Archive for the ‘Trends’ Category

Interview: Gigamon President & CEO on Winning the Cybersecurity Cat-and-Mouse Game

Monday, May 9th, 2022

One week into being promoted to the top job of President and CEO of Gigamon, Shane Buckley sat down with tech4tea.com to share his strategy for Gigamon and how Deep Observability can help enterprises turn the table on sophisticated hackers in the cat-and-mouse game that is Cybersecurity.

Shane Buckley, President and CEO of Gigamon.

Shane Buckley, President and CEO of Gigamon.

Cloud adoption has come into its own in recent years, with the COVID-19 pandemic spurring more digital transformation around the world in two years than the preceding 10 years.

“Here in Asia, the growth of hybrid cloud is phenomenal. 73% of organisations in Asia Pacific that were surveyed will deploy hybrid cloud – more than just a multi public cloud solution – because they want to leverage the existing infrastructure and data centres they have; and to enjoy the flexibility, scale, automation, orchestration, that you get from any of these different cloud based technologies, such as Nutanix, VMware and others,” Buckley said.

This growth and move to the cloud is the driver behind the increased challenges of cybersecurity in this era – because of the complexities of operating on hybrid multi cloud IT infrastructure, and the increased sophistication of hackers.

Buckley shares that “one of the biggest lessons from 2021 is that the nature of the threat is continuing to get more sophisticated, with nation state actors, as well as nefarious groups that have become extremely adept at hacking into some of the world’s supposedly most secure networks and infrastructures”.

Enterprises need all the help they can get securing their IT infrastructure and fending off attacks arising from the increased exposure of the cloud environment.

Buckley observes that this battle is like a “cat-and-mouse” game in which – unfortunately – the mouse is winning. His role at Gigamon is to make sure the nefarious actors don’t win, by teaching and equipping companies and organisations with the ability to better provide security for their infrastructure.

“Gigamon is the leader in visibility and analytics for organisations worldwide, we help secure some of the most secure, most complex, most challenging networks on the planet. Our ability to see, control and secure workloads, no matter where they sit in the hybrid, multi cloud is what we’ve delivered through the Gigamon labs,” says Shane Buckley, President and CEO, Gigamon.

Research has shown that in 2021, 68% of all US organisations were hacked, which was up from over 50% in 2020. Many of those cases – some 25-30 percent – are ransomware attacks where organisations have to pay literally billions of dollars to these actors to release data that had been illegally encrypted and beyond use for those organisations.

“In that environment, where the nature of the threat is getting more sophisticated, we companies who actually provide protection for customers, we’ve got to move faster, because the level of sophistication of these people is becoming exponentially higher. We have to make sure that we can respond,” said Buckley.

“We’re in a unique position to provide those customers with the foundational visibility analytics they need to enhance their security posture and ensure they can minimise risk, maximise compliance, and try as much as we can to get the bad actors out,” Buckley added.

More details from the interview below.

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The Growing Need for Third-Party Chargers

Friday, December 3rd, 2021

It used to be that the new phones come with chargers in the box, but phone makers are now beginning to exclude the charger in the box. So we’ll begin to shop more for 3rd-party chargers.

Do you remember these different plugs for different chargers, not to mention different power ratings for each device?

Do you remember these different plugs for different chargers, not to mention different power ratings for each device?

I remember years ago when I was writing for the Straits Times Digital Life about what tech to pack when travelling, I’d lamented that the charger for different phones used proprietary chargers that were not interchangeable – in terms of the plugs and the power ratings.

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Cyberattacks on Retailers and Shoppers to Rise in November

Thursday, November 4th, 2021

Cyberattacks on online retailers and shoppers are projected to rise in November in conjunction with Singles’ Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Here are some protective measures that shoppers and retailers can practise.

According to the Imperva’s “The State of Security Within eCommerce 2021” report, threats are escalating for the retail industry.

According to the Imperva’s “The State of Security Within eCommerce 2021” report, threats are escalating for the retail industry.

Imperva has released a new eCommerce report and issued advice around safe retailing in conjunction with the world’s biggest online shopping event on Nov 11 − Singles’ Day.

“The 2021 holiday shopping season is shaping up to be a nightmare for both retailers and consumers. With the global supply chain conditions worsening, retailers will not only struggle to get products to sell in Q4, but will face increased attacks from motivated cybercriminals who want to benefit from the chaos. Retailers and consumers alike need to take the necessary steps to protect themselves,” says Peter Klimek, Director of Technology, Office of the CTO, Imperva.

The company helps organisations protect their data and all paths to it – securing their applications, data and websites from cyber attacks.

Last year, Chinese e-commerce giants Alibaba and JD.com racked up around US$115 billion in sales across their platforms during the Singles Day shopping event, setting a new record.

Singles’ Day online sales in China usually surpass the US Cyber Monday sales, Black Friday or any other 24-hour shopping campaign by a wide margin making it the biggest shopping holiday in the world.

Scams typically rise in tandem with the number of online shoppers, and Imperva’s 12-month analysis on cybersecurity risks in the retail industry suggests that the 2021 holiday shopping season will be no different.

In fact, in Imperva’s “The State of Security Within eCommerce 2021” report, the number of victims this year is projected to surpass that of last year’s.

More details below from the report

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Study: 45% of Singapore SMBs Want to go 100% Laptop Post COVID-19

Friday, March 12th, 2021

In an IDC survey commissioned by ASUS, SMBs are more inclined to equip their employees with laptops rather than desktop computers – compared to prior to COVID-19.

Hmm, still somewhat behind Japan I suppose. I recall, when attending a senior management & leadership course in Japan in the late 90’s, the staff at the college were already equipped 100% with laptops, while fellow-attendees of the year-long course were issued with a personal laptop. It was a cultural mindshift - coming from a work environment at home when it was still 100% desktop.

Hmm, still somewhat behind Japan I suppose. I recall, when attending a senior management & leadership course in Japan in the late 90’s, the staff at the college were already equipped 100% with laptops, while fellow-attendees of the year-long course were issued with a personal laptop. It was a cultural mindshift – coming from a work environment at home when it was still 100% desktop.

Presented during the IDC & ASUS Webcast 2021 Singapore – Digital Transformation for the Next Normal in Asia/Pacific, ASUS revealed that 45% of Singapore SMBs are likely to convert to a 100% laptop setup post COVID-19, underscoring the importance of mobility in a hybrid workplace model.

The finding is among other strategic insights to SMB technology use and how COVID-19 has affected related decisions.

Three suggestions from IDC that Singapore SMBs can implement with regard to technology implementation.

Three suggestions from IDC that Singapore SMBs can implement with regard to technology implementation.

Considering the survey findings, IDC advised that equipping employees with the latest devices that can support both a remote and hybrid work environment will have a significant impact not only on employee productivity and experience, but also will provide a competitive edge to organizations to attract and retain talent.

More details below from the press release.

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