Lucy Kerner, Senior Principal Global Cybersecurity Evangelistand Strategist at Red Hat talks about the cybersecurity problem and shares four ways to strengthen your cybersecurity position as an organization.
Lucy notes in this insight that when it comes to cybersecurity, a lack of resources can be a bigger threat than the criminals. Read on to find out more.
Resources have always been a problem when it comes to cybersecurity. You are not always rewarded for doing security the way you are when you develop a new business application quickly. This usually leads to security teams being understaffed and overworked. At the same time, skilled cybersecurity professionals are in high demand, and there is significant turnover in cybersecurity positions.
In fact, when it comes to cybersecurity, a lack of resources can be a bigger threat than the criminals who have their sights set on stealing organizations’ data, money, time, and reputation. This has long been true, but COVID-19 turned the cybersecurity resource challenge into a full-blown problem, causing security to be overlooked in many cases.
In the best of times—or, at least, more normal times—talented cybersecurity resources are difficult to find, expensive to procure, and hard to retain. The pandemic has exacerbated the cybersecurity skills shortage as organizations’ focus and resources have shifted to shoring up, or even building from scratch, work-from-home capabilities. Proactive security has been put on the back burner for many companies, exposing big gaps between the cybersecurity resources.
In a pre-pandemic study conducted by (ISC)2, an international, nonprofit membership association for information security leaders, the cybersecurity workforce gap in the United States was estimated to be nearly 500,000. By combining its US cybersecurity workforce estimates and gap data, the association found that the cybersecurity workforce needs to grow by 62% in order to meet the demands of US businesses today. Using the workforce estimate of 2.8 million based on the 11 economies it studied and a global gap estimate of 4.07 million, the association estimated that the global workforce needs to grow by 145%.
Indeed, respondents to the survey that was used to develop the study said that a lack of skilled/experienced cybersecurity personnel is their top concern, and that the gap puts their companies at moderate or extreme risk. Research for the Ponemon Institute’s 2020 Cost of a Data Breach Report began months before COVID-19 had widespread impact, but supplemental questions related to the potential impact of remote workforces due to the pandemic revealed that 76% of organizations predict that remote work will make responding to a potential data breach more difficult.
With the Ponemon research estimating that the average total cost of a data breach is $3.86 million, preventing a cybersecurity incident in the first place is critical. But all is not lost. Solving the cybersecurity resource problem outright is not going to happen right away, but there are things that organizations can do beyond adding more security bodies. Here’s how to strengthen your cybersecurity position.
1. Establish internal security training and certification programs
Savvy organizations realize that true cybersecurity requires a cultural shift. Essentially, some level of cybersecurity must be part of each employee’s responsibility. That’s not to say that your marketing director will be on the security front lines, of course, but every employee should take part in security education and certification programs. And that doesn’t mean that you can just create a PowerPoint presentation that you force employees to sit through so they can check off a box; it means developing meaningful and relevant programs that engage employees and help them understand the cybersecurity threat and their roles in mitigating it. Think about “lunch and learns,” mock breaches, and even escape rooms.
2. Encourage security cross-pollination
If security is everyone’s job, then security resources should not be limited to the IT department. Think about ways security can cross-pollinate within the organization. Just as security is infiltrating the development arena through the growing DevSecOps movement, security resources could be integrated into other areas, as well. This will not only develop company-wide understanding of security issues, but it will also encourage cross-collaboration and the opportunity to build security into processes, products, and services from the ground up.
3. Take a hard look at your security tooling
Many organizations have security tools they don’t really need or that are out of date and can’t support new technologies such as cloud, containers, or Kubernetes. This wastes time and money. For example, many companies are running legacy security tools designed to protect systems that are no longer used.
Companies also often have too many tools to keep track of, leading to redundant tooling and the inability to manage the growing number of tools. Also, many companies aren’t making full use of security tools that are already built into existing systems, such as the operating system, container platform, or security tooling provided by the cloud provider. A thorough inventory of existing security tooling will reveal what’s needed (and not needed) to address current security concerns.
4. Put a consistent automation strategy in place
With so many moving parts in place, no human or group of humans could ever fill every security hole. Indeed, as IT environments and the world around us become more complex, so do the security events facing IT teams. A consistent automation strategy can help organizations more effectively mitigate risks by reducing human errors, remediate issues, respond quickly to security alerts, and develop repeatable security and compliance workflows.
It’s important to note, however, that automation isn’t one product or even a collection of products. Organizations should look for an approach that overlays a consistent automation strategy across app dev, infrastructure, security operations, and so on. In fact, Ponemon’s Cost of a Data Breach Report noted that organizations with fully deployed automation—versus those with no automation deployed—realize a savings of $3.58 million in average total cost of a data breach.
Is the cybersecurity resource problem unsolvable?
It’s true that, realistically, the resource problem can’t be completely solved, but it’s a problem that you can effectively address and manage with proactive planning, strategic technology implementation, and widespread, ongoing, and engaging security awareness training and collaboration.
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Farmer’s Choice is scaling up the use of advanced technologies within its existing agriculture ecosystem in new partnership with Microsoft.
This will enhance productivity, ensure food safety and quality, as well as reduce waste.
The move by the 40-year old company has been informed by their quest to adopt sustainable farming practices, including increasing the adoption of cloud solutions to improve food quality and security.
“Customers are our priority, and we owe them quality excellence,” says Flora Kinuthia, CIO of Farmer’s Choice.
The coordination of all activities in Microsoft cloud solutions gives the company unmatched visibility over the entire life cycle of meat production, allowing it to respond to supply and demand changes proactively.
“We need to ensure we stay efficient in terms of pricing, wastage, and the use of products in the factory. Therefore, food traceability is especially important to us.”
According to World Bank estimates, food production and processing in Africa currently generates over $300 billion annually. With the continent at large embracing digitally transforming, this figure is only set to rise to $1 trillion a year by 2030 if farmers are given the right access to inputs and resources.
“Working with organisations within the sector, forming partnerships that will benefit individuals in the space and facilitate scaling has allowed for these numbers to become more of a likely reality. In Kenya, Microsoft has partnered with Farmer’s Choice to improve food quality and security,” says Judemark Bwire, Azure Specialist for East and Southern Africa at Microsoft.
According to Eric Muga, the Senior Database Administrator at Farmer’s Choice, the cloud-based solutions help to streamline the information flow between all departments, making vital data accessible to all users, starting from the initial data capture on the farms.
“We have IoT (internet of things) readers that capture data to use with Dynamics 365 Business Central. The procurement management needs to see what is happening on the farms. And the farm management system is completely outside of where we are seated,” Muga explains.
“So, everybody connects to a central location to upload the captured data and work with it.”
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The company’s tech stack also includes automation, which runs on Azure and minimizes human error. Previously, a person would weigh animals and write down the scores manually. This could lead to missing weights or incorrect data that jeopardized decision-making.
“Now, we capture data directly from the main scale, without human intervention, in real-time and with virtually no errors,” he explains further.
Accurate tracking and recordkeeping also benefit the company’s suppliers, who can keep pace with fluctuating inventory levels to match customer expectations.
“We can move fast through operations, updating the system in real-time. We give our salespeople mobile devices so they can take orders and communicate to customers what products are available on the floor,” says Annie Mugumo, Management Accountant at Farmer’s Choice. “This leads to happier customers.”
From a financial perspective, the cloud-based infrastructure generates significant savings. “There have been some running costs in our IT department, like server maintenance or storage. These are now things of the past,” she observes.
Judemark from Microsoft concluded: “Digitally transforming the agriculture space has always been a key priority for our organisation. With Microsoft cloud solutions, Farmer’s Choice can remain focused on sustainability and efficiency as it looks toward the future.”
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Microsoft hosts a media round table event throwing light on its endeavours in the agricultural sector in Africa. With partners, Amiran Kenya Limited and Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) joining Microsoft to share on their partnership journey in Kenya.
At a time where industries are called to relook operation models to survive, the agricultural sector has emerged as key to long-term growth in Africa and the world. Recognising the need for continuous investment in this area, particularly through technology, Microsoft today hosted a virtual roundtable – further reaffirming its commitment to digitally transforming the sector.
On the continent, investments in agriculture technology have grown year-on-year. This is evident in the number of agri-tech start ups increasing by 110 percent in the past two years. Furthermore, according to World Bank estimates, food production and processing in Africa currently generates over $300 billion annually, but that figure could rise to $1 trillion a year by 2030 if farmers are given the right access to inputs and resources.
Speaking at the event, Amrote Abdella, Regional Director at Microsoft 4Afrika noted that a long-term approach is key to enabling lasting change and impact in the sector.
“Our strategy has always been to build deep partnerships with leading industry, governmental and non-governmental organisations; invest in infrastructure with a focus on solving unique challenges with globally-relevant approaches and build a relevant solution ecosystem. Investing in skills and agri-tech and the sector at large falls directly into this strategy.”
“With the sector sustaining 70 per cent of Africa’s livelihoods, we’ve taken the lead to develop a data-driven, connected farming that optimises yields, boosts farm productivity and increases profitability. Leveraging our extensive partnerships and initiatives network, we are committed to ensuring that all farming communities are equipped with the latest tools like AI, IoT and edge computing to improve productivity and sustainability across the sector,” continues Abdella.
The organisation has worked with various partners and customers across the region to realise this strategy and ensure access to the solutions developed. On a regional level, through its partnership with the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), Microsoft is exploring the use of big data and artificial intelligence in enabling data-driven, precision farming to support and increase farm productivity and profitability. The partnership also supports farmers in adopting new technologies through digital training content, develops digital skills in agriculture through an internship programme and supports policy advocacy and government engagement around the design of national agriculture digitisation strategies. The collaboration continues to support AGRA’s digital transformation as it works to improve food security for 30 million farming households across 11 countries by 2021.
“Our work with Microsoft has allowed us to deepen each area of work we have begun together both technically and geographically. Drawing on Microsoft’s digital architecture support on digital ecosystems and big data platforms has been beneficial for our organisation internally and externally, to the farmers,” says Vanessa Adams, Vice President Strategic Partnerships and Chief of Party, AGRA.
The organisation, through its 4Afrika initiative also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Cooperatives (MALFC) to collaborate in accelerating innovation in the agricultural sector in Kenya. As a partner to MALFC, 4Afrika is promoting sustainable growth and development in this sector – helping to preserve its socio-economic value and accelerate much-needed innovation in farming. Microsoft have been designing, piloting and launching a programme to drive innovation that addresses key challenges, such as pests and disease control, sustainable agricultural resource management, agri-weather data, and others.
Locally, SunCulture helps farmers improve their crop yields through solar-powered irrigation systems. Using IoT technology, SunCulture customers are generating 10x more annual income, experiencing a
300% increase in crop yields and saving 17 hours of manually moving water per week. And by leveraging TV white spaces (TVWS) technology that expands high-speed internet access to underserved areas, SunCulture is bringing precision farming to more smallholder farmers.
Another example from Kenya concerns Twiga Foods , a mobile-based business-to-business food supply platform, links smallholder farmers in rural Kenya to informal retail vendors in cities. With Twiga’s mobile platform, vendors can order fresh produce from farmers across Kenya at competitive prices. Twiga is driving microfinancing for smallholder farmers in Kenya, by creating credit history through goods transactions powered by Microsoft cloud solution. It currently benefits 8,000 farmers and 15,000 vendors.
Kenyan farmer-led agricultural product distribution company Amiran has also worked with Microsoft to enable the digital transformation of the industry at large. “Working with Microsoft, we have seen a positive impact, particularly with the ChatBot where PowerBI dashboard capabilities have the potential to be instrumental in accelerating the transformation and access to quality services for those who need it most,” says Trevor Sherwin, Head of Business Development, Amiran
“The purpose of todays virtual roundtable was to draw attention to and create awareness around an industry that is vital for the survival of humanity. We hope that by the insights explained and stories shared, that individuals will embrace the impact of digital transformation in the sector. We also look forward to cultivating new partnerships while strengthening current ones as we continue to work towards food security across the continent.” concludes Abdella.
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Global web innovator Opera announces its African user base has reached a record 150 million monthly active users.
The company notes this feat was recorded in Q3 of 2020 and shows an eighteen per cent year on year growth across all their products.
Jørgen Arnesen, Opera EVP of Mobile Browsers believes two things contributed to Opera’s continued growth across Africa in 2020. These are optimizing apps to solve everyday challenges and developing better apps with great features and personalized content.
In Q3-2020, the Opera user base in Africa showed a strong 18% growth of YOY across all our products. Reaching a combined user base of150 million monthly active users. We see significant growth in our apps like Opera Mini and News, and we’re confident that our growth will continue next year.
Jørgen Arnesen
Some of the things opera did to grow it user base in Africa include; adding a localised news channel dedicated to COVID-19 on Opera Mini and News.
The company also boasts that its News Hub has become the leading publisher of local African content with about 10,000 self-published articles every day.
Jørgen also shares what the company is doing to keep its users and promises more exciting announcements soon.
“We are continuing to optimize our products to offer our loyal users more reasons to use Opera. Users across many African countries candownload and stream music in our Free Music channel. We’ve made it easier for users to monitor their data usage via the Data Savings module on the home page.”
Jørgen Arnesen
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Insights from Microsoft’s LinkedIn economic graph shows the ten in-demand jobs of the future.
The ten jobs according to Microsoft were identified as having the greatest number of job openings. They have also had steady growth over the past four years and pay a livable wage.
The economic graph, which is a digital representation of the global economy uses data and analytics to track workforce trends. Providing a window into emerging skills gaps and predicting future in-demand jobs and skills.
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Microsoft UAE is showcasing how it supports sustainable farming with AI and IoT at 40th GITEX Technology Week in Dubai.
Using AI, Edge and IoT, Microsoft’s agricultural solution FarmBeats built on Azure enables data-driven farming to maximize agricultural output.
This data-driven farming entails using data visualizations, analytics and machine learning. The results; it creates automated recommendations on water usage and soil quality. That the company notes help during challenging conditions.
This is part of Microsoft’s AI for good global initiative to support sustainable farming practices and contribute to food security.
Located at H6-D20, Hall 6, a Microsoft Hub has been set up to offer attendees an opportunity to discover and experience Microsoft technology and innovations.
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Sayed Hashish, GM Microsoft UAE showing Microsoft technology innovations at the Microsoft Hub at GITEX Technology Week 2020.
Microsoft notes that governments are now reimagining a more positive world. As such the company is investing alongside them into critical technological infrastructure to solve pressing challenges.
Speaking to the media, Sayed Hashish, General Manager, Microsoft UAE notes there will be a need to feed nine to ten billion people by 2050. “This will require a significant increase in food production. However, there is a limited amount of additional arable land, and water levels have also been receding. Cloud technology may prove crucial to address this agricultural challenge,” he continues.
