Security & Business Resilience

RSS

Cloud communications and other advanced networking solutions have not only changed the way we connect with the world around us today, but they are also driving the change in future connectivity and are set to transform the way businesses create operating models, collaborate, and more. So, what does the future of connectivity look like in 2021? The near future consists of more robust security, more intuitive and streamlined connectivity, and increased mobility for a global workforce.

Thoughts around threat landscapes commonly prioritize corporate and governmental networks assets as high priorities, with personal networks and resources as lower-level threats. However, there have been recent changes that have caused the reassessment of prioritization levels at times. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of individuals who work from home has greatly increased. In fact, Stanford researcher Nicholas Bloom places the percentage of people currently working at home at over 40%.

New findings by The App Analyst reveal a privacy bug in Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's official campaign app. 

Two new public safety committees were created this month by University of Utah Chief Safety Officer Marlon Lynch and appointed by U President Ruth Watkins. The Public Safety Advisory Committee and the Independent Review Committee are comprised of students, faculty, and staff from across the institution and are designed to ensure a broad representation of constituents are included in public safety decision-making.

What are the expectations, technical implementations, and challenges of using cloud security access brokers (CASB)? Cloud Security Alliance's latest study reveal unrealized gaps between the rate of implementation or operation and the effective use of the capabilities within the enterprise.

Today, Zero Trust is the subject of much discussion and debate; for instance, is Zero Trust doable in reality or more so in theory?  As many are aware, Zero Trust is a concept that deems everyone (employees, freelancers and vendors) and everything (datacenters, applications and devices) must be verified before being allowed into a network perimeter – whether they are on the inside or the outside of an organization.

Organizations may consider adopting an adaptive risk-based trust approach to securing their privileged access. This approach uses least-privilege, zero-trust as a baseline for how organizations build trust scores which will then be used to determine the level of security which is required to gain access to the cloud, and specific applications and systems.

Recently, two teens and a young adult infiltrated one of Silicon Valley’s biggest companies in a high-profile hack – and the biggest ever for Twitter. Authorities say the 17-year-old “mastermind” used social engineering tactics to convince a Twitter employee that he also worked in the IT department and gained access to Twitter’s Customer Service Portal. The 130-account takeover proved unique, as it was fundamentally a dramatic manipulation of trust and could have had far more world-changing consequences if the attackers had the aspirations of say, a dangerous fringe group versus that of a teenager. There are a few takeaways to learn here, especially when it comes to considering redefining what we classify as “critical infrastructure” and what must be protected at all costs.

Last week, Didier Reynders, European Commissioner for Justice, and Dr. Andrea Jelinek, Chair of the European Data Protection Board (EDPB), appeared at a hearing conducted by the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, and updated committee members on their work since the Schrems II decision. In his remarks, Mr. Reynders identified three main areas on which the Commission is focusing.