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NETWORKNEWS
NETWORK NEWS - MOVES, ADDS AND CHANGES
A REGULAR LOOK AT THE STORIES INVOLVING PEOPLE, COMPANIES AND SOLUTIONS
There is a lot of coverage currently
about so-called ransomware and
WatchGuard has asked its channel
partners what they think. Apparently 83
per cent believe that ransomware will be
their customers' largest concern this year
and only 16 per cent believed that the
majority of their customers would pay a
cyber ransom.
Corey Nachreiner, Chief Technology
officer at WatchGuard explains, "The
proliferation of ransomware reached epidemic
proportions in 2016 so it makes
sense that resellers are forecasting it as
the top threat. On top of cyber extortion,
security customers are hearing about
tons of other new attacks and threat vectors
each day: they're wondering how
best to protect themselves."
Of the total surveyed, 63 per cent do
not think that their customers understand
the difference between Unified Threat
Management (UTM) appliances and Next
Generation Firewalls (NGFW), with nearly
80 per cent saying they don't care.
Hybrid cloud services provider Pulsant
is now a Cyber Essentials Certifying
Body. It has added a Cyber Essentials
evaluation service to its Pulsant Protect
security portfolio and is licensed for both
the Cyber Essentials Scheme and the
IASME governance standard. The Cyber
Essentials evaluation service is delivered
by qualified assessors and helps organisations
to achieve their own certification.
Digital transformation is moving centre
stage in the IT lexicon and Swedish Alite
International thinks that "Many UK companies
have been too focused on the
digital customer experience".
Commenting further, Nick Agarwal,
Head of UK Delivery at the company
said "Digital transformation... is not
about digitising existing processes, it
means creating new business value by
enabling new innovation and creativity,
using digital technologies, such as the
Internet of Things."
Digital transformation will often focus
on the customer interface, but Agarwal
says that "Many of the companies will
also need to transform and digitise their
business operations."
According to ISG, last year was the
year of As-a-Service in EMEA. Based on
its Q4 EMEA Index, ISG reveals that
demand for contracts of this nature
surged as organisations sought to
upgrade infrastructure and software.
Despite uncertainty in the market, businesses
are spending more on contracting,
with Annual Contract Value (ACV) in
EMEA up 2 per cent from 2015 at 11.8
billion euros. This said, it also finds that
EMEA has been slower than other
regions in their uptake of As-a-Service,
lagging behind the Americas and Asia.
However, the region is slowly overcoming
its reluctance as traditional sourcing
values slumped to their lowest point since
2009, while As-a-Service revenue
climbed to just over 3 billion euros, up
33 per cent on the previous year.
Perhaps in 2017 the industry will move
beyond simply acknowledging the massive
deficit in IT security talent and take
action? A study by Trustwave confirms
that 57 per cent of IT Security
Professionals are struggling to find the
talent that they need. Based on an
Osterman Research survey of 147 IT
security decision makers and influencers,
the study shows that a fast-moving confluence
of skills shortages, worsening
threats and disproportionate spending
habits is leaving organisations increasingly
vulnerable to data breaches.
Trustwave Senior Vice President of
Managed Security Services, Chris
Schueler, comments that, "The shortage
of staff able to solve complex security
issues is an industry problem and it continues
to worsen, but the way organisations
are going about filling this void is
all wrong.
"Typical recruiting methods are not proving
fruitful, yet we continue to see enterprises
throwing bodies at the problem
when what is really needed is better staff
training, more budget support to hire the
right personnel, and additional assistance
from experienced third-party experts to
help amplify the more complicated and
demanding areas of security like testing,
monitoring and incident response." NC
8 NETWORKcomputing JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017 @NCMagAndAwards
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