A Practical Checklist for AI Knowledge Management
Connecting data is only the start. Use this AI knowledge management checklist to build internal assistants with approved sources, access controls, traceable answers, and testing.
Insights
Read Bart McDonough's latest thinking on AI, cybersecurity, leadership, strategy, and culture.
Published insights
Before You Scale AI: Five Guardrails for Safer Business Adoption
Before AI experiments become everyday workflows, set clear boundaries. Explore five guardrails to strengthen accountability, protect information, and guide safer business adoption.
A Practical Checklist for Business Continuity
Could your team keep essential services running during an outage? Use this practical business continuity checklist to identify priorities, assign responsibilities, and test readiness.
Cybersecurity Basics for Business Leaders: Six Practical Steps to Reduce Risk
Cybersecurity is a leadership responsibility, not just an IT task. Explore six practical steps to protect essential systems, clarify ownership, and prepare your business to recover.
A Practical Checklist for AI Workflow Design
A polished AI demo is not an operational workflow. Use this practical checklist to define outcomes, control access, set approvals, and build accountability before launch.
Cybersecurity That Works: Protect Accounts, Reduce Risk, and Prepare to Recover
Cybersecurity is a business responsibility, not a software shopping list. Learn how to identify critical systems, secure key accounts, assign ownership, and prepare to recover.
A Practical Checklist for Phishing Defenses
A convincing email can fool even careful employees. Use this practical phishing defense checklist to protect accounts, verify payment requests, and respond quickly to threats.
AI for Business Leaders: Start Small, Protect Your Data, Measure What Matters
AI can speed up work, but polished answers can hide costly mistakes. Learn how to run focused pilots, protect business data, and measure results before expanding adoption.
A Practical Checklist for Organizational Resilience
Could your business operate without key systems, suppliers, or leaders? Use this practical resilience checklist to set recovery priorities, assign owners, and prepare for disruption.
Cybersecurity That Works: A Practical Starting Plan for Business Leaders
Protect your business before a crisis hits. Learn how to assign security accountability, prioritize critical services, and secure the accounts that keep operations running.
A Practical Checklist for AI Agent Permissions
An AI agent that reads emails should not automatically be able to send them. Use this practical checklist to define access boundaries and enforce permissions before deployment.
Before You Scale AI, Put These Five Guardrails in Place
A polished AI demo is not a deployment plan. Learn how clear ownership, data boundaries, and practical guardrails help leaders scale AI without losing control of business risk.
A Practical Checklist for Incident Response
When a cyber incident strikes, clear decisions matter. Use this practical checklist to assign authority, limit damage, coordinate communications, and verify recovery.
Cybersecurity for Small Businesses: Protect What Matters and Prepare to Recover
Protect your small business before a cyber crisis hits. Learn how to identify critical systems, assign security responsibilities, strengthen safeguards, and prepare for recovery.
A Practical Checklist for Cross-Functional Collaboration
Stop projects from stalling between departments. Use this practical checklist to align shared goals, clarify ownership, and involve the right teams before costly problems arise.
Cybersecurity Basics: A Practical Action Plan for Business Leaders
Protect the systems your business depends on. Learn how to prioritize cyber risks, assign clear ownership, secure critical accounts, and prepare for operational disruptions.
A Practical Checklist for AI Reliability
A convincing AI answer can still lead to costly mistakes. Use this practical checklist to define tasks, set data boundaries, and establish controls before deployment.
AI That Earns Its Place: A Practical Guide to Safer Business Adoption
Move beyond impressive demos to AI that delivers real business value. Learn how to choose practical use cases, define accountability, limit access, and evaluate risk before scaling.
A Practical Checklist for Team Accountability
Missed deadlines often start with unclear agreements. Use this practical team accountability checklist to define outcomes, clarify ownership, and make commitments visible.
Cybersecurity That Works: Protect Accounts, Verify Payments, Practice Recovery
Protect the systems your business depends on. Learn how clear accountability, stronger account access, payment verification, and recovery planning build practical cybersecurity.
A Practical Checklist for Evaluating AI Output
Polished AI answers can hide flawed facts and reasoning. Use this practical checklist to verify key claims, set acceptance criteria, and match review effort to real-world risk.
AI at Work: Start Small, Protect Your Data, Keep Humans Accountable
Bring AI into your business without giving it unchecked authority. Start with a narrow use case, protect sensitive data, and keep people accountable with five practical questions.
A Practical Checklist for Vendor Security
Every vendor introduces risk. Use this practical checklist to assess data exposure, verify safeguards, assign accountability, and strengthen security before signing a contract.
Cybersecurity That Works: A Practical Plan for Business Leaders
Cybersecurity starts with business risk, not buying tools. Learn how to assign accountability, protect critical accounts, and build a practical plan to keep your business running.
A Practical Checklist for Technology Investment
Before buying new technology, define the business outcome you need. This practical checklist helps leaders evaluate evidence, costs, ownership, and implementation—not just features.
Cybersecurity Basics: Five Practical Steps to Protect Your Accounts and Business
An unexpected login prompt or payment request can put your business at risk. Discover five practical cybersecurity habits to protect accounts, verify requests and prepare for recovery.
A Practical Checklist for Security Metrics
Turn security dashboards into better decisions. Use this practical checklist to connect metrics with business risks, reliable evidence, clear priorities, and accountable action.
AI Is a Business Decision: A Practical Guide to Safer Adoption
AI adoption is a leadership decision, not just a technology purchase. Learn how to define focused pilots, protect data, assign accountability, and measure business value before scaling.
Looking for a Bart McDonough Press Article?
Looking for a specific Bart McDonough press article? Start with his official media index and use headline, publisher, or format clues to identify the right coverage.
A Practical Checklist for Executive Technology Literacy
A polished tech demo is not proof of business value. Use this executive checklist to connect technology to critical operations, ask better questions, and demand credible evidence.
Cybersecurity Basics: A Practical Plan to Protect Your Business
Protect your small business without buying every security tool. Learn how to prioritize critical assets, secure accounts, and build a repeatable routine that reduces risk.
A Practical Checklist for AI Vendor Selection
An impressive AI demo isn't enough. Use this practical vendor selection checklist to assess business value, data protection, operational controls, and your ability to exit.
AI at Work: A Practical Guide to Safer Adoption
Adopt workplace AI with confidence: start with a focused business problem, protect sensitive data, and set clear review responsibilities before expanding beyond a pilot.
A Practical Checklist for AI Data Governance
Approve AI use cases with confidence. This practical checklist helps teams define data access, assign accountable owners, assess providers, and verify safeguards.
Cybersecurity Basics: A Practical Plan to Protect Your Business
Protect your business without becoming a security expert. Learn how to identify critical systems, assign responsibility, and prioritize practical safeguards against costly disruptions.
A Practical Checklist for Ransomware Recovery
Restoring files is not enough. Use this practical ransomware recovery checklist to contain threats, preserve evidence, and restore trusted business operations safely.
Cybersecurity Basics: A Practical Plan to Protect Your Business
One fraudulent email can put your business at risk. Learn how to assign security ownership, protect critical accounts, and build a practical cybersecurity plan using NIST guidance.
A Practical Checklist for Decision Making
Make better decisions without getting stuck in analysis. This practical checklist helps you define objectives, compare options, weigh uncertainty, and choose with confidence.
AI at Work: Start Small, Protect Your Data, Keep Humans Accountable
Make AI adoption a controlled business experiment. Start with one measurable task, set clear data boundaries, verify outputs, and keep people accountable before expanding.
AI and Cybersecurity: Who Gains the Advantage—and How to Prepare
AI helps attackers exploit stolen context and defenders investigate threats. Learn why trusted access, payment verification, and timely fixes matter more than ever.
Android Malware: How to Detect It, Remove It, and Protect Your Phone
Suspicious apps can put your phone, accounts, and money at risk. Learn how to detect Android malware, remove harmful apps safely, and protect your device against future threats.
AI Cybersecurity: Benefits, Risks, and a Practical Security Checklist
AI can accelerate cyber defense—but unchecked access and actions create new risks. Learn how to evaluate AI security tools, preserve human oversight, and protect your business.
Bart McDonough Quoted in InvestmentNews: Cybersecurity Lessons for Investment Advisers
Explore Bart McDonough’s InvestmentNews commentary and practical cybersecurity lessons for investment advisers, from vendor risk and device updates to protecting client data.
Public Cloud: Why It Can Be Better—and When It Isn’t
Public cloud can accelerate deployment and scale with demand—but it isn’t always the best fit. Learn how to weigh speed, cost, security, reliability, and control for each workload.
Phone Malware: How to Recognize It, Remove It, and Protect Your Android or iPhone
Is your phone infected—or is that warning a scam? Learn how to spot phone malware, check Android and iPhone security settings, and respond safely without falling for fake fixes.
Fraud19 Data Breach: What Is Verified—and What Still Needs Confirmation
Was Fraud19 a data breach or a speaking event? Explore what surviving sources reveal about Bart McDonough’s material—and which key details still need confirmation.
The Shared Security Model: Who Protects What—and How to Prevent Fraud
A secure cloud service can’t stop every fraudulent payment. Learn where provider protection ends, what your business controls, and why verification matters.
Your Worst Cybersecurity Nightmare: How to Prepare, Respond, and Recover
Locked files, hacked email, or redirected payments? Learn how to identify a cyberattack, contain the damage, secure compromised accounts, and prepare for recovery.
Fraud19 Keynote: Context and a Current Fraud-Prevention Guide
A familiar sender can still carry fraudulent payment instructions. Explore Fraud19 keynote context and practical steps to verify transactions, prevent impersonation, and protect funds.
Public Cloud: Why It’s Growing Rapidly—and How Businesses Can Benefit
Public cloud helps businesses scale faster and access AI infrastructure. Explore what drives its growth, how service models differ, and why workload selection and controls matter.
A Practical Checklist for AI Adoption: Start Small, Protect Data, Prove Value
Move from AI demos to measurable business results. Use this practical checklist to define a focused pilot, protect sensitive data, assign accountability, and prove value before scaling.
Cybersecurity That Works: Protect Your Accounts, Verify Requests, and Prepare to Recover
Strong cybersecurity starts with repeatable business processes. Learn how to protect accounts, verify payment requests, maintain systems, and prepare to recover from attacks.
A Practical Checklist for Identity and Access Controls
Disabled accounts can leave active access behind. Use this practical identity and access checklist to inventory permissions, assign owners, and verify that security controls work.
Before You Scale AI: Five Controls That Protect Your Business
Before scaling AI, establish controls that protect sensitive data, clarify accountability, and limit unintended actions. Learn how to build safer, sustainable business adoption.
Leadership That Scales: Clear Decisions, Accountable Teams, and Responsible Innovation
Strong teams need more than talent. Discover how clear priorities, explicit decision rights, and accountable leadership help organizations scale and innovate responsibly.
Cybersecurity Basics: Five Practical Steps to Protect Your Accounts and Business
A routine email or delayed update can put your business at risk. Discover five practical cybersecurity steps to strengthen account access, protect data, and prepare for recovery.
Why Did We Acquire a Cybersecurity Firm? The Business Case—and What Customers Should Expect
Why acquire a cybersecurity firm? Explore Agio’s business rationale, the challenge of integrating IT and security, and what customers should expect beyond a broader service catalog.
Brilliance in the Basics #1: The Power of Two-Factor Authentication
A stolen password shouldn't unlock your digital life. Learn how two-factor authentication protects accounts, where it falls short, and why stronger methods and safe recovery matter.
Detection and Response First, Prevention Second: A Practical Cybersecurity Strategy
What happens when cybersecurity safeguards fail? Learn how to prioritize detection, response, and recovery while keeping essential prevention measures firmly in place.
Brilliance in the Basics: An Essential Cybersecurity Guide for Everyone
Protect your digital life without unnecessary complexity. Learn how to secure email, stop reusing passwords, strengthen sign-ins, and prioritize the accounts that matter most.
Why You Need a Password Manager: A Cybersecurity Must-Have
Reusing passwords puts more than one account at risk. Learn how a password manager creates unique credentials, protects your vault, and makes stronger security practical.
Spear Phishing: A Threat to Hedge Funds and Private Equity Firms
Trusted emails can conceal costly fraud. Learn how hedge funds and private equity firms can protect payment instructions, investor data and deal communications from spear phishing.
Ransomware Prevention Simplified: Protect Your Files and Your Business
Could your backups survive a ransomware attack? Learn practical ways to protect accounts, isolate recovery copies, and prepare your files and business for a safer recovery.
Could Someone Hack a Private Equity Firm From Its Lobby?
Could a visitor in reception access a private equity firm’s confidential data? Explore how weak security boundaries create risk—and why entering the office should never mean digital trust.
Office 365 for Hedge Funds and Private Equity: A Practical Microsoft 365 Guide
Microsoft 365 success goes beyond a subscription. Learn how hedge funds and private equity firms can align licensing, security, and compliance with investment workflows.
Private Equity vs. Hedge Funds: Which Is Harder to Secure?
Private equity faces portfolio-wide security complexity; hedge funds face time-critical disruption. Explore how scope, control, and operational dependencies shape cyber risk.
The Four Dimensions of Cybersecurity That Really Matter
Cybersecurity takes more than email filters. Discover how people, processes, technology, and governance work together to prevent costly mistakes and strengthen business resilience.
5 Best Practices to Prepare Your Firm for Cybersecurity Compliance Regulations in 2026
Can your firm prove its cybersecurity controls work? Explore five compliance practices for 2026, from mapping financial-sector regulations to documenting controls and accountability.
Lost Laptops, Lost Data: What to Do Now—and How to Protect Yourself Next Time
Lost your laptop? Learn what to report, how to locate and lock your device, and why encryption and backups play different roles in protecting your data and recovering files.
IT and Cybersecurity Teams Need to Work Together: A Practical Guide
When uptime and security collide, who decides? Learn how IT and cybersecurity teams can align priorities, assign ownership, and make risk decisions that protect critical business services.
Can AI Crack 51% of Passwords in Under a Minute? What PassGAN Really Shows
Can AI really crack 51% of passwords in under a minute? Explore what the PassGAN benchmark measured, where its claims fall short, and why account security is more nuanced.
How to Stop Wire Transfer Fraud: Prevention and Emergency Response
A familiar email can hide a costly scam. Learn how to verify wire instructions, prevent payment fraud, and act immediately if you have already sent money to a criminal.
Detect Phishing 101: How to Spot a Scam Before You Click
A familiar sender or polished email can still hide a scam. Learn how to spot phishing red flags, inspect links, and verify suspicious requests before you click.
Protecting Your Privacy: How to Prevent Unwanted Tracking by Loved Ones
Unwanted location tracking can hide in shared accounts, apps, and devices. Learn how to review access, use iPhone Safety Check, and put your safety first.
Why Do Clients Call Us? Turning IT and Cybersecurity Problems Into Clear Business Decisions
From recurring outages to uncertain cyber risk, learn when to call an IT and cybersecurity adviser—and how to turn technical problems into accountable business decisions.
Brilliance in the Basics #4: Endpoint Protection
Endpoint protection takes more than antivirus. Learn how device inventories, security updates, and clear response ownership help individuals and small businesses reduce risk.
Still Using the Same Three Passwords From Five Years Ago? Here’s How to Break the Habit
Still recycling the same passwords? Learn why reuse—not age—is the real risk, and how passkeys, a password manager, and multifactor authentication can protect your accounts.
Brilliance in the Basics #2: Diverse Passwords for Every Account
One reused password can turn a single breach into multiple account takeovers. Learn how unique passwords, a password manager, MFA, and passkeys help protect your digital life.
Press & Media: Bart McDonough
Connect with Bart McDonough for expert perspectives on AI and cybersecurity. Find media contacts, speaking inquiry details, and biographical background for your next story.
Internet Explorer Zero-Day CVE-2018-8653: What Happened and What to Do Now
An old Internet Explorer zero-day in a security scan? Learn what CVE-2018-8653 means today, why legacy components matter, and how to verify patches without panic.
The Truth About Public Wi-Fi: What’s Safe, What Isn’t, and When to Use a VPN
Public Wi-Fi isn’t automatically unsafe. Learn what HTTPS protects, what network operators can still see, and why fake hotspots remain a risk—even on encrypted connections.
Why Are Institutional Investors Embracing the Cloud and Stronger Cyber Controls Now?
Institutional investors need more than flexible cloud capacity. Discover why stronger cyber controls, data permissions and AI governance matter for investment resilience.
Digital Value Is in the Eye of the Beholder
Your digital assets are worth more than their price tags. Learn how personal value, privacy, and the consequences of losing control can guide smarter cybersecurity priorities.
SEC Warns About Vendor Payments: How to Prevent Payment-Redirection Fraud
A real invoice can still send your money to a criminal. Learn what the SEC’s vendor-payment fraud warning means and why verifying bank-account changes matters.
5 Growing Cyber Risks Facing Hedge Fund and Private Equity Firms
Fraudulent wire requests, account takeovers, and AI data leaks threaten investment firms. Explore five cyber risks and practical ways to protect payments and confidential data.
Cybersecurity: The Business Discipline Behind Trust
Cybersecurity isn’t just IT—it’s a business discipline for protecting revenue, operations, and reputation. Learn how resilience, risk, and identity shape modern defense.
AI Isn’t Magic—It’s Leverage (and Liability) at Scale
AI is inevitable—but speed without governance creates costly mistakes. Learn how to operationalize AI responsibly, secure it by design, and measure outcomes at scale.
Cybersecurity: Building Digital Resilience in an Era of Constant Disruption
Cybersecurity is now a core business discipline. Learn how to build resilience—reduce risk, limit blast radius, and recover fast amid ransomware, phishing, and AI-driven threats.
Artificial Intelligence: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How to Use It Safely
AI is now the operating system for modern business. Learn what AI really is, how it works, and how to adopt generative AI with governance and security.
Cybersecurity Today: How to Build Real Resilience in a World That Won’t Slow Down
Cybersecurity is now a leadership and trust challenge. Learn a practical, defensible approach to reduce real risk with fundamentals that stand up to boards, regulators, and attackers.
Cybersecurity in 2026: How to Protect What Matters Without Slowing the Business
Cybersecurity in 2026 is a business survival discipline. Learn a practical, executable strategy to prevent breaches, detect fast, respond well, and recover without bureaucracy.
Artificial Intelligence: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How to Use It Safely
AI is now a daily business tool—and a new risk surface. Learn what AI is (and isn’t), where it creates value, and how to adopt generative AI with governance and security.
Cybersecurity in 2026: How to Build Resilience When Attacks Are Inevitable
In 2026, cybersecurity is about staying operational through inevitable incidents. Learn how to reduce risk, prioritize identity threats, and build true resilience.
AI Isn’t Magic—It’s Leverage
AI isn’t a miracle or a menace—it’s leverage. Learn how predictive, generative, and agentic AI work, where they fail, and how to deploy them with governance and rigor.
Cybersecurity: How to Protect Your Business in a World That Never Stops Attacking
Cybersecurity is now a survival issue. Learn today’s biggest threats—ransomware, BEC, and identity attacks—and the practical steps leaders can take to reduce risk fast.
AI in the Real World: How to Capture Value Without Creating New Risk
AI is now a board-level expectation—but unmanaged use creates new risk. Learn how to drive measurable ROI with practical AI use cases and strong governance.
Cybersecurity in 2026: A Practical Playbook for Defending Modern Organizations
Cybersecurity in 2026 is a business discipline, not just IT. Learn a practical playbook to reduce real risk with identity controls, ransomware readiness, and fast recovery.
Artificial Intelligence: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How to Use It Responsibly
AI is already embedded in business—and it can amplify results or risk. Learn what AI really is, where it delivers value, what can go wrong, and how to adopt it responsibly.
Cybersecurity in 2026: What’s Changed, What Hasn’t, and What to Do About It
Cybersecurity in 2026 is a business survival discipline. Learn how attacks happen now—identity compromise, misconfigurations, vendors, ransomware—and what to do.
Cybersecurity: The Business-Critical Discipline That Keeps Evolving
Cybersecurity is no longer an IT afterthought. Learn why it’s a business-critical operating discipline and how modern threats demand risk reduction and fast recovery.