Tag: Enterprise Security

Time to Take Experience to Another Level

by Jeremiah Caron, posted in IT Leader
J. Caron
J. Caron

Summary Bullets:  

  • Experience-level agreements offering guarantees beyond connectivity are an aspirational concept.
  • But competitive market drivers are pushing service providers in this direction, which is encouraging.

One of the 2012 IT market predictions I discussed during the Current Analysis webinar in December related to so-called experience-level agreements. As I noted during the session, predictions sometimes are not really predictions at all, rather, they are expectations or hopes. The development of experience-level agreements certainly falls in the latter category, for the desire of service providers to gain differentiation by changing the game in relation to their commitment to customers is truly aspirational at this point. Continue reading “Time to Take Experience to Another Level” →

Placebos, Dogs, Burglars and Security

by , posted in Secure
A. Braunberg
A. Braunberg

Summary Bullets:

  • Let’s try to avoid a security strategy that relies on a placebo effect.
  • Assuming the worst is a good way to start the new year.

The Wall Street Journal ran an interesting article this week called “Why placebos work wonders.” It seems there is much more to the “placebo effect” than simply tricking someone into thinking they are getting a “real” drug. Research has shown that it doesn’t seem to matter whether patients know they are getting “real” treatment or a sugar pill. The body can benefit. I used to think about the placebo effect when I would take my very old dog in for acupuncture treatments. I assume that if they worked for him (and they did) then there must be more to acupuncture than just a placebo effect. Dogs need “real” treatments, while humans can benefit from both “real” and “fake” treatments. Some of the check box security products that enterprises spend their money on seem like fake treatments. This might be ok, if computers and networks were more like humans and less like dogs. Continue reading “Placebos, Dogs, Burglars and Security” →

Enterprise Mobility 2012: What Can Businesses Expect in the New Year?

by Kitty Weldon, posted in Mobilize
K. Weldon
K. Weldon

Summary Bullets:

  • Mobility will continue to be a huge priority for enterprises in 2012, with BYOD, mobile apps, mobile security, and tablet adoption as major themes.
  • How is the supplier ecosystem responding to the needs of business customers, and what will we see from them in 2012?

2011 was a busy year for enterprise mobility, as it was the year of the tablet (or at least the iPad) explosion; BYOD support became a priority (even beyond the U.S.); there was a surge in the development of mobile applications; mobile security finally gained precedence; the availability of LTE in the U.S. became widespread enough to matter; M2M deployments grew in the automotive, utility, and health care verticals – we could go on and on.  Suffice it to say that while enterprises are becoming increasingly dependent on mobile devices and applications, the supplier ecosystem (wireless operators, IT service providers, handset/tablet vendors, mobile application developers, enterprise infrastructure equipment vendors, and platform providers for TEM, MDM, mobile security, and mobile application enablement) has stepped up initiatives to generate revenues by satisfying the enterprise’s hunger for mobile solutions.  So, what were some of the key service launches in 2011 among these vendors and service providers, and what do we see as their priorities for 2012? Continue reading “Enterprise Mobility 2012: What Can Businesses Expect in the New Year?” →

Stop GIGO Data with Better Information Management

by , posted in Secure
B. Ostergaard
B. Ostergaard

Summary Bullets:

  • The looming GIGO data storm
  • Information management capabilities are more important than cheap storage capacity

Ease of storage expansion as well as lower storage costs per TB, combined with the drive to be more security ‘compliant’, threaten to combine to create a perfect data storm. Present conditions seem to encourage regulators and government agencies to insist that public sector institutions as well as corporations collect and retain even more data that is not required for operational purposes, but might be needed in future, or might be needed for public safety, or might aid future issue handling. Corporate governance, risk, compliance (GRC) policies are going in the same direction. The bottom line is: added operational costs.  Privacy issues aside, from a cost-benefit perspective two facts spring out: first, some 98% of what is stored is never viewed again, and second information management is way behind the curve. To put it bluntly: garbage in, garbage out (GIGO) is a growing problem because duplication, inconsistencies, randomness as well as systemic errors, lead to massive waste. Policy decisions based on such data risk being flawed and misleading, rather than those based on well-informed analysis of timely and reliable data. Clearly, it’s easier to just add more data to storage than to actually create an information management policy and capability that gives some assurance that data used for decision-making is valid to some defined degree. Continue reading “Stop GIGO Data with Better Information Management” →

‘Tis the Season for Predictions

by , posted in Secure
A. Braunberg
A. Braunberg

Summary Bullets:

  • Vendors’ predictions are often worth what you pay for them.
  • Take predictions with a grain of salt.

Does any other market lend itself to self-serving predictions quite as readily as the security market?  Don’t get me wrong, I like predictions as much as the next guy; in fact, I have been working on some this week with partner in crime Paula Musich.  That said, our predictions do not end with an outright recommendation that you buy our products.  Security vendors benefit from often having very good threat research personnel on staff.  These teams see more threats and see them sooner than almost anyone else.  They are indeed very well positioned to look over the horizon at new attacks that might well go mainstream.  However, some security vendors seem to cherry pick threats that align with product suites.  (Of course, in a perfect world, vendor threat teams are informing product development decisions.)  Tech Target’s Rob Westervelt called McAfee/Intel out on its predictions on Twitter this week.  Two of McAfee/Intel’s predictions involved more rootkits and the need for more chip-based security.  See what they did there? Continue reading “‘Tis the Season for Predictions” →

Vendor Validation: Certified for Cloud Success?

by Amy Larsen DeCarlo, posted in Cloud Enable
A. DeCarlo
A. DeCarlo

Summary Bullets:

  • The lack of broadly accepted cloud standards around security and other key operational points begs for more common definitions across the industry.
  • One potential source for best practices is the vendors themselves who, through efforts such as certification programs, could help set standards for the cloud.

Anticipating the unknown is a challenge in even the most conventional and mature IT environment. So in the wilds of the cloud, the potential for missteps, breaches and other issues that lead to disappointing outcomes is vast. This uncertainty – and more to the point the lack of control that many IT organizations feel they have over a virtualized on-demand service environment – has kept many enterprises from going all-in to the cloud. Continue reading “Vendor Validation: Certified for Cloud Success?” →

Just to Be on the Safe Side: BT and IBM Both Announce New Unified Security Divisions

by , posted in Secure
B. Ostergaard
B. Ostergaard

Summary Bullets:         

  • BT and IBM are consolidating their security capabilities in response to customers’ demand for more coherence.
  • The FUD factor has been somewhat toned down as customers focus on securing their business processes.

The past week brought two significant organizational announcements in the managed security service provider (MSSP) market.  BT Global Services is finally bringing its diverse security capabilities under one hat (i.e., BT Assure), and IBM is following suit, bringing its far-flung security expertise into a single division  (i.e., IBM Security Systems, reporting into the Software Middleware Group). Continue reading “Just to Be on the Safe Side: BT and IBM Both Announce New Unified Security Divisions” →

The Race for Mobile Data Security

by , posted in Mobilize
A. Braunberg
A. Braunberg

Summary Bullets:

  • Regardless of device, data protection is critical.
  • Current product/service choices are diverse to the point of being a bit daunting.

I have blogged a good bit lately about our recent mobility survey data.  One of the takeaways, as I have noted, is that enterprises are resigned to (and perhaps beginning to embrace) the consumerization of IT and the need to provide a degree of choice in mobile device support.  What this tends to mean is that Apple and Android smartphones and tablets are increasingly accessing resources from corporate networks.  However, while enterprise IT/security teams might have lost the battle, they still plan on winning the war; and the war has always really been about data protection. Continue reading “The Race for Mobile Data Security” →

Big Blue and Big Security

by , posted in Secure
A. Braunberg
A. Braunberg

Summary Bullets

  • A “Smarter Planet” is not necessarily a safer planet
  • Analytics will become an increasingly important component of security solutions

I spent an interesting couple of days this week at IBM Software’s Connect event. The yearly analyst event brings together IBM’s software brands to talk strategy and trends. This was the first year that IBM invited security analysts to the event: a nod to the formation of a standalone Security Systems division within IBM Software. IBM has had a checkered past in the security markets (most notably with the poorly-executed ISS acquisition), but I came away from the event with the feeling that the company has a strategy in place that realistically addresses IBM’s strengths and weaknesses. Continue reading “Big Blue and Big Security” →

The Thin Red Line between Quality Control and Root Kit Privacy Invasion

by , posted in Secure
B. Ostergaard
B. Ostergaard

Summary Bullets:

  • Mobile carriers only want to make sure our traffic is OK; they just forgot to ask.
  • Anything put on an open platform can be taken off, but what about the ethics behind such actions?

 Carrier IQ (CIQ) is a very discreet U.S. software company with an application which it claims helps network providers diagnose a range of problems on Android devices, including identifying user location, causes of premature battery drainage, dropped calls, and other system problems.  The reason for discretion is the fact that the app is preloaded onto mobile phones before being sold to customers, and once loaded, it is very hard to spot, has a wide range of preset permissions to monitor and report any and all user activities on the device to the carrier, and cannot be turned off.  In other words, CIQ meets the definition of a root kit.   

Continue reading “The Thin Red Line between Quality Control and Root Kit Privacy Invasion” →