This Week's Gurus

On November 13, reports surfaced detailing a data breach at Friend Finder Networks, an adult dating and entertainment company whose affected properties included Penthouse, Adult Friend Finder and others. The breach exposed over 412 million accounts, including usernames, associated email addresses and passwords, making it the largest breach ever. Naturally, the release of the usernames and associated emails from users of sex and swinger sites creates enormous individual reputational risks, which could have far-reaching implications...

From connected devices to virtual reality, technology is now giving students the ability to transform and design the way in which they choose to learn, not only from where, but also how. For example, students can now work from almost anywhere, using various applications and connected devices to enhance remote learning. Students are now increasingly known to use this technologically enhanced environment to create their own applications. Mark Zuckerberg is a famous example of this,...

We live in the age where big data and data science are used to predict everything from what I might want to buy on Amazon to the outcome of an election. The results of the Brexit referendum caught many by surprise because pollsters suggested that a “stay” vote would prevail. And we all know how that turned out. History repeated itself on Nov. 8 when U.S. president-elect Donald Trump won his bid for the White...

What do supermarkets, video games and search engines have in common? They all belong to sectors that have seen major hacks over the last few years. The cyberattacks on Tesco Banking, Sony and Yahoo, are just some of the most public examples in demonstrating that the ‘hacker industry’ is continuing to gather strength, attacking vulnerabilities in both the public and private sector for profit. From corporate industries and political groups, to universities and healthcare systems...

There are now many Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) Products on the market.  These are claimed to help improve cloud governance and compliance but do they really help? Organizations are choosing to use cloud services to increase agility, to innovate and to get closer to their customers.  Cloud services provide a cost-effective solution to these needs as well as to deliver commodity functionality at lower cost. However, cloud services are outside the direct control of...

Despite the ever-changing arsenal of today's hackers, the Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack has remained a permanent fixture since it burst onto the scene, striking fear into the hearts of businesses all over the world as critical processes become increasingly reliant on network access. Seemingly every day, the strength at which such attacks are administered reaches new heights, now being registered at 500Gbps, representing a 60 times increase in 11 years. Perhaps most worrying,...

As a remote worker, how can you better protect yourself and your personal information on your travels?  In an ideal world, there would be magical tips to 100% safeguard you from cyberattacks, but, unfortunately, it is very difficult to prevent.  There is no way to know what the next breach target is or when it could occur.  The only guarantee you have is that another breach will happen, and the odds are that your personal,...

The very successful digitisation trend over the past 20 years has produced huge efficiencies in every type of corporation and government. But the dark side is that the security industry has largely failed to evolve the standard security architecture to keep pace with these broader changes in IT.   The firewalled perimeter remains the primary defence in IT security. Yet every major data breach in the pandemic of breaches taking place around the world shows...

Gad Elkin, Head of EMEA Security, F5 Networks Despite the ever-changing arsenal of today's hackers, the Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack has remained a permanent fixture since it burst onto the scene, striking fear into the hearts of businesses all over the world as critical processes become increasingly reliant on network access. Seemingly every day, the strength at which such attacks are administered reaches new heights, now being registered at 500Gbps, representing a 60...

Author: Ajay Vij, Senior Vice President and Head of Financial Services in Europe, at Infosys  Last week, even as the shadow of Wikileaks loomed large over the third US presidential debate, another event of epic proportions happened in the cyber-world. Large scale DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) cyberattacks disrupted the availability of popular websites like Twitter, Netflix and Paypal, among others, across North America and Europe. A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) is when the attack is launched by many...