It’s no secret that cybersecurity threats have become more sophisticated and dangerous. Hackers now use bots to carry out constant attacks and have become master manipulators, using convincing language and realistic graphics to fool people into clicking malicious links.

SMBs need a strategy for long-term data archival.

The amount of data created and stored is simply mind-boggling. According to IDC’s latest DataSphere and StorageSphere forecasts, 64.2 zettabytes (64.2 trillion gigabytes) of data was created or replicated in 2020, unusually high growth due to the number of people working and learning from home.

Software-defined WAN solutions meet new remote work requirements through enhanced connectivity, improved cloud access and better security.

In an era of increasingly decentralized workforces, software-defined wide-area networking (SD-WAN) has become crucial for providing remote and mobile users with secure, flexible connectivity to essential applications and services.

Remote and mobile working gives organizations the flexibility and agility they need to meet today’s operational requirements. Unfortunately, it also creates a multitude of new security challenges.

Cybercriminals are increasingly targeting endpoint devices such as laptops, tablets and mobile phones because they provide a direct route into corporate networks.

In our last post, we discussed how regular network assessments can help organizations identify any gaps in their security posture in order to make the necessary modifications to close those gaps. A penetration test, or pen test, is perhaps the most critical element of a comprehensive testing process.

The FBI has confirmed that 2020 was a record year for cybercrime in the U.S., with all-time highs in both the number of attacks reported and the resulting financial losses. For the year, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center received 791,790 cybercrime complaints (up 69 percent from 2019) with reported losses exceeding $4.1 billion.

There is near-unanimous agreement among small to midsized businesses (SMBs) that collaboration tools are now essential to operations. In a recent Techaisle survey, 96 percent of SMBs ranked improved collaboration as their second-most important IT priority, just behind cloud.

With digital extortion on the rise, organizations should develop detailed incident response plans.

In just a few short years, ransomware has progressed from a digital nuisance to a full-blown global crisis. Federal authorities say more than 4,000 ransomware attacks have occurred every day for the past five years, resulting in billions of dollars in damages to the global economy.

Virtual CIO services provide access to executive expertise necessary to drive IT opportunities.

To one degree or another, almost every business today is dependent upon technology. While smaller organizations may not require enterprise-class systems and platforms, they almost certainly are using communication and collaboration tools, networked computers, cloud services and a variety of applications.

Ransomware is a cash cow for cybercriminals, netting more than $350 million in ransom payments last year — although it is likely much more because many victims don’t report attacks in order to preserve their reputation. It’s easy money for the crooks because most companies just pay the ransom so they can regain access to their encrypted data and get back to business as quickly as possible.