The phrase 'time is money', originally attributed to Benjamin Franklin, reprimands the slothful for wasting their working hours
"As one of the founding fathers of the United States, Benjamin Franklin clearly never worked a day in cybersecurity. This is an area where fresh blood is hard to find to fill the skill gap in an ever-expanding digital world of proactive threat actors and potential breaches.
All departments are busy, resources are stretched, and very few businesses are cash-rich right now, even if they do see the necessity to invest in cybersecurity. While there is constant pressure on every business unit to save time, money, and resources, the cybersecurity team, in particular, must be mindful of achieving this without jeopardizing the digital safety of the enterprise..."
Having a remote workforce is not all about finding the top talents, increasing employees' productivity, or reducing your operating cost
"On the flip side, allowing your employees to work remotely can pose serious challenges to the cybersecurity of your remote team if you have implemented remote working in haste without having a robust security mechanism in place.
In fact, 85% of CISOs state that they sacrificed cybersecurity to adopt remote working in their companies quickly, finds Netwrix research..."
The fundamentals of cybersecurity in 2021: Scalability, user awareness, and the ability to evolve to meet changing network and security needs
"COVID-19 pushed many businesses to adopt remote and flexible working. As a consequence, businesses now have to find new, more effective ways of coping with the rapidly changing post-pandemic digital space. There now are millions of connected offices, and most of these offices are not as protected digitally as traditional offices. The secure firewalls, access management systems, and secure routers, etc., in your office, may not be sufficient to cover all your remote workers. That leaves your devices and networks vulnerable to data thieves..."
The insider cybersecurity threat vector is vast and complex, but here are some things you can do now to prevent an incident.
"Although cybersecurity has traditionally focused on keeping the bad actors out of an organization's IT resources, it is important not to overlook the threats posed by insiders. An employee might sell sensitive data to a competitor, engage in cyber vandalism as a form of revenge or take other actions to harm the organization and its data. The insider cybersecurity threat is vast and complex--including accidental and purposeful breaches--but here are five things you can do now to keep the organization safe..."
In 2020, the average ransomware payment was $312,493 - a 171% year-over-year increase.
"That's not a small change, but if you're thinking that your business leaders could stomach that expense to win back control of data, the actual payment is just the start.
There are the extra people-hours that must be devoted to reassuring customers. There are shareholder lawsuits the business must defend. There are outsourced IT and cybersecurity that may need to be deployed. And, in regulated environments, that's just the start of the additional pain to come..."
Data is the lifeblood of today's information-based business.
"Have you ever wondered what would happen to your business if it was cut off from the most important thing that keeps your business running? Your business would cease to exist. Data loss can result from system failure, human error, data corruption, cyberattack or natural disaster, and can be detrimental to your business..."
Cyber security threats are a constant for organizations, whether they do business with the public or other organizations.
"Cyber threats are malicious attempts to gain unauthorized access to an organization's network, and the resources on the network.
Cybercriminals or hackers somewhere in the world are constantly attempting to infiltrate an organization's network, and these criminals pose a constant threat. Cyber threats can easily become cybercrimes if organizational leadership does not champion a cyber security program..."
On average, it takes a business 287 days to find and contain a data breach
"That's nearly ten months of stolen data that could cost the organization thousands of dollars in recovery and potential legal fees. However, endpoint detection and response (EDR) software identifies breaches faster, allowing businesses to contain and expel the malware before it does too much damage..."
Wi-Fi 6E is the most secure wireless standard ever, but making the wrong implementation decisions or not understanding its risks will negate that advantage
"Wi-Fi 6E is a technical extension of the Wi-Fi 6 standard to deliver improved Wi-Fi capacity, less interference, and higher throughput. Introduced in January 2021 by the Wi-Fi Alliance, Wi-Fi 6E allows for an increased frequency band of 6 GHz, providing up to 1,200 MHz of additional spectrum compared to Wi-Fi 6.
In April 2020, the FCC voted to open 6 GHz for unlicensed use, meaning that electrical consumer products such as phones, tablets, laptops, and routers could benefit from the enhanced Wi-Fi performance. Commenting last year, FCC chairman Ajit Pai said, 'I expect that 6 GHz unlicensed devices will become a part of consumers' everyday lives. And I predict the rules we adopt today will play a major role in the growth of the internet of things, connecting appliances, machines, meters, wearables, smart televisions, and other consumer electronics, as well as industrial sensors for manufacturing.'
Privileged access management (PAM) is in a bizarre place right now. On the one hand, organizations mostly understand the value of PAM.
"In a July 2019 study cited by Forbes, for instance, just 1% of respondents said that they don't use any kind of PAM. More than eight of 10 of those respondents were happy with the tools and strategy that they were using for PAM.
On the other hand, many people aren't confident that their PAM solutions and strategy are helping. Two out of five respondents said their PAM solution could prevent only some types of attacks. What's more, 8% said that they didn't feel their PAM solution could stop inappropriate access..."
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