Safeguarding data against loss, theft or corruption has always been one of the most critical functions of IT organizations. However, the process has become far more complex over the past several years. With the continued transition to cloud, mobile and remote working, the days of simply establishing a secure perimeter around a single, monolithic data repository are long gone.

Email remains the most common business communication and collaboration tool, far outpacing phone, text and video usage. The average office worker now sends and receives approximately 140 business emails each day, and analysts say usage continues to grow by about 7 percent annually.

For decades, companies spent most of their IT security resources on technologies and strategies designed to keep intruders out of their networks. The 2020 SolarWinds hack has inspired a shift in that philosophy, with increased emphasis on detecting and responding to threats that have already penetrated perimeter defenses.

The past two years have been great for business — if you’re in the cybercrime business. Economists say cybercrime now generates at least $1.5 trillion in revenues every year, roughly equal to the annual GDP of Russia. It is now more profitable than the global trade of all major illegal drugs combined.

Multifactor authentication goes to extra lengths to improve security.

Hackers don’t usually try to force their way into corporate networks by defeating cyber defenses. Instead, they’re more likely to gain entry using legitimate user credentials.

According to the Verizon 2021 Data Breach Investigations Report, 61 percent of security breaches involved credential abuse.

As organizations of all sizes continue to move more data and workloads to the cloud, most are facing significant new security challenges. Ninety-eight percent of companies surveyed recently by IDC said they experienced at least one cloud data breach within the previous 18 months, with 67 percent reporting three or more such incidents.

Comfy clothes. No traffic jams. Fewer interruptions. Flexible schedule. Stocked refrigerator. These are some of the reasons why most people say they’ve enjoyed the remote-work experience, have remained productive and would like to continue working from home, at least on a part-time basis.

More threats. Growing attack surfaces. Fewer security analysts. It’s no wonder a sense of pessimism permeates the cybersecurity community.
Despite increased investments in 2020, nearly 80 percent of senior IT leaders polled recently by IDG expressed a lack of confidence in their organizations’ IT security posture.

How would your company respond to a cyberattack at this very moment? Alarmingly, few organizations have a good answer for that question.

Less than one-quarter of U.S. businesses have a formal cybersecurity incident response plan (CSIRP) in place, according to a study by the Ponemon Institute and IBM, making it nearly impossible to respond to serious threats in a timely manner.

Our last post discussed the growing risk of supply chain cyberattacks that allow malicious actors to compromise hundreds or even thousands of organizations through a single attack on one supplier. The indirect path of such attacks means that even organizations with very strong defenses can be vulnerable.