IT Trends & Technology

Cybercrime is a continuous threat for organizations of all sizes and across all industries. If the news surrounding the data breaches at Marriott and Equifax are any indication, even global firms with large security budgets can still be vulnerable in the face of a seemingly endless barrage of sophisticated attacks. In fact, IndustryWeek recently reported a 350 percent increase in ransomware attacks against its members versus the year prior, as well as a 250 percent rise in email attacks.

Moving your enterprise data to the cloud can bring with it a number of benefits to your operational costs and the management of your information technology footprint. In fact, 83 percent of enterprise workloads will be facilitated via the cloud in 2020, according to a LogicMonitor study. However, with this growth in cloud services can come substantial risk.

Fortunately, by following some key best practices, such as those laid out in this article, you can help your organization take the necessary steps to strengthen your data security and mitigate the potential vulnerabilities of operating in the cloud.

In late November 2018, Marriott International Inc. reported that it had fallen victim to a colossal theft of customer data. Up to 500 million customers’ personal information was exposed, including passport and credit card information. The breach, which began in 2014 and continued until this September, is only the latest in a long string of high-profile cyberattacks making headlines this year.

Despite the eye-popping figures and high stakes, according to a McKinsey survey of corporate directors, the majority of respondents reported that their boards had, at most, one technology-related discussion a year. Similarly, according to EY’s 19th Global Information Security Survey, only one in five executives fully considers information security in planning their larger corporate strategy.

Like many other new technologies, the concept of security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) solutions was born out of a problem that dogged IT professionals. However, in this case, it was multiple problems that couldn’t be solved with existing solutions.

Gartner, who is credited with coining the term, defines SOAR as “technologies that enable organizations to collect security threats data and alerts from different sources,” where technology and professionals can combine to analyze incidents, triage issues, and drive responses in a standard way.

Today’s Chief Information Security Officer, or CISO, is having a stronger and more strategic role in organizations due to more cyber threats, compliance standards, connected devices and stored data than ever before. However, according to a study done earlier this year by PricewaterhouseCoopers, almost half of average companies today don’t have a C-level security executive in place. Now is the time for organizations to evaluate their risk posture and invest in an information security team that can adopt a strong cybersecurity culture that aligns with their strategic business goals.

Persistent security breaches, new investments in hardware, and a growing demand for cloud services are the primary drivers behind ongoing increases in IT security spending, according to a recent industry forecast.

In 2019, expenditures for security products are expected to reach $124 billion, up almost 9 percent from the $114 billion allocated for 2018. Recent high-profile attacks like Equifax, WannaCry, and Yahoo, to name a few, have prompted businesses to take a good, hard look at their security vulnerabilities and their abilities to detect and respond to increasingly crafty cyberthreats.

Research indicates that cybercrime damages will total $6 trillion a year by 2021—more than double the cost of just a few years ago. Part of that total comes from the growing success of ransomware schemes, which cost about $5 billion a year, up from just $325 million in 2015. These chilling stats point to one reality: Effective IT security measures are growing more important with every passing year.

As overall IT budgets grow tighter, it becomes more challenging to improve IT security. In a recent IBM security study polling more than 2,800 IT and security professionals, 69 percent reported that funding for cyber resiliency is insufficient.

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According to the Cisco 2017 Annual Cybersecurity Report, ransomware is growing at a yearly rate of 350 percent. That type of growth means that businesses face a scenario where it’s just a matter of time before they are dealing with ransomware. One way to protect an organization is to develop a sound data backup and recovery strategy.

The use of public and private clouds is now a cornerstone of an enterprise’s ability to innovate and operate with agility in an evolving business landscape. The challenge has been maximizing that ability while minimizing costs, vendor lock-in, and security issues that are inherent to the public cloud at scale.

Healthcare data is increasingly under attack. In October alone there were 27 healthcare data breaches reported to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights, resulting in the exposure of some 71,377 records.

To understand how to best counter these threat, we’ll take a look at some recent breaches, review key best practices, and explore the rise of Artificial Intelligence as a cyber remedy.

Have you suspected that cyberattacks on businesses are increasing in sophistication? A 2017 report confirms that success via these malicious events stems from three primary factors:

When technology analysts look back on the Equifax hack, they may well see a turning point in cybersecurity.

It’s one thing when a major retailer like Target gets hacked. Certainly breaches in government agencies raise concern. But Equifax is a credit reporting agency. It’s exact function is to safeguard the kind of sensitive personal data hackers are looking to steal.

Did you know that 81 percent of hacking-related breaches were aided by a combination of stolen and weak passwords? The 2017 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report also shows that 62 percent of breaches featured hacking, while more than half (51%) were driven by malware.