Over 70 percent of companies using AWS have serious security misconfigurations

Private cloud

A high percentage of companies using AWS cloud services have at least one critical security misconfiguration according to a new survey.

Cloud security company Threat Stack has analyzed more than 200 companies using AWS and found a number of well-documented security misconfigurations.

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IT convergence drops costs and complexity

connections connectivity

The IT infrastructure landscape is in the middle of a massive change. The proliferation of point security and networking appliances continues to drive up IT cost structures. Cloud adoption and the shift to a mobile workforce has made connectivity between entities other than physical offices ever more critical. Buying more point-solution or continuing to running networks separately only adds more complexity and cost.

Instead we’re starting to see the convergence of IT. By moving towards a simpler infrastructure with fewer point solutions, we reduce the costs and complexity plaguing our current IT environments. This trend is playing out across four IT tiers: networks, appliances, services, and management.

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8 things businesses can do to lower cyber attack risks

Cloud risk

Hardly a day goes by without some media coverage that is focused on cyber. Whether is it sensationalist headlines announcing the most recent cyber-attack that has left some unfortunate company red faced and bereft, the outcome of yet another survey generally conducted by an entity selling cyber related goods or services, or the announcement of new regulation and legislation. A front page headline of CITY AM screams CYBER CRIME WIPES £42BN OFF SHARES -- surely there cannot be a board director left who can deny awareness that cyber-crime poses a threat to his or her business.

Having engaged in the cyber debate for more than a decade, it seems we can at last all agree that the foundation stone is now well in place with widespread, if not universal, acceptance that cyber-crime and cyber risk are real and now an ever present challenge to businesses.

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Outdated practices and tech affect employee morale

sad woman calculator

It’s no surprise to anyone that the UK is in the grips of a legacy technology crisis. But, in an age of digital innovation it’s not acceptable that so many organizations are still running on technology that should have been left behind over a decade ago.

The golden rule with technology in any organization is to not lag too far behind. Equipment that is old, breaks down or slows work activity will have significant effects on the motivation levels of employees, and it’s already giving way to a negativity epidemic in UK offices.

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'Here be dragons': Look past FUD to see the real security threats

looking ahead

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that cybercrime is big business, and is growing at an exponential rate. In 2015, UK insurer Lloyd’s of London estimated the cybercrime market at $400 Billion. Today, just two years later, the World Economic Forum estimates that same market to currently be $3 trillion. And the prediction from Cybersecurity Ventures is that it will cost the world in excess of $6 trillion annually by 2021.

The "darknet" -- the part of the Internet that most people have never seen and which lies beyond normal web browsers -- is protected by layers of anonymity, and has become a haven for criminal commerce. Its inaccessibility lends it a certain mystique, but that aura of mystery breeds misunderstanding. At the edge of the unknown, understanding tends to be a scarce commodity and is often replaced with fear, uncertainty, and doubt -- a trio so intertwined they’re better known simply as "FUD."

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Twistlock delivers enhanced security and compliance for container environments

security flaw

In recent years containerization has seen increased popularity thanks to its ability to deliver an agile, flexible environment in which software can be reliably moved from development to testing to live, or from in-house to the cloud.

But the use of containers also throws up new challenges, particularly when it comes to keeping data secure. Container security specialist Twistlock is using this week's DockerCon to launch an updated product with new features, improved performance and a revised user interface.

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UK businesses face nearly 500 attacks a day

Attack button

OK, so, Beaming says UK businesses suffered, on average, 43,000 cyber-attacks in the first quarter of 2017 -- each. If this number sounds way too big, then it would be even more interesting to hear that this is actually seven per= cent lower than what was going on in the same period last year.

Breaking the numbers down, Beaming says each business gets attacked 474 times per day. Almost all of these attacks, 92 percent of them, are targeting Internet of things devices, such as networked security cameras or building control systems, as these IoT devices can be controlled remotely, over the internet.

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Automation is the next level of digitization

Automation

So far, it's safe to say that the predominant trend in 21st-century business has been digitalization. Every industry, organization and individual has been touched by it one way or another.

As we head towards 2020, we are moving to the next level of digitalization. Now, what has already been digitalized will increasingly be automated -- whether it's the way we work, trade or connect with each other. Automation is becoming increasingly prevalent as computers gain in processing speed and power, and as the amount of data available for computation continues to grow exponentially. At the start of the Internet age, very few things were connected and available for analysis. But with the rise of the Internet of Things and the implantation of computers into all walks of life, from driving to warehousing, more and more facets of our world can now be mapped from within dedicated software.

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GDPR and what it means for businesses

Data protection

The EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into force in just over a year's time, but what impact will it have on business data protection efforts?

GDPR is one of the toughest pieces of data protection legislation in the world and will impose heavy penalties for non-compliance for any business around the world that collects or processes EU resident data -- even if the company is based outside the EU.

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Solving the puzzle of hybrid cloud [Q&A]

Cloud jigsaw

Many enterprises are moving towards hybrid cloud environments, but they face a challenge when it comes to working out how to control their cloud use effectively.

If they fail to do this and govern their cloud use properly, then any gains in agility they achieve will come with high costs and operational risks. We spoke to Andrew Hillier, CTO of Cirba, the company behind the Densify.com SaaS hybrid capacity analytics software, to find out how enterprises can bridge the gap between cloud hype and reality.

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US extreme vetting rules for tourists could put business data at risk

Risk dial

New legislation being considered by the Trump administration suggests that UK citizens traveling to the United States would have to hand over personal information such as passwords to their social media accounts and access to the contacts in their mobile phone or risk being denied entry to the country.

This comes just weeks after another travel-based regulation that banned certain electronic devices from some countries in North Africa and the Middle East bound for either the US or UK. At the same time, the upcoming GDPR is putting huge pressure on organizations to secure their data. How do these new travel regulations impact organizations trying to secure their sensitive data?

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RedOwl's behavioral analytics help fight insider risk

insider threat

Insider attacks can prove more costly than outsider ones, yet a good deal of enterprise security effort is still expended on protecting the perimeter.

Inside risk solutions specialist RedOwl is releasing the latest version of its Insider Risk Framework, designed to offer out-of-the-box capabilities to fight insider threats and which companies can quickly deploy with minimal specialist expertise.

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Cloud adoption and increasing threats drive enterprise encryption usage

Data encryption

Enterprises are accelerating their use of encryption and the strategy is being driven by business units rather than IT teams.

This is among the findings of a study into encryption habits by cyber security company Thales, based on research carried out by the Ponemon Institute. It finds that 41 percent of enterprises now have an encryption strategy in place.

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Microsoft's free cloud migration assessment sells the idea of hybrid cloud to enterprises

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For enterprises, datacenters are at the heart of operations. With Azure, Microsoft has a vested interest in encouraging enterprises to move these operations to the cloud, and it is with this in mind that the company has launched a cloud migration assessment tool.

The free tool has been designed to give enterprises a way to determine whether it would make sense -- and how much it would cost -- to move to a hybrid cloud solution.

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Toshiba is in serious trouble

Toshiba logo

Toshiba has filed its delayed financial results, warning that its survival is at stake.

The tech and construction company has reported a loss of $4.8bn (£3.84bn) for the period between April and December. However, these results have not been confirmed by the company’s auditors.

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