Knowing When Your Data Center Needs to be Updated

Technology, unlike any other field, replaces its former iterations at an incredibly fast rate. This is particularly true for cybersecurity, where monitoring and logging methods have to keep up with rapidly-evolving hacking strategies. For the millions of businesses that rely on technology, hardware and software upgrades are a serious consideration when it comes to ensuring the security of their assets. Unfortunately, these can sometimes come at a hefty price point, especially if they are new. This article will detail when and how you should update your data center to help you maximize your data center security as well as your upgrade investments.

Update Your Cloud Security Solutions, Not Just Your Tech

One of the greatest threats to any data center, CSP, or CSP client is misconfiguration. As cloud computing services become a more and more sophisticated and integral form of business infrastructure, the virtual configurations of them become increasingly complex.

Complexity is a huge challenge for many businesses that rely on their data centers for reliable and responsive data storage, computing, and process automation. Data centers that support these types of services – and that are particularly complex – may be subject to noticeable security gaps that could compromise your data center and your business.

Server misconfiguration is independent of just technology upgrades. It involves updating the code, processes, and responsibilities associated with protecting server information from unauthorized users. The difficulty with optimizing configuration is that, depending on the complexity of the server, there may be unknown cybersecurity vulnerabilities. If this is the case, then hostile actors may be able to infiltrate your firewalls and your data center with very little obstruction.

Virtually any program used to create or modify a document, image, audio or video clip is What is productivity software.

Data center leaders need look no further than the Capital One data breach back in 2019 to understand the importance of server configuration as it relates to cloud security. In the case of Capital One, poorly integrated cloud security solutions resulted in over one hundred million credit card applications and accounts. The Capital One case illustrates how important it is to proactively improve your data center and its security before it is too late.

Proactively Perform Your Data Center Upgrades

According to a 2020 Cloud Threat and Security Report, about 79% of research respondents claimed that they had increased their security focus following a data breach or loss of data. This statistic illustrates two points: 1) Learn from your mistakes and 2) Don’t wait till after your security solutions have failed before you invest in data center upgrades.

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Digital Forensics is a Necessity

The fundamental problem with security is that it is never 100% effective. Considering how fast technology is changing, it is unrealistic to assume that the strongest cybersecurity methods now will be just as effective in a couple of years – or even six months. That is why it is important to not only proactively prepare but also to proactively learn. If a data breach does occur, one should have the digital forensics expertise and resources to evaluate their failure.

Because if a company was not able to identify the source or entry point of its data breach, then it may be susceptible to a similar data center cyberattack in the future. An effective way to avoid this outcome is by preparing a detailed incident response plan. This outlines the roles, responsibilities, and course of action a firm and its players will take in the event that their data center, and the data, is compromised. That being said, waiting for a data breach in order to learn how to prevent it is a counterintuitive philosophy. In using that approach, organizations will constantly be preparing for past cyber threats and not new ones. Therefore, it is imperative that companies are proactively evaluating their cybersecurity threats and upgrading their data center accordingly.

Stay Up-to-Date on Upgrades and Incidents

The most valuable aspect of a proactive upgrade approach is that security leaders can identify when and how they should update their data centers before an incident occurs. Cybersecurity threats, for instance, have become a perpetual force in the digital world. Like any form of crime, it will continue to find new ways to manifest and exploit existing systems. For this reason, IT executives should be actively researching the hacking strategies currently being used against businesses other than their own.

This allows firms to utilize and apply the knowledge acquired from a successful data breach without having had their own data compromised. But proactive research doesn’t just apply to data center cyberattacks, either. It also should include how other organizations are maintaining and upgrading their data centers. The more connected your IT staff is with the security and productivity trends of cybercriminals and data center companies, the more informed and protected they and their assets will be.

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Author Bio:

Anas Chbib is the Founder and CEO of AGT – Advanced German Technology, a leading cybersecurity firm. He’s worked with corporations, government agencies, law enforcement, and intelligence services across the globe combatting emerging cybersecurity threats and is a consultant at the largest Digital Forensics Lab in the EMEA region. In 2020 AGT was acknowledged with an MEA Business Award and as the Cyber Security Training Consultancy of the Year.

Anas holds a Business Administration and Computer Science degree from the University of Cologne.