DEV Community: Navcharan singh

Advantages of using GPUs for Video Rendering and Processing

Navcharan singh — Mon, 22 Apr 2024 09:21:13 +0000

Video rendering, editing and processing are commonplace today. Though businesses are extensively using video broadcasts to showcase their products and services, they were late to join the bandwagon. The proliferation of content streaming and social media services gave humanity the first collective taste of the power of video editing and processing. Over the years, continuous technological advancements have led to notable improvements in the quality of video rendering. The virtual processing market was pegged at USD 2.1 billion in 2023 and is poised to expand at ~20% CAGR from 2023 to 2030.

Enterprises/ individuals may use Central Processing Units (CPUs) or Graphical Processing Units (GPUs) for their video rendering and processing workloads. The choice between these depends not only on individual preferences and requirements, but also on these hardware’s capabilities, efficiencies and pricing. However, as the name suggests, GPUs were conceived for video processing/ rendering and handling complex graphical elements. This article will help you figure out the advantages of deploying GPU rather than CPUs for video rendering. But first the basics.

What is Video Rendering?

Video rendering refers to the transformation of digital data by compute systems/ streaming services into finished videos that can be viewed on supported devices such as televisions, computer monitors, smartphones, projectors, etc. The rendering process combines visual elements such as image sequences, footage, special effects, animations, subtitles and other text overlays into a single video file. Additionally, video rendering encompasses both video encoding and decoding processes.

Video rendering is widely regarded as the most hardware-intensive process in computing.

What is Video Processing?

Video processing involves the editing of video clips, image frames and the sound recorded in video files. Video editors and VFX engineers utilize specialized software and peripheral video editing equipment to carry out video processing tasks.

What are the Advantages of Using GPUs for Video Rendering and Processing?

GPUs have witnessed unprecedented demand in recent years given their extraordinary contribution to the interlinked fields of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and Natural Language Processing (NLP). Prior to this, their sales received tremendous boost because of the notorious proliferation of cryptocurrency mining. However, rendering high-quality graphics and professional video content remains the arena where GPUs remain inalienable. This is because of several reasons –

Superior performance:

Whether video rendering or processing, GPUs have always set the benchmark. Depending on the generation, a single GPU can deliver 5-20 times faster performance compared to traditional CPU-based rendering. This is because GPU are architected to incorporate a significantly higher number of processing cores which can parallelly execute identical tasks, thereby achieving greater throughput and reduced latency in video editing or rendering. Thus, a graphics designer/ video content creator can seamlessly load heavy graphics without lag or stutter.

Cost efficiency:

The adoption of GPUs has considerably reduced the expenditure incurred in generating high-end graphics/ videos. Given that a GPU can process a workload several times faster than a CPU, there is sizeable difference in the total time to market, thereby saving many man-hours. This is especially relevant to animation studios and the VFX industry where this aggregate difference in output will be substantial. Furthermore, GPUs are more energy-efficient vis-a-vis CPUs. Lower operating time + Reduced power consumption = Lower Total Cost of Ownership.

Scalability:

This is applicable mostly when utilizing GPU resources via Cloud services. Using Cloud GPUs for video rendering/ processing confers two distinct advantages over CPUs – (i) effortless scale-up wherein enterprises can subscribe to additional GPUs when adding more manpower/ taking up additional business, and (ii) seamless flexibility when individual users wish to switch between GPUs depending on their use case. Moreover, video editors and render engines can also access multiple GPUs running on a single physical CPU/ virtual instance for additional firepower when working on exceedingly detailed projects.

Dedicated cores:

Whereas all GPUs come equipped with hundreds of processing cores that can simultaneously take up complex mathematical calculations involved in image/ frame rendering, many GPUs now come with dedicated Tensor cores and Raytracing cores which excel at handling video workloads such as photorealistic 3D visualization, shadows and light bounce effects, etc. Moreover, utilizing dedicated cores for design and rendering of graphics frees up CPU resources for routine backend jobs such as OS control, firewall management, etc., thereby reducing context-switching latency which creeps in when exclusively utilizing CPU resources for video editing.

Software support:

Most video processing software such as Adobe After Effects, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Premiere Pro, D5 Render, Cinema 4D, etc. can be further optimized through GPU acceleration and feature native and third-party support for GPU integration to enhance performance.

Which Domains Benefit from Using GPUs for Video Rendering & Processing?

GPU manufacturers like Nvidia and AMD are at the forefront of a relentless pursuit to streamline video processing while ensuring accuracy and maximizing graphics quality. Key areas where GPUs have proven their competency include:

Video encoding:

Video encoding involves compressing and altering video content format to reduce its digital footprint. Encoding is especially crucial for streaming/ sharing video content to multiple subscribers/ devices. Video encoding using GPUs is significantly faster, and content creators can export high-resolution ultra-HD videos using H.264 or H.265/ HEVC codecs up to five times faster than CPU-encoding. Reduced encoding time equals efficient video editing workflow equals disbursement of more content to subscribers.

3D graphics rendering:

Modern film industry, digital marketing executives and video game developers have embraced 3D graphics and VFX as a means of enhancing engagement with viewers/ gamers. Pokemon Go owes its immense popularity to having brought augmented reality to the real world without requiring specialized hardware. Creating commercial-quality 3D graphics, realistic visual effects and enhanced realty modules necessitates the usage of GPUs to accelerate the design, development and deployment process.

Creating 3D video content and game graphics is extremely compute-intensive and time consuming. Hence, various video editing software suites and game engines heavily rely on GPUs.

AI-assisted content creation:

Artificial Intelligence is a transformative force that has brought paradigm shift across domains, including the video industry. Various new-age companies like Blackmagic Design are collaborating with GPU manufacturers like Nvidia to integrate AI capabilities into video editing software. AI techniques allow for depth mapping in images and videos, surface tracking in image objects, object mask tracking, and more. These advancements in video rendering leverage color grading, color scoping, etc. which can be significantly sped up via GPUs.

Conclusion

In this article, we’ve underscored the suitability of GPUs as prime hardware for accelerating video rendering tasks. But we understand that the sheer number of GPUs available in the market can bewilder anyone who is not a tech enthusiast. Moreover, the potential and processing capabilities of GPUs improve with each new generation. Any video content creator/ gamer/ streamer worth her salt would bet on the inalienability of GPUs and yet be confused when it comes to recommending ideal GPUs for their domain. Afterall, so many parameters must be weighed – processor cores, shader count, raytracing support, memory bandwidth, VRAM, price-performance ratio, benchmark performance, etc.

We love talking about GPUs, especially Cloud GPUs, and would be thrilled to discuss how we can help optimize your video rendering/ editing process.

How To Train Your Employees in Cybersecurity Awareness

Navcharan singh — Thu, 02 Mar 2023 07:11:06 +0000

Cybersecurity threats have become increasingly sophisticated and complex, making protecting an organization's critical assets and data more challenging. As a result, educating employees on the importance of cybersecurity and how to recognize and respond to potential threats is essential. Cybersecurity awareness training can reduce the risk of a security breach, minimize the impact of a security incident, and safeguard sensitive information.

This blog post aims to provide a comprehensive guide on training employees in cybersecurity awareness. It will cover the necessary steps to assess your organization's cybersecurity risks, design a cybersecurity awareness training program, determine the essential topics to cover, engage employees, and evaluate the effectiveness of the training.

Assess Your Organization's Cybersecurity Risks

Assessing an organization's cybersecurity risks is essential to identify potential vulnerabilities and threats that could compromise the organization's critical assets and data. Here are some reasons why assessing cybersecurity risks is necessary:

Identify potential weaknesses: Assessing cybersecurity risks helps identify weaknesses in an organization's systems, processes, and infrastructure. This allows for proactive measures to be taken to address vulnerabilities before cybercriminals exploit them.

Prioritize security resources: Prioritizing cybersecurity risks helps to prioritize security resources and investments. It enables organizations to focus on areas most vulnerable to cyber threats, allowing them to allocate resources more effectively.

Compliance: Compliance requirements such as HIPAA, PCI-DSS, and GDPR mandate that organizations assess their cybersecurity risks regularly. Failure to comply with these regulations can result in hefty fines and legal liabilities.

Reputation: A cybersecurity breach can damage an organization's reputation and lead to a loss of customer trust. Assessing cybersecurity risks helps to minimize the likelihood of a data breach, which allows for maintaining the organization's reputation.

Business continuity: Cybersecurity breaches can disrupt an organization's operations, leading to financial losses and reputational damage. Assessing cybersecurity risks helps to identify potential threats and vulnerabilities that could affect business continuity and enable organizations to implement measures to prevent disruptions.

Assessing cybersecurity risks is critical to ensuring that an organization's critical assets and data are protected from cyber threats. It helps to prioritize security investments, comply with regulations, maintain the organization's reputation, and ensure business continuity.

Let's look at all the steps you must take for a thorough assessment.

Conducting a cybersecurity risk assessment

Before designing a cybersecurity awareness training program, it's crucial to conduct a comprehensive cybersecurity risk assessment to identify the potential risks and vulnerabilities that could impact your organization. A risk assessment should involve identifying and assessing the critical assets, data, and systems that require protection.

Identifying cybersecurity threats

Once you've assessed your organization's critical assets, you need to identify the potential cybersecurity threats that could exploit vulnerabilities in your system. Cybersecurity threats can range from malware, phishing attacks, social engineering, ransomware, and insider threats.

Identifying critical assets and data

Identifying critical assets and data is crucial in determining the level of protection required for each resource. Critical assets may include sensitive information such as customer data, financial data, and intellectual property.

Creating a risk mitigation plan

After identifying the cybersecurity threats and critical assets, you need to develop a risk mitigation plan that outlines the measures you'll take to reduce the risks. This plan should cover the policies and procedures that employees must follow to protect critical assets and data.

Creating a Cybersecurity Awareness Training Program

The awareness training program is your employees' guide through this journey. Here's how you make one:

Designing a cybersecurity awareness training program

The cybersecurity awareness training program should be designed to meet the specific needs of your organization. It should be tailored to the cybersecurity risks identified during the risk assessment process.

Choosing the right training methods

There are various methods of delivering cybersecurity awareness training, including classroom training, online training, and simulations. Choosing the right training methods will depend on the size of your organization, the available resources, and the preferred learning style of your employees.

Determining the frequency of training

The frequency of cybersecurity awareness training should be based on the risk level and the changing cybersecurity landscape. Annual or bi-annual training is typically recommended, but additional training may be required when there is a significant change in the cybersecurity risk environment.

Evaluating the effectiveness of the training

It is essential to evaluate the effectiveness of the cybersecurity awareness training program to determine whether it has achieved the desired results. Evaluation can be conducted through surveys, quizzes, or simulations that test employees' knowledge and ability to respond to potential threats.

Essential Topics to Cover in Cybersecurity Awareness Training

Password security

Employees should be educated on the importance of password security and the best practices for creating and managing passwords. This includes using strong and unique passwords, not sharing passwords, and changing passwords regularly.

Phishing and social engineering

Phishing attacks and social engineering are common cybersecurity threats that involve tricking employees into divulging sensitive information. Employees should be trained to recognize these attacks and respond appropriately.

Malware and ransomware

Malware and ransomware are types of software that can infect systems and cause damage or encrypt critical data. Employees should be educated on the signs of malware and ransomware and how to prevent their spread.

Physical security

Physical security is also essential in protecting an organization's critical assets and data. Employees should be trained on the importance of physical security measures such as securing laptops, smartphones, and other devices, preventing unauthorized access to buildings and facilities, and proper disposal of sensitive information.

Reporting incidents and suspicious activity

Employees should be educated on the importance of reporting incidents and suspicious activity to the IT department or cybersecurity team promptly. This includes reporting lost or stolen devices, phishing attempts, malware infections, or any other suspicious activity.

Employee Engagement and Communication

How can you keep you employees involved and invested in this program? Here are a few suggestions:

Importance of employee engagement

Employee engagement is critical in promoting cybersecurity awareness and creating a culture of security. Engaged employees are more likely to participate in cybersecurity awareness training, adopt best practices, and report security incidents.

Communicating the importance of cybersecurity awareness

It's essential to communicate the importance of cybersecurity awareness to employees and how it relates to the protection of the organization's critical assets and data. Communication can be done through email campaigns, posters, newsletters, and regular updates on cybersecurity risks.

Encouraging employee participation

Encouraging employee participation in cybersecurity awareness training can be achieved through various methods such as gamification, incentives, and friendly competitions. This helps to make the training more engaging and enjoyable, increasing the likelihood of participation.

Rewarding good behavior

Rewarding employees who exhibit good cybersecurity practices can help to reinforce positive behavior and encourage others to adopt best practices. Rewards can include recognition, bonuses, or promotions.

Conclusion

Cybersecurity awareness training is essential in protecting an organization's critical assets and data from cybersecurity threats. It helps to educate employees on how to recognize and respond to potential threats and promotes a culture of security within the organization.

Creating an effective cybersecurity awareness training program requires a comprehensive risk assessment, tailored training content, and a culture of engagement and communication. Regular evaluation and feedback can help to ensure that the training program is effective in reducing cybersecurity risks.

As the cybersecurity landscape evolves, new threats and risks will emerge, and it's essential to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and technologies. Future considerations may include incorporating machine learning and artificial intelligence into cybersecurity awareness training, increasing the use of simulations, and creating more personalized training content based on employees' individual needs and learning styles.

Why DNS Protection is Crucial in E-Commerce

Navcharan singh — Tue, 10 Jan 2023 09:12:46 +0000

If you're running an e-commerce business, you know how important it is to keep your data safe. Not only do you have to worry about hackers and cybercriminals, but you also have to worry about DDoS attacks. A DNS attack can take your site offline for hours or even days, costing you money and damaging your reputation. That's why it's crucial to invest in DNS protection services. In this blog post, we'll explain why DNS protection is so important in e-commerce and how ACE-managed DNS filtering can help keep your data safe.

The role of DNS in e-commerce

DNS, or Domain Name System, is a critical component of e-commerce, serving essentially as the address book of the internet. DNS maps domain names to IP addresses so users can access sites and services online. DNS is, therefore, crucial for businesses engaged in e-commerce, as it enables customers to access their websites without issue. For this reason, DNS protection should be taken seriously. DNS servers are vulnerable to attacks from cybercriminals seeking to gain control over website traffic. In response, DNS providers have come up with DNS protection solutions that provide customers with powerful security and prevention measures against malicious attacks such as DDoS threats and DNS hijacking. These DNS protection solutions provide enhanced resilience and redundancy measures against constantly evolving threats, ensuring the reliable functioning of e-commerce websites and safeguarding customer data and assets from malicious actors. With the right DNS protection tools, businesses engaging in e-commerce can efficiently safeguard themselves from any number of potential security issues.

How DNS attacks can harm your business

DNS (Domain Name System) attacks can be a serious threat to any business. DNS is the system used to turn an easy-to-remember domain name into an IP address so that computers can access websites, and DNS attacks take advantage of this by preventing access to legitimate sites or rerouting web traffic to malicious websites. DNS attacks can result in a wide range of possible harms, such as exposing sensitive data, perpetrating financial fraud, or even infecting your systems with viruses or malware. Furthermore, DNS attacks are difficult to mitigate without specialized DNS protection solutions. These provide a layer of defense against DNS-based threats by monitoring changes to DNS records and alerting when suspicious activity takes place. Therefore, DNS protection is highly recommended for businesses looking to ensure their systems are safe from attack. With the right protective measures in place, businesses can protect themselves against DNS-based security incidents and their costly consequences.

The benefits of DNS protection for e-commerce

DNS protection has become increasingly important for e-commerce in today's ever-evolving security landscape.

A DNS protection solution provides an added layer of security for websites and reduce the risk of malicious cyberattack activities such as spoofing DNS queries, malformed DNS responses, denial-of-service attacks, and even monitoring or capturing confidential information from unencrypted communications sessions--all without affecting user experience by controlling latency created by malicious traffic on the network. It works by automatically updating rules each time a new attack vector appears, thus ensuring that most threats are easily identified and remediated before they damage a website or server. Furthermore, it gives detailed insights into ongoing DNS activities that can be used to detect suspicious behaviors or anomalies which could indicate impending dangers or breaches in security protocols in place. This ensures uninterrupted operation of your business’s website plus faster access speeds for online customers—evaluating both cost savings through efficiency plus value gains through customer satisfaction excellence all at the same time! All these benefits make implementing a comprehensive DNS protection solution an absolute must if you are running any kind of e-commerce business today!

How to choose the right DNS protection service for your business

DNS protection is an essential service for businesses of all sizes. It helps to protect DNS servers from malicious activity, ensuring that customers and users can connect securely and reliably. When selecting a DNS protection service for your business, there are several considerations to keep in mind.

Consider the scope and complexity of your DNS infrastructure—some DNS protection solutions require advanced knowledge to configure and manage, while others are more user-friendly.

Look for a DNS protection solution that provides comprehensive network monitoring, robust logging capabilities, and real-time threat analysis.

Make sure that the DNS protection vendor offers excellent customer support if you have questions or experience any issues with the service.

With these points in mind, you should be able to find the right DNS protection solution for your business’ needs. One solution that ensures providing all the above-said capabilities is Ace Cloud Hosting.

Conclusion

DNS protection is a security measure that helps protect your domain name against DNS-based attacks. DNS filtering works by using DNS keywords, IP addresses, and domains to block malicious websites and malicious traffic from reaching your network. This helps prevent hackers from stealing data or hijacking your website. ACE-managed DNS filtering takes DNS protection a step further by offering advanced protection with 24*7 SOC (Security Operations Center) monitoring and tailor-made plans for businesses. With these solutions in place, you can rest easy knowing that any potential threats are being blocked before they reach your system or customers.

5 Things To Consider When Choosing an SIEM Provider

Navcharan singh — Tue, 22 Nov 2022 05:47:35 +0000

Imagine having an alarm clock that goes off every two minutes. There could be nothing more annoying than that, right? You are constantly disturbed, can’t focus on other tasks, and can’t differentiate between all the noise. Security systems without properly configured SIEM solutions lead to similar chaos.

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solutions streamline and analyze all security events and logs from your entire network. With deep visibility and real-time prioritization of security events, your team can quickly respond to threats and ensure minimal damage.

Why Should You Get a SIEM Solution?

SIEM solutions play a central role in a comprehensive security posture. In a way, the solution holds together the entire security system. It aggregates data from multiple sources across your network and generates relevant alerts.

There are significant benefits to having a SIEM solution. When configured and fine-tuned properly, SIEM solutions enhance cybersecurity in the following ways:

Reduces threat identification and response time for security teams, thereby minimizing the potential damage from those threats.
Offers in-depth and holistic visibility of an organization’s entire IT system, making it easier to obtain and analyze behavioral data.
Collates and stores log information in a central repository, thereby making all data instantly accessible.
Performs detailed forensic analysis and post-breach investigation in case of an event.
Sheds light on network dark spots and ensures no dormant threats lurk and laterally move within the network.
Improves regulatory compliance management by ensuring secure data logging and enabling an easy attestation process.

5 Criteria to Keep in Mind When Choosing SIEM

SIEM is not a solution you buy on a whim. It’s a significant investment and has a long buying process. If you’re going to invest as much money and time into procuring a solution, you better make sure what you’re buying covers all your bases.

Here are the five essential points you need to keep in mind when choosing a SIEM solution:

Real-time monitoring, analytics, and alerting capabilities

A SIEM solution driven by real-time analytics is way more efficient than legacy SIEMs. Real-time monitoring and alerting increase the efficiency and efficacy of security teams in many ways:

Provide context-based alerts which help in formulating effective response plans

Include lessons from threat hunting and global threat intelligence feeds

The capability of monitoring and correlating threats in real-time is the turning point in the battle against new-age dynamic attacks. It could be the reason you evade a crippling attack, costly damages, and severe system disruptions.

Attacks move fast and with stealth. Your security team needs to move faster and be constantly alert. For that, you need a SIEM solution with real-time monitoring, analytical, and alerting capabilities.

Integration with native log sources

A SIEM solution is useless if it cannot receive and comprehend security event data from all existing log-generating sources within the organizational network. Essentially, the SIEM solution needs to integrate with core security controls like:

Firewalls
Endpoint security solutions like EDR
Virtual private networks (VPN)
Email gateways
DNS filter and web security gateways
Intrusion prevention systems (IPS)
Antimalware solutions

It is a reasonable expectation that the SIEM solution you choose will possess the capability to natively understand and analyze log files sent by significant products and cloud-based solutions within these categories. If it does not, it adds very little value to your existing security infrastructure.

Relevant use case investigations

You can only leverage the full potential of your SIEM solution if you take the time to build relevant use cases. For that, you must first conduct a thorough internal investigation into what you want to achieve from the SIEM solution. Common SIEM use cases are:

Detecting insider threats and monitoring user activity
Identifying privileged access abuse
Maintaining and securing IoT devices
Spotting trusted entity compromise
Managing critical compliance regulations like HIPAA, PCI DSS, and GDPR Before committing to a SIEM solution, ensure it features a compatible ecosystem, enables user configurations, and supports your unique use cases. The SIEM solution should utilize relevant historical data and conduct comprehensive forensic analysis that promotes efficient use case management.

Scalability and cloud support

You need an agile SIEM solution if you have a growing and dynamic business. The problem with legacy SIEM solutions and on-premises deployments is the bulk. Some forms of SIEM deployment require a lot of hardware installation. In such cases, getting the solution up and running can take around six months.

Modern businesses operating in rapidly changing markets cannot afford bulky SIEM solutions. You need a SIEM that deploys in minimal time and can accommodate an expanding IT environment.

Look into cloud SIEM, also called managed SIEM. New-age SIEM deployment leverages cloud elasticity, flexible data storage, and data lakes. They are far more scalable than on-premises SIEM deployment and can handle the massive data volume generated by large enterprises.

Audit of internal capabilities

The most significant deciding factor when to choosing a SIEM solution is figuring out the deployment model. Should you choose on-premises deployment or managed SIEM? We’ve already covered how managed SIEM provides the advantage of scalability and cloud support. But there are points to consider as well within this decision.

Does your organization have the time, money, and expertise to opt for an on-premises SIEM? While on-premises deployment will give you complete control over the solution, it will also be a much larger investment, take a lot longer to implement, and require a team of skilled security experts.

On the other hand, managed SIEM’s cloud-based deployment offers minimized costs, instant scalability, access to skilled professionals, and easy customization. The choice is yours.

In a Nutshell

The first step in choosing a SIEM solution is conducting an in-depth analysis of your organization’s needs, objectives, and internal capabilities. Post that, you can leverage the pointers mentioned above to analyze various SIEM providers and choose the best fit.

If the multiple advantages of managed SIEM solutions interest you, you should explore Ace Managed SIEM. It’s an advanced, new-age security solution that provides real-time alerts, actionable threat intelligence, in-depth forensic analysis, comprehensive reporting, and compliance management. With a 24/7/365 security operations center at your disposal, Ace equips your organizational network with a centralized platform and an AI-enabled dashboard for full-spectrum visibility.

Take a free trial today!

Step By Step Comparison of Vulnerabilities Vs. Threats Vs. Exploits

Navcharan singh — Tue, 27 Sep 2022 13:12:23 +0000

For every business, it is critical to have a clear, in-depth understanding of their enterprise security and its vernacular to steer clear of the organization of any unwanted risk. In the world of cybersecurity, probably the three most often confused terms are vulnerability, threat, and exploit. Entrepreneurs generally mix these terms up and fog their ability to understand how to protect their security infrastructure and fail-proof it against sophisticated cyber threats. At times, lacking security jargon impedes proper conversation with their IT professionals and security teams.

A study at World Economic Forum revealed that simple human errors have made businesses vulnerable to threats and caused around 95 percent of overall cybersecurity breaches! And the number of new victims falling prey to cybercrime globally is constantly increasing every year.

Hence, understanding threat vs. vulnerability vs. exploit is the first sane step toward achieving a more robust and efficient vulnerability management approach and strengthening your cyber security posture while lowering your cyberattack risk.

To give SMEs and start-ups more clarity so they can handle their cyber security confidently, this blog walks you through the key differences between the three terms and shed light on their significance. Let us dive in.

Vulnerability Vs. Threat Vs. Exploit

Precisely, vulnerability is a loophole or weakness in a security infrastructure or network that exposes a business to different kinds of web threats. Threats are activities that increase the probability of harmful events, such as cyberattacks caused by vulnerability exploitation. An exploit is a process of hackers attacking a vulnerability and benefiting from it.

Since all three are directly related to cyber security risks, let's understand them one by one in detail to prevent potential data loss or damage to critical assets in a business.

What is Vulnerability?

A vulnerability is any weakness or loophole in an organization's security infrastructure that threat agents can leverage to compromise the business's security. In other words, a Security Vulnerability is a flaw, gap, or even human error (known or unknown) within a security environment or process having the potential to be used by attackers to slide into your system and crash/ harm it.

Vulnerabilities can be present in any entity that exists within the security system. For example:

Hardware devices
Operating systems
Software
Applications
Networks
Interfaces
Modules

If you are an IT geek, you know that millions of bugs and viruses are found in the software, plugins, or systems we use - every year! Hence, it is time to take security seriously; else, even basic vulnerabilities can cause businesses to lose everything.

If your vendor is responsible enough, they will generally publish patches from time to time to fix any known vulnerabilities found in their hardware/ software/ app. However, these patches can also have some unknown bugs that you will get to know about only in the future. Attackers might already use these bugs (vulnerabilities) to break into your IT environment and cause a threat to your security.

Solution: Patching vulnerabilities is one thing you can do to stay secure from traditional data breaches, but having a legit vulnerability assessment or a managed Email security solution can protect you from the highest profile attacks and advanced types of email threats.

What is a Threat?

Threats are potential attacks that can damage your data and disrupt your business. Typically, the primary intent of a security threat is to cause harm to your business. When it comes to cyber security, threats can be of two types,

Intentional Threats. As the term suggests, intentional threats are the threats that are created or launched with the intention to cause harm to an enterprise or a network. Viruses such as malware, ransomware (email threats asking for money), worms, phishing scams, and malicious code - all fall under the category of intentional threats. These are all the email threat examples and methods that threat actors use to exploit your organization's security.

Unintentional Threats. Human errors often cause Unintentional threats. For businesses, it is critical to avoid unintentional threats by double-checking their IT environment and security systems or practices from time to time. For example- Not updating your login credentials often, using an Antivirus software/ solution or Firewall from an anonymous third party, not using two-factor authentication, not patching your vulnerabilities or bugs, and not using proper DLP practices.

Solution: Even if you did not intend to handle your security loosely, the bad actors can still benefit from this and cause a threat to your sensitive information if left unmonitored. To stop this from happening, businesses need to know that threats and vulnerabilities are real and practice strong security practices to keep intentional/ unintentional threats at bay.

What is an Exploit?

Exploitation is the step in an attacker's playbook where they try to find a way to get into the security network after they find a vulnerability that they can exploit. Although an exploit is not part of the equation Threats x Vulnerabilities = Risk, it is an integral part of making the threats feasible.

Exploit is something that comes somewhere in between the process of finding a vulnerability in your security ecosystem and launching a threat in the form of malicious activities. These activities could include malware, pieces of software, malicious code, and sequences of commands. All these malicious activities are in the form of source or binary codes, making it easy for attackers to benefit from a specific vulnerability and gain unauthorized access to a network, system, or application.

Solution: It is also critical to know that exploit codes do not exist for all known vulnerabilities. Hackers generally take their time to develop exploits for new vulnerabilities -with the greatest potential to result in a successful attack. Hence, rather than giving in to the bad actors, businesses should invest in managed SIEM services to stay one step ahead of the attackers and fix known/ unknown vulnerabilities and loopholes existing in their security infrastructure.

Conclusion

While threats and vulnerabilities in cyber security are constantly evolving – giving further context to the stages and dangers to businesses of all shapes and sizes. What should you do to lower your overall risk? A wise approach will be to have an experienced Security Information and Event Management expert with you. A managed SIEM service provider like ACE will scan your IT environment for possible vulnerabilities and fix them with their vulnerability management tool.

Collecting and analyzing or monitoring your logs from a single viewpoint can make it much easier to control activities on your network. ACE Managed SIEM tools can help you set up effective proactive defenses in your organization that offer vulnerability and threat control to fix vulnerabilities and fend off threats and new exploits in real-time, keeping your IT environment safe.

Why Should You Choose CrowdStrike Falcon Over Other EDRs?

Navcharan singh — Fri, 22 Jul 2022 09:25:00 +0000

Networked devices are continuously increasing, and more employees are working from home. This indicates that attackers have more targets to choose from, and most are vulnerable, increasing the risk of a damaging attack.

How much does it cost?
An average attack causes $3.86 million in the loss. It requires almost 280 days to detect and mitigate, as per the findings by IBM, which is just an unacceptable risk for most businesses, which is why comprehensive cybersecurity is necessary. Looking at the stats, having one managed EDR for your business to secure all its endpoints is of utmost importance. Of course, any brand can claim that its services are the best or that they add value to its clients. However, CrowdStrike can fully back those assertions with verifiable statistics. Dig in to know why one should always choose CrowdStrike EDR over other EDRs.

Significant competitive advantages

CrowdStrike (NASDAQ: MSFT) has been named the industry leader in endpoint security by Gartner and Forrester in recent studies. CrowdStrike delivers the advantage of being platform agnostic. This implies that its software is not just meant for specific operating systems; it works remarkably well in Linux, Mac, and Windows systems. CrowdStrike's network impact secures its competitive advantage even further.

The cloud-based Threat Graph of the brand gets data from all secured user devices. It then applies AI algorithms to continually evaluate that information in search of unique or unusual threats. CrowdStrike utilizes that data to prevent similar attacks on all clients' devices whenever a threat is detected on one user's device.

Real-Time Visibility

The CrowdStrike Security Cloud uses world-class AI to generate actionable insights, recognize shift patterns in adversarial strategies, and trace tools of the trade in the patented Threat Graph to invariably stop threats in real-time. CrowdStrike EDR provides complete visibility and insight into all that is occurring on endpoints to keep you ahead of emerging threats and prevent breaches.

Cloud-Native

CrowdStrike has modernized cybersecurity with the world's most sophisticated cloud-native technology, which covers major corporate risk areas such as endpoints, cloud workloads, and authentication. With free platform access, you can break through the buzz of an overcrowded cybersecurity sector and learn how CrowdStrike compares to competing security solutions or managed EDRs.

24/7 Threat Hunting

Advanced attacks need a combination of automation and human knowledge in the form of expert threat hunters. Now ACE has also partnered with CrowdStrike offering double defense to their customers. Falcon OverWatch scans for risks on behalf of our consumers. An expert team of threat hunters works around the clock as an extra layer of defense to capture what other methods overlook.

Modularity

The CrowdStrike Falcon Platform is built to be a scalable solution, providing modern and allowing for the newest additional security measures without the need to re-build or re-engineer the platform.

A Single Agent

The CrowdStrike Falcon Portal, developed in the cloud with a single lightweight-agent architecture, offers hyper-accurate alerts, automated defense and mitigation, expert threat hunting, and prioritized vulnerability accuracy.

World Class AI-Driven Intelligence

The CrowdStrike Security Platform combines trillions of security alerts every day with attack indicators, industry-leading threat detection, and enterprise metrics from user endpoints, workflows, identities, Operations, IT assets, and setups. The Threat Graph accumulates additional data when more customers join CrowdStrike, which enhances the AI algorithms and delivers greater security for all clients.

Why CrowdStrike beat the competition?

CrowdStrike, in partnership with ACE managed EDR, beats the other managed EDRs with three B's: Better Value, Better Protection, and Better Performance.

CrowdStrike's vital competitive status in combination with Ace Cloud Hosting to provide top-notch EDR security services has given it a price advantage, which has increased its gross margin over the past few years. This, paired with high revenue growth, can potentially make CrowdStrike EDR and ACE-managed EDR highly successful in the future. CrowdStrike, on the other hand, is a founder-led firm providing efficient, cost-effective services to help organizations secure their data.

Get insight into the CrowdStrike Falcon Platform in partnership with the ACE Managed Security Solutions and powered by the CrowdStrike Security Cloud to understand why enterprises prefer CrowdStrike over other competitors.