Combating ransomware: Strategies for defense
In today's interconnected world, the threat of ransomware looms larger than ever before across industries. Malicious actors continue to exploit vulnerabilities, and the dark cloud of ransomware shows no signs of dissipating. Recent data from the Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) shows that cost per ransomware incident doubled over the past two years and remains one of the top action types present in breaches.
In this article, we will explore how ransomware works and what steps organizations can take to protect employees and data from these attacks.
Why machine identities are crucial to zero trust strategies
The days when businesses operated within a defined perimeter that could be neatly protected by a firewall are long gone. Today’s enterprises are dynamic. In the era of cloud native, infrastructure is completely distributed -- from the traditional datacenter to multicloud instances, from physical servers and VMs to microservice-based applications and containerized workloads.
This change in how businesses operate necessitates a shift in how we defend. The old adage of "Trust but verify" has been replaced by, "authenticate everything all the time," otherwise known as "zero trust". Zero trust dictates that security teams must focus on each of the connection points on the network -- from the datacenter to the cloud to the endpoint, every connection must be verified and authenticated.
Amidst an energy crisis, energy companies can't risk a cyberattack further damaging their reputations
It’s no secret that rapidly rising prices, spurred by Russia’s war in Ukraine, have inflicted damage on the reputations of energy companies. While the companies themselves may not have caused those rising prices, it’s their logos that consumers see on top of their energy bills every month.
It should hardly be surprising then that a survey by Populous found that just 16 percent of Britons view the energy sector positively. These are people, remember, who’ve found themselves in the midst of one of the worst cost-of-living crisis in decades. Millions of them have also, at some point in the past few months had to choose between heating their homes and eating.
6 key takeaways from the 2023 Gartner Security and Risk Management Summit
The annual Gartner Security and Risk Management Summit is always fertile ground for discovering the latest trends in cyber security, with this year being no exception. The 2023 event was held in early June, and central themes of this year's summit were the increasing complexity of managing cybersecurity adversaries, the increase in data breaches, and the heightened risk identity poses in an ever-evolving digital landscape.
One of the most significant takeaways from this year's summit is the role of Privileged Access Management (PAM) within the Cybersecurity Mesh. The Cybersecurity Mesh distributed architectural approach to scalable, flexible, and reliable cybersecurity control. The Cybersecurity Mesh allows the security perimeter to be defined around the identity of a person or thing, highlighting the critical role PAM plays in modern cybersecurity strategies. The shift to remote work, accelerated by the global pandemic, and the subsequent rise in cloud-based infrastructures, have further emphasized the importance of the shift from infrastructure-based perimeters to identity perimeters.
SaaS adoption multiplies the security risks of shadow IT
Shadow IT has long posed ongoing security threats for IT teams and network administrators, such as the good old days when employees brought in unapproved external software on USB sticks. Back then, IT teams would use policies to lock down endpoints across a dedicated network perimeter.
Today, the problem of shadow IT is more fluid, with employees directly accessing software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications to do their jobs without first getting approval from the IT department. With more SaaS applications being delivered via the browser to a remote workforce, IT teams now struggle to get clear visibility into their levels of risk.
ChatGPT as a development tool? Yes, if used judiciously
Despite the concerns of many programmers about ChatGPT and other generative AI making our profession irrelevant, the software industry will always need skilled human developers to solve hard problems. I’m certainly not ignoring ChatGPT’s ability to generate solid code. It definitely can. But, it’s not anywhere near ready to produce code without human supervision. Its developers are working to improve its accuracy, but ChatGPT currently has a hallucination problem, where it creates content -- including code -- that may look good at a cursory glance but isn’t actually correct.
That said, in the hands of an experienced programmer, ChatGPT can be a powerful development tool that significantly reduces the amount of time it takes to develop a solution. Note, "experienced" is not a throwaway adjective here. For code generation, ChatGPT is a tool that novice developers should employ carefully. You need good instincts for discerning what’s well-formed code and what isn’t, and those skills grow with years of development experience.
Industry cloud platforms: The complete guide
Although general-purpose cloud platforms paved the way for new business technologies, they only address horizontal market issues. Simply put, these cloud computing products provide generalized solutions. SaaS products leave little room for configuration, while IaaS and PaaS systems require extensive coding experience.
To tackle vertical market challenges, you need industry cloud platforms. They’re an emerging trend that combines SaaS, IaaS, and PaaS technologies into one out-of-the-box system, and you can configure them to focus on industry-specific issues. Since they’re new to the market, you might find them confusing. Don’t worry -- we’ll discuss everything you should know about industry cloud platforms, their advantage over general cloud products, and the common challenges faced when executing them.
Improving the digital employee experience
The widespread shift to a hybrid workplace during the pandemic has created many new challenges for business leaders including CIOs, vice presidents, and directors. Perhaps no concern is greater than the need to retain workforce talent by keeping employees in the digital workplace and remote locations engaged and fulfilled in their jobs.
We know that a better employee experience is directly correlated with a better customer experience. Yet improving the digital employee experience depends on keeping people productive while making everyone feel like they have opportunities for personal growth in the company.
Trust in data: How start-ups can thrive in the data economy
Data is crucial in today's tech-driven world, with enterprises prioritizing its use in all aspects of their operations. A recent survey shows that 83 percent of CEOs want their organizations to be data-driven. However, the same survey found that only 25 percent of organizations are data-leading companies. This presents a significant opportunity for start-ups to establish themselves at the forefront of the data economy.
The early days of the data economy relied on users handing over their data to access digital services, and companies then monetize that data through advertising. There is now a transition underway where businesses are seeking to improve and broaden how they create, manage, analyze, and extract value from their data. This expansion will expand the data economy's definition and market potential, creating an opportunity for start-ups to create hardware and software that will enable this new era.
The misconceptions around ChatGPT and the potential threat it poses to Google and other search engines
Since its public unveiling at the end of 2022, many have speculated that ChatGPT is the ultimate route for Microsoft to gain market share and overtake Google as the leading provider of search. In fact, some have even gone as far as saying that it will be a Google Killer, ending its supremacy of search engines online. However, the idea of generative AI making search irrelevant is a misunderstanding of what this technology genuinely represents.
If we look at how Google has launched Bard, its alternative to ChatGPT, it’s clear that generative AI is not a threat to search but rather an enhancement. Marketed as a complement to search, Bard represents Google’s entry into the generative AI market and its chance to rewrite the narrative around this technology. With ChatGPT and Bard taking the internet by storm, this distinction is crucial for organizations. While generative AI is powerful, complementing it with search greatly enhances its power and versatility, and may be the perfect solution that businesses have been searching for to gain a competitive edge.
Less effort, better business outcomes with data quality and governance
Achieving business success and making informed decisions requires high-quality data that organizations can trust. However, achieving data quality can be complex and time-consuming, forcing data and analytics leaders to choose between supporting business outcomes and ensuring compliance with data privacy and regulatory needs. Here’s how organizations can achieve business outcomes and compliance with regulations and privacy policies.
Data is often referred to as the new oil for a good reason. In today’s digital age, we are generating and collecting data at an unprecedented pace. As Sir Tim Berners-Lee said, "This precious resource will last longer than the systems themselves." IDC projects that by 2025, we will hit 175 Zettabytes of data. However, the challenge for businesses is how to turn this raw data into valuable insights. This is where data quality and governance come in.
Empowering the partner ecosystem: How businesses can gain resilience connectivity
In today's networked economy, the ability to create value depends primarily on the relationships built with other firms. As a result, strategic and product-related decision-making becomes increasingly complex. This is because a business is viewed as a component of a broader economic ecosystem and environment, where it influences and is influenced by other partners, suppliers, and organizations.
Within a business ecosystem, firms collaboratively and competitively develop innovations and capabilities where they have the capacity and freedom to do so. This enables them to support new products, meet customer needs, and incorporate subsequent waves of further innovation. Platform-based technology frequently supports these ecosystems, serving as foundations for products and services. Suppose businesses want the ability to facilitate transactions between distinct groups of users in a two or multi-sided market. To do this, they need connectivity infrastructure that is robust and reliable enough to support it alongside partners that can enable it.
ChatGPT: Navigating the rising financial crime landscape in the digital age
In-depth discussions with financial crime compliance decision makers from 10 leading U.S. financial institutions reveal that real-time digital payments, digital fraud, and cybercrime are the primary concerns for compliance teams in 2023.That said, there is a new player that has entered the scene and demands our attention: ChatGPT. It has the dual ability to help or hurt compliance and security teams.
Because while this cutting-edge technology presents an opportunity for financial institutions to detect and mitigate fraud and financial crime, it also provides criminals with an avenue to commit these acts more easily.
How data and analytics build a stable future for manufacturers
The CHIPS and Science Act promises a bright future for the U.S. semiconductor industry. The legislation aims to increase domestic production capacity, build a stronger workforce and encourage American innovation. But high-tech manufacturers can't sit around waiting to reap the benefits -- they must focus on revenue optimization now to set themselves up for success.
Experts forecast semiconductor demand to surge 6-8 percent per year, requiring manufacturers to double current production. Despite the CHIPS Act inspiring $200 billion in new commitments to U.S. manufacturing, the industry is unlikely to experience significant production capacity growth for several years. What should companies do in the interim? Improve data and analytics processes to build better business practices.
Walmart's cybersecurity: Don't try this at home
It seems that every week we hear of another cybersecurity breach. This year, organizations of all shapes and sizes have fallen victim to malicious crimes -- from Apple, T-Mobile and Uber, among many others -- and data breaches are costing U.S. businesses millions of dollars.
The emerging digital ecosystem has made every company a target, and as a result, organizations are investing in a range of cybersecurity measures to mitigate threats and enhance resiliency and recovery. As cybercriminals continue to evolve their tactics, it’s becoming increasingly challenging for organizations to keep up with the latest security measures. This highlights the need for ongoing cybersecurity investment and a proactive approach to threat detection and response. The question is, what are these measures, and is there a one-size-fits-all approach? Let’s explore.
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