Cloud Hosting

Cloud storage company Degoo may not be a household name, but it has managed to carve out a niche in the competitive cloud storage market, with its offerings attracting more than 15 million users over the past eight years.

The Swedish company has teamed up with TechRadar to deliver an even better package than usual - get 200GB free cloud storage for a year with no strings attached.

After 12 months, this will revert back to the regular 100GB package, which is still plenty for most.

You can also get a staggering 10TB for two years at just $99.99 (about 77 / AU$152) exclusive to TechRadar. Thats 58% off the standard price of $9.99 per month (that's around 8 / AU$15) - blowing the cloud storage competition out of the water.

Unlike some rival services, there are no file size limits and you dont need another Degoo account to receive files.

Uploaded files are encrypted in chunks (zero knowledge encryption) and spread out to data centres on four continents to eliminate the risk of account compromise.

Carl Hasselkog, CEO of Degoo, told TechRadar its infrastructure is five times more efficient than Dropbox per stored byte.

It's worth noting the free version has basic storage replication and no zero knowledge encryption, plus a 90-day account inactivity limit. It also carries adverts in the feed on Android.

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Here's the biggest free cloud storage right now, 200GB exclusive to TechRadar readers - TechRadar India

Virgin Media revealed last night (5 March) that the misconfiguration of a marketing database had led to around 900,000 customers contact details being breached.

Now, a spokesperson for the telecoms giant has confirmed to NS Tech that, as many security pros suspected, the data had been stored in a cloud-based server.

The incident makes the firm just the latest in a long line of businesses to have leaked customers contact details after failing to properly protect a cloud database.

The data, which was left in the unprotected database for ten months, included the names, home and email addresses and phone numbers of customers and potential customers. It was accessed by an unauthorised individual at least once over that period, according to the company, which said the extent of the access was unknown.

Security experts have warned that while the data does not include financial information, if it is sold on to scammers, it could be used in phishing attacks. Coupled up with Virgins broadband outage in the week, this could be a particularly good target for malicious actors to prey on, said Jake Moore, a security specialist at ESET.

A number of similar breaches have involved misconfigured Amazon Web Services S3 buckets in recent months and the company has said that, if it could, it would go back in time and redesign its security setup. Virgin refused to disclose the name of its cloud provider, citing security concerns.

Marco Essomba, founder of iCyber-Security, said he suspected the misconfiguration was related to inadequate access control or authentication permission. Its amazing how many of these flaws you can find if you dig on the internet using automated tools, he told NS Tech. This owes to the perception that cloud infrastructures are secure by default, which is simply not true. Access control for cloud storage systems are often left on default settings and completely forgotten once deployed in production.

Virgin Media said it had informed the Information Commissioners Office. Ryan Dunleavy, head of media disputes at the law firm Stewarts, said fines can be eye-wateringly high under the GDPR, even for an incident which doesnt involve passwords or financial details of consumers.

He added: Virgin could be facing a fine of multiples of millions of pounds. This is an opportunity for the ICO to put down another benchmark in terms of the value of fine for a breach of this nature in the UK.

Virgin Medias chief executive, Lutz Schler, said: We immediately solved the issue by shutting down access to this database, which contained some contact details of approximately 900,000 people, including fixed line customers representing approximately 15% of that customer base. Protecting our customers data is a top priority and we sincerely apologise.

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Virgin Media breach: unprotected database was stored in the cloud, telco confirms - NS Tech

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If 2019 has taught us anything about cybersecurity, it is that cyber-attacks are the reality of our times, hardware is still vulnerable and high-profile data leaks are becoming frighteningly more common.

The cybersecurity market is booming as recent data from MarketsandMarkets reveals that investments in cybersecurity can reach $250 billion by 2023 with spending already rising higher in 2019 than in any other industry sector.

The forces driving growth are increasingly strict measures and requirements on data protection imposed by the European Union and the growing threat of cyberterrorism. Cybercrime is forecasted to inflict damages of up to $6 trillion yearly by 2021, bellowing demand for security solutions both on the individual and corporate levels.

Growing threats mean growing demand

2019 has seen a number of IPOs in the cybersecurity industry as CrowdStrike, a California-based cybersecurity company, announced that was going public with an IPO, raised $700 million, and is valued at $6.8 billion.

The American Cloudflare web-infrastructure and website-security company, providing content-delivery-network services, also went through an IPO and added a whopping 20% to its market price on the first day. And KnowBe4 announced that it received a staggering $300 million investment from private equity firm KKR. A number of other cybersecurity companies like Palo Alto Networks, Proofpoint, and Zscaler also enjoyed bullish rounds in stocks making the cybersecurity market attractive for investors.

Its evident that the B2B security industry is experiencing a renaissance. While the market is stronger than ever, there is a massive market cap shift from legacy security vendors like Splunk, McAfee, Symantec, and Check Pointto the new breed of leaders, as stated by Jeb Miller, general partner at Icon Ventures.

Given that 90% of all data available online was generated over the last few years and the fact that cloud, mobile, API and other services are being increasingly integrated into the frameworks of corporations, the enticement of cybercriminals to tap into the wealth of information is simply irresistible. According to Juniper Research, overcall cybercrime costs have reached $2 trillion at the end of 2019 making companies increase their spendings on cybersecurity.

The growing demand for confidentiality caused by data leaks, as well as the needs of companies and organizations to comply with the new European General Data Protection Rules (GDPR), are attracting entrepreneurs and investors to next-generation solutions, including blockchain, artificial intelligence-based data management solutions, and advanced cryptography.

Cybersecurity as a Service

Cybersecurity as a service is part of the global trend towards the transition to the sharing economy model. In 2020, companies are not willing to overpay for tools, so they will be switching to using the required services for the period of time needed. The IT startups that started offering the given model have already become unicorns. Among such firms are McAfee Inc. and NortonLifeLock. Other alternative endpoint security providers include Carbon Black, Cylance, Palo Alto Networks, FireEye, and others.

New and promising providers are also emerging with viable solutions, such as Cloudstrike with its Falcon the first Software-as-a-Service multi-tenant, cloud-native, intelligent security platform. A competitor Infoblox is offering security coupled with simplicity and automation via SD-WAN, hybrid cloud and IoT, reducing manual tasks by 70% and increasing productivity by 300%. Their BloxOne Threat Defense allows for traffic monitoring, proactive threat identification, network breach protection and automation. With 52% of the DDI market in their grasp, InfoBlox is the industry leader gripping 59% of Fortune 1000 companies and 58% of the Forbes 2000.

Blockchain

Routing all business and personal data through a centralized server with one main point of contact poses an overwhelming number of threats for information security. In 2019, $2 trillion was the cost of cyber-crime for businesses.

A new promising category to solve this problem is blockchain technology that makes data near impossible to change, with decentralized end-to-end encryption data services replacing traditional encryption tools. In 2020, we can see the projects that managed to offer decentralized data storage.

A new way to store data privately in a decentralized way was found by Jeff Pulver, the US VoIP entrepreneur behind $3 billion Vonage, an early Twitter investor. In 2018, he co-founded a new company to develop a blockchain-enabled communication network offering clients new authentication layers and decentralized solutions.

The solution, called Debrief, is said to be the most secure end-to-end business communication network that no longer exposes user confidential information unlike existing services like Facebook, Skype, and Zoom. As claimed by Pulver, with data encryption used in the network, information cannot be edited or tampered with in any type of way once it is placed onto the network. Each recipient on that network receives the same piece of information as it is inputted in real-time. In order for a hacker to tamper or edit the information on one recipients computer, the other computers on the network would have to accept this as edited information, which they would immediately reject.

The data leaks that we witnessed in 2018-2019 had their causes and we believe that the best way of making high-security communications services universally available is through the use of blockchain technologies. By refraining from centralized control, we will be removing the weak link from the equation the third parties, Pulver explained.

Debrief consists of a decentralized storage system and secure blockchain authentication, making it impenetrable for hackers. The Debrief DApp, operating on the network to showcase its extensive functional capabilities, provides clients HD Video Conferencing, P2P audio and video calling, messaging, decentralized file storage, ensuring the confidentiality of all data. Its also a middleware for other mainstream blockchains and traditional communication applications to utilize and enable blockchain communication features.

Demand for blockchain solutions capable of tracking vulnerabilities and suspicious transactions will continue to grow. Solutions like CipherTrace and Chainalysis, which managed to enter the market first, are now being used not only by large organizations, but also by government organizations, even the Interpol.

Employee training

The need for proper staff training will rise as cybercriminals become more devious. The new breed of employees will need to understand social engineering, phishing schemes, malware, ransomware and much else. Proper investments in people-oriented security systems will reduce losses.

AI and ML

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are set to take the lead in security in 2020 as Richard Cassidy, senior director security strategy at Exabeam predicts,

2020 should herald a truly golden age of deep learning, which will see a resurgence of artificial intelligence embedded into the fabric of our security frameworks. Expect to see some exciting machine learning developments in the seemingly ad infinitum war on cyberthreats and bad actor group attack circuits.

Cassidys words are backed by numbers. A Capgemini study shows that 69% of senior executives believe that AI and ML are inseparable from cybersecurity. An example is Kounts Omniscore, which employs AI and ML to provide fraud analysts with necessary data for improving customer experiences and reducing fraud.

In 2020, the amount of ransomware attacks will increase, as it is easier for the attackers to find a security breach using new AI and machine learning technologies, since temporary data blocking is a quick way to make a buck. By 2022 , 50% of servers will encrypt all data, over 50% of security alerts will be handled by automatic AI-based mechanisms, and 150 million people will receive blockchain-based digital identifiers. New technologies, such as encryption, blockchain, machine learning and analytics will be used to improve security measures, as state-sponsored hackers and cybersecurity firms are both using artificial intelligence to get an edge.

SECURITI.ai is one company to watch out for as it enables enterprises to issue data rights and complies with global privacy regulations to improve the brands image. Another company is Tel Aviv-based Deep Instinct, which uses AI and deep learning to safeguard enterprise endpoints, both mobile and stationary. Deep Instinct is revolutionary in that it offers real-time cyberthreat identification and blocking.

Cloud

Cloud storage is on the rise as businesses shift their operations to cloud computing provided by the likes of Amazon Web Services. The company will be competing with mainstays like Fortinet, Palo Alto Networks and others as software-defined wide area networks (SD-WAN) technologies start taking over the cloud storage security frontier. But the giants have more competition coming up, as Netskope and Menlo Security are among the cloud security startups going public in 2020 that investors will be looking out for.

ID management

Identity management is another key area in the cybersecurity domain. Email and data-loss protection are being offered by a number of companies like Proofpoint, Okta, Qualys, Mimecast, Rapid7. Hackers know that targeting key employee or management emails is the easiest way of gaining access to corporate data management and storage systems.

Cyberark offers privileged accounts, Okta provides advanced identity management, while other companies are focusing on Zero Trust approaches. Cisco Systems, which recently acquired Duo Security for $2.35 billion, is fully vesting in the Zero Trust sector as it conducts full identity checks of all users and device health analysis before granting device access.

Gartner Research states that approximately 75% of all large companies will be employing selective access management systems by 2021, which is a 25% increase from their previous 2018 report. Forrester Research indicates that 80% of all security breaches are caused by compromised credentials. Among the most prominent victims of such attacks were Quest Diagnostics, Marriott International, Equifax, Yahoo Anthem, Target and others.

Tightening the rivets

Unlike generalized world-scale problems, digital threats pose a greater risk to the cornerstone of the global economy data. As criminals are becoming ever more devious and sophisticated in their approaches to milking money from individuals and enterprises, the challenge is up to cybersecurity firms to step up and take on the mantle of viable solution providers.

2020 is set to become a make-or-break year in the cybersecurity industry as new approaches to handling threats are coming to the forefront. Whether it be AI, ML, blockchain, Zero Trust or any other technology, the aim is the same safeguarding data and reducing economic damages that are so far showing signs of abating.

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6 Cybersecurity Trends Worth Looking at in 2020: Blockchain Is on the List - The Daily Hodl

As an IT powerhouse, India continues to be the pace setter for growth in Asia-Pacifics IT industry.

According to the 2020 TechTarget/Computer Weekly IT Priorities survey, organisations in the subcontinent remain buoyant about their digital transformation efforts, with 71% expecting to spend more in key areas such as artificial intelligence (AI).

Just 6% of more than 200 Indian IT professionals polled in the survey expect their IT budgets to be slashed, underscoring the growing resolve of Indian companies to ramp up on technology investments to gain a competitive advantage.

Besides AI, which over half of respondents plan to spend more on this year, cloud services (38%) and network infrastructure (35%) have been allocated bigger budgets by Indian organisations, signalling their desire to shore up their digital foundation to propel a new wave of growth.

Increasingly, this foundation is likely to reside outside the datacentre in the form of multiple public cloud services (44%), more so than other respondents in the region, even as some organisations continue to favour a hybrid cloud (34%) setup.

Investments in automation tools (55%) to improve operational efficiency in the datacentre is also high on the agenda, along with cyber security (37%), which remains a hot-button issue for organisations that have been doubling up on digital transformation.

The penchant for cloud in India is most evident in storage deployments. According to the study, more than half of Indian organisations plan to deploy cloud-based storage in 2020, along with their growing preference for software-defined technologies.

A healthy proportion of respondents also see hyperconverged infrastructure (39%) as key to their storage strategy, driven by the need to modernise the datacentre and overcome the challenges of traditional legacy infrastructure.

As a software development powerhouse, India is naturally one of the regions keenest adopters of DevOps (48%) and agile project management software (42%), according to the survey.

Indian organisations are also developing more internet of things (IoT) applications (39%) this year, while refactoring legacy applications (33%) for the cloud. These development efforts are pulling in bigger budgets for application programming interface management tools (60%) to support further development and co-creation initiatives.

Meanwhile, Indian organisations are not giving up core enterprise applications even as they ramp up on their own software development efforts. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) investment plans remain widespread (43%), followed by digital experience management (41%) and core HR software (38%).

On the networking front, software-defined wide-area networks (SD-WAN) remained at the top of the agenda, fuelled by the growing adoption of cloud services in India. Almost half of local firms also prefer to turn to managed service providers to supply SD-WAN services.

When it comes to security, a majority of survey respondents (63%) placed governance, risk and compliance tools as their top priority over end-user security training (56%) and fraud detection tools (46%). Along with more in-house development initiatives, they are also putting more money into container security (47%).

The security agenda extends to the edge of the network where the growing number of employee and IoT devices has greatly expanded an organisations attack surface. In 2020, more than half of Indian firms plan to spend more on virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) even as Microsoft Windows 10 migrations are not prioritised as highly (42%).

According to GlobalData, a market research firm, ICT spending in India is estimated to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 7.2% from around $101bn in 2018 to $144bn in 2023.

With core industry verticals in India such as energy, manufacturing and construction aligning their business model with an IT driven approach, the spending is bound to grow in the coming years, said Sunil Kumar Verma, lead ICT analyst at GlobalData.

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IT Priorities 2020: AI, cloud to dominate IT spending in India - ComputerWeekly.com