BizTech Brief #24

Week Commencing 6th February 2017

We are now into the second month of the year and as people are back into the swing of things, the industry announcements have started appearing in the news in between all the security breach articles. This issue of the BizTech Brief series will summarise tech news from last week into one place. 

VMware vExpert's have been announced!

Last week, the list of 2017's vExperts was published. The vExpert program isn't an award for knowledge but awards those that have have demonstrated significant contributions to the community and a willingness to share their expertise with others.

I personally was very excited to read the list this year as I have been awarded the title of a vExpert for the first time in 2017. Congratulations to the fellow vExperts that have been awarded in 2017. 

Hackers tear apart Trend Micro, find over 200 vulnerabilities in just 6 months

Trend Micro is one of the biggest names in cybersecurity, an $120 billion industry that promises to deflect a significant chunk of attacks hitting customers. But Trend and many of its peers are themselves creating software vulnerable to hacks, as proven by two researchers who've found and reported more than 200 flaws across the Japanese company's suite of products since July 29 last year.

 In total they've uncovered 223 weaknesses across 11 TrendMicro products. A whopping 194 can be exploited remotely, and all are triggered without user interaction, making them significantly more serious.

UK Cyber Security Workforce up 163% in 5 years

The UK cyber security workforce has grown by 163% in the past five years to 58,000, according to a research report by the Tech Partnership, a network of employers seeking to promote cyber skills.

The report, based on data from information technology job tracking firm IT Jobs Watch and the quarterly labour force survey by the Office for National Statistics, is encouraging in the light of growing concerns about the international shortage of people with cyber security skills. The data shows that salaries are up 7% in the past year to about £57,000 a year, which is 15% higher than for tech specialists as a whole. 

The best-paid cyber specialists are security architects, reflecting their high levels of experience and expertise and while they represent only 11% of the profession, demand for their skills has grown by 269% in the past five years.

IT guy checks to see if PC is virus-free with virus-ridden USB Stick

Everyone now says that the users the weakest link when protecting your business against cyber-attacks, however no-one expected it to be the IT guy to infect the entire environment. 

Educating your users on how to spot a suspicious email or encrypted attachment should be the top of every businesses agenda in 2017, however with the figures of cyber attacks rapidly increasing this doesn't seem to be happening. Once the virus has encrypted your PC, with the right technology in place this may be as far as it can get within the environment until you have an IT guy carrying the virus throughout the whole business via a USB stick.