Security Roundup: Symbol Security, Vade, Barracuda, DigiCert

… an ever-moving target.

Barracuda’s Asaf Cidon

“Therefore, cybersecurity providers and the channel need to constantly evolve themselves — they need the latest technological tools to protect their customers,” he said. “They also need to make sure their customers have high security awareness and always be on the lookout for the latest attacks.”

Respondents identified email and networks as their top two security priorities in both 2003 and 2018. Viruses, and spam and worms were the top two threats in 2003, while ransomware and phishing/spear phishing top the current list.

Twenty-five percent said the cloud would be their most important security priority 15 years from now, outranking email, network and data security.

“The rise of the cloud [and cloud security] present challenges to the channel, since the old days of shipping hardware appliances and software licenses are going away,” Cidon said. “The channel needs to reinvent itself for the cloud era, and make sure it remains an innovative partner to end customers as they transition to the cloud and deal with emerging threats that result from that transition.”

Artificial intelligence (AI) is another technology that is top of mind for many of the respondents, both as an opportunity to improve security and as a threat. Thirty-one percent of respondents chose AI as the new technology they will rely on to help improve security, and 43 percent identified the increasing use of AI and machine learning as the development that will have the biggest impact on cybersecurity in the next 15 years. On the other hand, 41 percent believe the weaponization of AI will be the most prevalent attack tactic in the next 15 years.

“Offensive AI seems like a theoretical or far-flung threat, but I found it interesting that our respondents are already anticipating it and worried about its effects,” Cidon said.

Companies Report Heavy IoT Security-Related Losses

Enterprises have begun sustaining significant monetary losses stemming from the lack of good practices as they move forward with incorporating IoT into their business models, according to a new study by DigiCert. Among companies that are struggling the most with IoT security, 25 percent reported IoT security-related losses of at least $34 million in the last two years.

These findings come amid a ramping up of IoT focus within the typical organization. Some 83 percent of respondents indicated that IoT is extremely important to them currently, while 92 percent said they anticipate IoT to be extremely important to their respective organizations within two years.

Some 700 enterprise organizations were polled in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France and Japan.

DigiCert’s Mike Nelson

Mike Nelson, DigiCert’s vice president of IoT security, tells us there are benefits to putting in place preventative security instead of handling security issues in a reactive way.

“Organizations that prioritize security and do the right things during the design, architecture and testing phases of a device protect their organizations from IoT security mishaps, which can be very costly for organizations,” he said. ”

Respondents were broken into three tiers: top-tier for enterprises experiencing fewer problems and demonstrating a degree of mastery mitigating specific aspects of IoT security; middle-tier for enterprises scoring in the middle range in terms of their IoT security results; and bottom-tier for enterprises experiencing …