Cybersecurity · Long Island

Cybersecurity Services on Long Island

For Long Island organizations that watched ransomware take down a county government and two nearby school districts and want their own defenses checked. NetSys runs managed detection and response on every device, locks down Microsoft 365 sign-ins and email, scans for the exposed systems attackers hunt for, trains staff and keeps backups an attacker cannot reach.

All IT services in Long Island, NY

The short answer

NetSys provides cybersecurity services on Long Island: ThreatDown managed detection and response on every endpoint, Microsoft Defender for Business, multifactor authentication and Entra ID Conditional Access, Barracuda email protection, Rapid7 InsightVM vulnerability scanning, KnowBe4 training and immutable Datto or Veeam backups with tested restores. An engineer acts on alerts rather than forwarding them. Nassau and western Suffolk are inside our on-site area, so engineers visit for firewall installs and security walk-throughs. Most engagements start with the free external penetration test, a remote test of your internet-facing systems within an agreed scope, and agreements run month to month.

Service information by The NetSys Group. Our editorial standards.

How cybersecurity is delivered for Long Island organizations

Detection and response run remotely, because attackers do not wait for anyone to drive. ThreatDown MDR watches every endpoint, Microsoft 365 sign-in and mailbox alerts feed the same queue, and an engineer isolates a compromised laptop or disables a stolen account within minutes of the alert, wherever the device happens to be. On-site work covers what a remote session cannot: installing and hardening a firewall, walking the office to find open closets, unmanaged devices and passwords taped to monitors, and rebuilding machines after an incident. Nassau and western Suffolk are 45 to 75 minutes from our Park Slope office with light traffic, so those visits are routine. Patchogue and Port Jefferson are 50 to 60 miles out, so we confirm drive time first, and East End organizations are protected remotely with the same stack. Monitoring runs 24/7 from Brooklyn, and so does emergency service. Our staffed help-desk hours are 4 a.m. to 11 p.m. Eastern time, seven days a week. The proposal states severe-incident escalation, authorized remediation and any other after-hours work.

What the Suffolk County attack showed

Suffolk County's 2022 ransomware attack is the most thoroughly documented incident on the Island. According to the county's forensic findings, reported by The Record, attackers exploited the Log4j vulnerability in the county clerk's office in December 2021 and spent about eight months inside before stealing data on September 1, 2022 and deploying ransomware on September 8. A folder of passwords to critical systems, kept unprotected on the clerk's network, let them reach the wider county environment. Email for more than 10,000 county workers went down, 911 dispatchers took calls by hand, and the county had spent nearly $5.5 million on recovery and investigation by spring 2023. BlackCat claimed the attack. The lessons apply to a 20-person office: patch internet-facing systems quickly, scan for the ones you forgot, keep credentials in a vault such as Keeper, separate departments on the network, and have someone watching endpoint telemetry during those eight quiet months.

School districts, a comptroller's office and the attacks small offices see

Two Nassau school districts were hit by Ryuk ransomware in the summer of 2019. Rockville Centre paid $88,000 in bitcoin after the demand was negotiated down; Mineola did not pay, because it had a backup the attackers had not reached. The same year a fraudster posing as an existing vendor used a bogus email account to get more than $700,000 paid out by the Nassau County Comptroller's Office, money later recovered. Those two patterns, ransomware and payment fraud, are what most Long Island businesses actually face. Our answer to the first is immutable, off-site backups restored on a schedule, plus endpoint detection that stops encryption early. Our answer to the second is Barracuda filtering, DMARC to reduce spoofing of your own domain, alerts on suspicious inbox rules and impossible-travel sign-ins, and a written rule that no payment detail changes without a phone call to a known number.

Regulators and insurers Long Island firms answer to

New York's breach law, General Business Law section 899-aa, requires a business to notify affected residents within thirty days after it discovers a breach, and to notify the Department of State, the State Police and the Attorney General, plus the Department of Financial Services for its covered entities. Insurance agencies, brokers and other DFS licensees fall under 23 NYCRR Part 500, which since November 1, 2025 requires MFA for anyone accessing their information systems and a maintained asset inventory. Medical groups answer to the HIPAA Security Rule, and tax preparers and auto dealers to the FTC Safeguards Rule. Defense suppliers along Route 110 and in Hauppauge should note that CMMC Phase 2 was suspended on July 13, 2026, while Level 1 and Level 2 self-assessments, a current SPRS score, DFARS 252.204-7012 and NIST SP 800-171 Revision 2 remain in force. Cyber insurers ask for the same evidence at renewal. This is general information, not legal advice.

The first 30 days of a Long Island security engagement

We begin with the free external penetration test, which shows what an attacker sees from the internet: open remote desktop ports, an unpatched VPN appliance, a forgotten web server. Week one deploys ThreatDown and Defender for Business to every endpoint and turns on centralized alerting. Week two locks down identity: MFA for every user, Conditional Access blocking legacy sign-ins and unmanaged devices, administrator accounts separated from daily ones, and Keeper for shared credentials. Week three covers email and data: SPF, DKIM and DMARC records, Barracuda filtering, a Rapid7 InsightVM internal scan and immutable backups with a first restore test. Week four sets a KnowBe4 baseline phishing test and delivers a written report ranking what remains, from unsupported Windows 10 machines to firewall rules nobody can explain. After that the work becomes the ongoing monthly service.

What is included

Cybersecurity on Long Island: what NetSys delivers

Detection and response

ThreatDown managed detection and response with EDR agents on every workstation, laptop and server, monitored 24/7
Microsoft Defender for Business and Rapid7 InsightIDR telemetry from identities, email and endpoints, with a person acting on alerts

Identity and email

Entra ID Conditional Access and multifactor authentication across Microsoft 365, with legacy authentication switched off
Privileged access and privileged identity management so admin rights are granted just in time and removed afterwards

Exposure and recovery

Rapid7 InsightVM vulnerability scanning on a schedule, with findings fixed rather than filed
Cisco Meraki or Fortinet firewall management, segmentation and DNS filtering on office and remote devices

Published case study

Firewall, antivirus and maintenance for a five-person office

A five-person office needed the basics done properly rather than an enterprise stack. NetSys replaced the internet provider's router with a business-grade firewall configured with sensible rules, secure remote access and logging, deployed managed antivirus on every machine with updates and alerts handled centrally, and put patching, backup checks and health reviews on a schedule. The agreement covers what the office needs and nothing it does not, month to month. No outcome figures were measured for publication.

Read the full case study (5-person office)

From our client work

Cybersecurity work for other clients

Insurance
Regional title insurance company
Barracuda email protection for 85 users, phishing simulations, employee security training, and MFA deployment.
Security Awareness & Phishing Training IT for Insurance Agencies and Brokers

Client names are withheld. These examples were chosen for the work involved, not for where the client is, so none is presented as a Long Island client.

What cybersecurity costs in Long Island

Cybersecurity is priced per user per month when it runs as an ongoing service, and per project for an assessment or a remediation. What moves the number: how many devices and identities are in scope, how much incident remediation and recovery is needed beyond the monitoring and authorized MDR actions in scope, which compliance standard the evidence has to satisfy, and whether the Microsoft 365 tenant is already on Business Premium or the security tooling comes from us. The free external penetration test costs nothing and runs remotely before any of that. Our managed IT pricing page explains how the fee is built.

How the monthly fee is built

Who this fits, and who it does not

Best fit: businesses with enough people, money movement or regulated data that a breach would hurt, and no security team of their own: professional practices, healthcare groups, importers, financial firms, nonprofits and agencies holding client credentials. Companies with an internal IT person fit as a co-managed arrangement.

Cybersecurity on Long Island: FAQs

Do you provide on-site cybersecurity on Long Island?

Yes, across Nassau County and western Suffolk. Engineers come on site for firewall installation and hardening, physical security walk-throughs of closets and workstations, Wi-Fi reviews and rebuilding machines after an incident. Monitoring, detection and response run remotely around the clock, because that is how alerts are stopped in minutes. For offices near Patchogue and Port Jefferson we confirm drive time before booking a visit, and East End organizations receive the same security stack and response remotely, without on-site work.

How much does cybersecurity cost for a Long Island business?

The ongoing service is billed per user each month at a rate an assessment sets, and remediation projects are quoted separately after scoping. The main drivers are the number of users, endpoints and servers, how many offices and firewalls are in scope, whether you need compliance evidence for HIPAA, NYDFS Part 500 or the FTC Safeguards Rule, and whether security licensing comes from us or from Microsoft 365 plans you already pay for. The free external penetration test costs nothing and usually shapes the first quote.

Do Long Island insurance agencies have to follow NYDFS Part 500?

Agencies and brokers licensed by the New York Department of Financial Services are covered entities, so yes, unless a specific exemption applies. Since November 1, 2025, Part 500 has required MFA for anyone accessing a covered entity's information systems and a documented asset inventory, on top of the risk assessment, policies, training and annual compliance filing due by April 15. Smaller agencies may qualify for the limited exemption in section 500.19(a), which narrows some duties but keeps others. We implement the technical controls and produce the evidence your compliance lead signs off on.

What is the free external penetration test?

It is a remote test of your internet-facing systems within a scope we agree in writing before we start: your public IP addresses, firewall, VPN or remote access portal, email domain records and any websites or portals you host. A NetSys engineer probes them the way an attacker would and writes up what is exposed, ranked by risk, with the fix for each finding. It does not touch internal systems or require any software on your network. Organizations often use the report to brief their insurer or board, whether or not they hire us.

What should we do in the first hour of a ransomware attack?

Call your dedicated engineer immediately and do not pay, wipe or reboot anything. Disconnect affected computers from the network by unplugging the cable or turning off Wi-Fi, but leave them powered on so evidence survives. Do not use email if you suspect the mailbox is compromised; use phones. Call your cyber insurer's hotline, because many policies require you to use their panel. We isolate devices through ThreatDown, disable compromised accounts, confirm the immutable backups are intact and start a recovery plan. Every ransomware incident we have handled in the past three years was fully recovered.

We supply defense contractors. Where does CMMC stand right now?

On July 13, 2026 the Department of War suspended CMMC Phase 2, which would have made third-party Level 2 certification a condition of award starting November 10, 2026, and put Phases 3 and 4 on hold while a reform task force reviews the program. The task force report, due September 11, 2026, has not been made public. Still in force: Level 1 and Level 2 self-assessments, a current SPRS score and affirmation, DFARS 252.204-7012 and NIST SP 800-171 Revision 2. We help Long Island suppliers keep those controls and their evidence current.

Start with the free test

See what an attacker sees before they do.

The free assessment is a remote external penetration test, limited to the information available to NetSys and the external scope we agree with you. Internal reviews and ongoing security management are scoped separately.

Explore Cybersecurity Scope 845-203-3914