Cybersecurity has long focused on prevention...building strong perimeters, patching systems, and monitoring for alerts. But in today’s environment of distributed networks, hybrid architectures, and AI-powered adversaries, traditional defense models are falling short.
Days after the attack on the Colonial Pipeline, MIT Sloan School of Management professor, Stuart Madnick, said in an interview, “I often say the worst is yet to come.” While this is not a time for pessimism, the trend certainly appears to be headed in the wrong direction. 2021 has brought significant, far-reaching cyber catastrophes: ransomware has taken down one of the largest oil pipelines in the country, the largest meat processing company in the world and the police department of our nation’s capital. Even a ferry operator in Martha’s Vineyard found itself attacked.
Today’s cybercriminals are better equipped and are utilizing technology that’s more advanced by the day. With the value and importance of data only growing, protecting that data has never been more essential and enterprises need all the help they can get. With this in mind, we recently held a cybersecurity event to share information on key topics including:
As global industry evolves, digital innovation that features a hybrid, “from anywhere” business environment has become critical to modern workforces. New formats, like zero-trust access (ZTA), allow employees and external partners to utilize digital resources, no matter when or where they choose to work.
Regardless of the subject, there’s no one better to learn from than the experts. With this thought in mind, we recently held a cybersecurity webinar featuring Kevin Mitnick, a famous hacker and New York Times bestselling author, James Morrison, a HPE Distinguished Technologist and a former FBI agent, and our own Greg LaBrie, an enterprise security industry veteran and our Vice President of Technology Solutions and Services.
The summertime is in full swing, but we're not seeing a summertime slump at WEI. Our customers are locked-in, focused on what's ahead and how to get there in a cost-effective way. Our customers understand the technologies they adopt today will impact the future of their business, and will better prepare them for whatever comes next. Whether it's revisiting remote workforce strategies that are looking to become more permanent than once thought, modernizing backup infrastructure, or doubling down on enterprise security. The major commonality we're seeing? IT leaders are accelerating digital transformation projects because business needs have drastically changed and require modern solutions, right now.
If you're new to our Industry Info to Know weekly blog—welcome! Each Friday you can expect to see a new "Industry Info to Know" blog post from WEI consisting of a roundup of articles from industry experts, analysts, and our partners that we find insightful and helpful. We will also include links to industry news that you need to know about—news that will impact your business so you can plan ahead for it. We all need to help each other right now—we're all in IT together.
Security is still top of mind for executives as the nation (and world) continues to navigate uncertainties brought upon us all by the pandemic. More specifically cloud security and security at the edge are where CIOs are prioritize efforts, and spend according to several studies that are referenced in the articles below. Leading vendors of enterprise IT solutions regonized this emerging trend early-on and have rolled out product improvements or new solutions all-together to help companies more effectively secure their enterprise endpoints as their employees work from anywhere.
2020 has presented CIOs and IT Executives with unforeseen health and humanity challenges that affected the way business gets done, and significantly impacted how enterprise IT supported their users. And it's been one thing after another. Technology limitations were tested, as well as your company's leadership to lead through uncertainty. It's been a busy (and interesting) year for sure, and hopefully this week's roundup of articles can help as your company continues to architect a resilient IT environment for operating in a new normal—one that keeps employees productive and secure from where ever they choose to work.
People nationwide are starting to return to work with some version of familiar normalcy emerging as states open up their economies. Work as we know it has forever changed, though, and some companies are proving to be well equipped for the future while others are still struggling with how to adapt and effectively plan for what's next. Flexible, scalable systems proved to be a saving grace for business continuity, but what else is needed should a mandatory quarantine happen again? While there is a second wave of COVID-19 predicted, it is more critical than ever for executives and IT leaders to reflect on how their business responded—what worked and what didn't—and develop long-term strategies to get ahead of potential supply chain delays and hardware scarcity scenarios.
