In 2020, the world was hit with an unexpected pandemic that changed much of life as many had come to know it. Virtually overnight, masks were required, employees were working remotely, children were home from school, and businesses were locked down to stop the spread of Covid19. In reading the news and social media the term “The New Normal” has taken front and center as the image that is being promoted.

It’s estimated that cyber crime will cost businesses as much as $45,000,000,000 by 2025. Each year, small businesses who haven’t put a cyber security plan in place are at the mercy of hackers who are using ever increasingly sophisticated methods to breach their network, compromise their data - and even hold the business to ransom.

On December 8, 2020, Kubernetes released version 1.20—the third and final release of the popular container orchestration platform in 2020. Kubernetes noted in a blog post that the version contained 42 enhancements. Of those enhancements, 16 entered into alpha, while the remainder moved to beta or graduated to stable at 15 and 11, respectively.

Despite what many advertisements and salespeople would like you to think, you don’t need to (and in many cases shouldn’t) spend a fortune on security tools to achieve a robust cybersecurity program. Some tools are essential, such as a ticketing tool or Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) system, but the best security programs are built off the employees that run the business.

For as long as businesses have used computers, cybersecurity has been crucial. Now, as modern business and data are becoming inseparable, it’s an absolute necessity. As companies start to recover from 2020 losses, they should consider investing in security updates. Cybercrime reached new heights in the past year, with internet crime reports rising 69.4% and costing more than $4.2 billion. Now that more companies are embracing digital services after the pandemic, this trend will likely continue.

Many frameworks, standards, and regulations require organizations to have an IT Asset Management program in place. However, the understanding of what separates a mature Information System Inventory (ISI) from an IT Asset Inventory and the benefits realized from an ISI are generally less well understood. Naturally this may lead to a higher likelihood of deprioritizing an ISI in favor of what are viewed as more pressing security needs. Figure 1.

Software as a service (SaaS) is one of the most important parts of the modern digital business. Unfortunately, when it comes to cybercrime, it can also be one of the weakest. The Cybersecurity newsletter, The Hacker News, have highlighted this in detail, noting interest from across the digital industry in addressing the holes created by misconfigured SaaS setups.

It’s tax time again. Typically, the deadline for federal tax filing in the United States is April 15, but this year the deadline has been extended to May 17, 2021. However, if you think your business will be receiving a refund, the IRS encourages you to file as early as possible. Filing taxes can be stressful. Adding to the potential stress is the increasing tax scams out there and the ongoing battle to keep your company data protected and secure.

Here are some insights from AVP, Cybersecurity Todd Waskelis as we discussed cybersecurity and application security in focus.

With 5G, edge solutions, and digital transformation all around us, every enterprise should be taking a closer look at their endpoint security and evaluate options that will be able to keep pace with this dynamic new environment.The newly introduced AT&T Managed Endpoint Security with SentinelOne™ offer brings world class managed services with comprehensive endpoint security.