December 26, 2018 by Siobhan Climer
It’s been a big year. Cyberattacks, acquisitions, and the ever-changing world of technology. We picked our top ten reads from 2018 for you so you’re ready for 2019.
Top Technology Stories – #1
Pay With Your Face — Facial Recognition Software
A handful of companies in China, such as Face++ (Face plus plus) and Baidu, have developed revolutionary facial recognition software. This software works by analyzing your face and matching it to a database of photos. From security to payment credentials, different applications are leveraging this technology in some interesting ways. Let’s face it, face-based technologies are on the rise, and utilizing artificial intelligence allows companies to tailor customer experiences. It probably won’t be long at all until you are able to pay with your face.
Top Technology Stories – #2
How Cisco Umbrella Stops Command And Control Attacks
Security is an ever-growing concern for modern businesses. In the wake of high-profile hacks of Fortune 500 companies over the last few years, it has never been more important to keep your environment secure and reduce your risk of a breach. Towards that aim is a slew of products, strategies, and solutions from a wide range of developers. Your environment needs a firewall, intrusion detection/prevention system, additional forms of monitoring, and more. Even still, the wrong click from any one of your users can invite the worst the internet has to offer into your corporate network.
For example, command and control attacks have proven to be a difficult challenge for security professionals to prevent, because they circumvent many of our standard security strategies. However, Cisco Umbrella has found a way to monitor and prevent these attacks from successfully impacting your network. Umbrella accomplishes this by merging itself with OpenDNS and serving as your network’s DNS regulator.
Top Technology Stories – #3
Cybersecurity Statistics That Will Make You Shudder
The statistics are staggering. Cryptojacking attacks up by 8,500%. IoT device attacks up by 600%. Software supply chain attacks up by 200%. With each passing year, the volume of attacks rises, as does their diversity. Attackers are working hard to discover new avenues to infiltrate and finding ingenious ways to cover their tracks in the process.
So how significant are the implications of these cyber crimes? We explored the Cybersecurity Ventures 2017 Official Cybercrime Report, sponsored by the Herjavec Group.
You may want to take a seat before you read on. Then take a deep breath and carefully assess gaps in your security strategy, because the experts agree it’s no longer a question of “if” you’ll be attacked, it’s a question of “when.”
Top Technology Stories – #4
A Data Backup Policy Template And Strategy For Your Business
A data backup policy is a cornerstone of business continuity in the modern market. Data losses are inevitable. It can be as simple as a deleted file or as complex as a high-profile cyber attack. Regardless, your business will need adata backup strategy and written policy to guide your team in the event of disaster. Conducting regular back-ups is essential to surviving whatever comes your way. Get your business back up and running after a disaster by planning strategically before such an event comes to pass.
https://gomindsight.com/insights/blog/data-backup-policy-template-strategy-business/
Top Technology Stories – #5
History Of Cyber Attacks From The Morris Worm To Exactis
Yahoo? Equifax? Ashley Madison? Exactis? Cyber attacks abound in the digital realm, evolving every day to become more and more sophisticated. Why? Well, although shadowy figures in hoods infiltrating networks to steal information for profit are a real thing, so are governments who use cyber-warfare to undermine dissenting views or other nation states. Hackers get a tidy sum for an electronic health record (EHR), while nations may be able to sway voters, discourse, or ideology.
In 2015, North Korea was implicated in an attack on Sony Pictures, with the intention of disrupting the release of The Interview. In 2014, Russia was blamed for Turla, (aka ‘Uroburos’ or ‘Snake’), which infected Western nations. Just this year, the now infamous Cambridge Analytica data leak occurred. The details around the Cambridge Analytica scandal hounding Facebook are still hazy, but over 50 million user profiles were available to the firm, while only 270,000 consented to their data being used for academic research.
While these recent cyber attacks and data breaches are fresh in the mind, we began to wonder when was the first cyber attack? What kinds of cyber attacks are there? What can you do to prevent your business from being breachedbefore, during, and after an attack. By understanding the history of cyber attacks, we can begin to combat this growing threat to the security of our personal identity information (PII).
Top Technology Stories – #6
Veeam Vs Zerto: Which Backup Solution Is Right For You?
As businesses across every industry strive to create a more resilient disaster recovery strategy that accounts for the risks of climate change, cyberattacks, and network downtime, they must also find the right backup solution to support that disaster recovery plan. The backup solutions on the market today are varied to meet the needs of every business, from the SMB to the global enterprise. Which one is right for you? Today, we’re comparing two central solutions available on the market: Veeam and Zerto.
Top Technology Stories – #7
Edge Computing: Reduce Data Center Costs. Find Your Edge
Computing workloads are increasing across industry, from the manufacturing plant producing custom springs to the IoT television streaming Netflix. As the growth in network traffic increases, data center infrastructure and networking costs have ballooned. The rise of enormous centralized data centers – or server farms – has rocketed companies like Amazon and Microsoft to the forefront of the technology sector. That growth comes at a cost, though, both to those behemoth companies and the SMBs who rely on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure cloud computing services. One solution? Edge computing.
Top Technology Stories – #8
What Is Cloud Storage: Types Of Cloud Storage
This blog is Part 2 of a three-part guide to cloud storage. In Part 1, we examined the basics of cloud computing. In Part 3, we will discuss how to leverage cloud computing for your business.
Part 1: What is cloud storage?
Part 2: Types of cloud storage
Part 3: Leverage the cloud for business
Recently, we asked ‘What is cloud storage? If you don’t recall, cloud storage is the process of storing digital data in an online space that spans multiple servers and locations, and it is usually maintained by a hosting company.
We will explore these different types of cloud storage and explain cloud storage architecture. This review can help you determine which cloud solutions might work best for you and your business.
Top Technology Stories – #9
Top 7 Cyber Security Threats To Financial Services
The 2017 Equifax data breach exposed over 143 million American’s personal information. In 2013, over 3 billion Yahoo accounts were compromised. Over the past decade, major data breaches have affected over 1 trillion user accounts, with those numbers expected to rise. The financial impact of this is huge, as we recently reported.
Despite every attempt to remain secure, financial services make up 35% of all data breaches, earning it the unfortunate title of the most-breached sector. These events remind both business leaders and consumers of the tenuous nature of cyber security. Are you prepared to face these top cyber security threats to financial services?
Top Technology Stories – #10
Cisco ACI Anywhere: Extending Stretched ACI Fabric
Cisco ACI – or Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure – is Cisco’s flagship data center networking offering. It enables system administrators to manage multiple data center sites, within specific distance and latency limitations, as one entity using stretched ACI fabric. This design architecture preserves application agility and enables the automation of data centers. Cisco extends the ACI fabric using ACI Multi-Site to allow SMB and enterprise organizations across the world to interconnect data centers with a focus on reliability, security, and simplicity.
With Cisco ACI Anywhere, they are implementing a new – and vital – functionality; use of the multi-cloud. By extending ACI Multi-Site to include public cloud platforms (in this case, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure), they are enabling simpler governance and meeting the data center where it is today.
Everywhere.
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About Mindsight
Mindsight, a Chicago IT services provider, is an extension of your team. Our culture is built on transparency and trust, and our team is made up of extraordinary people – the kinds of people you would hire. We have one of the largest expert-level engineering teams delivering the full spectrum of IT services and solutions, from cloud to infrastructure, collaboration to contact center. Our highly-certified engineers and process-oriented excellence have certainly been key to our success. But what really sets us apart is our straightforward and honest approach to every conversation, whether it is for an emerging business or global enterprise. Our customers rely on our thought leadership, responsiveness, and dedication to solving their toughest technology challenges.
Contact us at GoMindsight.com.
About The Author
Siobhan Climer, Science and Technology Writer for Mindsight, writes about technology trends in education, healthcare, and business. She previously taught STEM programs in elementary classrooms and museums, and writes extensively about cybersecurity, disaster recovery, cloud services, backups, data storage, network infrastructure, and the contact center. When she’s not writing tech, she’s writing fantasy, gardening, and exploring the world with her twin two-year old daughters. Find her on twitter @techtalksio.