3 IT industry trends defining the next era of cloud computing
I recently had the pleasure of attending a couple of industry conferences about IT infrastructure and the cloud. Every conversation buzzed with the latest trends and questions, and every panel discussion grappled with the most pressing industry challenges that everyone in the room was interested in learning more about.
These gatherings are excellent networking opportunities, and they're also real-time snapshots of what matters most in a particular field. As such, I wanted to share a few insights that I gathered from these recent events based on topics that seemed to come up again and again.
Ransomware resurgence: Tackling the new generation of cyber threats
Sadly, there has never been a better phrase than ‘survival of the fittest’ to describe cyber criminal groups. They are constantly refining their tactics to cause greater disruption and earn even bigger profits. The ransomware ecosystem is a resilient and lucrative business model, and attacks are causing huge pain for organizations.
Just look at the recent attack on the British Library. The attack rendered the British Library’s website inoperative, and it’s been reported the institution may have to spend £7 million to recover. The Rhysida group, who were responsible for the attack, disseminated hundreds of thousands of confidential documents on the internet, encompassing both customer and employee information.
Navigating the 2024 IT landscape: The essential role of governance
This year, IT teams across the globe are facing a tech landscape that’s undergoing a major transition. Cybersecurity has emerged as a paramount concern, with escalating threats and sophisticated cyber-attacks posing significant risks to business operations.
At the same time, the widespread move towards cloud adoption introduces complexities in managing data across different platforms, making it essential for companies to follow strict data management and oversight practices.
The Deep Tech revolution -- Part 5: Hackathons
More often than not, hackers tend to get a bad reputation or, at the very least, a controversial one. In pop culture especially, they are usually portrayed either as cyber-criminals attacking organizations for personal gain or, at the very opposite end of the spectrum, using their skills for something positive. In either case, we are usually presented with the image of someone furiously typing instructions and commands on a keyboard, zoning out in front of a screen while a group of people who may or may not understand what is going on stand behind holding their breath.
Regardless of the representation, there is something that these stereotypical depictions do get right: hackers are highly skilled individuals who use technology, along with the support and knowledge of a like-minded community, to solve technical problems and challenges.
90-day certificates to drive spike in outages unless businesses act now
Last year, the Chromium Project -- a Google-backed open source browser project -- released its roadmap for building a safer, faster, and more stable Internet, containing recommendations to reduce the lifespan of Transport Layer Security (TLS) certificates from 398 days to 90. This was a starting gun to the industry. As the operator of Chrome, Google has the power to enforce shorter validity periods by making them a requirement -- which will likely become the de facto standard across all browsers soon after.
When these changes come into force, every business that uses TLS certificates -- i.e. every business that connects services with the internet -- will be impacted. TLS certificates are machine identities, they enable systems to talk to each other securely over the internet. If they are not reissued or replaced before they expire, the service they are connecting stops working. This results in hugely costly outages, disruption, and increased security risks -- and it’s something that everyone has experienced with their browser through a 'can’t connect to untrusted site- error.
Cybersecurity success -- elevate your defense against cyber threats
As cybercrime continues to increase, organizations must consider actions to improve their cyber security and cyber resilience. There are constantly new ransomware and data breach headlines hitting the news, and, according to research, a company falls victim to a cyberattack every 39 seconds.
To bolster cybersecurity, organizations must maintain constant awareness, and they should regularly update systems, encrypt and backup data. Cyber security is an ongoing action, it requires constant vigilance as cybercriminals are always looking for new ways to exploit systems and steal data. In addition, 85 percent of all organizations consider their data as one of their most valuable assets, and hackers also share this view. Ransomware is not a problem that is going to go away on its own, especially as it continues to be very profitable for criminal cyber gangs. Having said that, there are many things that you and your organization can do to mitigate against becoming another victim of cyber crime.
Log4j lessons learned: A blueprint for zero-day defence
Two years ago, the zero-day vulnerability, known as Log4Shell unwrapped itself spoiling holiday celebrations for many across the globe leaving organizations scrambling for a fix before it could be exploited.
The vulnerability was discovered in Log4j, a widely used logging tool used by millions of computers worldwide running online services. Its profound impact on IT environments has called for a fundamental shift in how organizations think about their security strategies.
People cannot be patched
When an organization is aware software is vulnerable, it focuses on patching systems to mitigate the risk. Likewise, when security technology becomes outdated, newer versions plug the gaps. However, with people there’s no patch or update readily available.
Instead, a workforce needs to stay abreast of the current threat landscape to ensure the company remains in a good position to combat cyber risks. However, almost 80 percent of leaders lack confidence in their team's ability to tackle cyber threats effectively. This highlights a substantial weakness in current cybersecurity strategies.
Managing multi-cloud complexity: Frameworks to adopt, pitfalls to avoid, and strategies to bring it all together
As many companies are discovering, a multi-cloud environment can offer improved workload portability, purchasing power and increased innovation velocity, as well as other significant benefits. However, managing a multi-cloud environment can be challenging. From complex integrations to fragmented cost visibility to security and compliance concerns, today’s tech leaders can become overwhelmed.
Competing organizational interests, lack of expertise, and unexpected or hidden costs can detract from the great promise of a multi-cloud environment. Organizations need the right people, processes, and tools to overcome the challenges and realize the rewards.
What does the future hold for content management services?
For many years, organizations have relied on Enterprise Content Management (ECM) systems to help manage information in an efficient and secure fashion. However, with the advent of new content management technologies -- including cloud-based content management systems -- there are signs that the prominence of traditional ECMs is on the wane.
As the challenges faced by businesses continue to grow, achieving new standards of flexibility and efficiency when it comes to content management is key. This is why first-generation ECM systems -- built on decades-old technologies -- are not as effective as they once were.
Leveraging threat intelligence for regulatory compliance
The US Government recently announced that state-sponsored Chinese cyber group Volt Typhoon has compromised multiple critical infrastructure organizations’ IT networks in the US and is preparing “disruptive or destructive cyber attacks” against communications, energy, transport, water and waste water systems.
The announcement, which was supported by national cybersecurity agencies in Australia, Canada, UK, and New Zealand, is a sobering reminder that modern life relies on digital networks. From healthcare, banking, and socializing, to energy, water, local and national government -- everything has a digital aspect. But while digitization has delivered great leaps forward in convenience, speed, and efficiency, it has also introduced risk. Malicious forces wanting to disrupt economies, governments, and people, know that targeting digital networks is the quickest route to maximum cross-border disruption.
Putting a value on open source -- how much is free software worth?
According to a new report by Harvard Business School and University of Toronto researchers,open source contributes trillions of dollars to the global economy. If you look at the direct supply-side valuation for widely used open source software, the valuation is $4.15billion. If you look at the demand-side figures, which cover all the indirect value generated by use of open source, open source software is worth $8.8trillion. When global gross domestic product for 2024 is estimated to be $109trillion, the value of open source comes into far sharper view.
Alongside this valuation, the report authors estimate that -- if open source did not exist -- companies would have to spend around 3.5 times more on their IT and technology investments to get the same results.
Getting up close and personal: How hyper-personalization is driving the next generation of digital applications
As technology continues to converge with our everyday lives, demand for more intuitive digital services is rising. Consumers now expect brands to provide them with more convenience and relevance than ever before.
Personalization within their digital offerings is a key way for businesses to do this, as McKinsey reports that almost three quarters of buyers now expect personalized interactions. However, personalization is just the beginning. To truly meet customer expectations, organizations must go one step further and aim for hyper-personalization.
The importance of security training in the zero trust era
Momentum for zero trust migration is accelerating across the cybersecurity community. It was a fundamental component of the Biden Administration’s 2023 National Security Strategy. Nearly 90% of global organizations have already started implementing basic aspects of a zero trust security model. And in Forrester’s 2024 predictions report, analysts forecast that dedicated roles with “zero trust” in the title are expected to double over the next year.
This is because the need for zero trust authentication has never been clearer. Conventional network security approaches are increasingly vulnerable in today's cloud enterprise environment, where post-pandemic digital transformations, software supply chains, remote work models and bring-your-own-device policies have widened the attack surface. Cloud-based cyberattacks increased by nearly 50 percent in 2022. Meanwhile, more than 10 million people were impacted by supply chain attacks over the same year.
Ways to keep your information safe when gaming online
Keeping your information safe when gaming online reduces the risks of cyberbullying, privacy invasion, and identity theft. The online gaming world is rife with cases of data and information loss due to reasons like shady downloads and virus attacks. However, by implementing some online gaming best practices, avid online gamers can avoid being victims of these situations.
Here are some tested and proven ways to keep your information safe when gaming online.
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