BizTech Brief #28
/
Week Commencing 13th March 2017
Tech news has really started to flow with the first award evenings now being held, releases coming out and events being announced. However with all this news happening there is still one thing that dominates the headlines...Cyber Security.
To read other BizTech Brief articles, that summarise all the biggest news articles within the past week of tech, clkick here.
20 Coolest web, email and application security vendors.
Email and the web continue to remain one of hackers' most popular points of entry into an environment. As a result, security vendors are unveiling new offerings to pinpoint threats and prevent user error that can lead to an attack.
As companies look to protect their environments from all angles, take a look at 20 companies looking to change the game around web, email and application security.
Some of the vendors to make the cut were ComputerWorld partners, Barracuda and Mimecast amongst others.
Huge demand for government cyber defence apprenticeships
A rush for cyber defence apprenticeships shows young people are looking to cyber security as a viable and interesting career option. More than 1,200 people applied for 23 cyber security apprenticeships in a pilot scheme, the government said in an announcement that coincides with the end of National Apprenticeship Week 2017.
Successful recruits will be placed in jobs in energy, water and transport companies to help bolster cyber defences for critical national infrastructure. Protecting the UK’s infrastructure from hostile cyber activity by strengthening cyber security and resilience is a major operational priority, the government said.
Apprentices will receive about 60 days of specialist classroom and lab training alongside their on-the-job education, and will work with existing cyber security professionals. This approach is designed to help recruits aged 16 and over to develop skills to become cyber security professionals in less than two years.
Paying ransomware attackers perpetuates attacks
Continually evolving ransomware is among the threats organisations need to factor into their cyber defences in 2017, but only once they have taken care of the basics, says Kaspersky Lab researcher.
Ransomware is a proven business model that will remain popular with attackers as long as victims continue to pay, according to David Emm, principal security researcher at Kaspersky Lab.
Five years ago, said Emm, it would have seemed unlikely that ransomware attacks would become as successful and common as they have however, ransomware has seen the biggest growth in the past two years, with 62 new families of ransomware being identified in 2016 alone. Ransomware attacks have also been boosted by the advent of cloud-based services that enable cyber criminals with little or no technical skills to make money in this way.
Cyber threat to UK business significant and growing
The cyber threat to UK business is significant and growing, according to a joint report by the UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and the National Crime Agency (NCA). The threat is also broader than ever before, with attack surfaces being created constantly, said the report published to coincide with the NCSC’s first CyberUK conference taking place in Liverpool.
The NCSC said the Cyber threat to UK business report is aimed at informing debate on the current trends, future predictions and possible solutions.
The report highlights three key features of current cyber threat trends:
1. Technical expertise is not necessary to carry out attacks
2. Broadening of attack surface leading to more opportunities for attackers
3. Threat actors are learning from and using one another’s skills and capabilities
