I was at the #Structure2017 conference and the term hybrid cloud (at last count a day and a half into a two-day conference) has been used 131 times. However – I hazard that between the panelists, interviewers or the audience members who used this term - all have different definitions interpretations of this catchphrase.
Cyber Security
Cyber criminals, state-sponsored hackers and even the occasional disgruntled employee are constantly looking to gain unauthorized access for a variety of purposes: theft of money, cyber espionage, personal information for sale or for use in scams, and damage to critical infrastructure for just a few of the most common.
So how does an organization mitigate an entire world full of continual cyber attacks? Just as buildings have a number of necessary elements of physical security: access control, cameras, alarms and so on; there are similar key elements of cyber security that are absolutely vital for just about any modern business.
It starts with identifying and closing the most common doors that attackers use. For example, phishing attacks on employees are far and away the most common initial point of entry. The breach of even a low-level employee account can quickly turn into an escalation in access privileges and the ability to reach sensitive information. This is also true of smart devices, which are generally more poorly secured than computers and phones.
What some are calling ‘Industrie 4.0’ or the Smart Factory has become a reality, and has accelerated the digital transformation in the industrial sector. This increased reliance on digital systems has led to an increased emphasis on industrial control systems (ICS) security in the manufacturing sector.
The U.S. Federal Government is a behemoth that touches every aspect of American life – and today the services and information needed by U.S. citizens are increasingly found online. However, the latest report on the state of U.S. federal websites indicates that they fail on some key indicators regarding web security.
The private sector is increasingly turning to cyber insurance to at least mitigate some of the effects of hacking, however governments across the globe seem to have been slow to take advantage. Given the severity of the cyber threats, is it time for public sector agencies to leverage cyber insurance offerings?
The Uber breach that affected 57 million people shows the near complete lack of care at the company with regard to customer data – as well as the company’s inability to learn from previous security mishaps. Are customers already desensitized after hearing data breach after data breach or will this be a wake-up call?
Misconfigured AWS buckets containing dozens of terabytes worth of social media messages were exposed to the public. The data found in Pentagon's leaked database was gathered by the U.S. military as part of their ongoing efforts to identify so called ‘persons of interest’, revealing the extent of internet surveillance.
If a massive data breach has been in the news recently – such as the Equifax data breach that impacted more than 143 million Americans – there’s a good chance that other hackers will capitalize on this public data breach to cause greater harm to victims, and open up those already victimized to even more risk.
The U.S. government reveals the Vulnerabilities Equities Process which decides if vulnerability data is released or gets stockpiled as cyber weapons.
With the Play Store distributing malicious apps like fake WhatsApp and malware, is downloading only from trusted Android stores still a relevant approach?
Rock bottom prices on the dark web for remote access into corporate PCs a boon for cyber criminals to steal data, distribute malware and ransomware attacks.