Review of the trends in the second half of 2018
Recently, Macrium Software participated in different events where we presented some predictions about the future of IT trends, focused on data protection and security.
Business Trends 2018:
To begin the analysis, we looked at the top 5 business trends and influences for 2018:
- Collaboration & Prosperity — despite what seems like constant negative news, 2017 was the best year ever for humanity (UN)*.
- Automation — humans or robots?*
- Consumption habits — how our customers’ habits evolve*
- The growth of data and the use of it will accelerate — increases risk**
- **Technology **— continues to play a growing part in all aspects of the business — benefit and a risk**
No real surprise with the inclusion of automation, technology, data and consumption habits. The fact that 2017 was the most prosperous year ever for humanity based on; health, wealth and wars is not something you see in the headline news. Nevertheless, it is a breath of fresh air from the relentless negativity we usually hear from our politicians and media!
The top 5 IT Security Threats:
We want to look at the top IT security threats as ranked by IDG for 2018:***
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Crime-as-a-service (CaaS) will expand available tools and services.
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The internet of things (IoT) will further add unmanaged risks.
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The Supply Chain will remain the weakest link in risk management.
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Layers of Regulation will add to the complexity of critical asset management.
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Unmet board expectations (allocated budget) will be exposed to significant incidents.
CaaS is not a surprising development given the global nature of, and ease of access to, the necessary tools if cybercrime is the desired outcome. The enhancement and implementation of new regulations such as GDPR, and the security exposure through supply chains is familiar to most IT professionals. Expectations from senior executives that money will solve all the problems and protect their company from exposure and public embarrassment will on occasion not be met. The point is that money cannot solve the problem but analysis of the threats, detection of threats, prevention and rapid recovery.
2018 and the Future:
As part of the analysis it was important to consider the areas that most concern IT professionals and how these have changed in the past 12 months. We identify four areas that changed in the trends from 2017 to 2018:
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Risk perception — Country of origin of commercial software is becoming more of a concern when assessing the level of risk. Rightly or wrongly some countries are regarded with greater suspicion and software from these countries is being removed from the US and some European government agencies.
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Visibility — The vast amount of coverage of ransomware and data security issues for the number of companies, coupled with the implementation of GDPR means visibility and awareness are at an all-time high.
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Accountability — Senior executives are held accountable for failures and breaches irrespective of whether they were an external attack or failure of responsibility by a junior technician.
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The scope of threat — with the advent of CaaS and the ease of access, the age and vulnerability of many IT infrastructures, the number and type of risks are at an all-time high.
Threat Mitigation and Macrium Solutions:
When considering the threats and solutions to data protection, the model used is CIA: Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability. The needs are, firstly around controlling access to data, then ensuring information is fit for purpose and finally, making sure it is available to those people and system who need access.
At Macrium we regard our solutions help to address the Integrity and Availability needs. Detection is the first line of defence for data, and there are many outstanding and feature-rich solutions for edge security, access control, malware and virus protection, and update management. All companies and individuals should take this seriously and get expert help if they are unsure of their needs.
Prevention of threats is the next step, and while there are many solutions for blocking detected threats, sometimes this is not enough. Therefore at Macrium Software, we have implemented solutions such as Macrium Image Guardian that prevents backups from being encrypted. It is an extra layer that compliments other dedicated security systems.
The ability to quickly recover from an attack or data loss is the final and crucial layer. Macrium Software has many fast and reliable backup tools, as well as, viBoot. The ability to very quickly booting a previous backup as a Hyper-V virtual machine ensures that business can continue operating and minimise the impact of system failure and malicious activity.
In summary, IT security threats are many and varied, with an ever-expanding opportunity for companies to become the victims of malicious activity. At Macrium Software we believe in the layered approach to protection and recovery, using the best of breed tools to detect, prevent and recover from data loss events.
Find out more by taking a look or trialling our solutions here:
Sources:
** https://about.futurelearn.com/blog/the-future-of-business
*** CIO (IDG) https://www.cio.com/article/227987/5-information-security-threats-that-will-dominate-2018.html
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