Cybersecurity Roundup

It seems that more and more businesses are moving their technology assets to the cloud and, according to research from Venafi, more than 80 percent of organizations have experienced security issues on a cloud platform this year. Even more concerning is the fact that almost half of those organizations reported at least four incidents during the same period. Targets ranging from airport websites to Minecraft servers to state government websites have all been hit with DDoS attacks in Q3 2022. Organizations are taking note, and implementing more cybersecurity measures.

Some widely accepted best practices to follow include:

• Immediately mandate the use of multi-factor authentication on all your technology platforms, to make it harder for attackers to find an entrance into your systems.
• Modernize your network and current (and updatable) security tools on your computers and devices to continuously look for and mitigate threats.
• Make sure that your systems are patched and protected against all known vulnerabilities, and change passwords across your networks so that previously stolen credentials are useless to malicious actors.
• Back up your data and ensure you have offline backup.

According to Gartner, North American organizations are taking this all very seriously, spending $852 billion on cybersecurity this year, and projected to spend $961 billion in 2023.¹

Selected Cybersecurity Blog Posts

There has been a great deal of information dispersed in an effort to help IT leaders across industries abreast of recent, developing, or persistent cybersecurity trends and concerns. Although most of the blog posts published here touch on cybersecurity in one fashion or another, these posts were specifically focused on the following topics:

• Learn how a private K-12 academy defends against almost daily DDoS attacks by upgrading their internet access and partnering with their provider on a managed network solution.
  What school administrators & IT directors should know about Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks
• Discover the latest enterprise cybersecurity best practices and trends that organizations need to know to best mitigate cybersecurity threats and concerns.
  An enterprise approach to cybersecurity
• SD-WAN can help networks rapidly scale, connect to clouds, improve local office cloud access, and employ security rapidly while automatically optimizing networks and traffic routing to deliver a better application or user experience. Leverage the power of a SD-WAN to improve security and increase flexibility
• The number of cyberattacks is growing exponentially every year, with the increase in mobile applications, social media platforms, and other technologies serving as the catalyst. This trend can be seen across all sectors, but it is one of particular concern in public safety, so the importance of having a secure network can’t be overstated. Digital Transformation and Public Safety Technology
• It’s important to recognize that web-based solutions often store personal student and faculty data such as grades, health records, and addresses, which are a critical component of daily operations for most institutions. However, with an increase in online solutions comes an increase in data privacy concerns. Five ways K-12 districts and schools can benefit from managed network services
• Why is the hospitality sector becoming such a target for cybercrime? For one, while hospitality enterprises conduct fewer transactions than other retail establishments, they collect more valuable, sustainable and varied personally identified information (PII) for each of their guests. Top cybersecurity challenges faced by modern hoteliers and how they can protect their guests
• Learn how typical ransomware attacks happen, what they are, how they work, and how managed security services can help prevent them. Anatomy of a data breach, Part 1: Ransomware
• Learn about how a typical data theft attack happens, what data theft attacks are, how they work and what can be done to prevent them and other cybersecurity threats. Anatomy of a data breach, Part 2: Data Theft
• Learn what SASE is all about, what it means to an enterprise’s security and networking needs and how and why it will grow significantly in the coming years. SASE supports the dynamic, secure access needs of today's hybrid organizations

We can help simplify network management and cybersecurity

Organizations with demanding network requirements need advanced security to protect their assets, while still maintaining the flexibility to support hybrid networks and multi-cloud strategies. However, many organizations find that their overworked in-house experts just don’t have the time to adequately address network security issues. This is why many organizations are opting to implement managed solutions to meet their network needs. IT leaders can choose the level of management desired, allowing their teams to control what they want and consult with trusted partners for the rest.

Spectrum Enterprise can make network management and security easier with a complete solution that includes design, connectivity, configuration, equipment, installation and ongoing US-based support for all your locations nationwide. Enterprise Network Edge (ENE) is a solution designed to help businesses simplify the management and migration of complex, larger-scale networks. ENE offers advanced security and SD-WAN capabilities along with a portfolio of connectivity options and co-management capabilities through a cloud-based portal. Our service is built on the industry-leading Fortinet FortiGate and FortiCloud platforms, which are Gartner Magic Quadrant leaders for edge security.

Additionally, we offer managed security services with unified threat management, DDoS protection and other solutions that can address your cybersecurity concerns.

In these increasingly unsettled times, you can feel confident that your network is secure, scalable and performing at the level you need to support your business. And feel secure in the knowledge that with Spectrum Enterprise you have a partner who is always available for support, is experienced in providing managed networks — including SD-WANs — and delivers connectivity options with reliable, scalable and secure networks.

Learn about Enterprise Network Edge

1. Gartner, Forecast: Information Security and Risk Management, Worldwide, 2020-2026, 3Q22 Update.

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