As more security managers embrace a proactive approach to security and prioritize real-time threat analysis, detection and response, spending on security information and event management (SIEM) solutions continues to increase. While Gartner has predicted 5 percent to 10 percent annual growth in the overall IT security market through 2020, sales of SIEM software rose by 15.8 percent in 2016.

SIEM combines security information management (SIM) and security event management (SEM) into a single solution, enabling organizations to take a more holistic, integrated approach to security.

Cybersecurity is a cat-and-mouse game in which IT professionals and cybercriminals continually refine their tactics in an attempt to stay one step ahead of one another. The evolution of web traffic encryption provides a good case study of this process.

Studies show that more than half of all web traffic is now encrypted, largely due to increased usage of HTTPS, the secure version of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol.

What’s the weakest link in your network security chain? It probably doesn’t involve hardware or software. Numerous industry and government reports find that more than 90 percent of all security incidents are the direct result of human error.

The recent WannaCry ransomware outbreak was a jarring reminder that even the most advanced security technology can be undone by mistakes and miscalculations.

Nationwide Insurance just agreed to pay $5.5 million as part of a settlement following a major data breach. UCLA recently warned 30,000 current and former students that their personal data may have been compromised. HBO is investigating a breach in which hackers accessed unreleased episodes of upcoming shows.

IT officials at government agencies are becoming more aware of the risks of a frequently overlooked source of security threats – the printer. In the 2016 Center for Digital Government survey, more than one in five government IT officials acknowledged their printers were more vulnerable than other network devices.

Organizations carry insurance covering a host of different risks, from accidental injury to property damage to negligence. However, a recent survey conducted by research firm Ovum found that only half of U.S. businesses have cyber insurance, and only 16 percent have cyber policies that cover all risks.

IT security tools continue to advance at a rapid pace, as the industry races to stem the tide of cyberattacks. A new class of threat detection solutions uses real-time data analytics to spot malware and suspicious behavior older systems might miss. There are emerging tools with artificial intelligence capabilities that can automatically detect and respond to security threats.

If you’ve been putting off a migration to the Windows 10 operating system, you got a wakeup call on May 12. That’s the day hackers exploited known vulnerabilities in older versions of Windows to launch the largest cyber extortion attack ever.

The WannaCry ransomware attack was astonishing in both scale and speed, striking hundreds of thousands of computers in more than 200 countries within a span of 48 hours.

Remember the legend of the little Dutch boy who stuck his finger in the leaking dike and saved his village from flooding? In many ways, he has become a metaphor for modern application security practices. Organizations must continually apply patches to plug security holes that would otherwise allow hackers to access your IT systems.

In recent years, the FBI has issued multiple warnings about the Business Email Compromise scam. This phishing scam comes in several forms. Hackers often pose as company executives in emails and order employees to process wire transfers for confidential or time-sensitive business transactions.