Megan Brandow

Last week, IDC hosted its annual Directions event in Boston to share their latest research related to trends impacting the IT industry. The event theme “The Digital Business Impact of AI Everywhere” was focused on the future of AI, including key initiatives, barriers to success, and growing cybersecurity concerns. Here’s what we learned. 1. Data is king. Data is everywhere and dependence on it is growing. Our ability to process that data, securely, and in real time determines our ability to implement impactful AI initiatives. Prioritizing data protection while retaining sufficient usability is the new paradigm of enterprise cyber-defense. Board of Directors top priorities, according to a 2022 IDC survey1, is Data Sovereignty and Cybersecurity Threats. A 2024 IDC survey2 stated that 42% of surveyed companies said Security, Privacy and Trust of Data and AI Systems were the top AI Initiatives needing services expertise. This means that data security initiatives, […]

Data breaches have surged in frequency and cost—to the tune of $8 trillion dollars globally in 2023. And this isn’t just impacting the companies who are breached; these costs impact customer trust and contribute to global inflation. We are also seeing a massive shift in hardline accountability and precedence from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), The Office of the U.S. President, and other regulatory entities for organizations to do more to protect the data they use to run their operations. The impact of cyber-crime and poor cyber controls goes far beyond the cost associated with data loss and ransom attack. Added costs that highlight the greater impact include civil lawsuits, regulatory fines, loss of customers, higher interest rates (credit cards and lending practices), and even the possible arrest of cybersecurity leadership. In summary, the cost of cyber-crime doesn’t stop with cyber liability insurance claims or mitigation costs, they go […]

We know that encryption is the best way to secure data. No other technology does more to secure sensitive, controlled, and private data than encryption. And currently, the best encryption algorithm available is Advanced Encryption Standard 256 (AES-256). We also know that the world operates on data, and that data is primarily transacted within cyberspace. Over the last 30+ years, we have evolved from brick-and-mortar operations to cyber-operations. As a result of this evolution, we create, consume, and store more data than ever before. Unfortunately, despite these facts, encryption technologies are poorly adopted. Based on recent reports, 7,000,000 unencrypted data records are compromised globally, every day1. That’s no surprise given that only 60% of enterprises worldwide indicate that encryption was “extensively employed on company backups and archives2 and only 42% of respondents use encryption to secure their customer data3. So, why don’t we see greater adoption of encryption? After all, […]

The following is a guest post from our partner, Securadin. Click here for the original post.   Today, more than ever IoT devices have become an integral part of our daily lives. They are connected to a vast network that allows us to control everything from our thermostats to our garage doors. More importantly, we rely on IoT devices to manage the security and efficiency of data centers, property management systems, and various other industrial or environmental facilities. However, plain text IoT devices can be notoriously vulnerable to external threats such as hacking and data breaches. This is precisely why it’s critical to implement encryption when it comes to these devices. When we talk about encryption, we mean the process of encoding data so that it is accessible only to authorized parties. Simply put, encryption works by transforming plaintext into ciphertext, rendering it inaccessible to anyone without the proper authorization. […]

Earlier this month we exhibited at the Gartner Security & Risk Management Summit—one of the largest cybersecurity conferences that brings together cybersecurity leaders and specialists. And after three days with the best minds in cybersecurity, we learned that none of the leaders we talked with are protecting operational data through searchable encryption. It’s not because they don’t understand the importance of protecting searchable data, but rather because they didn’t know it was possible to search encrypted data. For over 20 years, searchable encryption has been theoretical. It’s been on wish list of every organization with sensitive data but wasn’t practical. It simply couldn’t be done at the speed of business. When we told people that Paperclip SAFE delivers complete, searchable encryption without compromising speed or security—they were skeptical. So, how did we do it? We were thrilled to hear this question from Gartner Summit attendees, and even more thrilled to share […]

We often get asked, is there a difference between data masking and data encryption? The short answer: there is a HUGE difference. Data masking (DM) or data anonymization is required by many compliance frameworks such as GDPR and ISO 27002:2022 (Control 8.11) and is recognized by Gartner as a growing category within data security technology. While it’s touted as a solution for protecting sensitive data, the reality is that most DM solutions only provide a band-aid for the gaping wound that is data theft and data ransom. According to Gartner, DM is based on the premise that sensitive data can be transformed into less sensitive, but still useful, data. The market for data protection, DM included, continues to evolve with technologies designed to redact, anonymize, pseudonymize, or in some way deidentify sensitive data in order to protect it against confidentiality or privacy risk. Masking techniques have become almost common place […]

The vulnerabilities related to critical data residing as plaintext (unencrypted in RAM, cache, CPU, storage, processing server, etc…) to be searchable is the truest definition of a cybersecurity epidemic. The news headlines have been filled with a never-ending stream of data-theft breaches and ransomware data abductions. These attacks are spreading at a rate similar to any flu virus. CRN – The 10 Biggest Data Breaches of 2022 To date, businesses of all sizes, from healthcare to insurance to banking, and even critical infrastructure utilities have relied on industry best practices related to encryption. When it comes to critical data at the core, transactional database layer, the go-to solutions have been encryption at rest and encryption in transit. Today, there are many excellent encryption at rest and encryption in transit solutions available, and they do a great job securing critical data while in those proper states. When the data is static […]

by Chad F. Walter, CRO at Paperclip Inc. and Mark McCreary, Partner and Co-Chair of the Privacy and Data Security Practice Group at Fox Rothschild. There’s no mistake, we’re in a recessionary cycle. We can stay out of the politics and debate related to predicting the exact cause, effect, size, and timeline of the recession. Debate or no debate, we’re already seeing businesses fall back to a more conservative approach to spending across the board. I know businesses and consumers are concerned because one of the top questions asked over the past few months is “How do you think the recession will impact cybersecurity?” Of course, the answer is relevant to the individual asking the question. If the question comes in from a cybersecurity student or someone breaking into the cybersecurity workforce, the answer is different than if it comes in from a business leader. For this discussion, let’s stay focused on […]

I’m sure we all remember the parable of the Emperor Who Had No Clothes. Clever weavers promise a fabulous outfit that is invisible to the unworthy and then leave the emperor naked, with nobody willing to admit it because they don’t want to seem unworthy. There are unfortunate parallels between this and the state of modern database security. Modern cybersecurity has a whole host of impressive technology and tools. Perimeter security using complex passwords, physical keys, and endpoint detection builds a wall around critical data. Some attackers still get in. Various types of on-disk encryption raise the difficulty of exploiting a stolen database file. Technologies like SSL protect the pathways as critical data is transported. These technologies work, and new and inventive improvements are made every year. With such widespread technology the industry establishes protection at the perimeter, while data is in rest on disks, and while data is in […]