Most IT failures are not inevitable. They are predictable, preventable, and the result of decisions that seemed reasonable at the time. Near Miss: Preventable IT Failures Threatening Your Business Security is a guide for business owners and MSP operators who want to understand the specific failure patterns that put businesses at risk, before those patterns produce an incident.
The title comes from aviation. A near miss is an incident that almost happened, close enough to reveal the vulnerability, not close enough to cause the damage. In IT, near misses happen constantly. The backup that was never tested. The firewall that nobody was monitoring. The employee who clicked a phishing link and got lucky. The MSP that fixed the symptom without finding the cause. This book is about learning from those near misses before they become disasters.
What the Book Covers
The monitoring trap. More alerts is not more security. MSPs that configure their RMM tools to generate maximum alerts create alert fatigue. A condition where technicians stop paying attention because there is too much noise to meaningfully review. The book covers what active monitoring actually looks like and how to tell whether your IT provider is doing it.
Backup versus business continuity. Backup is a component of business continuity, not a substitute for it. The book covers the difference. And why an MSP that has never tested a restore from backup does not know whether the backup works.
The cyber insurance gap. Modern cyber insurance policies require documented security controls as a condition of coverage. Carriers are denying claims when those controls were not in place at the time of the incident. The book covers what carriers now require and how to verify whether your MSP is meeting that standard.
AI-powered attacks. The threat landscape shifted in 2023. AI tools lowered the skill floor for attackers, made phishing emails grammatically convincing, and enabled malware variants that evade signature-based detection. The book covers what changed and what the defense requires.
The questions business owners should be asking. Not “do you have antivirus?”, every MSP has antivirus. The questions that reveal operational maturity are harder: when did you last test a restore, how do you handle alerts, what would happen in the first hour of a ransomware attack?
Who This Book Is For
Business owners who want to understand whether their IT provider is actually protecting them. Or just providing the appearance of protection. MSP owners who want to build a security practice that can withstand scrutiny from clients, insurance carriers, and regulators. Operations leaders who are responsible for the security posture of a managed services business.
Related Reading
- MSP Cybersecurity Hub. Everything Rewired MSP Has Published on Cybersecurity
- Backup Is Not Business Continuity: What Every Business Owner Must Know
- The Restore Nobody Tested: Why Backup Restore Testing Is the Only Thing That Saves You
- The Monitoring Trap: Why Your MSP’s RMM Tool Is Making You Less Secure
- The Denied Claim: What Business Owners Are Learning Too Late About Cyber Insurance