Print.IT Reseller - issue 62

01732 759725 4 BULLETIN The biggest threat Against the backdrop of a complex and growing cyber threat landscape, organisations are waking up to the fact that one of the biggest chinks in their armour against a data security breach is humans. Attracting 12,527 responses, a Twitter poll conducted by Apricorn, found that 65% of respondents believe that humans pose the biggest threat to their personal data. More than half (52%) believe that people with malicious intent present the biggest danger, whilst 13% believe that unintentional human error is also a risk. In stark comparison, just 35% of those polled see technology as a threat to personal data. The Apricorn poll also found that over a quarter (27%) of respondents admitted that they had either lost, misplaced or had a device stolen containing sensitive corporate information. www.apricorn.com Commercial disputes cost billions Commercial disputes are reportedly costing small businesses up to £11.6bn a year in litigation fees, the Federation of Small Businesses has reported. These hefty costs are said to have affected 70% of SMEs between 2010 and 2015. With 5.7 million small to medium enterprises operating in the UK in 2018, that equates to a potential of 3.9 million businesses facing some kind of dispute last year. www.fsb.org.uk 40% of UK businesses risking a data breach A survey of 1,050 UK workers in full or part-time employment, carried out by technology services provider Probrand .co.uk has revealed that 44% of businesses are failing to properly protect their client and employee data by not adequately securing their server. According to Probrand’s data, more than 1 in 3 (37%) of the UK workers surveyed said they do not believe they have important information stored on their server, revealing just how naïve many workers are about the sensitive nature of both the commercial and personal data they are storing. www.Probrand.co.uk London revealed as global hub for CX London takes pole position as the top city globally for senior customer experience (CX) job opportunities, research by global reviews and customer insights technology company Feefo has found. The research reveals that London, with 2,668 vacancies, has over five times (532%) more senior CX job opportunities than the average of 422 for the rest of the world. “Customer experience is overtaking price and product as the number one differentiator for business and in response to this, the CX sector has grown massively in London over recent years,” said Steph Heasman, Director of Customer Success Feefo. “The number of senior job opportunities now available is a reflection of the commitment businesses are making to improve the customer journey,” she continued. “To drive this forward, businesses must now consider the transformative role of technology, as maximising the customer journey requires insight as well as human resources.” www.feefo.com Survey reveals 30% increase in consumer data loss The Acronis 2019 World Backup Day Survey revealed that 65.1% of consumers polled said either they or a family member lost data as a result of an accidental deletion, hardware failure or software problem – a jump of almost 30% from last year. Alarmingly, fewer than half of respondents are aware of the online attacks that threaten their data, such as ransomware (46%), cryptomining malware (53%) and social engineering attacks (52%) used to spread malware. Education on these dangers seems to be slow, as the number of consumers who know about ransomware only increased 4% since last year. www.acronis.com Confidence in the cloud For the first time, a majority of companies are putting mission-critical apps in the cloud, according to the latest report by Cloud Foundry Foundation. The study revealed that companies treat digital transformation as a constant cycle of adaptation rather than a one-time fix. As part of that process, cloud technologies such as Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), containers and serverless continue to grow at scale, while microservices and AI/ML are next to be integrated into their workflows. As more companies embrace the reality of digital transformation, they are adapting to the iterative journey that unfolds. 74% of respondents equate digital transformation to “perpetual shifts and constant adaption of new technology,” compared to 26% who view digital transformation as a “one-time change and adoption of new technology.” More than three quarters of IT decision-makers believe digital transformation is a reality, and 86% of CIOs, CTOs and line of business leaders agree. www.cloudfoundry.org Rise in the use of document-based malware Barracuda researchers have uncovered an alarming new rise in the use of document-based malware. A recent email analysis revealed that 48% of all malicious files detected in the last 12 months were some kind of document. More than 300,000 unique malicious documents were identified. Since the beginning of 2019, however, these types of document-based attacks have been increasing in frequency – dramatically. In the first quarter of the year, 59% of all malicious files detected were documents, compared to 41% the prior year. www.barracuda.com