As the cybersecurity industry works to address a shortage of skilled workers, an advertisement backed by the UK government may provide an example of what not to do.

The ad, which encouraged people working in the arts to retrain in cybersecurity, has been abandoned amid backlash online and even within the government, according to reports from The Guardian, The Washington Post and MarketWatch.

Although pulled from the official website, the ad was still easily viewable after going viral on social media with the hashtag “#SavetheArts.” The image displays a ballet dancer tying her shoes. The caption reads, “Fatima’s next job could be in cyber (she just doesn’t know it yet),” followed by the tagline “Rethink. Reskill. Reboot.”

Posted on the website of training firm QA, the ad was part of the UK cybersecurity agency’s Cyber First campaign, which promotes tech training for young people. Oliver Dowden, the British culture secretary, tweeted that the ad was “crass” and did not come from his agency. A spokesperson for the prime minister said, “This particular piece of content was not appropriate and has been removed from the campaign.”

The UK government’s volte-face followed widespread criticism that the ad showed disrespect toward the culture sector, which has been suffering catastrophic job losses. The author Caitlin Moran tweeted: “I don’t know if the government know they appear to have recently created a ‘Hopes & Dreams Crushing Department,’ but for a country already depressed and anxious, I would suggest it’s a bit of a ‘Not now, dudes’ moment?" The shadow health minister, Rosena Allin-Khan, chimed in: “Fatima, you be you. Don’t let anyone else tell you that you aren’t good enough because you don’t conform to their preconceived social norms.”

Meanwhile, a recent survey finds that most people say a career in cybersecurity isn’t for them, despite the sector’s demand for talent. Among 2,500 U.S. and UK workers surveyed by (ISC)2, 69% said that while cybersecurity seems like a good career path, it isn’t the right personal fit.

The world of analytics is changing.  Self-Service Analytical tools like Tableau, Qlik, and Power BI are enabling business users to perform reporting and analytics on their own with little to no support from the IT organization. This trend has evolved due to several factors including:

1)    Organizations are flooded with data and IT organizations are not able to keep up
2)    Easier to use Business Intelligence tools make it more efficient for business users to directly create their reports rather than go through IT for a project
3)    IT organizations analytical projects can take several months when a business needs this information in weeks

This trend has caused the efforts of IT Business Intelligence (BI) teams to spending most of their energy gathering, cleaning, and structuring data for the business to perform their own analytics through a self-service model. In special cases, they provide industrial strength reporting that can scale to thousands of users where trusted verified data is needed.  However, they are still being shown the door when it comes to some of the more interesting work.

What can IT BI teams do to stay relevant and valuable to the business? We have several suggestions that relate to embracing self-service analytics as the new reality and transitioning core competencies of the Business Intelligence team away from purely descriptive reporting and moving to diagnostic & predictive analytics.

Let’s explain that last concept before prescribing several solutions. The current state of most analytics is descriptive in nature and helps answer questions of, “what occurred?” Diagnostic and Predictive Analytics help answer the questions of, “Why did it occur?” and sets the stage to answer, “What can I do about it?”  Diagnostic Analytics helps organizations to not only understand what, but also why and what decisions and actions can be taken to solve for the issue. This type of analytics is more valuable to the business and requires competencies that IT BI teams are uniquely qualified to bring from their years of building analytical solutions.

To enable IT Business Intelligence teams to move up the value chain from providing commodity reports to business driving analytics, we recommend adding these four components:

1. Build out a Data Science capability– Data Scientists are starting to appear in analytical groups within companies. However, they are still not pervasive and the function is understaffed. In addition, most groups within a company cannot justify the cost of a full-time data scientist. By adding data scientists to the IT BI organization, you are creating a centralized team that can provide analytics to underserved parts of the organization.  This team is already focused on creating analytical data structures and reports and adding the ability to derive insights from the data is a natural extension.   
2. Make it about the Decision– In your requirements process, add Decision Architecture Methodology as a capability. Most methodologies for capturing analytical requirements focus on the questions asked of the data to surmise the Dimensions and Facts.  While this gives us great descriptive analytics, but it does not move the company along the analytical maturity curve.  A deeper focus on the decisions that the business makes and thereby centering analytical capabilities around helping to enable actionable insights will move the needle.
3. Add Decision Theory to your analytics– If Data Science helps you turn information into actionable insights, Decision Theory helps you structure the decision process to guide a person to the correct choice. Decision Theory, along with Behavioral Economics, is focused on understanding the components of the decision process to explain why we make the choices we do. It provides a systematic way to consider tradeoffs among attributes that helps us make better decisions. Tools such as thresholds, alerts, decision matrixes, and choice architecture should be considered important capabilities to add to your team’s tool chest.
4. Create a Report Certification process– As report proliferation occurs with self-service analytics, creating a standard for the health and validity of a report is going to be important if the analytics are to be consumed by a broader audience and are to be trusted.  For example, you may have one group create a report with key metrics sourced from uncertified data sources. By putting reports from individual departments through a certification process similar to UL labeling on electrical products, broader consumers will know the level of scrutiny that has been put on the report by Data Governance and IT teams and thereby trust the data and metrics contained within it.

As IT Business Intelligence teams look to move up the value chain in the capabilities they offer to their internal customers, adding addition skillsets, methods, and tools will be a necessity. The capabilities outlined are a great fit for a centralized team to own and this transformation in IT BI teams can speak to the value these enhanced capabilities provide to the business.

Andrew Roman Wells is the CEO of Aspirent, a management-consulting firm focused on analytics. Kathy Williams Chiang is VP, Business Insights, at Wunderman Data Management. They are the co-authors of Monetizing Your Data: A Guide to Turning Data into Profit-Driving Strategies and Solutions. For more information, please visit www.monetizingyourdata.com.

It’s no surprise that big data is on the rise in businesses around the world. Companies routinely use big data to analyze common trends in their practice; enabling them to make sophisticated decisions to ensure their businesses prosper. According to Statista, an online statistics, market research and business intelligence portal; companies routinely use data to drive process and cost efficiency; drive strategy; and to monitor and improve financial performance. When used in these ways, data has the ability to save the company a significant amount of money because they are able to spend their money efficiently.

While data does have the ability to improve a company’s performance; companies just aren’t catching up on the trends as fast as one would assume.  Big Data software company, Quoble along with Dimensional Research; recently published an e-book, “An In-Depth Look at Big Data Trends and Challenges”. As the name suggests, the data looks at global data trends in the workplace and the problems that businesses often face.

Among the issues that the research uncovered was, “the realization of value from big data in on-premises environments has lagged expectations, largely due to complexity, cost overruns, steep demands for specialized talent, and need for powerful computing platforms.” While companies may understand the value that big data brings their company; finding qualified candidates and obtaining funds to purchase the computing platforms needed to manage data sets are among the set backs employers are facing today. Nearly 75% of those surveyed sighted a gap between the necessary resources and tools that are available to them. And while 50% of businesses plan to moderately increase their data headcounts in the next year; 83% find it difficult to find the right candidate.  Not only does it take time to find the money to pay for data headcounts; finding the right candidate can often times be complex and time consuming.

The survey found that big data teams’ lack of experience creates a slow progress to get things done. 42% also sight that it is hard to keep up with big data trends and new data sources.  Big Data is constantly expanding. Five years ago machine learning and AI weren’t as mainstream as they are now. BI tools were available but not widely used and companies didn’t have big data teams. In fact their “team” often consisted of one or two data scientists. Big Data’s continuous growth has lead to expansion that many businesses can’t keep up with.

The intention of Quoble’s “An In-Depth Look at Bid Data Trends and Challenges” is  not to solve these problems, but to bring awareness to the issues that companies are facing when it comes to data.  As big data continues to surge, so will an influx of knowledgeable employees and efficient software that will guide the business to succeed in an age where big data is becoming the norm.

To view the full report, go to Quoble’s website and download the free e-book.

Colleagues think of data analysis much in the same way they think about marketing. Which is everyone thinks they are data analysts. With little to no practice they can put together graphs and visualize data at the drop of a hat. When interviewing Dave from accounting he made sure you knew that he has Tableau reader on his desktop which totally means he’s one step away from Tableau certification. Karen from Sales also discussed her extensive knowledge when it came to Excel. Yes, that same Karen who emailed you a month ago and asked how a pivot table worked.

If you’re interested in a career in big data it shouldn’t be daunting, but you should take the time to research and learn the tools and software needed to excel (pun intended) at the job. Data analysis is so much more than filtering data and pretty graphs. It takes someone who is curious and can think analytically to thrive in the job.

In his 2009 book, Now You See it: Simple Visualization Techniques for Quantitative Analysis; author and information technology innovator Stephen Few lists 13 key traits of a data analyst. Among those traits include, self-motivation; open-mindedness; and the ability to spot patterns. An average data analyst can access a data set; scrub the data; and visualize it using one of numerous data visualization platforms available. She then comes to conclusions based on those visualizations and calls it a day. An exceptional data analyst can use that same data set and visualization tools and come to the same conclusions. The difference is that he will ask different questions and hypothesize about why conclusions are what they are. An exceptional data analyst asks why 9 out of 10 dentists prefer Colgate or why Rugby is becoming a more popular youth sport in the United States while lacrosse youth teams are declining.  For them, it isn’t enough that the data shows an increase in Rugby youth teams. They have to know why. Which will ultimately bring them to more questions which will lead to more data sets and more visualizations. In essence, is a data analyst’s job ever really done?

Another factor that separates a mediocre from an excellent analyst is the ability to tell a story. Unless you are speaking to a fellow analyst, chances are spewing out data isn’t going to capture the attention or the comprehension of what the statistics show. In fact, if you go that route, you may be met with a lot of blank stares. It’s important to tailor a narrative to the audience you are speaking to. Crafting a story beforehand makes it easy for your audience to follow and will help you answer any follow up questions that you might receive.

While you may have the skills that make an excellent data analyst, without practice you’ll never truly be outstanding at your job. And with data analysts and scientists being critical to the success of a company, it’s important that you push past mediocrity and aim for excellent. So tomorrow when you go into work remember that not everyone can be an analyst but by methodically thinking, crafting a perfect story from your data sets and asking questions, you’ll be on the road to greatness.

TikTok has been slapped with a $368 million fine for running afoul of Europe’s tough data protection rules when it comes to children’s privacy. So reports the Associated Press.

Ireland’s Data Protection Commission said the violations dated to the latter half of 2020. The watchdog is still looking into whether TikTok complied with Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation when it moved data to its parent company ByteDance’s domicile of China.

TikTok disputed the ruling, “particularly the level of the fine imposed,” it said.

Read the full article from Associated Press.

Data breach reporting rules newly introduced by the Securities and Exchange Commission have drawn industry pushback. So reports IT Pro.

The SEC’s rules would mandate that public companies disclose breaches within four days.

Tara Wisniewski, executive vice president for advocacy at the nonprofit (ISC)2, has warned that the rules were “worryingly vague” and “may create ambiguity for cyber professionals.”

Read the full article from IT Pro. 

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) has called on the Justice Department, the Federal Trade Commission and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to investigate Microsoft’s handling of cybersecurity. So reports Axios.

Wyden urged the agencies’ heads to “hold Microsoft responsible for its negligent cybersecurity practices” following the company’s recent disclosure that ​​China-based hackers had accessed several U.S. government email accounts.

In a letter, Wyden wrote, “Even with the limited details that have been made public so far, Microsoft bears significant responsibility for this new incident.”

Read the full article from Axios. 

Federal prosecutors have arrested and charged Shakeeb Ahmed, described only as a “former security engineer” for an “international technology company,” with stealing about $9 million in cryptocurrency. So reports Gizmodo.

While an Amazon spokesperson declined to detail Ahmed’s former role, they confirmed to the news blog that he previously worked at the tech giant.

The 34-year-old pleaded not guilty and was released on bond.

Read the full article from Gizmodo

As information security incidents continue to proliferate, cyber insurance providers may want to hand out punch cards.

According to a new survey by security software vendor Delinia, 47% of organizations said this year that they have used their cyber insurance multiple times. That’s up from 41% last year, Channel Futures reports.

Conducted on Delina’s behalf by market research consultancy Censuswide, the U.S.-based survey includes online responses in June 2023 from 300 leaders with visibility into their organization’s cyber insurance application or renewal process. Cyber insurance also appears to be growing more expensive: 67% of respondents indicated that their cyber insurance rates rose from 50% to 100% in the last 12 months, as SiliconAngle notes.

And then there are the exclusions. Survey respondents said the following items would make their policies void:

• 43% said that a lack of security protocols
• 38% said human error
• 33% said an act of war would

A third also cited a failure to follow proper compliance procedures as an exclusion in their policies.

For some organizations, the time it takes to obtain cyber insurance can be considerable. According to Delinea’s survey, 7% of respondents said that it took more than six months to get their coverage, up from 0.46% in 2022.

As CSO reports, according to separate Forrester research, a majority of enterprise security technology decision-makers said they have cyber insurance coverage in some form, but just 26% reported having a standalone policy. Plus, according to Forrester’s research, 70% of enterprises with cyber coverage said their insurer forced them to pick from their list of service providers.

Theresa Le, chief claims officer at cyber insurance provider Cowbell, told InfoSecurity regarding the Delinea research, “Businesses should opt for insurers that include a risk assessment of the organization with the goal to remediate identified security weaknesses prior to quoting.”

Proofpoint has once again topped Forrester’s ranking of email security vendors. So reports BankInfoSecurity.

Microsoft ranked second in “The Forrester Wave: Enterprise Email Security, Q2 2023,” followed by Check Point in third and Cloudflare in fourth. Trend Micro, Broadcom, Barracuda and Cisco, who ranked among the top six in May 2021, have fallen from the leaders category, according to Forrester.

Jess Burn, senior analyst at Forrester, told BankInfoSecurity that Cloudflare, Check Point, Fortra, and Cisco have moved into email defense by buying cloud-native, API-enabled email security (CAPES) startups, while Crowdstrike has partnered with Abnormal Security. “There’s so much trouble that can start with a successful phish,” Burn is quoted as saying.

The rise of CAPES has challenged the legacy secure email gateway (SEG) vendors, whose responses have ranged from going private to making their own acquisitions, as Burn notes in a blog post. Another route has been to develop their own options for deploying APIs, or applied programming interfaces.

Information security decision-makers are frequently choosing to work with multiple enterprise email security vendors, according to Burn. For some, having more than one layer of defense brings peace of mind, while different vendors may also offer different capabilities. The ranking comes as threat actors are cultivating new types of email-based attacks. As TechSpot reports, security researchers have identified fraudulent emails that circumvent traditional spam filters by using QR codes or image attachments instead of containing text.

Meanwhile, email and network security company Barracuda has urged customers to immediately replace Email Security Gateway (ESG) appliances affected by a freshly patched zero-day vulnerability, as Bleeping Computer reports.

As SiliconAngle reports, application security vendor ImmuniWeb has introduced free email security testing. “While our primary duty is to take care of all our customers and partners, we take our social responsibility seriously and we are strongly committed to supporting the most vulnerable organizations in their efforts to protect themselves against skyrocketing cyber attacks," ImmuniWeb CEO Ilia Kolochenko said in a statement.

Social engineering attacks continue to rise, while ransomware is still a major threat to organizations. Those are a couple of takeaways from Verizon’s newly released 2023 Data Breach Investigations Report.

Verizon’s 16th annual study breaks down 16,132 security incidents that took place between November 1, 2021, and October 31, 2022, of which 5,199 were confirmed data breaches.

The report highlights an increase in social engineering attacks, which now account for 10% of incidents and 17% of breaches. Such attacks “are often very effective and extremely lucrative for cybercriminals,” according to Verizon.

Verizon says the upward trend in social engineering is largely due to pretexting attacks, which involve manipulating the victim into revealing sensitive information, doubling since last year. That includes business email compromise (BEC) attacks, which is where threat actors impersonate enterprise employees for financial gain. Losses to BEC attacks rose to a median of $50,000 in 2022, up from slightly more than $30,000 in 2018.

Chris Novak, managing director of cybersecurity consulting at Verizon Business and manager of the DBIR, told TechTarget that social engineering attacks are in favor with hackers now because, as organizations upgrade their products and services, people are “the squishy, soft spots of the organization.”

Ransomware attacks have held steady. Such attacks accounted for 24% of incidents, a slight increase from last year, and 15.5% of breaches, a modest decline, according to Verizon. While only 7% of ransomware attacks involved financial losses, the median losses have more than doubled since last year to $26,000.

David Hylender, DBIR co-author and senior manager for Threat Intelligence at Verizon said in a webinar that ransomware is “ubiquitous,” as SDxCentral reports. “It’s in large organizations, small to medium businesses, very small organizations, it doesn’t matter geographically, it doesn’t really matter industry vertical wise, ransomware is a huge threat just across the board for any organization,” Highlander said.

Fancy Bear Goes Phishing, a new book by Scott Shapiro, examines the history of hacking and suggests approaches for fighting it, according to multiple published reviews and reports.

Shapiro is a professor of law and philosophy at Yale Law School, and he also leads Yale’s Cybersecurity Lab, which does research into security and information technology. He previously co-authored the 2017 book The Internationalists, a history of the laws of war that looks ahead to whether the same rules will govern cyber conflicts.

As City AM’s reviewer writes, this is “an impressive range in expertise, and one that leaves Shapiro in a unique position to skillfully guide the reader through the history of hacking, with all the tech nitty gritty included.”

Shapiro concludes that the cybersecurity problem can’t be solved, only managed by considering human behavior. “Cybersecurity is not a primarily technological problem that requires a primarily engineering solution,” he writes, as quoted by Ars Technica. “It is a human problem that requires an understanding of human behavior.” His go-to adage in the text: “Hacking is about humans.”

As The Economist and The Guardian explain, the book walks through five major hacks:

• The Internet’s first worm, known as the Morris worm, created in 1988 in an experiment gone wrong by a Cornell University student
• The Dark Avenger, a pseudonymous Bulgarian virus writer who wiped out computer data in the 1990s
• The 2005 hack of celebrity Paris Hilton’s mobile phone data, which exposed nude photographs
• The 2016 hack of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, which led to the damaging release of emails
• The 2016 “Mirai botnet,” in which three young men amassed an army of computers that could be used to take down websites

Shapiro distinguishes between what he calls “downcode,” the actual software used in cyberattacks, and “upcode,” the human cognition and norms that allow the attacks to occur.

The Guardian identifies four takeaways from Shapiro’s book. First, as he writes, “Hacking is not a dark art, and those who practice it are not 400lb wizards or idiot savants.” Second, hacking is a business, perpetrated by rational actors who want money. Third, to reduce the threat of cyberattacks, governments will have to criminalize the failure to safeguard information. And fourth, as the newspaper puts it: “Mass media plays a really malignant role by providing an endless loop of scare stories and zero understanding of the problem.”