While cyber threats continue to be a massive drain on business productivity, there is another, less obvious vulnerability: unintentional employee error. Indeed, a majority of businesses say that simple human error is their leading cause of data loss.
Here, we talk to Mohit Tiwari, CEO and co-founder of Symmetry Systems, about the current threat landscape, the role of CISOs and the unique challenges COVID-19 and work-from-home (WFH) pose to CISOs and security teams.
Regardless of industry, no company can escape the widespread reach and impact of data. Whether a company is collecting account information from customers or aggregating platform usage data, handling large amounts of data has become the norm. While this creates boundless new opportunities for businesses in analytics and real-time decisioning, it also introduces new risks that organizations need to consider and prevent where possible.
How can security executives prepare for natural disasters such as hurricanes during these times of the coronavirus pandemic? When coupled with the ongoing and unprecedented business disruptions we’re already experiencing, an intense hurricane season is already proving to be a very challenging crisis to plan for.
Let’s face it, passwords are a pain. As we’ve been pushed towards using longer and ever more complex passwords, and told to update them with increasing frequency, password management has become something of a headache. We’ve gone from simple, easy to remember passwords to 12- or 16-character passwords that must contain a mixture of upper and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols.
According to IDC, by 2025 there will be 41.6 billion Internet of Things (IoT) devices, generating a massive 79 zettabytes (ZB) of data. To put that into perspective, in 2006, IDC estimated that the total amount of electronic data created and stored was a mere 0.18 ZB. This growing amount of data represents a vast and exponentially increasing attack surface, which poses a huge opportunity for cybercriminals and a seemingly insurmountable task for those responsible for protecting and securing it. This task is only made more difficult by the lack of regulation and security measures being built into IoT devices at present. As IoT looks to become a foundational aspect of our everyday lives, it’s vital we, as consumers, understand the threats posed to our devices and the data they store.
After months of social distancing, the coronavirus remains a serious public health challenge. As states across the country devise plans to reopen their local economies, government agencies and private healthcare providers are hungry for reliable data.
As many employees transfer back to a more traditional business setting from remote work environments, adjustments to cybersecurity protocols are going to be necessary. Organizations will need to evaluate any temporary provisions that were put into place during the COVID-19 pandemic, including any shortcuts that were taken and processes that were circumvented, and whether such protocols should be reversed or enhanced.
We speak to Saad Gul, Co-Chair of the Poyner Spruill, LLP, privacy and cybersecurity team, and learn about the Lifespan HHS investigation, what it means for data security professionals and why the HSS ruling should be a warning to all companies with HIPPA information.