ESG Blogs

When April Fool’s Day comes around each year, it’s human nature to be a little more on-edge than usual. Your guard is up, and you can’t completely trust anyone (even your closest friends and family). So, for the whole day, you take extra precautions, carefully opening the present your friend just “wanted to drop by,” and not believing there’s “cake in the break room” until it’s fact checked. While it’s fun to dedicate one day per year to April Fool’s Day, organizations of all industries must take these precautions… every day of the year. Cyber criminals are looking for a way to break through security defenses 24/7/365, so organizations must also remain on the clock, working to protect their most critical assets. But when it comes to cyberattacks and protecting your data, the stakes are much higher than whether the cake in the break room is real or not.

Nearly two-thirds of respondents to the 2022 Technology Spending Intentions Survey from Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG), a division of TechTarget, plan to increase spending on cloud application security in the next year. Startups are scoring record-setting funding rounds and valuations, while established vendors are announcing acquisitions and integrations to secure cloud applications throughout the software development lifecycle.

Check out the latest episode of The Bigger Truth. 

This week, I share my thoughts on the following enterprise technology news stories:

Cybersecurity investments surge in 2021 as VCs go all in:

I’ve always made it a priority to choose roles where I can make the biggest impact, and where I can learn and grow. It hasn’t been a clear path (as Sheryl Sandberg would say, it’s not a ladder, it’s a jungle gym), but I can confidently say it’s led me to fulfilling roles.

In this blog post, I’ll share a bit about my background, and then describe why I’m thrilled to join ESG to cover cloud-native and application security – a rapidly evolving and dynamic space.

Check out the latest episode of The Bigger Truth. 

This week, I share my thoughts on the following enterprise technology news stories:

Researcher cracks 70% of neighborhood Wi-Fi passwords: https://searchsecurity.techtarget.com...

Check out the first episode of The Bigger Truth here. 

In this week's episode, I share my thoughts on the following enterprise news stories:

US lawmakers propose ransomware reporting rules: https://www.computerweekly.com/news/2...

It can be easy to think, “That sounds horrible! But it probably won’t happen to me.” From getting into a fender bender, to spilling ketchup on your new white shirt, to… ransomware attacks. Believing ransomware attacks will only happen to “somebody else” can put your organization at a huge risk. On a much larger scale than buying car insurance or bringing an extra shirt, taking precautions against ransomware attacks can save your organization millions of dollars, as well as employee confidence, customer trust, and more.

It’s noisy out there. Hundreds of TV shows that your friends insist you “HAVE to watch,” a concerning number of crime-related podcasts (seriously, why are there so many?), and seemingly non-stop communication with one another – text, email, social media, carrier pigeon.… There are only so many hours in the day, and a lot of things fighting for your time and attention. It can be difficult to cut through the noise and see clearly what should be prioritized, both in your personal life and at work. The cybersecurity space is noisy, too.

Last week’s Executive Order by President Biden provided a glimpse into each branch of government’s cybersecurity accountabilities and a strong declarative on the mandatory use of foundational security tools.

In part, the Fact Sheet says: “The Executive Order helps move the Federal government to secure cloud services and a zero-trust architecture, and mandates deployment of multifactor authentication and encryption with a specific time period. The Federal government must lead the way and increase its adoption of security best practices, including by employing a zero-trust security model, accelerating movement to secure cloud services, and consistently deploying foundational security tools such as multifactor authentication and encryption.”

Effectively addressing national emergencies and times of crisis has always required private and public sector collaboration. The most recent and obvious example being the development and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines. And like COVID-19, ransomware attacks cross borders, necessitating a coordinated national and international response by government agencies and technology leaders.