly/4hCLGdF
#Cybersecurity #SecurityOperations #CyberRisk #CISO #ThreatDetection
A cyberattack hit 86% of large distributed enterprises in the past 12 months.
Yet 98% have a formal cybersecurity policy covering their locations, complete with a security team and enterprise-grade defenses. The policy exists. It just doesn't reach every site with the same force.
Among those attacked, 77% saw the attack spread past where it started: bit.ly/4hCLGdF
#Cybersecurity #CyberThreats #RetailSecurity #CISO #CyberRisk
Every new location adds new vendors and new tools, and the company-wide view of PCI and cybersecurity status starts to blur. That's when real threats get harder to catch.
See how VikingCloud helped one brand hold the line across hundreds of sites and build a burger empire.
#Cybersecurity #Compliance #CyberRisk
The call comes in to a store manager two states from headquarters. It's the regional VP, same voice, same urgency, asking for a quick approval before end of day.
Except it isn't the VP. It's a cloned voice, and the manager has no reason to think twice.
This is where the modern attack on a distributed enterprise begins. Not at corporate, where the security team lives, but at a single location that looks nothing like a target. 63% of distributed enterprises had at least one location receive a deepfake or cloned-voice attack impersonating an executive last year.
And it's accelerating on all fronts. 87% say AI-generated phishing and deepfake attacks have grown more frequent, more severe, or both in the past 12 months, the second fastest-rising threat behind only ransomware at individual locations (88%). 60% are concerned frontier-model attacks are next.
Attackers are targeting individual locations. Most security programs are still built around headquarters.
VikingCloud's 2026 Cyber Threat Landscape Report: The Distributed Enterprise Illusion is out today.
Read it here: bit.ly/4rlUEQQ.
#Cybersecurity #DistributedEnterprise #CyberRisk #Deepfakes
Twenty years of securing payment data. Twenty years of the Council setting the standard. And in Edinburgh, the celebration is on us.
VikingCloud is a Platinum Sponsor of the Welcome Celebration at the PCI Security Standards Council's 2026 Europe Community Meeting, 20 - 22 October in Edinburgh.
On the opening evening, the community gathers at Mansfield Traquair, the hall known as Edinburgh's Sistine Chapel, to mark two decades of payment security. Come raise a glass with us beneath the murals.
Welcome Celebration
Tuesday, 20 October | 18:00 – 19:30 BST
Mansfield Traquair, Edinburgh
We're at Booth #8 all three days. Look for the helmets and bring your toughest compliance and security questions.
Book time with us now and skip the on-site line. Here's to the next 20 years: bit.ly/4domxSv.
#PCISSC #PCICompliance #Cybersecurity #PaymentSecurity
Thank you, PCI Security Standards Council, for 20 years of advancing payment security.
Three days at Booth #13 in Vancouver: report copies handed out, consultations booked, one Plaud Note Pro claimed, and plenty of Viking helmets now in circulation.
Didn't make it to Vancouver? The complimentary 30-minute PCI consultation still stands: bit.ly/4yU1srH.
Next stop, Edinburgh. We'll see you at the Europe Community Meeting, October 20 – 22.
#PCINACM26 #PCISecurityCouncil #PCICompliance #Cybersecurity
86% of distributed enterprises were breached last year. Most still feel secure. That's the illusion.
When these brands get hit, the attack rarely stays put. 77% watched it spread to other locations, corporate systems, or shared vendors.
How far it travels comes down to one thing: enforcement. Only 51% mandate one security standard across every location. The rest let individual sites interpret or replace corporate guidelines on their own, and that fragmentation is the path an attack follows.
For brands with franchised locations, when corporate mandates one standard, an attack is 3x more likely to stay where it started. Governance is what keeps one location's incident from becoming a brand-wide breach.
VikingCloud's new research on distributed enterprise cyber risk: bit.ly/4y6vZlP.
#Cybersecurity #DistributedEnterprise #CyberRisk #Ransomware
