Security

COVID-19 and the ensuing lockdowns altered the course of history. Children looked to their parents to provide advice on how to persevere in trying times. I told my children that something good can come from something bad. The same is true when it comes to security. The dramatic shift to a remote workforce was effectively leveraged by many organizations to enhance their security posture.

We recently received a call from the CISO of a large organization, who asked for CDW’s help. He explained that one of his organization’s competitors had experienced a significant security breach that shut down its operations for several days. An employee in an administrative office had clicked a link on a malicious email that opened the door for a devastating ransomware outbreak.

The public cloud offers significant benefits of flexibility and scalability. But it also comes with challenges — especially with regard to security. CDW’s complimentary Cloud Security Posture Assessment is designed to help organizations in this area.

If your organization finds itself dealing with security and compliance challenges in the cloud, here are some key reasons why you might consider engaging us to conduct a CSPA.

Cisco customers have a choice between Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) and Ethernet VPN (EVPN) for building their data center network fabrics. Since these technologies are thought to be interchangeable, the choice often falls to cultural, political or other “Layer 8” decision-making. But the fabric technologies are, in fact, different in ways both subtle and significant, and one’s choice has a profound impact on fabric orchestration, operations, and staffing.

I hope you’ll join me all the way through this three-part blog series as I compare and contrast these technologies and provide a foundation for deciding on the best choice for your organization’s needs.

It can be frustrating when you ask if an IT system is safe, and your expert resource responds, “It depends,” followed by a quip that the only secure system is one that’s powered off. Not so helpful.

Most IT teams are proficient in working with one cloud service provider (CSP) or on one facet of cloud computing, but increasingly, they are being asked to manage multiple cloud environments. The shift is substantial, especially because when it comes to security, the devil is in the details.

We know that risks are involved with multicloud Infrastructure as a Service implementations. It’s critical to know what they are and how to manage them. Let’s start by examining how we got here, and why there’s no turning back now.

The COVID-19 pandemic suddenly transformed the way that we all work. Businesses around the world found themselves rapidly shifting to a remote work environment that required agile reconfiguration of systems and shifts in security policy. Cybersecurity teams scrambled to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the data entrusted to their care while accommodating unprecedented remote work requirements.

Now that organizations have settled into these new work routines, it’s time to take a look at how these changes will shape future trends in the way that we work and how security teams can build controls that both facilitate remote work and foster a defense-in-depth approach to cybersecurity.

Let’s look at four major cybersecurity trends that will endure beyond the pandemic.

The DevOps approach to software development is gaining great popularity with IT organizations. This approach, which places software developers and operations specialists side by side on project teams, creates flexibility, improves efficiency and results in reduced rework after code is deployed to production. The benefits of this collaborative approach are undeniable, but many organizations that have embraced DevOps are finding that their current approach pays insufficient attention to a critical component: cybersecurity.

Enter DevSecOps.

The DevSecOps approach to software development seeks to integrate the cybersecurity function into the DevOps model as an equal partner. When development teams do not include security professionals, they often find that the submission of their code for security reviews results in critical unexpected findings, resulting in costly rework and project delays.

Just as DevOps sought to build a collaborative culture between development and operations, DevSecOps seeks to extend the scope of that collaboration to include cybersecurity teams.