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As disturbing details regarding the depth and breadth of Target’s security breach continue to surface, the clear message is that organizations need to implement greater cyber security safeguards to prevent future breaches from occurring. For as the Target attack shows, such breaches of personal data not only pose financial risks, they also put the company’s reputation at risk and open the doors for legal retaliation. In the interest of creating better safeguards against cyber attacks going forward, here is a look at 5 predicted cyber security trends for 2014. Greater adherence to NIST standards and guidelines Under the Executive Order “Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity," President Obama has directed the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to work with organizations on developing — as stated on nist.gov — a “framework of standards, guidelines and best practices to promote the protection of critical infrastructure.” While developing this framework has been considered a “voluntary” practice on the part of organizations thus far, heightened scrutiny of security practices by the FTC and other regulators will force organizations to more strictly adhere to NIST standards and best practices with regard to cyber security in 2014 and beyond. Otherwise, in the event of a security breach,...

The world of enterprise is becoming increasingly reliant on data. Data archives allow companies to make smart financial and marketing decisions as well as provide companies with information on where a company is headed. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) the world’s data will grow by 50x in the next decade. So where will all this data be stored? Enterprises are starting to realize that traditional methods of storage will not be sufficient. Traditional methods generally include hard disk or tape media. A new method known as flash storage has been growing in popularity. Flash memory uses electricity rather than mechanical parts and only consumes 20% of the power used by traditional methods. The following are problems associated with traditional methods of storage and reasons flash memory is becoming more common in enterprise. Damage to Magnetic Media The traditional backup tapes that many enterprises still use today are built with magnetic media. This makes them extremely susceptible to corruption. Despite the fact that tapes are built with a mechanism that can detect potential problems, all it takes is something like a fingerprint or exposure to certain elements and the data on the tape is essentially destroyed. While many enterprises assume...

Storage is not the most exciting topic, and as such, can easily be ignored for other more interesting business decisions. However, failing to give enough attention to the storage system can have detrimental effects on every part of a business, especially if data should be lost or the system became too slow to keep up with applications. As such, let’s take a look at what the basic options are when it comes to enterprise storage and the pros and cons of those options. Types of Storage There are three basic types of storage: direct attached storage, storage area network and network attached storage. The three can be built on top of each other and work together with DAS as the basic building block underneath the other two. DAS: As the basic building block of any enterprise storage system, DAS provides block-level storage, and its performance determines the performance of the other systems built on top of it. DAS will typically have high performance but is limited in that it can only be used by the device it is directly attached to until it is connected through either a SAN or NAS network. SAN: SAN, unlike DAS, will allow multiple devices to...

 Introduction Social media sites have connected people from different parts of the world. It has helped distance relatives, family members and friends to re-connect and communicate freely online. People from all walks of life can communicate even though they have never physically met; it’s called the new modern way of interaction. Some of the most popular social media sites include; Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Myspace Social media has literally changed the world of interaction because over 90% of teenagers in America and UK engage in online communication as a means of communicating with friends and family. The Social Media Spam Problem The growth of social media accounts over the past 7 years has been increasingly overwhelming because most students and companies are turning to social sites to earn a living. However, some people are engaging in social networking spam activities by creating inactive accounts on social media. Facebook is the most popular social media account in the world with approximately 1 billion users. This has attracted internet hackers to scam social media users of their money, time, resources and accounts. Hackers are using the Facebook-spread malware because marketing companies are using Facebook accounts to sell and advertise their products or services to...

There is no question that data storage and data accessibility has become a key component of decision making in enterprise. An obvious question then arises- what is the most effective way to handle data? Two methods, flash and disk storage, have been battling for several years, and the jury still out on which we will see more of in the future. Of course, the two methods may not be mutually exclusive. At least for now, both will co-exist and both will likely play in important role in data storage Hard drives are still on top According to one source, hard drive purchases by enterprise are still much higher than flash drives. In fact, shipments of the product recently hit record levels. Shipments of hard drives, which are over 500 million, will continue to rise each year until at least 2016. Compared to the mere 39 million flash drives that were sold in the same amount of time, it would seem that hard drives are by far the current storage unit of choice. Flash storage is on the rise Despite the fact that hard drives are still more popular, the advantages of flash storage are becoming more obvious to enterprise, and as...