At the UNE College of Business Spark Series event, “The Business of Cyber Defense: How Leaders Prepare for and Recover from Cyber Threats," a business owner unpacked exactly what unfolded when European cyber criminals hacked into his company’s data, hijacked it, and demanded nearly $1.7 million in bitcoins to get it back, threatening the company with irreversible losses. Story by Deirdre Fleming Stires, October 20, 2025.

Uprise Partners was proud to collaborate with the University of New England College of Business on this year’s Spark Series event: The Business of Cyber Defense: How Leaders Prepare for and Recover from Cyber threats. As a company deeply committed to helping organizations strengthen their cybersecurity posture, we were honored to help bring together business leaders, educators, and cybersecurity experts for this important conversation.

Today, the question isn’t will your company be disrupted, but how often—and how quickly you’ll bounce back. In this blog we cover six real-world examples, from Vermont floods to Florida hurricanes, that show how an “immune-system” approach to culture, people, process, tech hygiene, and outside expertise keeps business humming when the unexpected hits.

Uprise has expanded its strategic services portfolio by adding Virtual Chief Information Officers (vCIOs) to provide executive-level IT guidance and enhanced customer service to clients through technology roadmap development, proactive IT planning, and decision-making around infrastructure modernization, cybersecurity, and cloud strategy.