As part of CDW’s cybersecurity team, I often have the opportunity to visit with our customers and help them identify gaps in their security programs. CDW offers a variety of security assessments that help organizations shore up their cybersecurity weaknesses.

I’ve performed dozens of these assessments, which provides me with a unique vantage point on the state of cybersecurity across different industries and organizations of various sizes. With that perspective, I’ve seen four common threats that continue to pose significant risk to cybersecurity programs.

Next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) play a crucial role in protecting organizations against emerging threats. These advanced network security guardians can scour inbound and outbound traffic on the network edge and in the data center for signs of intrusions and malicious activity, blocking potentially dangerous data before it reaches its destination. Many organizations have deployed NGFW technology as an integral component in their cybersecurity programs.

At the same time, organizations are fine-tuning their cloud strategies. Whether they’re adopting an all-in, cloud-first strategy or selectively using cloud services as part of a hybrid offering, the reality is that sensitive business data now resides both in our own data centers and in those run by cloud partners. Cybersecurity and networking teams must be able to defend that information from attack everywhere that it resides, or attackers will seek out the weak points in an organization’s cybersecurity architecture.

Cybersecurity leaders should integrate their NGFW and cloud computing strategies to better protect organizational assets. The best way to do this is to consolidate on a single NGFW platform and use it across both cloud and on-premises network systems. NGFW vendors offer virtual appliances and software subscription models that allow for easy cloud deployment, anticipating this approach. Let’s take a look at four drivers for this consolidation.

For many organizations, a migration to public cloud is seen as a technical challenge with a set of tasks that need to be completed. In reality, it is far more than that, with areas outside of technology that need to be considered.

This blog post will touch on some of the more pertinent areas of your business that should be considered in your migration to the public cloud.

As a member of CDW’s cybersecurity incident response team, I spend much of my time working with organizations in the heat of a crisis.

Whether they’re in the middle of an active network compromise or they’ve fallen victim to a ransomware attack, my team steps into emergency situations and helps companies get back on their feet as quickly as possible. In that respect, our team is much like a battalion of firefighters.

Earlier this year, I spent time helping a company as it responded to a serious security incident. During that engagement, I had the opportunity to witness firsthand how a lack of planning can hamper incident response efforts. My takeaway was simple: Effective incident response requires proper preparedness.

While that sounds like a common-sense conclusion, the stark reality is that many organizations simply don’t have a solid incident response capability, and that fundamental gap limits their ability to even determine whether they’ve been compromised.

Here are five steps to building an effective IR plan — before a cyberattack occurs.

Recent events turned our working lives upside down. With very little notice, millions of people around the world were sent home from their offices to suddenly adopt a remote work lifestyle. Four months into this adventure, most knowledge workers have adapted to working styles that replace conference rooms with video meetings and coffee chats with virtual happy hours.

I believe that we’ve arrived at a new normal where remote work will become a standard arrangement for knowledge workers. Both companies and employees will benefit from this approach. While employees can better balance their lives, companies will be able to reduce overhead expenses by consolidating and eliminating expensive physical offices. This work style comes with new cybersecurity considerations, and I urge organizations to adopt six key practices to adapt to our new working patterns.