According to the World Health Organization, COVID-19 is now officially a pandemic.

The impact of COVID-19 struck close to home for me this week as at least two attendees at the annual RSA Conference fell ill to the virus.  I spent the entire week in San Francisco at the RSA Conference catching up with longtime friends, speaking in several sessions and walking the Expo floor.  For myself and our company, HighSide, I’m grateful to have no symptoms two weeks post-conference and that our company enables employees to work from wherever they have an internet connection to stay productive.

As the virus continues to spread, new regions are quarantined and companies begin their work from home contingency plans, our customers handling regulated and sensitive data have begun asking us how they can ensure continuation of operations from home.

The need for improved HIPAA compliant technologies is becoming more apparent.

The number of data breaches in the healthcare industry has increased steadily for the past four years. From 2015 to 2018 alone, healthcare breaches increased by more than 26%. And while cyber attacks are growing across all sectors, the healthcare industry is especially vulnerable.  

A recent Ponemon Institute study shows that, on average, healthcare records sell for 250% more than other information on the dark web. 

Over 35,000 people will stroll the aisles at DSEI this year. They expect exhibitors, more than 1,600 of them, to amaze with new, innovative solutions for the greatest problems in defence. The world’s biggest defence contractors and service providers will be there demonstrating their latest and most impressive technologies and solutions. 

Thought leadership? DSEI will host over 300 speakers that are all government leaders or experts in the defence industry. 

As far as defence conferences go, DSEI is the pinnacle. 

“Our money is safer under the mattress than it is in the community bank!”

We all sort of laughed at my neighbor’s conclusion to the philosophical discussion about current banking cyber crimes. About five of us were tossing around our perceptions of the cyber readiness of financial institutions when Chris decided we should just take all our money out. Of course, we were being a bit fantastical and just having fun with our dramatized cyber doomsday scenarios. And I don’t think Chris was serious about keeping his money under a mattress. 

But the truth is, many banks are struggling to keep up with information security. And the terrifying truth is, a lot of their efforts are trailing behind hackers’ capabilities.  

Things have changed. There was a time in the not-so-distant past when companies and organizations felt confident and secure in communicating via email. As technology developed, many of those entities supplemented their communications by adding text messaging to send quick updates or transmit time sensitive information.

These days, most enterprises know that email comms lack security. And even text messages are subject to phishing attacks. To keep private information private and to remain in compliance and avoid regulatory fines, savvy leaders are looking for more secure solutions.

…and some of them have settled on WhatsApp.