Staying informed is a constant challenge. There’s so much to do, and so little time. But we have you covered. Grab a coffee and take five while you nibble on these tidbits.
NetSuite completes acquisition of Next Technik
At its SuiteWorld conference last week, Oracle announced that is has completed its acquisition of field service management solutions provider Next Technik, and has made it part of the Oracle NetSuite organization.
The acquisition, it said in a release, provides “field service management capabilities for NetSuite customers, which enable businesses to digitize and streamline scheduling and dispatch. It also allows customers to manage inventory and assets for increased productivity and customer satisfaction.
“The new field management solution will help improve field-to-office communications, simplify scheduling and dispatch, automate inventory and customer asset management, and increase visibility into real-time data.”
Field Service Management by NetSuite is now available via Next Technik in Canada, the U.S., Australia, and the United Kingdom, the company said. It will be sold directly by NetSuite in the coming months.
Zerto report finds firms lack solid ransomware strategy
Zerto, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, this week released findings from its 2023 Ransomware Strategy Survey conducted at VMware Explore U.S. in August. The research reveals that more than one-third of companies still do not have a well-rounded, holistic ransomware strategy in place.
The survey also found that companies are re-evaluating their data protection and cyber resilience strategies to align more closely with the threats they are facing.
The report indicates that 35.4 per cent of companies are not prioritizing recovery. In all, just over half of the companies surveyed (56.6 per cent) focus on both recovery and prevention. This indicates that a holistic view is far from widespread amongst those surveyed, a release stated.
“It is natural for companies to start by building a robust prevention strategy focused on thwarting attacks,” said Caroline Seymour, vice president of product marketing at Zerto. “However, as attacks become more sophisticated and capable of breaching prevention measures, prioritizing recovery must be a key element of a modern, multi-layered approach. It is just as crucial as prevention, if not more in the current threat environment.”
Case IQ acquires Vancouver-based WhistleBlower Security
Case IQ, an Ottawa developer of investigative case-management software, has acquired WhistleBlower Security, a provider of ethics and compliance reporting with a hotline case intake offering.
“Intake methods for incident reporting are a crucial component for companies to fully manage their risk by uncovering issues and pressing matters,” a release stated. “Offering comprehensive intake helps ensure incidents are reported accurately and thoroughly, allowing companies to better mitigate their risk.”
Vancouver-based WhistleBlower Security was founded by Shannon Walker, who led the company to the point of acquisition and will join the Case IQ leadership team as the executive vice president of thought leadership and strategy.
“We’ve partnered with Case IQ as a hotline provider for years and look forward to now being formal teammates,” she said.
Backblaze, HYCU announce data protection partnership
Specialized storage cloud provider Backblaze and data protection as a service firm HYCU this week announced a partnership that pairs Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage, which they described in a release as “an S3-compatible object storage platform that provides highly durable, instantly available hot storage priced at one-third of legacy provider pricing,” with HYCU.
The companies said that integration of Backblaze into HYCU is the first step in their partnership, with the intention to offer B2 Cloud Storage as a part of HYCU’s other data protection offerings in the future. Backblaze shared more information about the partnership on its blog.
SonicWall survey confirms ransomware still biggest fear
SonicWall on Thursday released the findings of its 2023 SonicWall Threat Mindset Survey, which found that 55 per cent of its customers are more concerned about cyberattacks in 2023, with the main threats being focused on being digital attacks such as ransomware and spear phishing.
“The data helps keep our finger on the pulse of what truly matters to our valued customers,” said SonicWall president and CEO Bob VanKirk. “As organizations around the globe struggle with economic declines, and political strife, and digesting technological advances like AI and cloud – cybersecurity needs to remain at the centre of it all.”
Findings revealed there is growing concern regarding cyberattacks amongst 54 per cent of professionals surveyed. Ransomware heads the list, as 83 per cent of all customers cited it as their biggest concern. Phishing and spear-phishing (76 per cent), as well as encrypted malware (64 per cent), rounded out the top three concerns.
In addition, despite rising cyberattack worries, 78 per cent of organizations do not patch critical vulnerabilities within 24 hours of patch availability, while another 13 per cent only apply critical patches when time allows.
RSA announces new Canadian SaaS investments
Identity management firm RSA has announced that it will launch a new cloud tenant in this country to meet the growing demand for RSA ID Plus, its identity and access management (IAM) platform that can support cloud, hybrid, and on-premises configurations.
The launch, it said in a release, “will help Canadian government agencies, financial services providers, critical infrastructure, and other leading organizations align with the Privacy Act, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), and the Directive on Digital Service. It will also ensure that local organizations can deploy a unified identity platform to secure authentication, access, governance, and lifecycle across their environments.”
“Canada is a strategic market for RSA,” said RSA CEO Rohit Ghai. “Our growth in the country, unmet market demand, and success with some of Canada’s top organizations and government agencies made the case for RSA to invest significantly in Canada. These investments will help more Canadian businesses deploy the unified identity capabilities needed to prevent cyberattacks and catalyze productivity.”
RSA said it will launch its new tenant in the first half of 2024 and will “move aggressively to support any customers with securing their cloud environments in the interim.”
Cohesity adopts Red Hat Enterprise Linux for its Data Cloud
Red Hat and AI-powered data security and management provider Cohesity this week announced that Cohesity has selected Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) as the foundational operating system of its Cohesity Data Cloud platform.
The Cohesity Data Cloud enables hybrid and multi-cloud environments by providing a single interface to unify and enhance the security posture of data across sources, services, vendors and technologies.
As the platform grew in usage and capabilities, the company said in a release, it began to see challenges with its underlying Linux operating system, CentOS Linux 7 (which reaches end-of-life in 2024), with maintenance and patching burdens being placed on its product engineers.
It also noted that, given Cohesity’s emphasis on providing enhanced data security, the underlying security capabilities of Red Hat Enterprise Linux complement its own approach.
Cohesity has already begun its Linux migration journey by embedding Red Hat Enterprise Linux into the Cohesity Data Cloud platform, which, it said, should provide a smooth migration experience for customers.
