Archived CEO Blogs

The impacts of downtime on a business can be devastating, as this cringe–inducing chart reveals:

Downtime impacts
Source: 3 Steps to IT Resilience, Forrester

The last time I posted, I described several cybersecurity solutions which are moving beyond the reactive, siloed offerings that continue to be necessary, but are no longer sufficient to protect our enterprises.

These solutions can seem daunting. The complexity of it all often overwhelms.

This is partly due to what’s happening to our information infrastructures, which are also becoming more complex as they go hybrid. They are, essentially, boundless as they accommodate internet communication. Meanwhile, today’s in–house data centers are increasingly virtualized and typically combine a variety of cloud and managed services.

In my recent posts, I’ve focused on some of the top security threats faced by anyone trying to keep their business data and systems safe.

Besides app attacks, web attacks, social engineering exploits, and ransomware, there’s plenty more to be concerned about – the challenges of trusting devices and sensors that are part of the Internet of Things (IoT), breaches that steal huge swaths of “big data,” and the frightening vulnerabilities of industrial control systems .

In my last post, I focused on several key types of cyber threat most likely to challenge your business right now. This time, I’m drilling down — to ransomware and what you can do to protect your enterprise from it.

Why ransomware prevention? Because security experts regard ransomware as today’s most serious cyber threat , having increased 35% in just a year to an average of nearly 1,000 per day in 2015 .

Fasten your seatbelt. I’m driving into the realm of digital security, which can turn into a rather hairy ride.

Despite its challenges, digital security deployment is what stops the hackers, malicious actors, and spies from stealing everything. So let me begin by telling you to stay vigilant, because as the use of digital technologies becomes more pervasive, so do the attempts to exploit it for nefarious purposes.