About Us

SecureTheVillage is a highly motivated team of cybersecurity and privacy leaders making a difference.

Smaller business owners and executives. Nonprofit directors. IT service providers / MSPs. Information security management professionals. Cyber-attorneys. Cyber-risk managers. Cyber-educators and students. Law enforcement.

And anyone else who cares.

We work together. We learn together. We help each other. And we help our neighbors.

Vision:

Make Los Angeles the cyber-safest metropolitan region in the United States for smaller businesses, nonprofits, families and individuals.

Mission:

We are on a mission to secure 1 million people by 12/31/2027.

Our Role

SecureTheVillage is a force multiplier, a catalyst, and a resource. We make 1 + 1 = 1000.

The current information security model - where every business takes care of its own information security - doesn’t work for smaller businesses, for smaller nonprofits, and for individuals and families.

Our unique team-based community model does. It offers a new transformative approach to cybersecurity that uniquely reflects their realities and opportunities.

We view our work as “securing the last mile” … enlisting everyone to protect themselves, their organizations, their families: at home, at work, and everywhere in between. SecureTheVillage provides education, support, and advocacy. Whether it’s an IT service provider with 100 clients or it’s a son concerned that his mother might be scammed, we’re here - together - making sure everyone has the knowledge, skills, and commitment needed to do their part in protecting themselves and others.

SecureTheVillage is one team on a team of teams, a proud member of Nonprofit Cyber, a 40-member coalition of cybersecurity nonprofits working collaboratively on tangible results. Working locally in the Los Angeles metropolitan region, we’re actively playing our part in the larger challenge of building a cybersecure global village.

  • Build a Governing Board with the fund-raising capacity to achieve our vision.

  • Grow LA Cybersecure™ to 8 IT service provider / MSP Cohorts and 4 Business / Nonprofit Cohorts with a run rate of 20 cohorts by end of 2025.

  • Secure 3 major investor sponsors / partners.

2024 - 25 Objectives

  • Measurably Improve Cybersecurity: LA Cybersecure™ is our unique learn-by-doing team-based Cohort program for businesses and nonprofits, and for IT service providers and Managed Service Providers (MSPs). Through LA Cybersecure™ we accomplish the following:

  • Measurably improve the information security management capability of smaller businesses and nonprofits while keeping the price affordable.

  • Provide a large Return on Investment on the price of LA Cybersecure™ to IT service providers and MSPs while improving their capacity to deliver reasonable security practices to their clients.

  • Leverage IT service providers and MSPs to bring their clients into LA Cybersecure™.

  • Leverage the businesses and nonprofits to improve security and privacy practices of staff and other stakeholders, turning them into CyberGuardians™ with the knowledge, skills, and commitment needed to meet the ongoing challenges of cyber crime, cyber privacy, and information security.

  • Support the Victimized. When you need help.

    • Smaller businesses and nonprofits

    • Individuals and families

  • Build Community: It takes a village.

    • Engage the entire diverse community of local stakeholders as CyberGuardian™ Pros, including IT service providers, MSPs, MSSPs, information security practitioners, cyber-attorneys, cyber-insurance, bankers, law enforcement, educators, students, and others.

    • We encourage commerce among the CyberGuardian™ Pros.

    • Support information security providers and others who want to commercially engage with our community.

    • Provide opportunities for cybersecurity students to get practical hands-on experience.

  • Work Collaboratively. No one is as smart as everyone.

  • Community Outreach: Grow the village.

    • Work through established channels to reach smaller businesses and nonprofits, families and individuals. These include financial institutions, larger companies with smaller supply chain partners, Chambers of Commerce, Business and Professional Associations, and government small business programs.

    • Use all forms of media to reach the smaller businesses, nonprofits, families, and individuals who need to protect themselves and their organizations.

  • Business Operations: Performance is reality.

    • Implement excellent business practices to implement at scale as we grow.

    • Become financially self-sustainable by delivering exceptionally high value to IT service providers / MSPs, information security providers, and others. While we file our tax return as a nonprofit, we intend to grow SecureTheVillage so that program revenues exceed costs.

Key Strategic Imperatives:

We work in hard problem areas

  • IT service providers, MSPs, and in-house IT who must ensure security of the ever-more complex digital infrastructure and who, more than ever, must have a “seat at the table” to help owners and executives make reasonable cybersecurity risk decisions. The business implications of cybersecurity beyond the information technology considerations.

  • Small business and nonprofit business owners and executives who must reasonably manage their information risk and the trauma caused by inevitable cyber-disruptions in the face of increased cyber risk, evolving cyber threats, ever-present vulnerabilities, and escalating legal requirements.

  • Village “residents,” the individuals and families who must secure their financial, health, and other identities; securely maintain their increasingly digital world; manage their privacy; protect their parents, and teach their children sound cybersecurity habits.