Why hack a network when you can get a botnet to do it for you? It turns out that botnets might be an easier way to break into a network, not least by taking the grunt work out of it. It's not a new concept -- we've seen it before with bots running through lists of default usernames and passwords to hijack Internet of Things devices.
Internet-connected technology, also known as the Internet of Things (IoT), is now part of daily life, with smart assistants like Siri and Alexa to cars, watches, toasters, fridges, thermostats, lights, and the list goes on and on.
The cloud is fairly new territory for many organizations and, consequently, it’s an area where mistakes are made stemming from confusion around the role cloud service providers play in security, and how companies should work with them.
Threat actors are leveraging a botnet made up of infected Linux machines to launch powerful distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against as many as 20 targets per day, according to Akamai's Security Intelligence Response Team (SIRT).
Network admins take note: A set of vulnerabilities can bypass HTPPS with ease and result in spying, outages and authentication bypass.
Despite the numerous advantages presented by cloud computing, security is still the biggest factor holding back more widespread adoption by businesses. A recent survey by AlienVault found that an overwhelming 90 percent of organisations are still concerned about cloud security.
The term hybrid cloud is used loosely, which is probably why so many companies say they're planning to adopt it. If you’re planning a hybrid cloud strategy, the security questions you need to think about may not be the ones you’d expect. Hybrid cloud is IT’s flavor of the year. The C-level executives in Avanade’s global Hybrid Cloud study are particularly optimistic: 75 percent believe it should be the main area of focus for their company this year; 72 percent expect to adopt hybrid cloud by 2018; and 76 percent expect the majority of their applications and services – including some critical systems like data and analytics, office applications and customer-facing services – will be running in a hybrid cloud environment within three years.
