If you are a business leader or an IT professional who has not yet begun the process of moving your organization to the cloud, it’s likely that you are considering doing so. The first thing you need to know is that cloud services are a different species of technology than traditional enterprise IT infrastructure. In most cases, that means a move to the cloud cannot be safely executed or supported by traditional IT organizations.
While all cybersecurity threats are on the rise, one form of attack has a long history of wreaking havoc. The first-ever distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack in 1974 was the work of a 13-year-old student. In 1996, DDoS was first used as a commercial weapon when New York-based internet service provider Panix was targeted by a hacker using a spoofed IP address to overwhelm the company’s servers with fake “synchronize” packages. These early DDoS attacks function much like the modern versions, shutting down your network, servers, or sites by sending vast amounts of data that overwhelm targeted systems.
For cybercriminals, email scams and attacks, including phishing and malware attacks, are some of the oldest tricks in the book—and they are still extremely effective. In fact, eight out of ten successful hacks and data breaches start with phishing scams.
When it comes to getting the DevOps help you need, you may be tempted by vendors offering low prices, typically because they have a narrow, app-only focus.
Maybe this will work for you — if you already have the resources necessary to ensure that the application being developed plays well with the rest of your IT infrastructure.
Your IT team has a lot on its hands. Managing dozens of technologies ranging from firewalls to mobile devices means that just keeping everything patched and up to date can be a problem. But if something goes wrong with any of these technologies, it can be an even bigger problem. Add in the fact that there were 5.6 billion malware attacks and 4.8 trillion intrusion attempts in 2020, and you probably have plenty more on your mind.
Cybersecurity threats are coming at organizations from everywhere. Lately, ransomware has been headline news as JBS, the largest global beef supplier, paid $11 million to the Russian hacker group REvil after they breached the company’s networks. Unfortunately, ransomware attacks are becoming even more sophisticated. Some recent attacks find their way into networks and exfiltrate the data, essentially stealing it, then threatening to either sell it on the dark web or publish it elsewhere unless the victim pays the ransom.
