Cybersecurity and Cloud: Next-Gen Challenges and Risks and How Organizations Can Prepare Themselves

November 3, 2022 Ulv Bjørnsson2 Comments

Cybersecurity is a significant challenge in the cloud environment with the rapidly evolving threat landscape. Furthermore, with more businesses adopting cloud computing and its amalgamation with emerging technologies, the challenges have increased correspondingly. Hence, the focus should be on identifying these next-gen cybersecurity challenges and preparing to overcome them.

Cloud computing has improved IT efficiency, flexibility, and scalability. However, all these features have one common challenge, security. The problem with cloud computing cybersecurity is that organizations must correctly distinguish where the CSP’s (Cloud Service Provider) responsibility ends and theirs begins. This gap increases the organization’s potential attack surface and enables malicious actors to infiltrate information systems. This article discusses next-gen challenges and risks and looks at how organizations can prepare themselves to overcome them to keep critical information assets’ confidentiality, integrity, and availability intact.

Progress powered through adversity

October 1, 2022September 27, 2022 Ulv Bjørnsson1 Comment

With technological advancements continuing to develop at an unprecedented pace, deciphering and analysing the digital landscape to determine when, if and how these emerging technologies will impact businesses is increasingly difficult.

While the natural evolution of the market used to be a reliable indicator of progress, the solutions to the challenges of Covid-19 and the continuing pressure of a global supply chain crisis, mounting inflation, environmental concerns and new net-zero regulations have both accelerated and destabilised the global tech community.

Cybersecurity for Smart Cities: Challenges, Risks, and Security Best Practices

August 18, 2022September 26, 2022 Ulv BjørnssonLeave a comment

Smart cities have become a reality today, with governments, businesses, and residents, making use of advanced technology to increase productivity and efficiency at home and the workplace and make lives better. However, the challenges to ensuring safety, security, and data privacy have risen proportionately, leading to the requirement for a unique cybersecurity model for smart cities.

A city using advanced technology infrastructure and other cutting-edge solutions to improve its operational efficiency, provide better services, and improve the lives of its citizens qualifies as a smart city. The technology ecosystem often consists of ICT (Information and communication technology), IoT (Internet of Things), AI/ML (Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning), Blockchain, Cloud computing, etc. However, using the latest technologies has its challenges of cybersecurity risks, compromising the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of PII (Personally Identifiable Information) of its citizens. Below is a closer look into cybersecurity risks in smart cities, their challenges, the threats they are exposed to, and the potential solutions to overcome such hurdles.

What is Azure Governance? Let’s look at the fundamentals

September 3, 2019August 16, 2022 Ulv BjørnssonLeave a comment

In this blog post, we will discuss the management and operational principles which underpin enterprise governance in Azure which is a necessity for successful cloud adoption and one of the first rails to enable a culture that facilitates digital innovation.

The core components of Azure management are the challenges of Enterprise Cloud Adoption and the components which make up the full set of governance capabilities in Microsoft Azure.

The Azure governance principles are a continuum of tasks, projects and initiatives, therein you build natively in Cloud and also migrate workloads into Azure, securing and protecting those workloads so that they are robust and resilient. You then proceed to monitoring these workloads, so that you can pick up any problems and ensure that they are consuming resources in a manner which is both performant and cost-effective.

Next, you invest in automated configuration to ensure that any changes to your workloads are holistic but also auditable and immutable. Governance ensures that your workloads and the platform on which they run are compliant with your company’s policies and regulatory obligations. This, in turn, creates a more robust enterprise platform, ready to receive new workloads and in turn, a becomes a hub for innovation with the necessary guard rails in place.

Hyperscale Cloud in China? Microsoft? Mooncake? Alibaba Cloud? Gotchas, pitfalls and directions to successfully navigate it

August 29, 2019August 16, 2022 Ulv Bjørnsson1 Comment

When Westerners think of hyperscale cloud providers, the usual suspects that come to mind are named Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, Oracle, and IBM Cloud. Seldom do you hear another name, which tends to be odd since it is already the world’s third-biggest cloud service provider according to the numbers: Alibaba Cloud. And with yearly revenue growth between 60 and 140%, they sure are catching up fast.

Blog_AWS-vs-GCP-vs-Azure-vs-Alibaba

However, to operate a cloud within China there are some hoops you need to jump and you have to collaborate with the regional administration. Provisioning and relocation times, thus, are fundamentally increased, in no little part since tasks must be directed by the local partners. The truth of the matter is that, while it is conceivable, receiving a cloud foundation that does not have a physical presence in China places organizations that operate in China at a colossal detriment.

Smart Contracts, are we getting rid of lawyers? And what do we mean by ‘Code is Law’

April 8, 2019April 3, 2019 Ulv BjørnssonLeave a comment

A smart contract, also knоwn as a crypto contract (a code соntrасt on the blockchain), іѕ code thаt directly соntrоlѕ thе transfer оf dіgіtаl сurrеnсіеѕ or аѕѕеtѕ bеtwееn parties undеr сеrtаіn соndіtіоnѕ.

A smart contract nоt оnlу dеfіnеѕ the rulеѕ and penalties around аn аgrееmеnt іn thе same wау thаt a trаdіtіоnаl соntrасt dоеѕ, but іt саn also аutоmаtісаllу еnfоrсе thоѕе оblіgаtіоnѕ. It does this by tаkіng іn іnfоrmаtіоn аѕ input, аѕѕіgnіng vаluе to that іnрut thrоugh thе rulеѕ ѕеt out in the соntrасt, еxесutіng the асtіоnѕ rеԛuіrеd by those contractual clauses – for example, dеtеrmіnіng whеthеr аn аѕѕеt should go tо оnе реrѕоn or rеturnеd tо thе оthеr person frоm whom thе аѕѕеt оrіgіnаtеd. These соntrасtѕ аrе ѕtоrеd оn blосkсhаіn technology, a dесеntrаlіzеd ledger thаt also underpins bіtсоіn аnd оthеr сrурtосurrеnсіеѕ.

Five Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Cybersecurity On The Blockchain

March 20, 2019March 20, 2019 Ulv Bjørnsson2 Comments

Blockchain technology, or distributed ledger technology (DLT), as it is alternatively often called, is one of the hottest topics in the technology sector as of now. A blockchain is a specific type of distributed ledger that stores data in blocks that are linked together via a cryptographic signature function.

This, in short, works by always using the signature of the last block plus the data of the current block to sign the current block. Given enough computing power behind creating the hash signatures for new blocks, a process that is known as mining (PoW), the resulting public ledger is virtually unmodifiable for malicious actors, commending itself for applications that rely on mutual trust where trust cannot be easily applied.

Quantum cryptography and cryptography in a post-quantum world

February 23, 2019February 23, 2019 Ulv Bjørnsson2 Comments

So in my previous article on quantum computing, we talked about where we are today, and where we are headed in regards to breakthroughs in the technology as well as touching on some basics of “what is quantum computing“. In this article, I explore what quantum cryptography and cryptography is like in a post-quantum world.

So, a refresher: quantum computing is set to transform cryptography due to the revolutionary, non-deterministic way of operating.

How will they affect existing cryptography algorithms and which options do we know today for doing cryptography in a post-quantum world?

Super-human data processing might hold good and bad in store for the cybersecurity field

February 13, 2019February 13, 2019 Ulv Bjørnsson1 Comment

Within the ongoing arms race in the perimeter of information security, artificial intelligence and machine learning are two of the most promising innovations.

While AI in common „personal assistants“, like those developed by Amazon, Alibaba and Google has recently reached levels at which it can convincingly make phone calls on behalf of their users, the capabilities of AI in the hands of defenders, as well as attackers, will likely evolve from buzzword to technology of significant importance over the next years.

On the defensive side, artificial intelligence powered intrusion detection will deliver the ability to pick up on anomalies within an organizations network or perimeters and raise alerts or even countermeasures much quicker than would be possible for any human security team. AI technologies supreme and literally superhumanly quick pattern recognition capabilities enable it to consistently collect intelligence regarding new threats, attempted attacks, acceptable user behaviour and constantly evolve its knowledge. This does allow AI-powered intrusion detection mechanism to find the proverbial needle in the haystack (and react to it) much faster and more concise than classical signature-based intrusion detection systems or a human security analyst.

azure-security-center-and-fortinet-integrated-threat-management-solution-for-cloud-workloads-201 — Azure Security Center is a cybersecurity solution that leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning integrating with the organization’s digital estate.

This does have a flip-side, of course: The same AI capabilities could be used to learn about specific defences and normal user behaviour pattern in an organization and mask the malicious behaviour so it will not be recognized by classical intrusion detection systems or human onlookers.

Four Azure Tools Which Help You Secure Your Cloud Services

January 10, 2019 Ulv Bjørnsson2 Comments

In today’s interconnected cloud-first, mobile world, securing your online apps and services is vital. However, building secure solutions which deliver value in today’s complex and regulated environment can be a challenge. With information essentially becoming the currency of the digital age, the creation of multiple compliance regulations has forced organizations to implement technical security measures to protect their online systems and customers. Meeting these compliance requirements can be challenging, especially if you are leveraging the benefits of the cloud. Not only do you need to build and configure your apps and services securely, but you also need to ensure your chosen cloud provider meets any necessary compliance requirements.

Compliance in the Cloud Compliance Is a Shared Responsibility

On Azure, Microsoft is responsible for meeting the compliance requirements for its platform while you are responsible for any compliance measures which relate to your cloud service.

With more certifications than any other cloud service provider, Azure meets a broad set of international as well as industry-specific compliance standards. These include the GDPR, ISO 27001, HIPAA, SOC, among others. Microsoft also conducts regular comprehensive audits to ensure it maintains these standards and adheres to the security controls needed.

However, as stated, ensuring your services that are running on Azure meet compliance requirements is your responsibility. Thankfully Microsoft Azure provides a few tools which can help you secure your cloud services and meet the necessary compliance standards.

musings of a consultant

Tag: Cybersecurity