New data breaches, cyber-attacks, or identity theft are being announced daily, with 76% of organizations being attacked by ransomware in the past two years!
Top executives from FieldEffect, Open Systems, Zerify, VAST Data, ioXt, InsightCyber, Tetrate and Vaultree give commentary highlighting this year’s theme, “See Yourself in Cyber” for 2022 Cybersecurity Awareness Month.
Matt Holland, Co-founder and CEO of Field Effect:
“Despite all of the cyber security tools, categories and offerings on the market, businesses of all sizes continue to be underprotected. They feel overwhelmed and forced into solutions well outside of their areas of expertise. At Field Effect, we work with our customers and partners to provide a solution that is holistic in nature; designed to identify vulnerabilities and stop threats across the breadth of the network, cloud services and endpoints; and delivered in a way that removes the noise and complexity and relieves our clients’ burdens.”
Francis Cianfrocca, CEO at InsightCyber:
“2023 will be the year that hostile cyberattacks against infrastructure and industrial operations become mainstream. Why? As attacks on the hardware and software that monitor and control equipment—otherwise known as operational technology (OT) environments—become more common, the motivation of cyber attackers has evolved from merely disrupting business to compromising the integrity of industrial environments with the malicious intention to cause harm. To be able to truly manage and mitigate risk from cyber and physical security threats, enterprises must be able to identify the smallest of anomalies to detect suspicious activity to prevent it before they become the next headline.”
Grace Burkard, Director of Operations, ioXt Alliance:
“The theme of this year’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month, ‘See yourself in cyber,’ resonates with ioXt particularly well because our alliance serves to promote the importance of increasing the security for IoT products in order to build a safer connected world. As IoT devices have taken on critical roles in many industries, it is paramount for IoT manufacturers to incorporate security from the start and take responsibility to implement. ioXt empowers these manufacturers to do just that by certifying their devices to a rigorous set of standards put forth by global security leaders. They’re also provided the opportunity to ‘see themselves in cyber’ by participating in the work groups to have a voice in creating the standards for new profiles. It is never too late to start thinking about security and get involved!”
Adrianus Warmenhoven, Defensive Strategist at NordVPN:
While protecting your data may seem like a lofty task, there are steps to be taken to maintain control over your information, especially this Cyber Security Month. With the understanding that humans rely on the internet and it is what keeps our day-to-day moving, we must look not at how to avoid information-sharing, but rather at how to maintain safety in doing so. Adrianus Warmenhoven, defensive strategist at NordVPN shares, “I do acknowledge that anything that preserves privacy can be abused for crime, but since our lives have become so intertwined with the network, we must try to help people to live the lives they want or in some cases even need.” As such, the importance of VPNs and secure browsers are emphasized this month.
“In order to stay cyber-safe this and every month, a VPN provides some simple steps you can take everyday to preserve your privacy. When surfing the web, be conscientious of fake websites and when downloading apps, never download from third-parties and always double check the source. Consistently check and reset privacy settings on your phone to ensure you have your desired level of sharing. Double-down on your data’s security by browsing with a VPN to encrypt your online activity and eliminate location tracking With the current state of technology, VPNs are a vital component in today’s (digital) life. While we can argue over security issues (‘all websites use TLS anyway!’) or lawful interception (‘I have nothing to hide!‘) there can be no argument over the need for personal privacy. And remember, no device is hacker-proof. Be cognizant of who and what you interact with online everyday.”
May Mitchell, CMO of Open Systems:
“Cybersecurity Awareness Month signifies an occasion to improve cybersecurity literacy and promote education around critical cybersecurity topics protecting people and society. The opportunity to improve cybersecurity through education and public engagement resonates with me deeply given my intense personal passion for the security field. Protecting any organization requires a 24/7, mission-driven approach to defend assets and data from bad actors.
People are the first defense for an enterprise’s cybersecurity posture, and education is the key to empowering them to harden their defenses. In the cyber threat environment we face today, it is imperative to have a security operations center (SOC) offering round-the-clock support to customers. Many organizations struggle to dedicate the necessary resources and are even more stretched due to changes in remote and hybrid work complicating enterprises’ attack surfaces. This month, we are committed to using this awareness opportunity to continue our mission of educating the marketplace. Every organization should understand and prioritize the necessity of using a tailored security approach that protects critical assets and maximizes security investments, without falling prey to common IT complexity that creates risks due to a patchwork of solutions – rather than a holistic approach.”
Varun Talwar, Co-Founder and Co-Creator at Tetrate:
“Companies need to rethink where their perimeters are. They don’t just include the front and back doors anymore. They also include all the windows, side doors, and other unknown vulnerabilities. In today’s day and age, there is an increasing importance to stay ahead of the cyber criminals and online vulnerabilities, and ensure your data and information, especially when it is connected across multiple apps, is secure.”
George Axberg, VP of Data Protection at VAST Data:
“Ransomware is top of mind not just for IT professionals but also in the boardroom. Budgets are being allocated to implement Vanguards to keep bad actors out, and Zero Trust is being implemented for those within. That said, the numbers still show that the threats are increasing at an alarming rate,” says George Axberg, VAST Data’s VP of Data Protection.
“How we as stewards of our most critical assets, our data, react to an event such as a Cyber Strike is tantamount to how we react to a Natural Disaster. Processes need to be put in place to react swiftly in the event of an attack. Part of that plan of resilience needs to be a repository worthy of storing those digital assets and RESTORING said assets to a workable form. For example, at VAST Data we provide a secure, resilient, high performance at exabyte scale platform – one that is powered by unique and innovative all-flash technology leveraging modern economics. When a negative event happens, our clients know their data is there, secured, and they can retrieve it all in a flash, up to 50x faster than traditional backup solutions.”
Tilo Weigandt, Co-Founder & COO, Vaultree
Education and communication are key in the cybersecurity industry. Cybersecurity doesn’t have to be complex and boring; it can be educational and fun if approached from the right angle, which can take away the fear of entering this space or diving deeper into a specific topic.
What’s important is to start with the basics and learn the mechanics and dynamics of security measures and their counterparts. But you don’t even have to be an expert in, say, cryptography to make a sound decision; there is no shame in taking advice. However, the abundance of vendors in the space makes it difficult to cut through the noise and it can sometimes seem overwhelming. So, sit down with experts and exchange thoughts and doubts, be part of communities and talk about your pain points, and talk to selected vendors to understand different approaches.
Always keep in mind: No matter what we do, data breaches and leaks will always happen, so the essential second line of defense – encryption – is crucial to any security plan. There are already vendors out there offering solutions with which you can process, search and compute always-encrypted data at scale, so that you can concentrate on your daily business and fight other fires.
George Waller, Co-Founder and EVP of Zerify:
“At Zerify, cybersecurity is something we are constantly vigilant about and have been highly dedicated to ensuring – and continually improving – for over two decades. While it’s more than a month-long focus in our eyes, we are glad cybersecurity is getting the world’s attention in a time when hybrid and remote work environments support critical communications, and video conferencing takes place from multiple locations and even multiple unknown devices. We hope that as the usage of collaborative communications increases – and the world continues to rely on video conferencing platforms- Cybersecurity Awareness Month will be a time to hone in on greater capabilities to secure organizations, ensuring Zero Trust across platforms, greatly reducing breaches and hacks and thwarting the efforts of bad actors across the globe.”
Tilo Weigandt, Co-Founder and COO of Vaultree:
“Education and communication are key in the cybersecurity industry. Cybersecurity doesn’t have to be complex and boring; it can be educational and fun if approached from the right angle, which can take away the fear of entering this space or diving deeper into a specific topic.
What’s important is to start with the basics and learn the mechanics and dynamics of security measures and their counterparts. But you don’t even have to be an expert in, say, cryptography to make a sound decision; there is no shame in taking advice. However, the abundance of vendors in the space makes it difficult to cut through the noise and it can sometimes seem overwhelming. So, sit down with experts and exchange thoughts and doubts, be part of communities and talk about your pain points, and talk to selected vendors to understand different approaches.
Always keep in mind: No matter what we do, data breaches and leaks will always happen, so the essential second line of defense – encryption – is crucial to any security plan. There are already vendors out there offering solutions with which you can process, search and compute always-encrypted data at scale, so that you can concentrate on your daily business and fight other fires.”
