Security

In my work with CDW customers, I often come across technology leaders who want to improve their cybersecurity posture but aren’t really sure where to start. They might recognize that their organizations need to improve their cybersecurity controls but don’t know where their investments will pay off the most.

When I hear concerns like this, I immediately look to the Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). While there are many different cybersecurity standards out there, I prefer this one because it uses plain language to describe the five most important activities in cybersecurity. I’d like to walk you through this framework using two different examples.

Is Microsoft a security company? The idea has been on my mind for a while. I think back to the days of my early Microsoft experiences. For me, that would be Windows 3.1 and DOS 5.0 up to DOS 6.22. It was the base of my conquest for co-sysop on a few dial-up BBSs (bulletin boards), getting really good download ratios, and finding all the sweet “warez”. I was also digging through every inch of my computer. Today, in my role as a Microsoft 365 pre-sales architect, I give even more thought to the security aspects of Microsoft’s environment.

The sudden shutdown of physical offices across the country this spring has accelerated many organizations’ journeys down the digital transformation path. Companies that had previously been reluctant to adopt tools such as videoconferencing and cloud collaboration rolled those solutions out to users in a rush as they scrambled to enable remote work. Because they deployed so many solutions in such a short period of time, most organizations will want to undertake some sort of security assessment to be sure they haven’t opened themselves up to new vulnerabilities. But this moment also presents an opportunity for organizations to provide a permanent boost to their cybersecurity practices through ongoing engagements.

Here are three examples of CDW’s high-value cybersecurity offerings.

As they seek to enable remote work, many organizations are implementing new ways for employees to access and share data. This is all necessary to enable business continuity, but it’s possible (and perhaps even probable) that organizations are unwittingly opening up new security vulnerabilities as they introduce new technologies and workflows. Unless an IT shop employs professionals with deep expertise in cybersecurity, the prospect of hunting around for unknown security gaps can be incredibly daunting. That’s where cybersecurity assessments from a partner like CDW come in.

The election infrastructure in the U.S. depends on the coordinated, secure interaction of thousands of state and local election officials using very different technologies. These range from large cities with fully electronic voting systems to small municipalities that still rely on paper ballots. As I work with officials from these diverse election authorities, I’ve developed a set of best practices that will enhance security in any election environment. Let’s take a look at five key measures that every Board of Elections should put in place.

As countless organizations have raced to shift their employees to a remote work model using solutions such as videoconferencing tools, many have learned an unfortunate lesson about their user devices: throttled by their hard drives, they often struggle to keep up with the demands of latency-sensitive workloads. Fortunately, there’s a simple — and relatively inexpensive — fix. Solid-state drives (SSDs) can not only provide drastic improvements to performance, but also offer a boost to security and durability.