Photo by Howard Owens.
Paul Marchese’s turn to computers came about in college when a professor suggested a new degree program might be right for him.
Before he even graduated from the University of Rochester with a degree in computer science and mathematics, he had started -- in 1981 -- his own business in Batavia.
"I've always had a drive to try and help people to solve a problem and make technology work for them," Marchese said.
That passion has led Marchese to participate in the publication of a couple of books. The latest was released earlier this month, and Marchese contributed one of the essays in The Cyber Playbook (published by BigRedMedia), "The major cyber dangers that could topple your business."
Drawing on his own experience, Marchese writes about how employees -- and even owners -- can be duped through social engineering (using deception to get a person to divulge information they shouldn't) and phishing (a type of social engineering) to gain access to sensitive data.
We're busy, inattentive, not aware, and with a click, poof, critical data is gone, or maybe encrypted, in what's called a ransomware attack.
Marchese discusses some of the measures businesses can take to protect themselves from these attacks.
"The biggest point that I can stress to anyone I'm talking to, is cybersecurity is not a set and forget; doesn't work," Marchese said. "The old stalwarts today, the Macafees, the Nortons, all those anti-virus programs, none of them work. It's all essentially placebo based."
Marchese promotes managed services, layers of security and an AI-driven security program called Sentinel One.
"We've been using it for almost five years," Marchese said. "The tech is continually changing, and the way hackers come in is continually changing. It's a moving target. That's why I said it's not set and forget it."
Marchese's first book was self-published and written for the non-IT person to help him or her understand the computer technology and wired world.
"I think it was chapter 10 in that book that was terminology," Marchese said. "I armed them with all the nomenclature an IT person would normally make themselves look better because they'd use these terms that nobody understands."
Marchese’s first collaborative book project came out a year ago, "From Exposed to Secure" (published by Morgan James). The book also covers a range of cybersecurity issues. Marchese's chapter is "Your Workforce Is Your Biggest Cybersecurity Risk." It provides eight best practices to reduce the risk.
Over the past 44 years, Marchese Computers, 220 Ellicott St., Batavia, has grown from one employee to 10 employees. The mission has remained the same, Marchese said.
"My goal is to remove the stress, the worry from whoever I touch, as far as a client, so they can grow their business because it's symbiotic," Marchese said. "They grow, we grow, and it has worked very well for me."
By lasting more than four decades, Marchese has had plenty of opportunity to kid his uncle, Vic Marchese, owner of Main St. Pizza Company, about his decision not to invest in Paul's company early on.
"I said, 'How'd you like to buy half of my company for $1,500, and he goes, 'I don't know; no, I don’t think so. Computers are just a fad.' Computers are just a fad. I will never let him live that down. And I keep telling him, 'Oh, just a fad, huh?'"
