The National Security Agency’s Research Directorate has announced it has selected “Spectre Attacks: Exploiting Speculative Execution” as the winner of its 8th Annual Best Cybersecurity Research Paper competition. Originally published at the 2019 IEEE Security & Privacy Symposium, the winning paper, in combination with Meltdown, another award-winning paper released earlier by the same researchers, launched a global effort to mitigate critical vulnerabilities in processors. 

A recent ISC² Cybersecurity Workforce Study placed the resource gap worldwide at 4.07 million professionals. The challenges we face when grappling with that gap are myriad and are exacerbated by the security paradigm to which we may have historically pledged allegiance.

Both artificial intelligence (AI) and emotional intelligence (EI) have critical roles to play in security. But two recent reports accentuate the challenge of leadership that tethers technology to humanity.

The close of 2020 is fast approaching, and many security professionals have experienced a wide swing in career highs and lows during this challenging year. Many shifts were obviously pandemic-related. Organizations were either forced to consider business realignment or utilized the upheaval to move in a direction that may have been already under consideration. Regardless of the circumstance, the result was a reduction in opportunities in the security profession for some, and career advancement for others.

Typically, guarding companies are focused on threats like active shooter, potential terrorism and natural disasters. Though those concerns remained in 2020, security officers and guarding companies have weathered the COVID-19 pandemic, an economic shutdown, social and civil unrest, and an election. How did these concerns impact the guarding world?

Ensuring the safety of workers is the top priority for human resources (HR), whether that’s adhering to proper social distancing measures or following emergency response protocols. In today's divisive environment, how can HR departments leverage in-office security guards to keep employees safe? Here, we talk to Matt Voska about the importance of in-office security guards and why security management technology is critical in helping HR leaders ensure workforce safety.