BusinessHub

You have likely discovered the undeniable benefits of cloud services. Vendors offer scalable and highly available internet-accessible services to support almost all business needs. Most organizations have or will soon support business processes (workloads) from their own data center and through multiple third party cloud service providers (CSP). While the benefits may be appealing, leaders must make risk-informed decisions to maintain secure, business-ready services.

Data is everywhere. We store it in our internal business systems and in the cloud. We collect it from our clients and share our data with business partners. Leaders need data, value it, and are able to amass it. We carry data with us and leave a digital footprint every day. Technology providers help us store it forever and share it globally. In the data breach era, leaders face greater risk if they fail to protect data throughout its lifecycle.

Protecting your organization is expensive. Leaders are encouraged and sometimes even compelled to provide additional resources to counter threats. As the cost of data breaches rise, regulators and your customers and business partners demand you to protect data you control. In turn, you require your vendors to protect your data. Is substantial investment sustainable and the only response to growing information security risk?

Social engineering is more popular than ever. Why? Simple—it works, and it works well. From Odysseus' Trojan Horse to the modern business attack, the art of manipulating human decision-making is a timeless threat. Easy access to the Internet empowers malicious actors with the intelligence, tools, and anonymity they need to develop effective campaigns. Whether you are a small business or a Fortune 500 company, you and your employees will likely face this threat and must remain on guard to defend against it.