Experts on the Top Information Security Considerations for the High Tech Industry
24 March 2018
High tech companies are impacting and innovating every industry, from healthcare and manufacturing to consumer goods and travel. The very nature of the high tech industry makes it particularly vulnerable to many of the advanced threats that exist in the modern landscape. Threats originate from inside and outside the organization and result from unpatched vulnerabilities, third-party applications, and employee negligence. High tech companies must remain vigilant and maintain a robust security posture to protect not only the company's sensitive data, but also the wealth of data generated by customers and users. To find out what information security concerns are most prominent for today's high tech companies, we reached out to a panel of industry leaders and infosec pros and asked them:
"WHAT ARE THE TOP INFORMATION SECURITY CONCERNS FOR THE HIGH TECH INDUSTRY?"
MEET OUR PANEL OF HIGH TECH INDUSTRY PROS AND INFOSEC EXPERTS:
Sundeep Narang
Isaac Kohen
Siobhan McNamara
Andy Jordan
Robert Siciliano
Alexis Zanger
Tom Rowley
Tyler Riddell
Bob Herman
Lindsey Havens
Alexandra Kovaleva
Ryan Kroonenburg
Chris Carter
Jeremy Vance
Daryl Heinz
Chris Roberts
Heather Howland
David Dingwall
Matt C. Pinsker
Andrew McDonnell
Read on to learn what our security and IT pros had to say about the biggest infosec concerns facing today's high tech companies, and what you can do to mitigate these prominent risks.
Sundeep NarangSUNDEEP NARANG
@sundeepnarang
Sundeep Narang is a Node.js-based full-stack web application developer and Senior Software Engineer at Quality EDGAR Solutions, Inc. He has a passion for innovation and has been creating enterprise-scale applications, single-handedly, for two years. Sundeep came to the United States to study Computer Science at New York University.
"In this age of smart devices, the amount and sensitivity of user data has increased overwhelmingly..."
Voice activated assistants, smart watches, and biometric screen locks store the very essence of the user. Any breach to this information can easily lead to identity theft or worse. Security has never been more in demand and needed. Some of the top information security concerns to high tech firms would be as follows:
Unpatchable Vulnerabilities
Recently it was discovered that every Intel and AMD processor is vulnerable. These vulnerabilities, named Meltdown and Spectre, exist in the hardware architecture of the processor. The software patches that have been made aren’t stable or reliable and can reduce the speed of a system up to 20%. This means nearly every computer on the planet is currently vulnerable. We can’t trace any exploitation of these vulnerabilities as they leave no evidence, nor do we know how long it will be before we get a good patch. This leaves a big hole in security for any company – even cloud-hosted systems are vulnerable.
