Fear Hackers? First invest in an IT security culture change

January 14, 2015 / G C Network / Comments Off on Fear Hackers? First invest in an IT security culture change

Crisis Response Using Cloud Computing

By G C Network | May 31, 2017

    Cloud computing is more than servers and storage. In a crisis situation it can actually be a lifesaver. BlackBerry, in fact, has just become the first cloud-based crisis…

Cloudy Thinking and Digital Transformation

By G C Network | May 30, 2017

(Originally posted on the Engility Corporation Blog)   There’s a lot to gain from cloud computing, but success requires a thoughtful and enterprise focused approach. Cloud computing decouples data and…

Blockchain Business Innovation

By G C Network | May 18, 2017

Is there more than bitcoin to blockchain?   Absolutely, because today’s blockchain is opening up a pathtowards the delivery of trusted online services.   To understand this statement, you need…

How Quantum computing with DNA storage will affect your health

By G C Network | May 5, 2017

By Guest Contributor: Taran Volckhausen, Contributing Editor at Vector (https://www.indexer.me)   Moore’s Law, which states that processing speeds will double every two years as we cram more and more silicon…

36 Shades of Hybrid IT

By G C Network | April 29, 2017

Photo credit: Shutterstock Everyone has heard of the 50 Shades of Grey. But do you know the “36 Shades of Hybrid IT”? These shades are a new way of describing…

Digital Transformation Driven by ITaaS

By G C Network | April 15, 2017

Photo credit: Shutterstock   When executing an effective digital transformation strategy, management is tasked with placing the right workload into the most appropriate IT environment. This represents a shift from…

IBM Interconnect 2017: Cloud, Cognitive and Data!

By G C Network | April 4, 2017

A couple of weeks ago while attending IBM Interconnect 2017 I had the awesome opportunity to participate in the IBM Interconnect 2017 Podcast Series with Dez Blanchfield. I not only…

The BYOD Problem

By G C Network | March 31, 2017

Everyone wants their device of choice right there next to them 24/7.  To an employer, however, that smart device is nothing more than a dagger posed to rip apart every…

Both Sides of Enterprise Mobility

By G C Network | March 16, 2017

Photo credit: Shutterstock Enterprise mobility has become table stakes in the world of business.  The ability to access current information at any time, from anywhere, on any device has really…

Cloud Computing Forensics Readiness

By G C Network | March 8, 2017

Photo credit: Shuterstock In today’s globally connected world, data security breaches are bound to occur. This, in turn, increases the importance of digital forensic readiness, or the ability to access…

by
Kevin L.Jackson

 With all the news these days about cyberterrorism and hacking the cloud may seem like the last place you would want to put your precious information. Pew Research has even suggested that cyber-attacks are likely to increase. Some 61% of over 1600 security expert respondents to a recent survey said “yes” that a major attack causing widespread harm would occur by 2025,according to the Pew Research study. The cold hard fact, however, is that fear of the cyberterrorist and hackers, while definitely valid, is mostly misplaced.  I hold this contrarian view, because when you pull back the curtain on many of the recent breaches, you’ll likely see a mirror!

In a recent case, sensitive data including passwords seem to have been stored in the clear which is against all recommended best practices. There also may have been significant involvement from a company insider.  Focusing on application hacks, some of the most devastating have been due to a failure of the application developers to follow some basic best practices for application development.  Another important fact is that most of these breaches were not on cloud service providers.  These successful attacks were on enterprise built and managed IT infrastructures.

Our failure to protect our information and data is mostly due to our less than focused attitude towards cybersecurity.  Policies, procedures and processes play an important part in preventing security incidents but more is needed.  Every organizational employee must realize that they could be an entry point for hackers and be aware of their individual actions.  IT professionals must follow industry standard best practices for application development, network configuration, system configuration, etc. Many of which have gone through multiple iterations over the years. Everyone must also be proactive in their identification and response to cyber threats.  What I am describing is the need for a cultural change.

Creating a risk-conscious and security-aware culture is key to protecting an organization’s information infrastructure and data assets, risk management expert John P. Pironti wrote in 2012 ISACA Journal article. Business leaders must begin viewing information security as a benefit, rather than as an obstacle, and employ threat and vulnerability analysis – rather than fear and doubt – to drive adoption of points of view and controls

So let us first focus on changing our IT security culture. That will give us the edge we need in order to prevail over the cyber underworld.  We also must adopt a “trust-but-verify approach to monitoring and oversight of organizational and employee activities”. This would involve the adoption and expansion of automated security control point monitoring and reporting.  This, in fact, is a strength of any well designed and implemented cloud computing platform.

(This post was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and analysis about the evolving world of tech. To learn more about tech news and analysis visit Tech Page One. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are our own and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies.)

Cloud Musings

( Thank you. If you enjoyed this article, get free updates by email or RSS – © Copyright Kevin L. Jackson 2012)

Follow me at https://Twitter.com/Kevin_Jackson
Posted in

G C Network

Cloud Computing

Cybersecurity