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ACCESS CONTROL MONTH: Navigating the Maze – Sourcing trusted access control solutions for CIOs

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Securing physical and digital access is paramount for any organisation. For Chief Information Officers (CIOs), the responsibility of selecting a trusted access control solutions provider carries significant weight. This article explores key approaches to guide CIOs in navigating the diverse landscape and finding the ideal partner…

1. Define Your Needs Clearly:

Start by conducting a thorough internal assessment. Identify your organisation’s specific needs and security requirements. This includes factors like the type of access control system needed (physical, logical, or both), compatibility with existing infrastructure, scalability to future needs, and integration capabilities with other security solutions.

2. Prioritise Expertise and Experience:

Look for established providers with a proven track record of success in implementing access control solutions in your industry. Investigate their experience with similar-sized organisations and their ability to address unique challenges specific to your sector.

3. Seek Industry Accreditation and Certifications:

Prioritise providers with industry-recognized accreditations and certifications. These demonstrate their commitment to security best practices and industry standards. Look for certifications relevant to the specific access control solutions you’re evaluating, such as ONVIF for video surveillance or UL 293 for life-safety applications.

4. Evaluate Technology Stack and Innovation:

Assess the provider’s technology stack and commitment to innovation. Choose a provider offering modern, secure, and future-proof solutions. Look for providers utilising cutting-edge technologies like biometrics, cloud-based access control, and mobile authentication to ensure your system remains robust and adaptable.

5. Prioritize Security and Data Privacy:

Security must be a top priority. Evaluate the provider’s security protocols, data encryption practices, and compliance with relevant data privacy regulations such as GDPR in the UK. Ensure they offer robust safeguards against cyberattacks and unauthorized access attempts.

6. Assess Scalability and Flexibility:

Your organisation’s security needs are likely to evolve over time. Choose a provider offering solutions that can scale and adapt to your future needs. This ensures you’re not locked into a rigid system that hinders growth or hinders integration with future technologies.

7. Request References and Case Studies:

Seek references from existing clients who operate within your industry or face similar challenges. This provides valuable insights into the provider’s implementation process, customer service approach, and ability to deliver on promises. Additionally, request case studies showcasing successful projects that align with your requirements.

8. Transparent Communication and Competitive Pricing:

Open communication throughout the selection process is crucial. Choose a provider that prioritizes clear, transparent communication and offers competitive pricing structures. Seek well-defined contracts outlining service level agreements (SLAs), performance metrics, and dispute resolution mechanisms.

9. Consider Long-Term Partnership:

Selecting an access control solutions provider is not just a one-time transaction; it’s the beginning of a long-term partnership. Choose a provider with a strong reputation for customer service, ongoing support, and a commitment to providing regular updates and security patches.

10. Conduct Due Diligence:

Before signing any contracts, conduct thorough due diligence. This includes reviewing the provider’s financial stability, legal history, and insurance policies. Ensure they meet your organisation’s risk management and financial criteria.

By diligently following these approaches, CIOs can confidently navigate the selection process and source trusted access control solutions providers. Choosing the right partner will ensure the implementation of a robust and secure access control system, safeguarding your organisation’s physical and digital assets, and enabling a strong foundation for future growth.

Are you searching for Access Control solutions for your organisation? The Cyber Secure Forum can help!

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Is defensive AI the key to guarding against emerging cyber threats?

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Google’s recent announcement of an artificial intelligence (AI) Cyber Defense Initiative to enhance global cybersecurity underscores the importance of defending against increasingly sophisticated and pervasive cyber threats.

And according to analysts at GlobalData, AI will play a pivotal role in collecting, processing, and neutralising threats, transforming the way organisations combat cyber risks.

Looking at AI cyber threat detection technology through the lens of innovation using GlobalData’s Technology Foresights tool reveals some compelling insights. Patent filings have surged from 387 in 2018 to 1,098 in 2023, highlighting a robust growth trajectory in AI-driven security solutions. Furthermore, the entry of 53 new companies in 2023, for a total of 239, showcases the expanding interest and investment in this critical area of technology.

Vaibhav Gundre, Project Manager of Disruptive Tech at GlobalData, said: “The ability of AI to improve threat identification, streamline the management of vulnerabilities, and enhance the efficiency of incident responses is key in addressing the continuous evolution of cyber threats. The rapid progression in the field of defensive AI is underscored by a 13% compound annual growth rate in patent applications over the last three years, reflecting a strong commitment to innovation. This trend is also indicative of the recognized importance of having formidable cyber defense systems in place, signifying substantial research and development activities aimed at overcoming new cyber threats.”

An analysis of GlobalData’s Disruptor Intelligence Center highlights the partnership between AIShield and DEKRA as a notable collaboration aimed at enhancing the security of AI models and systems. Through advanced training, assessment, and protection strategies, the partnership seeks to bolster cyber resilience across industries and foster trust in AI technologies.

Similarly, Darktrace’s collaboration with Cyware exemplifies a proactive approach to cybersecurity. By facilitating collaboration among security teams and sharing threat intelligence, the partnership enables organizations to mitigate risks and respond effectively to emerging cyber threats.

AI cyber threat detection finds application across diverse use cases, including threat detection in security cameras, real-time malware detection, network threat detection, anomaly detection in critical infrastructure, fraud prevention, and AI-powered surveillance systems.

Gundre concluded: “As organizations harness the power of AI cyber threat detection, they must also confront significant challenges. The rapid evolution of cyber threats, coupled with the complexity of regulatory landscapes, underscores the need for continuous innovation and collaboration. While patents and partnerships lay the foundation for robust cyber defense strategies, addressing these challenges will require a concerted effort from industry stakeholders. By staying vigilant and embracing a proactive approach, organizations can navigate the evolving cybersecurity landscape with confidence, safeguarding critical assets and preserving digital trust.”

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Are these the top cybersecurity trends for 2024?

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Generative AI (GenAI), unsecure employee behaviour, third-party risks, continuous threat exposure, boardroom communication gaps and identity-first approaches to security are the driving forces behind the top cybersecurity trends for 2024, according to Gartner.

“GenAI is occupying significant headspace of security leaders as another challenge to manage, but also offers an opportunity to harness its capabilities to augment security at an operational level,” said Richard Addiscott, Senior Director Analyst at Gartner. “Despite GenAI’s inescapable force, leaders also continue to contend with other external factors outside their control they shouldn’t ignore this year.”

2024 will see security leaders respond to the combined impact of these forces by adopting a range of practices, technical capabilities and structural reforms within their security programs, with a view to improving organizational resilience and the cybersecurity function’s performance.

The following six trends will have broad impact across these areas:

Trend 1: Generative AI – Short-term Skepticism, Longer-Term Hope
Security leaders need to prepare for the swift evolution of GenAI, as large language model (LLM) applications like ChatGPT and Gemini are only the start of its disruption. Simultaneously, these leaders are inundated with promises of productivity increases, skills gap reductions and other new benefits for cybersecurity. Gartner recommends using GenAI through proactive collaboration with business stakeholders to support the foundations for the ethical, safe and secure use of this disruptive technology.

“It’s important to recognize that this is only the beginning of GenAI’s evolution, with many of the demos we’ve seen in security operations and application security showing real promise,” said Addiscott. “There’s solid long-term hope for the technology, but right now we’re more likely to experience prompt fatigue than two-digit productivity growth. Things will improve, so encourage experiments and manage expectations, especially outside of the security team.”

Trend 2: Cybersecurity Outcome-Driven Metrics: Bridging Boardroom Communication Gap
The frequency and negative impact of cybersecurity incidents on organizations continues to rise, undermining the confidence of the board and executives in their cybersecurity strategies. Outcome-driven metrics (ODMs) are increasingly being adopted to enable stakeholders to draw a straight line between cybersecurity investment and the delivered protection levels it generates.

According to Gartner, ODMs are central to creating a defensible cybersecurity investment strategy, reflecting agreed protection levels with powerful properties, and in simple language that is explainable to non-IT executives. This provides a credible and defensible expression of risk appetite that supports direct investment to change protection levels.

Trend 3: Security Behavior and Culture Programs Gain Increasing Traction to Reduce Human Risks
Security leaders recognize that shifting focus from increasing awareness to fostering behavioral change will help reduce cybersecurity risks. By 2027, 50% of large enterprise CISOs will have adopted human-centric security design practices to minimize cybersecurity-induced friction and maximize control adoption. Security behavior and culture programs (SBCPs) encapsulate an enterprisewide approach to minimizing cybersecurity incidents associated with employee behavior.

“Organizations using SBCPs have experienced better employee adoption of security controls; reductions in unsecure behavior and increases in speed and agility,” said Addiscott. “It also leads to a more effective use of cybersecurity resources as employees become competent at making independent cyber risk decisions.”

Trend 4: Resilience-Driven, Resource-Efficient Third-Party Cybersecurity Risk Management
The inevitability of third parties experiencing cybersecurity incidents is pressuring security leaders to focus more on resilience-oriented investments and move away from front loaded due diligence activities. Gartner recommends security leaders enhance risk management of third-party services and establish mutually beneficial relationships with important external partners, to ensure their most valuable assets are continuously safeguarded.

“Start by strengthening contingency plans for third-party engagements that pose the highest cybersecurity risk,” said Addiscott. ”Create third-party-specific incident playbooks, conduct tabletop exercises and define a clear offboarding strategy involving, for example, timely revocation of access and destruction of data.”

Trend 5: Continuous Threat Exposure Management Programs Gain Momentum
Continuous threat exposure management (CTEM) is a pragmatic and systemic approach organizations can use to continually evaluate the accessibility, exposure and exploitability of digital and physical assets. Aligning assessment and remediation scopes with threat vectors or business projects rather than an infrastructure component, highlights vulnerabilities and unpatchable threats.

By 2026, Gartner predicts that organizations prioritizing their security investments based on a CTEM program will realize a two-thirds reduction in breaches. Security leaders must continuously monitor hybrid digital environments to enable early identification and optimal prioritization of vulnerabilities to help maintain a hardened organizational attack surface.

Trend 6: Extending the Role of Identity & Access Management (IAM) to Improve Cybersecurity Outcomes
As more organization’s move to an identity-first approach to security, the focus shifts from network security and other traditional controls to IAM, making it critical to cybersecurity and business outcomes. While Gartner sees an increased role for IAM in security programs, practices must evolve to focus more on fundamental hygiene and hardening of systems to improve resilience.

Gartner recommends security leaders focus on strengthening and leveraging their identity fabric and leverage identity threat detection and response to ensure IAM capabilities are best positioned to support the breadth of the overall security program.

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Will you be joining us at the Cyber Secure Forum on June 25th in London?

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This unique event will provide you with a rare full working day of industry networking, learning and connection building, through 1-2-1 meetings – The Summit will cover all of your cyber security needs.

Your pass will be fully funded, and includes:

  • A personalised 1-2-1 itinerary of relaxed business meetings with leading industry suppliers
  • A seat at our inspiring and educational seminar* programme
  • Lunch and refreshments provided throughout the day
  • Multiple networking breaks to maximise your business connections and connect with peers at the event

Confirmed seminar sessions include:

“How do dark actors use LinkedIn against you?”

Data is precious, access even more, but many have a LinkedIn “blind” spot. This talk will highlight how it is used against you and how you might use it to help.

Presented by: James Potter, Director – The LinkedIn Man

“Protecting organisations & interests through social engineering threat awareness, managing predominant cyber risks & cyber insurance premiums whilst embedding cyber CSR, next generational awareness and human risk management”

Presented by: Graham Day, Program Manager – CyberGuardian

📢 Further seminar sessions to be announced – Keep an eye out!

Book Online Here, or alternatively, if you would like more information on what to expect at the event, please contact us here.

If you specialise in Intrusion Detection & Prevention we want to hear from you!

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Each month on Cyber Security Briefing we’re shining the spotlight on a different part of the cyber security market – and in March we’re focussing on Intrusion Detection & Prevention solutions.

It’s all part of our ‘Recommended’ editorial feature, designed to help IT security buyers find the best products and services available today.

So, if you’re an Intrusion Detection & Prevention solutions specialist and would like to be included as part of this exciting new shop window, we’d love to hear from you – for more info, contact Jenny Lane on j.lane@forumevents.co.uk.

Here’s our full features list:

Mar 2024 – Intrusion Detection & Prevention
Apr 2024 – Phishing Detection
May 2024 – Advanced Threat Dashboard
Jun 2024 – Browser/Web Security
July 2024 – Authentication
Aug 2024 – Penetration Testing
Sep 2024 – Vulnerability Management
Oct 2024 – Employee Security Awareness
Nov 2024 – Malware
Dec 2024 – Network Security Management
Jan 2025 – Anti Virus
Feb 2025 – Access Control

5G leads business investment, though general wireless network security concerns remain high

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Businesses expect wireless technology investment to boost their productivity by 32% on average in the three years after implementation, but latent concerns remain around security and interoperability.

36% of respondents to a Panasonic Connect Europe survey say that 5G is the most important wireless technology investment for their business, with private campus networks more popular than public networks.

One in five (22%) view WiFi 6 as the most important type of wireless technology. A substantial upgrade over its predecessor, it offers faster connections and improved resilience for networks with a high connected device load. Interest in Bluetooth and Long-Range Wide Area Networks (LoRaWAN) were similarly high (21% respectively), as organisations seek the right technology for specialist applications in their own sectors, such as supply chain logistics and manufacturing.

Overall, there is rapid progress being made with investment in wireless technology, with 41% of decision makers having already made the decision to invest in wireless projects, or are in the planning process. An additional 38% of respondents are already at the implementation stage.

However, there are challenges to overcome, with 24% of those surveyed admitting to concerns around IT security, while 22% are worried about interoperability and connectivity issues with their existing IT infrastructure. One in five are troubled about the manageability of the wireless network technology and a similar percentage report a lack of confidence in IT resources, knowledge, and skills.

“This research highlights that this is a crucial period in wireless technology investment and decision making. The advent of 5G, the evolution of WiFi, and the innovation around Bluetooth and LoRaWAN are all driving the connected world in ways that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago. Clearly, business leaders believe wireless connectivity presents enormous opportunities, but there are also challenges to overcome,” said Jan Kaempfer, Marketing Director for Panasonic Connect Europe.

“Businesses have a lack of internal expertise and resources and there is a role for technology providers to play in supporting organisations with expertise and education to instil greater confidence and plug some of the resource gaps. But overall, the picture for wireless is very positive, with a strong appetite for innovation and advanced deployment. At Panasonic Connect Europe, we’re committed to helping business leaders understand the dominant drivers for wireless technology investment, the key technologies and their applications, and how to overcome barriers.”

The survey, carried out by independent research company Opinion Matters and commissioned by Panasonic Connect Europe, questioned over 300 senior decision makers with responsibility for wireless and network technologies, across the UK, France, and Germany, in the following sectors: Retail; Logistics & Supply Chain; Manufacturing; Education; Location-based Media and Entertainment; and Public Sector and Emergency Services.

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ACCESS CONTROL MONTH: Establishing the key pillars of best practice

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Implementing an effective access control regime is paramount for IT security professionals in the UK’s public and private sectors. Access control systems are essential for protecting sensitive information, ensuring that only authorised users can access specific data and systems. Here are the key pillars for establishing a robust access control regime, based from input from attendees at the Cyber Secure Forum…

1. Comprehensive Risk Assessment: The foundation of any effective access control regime is a thorough risk assessment. IT security professionals need to identify the critical assets within their organisation, understand the potential vulnerabilities, and assess the threats. This comprehensive evaluation helps in determining the appropriate level of access control required to protect these assets.

2. Least Privilege Principle: One of the cornerstones of access control is the principle of least privilege. This means granting users only the access rights they need to perform their job functions and no more. Implementing the least privilege principle minimises the risk of accidental or intentional data breaches, as it limits the amount of data and systems to which any given user has access.

3. Multi-factor Authentication (MFA): Relying solely on passwords for user authentication is increasingly seen as inadequate. Multi-factor authentication adds an additional layer of security by requiring two or more verification methods to gain access. This could include something the user knows (a password), something the user has (a security token or mobile device), or something the user is (biometric verification).

4. Regular Audits and Reviews: To ensure that access controls remain effective and relevant, regular audits and reviews are essential. This involves checking who has access to what and ensuring that this access is still required. It also includes reviewing the access control policies and procedures to ensure they are up to date with the latest security threats and technological advancements.

5. User Training and Awareness: An often-overlooked aspect of access control is user training and awareness. Users need to understand the importance of access control measures and how to comply with them. This includes recognising phishing attempts, safeguarding their credentials, and reporting any suspicious activity.

6. Integration and Scalability: As organisations grow and evolve, so too do their access control needs. IT security professionals should seek access control solutions that can integrate seamlessly with existing systems and scale as the organisation expands. This ensures a consistent and manageable access control regime across all areas of the business.

An effective access control regime is built on thorough risk assessment, adherence to the principle of least privilege, the implementation of multi-factor authentication, regular audits, user training, and scalable, integrated solutions. By focusing on these key pillars, IT security professionals in the UK can safeguard their organisations against unauthorised access and the myriad of security threats that accompany it.

Are you searching for Access Control solutions for your organisation? The Cyber Secure Forum can help!

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These are the top trends impacting tech providers in 2024

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Generative AI (GenAI) is dominating the technical and product agenda of nearly every tech provider, but ESG and buyer pessimism are also high on the agenda.

Eric Hunter, Managing Vice President at Gartner, said: “[GenAI] technology reshapes a tech provider from its growth and product strategy down to the everyday tools used by its associates. Despite the potential for GenAI to reshape providers, it is not the only influence facing technology leaders. There are new points of friction in growth plans, new points of fusion in marketing and sales, and new relationships opening up to technology and service providers (TSPs).”

The immediate and long-term implications of these issues require product leaders to balance between short-term opportunity and long-term advantage and strategies based on economic recovery or recession. Gartner’s top trends for 2024 reflect these dualities (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: 2024 Gartner Tech Provider Top Trends

Note: The bubble size for each trend conveys the relative magnitude of disruption for a given trend, relative to the other top trends. Source: Gartner (February 2024)

Efficient Growth for High Tech

Significant growth in IT spending over the last decade benefited high-tech companies. Capturing that growth led high-tech firms to pursue growth without a full measure of the costs. This is a “growth at all costs” strategy. High-tech firms anchored their product, organization and employment plans on a hypothesis of continued strong growth.

As macroeconomic conditions create uncertainty among buyers and increasing costs of capital shift investor focus to margin growth, Gartner analysts see a trend toward tech providers focusing on efficient growth. Efficient growth strategies recognize the value in growing in ways that strengthen current margins and future revenue opportunities.

New Enterprise IT-Provider Relationships

Increased business and technical demands require enterprise IT to cover more ground at a deeper level and a faster pace, eroding enterprise IT’s capacity and capabilities. This creates a trend for product leaders at tech providers to create new relationships and revenue opportunities across the enterprise, including expanded provider roles within enterprise IT and the business, outcome-centric provider-enterprise relationships and enterprise-wide tier-1 relationships.

Sustainable Business Grows Up

Sustainability efforts and managing the ESG impact have been unilaterally focused on mitigating internal risk and ensuring compliance. Product leaders must evolve by embracing double materiality and holistic leverage of emerging technologies to meet sustainability objectives.

AI Safety 

Responsible AI and AI safety are not new concepts, but the unprecedented rapid development of GenAI technologies has fueled the discussion around risk management and how to address growing issues such as content provenance and hallucination. Product leaders must build solutions that incorporate safety principles with a focus on model transparency, traceability, interpretability and explainability aspects. Preempting regulatory and compliance issues will be critical to staying competitive in this vibrant GenAI market by creating trust.

Rising Buyer Pessimism 

Over the past three years, tech providers have increasingly observed negative sales pipeline effects due to new buyer behaviors that are colliding with outdated go-to-market (GTM) models. Without adapting sales and marketing approaches to detect and respond to buyer pessimism, technology providers will see their own GTM operations decline in both internal and external perspectives.

Vertical Generative AI Models

While general-purpose models perform well across a broad set of GenAI applications, they can be impractical for many enterprise use cases that require domain-specific data. Tech providers must explore industry-focused models that can be adapted to specific user requirements using available resources more efficiently. Those failing to do so will face increased costs and complexity in the creation and leverage of models.

Personalized Marketplace Experiences  

Specialized, niche, digital marketplaces are emerging to help buyers navigate the complexity of procuring, implementing and integrating solutions. Product leaders who do not offer their services through personalized digital marketplaces limit their findability for their target customers. Gartner predicts that

80% of sales interactions between suppliers and buyers will occur in digital channels by 2025.

Industry Cloud Delivers Growth

Service providers, hyperscalers, ISVs and SaaS providers are turning to vertical solutions to deliver the customer outcomes that will drive provider growth. By 2027, Gartner predicts that more than 50% of tech providers will use industry cloud platforms to deliver business outcomes, up from less than 5% in 2023.

PLG and Value Converge for Hybrid GTM

Product-led-growth (PLG) focuses on showing value to product users, creating intent signals that go-to-market (GTM) teams can use with prospective buyers. But most companies using a PLG GTM have begun to realize that, in most cases, a 100% self-serve GTM motion isn’t tenable. At some point, sellers must be involved to convert deals. Buyer needs for business value and outcome justification — for new or expansion business — will meld PLG tactics with value management and realization initiatives in hybrid GTM strategies.

Precision Marketing and Sales

Rapidly evolving technology advances, such as GenAI, digital buying and the metaverse, are changing how tech providers market and sell technology. Tech providers failing to adopt new approaches will see the erosion of overall deal quality combined with the loss of relevance and limited growth within established accounts.

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Asset financing – and how to avoid getting stung by unexpected costs from hyperscalers

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“To hyperscale or not to hyperscale” remains a key question for any CIO. And, while the majority of large organisations have already taken that step, for some, if not all, they question whether their IT infrastructure strategy is delivering the  cost and flexibility benefits expected. At a time when capex budgets are coming under ever greater pressure, pushing CIOs even harder towards the hyperscale opex alternative, Mark Grindey, CEO, Zeus Cloud calls on CIOs to read the small print – or pay the price…

Escalating Costs

Drivers for the adoption of public cloud platforms vary, but for many larger organisations, the agility, innovation and scalability have outweighed the expected cost benefits. The ability to spin up new systems has improved time to market, accelerated digital transformation and enhanced business resilience. For CIOs, the shift away from on premise to the hyperscalers has met objectives – in the main. There is one, very notable exception: cost. While cost control may not have been the priority, it is always a factor in any IT strategic change. Few businesses expected to incur the level of ‘additional’ costs associated with the public cloud. And, given the on-going economic challenges, this upward trend is raising serious concerns.

The biggest problem is that, despite the perception, the price of public cloud service is not ‘known’. Monthly costs are not consistent. The subscription model is just one element in a sliding scale of usage- based costs. Companies are discovering the additional fees demanded for extra security and support. They are incurring far greater storage costs, due to the tendency to charge for both storing and deleting data. Even a user inadvertently changing Active Directory settings can lead to an unexpected hike in costs.

Add in the limitations on bandwidth, the additional charges for cpu or RAM, plus the fact that if the business is using VMWare, it will be paying again based on those same usage factors. Therefore, it’s these further hidden costs of the cloud that have caught many companies by surprise.   

Security and Latency Risks

Of course, unexpected IT costs are nothing new. Big companies have deep pockets – if the public cloud is delivering the required agility and flexibility, is the higher price tag worth it? The problem is that the escalating level of security attacks on these high profile hyperscalers is also causing serious concerns, especially for organisations dependent upon 100% uptime and very low latency.

Financial services organisations cannot endure the increasing latency associated with essential additional levels of security. Key infrastructure providers, including telecommunications and utilities, are justifiably concerned about the risks associated with Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks occurring almost continuously on these organisations.

But what is the alternative? At a time of economic and geopolitical uncertainty, there is little if any desire to revert to the traditional IT finance model, however deep an organisation’s pockets. Add in new compliance demands and the need to adapt to a changing marketplace, and capex projects are already oversubscribed. Further, large businesses have embraced the flexibility and agility associated with scaling up and down in line with demand. New business innovation is now predicated on the ability to accelerate IT development.

Retaining Flexibility

The cloud model works on so many levels. The issue that organisations have to address is how to retain a cloud-based infrastructure without incurring unacceptable costs. Clearly, it is vital to read the small print. But it is also important to consider the alternatives. Would an on-premise private cloud option work, for example?

Using flexible financing, Service Integration & Management (SIAM) vendors can offer the agility of the cloud with the benefit of locating the kit either on premise or in a dedicated co-location centre. Unlike Managed Service Providers (MSPs), a SIAM doesn’t mark up the equipment. It will simply use its market buying power to access the best prices for the kit required.

Critically, when compared head-to-head with the equivalent hyperscaler cost, this model is typically 50% cheaper. And, with simpler, transparent contracts, companies can – finally – achieve the known monthly cost model that was one of the original promises of the cloud.

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ANTI-VIRUS MONTH: Establishing the best protocols for your organisation

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At a time when cyber threats are increasingly sophisticated and pervasive, establishing robust antivirus defences is crucial for IT professionals in the public and private sectors. The right antivirus strategy can protect critical data and systems, ensuring organisational resilience and compliance with regulatory standards. Here are some top tips for IT professionals to fortify their antivirus defences…

  1. Understand Your Threat Landscape: Begin with a thorough analysis of your organisation’s specific threat landscape. Understanding the types of threats you are most likely to encounter, based on your sector and IT infrastructure, is critical for selecting the right antivirus solutions.
  2. Choose a Comprehensive Antivirus Solution: Opt for antivirus software that offers comprehensive protection. This includes not only traditional signature-based detection but also heuristic analysis, behaviour monitoring, and AI-driven threat detection. A multi-layered approach is key to defending against a wide range of threats, including viruses, malware, ransomware, and zero-day attacks.
  3. Regularly Update and Patch Systems: Ensure that all systems and software, including your antivirus solutions, are regularly updated and patched. Cyber attackers often exploit vulnerabilities in outdated software, so keeping everything up-to-date is a crucial line of defence.
  4. Implement Network Segmentation: Segmenting your network can prevent the spread of viruses if they breach your initial defences. By dividing your network into smaller, controlled zones, you can limit access to sensitive information and contain potential infections.
  5. Educate and Train Staff: Human error is a common entry point for viruses and malware. Regular training and awareness programs for staff can significantly reduce the risk of accidental breaches. Teach employees about safe browsing practices, email hygiene, and the importance of reporting suspicious activities.
  6. Regular Backups and Data Recovery Plans: Regularly back up critical data and ensure you have a robust data recovery plan in place. In the event of a virus attack, having up-to-date backups can be the difference between a minor setback and a major crisis.
  7. Use Firewalls and Email Filters: Complement your antivirus solutions with strong firewalls and email filtering systems. These can help block malicious traffic and phishing attempts before they reach your network or inboxes.
  8. Monitor Systems and Networks Continuously: Implement continuous monitoring of your systems and networks. Early detection of unusual activities can allow you to respond to threats before they cause significant damage.
  9. Conduct Regular Security Audits and Testing: Regular security audits and penetration testing can help identify vulnerabilities in your antivirus defences. These exercises can provide valuable insights for strengthening your security posture.
  10. Stay Informed About Latest Threats: The world of cybersecurity is constantly evolving. Stay informed about the latest threats and trends in antivirus defence, and be prepared to adapt your strategies accordingly.

Establishing robust antivirus defences in today’s digital age requires a comprehensive, informed, and proactive approach. By understanding the threat landscape, choosing comprehensive antivirus solutions, keeping systems updated, educating staff, and continuously monitoring and testing their systems, IT professionals in the UK can create a strong defence against a wide range of cyber threats.

Are you on the hunt for Anti-Virus solutions for your organisation? The Cyber Secure Forum can help!

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