The New England College of Optometry (NECO) formed a COVID-19 Task Force and began exploring ideas to enable in-person learning at the school in a safe, effective and well-planned manner. One of the solutions that NECO implemented is a contact-tracing tool that allows the school to respond immediately to report of an infection, accurately and effectively, without relying on a sign-in sheet or a person’s recollection of their previous contacts.

How can consumers and retailers protect themselves against fraud in the coming months? Here, Jane Lee, Trust and Safety Architect at Sift, speaks to Security magazine about this critical issue.

China has had a tough 2020. Intellectual property rights infringement, stealing university and U.S. government-funded research, spys routed out in public, Hong-Kong takeover, Human-right abuses, Coronavirus cover-ups, supply-chain bog downs, and the list goes on. The conclusion is that China has lost its luster with businesses in the United States and abroad. These issues are not new; instead, they have reached a boiling point where the international business community is getting leary of putting too many eggs in China’s basket. The U.S. government has certainly done its share to bring many of these things to light. And while this is happening, and companies look elsewhere to move, the possibilities of increasing North America manufacturing has become more attractive than ever.

The education space has become a major target for cybercriminals. In fact, CISA and the FBI recently issued a joint statement warning K-12 schools of worsening dangers in 2021 after a recent 57% spike ransomware attacks in the sector. So, how can teachers and students stay safe? Here, we speak with Kelvin Coleman, Executive Director, National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) about how educators and K-12 cybersecurity leaders can better protect students’ privacy during distance learning sessions. 

Videoconferencing has been around for a surprisingly long time.  In fact, the first call involving both audio and video links has been traced all the way back to 1927 in a call that took place between officials in Washington, DC and the president of AT&T in New York. Although it was laughably primitive by current standards, electronic conferencing technology has never stopped growing in either refinement or use. 

While the jury’s out on whether these applications will be an effective tool for contact tracers, or if the majority of citizens will fully embrace these applications, it’s clear that contact tracing will likely become a part of our daily lives. To keep these technologies on the right track, developers, policymakers and stakeholders must ask questions to measure effectiveness, while addressing key issues to prevent abuse and secure consumer data. 

 The World Economic Forum's Global Risk Report for 2021 placed cybersecurity failure among the greatest threats facing humanity within the next ten years. Clearly, in this climate, and since many jumped into the world of cyber operations without adequate preparation, cybersecurity is now a critical priority.

Hybrid work is emerging as a norm, especially for companies who have a mix of workers whose job requires coming into the office, and those who are able to accomplish their work at home. This hybrid workforce is expected to become more prevalent as 75% of workers want to retain flexibility over their schedule beyond the pandemic. To get some insight into how security executives executives can implement consistent security practices for the new hybrid workforce environment, we spoke to Michael Borromeo, Vice President, Data Protection at Stericycle, the provider of Shred-it information security services.

Education is particularly attractive to criminals because of the vast amount of valuable data it holds: student and staff information, supplier information, alumni databases, and research data - so, as security experts, what’s to be done to help schools secure their endpoint devices?