Our world has been turned upside down by COVID-19. Whether it's strategically planning our grocery run decontamination process, or trying to keep the kids quiet for even one single moment while on a conference call — things are different. One very evident difference is the change in the way we meet with each other. And one technology enabling this change is Zoom.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, also known as HIPAA, is a compliance standard that was implemented after all health-related information was digitized. The crux of the act is to ensure that all sensitive electronic protected health information (ePHI) has restricted, secure access. Various aspects of your network determine your compliance with HIPAA standards. Let’s discuss some of these important components in detail.

eBPF is a hot topic right now; most of the infrastructure-focused conferences and events have included talks on eBPF over the past year, which is creating a lot of interest in the technology. You might be wondering what eBPF is. eBPF stands for “extended Berkeley Packet Filter” which is a feature in modern Linux kernels that allows you to write mini-programs that are attached to low-level hooks in the Linux kernel, that execute based on certain events (e.g. filtering network traffic).

Work, education, and even many of our leisure activities have all moved on-line at an incredible pace due to current social distancing mandates. The digital backbone of the Internet and the SaaS services that drive our personal and professional lives are now foundational. Ensuring that these systems are operating optimally and securely is of paramount importance.

Just recently, the World Health Organization declared coronavirus a global pandemic. This decision brought with it several health and safety measures, and normal life came to a halt in many countries. This resulted in many organizations around the world adopting telecommuting methods to prevent the spread of COVID-19. While people are adjusting to the sudden changes in the way they work, cybercriminals are using this opportunity to exploit new vulnerabilities the work-from-home environment presents.

You may have noticed some URLs have the added S after “http.” This means a site has SSL security. SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer. It keeps sensitive information, like social security numbers, credit card numbers, login credentials, or medical records, from being intercepted by encrypting the data while it passes between servers. Now, you might be thinking, if I don’t sell things online then I don’t need SSL security. Think again.

In the past few weeks, financial firms and governments have had to build and launch websites in a hurry — for a multitude of reasons including the emergency loan programmes that have been backed by various governments around the world including the USA and Europe.

Five worthy reads is a regular column on five noteworthy items we’ve discovered while researching trending and timeless topics. This week, we highlight the importance of creating and enforcing a solid cybersecurity strategy for employees who work remotely.

Over 44 records are stolen per second every day due to data breaches, and according to the Risk Based Security Research report published in 2019, databases are the top most targeted assets for malicious actors to exploit organizations’ confidential data. Often, organizations don’t realize their databases have been compromised for months. Once sensitive data is leaked, the damage can’t be undone.