By: Dave Russell, VP, Enterprise Strategy, Veeam

Ransomware attacks have bitten a gaping hole in the pockets of businesses who are having to pay extortionate ransoms in response to highly targeted attacks by sophisticated criminal organisations. The problem has only worsened with the onset of mass remote working. The extension of the office’s boundaries into online and remote locations has exposed severe vulnerabilities, and criminals are all too willing to take advantage.

Right now, a new ransomware attack will occur every 11 seconds. To put this in context, in the five minutes it takes you to read this article, 27 businesses will have been attacked by ransomware. The best piece of advice on ransomware is not to give in and pay. But despite the majority of businesses will pay the ransom that this attack demands. Many feel under extreme pressure to limit the damage of downtime caused by ransomware, and the quickest resolution is to pay up.

It’s not a surprise that so many have chosen to pay when they’re already grappling with the challenges and pressures of operating throughout the risky business terrain that COVID-19 has created. However, this is simply encouraging cyber-attackers to continue exploiting this lucrative illegal market, as is evident from the 600% uplift in attacks since COVID-19 first emerged.

On a positive note, businesses and governments have recognised that this can’t continue. Ransomware is now on the agenda of every boardroom, and even made the cut for discussion at the G7, as well as numerous other diplomatic talks between global leaders. Now is the time to think about modern data protection and its future. And now is the time to bite ransomware back.

This is organised crime

It’s easy to forget that there’s a criminal behind the ransomware that makes itself at home within your business system. While it may once have been deemed something loitering on the web and only harmful if clicked on, many are starting to recognise the severe, complex, and targeted nature that ransomware really has. This is organised crime, and it works innovatively to infiltrate your business and your supply chain. It quite honestly poses a genuine threat to entire industries and communities.

So how can we start clamping down on the perpetrators behind this? The downside to such a connected and digital world means an attacker can operate in completely different areas of the world, making it difficult to prosecute using the same legal system your business is subject to. The reality is that a clamp down of this scale is going to require international co-operation and government action beyond anything we’ve seen in the cybersecurity sphere. And of course, this is going to take time, which, as you know, is something businesses don’t have when facing constant threats.

Therefore, while we wait for these political interventions to happen, businesses must be fully prepared for the ongoing onslaught of ransomware attacks, especially now they’re operating in remote locations. Previous cybersecurity measures won’t be enough, we have to adapt to the enemy by deploying modern data protection measures.

Think like a hacker

In the same was that a detective has to think like a criminal to solve a crime, the only way businesses will successfully protect themselves sufficiently from cyberattacks is to think like the hackers. They’re relentless, hyper-aware, and stringent. Employers and employees must act the same to stop vulnerabilities from opening up.

Good digital hygiene must become second nature, as opposed to something practiced for a week following annual cyber security training, and forgotten about until the next one. Failure to patch software should create the same attention as failing to lock up the office overnight. Not having a disaster recovery plan is akin to skipping contents insurance. We can’t simply think about security in the physical space because the enemies are operating in the digital one.

Another important aspect is thinking about the hacker’s success rate. In many cases they’ll spend all day attacking systems. They dedicate their time to evolve and innovate their attacks to overcome the security barriers that are holding them back. We need to anticipate they will eventually be able to do this, even if the best cybersecurity defences are in place. As we can see from the number of businesses paying ransoms, an attack can cause enough damage to push businesses into paying out rather than taking alternative routes.

It’s up to every organisation across every industry to invest in modern data protection practices to minimise the impact of ransomware attacks. Viewing attacks as an inevitability is the first step towards creating a more cyber-secure culture, with employees who are more educated and aware of ransomware. At the same time, businesses need to have the right safeguards in place to minimise disruption, including anti-virus software and firewalls, plus continuous backup and recovery to offer adequate insurance against the crippling effects of ransomware.

If the worst happens, and your systems are compromised, the business won’t collapse, and the attacker won’t get everything they want. The cybersecurity landscape may feel rocky right now, but there are steps we can and should take to better protect ourselves from the damages. It’s time to bite the ransomware hackers back.

Immersive screens, virtual desktops and AI assistants will boost the next wave of end-users

By: Andrew Brinded, Senior Vice President EMEA Sales, Nutanix

To understand what end-user computing may look like in 2030, first think about how you work today and consider how you worked 10, 20, 30 years ago. And if you’re lucky enough to be too young, ask a colleague.

The Seventies. The knowledge worker of the 1970s had a fixed-line telephone, sheaves of paper documents, possibly a typewriter, memos for written communications, a legion of clerks, a typing pool and precious little other information infrastructure.

The Eighties. As hairstyles got shorter, the office expanded to include early personal computers. IT began to talk more to end-users and business analysts’ requests for data to be hauled off mainframes and mid-range servers became more frequent.

The Nineties. Cheaper PCs, laptops, the web, local-area networks, email, mobile phones and client/server IT made this the decade where personal productivity soared.

The Noughties to now. Smartphones abounded, WiFi became ubiquitous, tablets soared, and office workers were released from the shackles of their desks to be effective from anywhere, often selecting their own devices too. Architects design spaces for workers to bump into each other, brainstorm and co-create with far-flung colleagues and partners.

But what of the knowledge worker in 2030? Where will this person work from and what tools will s/he use to become optimally effective? It’s a fair bet that this person will need to be creative because nobody wants to compete with China (or Indonesia or any low-cost economy) on price, so innovation will be key. It’s also likely that co-creation and co-curation will become more important, so we need tools and spaces that are fun, funky and conducive to getting creative juices flowing. Here are some ideas of what we might see.

Everything is virtual. Desktop PCs will disappear almost entirely except for power-user workstations. Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) will prevail because users will want to see their working environment from any device, whether that’s a laptop, tablet, phone, smart watch, smart speaker or something else. We can expect ubiquitous compute capacity everywhere: in domestic appliances, in-car infotainment systems, perhaps baton or cylinder computers with roll up flexible screens, smartphones that can double as PCs, Star Trek-style smart microphones that we pin to clothing.

Streaming is everywhere. Once, a lack of support for advanced graphics was the criticism of VDI but that argument is becoming obsolete. Google’s cloud-based Stadia games platform will even support 8k streaming at 150 frames per second. That could mean the computer of the future effectively returning to be a dumb terminal and with hardware costing perhaps tens of pounds rather than hundreds.

Massive immersive screens. With such great streaming quality, screens may be one of the hottest areas of end-user computing change. It’s possible that we will go from today’s curved OLED screens to immersive pod units where we are transported into another world of crystal-clear audio and life-like visuals. Your colleague in the US takes a virtual seat in a simulacrum of a meeting room alongside you and calls are finally perfect, thanks to faster broadband and clusters of routers.

Alexa and her friends are coming to you. Voice assistants will become critical to the business user interface, meaning we can control everything from anywhere, hands-free. Bolstered by AI, search will be simplified. Can’t find that file? Just say: ‘Computer find me that document I wrote about end-user computing in 2030’… and there it is.

Instant computing. Faster boot sequences helped by advanced memory will make computing faster than ever with fewer irritating wait states. Storage becomes less important if streaming dominates but NAND Flash and similar technologies will help with lightning-fast caching and buffering.

Autonomic self-correction. Security and error detection will advance to the point that helpdesk calls are reduced to a minimum as AI and Machine Learning detect and anticipate signs of imminent failures or vulnerabilities and take action without user action.

Long-lasting power. Advanced battery chemistries will let computers run for days on end while solar and wireless charging become ubiquitous.

Faster input. Tools such as Otter provide the ability to transcribe meeting notes with high degrees of accuracy, while Zoom offers a transcription service for conferencing sessions. Expect more automation of clerical tasks such as automatically storing files in a logical place or anticipating next actions based on previous behaviour.

Homes that look like offices, offices that look like homes. For 20 years, designers have created office spaces that bring out the ‘kidult’ in all of us. Games rooms, comfy sofas, work-out rooms and running tracks abound, but now the tide is turning the other way as the design experts figure out how to bring work capabilities into domestic spaces. So, look out for pull-out pods and desks, beds that turn into workspaces, TVs that morph into computers screens and more.

Some of this may sound fanciful and the truth is that it’s hard to predict progress with any great degree of accuracy, but think of how working life has changed over the decades and these ideas are far from absurd. In order to win the battle for talent, companies need to provide attractive working environments and great tools for the incoming generation of workers. By tapping into the innate human capacity to innovate, companies that offer the best environments will excel and win over the best people.