Connected devices like smart TVs and webcams aren't new -- but since their inception 30 years ago, the number of humans connected to the internet has been surpassed by the number of devices connected to it.

In fact, industry analysts estimate the number of connected devices will reach 50 billion by 2020. And as the number of connected devices increases exponentially, so the number of security risks grows as well.

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Allowing employees to access corporate data via their own devices is increasingly popular, but it does present risks if not implemented correctly.

A new report from data protection company Bitglass finds one in four organizations do not have multi-factor authentication methods in place to secure BYOD -- a well-known enterprise security gap.

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While public cloud adoption continues to grow, organizations, especially in regulated industries like finance and health care, are continuing to use private clouds to quickly launch and update applications.

To tap into this market IBM is launching a new Cloud Private software platform, designed to enable companies to create on-premises cloud capabilities similar to public clouds to accelerate app development.

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In spite of trends towards decentralization and the cloud, the mainframe remains a relevant and growing data center hub for many businesses according to a new report.

In the 12th annual Mainframe Research Report from IT solutions company BMC 91 percent of respondents predict mainframe workloads will continue to grow, and 51 percent say more than half of their data resides on a mainframe.

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Spreadsheets like Excel were never designed to handle complex analytics and big data tasks, but a growing demand for data insights is leading many businesses to waste effort manually handling data in spreadsheets.

A study commissioned by self-service analytics company Alteryx and carried out by IDC reveals that advanced spreadsheet users spend on average nine hours a week on repeat effort manually manipulating data, wasting €10,000 per year. Across Europe this represents, on average, two billion hours of duplicate work, costing an eye-watering €55bn per year (around $64bn).

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As more and more applications move to the cloud there's an increasing assumption that it's the right approach for everyone. Indeed we've seen recently that many cloud investments are being made out of fear of missing out. But this one size fits all approach isn't necessarily the right one, and can put companies in a difficult position.

We spoke to Michael Hiskey, Chief Strategy Officer from intelligent data management company Semarchy, to find out what businesses should consider before moving to the cloud and how they can avoid being forced down that route.

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Nearly a third of enterprises plan to increase their public cloud usage in the next 12 to 18 months, but the majority harbor significant concerns about cyber attacks and breaches in their hybrid environments.

An international survey of 450 senior security and network professionals by security vendor AlgoSec reveals the greatest concerns about applications in the cloud are cyber attacks (cited by 58 percent) and unauthorized access (53 percent), followed by application outages and mis-configured cloud security controls.

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Code signing certificates are used to verify the authenticity and integrity of software and are a vital element of internet and enterprise security. By taking advantage of compromised code signing certificates, cybercriminals can install malware on enterprise networks and consumer devices.

A study for machine identity protection company Venafi by the Cyber Security Research Institute shows that digital code signing certificates are changing hands on the dark web for up to $1,200, making them worth more than credit cards, counterfeit US passports and even handguns.

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Enterprises face many challenges when automating their processes, not least in identifying which have the most potential to benefit from the process.

A new collaboration between robotic process automation (RPA) platform company, UiPath and leader in process mining, Celonis, lets customers automatically visualize and screen their processes for areas with highest automation potential, and subsequently, build, test, and deploy RPA in an accelerated and structured fashion.

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The people behind phishing attacks are always looking for ways to improve their profitability. They quite often re-use material by bundling site resources into a phishing kit, uploading that kit to a server and sending a new batch of emails.

Sometimes though they get careless and leave the kits behind allowing them to be analyzed. Trusted access specialist Duo Security carried out a month-long experiment to track down these abandoned kits.

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GDPR affects all companies that engage with EU citizens, even if they have no physical presence in the EU, but a new study reveals that some major US firms still have websites that don’t comply.

The research by digital threat management company RiskIQ looks at 25 of the 50 largest banks in the US (as of 2017) and finds significant security gaps in personally identifiable information (PII) collection.

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Secure software development practices are increasingly being adopted by open source software (OSS), and are underscoring the importance of managing OSS risk.

The latest report from development platform Synopsys uses results from the free Coverity Scan static analysis solution to assess the quality of development practices and the overall maturity of the OSS ecosystem.

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Weak or reused passwords are a common cause of security breaches but are something that it’s hard for administrators to police.

Intelligence-led security company FireEye is releasing a new password cracking tool to enable security professionals to test password effectiveness, develop improved methods to securely store passwords, and audit current password requirements.

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According to a new study, 80 percent of businesses across the US and UK will change how they deal with security in the coming 12 months.

The survey of more than 400 SMEs and enterprises by service management company SolarWinds MSP finds that 17 percent of companies intend to switch their current service provider in the next 12 months, 10 percent want to cease outsourcing in favour of in-house management, and 49 percent planning to outsource their security for the first time.

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With GDPR coming into force in May next year, worrying numbers of businesses are still unprepared for the impact of the new legislation which represents a major shake up in data protection. 

UK hosting firm UKFast wants to help get businesses on the right track and is launching a free pocket guide to GDPR along with a downloadable toolkit.

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