Cloud adoption among small to midsize businesses (SMBs) continues to increase because cloud capabilities and applications line up nicely with the business goals of smaller companies. The cloud is cost-effective and mobile-friendly, and it allows organizations to automate business and IT functions across the organization to boost productivity.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is enabling an economic transformation that may eventually rival the Industrial Revolution. PricewaterhouseCoopers analysts say the IoT will soon become a multi-trillion dollar industry, and Gartner researchers predict more than half of new businesses will run on the IoT within two years.

In a previous post, we discussed why access control isn't just about restricting network access to users with legitimate credentials. Access control should also restrict access to sensitive systems and data to specific users. When employees have free rein across the network, it’s like opening up a buffet for hackers who steal credentials.

Most organizations have some kind of mechanism in place to determine who is allowed to access their IT systems and to authenticate that access. But many organizations give little thought to the type of data that users are allowed to see. Although access to some sensitive data, such as financial or private customer data, tends to be restricted, the average user with legitimate credentials will be able to view, modify, copy or delete a large proportion of data across the IT environment.

Data backup is one of the most critical IT functions, but historically it has been difficult to get right. Studies regularly find that about one-third of all companies never back up their business data, while roughly the same number say they conduct intermittent backups but never test their backups to ensure they’re working properly.

The “always on” nature of business — with an increasingly mobile workforce, the Internet of Things and the ability to engage customers around the clock — demands 100 percent uptime. If IT systems aren’t performing optimally, productivity and customer service suffer.

Products featuring the latest version of the Wi-Fi security suite will soon be hitting the market. Devices that support the new Wi-Fi Protected Access 3 (WPA3) protocols will feature significant security upgrades, including stronger password protection, more robust authentication, and increased cryptographic strength for both public and private Wi-Fi networks.

The traditional username-and-password for authentication is a prime example of how organizations are making a hacker’s job much easier than it should be. It’s not just about people using weak passwords or the same passwords for multiple accounts, and it’s not just about companies failing to enforce password best practices.

People tend to think of identity theft as a consumer problem, but it’s a business problem, too. Businesses are more attractive targets, not only because they have more money and higher credit limits, but because vital information that’s required to be public can easily be stolen and exploited.