Wrongly considered the new kid on the block by some enterprises, virtualization technology has been around for a decade and embraced by many technology-oriented businesses due to its flexibility and room for expansion, increased productivity, superior storage capacity, and lower costs, among others.
More than 1.4 billion data records are estimated to have been compromised in 2016 as a direct result of data breaches, spawning an 86 percent increase compared to 2015, according to a Gemalto’s Breach Level Index. With organizations continuously being targeted by cybercriminals either with sophisticated advanced threats or through infrastructure vulnerabilities, the main driver behind these attacks is often related to financial gains or gratification.
For many enterprises, the software-defined data canter (SDDC) is the IT infrastructure of the future. And for innovative organizations it’s the data center of the present. Either way, SDDC offers a number of compelling potential benefits compared with traditional data center environments, such as reduced costs and greater agility.
In 2016, the number of ransomware attacks increased 300 percent from 2015, with over 4,000 attacks detected per day, according to US government statistics. Ransomware is among the worst types of infection, as it not only encrypts network data, but in the end may cost victims all their data – even if they pay the ransom. It should be a priority for all businesses and organizations in 2017.
A vital, actually a most fundamental, aspect of enterprise security is helping organizations to keep confidential information confidential. This is why security at the data and document level is something to which much more attention should be paid by enterprises.
Recent surveys have revealed that 34 percent of companies have been breached in the past 12 months alone, with 74 percent of IT decision makers claiming they have little to no clue as to how the breach occurred.
Companies will face a shortage of 1.8 million qualified information security personnel by 2022, according to a survey by Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp. and ISC2.
A third of Fortune 100 boards currently include a director who is a CIO. According to unpublished Korn Ferry data, cited by Harvard Business Review, the number of CIOs serving on Fortune 100 boards has increased 74% in the past two years.
Worldwide spending on information security is expected to reach $90 billion in 2017, an increase of 7.6 percent over 2016, and to top $113 billion by 2020, according to advisory firm Gartner. Spending on enhancing detection and response capabilities will likely be a key priority for security buyers through 2020.
Some 96 percent of IT professionals expect an increase in attacks on the security of industrial IoT (IIoT), a recent survey shows.
The hits to the healthcare industry keep on coming. While the number of overall data breaches tracked by the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) hit a record in 2016, with 1,093, which is a 40 percent increase over the previous record in 2015 of 780 breaches – It’s healthcare that continues to grow the most.
The good news for Internet entertainment, news and search site Yahoo Inc. is that Verizon Communications Inc. is still interested in acquiring the company following its disclosure of massive data breaches. The bad news is that the value of the deal has dropped precipitously after the security incidents became public knowledge.
When it comes to the business of information security, and the big technology trends that will likely shape the year ahead, the RSA Conference is perhaps the most important event of the year. And with a record attendance of more than 43,000, this year was no exception.
Some 12 percent of companies in Germany were breached in the past year, and most IT decision makers don’t know how their company was breached, according to a Bitdefender survey of 100 German respondents.
When it comes to shadow IT, government can face just as much of a challenge as the typical enterprise. Last week, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the General Services Administration (GSA) published a report which found that GSA’s Office of 18F had “routinely disregarded and circumvented fundamental security policies and guidelines.”
