Enhancing availability, even when high availability is not required
Providing high availability (HA) protection for critical applications is a standard IT best practice. However, broader downtime protection best practices -- and options for delivering this protection -- are not as clearly defined. As a result, applications that are not considered mission critical are often left with minimal protection. Yet downtime for these non-mission critical applications can be more than a nuisance. It can impose a costly and disruptive burden on IT teams that must devote time and resources to bringing those applications back online.
Downtime can also be frustrating to end users whose work may be interrupted and put on hold. It may have downstream consequences for customer satisfaction as well.
A technical overview of Cisco IoT part 4: Advancing IoT knowledge -- Cisco Meraki, training resources and certification pathways
This is the fourth piece in the ongoing Cisco IoT technical overview series, following a detailed analysis of security essentials and industrial applications. This installment of the series explores Cisco Meraki, essential IoT skill sets and additional resources to enhance knowledge and expertise in this rapidly evolving field.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is an expanding area of networking with an ever-growing array of use cases. It is significantly impacting organizations across industries, particularly in healthcare and retail. IoT technology enhances operations by providing valuable security, cost-saving benefits, and new capabilities, such as improved inventory management and product innovation.
How radical transparency paves the way to more effective vulnerability management
Vulnerability management is one of the most painful challenges of cybersecurity. The lack of transparency in our industry isn’t helping matters. Vendors often work behind the curtain to fix the identified security flaws without effective communication or -- if they do communicate -- with significant delays in reporting.
However, there are signs of positive steps toward this much-needed transparency. In July, for example, the Microsoft Security Response Center announced that it will start issuing Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) for critical cloud service vulnerabilities. There have also been moves from legislators to ensure greater rigor in reporting, such as the EU's Cyber Resilience Act, which mandates that manufacturers of all connected and IoT devices report serious cyber incidents and unpatched vulnerabilities. This is essential for building trust among vendors, businesses, and stakeholders alike. Greater resilience starts with a common understanding.
Tracing the destructive path of ransomware's evolution
The year is 1989. “Rain Man” wins the Academy Award for Best Picture. Motorola releases the world’s smallest and lightest phone. The Berlin Wall falls. Taylor Swift is born. It also begins the dawn of a new era of cyber extortion.
The AIDS Trojan arrived innocuously, distributed via floppy disk to public health professionals. But it harbored a nasty surprise. After the 90th PC reboot, it cryptographically locked victims’ hard drives, demanding a $189 payment to unlock files. While this attack was thwarted easily, it changed the game. Over the next 30 years, ransomware proliferated from curiosity to a catastrophic threat fueled by an unrelenting arms race between extortionists and security teams.
How the CrowdStrike outage can inform your customer service strategy
When a broken CrowdStrike update crashed Microsoft-run computers around the globe on July 19, affected leaders were faced with millions of blue screens, billions of dollars in losses and countless calls from unhappy customers. In addition to these tangible problems, leaders’ faith in the reliability of critical technological infrastructure was shaken. If a little bit of faulty code could result in a worldwide outage, was all this digital transformation worth it? Analog systems are rife with problems of their own. Still, those types of issues are typically from human error, not a catastrophic system failure. So is it time to accept digital defeat and course correct back to pen and paper basics? Quite the opposite.
The CrowdStrike incident affected almost every industry -- from airlines to banks to tiny tire stores attached to gas stations, business as usual was halted, and as a result, customer service requests skyrocketed across all affected sectors. But many organizations weren’t ready for an unexpected spike in customer service calls.
AI's rapid development is a security disaster waiting to happen
No matter how you look at it, AI is currently booming. The AI market is on track to reach $407 billion by 2027 (compared to $86.9 billion in 2024). Last year, ChatGPT became the fastest-growing consumer application in history when it reached 100 million monthly active users just two months post launch. McKinsey declared 2023 as Generative AI’s breakout year, and a follow-up 2024 survey found that the percentage of organizations using Generative AI jumped from approximately 50 percent to 72 percent from 2023 and 2024. Meanwhile, a culture shift within tech and business has accelerated AI adoption seemingly overnight.
Long before Generative AI entered the scene, tech C-suites were concerned about being left behind. AI’s disruptive potential has only exacerbated this. Companies with the bandwidth to do so are developing their own AI systems or converting existing ones over to AI. Such behavior is motivated primarily by reputation management. No major player wants to look like they were left behind as their competitors innovated to newer heights.
Why it's worth returning to Black Hat
I may not care for Las Vegas in the heat of August, yet I would come back as everything I need to learn and everyone I need to see face to face is at Black Hat.
Concentrated in one week, I meet customers, learn from their feedback, understand how they view the market, the security industry, what we are doing right and what we should change. With so much to talk about and so much to learn, you often leave the conference feeling like you have only just touched the surface. That being said, this year's discussions provided insights into the most critical sectors for the cybersecurity industry to remain resilient and continue to be ever evolving. If there are three things that were talked about, these are the most important to take away and bring back to your boardroom.
Why AI isn't just hype -- but a pragmatic approach is required
After all the headlines we have read about how amazing Artificial Intelligence (AI) is and how businesses would literally stagnate if they didn't have it, it was interesting to read this article in Forbes, who suggest that AI stock is showing 'bubble-like' tendencies and may soon experience a sharp correction as businesses struggle to operationalize AI. So, should we write off AI? Maybe not.
Perhaps the better plan is to accept that AI is at the top of its hype cycle, and, like any new technology, there will be some limitations to ChatGPT-style AI, which in its raw state can be subject to issues like hallucinations. We knew this anyway, as the CEO of the company behind it explained: "ChatGPT is incredibly limited but good enough at some aspects to create a misleading impression of greatness. It's a mistake to be relying on it for anything important right now."
Digital infrastructure: whose is it anyway?
A recent report was shared by McKinsey, 'the state of cloud computing in Europe', which highlighted not just low returns, but serious complications for businesses
implementing cloud as a basis for their digital transformation.
Embracing the digital workplace: IT's new role in driving productivity
Britain is plagued by sluggish productivity, with the Office of National Statistics (ONS) reporting UK productivity growth as 'anaemic' for the past 15 years. And things are getting worse, not better.
In London -- the country's largest and richest regional economy -- output per hour worked has fallen by 2.7 percent between 2019 and 2022. But what is the root cause of this underwhelming growth?
Key Bridge rebuild: leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning for AEC projects
The collapse of Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge sent shockwaves both nationally and internationally earlier this year. The city is now faced with the significant economic loss of a critical transport channel – and the challenging task of its reconstruction. Engineering and construction specialists anticipate that the rebuild effort could take up to 15 years. As a once-widely utilized structure, there is a deep sense of urgency to expedite the resurrection of the Key Bridge.
But current engineering and construction processes could wreak havoc on the possibility of an expeditious rebuild. The design and planning processes for large architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) projects, specifically critical infrastructure such as airports, bridges and ports, are historically rigid. Operating with a highly formalized approach derived from years of informed engineering practices, the volume of factors to contemplate around the build of a crucial transport structure is astronomical. Identifying and adhering to rigorous regulatory standards is only the first hurdle. Combine this with navigating other variables such as climate change, traffic implications and sourcing highly specialized materials, and suddenly a decade doesn’t seem like an unreasonable timeline for the construction of a major transport hub.
Multi-cloud, multi-challenge -- what's the answer?
With more business applications and data existing outside of the traditional network perimeter and across multiple clouds, organizations have a harder job than ever before to maintain security and reliability of critical services. This challenge is shared by the majority of IT leaders -- as 81 percent recently surveyed believe the increasing number of cloud applications is adding additional pressure on network performance.
This issue is heightened by the 44 percent of UK workers that now work remotely. Every new remote worker and device added to the organization's network, also expands its attack surface. In fact, 85 percent of IT leaders say remote and hybrid working has contributed to an increase in network security threats. Over two-thirds (69 percent) of UK organizations have experienced an increase in network security threats in the past 18 months.
Deepfakes: the next frontier in digital deception
Machine learning (ML) and AI tools raise concerns over mis- and disinformation. These technologies can 'hallucinate' or create text and images that seem convincing but may be completely detached from reality. This may cause people to unknowingly share misinformation about events that never occurred, fundamentally altering the landscape of online trust. Worse -- these systems can be weaponized by cyber criminals and other bad actors to share disinformation, using deepfakes to deceive.
Deepfakes -- the ability to mimic someone using voice or audio and to make them appear to say what you want -- are a growing threat in cybersecurity. Today the widespread availability of advanced technology and accessible AI allows virtually anyone to produce highly realistic fake content.
Mastering tenant-to-tenant cloud migrations: Strategies for success
Tenant-to-tenant cloud migrations have become pivotal for organizations striving to boost operational efficiencies and seamlessly adapt to dynamic changes such as mergers, acquisitions, and organizational restructuring.
These migrations are about more than transferring data and applications between cloud environments. They also represent a strategic move towards greater scalability and improved resource management, enabling businesses to respond more agilely to market demands and growth opportunities.
Pool your cybersecurity resources to build the perfect security ecosystem
Cybersecurity has never been something to set once and leave running in the background -- it is a constantly evolving landscape. While the migration of data and applications to the cloud provides numerous business benefits, many organisations struggle to secure their networks against rapidly changing cyber threats. Ransomware attackers have understood the value of targeting smaller organisations and tailoring attacks to take advantage of businesses they believe will pay up immediately (and often with the backing of cyber insurance) rather than invest in defences.
Tight security for data and resources is now the difference between operations running smoothly or being disrupted to the point that businesses are forced to close entirely. But how can SMBs achieve comprehensive security management and threat intelligence on a budget? Partnerships and alliances provide the solution.
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