Key Takeaways IT Security: The Landscape • Ransomware, DDoS attacks, intrusion, and Anyone familiar enough with the world of Information email phishing attacks are the threats about Technology to pick up this report has read about the which customers are most concerned. hacks and cybercrimes that seem to have become a natural part of today’s IT landscape. In fact, if all you’ve • Customers’ primary issues with their cur- done is read about these attacks without ever having rent security posture focus primarily on their had first-hand experience, you are a very lucky (and fears regarding emerging threats combined somewhat rare) person indeed. with staffing and resource limitations. The exploits can range from the garden variety of phish- • As many as two million security jobs are ing attacks aimed at virtually anyone who might bite, to unfilled due to the lack of qualified people. attacks made as a political statement, moves by orga- This phenomenon is increasing the need for nized crime syndicates, or even acts of international Trusted Advisors. espionage. • Preparedness for attacks varies somewhat The most common threat vectors include Denial of Ser- by vertical market with the highest levels of vice (DoS) attacks, Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) risk perceived by respondents in the Busi- attacks (DoS attacks with high volumes of computers), ness Services and Medical sectors. ransomware, man-in-the-middle attacks, zero days, (which exploit newly-discovered vulnerabilities), and, of • We have shifted from a world in which course your garden variety of phishing exploits, viruses, the IT security budget is to be minimized, worms, and general malware. in favor of an environment in which the very survival of the business depends upon Modern attackers don’t even need to be highly experi- embedding security into every facet of the enced or skills given that a wide variety of exploits have infrastructure. been productized into various, easy-to-use tool kits. Some criminals will even launch attacks in exchange for • With the growth of things like toolkits a fee. and ransomware-as-a-service, extremely unsophisticated attackers can now pur- Meanwhile, the industry is suffering a pronounced skills chase targeted exploits, enabling them to do shortage in which as many as two million jobs are un- significant damage. filled due to the lack of qualified people. This phenome- non is increasing the use of third-party contractors who • Companies across the broad market are specialize in security, as opposed to in-house teams, moving to third-party managed security which have become dramatically more expensive. service providers at an annual rate of 5 percent RDI. Copyright © 2020 AVANT Communications, Inc. 3