Cybersecurity Day Zero Is All Around Us

“Day Zero.” The term itself is a sign of the uncompromising urgency of developing IT cyber safety and data security solutions that protect your company, enterprise, or operation from threats that remain unknown until they strike. Day Zero is the day you learn of a vulnerability, and, from that day forward, solutions or mitigations are devised to close off that vulnerability.

The very existence of the term points to a constant 360-degree threat. It is hard to believe, yet true, that IT cyber safety and data security solutions still depend on responding to threats after they are identified. The state of the art is more like a rapid-reaction force than a perimeter of security.

Yet despite this seemingly primitive state of data security development, the world is not hesitating to double-down on its reliance on wired and unwired networks that are prone to compromise and contamination from threats, both intentional and unintentional.

The Rush to Real Time

To achieve near-real-time situational awareness from the data on which they base their business, companies are not only accepting, but also moving toward software-defined infrastructure (SDI). The already-rapid expansion of work into a realm of data networks that are platformed on software, intensified by wireless mobile access, and connected to multi-cloud networks, is accelerating further from its already breakneck speed.

By the time we see the future of IT cyber safety and data security solutions, the future has already evaporated, even from the elevated perspective of the C-Suite. An adjunct faculty member of a major university’s applied intelligence program said, “The C-suite still has a significant lack of understanding of cybersecurity basics – the hygiene and the threats, the bad actors. And it’s after the fact, after they’ve been breached, that the board actually does something about it – and that’s true even in some of the largest companies.”

It is unfortunate, but more and more, the executives who are charged with IT cyber safety and data security solutions are discovering that data compromise is like a West Coast earthquake: It’s not a matter of whether it will occur, but rather when it will occur.

In this remarkable environment, the overwhelming amount of attention and energy is devoted to online, wireless, and software solutions. That’s hard to argue with, because the exposures on the web and in the cloud seem virtually infinite.

Industry observers report that companies large and small rush to virtualize the architecture of their IT systems and data resources, often without planning the security measures that such platforms demand. In fact, 28% of companies in one study said they were allocating all or most of their cybersecurity budget to insurance, relying on compensation rather than protection in the event of data compromise. The lack of realism in this approach is evident when one considers that the damage that a data breach can do is just as hard to quantify as it is to predict.

Yet, when we consider the current state of IT cyber safety and data security solutions, even more remarkable is the extent to which basic, fundamental, visible vulnerabilities remain unguarded still. Edge-to-edge, 360-degreeIT cyber safety and data security solutions demand that we rethink not only the infrastructure elements of the system, but the human element, too.

It takes no special skill to achieve the compromise, and the world is full of devices – thumb drives and smart phones – that can infect your data network and compromise your IT security without even intending to do so. Both harsh experience and controlled research have proven that the human element – even the unintentional element – of data compromise may be the most widespread sector of the security perimeter.

More Effective IT Cyber Safety and Data Security Solutions

Consultants specializing in IT cyber safety and data security solutions agree that responsibility starts at the top. Equally important, they say, is that it involves everyone. Mitigating the cyber security risk calls for a transformed mind-set all up and down the organization.

How to make that mindset practical remains a challenge, because studies suggest that when it comes to the accidental compromise – the introduction of a virus or malware from a personal device or a USB flash drive, for example – each person tends to feel that he or she is an exception. This phenomenon appears in even the most disciplined organizations with the clearest standards and values.

The most widely overlooked sector of the security perimeter, it seems, is the physical part. The hundreds of data ports and connectors inherent in everyone’s computer data networks. Each one is an invitation to compromise. And the fact that major investments are being made in online security while leaving the protection of these ports and connections wide open, is cause for alarm.

The measures you can take to fill this void in your 360-degree defense are, fortunately, just as visible as the threat. The Connectivity Center offers you an array of USB port blockers, network port locks, fiber optic port locks, and other devices that is always evolving, ahead of the threat. The Connectivity Center has assembled the most complete portfolio of products and programs to defend your computer network ports from interference, infection, and compromise, either intentional or unintentional, based on a vast body of experience in North America, Europe, and abroad.

The Connectivity Center’s Link Lock connectors, the Link Lock Hub, and other components enable all your data sources to work together, including USB and FireWire elements that range from connecting keyboards and monitors, to empowering video cables and card reader systems. PC peripherals and system components for networking – such as cables that connect computers – are here for you, too.

Our history and heritage – and our resources from around the world – are orchestrated at The Connectivity Center to assure you that the IT cyber safety and data security solutions you need are always available, and always up-to-date with quality, value, variety, and versatility you can rely on.

Our experience and focus led to the Smart Keeper series of port blockers. With serialized keys that enable access only from authorized users, Smart Keeper assures you that access goes only to those persons with “need to know” and “need to use” authority within your organization, without the expense and complication of Network Access Controls.