Beyond AI, What Are The Biggest IT Challenges For 2024?

Get clear-eyed insight from futurist Bernard Marr in this article revealing his predictions for the top challenges and opportunities that will face IT leaders in 2024. From cybercrime and data privacy to remote work to infrastructure to sustainability, Marr shares projections on leading trends and the implications for IT leaders and decision makers. Read the article and get ideas on reimagining IT with future-ready strategies to drive business success in the New Year and beyond.

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Happy Holidays & Happy New Year

Wishing you and yours a happy holiday season!

Cybercriminals are tricky! They can secretly install ransomware by…

 Cybercriminals are tricky! They can secretly install ransomware by…

Sending scam e-mails with bad links or infected attachments

Sneaking into your server through vulnerabilities and installing malware

Using infected websites to automatically install malicious software to your devices

Make sure you have someone you trust continuously monitoring your account to detect and remediate any issues like this.

📲Schedule a FREE 10-Minute Discovery Call to find out how we can do this for you - https://www.fidelitech.net/discoverycall/ 

Microsoft a Leader in the 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Desktop as a Service

The desktop as a service (DaaS) market continues to grow, as does the need by organizations for flexible and secure remote access. In this free copy of Gartner's inaugural Magic Quadrant for DaaS, you'll read about the key DaaS solutions and providers - and learn why Gartner rated Microsoft a "Leader."

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Eurowings enhances security, will reduce operating costs by 50+ percent with Azure Virtual Desktop

Eurowings, Lufthansa Group's low-cost airline, serves more than 40 million customers at 100 destinations around the world. When the company's on-premises server farms, which provide application access and security to thousands of external and contract employees, needed upgrading, Eurowings decided to ditch its on-prem servers and embrace the cloud with Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop. Tim Thomer, Enterprise Architect at Eurowings explains:. "We wanted a cloud VDI solution capable of running modern authentication, and which could match our existing infrastructure in terms of security and reliability. That's how we found Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop." Read the Eurowings story of cloud adoption in this Microsoft article.

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Georgia Banking Company turbocharges growth

Georgia Banking Company in Atlanta, GA has grown from a $600 million bank to a $1.5 billion phenomenon in only two years. That kind of rapid growth is good news for the company but challenging for its IT security staff. Fortunately, the bank's plans called for enhanced security. Georgia Banking Co. adopted Microsoft Azure with VPN Gateway, Microsoft Defender, Sentinel, Purview Data Loss Prevention and other Microsoft security solutions. The highly bankable result? Substantial savings, best-in-class user experience for employees and customers, and heightened security draw rave reviews from IT and other employees. Read this interesting story.

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Annnouncing new Windows 11 innovation, with features for secure, efficient IT management and intuitive user experience

Microsoft is committed to delivering continuous innovation to Windows 11. In this article, Microsoft showcases many of the new privacy, security and accessibility features that Microsoft has added to Windows 11 this year. Find out what new innovations are available to you in Windows 11.

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Announcing Public Preview of Personal Desktop Autoscale on Azure Virtual Desktop

Good news! You can now preview Microsoft's Personal Desktop Autoscale, which is Azure Virtual Desktop's native scaling solution that automatically starts session host virtual machines according to schedule. With Personal Desktop Autoscale, you can save costs by shutting down idle session hosts while ensuring session hosts can be started by users when needed. Find out more in this article.

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Westpac transforms IT and enables secure, inclusive, flexible work with Windows 11 Enterprise

Westpac, one of the largest banks in Australia, wanted to improve support for its more than 40,000 people, including its hybrid workforce, by transforming its IT environment. In 2023, the bank chose a solution based on Windows 11 Enterprise E5 and Microsoft cloud services which has since improved user experience for staff and supported secure flexible work that is inclusive of all work styles. Read the story.

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Top Reasons Why Encryption is Crucial for Security and Privacy!

 

In today's highly connected world, the need for strong cybersecurity measures has become more important than ever. One of the most effective ways to protect sensitive information and ensure privacy is through encryption. Here are the top reasons why individuals and businesses of all sizes should be encrypting their computer systems and sensitive data:

1. Protection from Unauthorized Access

Encryption adds a layer of security to sensitive information by converting it into unreadable text, which can only be decoded using the right encryption key. This prevents unauthorized individuals from accessing critical data even if they manage to break into a system. Encrypting everything from emails to financial transactions helps safeguard against cyberattacks and limits the damage in case of a breach.

2. Maintaining Privacy

In an age where privacy is increasingly under threat from a multitude of sources, encrypting communications and data storage provides a crucial defense mechanism. This ensures that confidential information remains private and secure, allowing individuals and businesses to operate with the peace of mind that their sensitive data is protected.

3. Compliance with Legal and Compliance Regulations

Governments and regulatory authorities often require organizations to encrypt their data in order to comply with laws such as GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI-DSS. Ensuring data is encrypted helps businesses avoid costly fines, lawsuits, and reputational damage that could result from non-compliance.

4. Preventing Data Theft in Case of Lost or Stolen Devices

When mobile devices or laptops containing sensitive information are lost or stolen, encryption can prevent unauthorized access to the data stored on them. If the device is encrypted, the thief will find it nearly impossible to access or misuse any personal or corporate information without the decryption key. Using complex passwords and even dual factor push authentication are a must in order to prevent a bad actor from circumventing the encryption.

5. Securing Data at Rest During Storage

Data stored on hard drives, servers, and in the cloud can still be vulnerable to theft or hacking. By encrypting this stored data, it becomes unreadable to anyone without the proper decryption key, ensuring that even if physical or cloud storage is compromised, the information remains secure.

The Role of Encryption Tools and Technologies

Various tools and technologies, such as BitLocker and VeraCrypt are available for implementing encryption on different platforms and for different types of data. These encryption solutions help keep data safe by providing robust algorithms and advanced key management systems that are hard to crack. Additionally, many of these tools include user-friendly interfaces and integrations with popular software to make encryption accessible to a wider audience and even automatic once configured.

In conclusion, encryption is an essential part of any cybersecurity strategy. It helps protect sensitive data from unauthorized access, maintains privacy, ensures compliance with regulations, and prevents data theft when devices are lost or stolen. By adopting the right encryption tools and technologies, individuals, small businesses, and large corporations can significantly reduce the risk of cyberattacks and ensure that their information remains secure and private.

If you have questions about cyber security or some other IT-related issues for your business? Go to https://www.Fidelitech.net/discoverycall to book a quick, 10-minute call.

For a free security assessment, schedule an appointment at https://www.fidelitech.net/semperarmor.

 

#cybersecurity #encryption #BitLocker #VeraCrypt #dataprivacy #ITSupport #ITServices

Microsoft Digital Defense Report

Cybersecurity professionals need to keep up to date on the latest cyber-threat trends. This report from Microsoft analysts covers the threat landscape from IoT and infrastructure threats to disinformation campaigns, ransomware, and guidelines for thwarting these complex new threats. Each chapter provides the key lessons learned and insights based on Microsoft's unique vantage point. The trillions of signals that Microsoft analyzes from its worldwide ecosystem of products and services reveal the ferocity, scope, and scale of digital threats across the globe. You and your security team can read this comprehensive report on threats and Microsoft technologies that identify and block billions of phishing attempts, identity thefts, and other cyber-threats to Microsoft customers.

View: Microsoft Digital Defense Report

IBM Security 2023 Cost of a Data Breach Report

IBM's 2023 Cost of a Data Breach Report — conducted by Ponemon Institute and sponsored by IBM— examines the root causes and both short-term and long-term consequences of data breaches. The report includes information from 553 organizations impacted by data breaches that occurred between March 2022 and March 2023 and explores the various factors and technologies that either limited or increased the costs of a breach. Download the report and learn what works, and doesn't, in preventing data breaches.

View: IBM Security 2023 Cost of a Data Breach Report

Azure Virtual Desktop Watermarking Support

Need help learning to use the new Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop Watermarking feature? We have it here! Watermarking is an optional protection feature to Screen Capture in Virtual Desktop that acts as a deterrent for data leakage. This watermarking capability was first introduced in Feb 2023 via Public Preview of Windows Desktop clients. With General Availability, we're introducing support for Azure Virtual Desktop web client. Read how to access Watermarking support in this article.

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Top insights and best practices from the new Microsoft Data Security Index report | Microsoft Security Blog

Data security is a constant concern of CISOs and business executives. To better understand the security issues, Microsoft partnered with the independent research agency Hypothesis Group to conduct a multinational survey involving more than 800 data security professionals. Our collaborative effort has resulted in the publication of the Data Security Index report, designed to offer valuable insights into current data security practices and trends. Moreover, it aims to identify practical opportunities for organizations to enhance their data security efforts. In this article, you'll learn some of the key findings from the report, including: - Data security incidents remain frequent - Vulnerabilities manifest in various dimensions due to a diverse set of factors - How a fragmented solution landscape can weaken an organization's data security posture

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