Cloud security, let alone SASE, doesn’t work without the underlying infrastructure that provides a consistent “baseload” to deliver the security capabilities integral to protecting users, sites, apps, and most importantly the data.
It should come as no surprise to anyone who has lived through the last three years that the way we work has changed drastically. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic forced organizations to figure out how to better enable their employees to work from home securely and easily. The result was an acceleration of trends that were already underway. Work is now hybrid, and adaptability and flexibility continue to be key requirements for organizations working to secure a distributed hybrid workforce.
Digital twins are digital replicas of physical assets, processes, and systems, and they are used to perform simulations and analysis to optimise the real-world performance of those assets, processes, or systems. They have become increasingly popular in many industries, including manufacturing, healthcare, and transportation. However, as digital twins become more prevalent, it is important to consider the cybersecurity implications of these technologies.
ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence chatbot created by OpenAI, reaching 1 million users at the end of 2022. It is able to generate fluent responses given specific inputs. It is a variant of the GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) model and, according to OpenAI, it was trained by mixing Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF) and InstructGPT datasets. Due to its flexibility and ability to mimic human behavior, ChatGPT has raised concerns in several areas, including cybersecurity.
Our most recent Cloud and Threat Report highlighted how threat actors abuse cloud services (with a special focus on cloud storage apps) to deliver malicious content (and yes, OneDrive leads the chart of the most exploited apps). To confirm that this trend will likely continue in 2023, researchers at Trend Micro have discovered an active campaign, launched by a threat actor named Earth Bogle.
As artificial intelligence (AI) advances, I am seeing a lot of discussion on LinkedIn and in the online media about the advantages it may bring for either the threat actors (“batten down the hatches, we are all doomed”) or the security defence teams (“it’s OK, relax, AI has you covered”).
Insider risks are threats that already have access to an organization’s sensitive information. They are people who have physical access to the organization’s buildings and credentials to sign-on to the network. But maybe more importantly, they’re familiar with the organization’s processes, they speak the company lingo, and they know where the important assets reside.
Over the last few years many organizations have already introduced a zero trust network access (ZTNA) solution, and are seeing the benefits from it. But many others have been put off by the work needed to transition to a zero trust-based access model and the associated technical integration work.
Starting off a new year often comes with a re-energized sense of taking stock of big changes you want to make and how you want to accomplish them. And, as we come off of “prediction season”, there’s also a sense of the hot topics and challenges that are already on the horizon for the security community.
