Bad actors are waging increasingly sophisticated and frequent attacks—including ransomware, cyber espionage, zero-day malware and fileless attacks—to exploit endpoint vulnerabilities. These rapid-fire, diverse attacks are generating an average of 11,000 alerts per week that security teams must investigate, triage and address.
As business leaders outside of IT continue accepting cybersecurity as a business strategy rather than just as a digital defense mechanism, there are still major vacancies in the cybersecurity personnel pipeline that require addressing. Knowing this, WEI’s advanced security solutions are complemented by a focus on helping replenish the talent pipeline. This commitment is confirmed by WEI’s partnership with CyberTrust Massachusetts, a non-profit organization working to cultivate a robust talent pipeline. The support CyberTrust receives from its higher education consortium members is paramount, especially with the all-new Cyber Range at Bridgewater State University (BSU) opening earlier this year.
The advent of 2024 opens a new era, spotlighting the significant strides in cloud adoption and digital transformation that organizations have dramatically pushed forward, some by as much as six years. This rapid progression aims at fostering business innovation, gaining competitive edges, and achieving set business objectives. Looking back reveals a period of not only acceleration, but also substantial expansion. Applications now reside just about everywhere, distributed across traditional data centers, clouds, colocation providers, and computing edges. It is a new landscape that signals a broadened scope of IT infrastructure.
Disasters come in all shapes and sizes. From natural catastrophes like floods and fires to cyberattacks and hardware failures, unexpected events can cripple a business’s operations. These seismic events cause downtime – which equates to lost revenue, damaged reputations, and a potential competitive disadvantage.
See Bill Frank’s biography and contact information at the end of this article.
[Note: This is an updated version of the original article posted on March 21, 2024. I replaced the term "Governance” Controls with “Performance” Controls to eliminate any confusion with the NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0 use of the term “Governance.”
I focus here on automated controls that monitor and measure the “performance” of “Defensive” controls that directly block threats or at least alert on suspicious activities.
How well are your cybersecurity controls performing? Measuring control efficacy is challenging. In fact, under-configured, misconfigured, and poorly tuned controls, as well as variances in security processes are the Achilles Heels of cybersecurity programs.
A mismatch between risk reduction potential and performance results in undetected threats (false negatives) as well as an excessive number of false positives. This leads to an increase in the likelihood of loss events.
All controls, whether people, processes, or technologies, can be categorized in one of two ways – Defensive or Performance.
In the modern healthcare ecosystem, data plays a critical role. From storing patient records and managing finances to facilitating research and developing treatment plans, this information forms the lifeblood of the industry. It goes beyond the common data pulls for medical histories and financial details, as it also encompasses vital research findings, drug trial results, and personalized treatment plans – all essential for individual well-being and scientific advancement. However, this treasure trove attracts attackers, threatening patient privacy and trust, hindering care, and compromising the entire healthcare system.
Traditionally seen as physical rooms filled with activity, data centers have become the silent workhorses of the digital world. They house critical infrastructure, from basic communication tools to advanced applications and cloud services. However, with growing demands, how we manage these networks needs to be transformed.
Businesses face the constant challenge of fortifying their defenses to maintain resilience, productivity, and uninterrupted operations. This is especially important given the world’s increased data breach events, server outages, and the growing volume of data and users accessing their systems.
Organizations today encounter a significant challenge in handling and safeguarding data. The reasons include the inflow of various customer and business information, the widespread use of multiple devices, and the growth of remote work arrangements. As businesses increasingly rely on data for decision-making and forecasting, the need for reliable storage solutions has become important.
A recent Gartner report identified simplifying and automating IT infrastructure as the top strategic priority for businesses. This shift is driven by the limitations of data centers often burdened with complex, short-term solutions that sacrifice long-term reliability. The result? Slow innovation, frustrating user experiences, and costly downtime. By embracing automation and optimization, businesses can streamline processes, reduce costs, and unlock new opportunities to drive them forward in today’s dynamic market.
