2016 was the Year of DDoS. 2017 was the Year of Ransom. Can we assess leading indicators of new attack techniques and motivations to predict what 2018 will bring? The answer is a resounding “yes.” We believe 2018 will be the Year of Automation—or, more precisely, big, bad attacks on automated technology processes. Here are four reasons why.
The healthcare industry must take security and privacy seriously. They collect and retain personal health information (PHI) and financial information while providing life-saving medical care. The protection of this information and the networks that manage it is one of the top concerns for IT organizations in the healthcare industry.
If you are like most people and myself, you do not go into a bank and have a conversation with a teller when you make a deposit or withdrawal. You probably do not write paper checks and sign them. You have an app on your phone to access your bank account and use one of the thousands of automated teller machines (ATM), around the world to move money in and out of your accounts.
People’s lives are at risk as the healthcare industry transforms patient care with modern IT technologies. Data security and application availability are essential when a patient’s medical information is on the network. Hospitals and medical practices are digitizing healthcare applications like x-rays, CAT scans, medication distribution and surgical procedures using interactive video. In addition, patient care staff are accessing all of this medical information on tablets, phones, and other devices in real-time.
Throughout the history of mankind, whether in warfare or crime, the advantage has swung between offense and defense, with new technologies and innovative tactics displacing old doctrines and plans. For example, the defensive advantage of the Greek phalanx was eventually outmaneuvered by the Roman legion. Later, improvements in fortifications and armor led to castles and ironclad knights, until the invention of gunpowder made them obsolete. In the 20th century, fixed fortifications and trenches were rendered outdated by highly mobile armored forces. In all these examples, the common denominator is that one side’s tactical advantage spawned new ways of thinking among its opponents, eventually degrading that advantage or reversing it completely.
In World War II, the Allies had a significant advantage because they were able to compromise the encryption protocols that the Japanese and Germans used to send sensitive messages. They were able to intercept and decode messages to gain intelligence concerning sensitive military operations.
Businesses need to protect their assets when they are within their protective infrastructure AND when they are actively exposed or placed within the unprotected external world. The tools and procedures needed to protect the internal assets are different from the ones that protect the assets when they leave the confines of the secured network.
Recently Italian bank Unicredit suffered two security breaches. Data of 400,000 customers was stolen, including loan account numbers and Personally Identifiable Information (PII). There is a suspicion the breach had to do with interaction with a 3rd party. This incident is the latest reported in a long history of cyber-attacks against financial institutions. Every hack however, can teach us a lesson.
In the movies (and real life) one often needs to go through the Key Master to get to the destination. The job of the Key Master is to keep control of the access to the locks and barriers that protect important or sensitive material. Sometimes there is one key to get to the hidden rewards while other times, there is a long string of keys that must be maintained and managed. In other situations, the Key Master is more of a Key Maker, generating keys upon request.
The world is changing; it always has but the world is changing faster now than it ever has before. This general change is translating into even bigger changes in the cyber world. Some of the key areas that are evolving aren’t new, like availability or security. Others like automation are maturing quickly, and then there is the ever-present need for “easy.” Easy is a nebulous term, but in this case it refers to ease of procurement, ease of set up, flexibility in platform and ease of ongoing management.
This accelerated change is being driven by different market and business drivers. Some of the key market drivers are compliance, time to market, cyber loss risk, and increased competition around the user experience. This change is acutely felt in the ADC space.
