It’s National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and as a Cybersecurity Awareness Month Champion Organization, xMatters is proud to be actively participating. Since the National Cybersecurity Alliance started this initiative in 2004, the number of devices connected to the internet and the amount of time we spend interacting online has increased exponentially. The impact on our lives is so massive that it’s become hard to imagine what life would be like without our devices.

If you’re wondering if that classic car you’ve been scoping out on Bring a Trailer or eBay Motors is as authentic as posited by the seller – specifically re: the common claims of “original paint” or “high quality respray” – you’re going to want to take a closer look around the edges. This is because a talented painter can make a second or 30th-hand vehicle look pretty snazzy with a well-affected, if not super high-quality, repaint.

A couple of weeks ago, TIgera engineers released the new version of Calico, as part of a community effort to drive cloud security and networking even further. But before I begin diving into the details of this new release, I want to first spotlight a few of our community members who have merged their contributions to Calico Open Source for the first time.

We recently broadcast a webinar to discuss DDoS trends and developments. Our partner Cloudflare had their cybersecurity evangelist, Ameet Naik, join us along with our own Doug Madory, head of internet analysis. I had the pleasure of moderating the discussion.

How easy is it to work with your security tools? So easy that you’re telling all your family and friends and you singing their praises from the occasional rooftop? Well, we sure hope so. Security tools, like any other tool, should help you save time, not waste it. Nobody would have invented a drill if screwdrivers were fast enough — but it’s also up to you to make sure you are using your drill and all the other power tools available in the modern world.