Tag: data backup

Impacts vary, but in many cases, ransomware disrupts businesses for significant periods or even forces them to suspend operations or close. A growing population of highly capable cyber extortionists is developing a new means to counter defences and increase the level of disruption they can inflict constantly.

Making your network safe from the traditional north to south perspective is no longer enough. In a digital world, micro-segmentation that secures it from east to west is also vital. In the modern era of cybercrime, ransomware and digital threat vectors, your infrastructure security is more essential than ever.

Work from Home (WFH) is here to stay, and it has changed the way we access business data. The monolithic server structure has firmly given way to cloud-based storage systems that enable anytime, anywhere access, along with greater flexibility and agility – as well as new challenges.

Cybersecurity for small business has come to the fore as more Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) shifted towards digitalisation to survive in the unstable by COVID-19 circumstances. Yet, shockingly, according to research from IBM and the Ponemon Institute released in 2020, a whopping two out of five companies in the United States and the United Kingdom with 50 or fewer employees do not have any type of cybersecurity defence plan in place.

Data protection challenges are undermining organisations’ abilities to execute digital transformation initiatives globally, according to the Data Protection Report 2021, which has found that 58% of backups fail, leaving data unprotected.

2020 witnessed a dramatic cyber threat landscape from beginning to end. Although the pandemic played a central role, as the year progressed cyber adversaries evolved attacks with increasingly disruptive outcomes. They maximised the expanded digital attack surface beyond the core network, to target remote work or learning, and the digital supply chain.

The benefits of migrating into the cloud have long been evident. However, certain challenges have held the Financial Services Industry (FSI) organisations back from fully embracing the flexibility, agility and cost effectiveness of cloud-based solutions, particularly with regard to data storage.

The lockdown has highlighted the importance of cybersecurity as an integrated business process especially given the normalisation of remote working. While the focus has been on safeguarding employee devices, email security has fallen by the wayside.

There is a significant decrease in the sheer number of ransomware attacks due to improved security, better backup strategies and faster data recovery measures. This has meant that the spray and pray approach is no longer effective for ransomware distribution. Although fewer ransoms are being paid, it doesn't mean less risk.

The national lockdown forced a large contingency of the South African workforce to work from home and as it is somewhat of a new notion, it had its fair share of challenges. Yet recent studies have shown the shift to remote working has led to improved productivity for 29% of organisations.