Threat actors have been a constant, persistent, and ever-evolving part of doing business in a digital world. For the entire history of digital business, security teams have been trying to keep pace with the threats. On a good day, they might be able to get a few steps ahead. But it’s always a chase. And it only takes falling behind one time to lose big.

Here in North America it’s that spooky time of the year again, Halloween. As always, children look forward to this late-October holiday, the chance to dress up in costumes to go door-to-door and amass large hauls of candy treats, leaving their parents to deal with any later ‘tricks’ from associated sugar highs.

This month is Cybersecurity Awareness Month and at Ivanti we want you to be #BeCyberSmart. We’re focusing on this week’s theme of phishing. In this short video, James Saturnio, Senior Lead Technical Market Advisor at Ivanti, shows the power of Ivanti’s Mobile Threat Defense (MTD) multiple-layered anti-phishing protection to block 10 random phishing URLs from the OpenPhish feed.

Like zero trust security, being a cyber defender is a personal mindset. One can argue that it might be a form of paranoia, but being situationally aware while connected online is a nice behavioral attribute to have given today’s internet climate with the barrage of news regarding ransomware and data breaches.

We’re back with another episode of Ivanti Insights where I spoke with Chris Goettl, VP of Product Management. This week we talked about some of the news making the biggest headlines in cybersecurity. Topics included the recent critical flaw found in Apple devices, how hackers are using remote code execution to mine for cryptocurrency, and how the SolarWinds hackers may be making a comeback.

Like a football or soccer team, security also has two lineups that must be continuously managed. One lineup involves protecting the digital assets and data of a business. The other: managing the security risk and vulnerability exposure of these environments and endpoints. The tension between these two lineups keep security and IT very busy. There is a critical shortage of expert security professionals, which means no expanding the bench of talent, even if you can afford it.

Many, many years ago I briefly taught in an undergraduate chemistry laboratory (mainly marking scripts and samples, as well as extinguishing the occasional fire). I noticed that although students could achieve a reasonable grade by just following the text they were given and answering, “it turned blue” (or whatever), the really good students who got the best results took the time to understand how and why it turned blue.

Microsoft Windows 11 is now available. In the coming weeks and months, PC vendors will offer an option to purchase a new computer with Windows 10 or Windows 11. Ivanti UEM solutions provide immediate support of Windows 11, allowing IT to discover, manage, secure and service these devices. Regardless of rolling out Windows 11 day-one or taking your time, Ivanti UEM is ready when you are.

Here at Ivanti, we are excited about Android 12. I’m pleased to share that we offer day-zero compatibility and key feature support across the Ivanti product portfolio for the new features built into Google’s updated OSs. Android 12 brings plenty of new things to see and experience with a combination of security and privacy.

Cybersecurity Awareness Month, now in its 18th year, is an opportunity to highlight the continually escalating conflict that is, for the most part, hidden from the public – unless it becomes media-worthy. Every day, those who are responsible for security (IT staff, threat and security analysts to CISOs) face new challenges. Digital transformation has accelerated at hyperspeed because organizations are focused on adjusting to COVID-19 disruptions.