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In response to the increased sophistication and devastating consequences of cyber attacks, businesses have gradually transitioned their cybersecurity strategy away from on-premise security solutions and Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs) to the Security-as-a-Service (SECaaS) model. With SECaaS, a third-party cloud provider assumes the responsibility for the development and maintenance of a business' cyber-security strategy. In 2015, the worldwide market for SECaaS was at $3.12 billion. This market size is projected to reach $8.52 billion by 2020, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 22.2%.

Over the past several years, there has been a shift by businesses from physical or local network security services to cloud-based services. Initially slow, the shift to cloud-based security services, formally known as Security-as-a-Service (SECaaS) has exponentially increased. The reason? Businesses have become more aware of SECaaS benefits, especially when compared to traditional network security strategies. As a result, there has been an increase in market share for SECaaS; formerly at $3.12 billion in 2015, the market share is projected to reach $8.52 billion by 2020.

There has been a steady increase in cyber attacks by malicious actors over the past several years as businesses increasingly conduct their activities online. Impacted businesses can experience severe and long-lasting consequences. In addition to a loss of reputation, these businesses may also experience a significant financial loss as a result of measures implemented to contain and manage the data breach. Businesses impacted by a data breach may also be subject to litigation by individuals whose personal information may have been compromised. In 2018, the average cost of a data breach was $3.86 million, up from $3.62 million in 2017, a 6.4 percent increase.

There has been a significant increase in cyber attacks over the last several years as malicious actors look for, as well as exploit, vulnerabilities in computer systems and network infrastructure. When found, these vulnerabilities are used to compromise the network infrastructure, often with devastating financial consequences to the impacted business. Globally, businesses have lost more than $8 billion in 2018 as a result of ransomware, an increase from $5 billion in 2017 and $325 million in 2015. With ransomware attacks on businesses occurring every 14 seconds, it is projected that the costs of ransomware attacks will exceed $12 billion by 2020.

Cybersecurity is top of mind for IT professionals, especially those working in the healthcare industry. The costs associated with a cyber-attack, like ransomware, malware, and other viruses, has increased since 2017. According to a study performed by Ponemon, in 2018 the cost associated with a data breach for the healthcare industry has been $408 per patient record, up from $308 per patient record the previous year.  

Let’s start with Office 365 Backup and Recovery. Most organizations don’t realize that O365 data from Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook and more need to be backed up to the Cloud. From Microsoft Exchange to SharePoint and OneDrive, these files aren’t automatically backed up by Microsoft. Though they are applications accessed via the Cloud, once deleted or lost these files are gone forever unless they had previously been backed up. 

Have you tested your network security in the last 3 years? How about within the last year? The last 3 months? It can be argued that network security audits should be performed quarterly at the very least, but the best strategy is having a 24/7/365 network security engineer monitoring your network at all time.  

 There are simple security measures that we all take that most of us would consider "no brainers". We all know the basics, like locking your computer when you leave your desk, using caution around suspicious emails, changing your password, etc. While we'd all say these small tasks are no brainers, how many of us actually do take these security measures? How many of us actually follow these rules? Studies show that, though people know what they should be doing from security stand points, they don’t.

A Security Operations Center is a facility that houses an information security team. As opposed to a Network Operations Center (NOC) that oversees network management and monitoring, the Security Operations Center (SOC) oversees security systems and processes for an organization. The two do complement each other; one ensures the network is uninterrupted with maximum up-time and the other ensures that the network is protected from all angles.

The traditional train of thought on data security has been tossed out the door thanks to advancements in cloud computing. For a while, it was believed that data and sensitive information was safest if kept in-house, on-premise, and locked up. Your employees managing your own servers, infrastructure, and security software was considered best-practice. Outsourcing security was believed to carry inherent risks and severe consequences. This has changed rapidly thanks to growing trust and security in the cloud.