Identity is Security: Under Pressure

There’s a lot of security news to digest this week. We’ll start with the big topic that just won’t quit: privacy. Apple, Amazon, Google and others were called on by the federal government to testify about what data privacy protections they have in place to protect consumer data. There’s a catch, though: they are not legally required to show up. Still, the U.S. government is clearly feeling the privacy pressure as they watch the GDPR aftermath unfold.

You may recall the Bluetooth vulnerabilities known as Blueborne that left 5.3 billion devices vulnerable about a year ago. Researchers revealed this week that due to people not updating their devices, and aging devices that can’t be updated, hundreds of millions of devices are still vulnerable. And remember, if you’re connecting a device that has vulnerabilities to your work laptop, you’re introducing risk to your employer as well.

Another report out this week found that attacks via e-mail rose by 36 percent. This is a good icebreaker for the conversation about user access – specifically, that a single point of access is the gateway to the entire IT ecosystem: the network systems, applications and sensitive data. Among those email attacks, phishing is possibly the most common. This is an area where artificial intelligence shows a lot of potential. While it won’t solve all the problems associated with phishing, it can bring a lot more accuracy in preventing and detecting them.

Now it’s your turn. What news stories caught your eye this week? Share them with us in the comments.

Until next week, stay secure!