Tag Archive for: essential

SecureWorks : 3 Cybersecurity Basics and Why They’re Essential

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Cybersecurity, believe it or not, is one of the most important issues of our time. That’s because:

  • Digital technology has become pervasive, touching every aspect of our personal, economic, cultural, and political lives.
  • This pervasiveness has resulted in a virtually infinite threat surface that extends from the device on your wrist to the biggest, gnarliest datacenters on the planet.
  • Criminals are always going to commit crime.
  • Due to our connectedness, a breach anywhere is a threat to businesses everywhere.

Unfortunately, the media has done an inadequate job of framing the cybersecurity issue. For one thing, news organizations only cover cybersecurity when some new global threat emerges, or worse yet – after a significant breach has occurred. This skewed coverage gives the false impression that the only thing we have to worry about-and defend ourselves against-is the next high-profile zero-day exploit.

That, of course, is untrue. Most breaches are far more mundane. As they say, it’s not the lion you have to worry most about in the jungle. It’s the mosquitoes.

Even worse may be the way hackers are portrayed in movies and on TV. If you only learn about cybersecurity through popular entertainment, you probably believe that hackers are evil geniuses capable of sliding past even DoD-quality cyber defenses with a single torrent of lightning keystrokes-which means you’re basically helpless against their inexorable brilliance.

This is also patently untrue. Most hacking is literally that: hacking. Cybercrime is mostly brute force trial-and-error perpetrated by bad actors who often don’t need to have Hollywood-level hacking skills, but have learned that with enough time and effort they can earn a decent living stealing stuff.

Our cyber defenses-both individual and collective-thus depend, to a large degree, on simply making life harder for hackers. After all, hackers have the same constraints of time, budget, and payoff. In fact, I’ll go even further and say…

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Appropriate skills essential to unlocking IT sector potential

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AS the dust settles on exam results, and schools and colleges gear up for a new term, it feels like a good time to reflect on the skills situation in one of our hottest sectors.

It can’t have escaped your notice that over the past number of years, the IT sector in Northern Ireland has been one of the fastest growing sectors across the whole economy, averaging 3.7 per cent growth per annum between 2012 and 2019. This compares favourably to the economy as a whole, where growth for the same period was 1.7 per cent per annum.

The IT sector currently employs around 25,100 people here, and about a quarter of these jobs have been added since the last big recession.

This rapid growth, coupled with inward investment successes, and an emerging global reputation in the sector, particularly in areas such as cyber security, has seen the sector identified as a key growth sector for the economy. So much so that the cyber security sector and the IT sector have been cited as part of the ‘New Decade New Approach’ and the ‘10x Economy’ strategies as key/priority clusters.

The Department for the Economy aims for these sectors to become global leaders. The importance of the IT sector has become even stronger as a result of the pandemic, with many firms seeing higher levels of IT investment as a result of home working. TechNation found that Northern Ireland-based tech firms had raised £45.6 million in 2020, a record level, despite the ongoing pandemic.

It’s not all plain sailing for the sector however, with skills challenges starting to bite. This is not unique to Northern Ireland, for the UK Employer Skills Survey noted that around 53 per cent of IT respondents stated the main reason for having “hard to fill vacancies” was due to the “low number of applicants with the required skills.”

The strong demand for IT-related jobs has also seen the level of online job postings for IT/computer/software accelerate in recent weeks/months, following an initial lull in job postings at the beginning of lockdown.

The Department for the Economy estimates that there have been between 500 and 700 online job listings in the sector every month this year, mainly in…

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Better Vulnerability Management is Essential for Data Security

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Imagine if a gang of burglars arrived on your street and started going from house to house each night testing windows and doors to see if any of them could be forced open. While many houses would be perfectly secure, it’s likely that there would be one or two — especially on a long street — that could be burglarized in this way.

This analogy can be applied when we think about software vulnerabilities. A software vulnerability refers to any software flaw that manifests itself in a way that can be negatively exploited by bad actors. While a software bug refers to a part of a piece of software that doesn’t behave exactly as intended, these are mostly just minor annoyances to users. A vulnerability, on the other hand, poses a serious threat to data privacy and system integrity as a whole.

The difference between the burglar analogy and real cybersecurity vulnerabilities has to do with scale. Many cities have a crime problem, but fortunately not every street has a gang of criminals constantly going house to house trying to break in. Such incidents are statistically rare. Software vulnerabilities are another story. Cybercriminals are always looking to exploit new vulnerabilities, and with upward of 23,000 vulnerabilities discovered each year, they have plenty of opportunities to capitalize.

The vulnerability problem

In most cases, software vulnerabilities can be plugged using patches. Patches refer to software updates, usually distributed via downloads, that rewrite problematic parts of a piece of software so as to fix the flaw. Like cyberattackers — only this time fighting on the side of good — reputable developers are constantly on the lookout for vulnerabilities in their own software.

When these vulnerabilities are discovered, a good developer will create a patch and push it out to users. By keeping on top of security focused updates, users can therefore keep themselves protected.

Problem solved, then? Sadly, it’s not quite as simple as that. Keeping on top of patch management can be a major headache. No user will use every piece of software in existence, of course, but most will rely on several dozen software packages. Downloading and installing software…

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Panda Dome Essential – Review 2021

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Many security company product lines are as simple as one, two, three. First, they offer a simple antivirus. Adding firewall protection and other features bulks up that antivirus into a security suite. At the third and final stage is a mega-suite with additions such as online backup and system tune-up. Panda stretches that model, with a free antivirus, a commercial antivirus, and three distinct levels of security suite protection, all under the name Panda Dome. Panda Dome Essential, reviewed here, occupies the commercial antivirus slot in this pantheon, though it includes a few features more commonly found at the suite level. The app’s user interface is highly polished, even beautiful, but its results in—both labs-based testing and our own tests—don’t measure up.

How Much Does Panda Dome Essential Cost?

At $58.99 per year for a single license, this product costs a dollar less than Norton, but rather more than most other antivirus utilities, including some that add suite-level components. Bitdefender, Trend Micro Antivirus+ Security, and Webroot are among the many that go for around $40 per year. Kaspersky starts with three licenses for $59.99, the same price as a three-license pack of Bitdefender or ESET antivirus. A three-license Panda subscription costs $70.99.

McAfee AntiVirus Plus also costs $59.99 per year, but that price gets you unlimited licenses to install protection on every Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS device in your household. Note that you’ll have to purchase this one at a retail outlet, as it’s not sold directly on the McAfee website. Even at the essential antivirus level, Panda is also cross-platform, with support for Windows, macOS, and Android. If you plan to protect a bunch of devices, you can get five Panda licenses for $82.99 per year or 10 licenses for $106.99. Once you get to 10, you might consider purchasing unlimited Panda licenses for $118.99 per year.

Panda Dome Essential Main Window

Like the free Panda antivirus, this software eschews the usual white or slate gray background for its main window. Instead, it fills the main window with a gorgeous scene from nature. You can choose from eight nature backgrounds or set them to change automatically from time to…

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