Hackers use malware to steal millions of dollars from global banks

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It seems that data breaches have started to occur so frequently that people don't even notice them anymore. But the most recent hack to make the news was a little different, as it is considered to be the largest bank theft in the world. According to a report by The New York Times , a group of cybercriminals were able to access the networks of more than 100 banks in 30 countries and steal at least $300 million.

Security researchers with Kaspersky Labs were called to investigate a strange glitch affecting the ATM machines of a Ukrainian bank in late 2013. The machine would dispense cash at random intervals without anyone swiping a card or entering a PIN, providing lucky passersby with free money. After looking into the problem, however, the analysts discovered that the bank's network had been hacked and malicious actors had rigged the ATMs to release cash and then posed as random pedestrians to retrieve their haul.

The group of cybercriminals sent phishing emails to employees at the targeted banks which caused malware to be installed when opened. The malicious software allowed the hackers to record internal videos and view the daily operations of the bank, enabling them to perfectly mimic the actions of bank officials and steal money without raising suspicion.

"This is likely the most sophisticated attack the world has seen to date in terms of the tactics and methods that cybercriminals have used to remain covert," said Chris Doggett, managing director of Kaspersky North America's Boston office, in an interview with the Times.

Sophisticated malware creating costlier breaches
The malware, known as Carbanak, allowed the cybercriminals to make transfers to fraudulent accounts by temporarily inflating the amount in legitimate accounts and then moving the money off-site. While researchers are confident that at least $300 million was stolen, they believe the actual total could be as much as three times that amount. The transactions never exceeded $10 million and some banks were attacked multiple times, making it difficult to calculate an accurate total. The majority of the financial institutions affected were in Russia, but banks in Europe, Japan and the U.S. were also targeted.

While this type of large scale hack doesn't happen every day, the scope and sophistication of the cyberattack points to a trend of increasingly harmful data breaches targeting financial services institutions. Industry regulators have started to implement much stricter compliance standards, causing organizations to scramble to increase their security or face steep fines. It can be difficult for businesses to know what level of defense is necessary for their files, however. Partnering with a trusted service provider to establish a customized compliance program allows organizations to deploy the necessary security without the hassle and confusion.

ISG Technology has been an expert in the industry for decades, offering reliable security services for organizations in a variety of sectors. Compliance requirements can easily be met with firewall protection, intrusion prevention, network security assessments and monitoring services from ISG.

Airlines starting to feel at home with the cloud

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One of the reasons the cloud has become such a popular enterprise technology is because of its ability to reduce costs while simultaneously improving efficiency and effectiveness. One group that has started to embrace this benefit is the airline industry. The sector’s business environment is fiercely competitive, and companies have gone to great lengths to cut costs in the midst of stiff competition from budget operations offering bargains. Cloud computing could be a game changer for the industry, however, enabling airlines to face their challenges head on and adapt to a rapidly changing market. IBM cloud analyst and Forbes contributor Maamar Ferkoun noted that there are two main areas in which the cloud could help companies improve.

Client experience 
It’s difficult to find someone who has flown on a plane that doesn’t have something bad to say about an airline. As such, quality client service is one way new airlines are differentiating themselves from major carriers. Cloud technologies offer the ability to deliver passenger services like luggage stands with label printing and self-boarding gates that allow travelers to take control of the process and reduce pain points. The systems are based on the data collected when passengers  booking and check-in for their flights. The same systems also include the information necessary for visas and security clearance, and is easily accessible by airline staff in case something were to go wrong or a traveler needs assistance.

The cloud is the ideal platform upon which to launch these types of programs because it eliminates the need to expand IT infrastructure or increase the workforce to accommodate the changes, because service providers are capable of catering to the scalability and agility required. With a third party handling the technology side of operations, airlines are free to focus on their main priority: travelers.

The cloud is helping airlines make traveling easier.The cloud is helping airlines make traveling easier.

Equipment maintenance
It’s obviously a critical aspect of an airline’s business to ensure that its planes are kept in good working order. Carriers need to be able to order, replace and maintain all of the necessary components of an aircraft, as well as stay up-to-date on the most recent safety guidelines, regulatory requirements, aircraft servicing logs and technology. The cloud makes keeping track of all of these separate yet intertwined areas much simpler. Virgin America and WestJet are just some of the airlines that have already adopted cloud solutions to manage their aircraft maintenance records.

“Forty-nine percent of airports expect to evaluate cloud services over the next three years.”

It’s not just individual airlines that are realizing the benefits of the cloud, either. Airports have started to experience advantages by adopting the technology. In fact, 49 percent of airports expect to evaluate cloud services through trials and pilot studies over the next three years, according to the Air Transport Industry Insights Airport IT Trend Survey of 2013. The report also predicted that major programs dedicated to cloud computing will account for 22 percent of new infrastructure initiatives in the airline industry by next year. As air travel continues to be positively impacted by the cloud, investment in the technology will only grow larger and passengers will start to reap the benefits.

Enterprises turn to the cloud to spur innovation, differentiation

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Now that every company has embraced some form of technology in order to enhance their business offerings, a growing number of organizations are making competitive differentiation a priority in an effort to gain an edge in the market. A recent report by IDC revealed that enterprises are frequently employing cloud computing services in order to achieve this differentiation through the innovative capabilities they offer. The cloud allows businesses to access advanced analytics and collaboration capabilities, as well as to test new technologies that will provide a rich client experience and increase time to market for new products and services.

“Using the cloud, teams can create and test their ideas in just days or weeks instead of the months.”

Cloud platforms have proven to be the most reliable environment within which to convert ideas into applications. Using the cloud as a common platform to develop on, teams can create and test their ideas in just days or weeks instead of the months or years it would take using traditional means. The ability to create and develop at a much quicker pace means organizations can find out earlier if their ideas will succeed or fail, allowing them to invest and risk less money in the process.

Organizations are rapidly adopting cloud services to increase innovation.Organizations are rapidly adopting cloud services to increase innovation.

Top areas of enterprise focus all centered on cloud
IDC’s Australia Ecosystem Study 2014 discovered that the five IT categories that are likely going to receive the biggest increase in spending in 2015 are business continuity and disaster recovery solutions, business analytics, infrastructure audit, IT service management and security. All of these segments can be achieved through cloud services, reflecting an increased maturity of cloud computing and a broader acceptance of the technology from business and IT.

“As we look ahead to 2015 and beyond, the industry is entering the most critical period yet in the third platform era: the ‘innovation stage,’ primarily characterized by value creation across industries and a new wave of core technologies that radically extend the third platforms’ capabilities and applications,” said Raj Mudaliar, senior market analyst for IT and cloud services research at IDC Australia.

According to the report, platform-as-a-service and cloud storage services will be the two fastest growing categories. An increase in the number of big data initiatives being deployed and the use of such services from the developer community has been driving much of the adoption. More companies are realizing the multitude of benefits that cloud services offer them and are leveraging those advantages to spur innovation
.

Anthem Health Insurance latest company to suffer massive breach

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America’s second largest health insurance company announced in early February that it had fallen victim to a data breach that may have exposed the data of millions of clients. Anthem Health Insurance admitted that the names, birth dates, addresses, Social Security numbers and income data for as many as 80 million clients and employees were potentially compromised due to a lack of encryption. The company said that there is no evidence that financial or medical information was accessed during the breach.

With a toll in the tens of millions, the cyberattack could be the largest breach of a healthcare company ever, putting it on par with the breaches that took place at Target and Home Depot. The “very sophisticated external cyberattack” exposed the information of so many people that even the insurer’s chief executive was affected. Numerous brands of health plans are operated by Anthem, including Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia, Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Anthem Blue Cross and Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield.

Insufficient protection leaves data at risk
In a statement posted on the company’s website, Anthem claimed to have a state-of-the-art security system in place to protect privileged information, but the two most valuable pieces of data for identity thieves – Social Security numbers and birth dates –  were not encrypted. Not surprisingly, this isn’t the first time Anthem has had client information exposed. A 2012 lawsuit between Anthem Blue Cross and the California Attorney General was settled after a claim that the insurer compromised 33,000 members of their plan when they sent letters with Social Security numbers clearly visible in the envelope windows. In 2013, the company again exposed the Social Security numbers of an undisclosed number of doctors and healthcare providers in a document posted to Anthem’s website.

While the information involved in the breach is not included under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, Anthem will still likely face lawsuits from those affected as they had plenty of warning that such an event was possible. Last summer, the FBI issued healthcare organizations a warning that hackers were targeting them more frequently in the wake of a large scale data breach against Community Health Systems in which 4.5 million patients had their data stolen. While the threat of data breaches have increased in every industry, the risks are even higher for healthcare organizations where companies keep massive amounts of personal information in large databases.

4 trends for the data center in 2015

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Data centers have been growing increasingly important to the functions of the enterprise in recent years, and as a result the technologies and processes that run the data centers have rapidly evolved and changed. This year will be the biggest one yet for the data center industry, as there will be more demand for their product than ever before. Below are four of the biggest trends ready to change the industry in 2015:

"This year will be the biggest one yet for the data center industry, as there will be more demand for their product than ever before."

1) Increase in virtualization 
This IT constant has been driving growing change in the data center recently, but as an increasing number of organizations understand the benefits of the technology, it will become an even more prominent fixture. Virtualization offers users improved testing, faster redeployments and simpler backups, as well as a whole host of other advantages. Its use is a relatively new development, and technologies are emerging all the time that help improve its performance. One such improvement, the virtual storage area network, helps to make the data center more flexible, as well as increasing automation. Similar innovations will start to appear more rapidly, constantly changing the processes in play for data center operations.

2) AI finds the data center
A growing number of companies are making strides in the area of artificial intelligence and machine learning, and the next logical step for such technology is to utilize it in a data center. Google announced last year that it had started using machine learning via neural networks in order to optimize its computing facilities. In Google's case, AI was used mainly to manage and optimize operations in the data center concerning IT load, temperature and the effectiveness of their cooling equipment and allowed the company to experience greater energy efficiency.

Big changes are coming to the <a data-cke-saved-href=Big changes are coming to the data center in 2015.

Shift to IPv6
As use of the Internet has increased dramatically throughout the last decade, options regarding addresses on the current version of Internet Protocol, IPv4, have been almost entirely exhausted. The addresses have run out and routing tables have grown too large, creating serious problems. IPv6 is intended to replace the existing protocol and alleviate the issue, though large scale adoption may still be a ways away.

Though it hasn't arrived yet globally, IPv6 will have a major impact on the data center. Addresses for IPv6 are made up of eight groups of four hexadecimal numbers, each separated by colons. This type of grouping opens up a massive new set of possible IP addresses, but it will also likely have to be compatible with IPv4. Not only will the new version offer more addresses, it will also increase efficiency, improve security and provide new services support. U.S. adoption of the new version is currently around 14.5 percent, but that number will continue to grow in the coming years and data centers have to be ready. 

More companies adopt cloud solutions
Hybrid cloud seems to be the enterprise trend of 2015, with a rising number of organizations transitioning to a mixed cloud environment. A hybrid solution allows enterprises to mix security with performance, bringing in those who were once skeptical about the ability of the technology to handle all aspects of their business' workload. As more companies migrate to the cloud, data centers will have to be prepared to handle the increase in demand.

Changes in store for enterprise cloud in 2015

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While 2014 was a big year for technology in general, cloud computing in particular experienced multiple advances last year. Major tech companies have enhanced their public cloud offerings and investment in enterprise cloud solutions saw a dramatic increase. Gartner has named cloud computing as one of the top 10 strategic trends for 2015, and as the cloud becomes an even more prominent fixture in the business world, more big changes are in store for the technology this year.

Increased use of hybrid cloud
One of the biggest changes coming for enterprise cloud storage services is a more rapid shift from either public or private environments to a mixture of both. Many organizations are realizing that utilizing a single infrastructure is not sufficient to meet their availability and security needs at once. By employing a hybrid platform, companies are able to increase access for less secure applications by hosting them in a public environment and more business-critical programs can be kept secure in a private infrastructure.

CIOs already ramped up their adoption of hybrid cloud platforms in 2014, and experts expect this trend to continue into this year. The number of organizations shifting to a hybrid solution will rapidly increase as they realize the benefits of utilizing a platform that allows them to achieve a properly managed and governed IT portfolio.

Rise of hybrid cloud management
With adoption of hybrid cloud environments growing at a dramatic rate, use of a management platform to handle the new infrastructure is bound to follow. The ability to maintain governance over business-critical data and increasing compliance within an organization will become a major selling point in 2015, leading to a rise in the use of hybrid cloud management platforms.

There are a lot of changes happening in cloud computing, and it can be difficult to make the transition without a little help. When looking to implement any type of cloud infrastructure, the most important step is to find a reliable service provider to make the transition as simple and seamless as possible. ISG Technology offers the experience and knowledge required to create the right environment for every client, as well unmatched service to keep it running at prime capacity. Working with a trusted partner like ISG can help to make the process simpler and more straightforward, ensuring reliable access and service that will improve business. 

Cloud computing market to increase through 2016

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While many new innovative technologies are surely going to emerge in 2015, one proven technology is poised to become even more prominent in the enterprise this year. According to a recent report by Market Monitor, revenue from the cloud computing market is expected to continue increasing throughout the next two years, likely resulting in a value of just under $20 billion by the end of 2016.

The study projected the cloud computing market will rise at a compound annual growth rate of approximately 36 percent. Individual segments of the market were also analyzed. The fastest growing cloud computing offering is infrastructure-as-as-service, with IaaS making up the majority of the total market revenue and more than half of the total market share for public cloud. The annual growth for IaaS offerings is expected to be even higher than the overall market, at 37 percent. However, platform-as-a-service is predicted to be the fastest growing segment of the cloud market, with a projected annual growth rate of 41 percent between 2012 and 2016. PaaS offerings accounted for almost one-quarter of total public cloud revenue.

"Cloud computing is on the upswing and demand for public cloud services remains strong," stated Yulitza Peraza, a quantitative services analyst with 451 Research and co-author of the report. "However, public cloud adoption continues to face hurdles including security concerns, transparency and trust issues, workload readiness and internal non-IT-related organizational issues."

Because of the security concerns associated with solely public cloud environments, many organizations have started to adopt hybrid solutions. A mix of public and private platforms, hybrid cloud allows enterprises to experience the accessibility and availability of a public environment for less sensitive applications and the security of a private infrastructure for programs that are more business-critical.

Moving to the cloud? Better have a strategy in place

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As an increasing number of organizations begin to transition from legacy systems to those hosted in the cloud, there is a growing trend of CIOs being left out in the cold when it comes to deployment.  IT departments are shrinking within enterprises from every industry, creating a shortage of skilled workers with the ability to implement effective cloud programs while still keeping information secure. While the cloud should be employed across all business units, security and compliance must remain primary concerns and that can't happen without knowledgeable decision makers involved.

For organizations lacking the manpower to do all the heavy lifting themselves, deploying resources and applications on an "as-a-service" basis allows CIOs to create the cloud strategy that best suits their needs while leaving the details to a trusted service provider. Before utilizing Infrastructure-as-a-Service, however, companies need to make sure they have a strong cloud sourcing strategy in place that ensures they will receive the best user experience available and be able to respond quickly and effectively to changing market conditions.

Know what you're working with        
It's important for IT decision-makers to know where they stand before with their existing infrastructure before they will be able to implement a new one. Conducting an inventory of a company's cloud consumption allows CIOs to get a grasp on what services are working and what isn't, as well as uncovering any instances of shadow IT. According to Cloud Tweaks contributor Nick Earle, many companies that complete an audit of their cloud use find that the use of unauthorized cloud applications is 10 times higher than they expected. Shadow IT presents a major security risk for enterprises, as a large portion of the data stored within those applications is unencrypted and not secured with a password.

Examining which applications were used without IT input can help decision-makers understand what employees are looking for from the company's cloud strategy and allow for more informed adoption with the new strategy. It also presents an opportunity for CIOs to explain the security risks of utilizing unauthorized programs, creating a learning experience for the entire company.

Look ahead
Successfully deploying a cloud infrastructure doesn't only entail creating an environment that address an enterprise's immediate needs, it also includes provisions for the changes in the future. Currently, the Internet of Things is causing quite a stir among IT departments as companies struggle to find a way to integrate this growing technology into an existing infrastructure. By 2020, more than 50 billion devices are expected to be connected to the IoT, posing a problem for organizations without a flexible strategy in place. No one knows what the future will hold in terms of business technology, but those who aren't able to adapt to new changes quickly will be left behind by their competitors that can, so an agile IT environment is absolutely necessary in retaining competitive advantage.

Focus on flexibility
One of the biggest mistakes enterprises make when employing a cloud infrastructure is utilizing a platform that doesn't fit all the needs of the business. Many focus either on a private environment that offers the security necessary to keep data safe but isn't agile enough to support rapidly changing business segments, or a public solution that offers the access needed but leaves information unprotected. To combat this problem CIOs should focus on a flexible infrastructure that is able to handle both tasks with ease.

By partnering with a trusted third-party service provider, companies can create a customized infrastructure that works for them. Innovative as-a-service options enable CIOs and other IT decision-makers to control the enterprise environment while still being able to access the necessary flexibility to move business forward.

Preparing for changes to BYOD in 2015

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By now, the majority of enterprises have put in place some form of bring-your-own-device policy. Employees have been somewhat slow to take advantage of BYOD options, with only one-third currently using their own smartphones in the office, but that number is expected to increase to 60 percent in the next five years, according to information from Gartner. As BYOD gains more traction in the enterprise, companies should begin to look at how such policies can change the way they do business in the new year. David Willis, a vice president at Gartner, noted that BYOD can bring flexibility to an organization, but it can also bring a variety of new concerns, so IT decision-makers should be prepared for a shifting mobile landscape.

Enterprise mobility management 
One of the major changes happening to enterprise mobility is the integration of information and application management. Traditionally, mobile device management was separated between application and information management. Recently, however, these two categories have converged into a single realm, enterprise mobility management. EMM emerged in 2014, but will continue to flourish throughout 2015. Having all of an organization's enterprise management needs covered under one system will provide multiple benefits for internal IT staff, but will also begin to blur the line between information security and application security, requiring a new, more integrated approach for both.

BYOD as a recruitment tool
Another big shift that businesses will start to experience is the recruitment and retention potential of BYOD. A recent survey conducted by Samsung found that companies have extended BYOD options to 80 percent of support and line-level employees and 94 percent of non-executive managers. Mobility and flexible working options are becoming increasingly important to applicants and organizations that offer comprehensive programs will have a bigger advantage when it comes to persuading the best candidates for the job. With the ability to telecommute, enterprises can recruit the best applicants no matter where they're located. 

Bring-your-own-data
Another trend that has just started to emerge is the idea of bring-your-own-data. As enterprise mobile device policies have evolved, a rising number of programs are looking to leverage the personal information of employees to gain insights. According to information from Gartner, nearly one-third of all BYOD policies will utilize employee data, applications and social connections for business purposes by 2016. Workers have become very comfortable with sharing their personal information with companies like Google and Facebook, it was only a matter of time before organizations took advantage of the data sitting right under their noses.

Hotel group applies to FCC for ability to block Wi-Fi signals

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As mobile devices have become an increasingly important part of our daily lives and the Internet makes us feel more connected than ever, the ability to connect to Wi-Fi while away from home is a necessity for the average traveler. A variety of devices allow users to set up their own Wi-Fi networks wherever they’d like, providing constant, free access anywhere they go. This may not be the case in some hotel chains soon, however.

“A variety of hotels are appealing to the Federal Communications Commission to allow them to block the signals created by personal Wi-Fi devices “

A variety of hotels, including Marriott International Inc., are appealing to the Federal Communications Commission to allow them to block the signals created by personal Wi-Fi devices so guests would have to use the in-house network inside conference halls and meeting spaces. While the group insists that they want to prevent other networks from being accessible in order to prevent criminals from tricking visitors into using phony networks that look like the hotel Wi-Fi, many opponents are crying foul.

Those who are against the proposal believe the move is being made to force guests to use the hotels’ networks, and in most cases have to pay the steep fees that come along with them.

“If a client arrives at a hotel with her own Mi-Fi device, and the hotel interferes with the client’s connection to that personal hotspot, the hotel can effectively force the client to purchase the hotel’s WiFi services to gain access, even though the client has already paid her mobile operator for personal hotspot capability,” said officials with Microsoft.

Hotels argue they should be able to block Wi-Fi signals to help security

Deciding between public and private airwaves
While the airwaves that have been set aside for use by television companies and cellphone service providers belong to a certain organization and require licenses to operate, the airwaves used by Wi-Fi networks utilize unlicensed frequencies that are meant to be available to anyone, like those that garage door openers and baby monitors use.

A law enforced by the FCC makes it very clear that no one is allowed to “willfully or maliciously” interfere with “any radio communications of any station licensed or authorized” by the government. Therefore, devices like signal jammers are strictly forbidden by the agency. The group of hotels argues that the law preventing the use of jammers should not apply to Wi-Fi because it doesn’t operate on a licensed spectrum. Furthermore, the group argues that a hotel jamming a signal is not maliciously interfering as it is attempting to “monitor and mitigate threats to the security and reliability of its network,” according to an FCC filing.