Taking a photo of Vancord’s data “nerve center” at its Milford headquarters can be tricky: Any numbered labels must be kept out of the frame.A sharp-eyed crook could spot a label and use it to launch a cyberattack, one of the thousands of cybersecurity challenges the company faces every single day.Cybersecurity is a prime focus […]
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Taking a photo of Vancord’s data “nerve center” at its Milford headquarters can be tricky: Any numbered labels must be kept out of the frame.
A sharp-eyed crook could spot a label and use it to launch a cyberattack, one of the thousands of cybersecurity challenges the company faces every single day.
Cybersecurity is a prime focus of Vancord’s services these days as businesses of all sizes face data breaches, phishing attempts and frightening incidents of ransomware attacks, in which vital data is held hostage for money.
“Everything’s happening every day. It’s still out there. It’s still proliferating — there’s still more of it than there was before,” said Michael Grande, president and CEO of Vancord, speaking of threats to cybersecurity. Summing up his company’s approach to this world of online danger, he added, “We are global defenders in a world where good wins.”
Small consultancy growth
Founded as The Business Network Group Consulting in 2005, Vancord was the brainchild of Jeff Grande, Michael Grande’s brother, and their cousin Michael Paone — West Haven natives with deep backgrounds in technology. Grande had worked in network technology at companies like Nortel, while Paone was a data systems expert and database administrator.
“Combining their skills back then, it was perfect,” Michael Grande said. “They were able to really grow the business very quickly as a small consultancy, mostly focused on small business.”
Clients at the time included accountants, doctor offices, school systems and small manufacturers, all looking to outsource some of their technology needs. Many of Vancord’s initial clients are still clients today, he added.
“It’s a testament to both the organization and quality of the work, but also the relationships that we’ve built through years,” Grande said.
As it expanded and added clients, the company developed an expertise in handling the IT and networking needs of school systems, police departments, and cities and governments. Much of the work at the time was helping with unfamiliar technology and dealing with issues like spam.

Michael Grande joined the company in 2009 on the business side, after a career in banking, and the company soon grew to more than 20 employees.
“I had the business, administrative and finance background. Combining those skills was exactly what we needed at that time, and really launched us ahead,” Grande said.
On the service side, the company evolved from IT consulting to becoming a managed service provider for small or medium-sized businesses, “essentially a fully outsourced technology role,” Grande said.
The company eventually outgrew its West Haven offices, moving to a former developer’s office off Post Road in Milford in 2015. It opened a second office in Glastonbury in 2019 to expand into the Hartford area, and now serves clients in five states across the region and employs 53 people, several remotely.
As the company evolved into the 2020s, cybersecurity grew into a more important concern as growing internet access allowed bad actors from across the globe to hack their way into local businesses. First phishing, then ransomware attacks multiplied and forced companies to look outside for help.
“All of these new concerns were arising — mostly based on security,” Grande said. “Cybersecurity really became at the forefront of everyone’s concerns.”
Led by Vice President for Security Services Jason Pufahl, cyber defense became a bigger part of the business. Pufahl, formerly chief information security officer at UConn, developed a suite of cybersecurity services for clients called Our Incident Ready, which has won the company national industry recognition.
The company’s managed service provider and cybersecurity functions operated as two separate entities until last year, when the management team decided to merge the two into Vancord.
“Essentially, it was a merger of two brands,” Grande said. “We manage, we defend and we respond. We manage IT networks, and it’s something we’re very, very good at. We defend because we provide really unique cybersecurity services. And we respond because we have this unique capacity to do incident response.”
To address cybersecurity threats, Vancord takes a holistic approach, starting with a review of the basic building blocks of a secure network.
“It’s not necessarily one perfect software tool,” Grande said. “It’s — how close can we get to making sure the fundamentals are in place?”
Talent, competition struggles
Russia’s war in Ukraine has actually muted some of the cyberattacks coming from Eastern Europe that have targeted small and midsize businesses in recent years. But the sheer volume and sophistication of cyberattacks can overwhelm even the largest IT departments. And the Dark Web is full of plug-and-play weapons that can be used against networks.
“The availability of the tools that the bad actors are using has grown exponentially, and they’re so powerful and they’re so sophisticated,” Grande said. “They can cast a net over thousands of businesses.”
It only takes one open port or one chink in a firewall to result in lost data and millions in losses.
“I don’t think organizations in general are doing enough,” Grande said. “Security generally stands in the way of business efficiency. So, the more complicated that the security team makes doing a job for an organization, employees aren’t happy, customers aren’t happy.”
The talent needed to help fight back against cyberattacks is hard to find, and like many companies in the state, Vancord struggles to recruit and retain talent. The company has been proactive in working with technical and trade schools at both the high school and post-secondary level to train young people in the networking skills needed for the industry.
In Vancord’s industry, degrees and credentials come second to talent, Grande said.
For Vancord, competition in its sector increasingly takes the form of private equity firms, which are buying up smaller IT providers and rolling them into bigger players. Major national players in the space include Presidio and companies that specialize in industries like banking and health care that have very specific security needs.
Despite the lure of private equity buyouts in the IT and cybersecurity sector, Grande said the Vancord team remains devoted to growing the business in Milford.
“From our perspective, we’re here every day, we were working this business,” Grande said. “This is our passion. This is our life. What the future holds, we'll see. But for now, we're just focused on ourselves and delivering for our clients.”
