A 2020 approach to security: People matter
The information security industry frequently utilizes the phrase “people, processes and technology” (PPT) to describe a holistic model of securing the business. But though this phrase is repeated ad nauseum, we seem to have forgotten one of those three primary pillars: people. In an effort to secure things technically, we prioritize the protection of our…
3 tips to increase speed and minimize risk when making IT decisions
There is nothing like a crisis to create a sense of urgency and spawn actions. This is especially true for enterprise IT teams, who are tasked with new responsibilities and critical decisions. Speed matters in the heat of the moment and many leaders may not take the necessary steps to assess the risk of their…
Why the rapid transition to cloud demands that DevOps shift left
To accommodate remote work policies amid COVID-19, companies have increasingly adopted the public cloud to support off-site business continuity. A MarketsandMarkets analysis found that due to the impact of the current crisis, the cloud market is expected to grow from $233 billion in 2019 to $295 billion by 2021. The transition to remote work by…
Granting employees admin status is convenient but risky
One of your employees needs access to part of your customer database so he can fulfill an urgent reporting request. You’re busy and this employee is trustworthy, so you grant him administrative status. Simple solution, right? You’ll revoke it later when you’re done with the other 600 critical things you’re working on right now. Right?…
Lack of training, career development, and planning fuel the cybersecurity profession crisis
The cybersecurity skills crisis continues to worsen for the fourth year in a row and has impacted 70 percent of organizations, as revealed in a global study of cybersecurity professionals by ISSA and ESG. Cybersecurity profession crisis The top ramifications of the skills shortage for organizations (or cybersecurity teams) include an increasing workload, unfilled open…
How well do face recognition algorithms identify people wearing masks?
Now that so many of us are covering our faces to help reduce the spread of COVID-19, how well do face recognition algorithms identify people wearing masks? The answer, according to a preliminary study by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), is with great difficulty. Identify people wearing masks using facial recognition algorithms…
Cyberwarfare: The changing role of force
Novel malware, computer code and clandestine digital access are some of the unconventional weapons various countries are currently amassing and deploying. Whether used as a force multiplier for disinformation operations, for stand-alone projections of power or carefully calibrated escalations of conflict, cyber weapon use is growing on the international stage. Take as example the most…
The crypto-agility mandate, and how to get there
To achieve long-term data protection in today’s fast-changing and uncertain world, companies need the ability to respond quickly to unforeseen events. Threats like quantum computing are getting more real while cryptographic algorithms are subject to decay or compromise. Without the ability to identify, manage and replace vulnerable keys and certificates quickly and easily, companies are…
An effective cloud security posture begins with these three steps
Public cloud adoption continues to surge, with roughly 83% of all enterprise workloads expected to be in the cloud by the end of the year. The added flexibility and lower costs of cloud computing make it a no-brainer for most organizations. Yet while cloud adoption has transformed the way applications are built and managed, it…
July 2020 Patch Tuesday forecast: Will the CVE trend continue?
Microsoft has averaged roughly 90 common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVE) fixes per month over the past five months. With everyone working from home and apparently focused on bug fixes, I expect this large CVE fixing trend to continue. Despite these record CVE numbers, the actual number of updates have been down; we haven’t seen Exchange…