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.
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.
Inside our IT bubble, leaders are aware of the cybersecurity skills shortage that plagues enterprises. As concerning as this challenge is, it may come as a surprise to the general public despite headlines over record ransoms, data leaks, and network breaches. Simply put, there are many more position openings than individuals available to fill them. This imbalance is creating a security gap that cybercriminals are taking advantage of.
As customer expectations and operational challenges change, retailers need to transform their business goals accordingly. Cloud-based technologies, like software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications, offer flexibility, scalability, and efficiency to facilitate this transformation. Yet, utilizing cloud services introduces network and security concerns, including performance issues, increased attack surface areas, and damaging data breaches. These days, it is no wonder IoT is sometimes referred to as Internet of Threats as there is a higher reliance on mobile and IoT devices, leading to higher bandwidth usage and increased data.
As threat actors get more sophisticated and aggressive campaigns become more commonplace, it is imperative that corporations step up their game. In the age of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and automation, the resources for a holistic approach have never been more available. Enterprises are starting to recognize the need to modernize their security operations center (SOC) with an advanced SOC solution. Unfortunately, CISOs everywhere are finding it difficult to identify a partner dedicated enough to conduct their due diligence about customer needs, identify potential solutions on the market, and deliver the know-how to implement the best technical solutions. WEI can do that.
Imagine your IT organization as a ship sailing the seas. Equipped with a sturdy hull, a reliable power source, and a skilled crew, you’re ready to handle any potential threats that appear during your ocean voyage. However, massive waves from an incoming storm unexpectedly hit, which destroys your ship and sweeps away everything onboard. Despite team’s intense preparation, your vessel and its crew are caught off guard for this specific disaster, leaving survival uncertain.
The financial services sector is dealing with new challenges as they race to digitize for a better customer experience and high-performing branch operations. Unfortunately, cyber criminals are capitalizing on the increased complexity.
