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How did we get here? Long, unstable fault lines in the bedrock that undergirds U.S. society have become active, sending seismic waves that have shaken the social contract. Citizens can’t agree on basic facts. People question whether COVID-19 is real amid shifting medical advice and conflicting data on case and death rates. The footing keeps getting less stable. Economic freefall. Surging unemployment. White supremacists, fascists and anarchists boldly emerging from the shadows. Loss of faith in law enforcement by swaths of the populace after black citizens perished in police custody. Rampant misinformation campaigns by anonymous groups and nations. The result is a bitterly split populace that has retreated to their respective echo chambers.

Flashback to 2004 and the genesis of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month (NCSAM), an initiative created to raise awareness in the U.S. around the importance of cybersecurity. Founded by the National Cyber Security Division within the Department of Homeland Security and the nonprofit National Cyber Security Alliance, NCSAM has taken place each October, since its mid-aughts inception, in efforts to ensure all Americans have knowledge of the resources and tools they need to be safer and more secure online.

While the burgeoning world of IoT has transformed the ways in which we live and work, the world of IoT has also caught the attention of cybercriminals. As IoT devices become increasingly more advanced, hackers have simultaneously become more sophisticated in their attacks, often targeting pre-existing security loopholes to gain access to company systems.

In part 1 of this series, we covered why Distributed Internet of Things devices are attractive and vulnerable targets for cyber criminals and hackers. Now we turn our attention to strategies for protecting these devices, which in turn, helps to protect your entire network.

We talk to Richard Bird, Ping Identity's Chief Customer Information Officer (CCIO), about how prepared the U.S. Government is for the 2020 Presidential Election.

Remote work is testing organizations, putting their IT departments under great stress. Like employees, many companies were unprepared for the many challenges of this seismic shift, one of which has been the dramatic changes in network and enterprise boundaries. Suddenly, securing endpoints became — and continues to be — a top concern.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is transforming our homes, businesses and public spaces – mostly for the better – but without proper precautions IoT devices can be an attractive target for malicious actors and cyberattacks. Security threats involving IoT devices often stem from the fact that many IoT devices usually have single-purpose designs and may lack broader capabilities to defend themselves in a hostile environment. For example, a door bell, a toaster or a washing machine frequently do not contain as much storage, memory and processing capability as a typical laptop computer.

The unfolding COVID-19 crisis has been the most significant test of the world’s internet infrastructure to date. With employers and schools moving to remote environments, the expectation was that the expanded use of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) tools like video conferencing would lead to crippling levels of web traffic. On top of that, experts anticipated the increase in internet use would prompt a corresponding rise in network attacks from cybercriminals. Many in the industry were concerned that the internet would not be able to sustain these unseen levels of duress.

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.