It’s time to replace the traditional VPN and regain trust of your endpoints with a more secure and easier approach to remote access. VPNs have typically been the go-to solution for access to internal applications, with one-third of access requests to corporate networks coming from outside the firewall.

However, VPNs come with security drawbacks, including the increased risk of unauthorized remote access to sensitive data. Typically, they grant access at the network level, meaning every user with VPN rights can access the same applications that any other user can, which is a risky practice.

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While security is still heavily reliant on passwords, they represent a target for hackers and weak or reused choices offer an easy way into systems.

Security awareness training company KnowBe4 is releasing a free Weak Password Test (WPT) tool for organizations that use Active Directory, allowing them to check for multiple types of threats related to weak passwords.

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IBM is warning customers of its Storwize hybrid enterprise storage solutions that it has accidentally sent out some malware infected USB sticks.

Companies ordering the Storwize V3500, V3700 and V5000 Gen 1 flash storage solutions may have been sent the infected sticks. The malware is contained in the directory for the initialization tool and when the tool is run it gets copied to a temporary directory on the computer’s hard drive.

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Many enterprises still rely on logs and data from a range of different security products to get a picture of user behavior, particularly where legacy mainframe systems are involved.

A collaboration between data analytics company Syncsort and application audit specialist Compuware is aimed at improving an organization's ability to detect threats against critical mainframe data, correlate them with related information and events and satisfy compliance requirements.

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Ransomware grew 50 percent in just a year, according to a new report by Verizon. The Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) is based on the analysis of 79,000 security incidents and 1,945 confirmed data breaches, across 79 countries.

According to the report, ransomware also grew in popularity, and by a large margin. In 2014, it was the 22nd most common malware variety. Fast-forward two years, and now it’s fifth most common.

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Cyber attacks are a big problem for businesses and since many of them are caused by human error training employees to spot the signs of an attack is vital.

Yet many companies lack the resources to carry out the level of education needed, which is why security software company ESET is launching a new, free cyber security awareness training program.

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Anyone would think zero-day attacks are unpreventable following a recent claim from one leading cyber-security vendor. FireEye this year claimed to have discovered "29 of the last 53 zero-day attacks." 24 exploits remained undetected, yet this was still presented as some kind of monumental achievement. Such a statement leaves little comfort for the businesses who found themselves victims, so is it time to just give up completely and let the cyber criminals take over?

It certainly feels that way, even while threats intensify and Locky ransomware rears its ugly head in new forms with renewed malevolence.

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When it comes to meeting future demands, IT leaders in the UK are lagging behind those in Germany and the US. This is according to a new report by Brocade, entitled Global Digital Transformation Skills Study. The report is based on a survey of 630 IT leaders in the US, UK, France, Germany, Australia and Singapore.

It says that organizations are "at a tipping point" -- a point in time when technology demands are just about to outstrip the skills supply. Consequently, those that train their staff now and prepare for the future in that respect are the ones that are setting themselves up for a successful future.

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Four out of five business leaders think their industry will get positively disrupted by digital transformation within the next three years. This is according to a new report recently released by Microsoft and Harvard Business Review Analytic Services.

"A vast majority (80 percent) of the 783 survey respondents believe their industry will be disrupted by digital trends," the report states. "And most of those (84 percent) said their industry has either passed the inflection point of disruption or will pass it by 2020 -- just three years away."

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Securing systems is essential, but many businesses continue to take a reactive approach to protection using dated tools and techniques.

A new report by technology trade association CompTIA highlights the need for companies to adopt proactive measures to identify weak links before they are exploited, broaden the security skills of their technology professionals, and implement top to bottom security training throughout the organization.

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The build versus buy conundrum is without doubt a big decision for any company looking to adopt a new piece of software; each route has its own merits and both will be a costly exercise so it’s very important to make the right decision.

Although packaged software has now been used for decades there are still many systems developed in-house, perhaps increasingly so now that development skills are on the increase and coding is getting easier and even being taught to children in schools. In fact, IT analyst IDC recently predicted that most of 2017’s IT spending will go on "application development and deployment." However, by 2020 it expects software purchases to "edge out" app development costs as the largest spend. Clearly the balance is starting to shift with more skilled developers available to bolster in-house teams, but for the more complex applications such as the procurement arena, the jury is still out over the decision of whether to develop or buy.

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WeWork wants to make sure you never leave it, and it's trying to keep you as a customer by releasing its own tools store. Called Services Store, the new offering gives users simple access to a wide variety of tools and apps, and sometimes even exclusives.

Once logged in, users can search, purchase and download a wide variety of enterprise apps. They can also leave reviews for different products, to help others find the perfect app for their business.

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Businesses will move to Windows 10 faster than they have moved to previous operating systems, according to a new report by Gartner. Surveying businesses everywhere, Gartner believes 85 percent of businesses will have migrated to Windows 10 before the year ends.

First of all, Gartner’s research director Ranjit Atwal says the time to evaluate and deploy Windows 10 has come down, from 23 months to 21 months. Large businesses that are yet to start the migration, are delaying because of legacy applications.

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Cyber attack methods are becoming more sophisticated in order to bypass traditional file-scanning protection systems according to a new study.

Endpoint protection specialist SentinelOne has used filtered data from more than one million SentinelOne Enterprise Platform agents deployed worldwide to carry out behavioral analysis of malware programs that bypassed firewalls and network controls to infect devices.

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Correct handling of corporate data is important not just to guard against security threats and data breaches, but to avoid the risk of regulatory fines and lawsuits too.

But a new report from secure erasing specialist Blancco Technology Group shows the two weakest links in a company's data governance program are uncontrolled user access to data (53 percent) and managing where data is stored (43 percent).

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