network

Small businesses are the backbone of every country’s workforce and arguably the hardest working. They create the most jobs and deliver growth – usually without the tools, resources, and support that larger enterprises take for granted – particularly in their use of technology

Tech advances like the cloud, mobile technology, and the app-based software model have changed the way today’s modern business operates. They’ve also changed the way criminals attack and steal from businesses. Criminals strive to be agile in much the same way that companies do. Spreading malware is a favorite technique among attackers. According to the 2019 Data Breach Investigations Report, 28% of data breaches included malware.¹ While malware’s pervasiveness may not come as a surprise to many people, what’s not always so well understood is that automating app attacks—by means of malicious bots —is the most common way cybercriminals commit their crimes and spread malware. It helps them achieve scale.

Have you ever wished for an army of clones to do all your thankless tasks and chores? Well, that fantasy is becoming a reality—at least on the Internet. And while they may not be actual clones, bots have begun doing lots of digital dirty work. Managing your relationship with bots—good and bad—has become an inherent part of doing business in a connected world. With more than half of online traffic initiated by autonomous programs, it’s clear that bots are a driving force of technological change, and they’re here to stay.¹ As bot technology, machine learning, and AI continue to evolve, so will the threats they pose. And while some bots are good, many are malicious—and the cybercriminals behind them are targeting your apps. Preparing your organization to deal with the impact of bots on your business is essential to developing a sustainable strategy that will enable you to grow as you adapt to the new bot-enabled world.

Safeguarding the identity of users and managing the level of access they have to critical business applications could be the biggest security challenge organizations face in today’s assumed breach world.

A network of digital twins visually communicates information about products, manufacturing, supply chain, service, and customers for program, scenario, and role-based analysis, and ultimately better collaboration across your business network.

While NFV remains both technically and business relevant today, many communications service providers (CoSPs) have found implementation very complex. NFV implementation will require further evolution in order to fully address operational and business requirements. This white paper reviews factors currently driving the network virtualization evolution and examines the impact of adopting an innovative model based on software and hardware disaggregation.

Distributed cloud architectures will play an important role in Communication Service Providers’ network transformations. The distributed cloud will be made of numerous edge locations, from the customer premises to mobile base stations to central offices, each of which has its benefits and constraints. CSPs will need to consider attributes such as performance, availability, security, integration, and data and traffic volume to optimize the infrastructure for a myriad of workloads. Learn more about Heavy Reading’s survey results on CSPs adopting a distributed cloud strategy and delivering new services in this white paper.

5G services will place greater demands on the network in terms of peak data rates, connection density, and more. Learn how CoSPs are getting ready for 5G and how Intel® architecture is helping accelerate network transformation.

"Security analysts have a tougher job than ever. New vulnerabilities and security attacks used to be a monthly occurrence, but now they make the headlines almost every day. It’s become much more difficult to effectively monitor and protect all the data passing through your systems. Automated attacks from bad bots that mimic human behavior have raised the stakes, allowing criminals to have machines do the work for them. Not only that, these bots leave an overwhelming number of alert bells, false positives, and inherent stress in their wake for security practitioners to sift through. Today, you really need a significant edge when combating automated threats launched from all parts of the world. Where to start? With spending less time investigating all that noise in your logs."

"Every kind of online interaction—website visits, API calls to mobile apps, and others—is being attacked by bots. Whether it's fraud, scraping, spam, DDoS, espionage, shilling, or simply altering your SEO ranking, bots are wreaking havoc on websites as well as mobile and business applications. But that’s not all: they’re also messing with your business intelligence (BI). They can skew audience metrics, customer journeys and even ad buys, making business decisions questionable and costly. According to Forrester, ad fraud alone was set to exceed $3.3 billion in 2018. Not all bots are bad. In fact, your business depends on them. Search engine bots, for example, give your web presence visibility and authority online. Other good bots help you deliver better customer experiences—perhaps a chatbot provides instant customer assistance on your site. What’s important is enabling the good bots and blocking the bad ones."

"The fast pace of innovation demanded by today’s digital businesses challenges traditional processes for the deployment and governance of application delivery and supporting infrastructure. To address the increased pace of change, many organizations are transforming by adopting DevOps: a set of practices which employs continuous integration processes, breaking down the silos between development and operations teams. As cycle times accelerate, and development teams adopt more Agile delivery methodologies, the traditional model for application security can be a drag on the speed and agility inherent in a continuous integration process. This creates a natural friction. Security teams can be perceived as slowing down or blocking delivery. At the same time, however, the apps are exposed to significant threats. The goal of continuous integration is to deliver more frequent releases with more new capabilities to market, faster. It’s all about speed."

"Safeguarding the identity of users and managing the level of access they have to critical business applications could be the biggest security challenge organizations face in today’s assumed- breach world. Over 6,500 publicly disclosed data breaches occurred in 2018 alone, exposing over 5 billion records—a large majority of which included usernames and passwords.1 This wasn’t new to 2018 though, as evidenced by the existence of an online, searchable database of 8 billion username and password combinations that have been stolen over the years (https://haveibeenpwned.com/), keeping in mind there are only 4.3 billion people worldwide that have internet access. These credentials aren’t stolen just for fun—they are the leading attack type for causing a data breach. And the driving force behind the majority of credential attacks are bots—malicious ones—because they enable cybercriminals to achieve scale. That’s why prioritizing secure access and bot protection needs to be part of every organ

"Have you ever wished for an army of clones to do all your thankless tasks and chores? Well, that fantasy is becoming a reality—at least on the Internet. And while they may not be actual clones, bots have begun doing lots of digital dirty work. Managing your relationship with bots—good and bad—has become an inherent part of doing business in a connected world. With more than half of online traffic initiated by autonomous programs, it’s clear that bots are a driving force of technological change, and they’re here to stay.1 As bot technology, machine learning, and AI continue to evolve, so will the threats they pose. And while some bots are good, many are malicious—and the cybercriminals behind them are targeting your apps. Preparing your organization to deal with the impact of bots on your business is essential to developing a sustainable strategy that will enable you to grow as you adapt to the new bot-enabled world."

Traditional email-security defenses aren’t enough anymore. In today’s rapidly evolving threat environment, to stop email-borne threats, you must effectively defend against phishing and other potentially-devastating social-engineering attacks. These sophisticated threats are often able to bypass defenses using back-door techniques, including email spoofing, spear phishing and personal email fraud to penetrate network defenses and wreak havoc. Here’s a total email-protection strategy that can help radically reduce an organization’s susceptibility to attacks.

Distributed cloud architectures will play an important role in Communication Service Providers’ network transformations. The distributed cloud will be made of numerous edge locations, from the customer premises to mobile base stations to central offices, each of which has its benefits and constraints. CSPs will need to consider attributes such as performance, availability, security, integration, and data and traffic volume to optimize the infrastructure for a myriad of workloads. Learn more about Heavy Reading’s survey results on CSPs adopting a distributed cloud strategy and delivering new services in this white paper.

While NFV remains both technically and business relevant today, many communications service providers (CoSPs) have found implementation very complex. NFV implementation will require further evolution in order to fully address operational and business requirements. This white paper reviews factors currently driving the network virtualization evolution and examines the impact of adopting an innovative model based on software and hardware disaggregation.

5G services will place greater demands on the network in terms of peak data rates, connection density, and more. Learn how CoSPs are getting ready for 5G and how Intel® architecture is helping accelerate network transformation.

Getting complex decisions right across complicated operational networks is the key to optimum performance. Find out how one of the UK’s biggest bus operators is using data and analytics to make better decisions and optimise the use of resources across their network. Read this story to discover: • how data and analytics can transform operational performance • the benefits of using decision-support tools in the middle office • key lessons for getting your plans for digital transformation right.

As Italy’s businesses grew increasingly vulnerable to the threat of ransomware, data breaches, and other malicious malware attacks, service provider Telecom Italia sought an innovative solution to effectively and efficiently protect the network and data of its business users. In this case study, you’ll read about how Italy’s largest service provider partnered with Cisco Umbrella to increase value for customers and accelerate their revenues with cloud security.

"A number of obstacles stand between you and a safe network. Your security solution shouldn't be one of them. Check out our infographic to see six common security pitfalls that put your users, their devices, and your data at risk. By avoiding these common security mistakes, you’ll be protecting your network against today’s threats and beyond. "

"Some solutions promise to check all the boxes on network security. But it turns out, they're checking all the wrong ones. Don't get frustrated. Cisco Umbrella can help, and you can be up and running before your next coffee break. Check out our simple security checklist to learn how to identify red flags and put an end to empty security promises. "

"The average company uses more than 50 security vendors: firewalls, web proxies, SIEM, appliances, intelligence - and the list goes on. Do you have more security tools than you can handle? There’s an easier way to make the most of your existing investments. We'll share ways you can reduce security alerts and extend your security off network, anywhere users go, with Cisco Umbrella. Built with a bidirectional API, Cisco Umbrella easily integrates with the other systems in your stack, so you can extend protection from on-premises security appliances to devices and sites beyond your perimeter — and amplify investments you’ve already made. Read the eBook to learn more about getting more bang for your security buck."

"Malicious cryptomining has consistently been one of the top threats across all internet activity in 2018. Cryptominers tap into an organization’s computing power to create cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Monero — and generate profit for themselves. If you’re not protected, it can cost you in all kinds of ways. It can lead to degraded system performance and regulatory risks, and leaves an attacker with an open door to further exploit your network. In this eBook you’ll learn about who these criminals are targeting and how you can protect your network from a significant threat. "

As networks become decentralized and users connect directly to SaaS applications, backhauling traffic to apply security policies just isn’t efficient. Plus, backhauling internet bound traffic is expensive, and it adds latency. More and more branch offices are migrating to direct internet access (DIA). Find out how to quickly and easily secure this traffic.

"It’s no secret that the way people work has changed dramatically over the past few years. As highly distributed environments become the norm, security teams are scrambling to protect users, the growing number of device types they carry, and their data. With more users, devices, and applications connecting to the network, the number of risks and vulnerabilities is also increasing — triggering a total transformation in the security landscape. In this research readout, we explore the complex factors that make remote and roaming user security a challenge, and the emerging solutions best positioned to meet the needs of today’s increasingly distributed enterprise.Explore the complex factors that make remote and roaming user security a challenge, and the emerging solutions best positioned to meet the needs of today’s increasingly distributed enterprise. "