HPE NonStop News by Hamja Iu Save the Date for Chapter Events Near You. We are excited to announce the confirmed dates for Connect chapter meetings in 2024. These local meetings are an excellent opportunity for you to join fellow HPE users in your region and hear directly from HPE, the NonStop Vendor community, and customers like you. Our Connect HPE User Community is dedicated to helping you stay up-to-date on the latest technology trends and providing you with valuable insights to help you succeed. Mark your calendars and make sure you don’t miss out on these exciting events! Did You Miss a Technical Breakout Session at NonStop TBC 2023?We’ve got you covered. Here are all the sessions from the 2023 NonStop Technical Boot Camp. We want to extend a special “thank you” to all of our presenters, and we hope to see more of you in 2024. ETI-NET: Extolling the virtue and indeed necessity to embrace the rule of 3-2-1-X ETI-NET Marketing Team When it comes to recent NonStop events and conferences, it is clear that the need for backups has never been more prominent. Even the best fault tolerant deployment of a NonStop system isn’t immune to the occurrence of natural disasters and, looking back to something that was brought home to all of us following the infamous 1989 Loma Peta earthquake that struck Silicon Valley and the Bay, lessons can still be learnt. That disaster gave rise to one panicked user who reported that his system had fallen over, crashing through the raised flooring. What the call was about however wasn’t that the NonStop system had stopped working but rather, what was the prescribed process to bring the NonStop system back to an upright position. Did this actually happen? Is it simply a part of the original Tandem folklore? We will leave it to others to entertain us with their responses but by all reports, something of this nature did happen. The architecture of NonStop was such that it’s fault tolerant nature simply worked-around components that may have failed. However, today with the presence of severe hurricanes, tornadoes and other natural phenomena, the need for a second and even a tertiary presence of NonStop either on-prem or co-lo (and perhaps even virtually), has been deemed an appropriate investment to protect businesses from interruptions to the most important mission-critical applications. Nothing projects a worse image for any business than being offline at important times of the year. NonStop is the premier fault tolerant system today but that alone is no longer enough to ensure business continuity.Fast forward to today where disasters continue to be a concern, but more often these latest disasters are of an unnatural variety. Disasters initiated by bad actors’ intent on destruction either for money or simply out of spite. Nothing quite excites the imagination of technologists as much as fear of the unknown and when it comes to the actions of bad actors there really isn’t any tried and true manner to thwart these actions. All we can do as technology professionals is to put into place procedures and processes to minimize the impact these bad actors might have on our business. For a very long time such musings have been few and far apart for the HPE NonStop community. The inherent architecture of the NonStop operating system gave little credence to unannounced code arrival. Sneak in some code from a bad actor and the NonStop operating system ignored it giving rise to the adage that NonStop was immune to the attacks of bad actors. And yet, even now, we know that the tantalizing opportunities NonStop presents to these bad actors suggests that NonStop systems will eventually succumb to attacks of one sort or another. The impossible never deters the possible nor does an incumbent architecture delay what we may believe is the inevitable. For many IT professionals, the conversations have turned from recovery through backups to protecting the backup data and the systems which perform this task to recover at a high level of integrity. According to Mike Mitsch, ETI-NET Director, Business Development, “While there are potential holes in any architecture, it is not without saying that observation and continuing enhancements, continues to be the optimal approach. With ETI-NET’s latest releases of BackBox® with QoreStor® ETI-NET and HPE are giving NonStop users enhanced functionality to protect backup data and systems to recover from cyber-attacks utilizing evolving best practices for backup data protection that have proven successful.” What proved to be a highlight of recent NonStop events was the message coming from ETI-NET about the enhancements to the 3-2-1 rule that have become the foundation for best practice backup data protection. Dating back over a decade, embracing this rule and its evolution has become more of a necessity than a luxury of late. It will be harder and harder to ignore the need for data protection through storage systems and services, optimally configured to protect the enterprise’s specific security requirements. According to TechTarget’s analyst, Rich Castagna “three copies are made of the backup data to be protected, the copies are stored on two different types of storage media and one copy of the data is sent off site.” Featured in presentations at NonStop TBC 2023 and then followed up with additional commentary in recent presentation by the ETI-NET Team at VNUG and BITUG’s Little SIG, the 3-2-1 best practice is gaining more attention given the need for greater backup data protection and recoverability following potential actions from unauthorized parties looking to penetrate the regular defenses of a NonStop system. “Providing enhanced control of their NonStop Backup Storage allows organizations to not only react faster to data backup and recovery requirements, but this also ensures that best practices and new evolving data protection standards that extend the 3-2-1 rule are implemented.” said Mike Mitsch. Calling out the provision to do even more to protect the NonStop customers, “ETI-NET’s BackBox with QoreStor not only simplifies the implementation the solution provides multiple -X options to implement the 3-2-1 immutability through various methods to align with corporate protection standards.” This is truly a unique capability of the BackBox with QoreStor solution “and already we are seeing our customers turning to this latest release to ensure they can manage and directly gain even better protection than what otherwise may already been in place,” added Mike. “With the latest version of QoreStor, ETI-NET continues to expand our BackBox backup data protection for NonStop customers with expanded S3 Cloud Service providers.” Clearly an anticipated outcome with the latest release of the combined BackBox with QoreStor and as Mike views this expansion, “such enhancements help NonStop customers extend immutability to new service levels, a continuation that reinforces ETI-NET’s 3-2-1-X strategy.” Whatever type of resilience you are looking for, particularly where the focus is on cyber resilience, ETI-NET is best positioned to address it. If you have missed our presentations of late or have as yet not visited the ETI-NET web site to download the latest presentation – and remember too, check for the presence of ETI-NET’s first fireside chat recording that was posted to the ETI-NET LinkedIn Group – scroll down to where you come across the lead-in of “Treat yourself to our first fireside chat” to find the reference and if as yet you haven’t joined this group now may be a good time to do so. As for the webinar delivered at the end of 2023, Delivering Cyber Security Advancements to NonStop Backup and Storage Management just follow this link Delivering Cybersecurity advancements to nonstop backup and storage. For more information about ETI-NET including the latest news on products and where you can expect to find them at events in 2024, simply visit our web site: https://etinet.com/contact-us/ And you can always reach us by phone: Phone – (514) 395-1200 By your NTI Marketing Team The smoke from the fireworks has dissipated. The sounds of revelers welcoming the new year are now long gone. And the serious side of business has returned in earnest. What can we expect in 2024? What will be driving the conversations among members of the NonStop community? Perhaps most important of all, what can we expect from the NonStop team that will be newsworthy and perhaps steer these conversations in new directions?More than at any time in the history of NonStop and before that Tandem Computers is the overriding need to grow the base of NonStop users. Not just in terms of average numbers of NonStop systems deployed per NonStop customer or even an increase in the number of applications deployed on NonStop systems. What is most newsworthy of all is to read of new NonStop customers and while there is positive news on this front coming from the middle east, there is plenty of opportunities still to be tapped.The arrival of new solutions – and indeed, the most recent additions of Manufacturing as a Service with abat+ and Payments as a Service with Lusis are encouraging – there is still plenty of room for improvement, as they say. What needs to happen is a more concerted effort by all involved in marketing and today, we can no longer leave that solely to the HPE. It really calls for concerted efforts in this regard from all of us.For NTI, this has been the subject of recent planning activities. In case you hadn’t noticed, when it comes to marketing NTI has stepped up its support of NonStop communities worldwide and we view such activities as our primary vehicle for communication. It is the time when those driving conversations gather and where the mix of NonStop team members with NonStop customers and the broader NonStop vendor community can all participate in creating agendas. But what will the agenda be in 2024? Have the fireworks of the past month really ended or were they only an indication of what is yet to come?Throughout 2023 much of the messaging represented a continuation of those created in 2022. The freshest data is created on NonStop became a popular theme. As such, data created on NonStop only proved valuable to an enterprise if it could be readily consumed by the rest of IT. This led to the many conversations about data integration optimized for ease of consumption by many external platforms. ELK, Splunk, Kafka, DB2, Oracle – it mattered little of that involved distribution to a process or database so long as the integration could be undertaken seamlessly with little impact on the operation of mission critical NonStop applications.However, the wrinkles already have begun appearing and much of it is directly related to current modernization projects. As data integration was pursued and connections created to external platforms, so too did the apparent risk factors entered the conversation. Is it wise to remove the barriers that isolated and indeed protected the NonStop system or should this relative isolation be maintained and other ways to move data be considered? Offload to a cloud? Something else?This subject was only part of the conversation as modernization not only examined the best means for supporting integration and distribution of fresh data created on NonStop, but also provided impetus to look at the whole range of software deployed on NonStop. Whether it was purely infrastructure or happened to be the languages, utilities and toolsets in use it seemed everything was being passed under the microscope. The key here was whether there were other offerings of a more general nature in use within all of IT that could be leveraged in support of NonStop.Turns out that the answer to that was yes and with that response we saw an increase pursuit of new development and deployment capabilities. The goal being to make interacting with NonStop as transparent as possible and to some extent, this journey has begun and the subsequent conversations among NonStop users at recent events have been encouraging.What else came to the fore when discussing modernization was the seamless integration of NonStop with the rest of IT and the adoption of industry-standard development and deployment products just happened to center on security. The alarm bells sounding over recent unauthorized intrusions into systems and databases were beginning to resonate with many members of the NonStop community.What had once been achieved through isolation and relative obscurity now held the potential to become an attractive target. Doesn’t much of the worlds money pass through at least one NonStop system? Isn’t the number of end-users constituting a significant number of the world’s communities? From NTI’s perspective and having given this due consideration, we are in agreement that the risk of Ransomware may be less than imagined due to the inherent robust architecture of the NonStop operating system but rather, the actions of rogue and yes, disgruntled, operations staff represent a bigger risk. As noted in recent articles and posts, for NTI it may be as simple as gaining access to super.super to do more damage to a NonStop than any actions from a provocative external source. The options available today from the NonStop vendor community regarding zero trust and multifactor authentication represent a great place to start in heading off these rogue interactions. Simply put, it is understood by all NonStop customers that it remains a wise course of action to improve the defenses erected around NonStop but even so, already we have become aware of the actions by some NonStop community members looking more like marketing than being a practical approach.NTI has always been in the Business Continuity marketplace providing support for fast responses to disaster recovery. This includes both natural and unnatural disasters. Whether it is an earthquake or a hurricane, the NonStop community has long taken steps to ensure that NonStop systems are distributed geographically to better protect from isolated outages caused by these disaster scenarios.This is what has driven the business of NTI for a very long time and where NTI has a proven track record of protecting enterprises from potential data loss. Simply put, with NTI as partner, NonStop customers are assured of operational continuity, no matter the circumstance. And this includes the basis for rapid recovery of data compromised by the ambitions of misguided staff bent on destruction.What NTI has recognized as a growing market for our products has seen us enter the modernization arena. What drives modernization projects today is not only limited to exploration of new methodologies and capabilities but is also driven by vendor relationships. The support for NonStop systems hasn’t always been wholeheartedly embraced by all vendors particularly when viewed from a competitive perspective.The support for IBM MQ / MQSeries has seen more than its fair share of speedbumps thrown up by those involved in the project to support NonStop systems. Likewise, Oracle with GoldenGate has made a few missteps itself being very late to the Intel x86 Architecture. Think too of the duration of Tuxedo as supported on NonStop or even NET/MASTER. All of these attracted niche supporters within the NonStop community but perhaps of them all, what NTI has witnessed first hand is the growing unrest among NonStop customers where GoldenGate has been deployed.At events of the past year, many of the conversations have centered on what’s new. NonStop customers are always interested in new products and new features. In our most recent planning sessions, NTI has focused on this topic of what’s new and for the company, the recent work that we did to successfully migrate one NonStop customer from GoldenGate to DRNet®/Unified – a migration completed in record time from PoC to Production – falls under this heading of what’s new.A NonStop customer committed to BASE24 was able to focus on DRNet®/Unified and not have to think in terms of the complexity that is imposed when TMF has to play a part. “Adding to the value proposition is the presence in DRNet®/Unified of BASE24 integrative capabilities that are a part of our standard product offering ,” said Tim Dunne, NTI’s Global Director of Worldwide Sales. “What this brings to the NonStop customer is a reduced resource commitment to any conversion effort from GoldenGate to DRNet®/Unified, benefitting as they will from our services being provided as part of such conversions for no additional fee.”Arising from the success of this project is a new product offering from NTI. DRNet®/Unified for GoldenGate Conversions and it represents a brand-new packaging of DRNet®/Unified that has resulted in fewer steps needing to be taken to complete a successful migration away from GoldenGate. Whereas previous approaches involving the NonStop team have taken years to complete, NTI has reduced the window to months. This is indeed newsworthy and will become central to the messaging from NTI in 2024.What is equally as newsworthy is the experience gained on current migration requirements and these newly gained experiences together with the counselling that NTI can provide is proving extremely beneficial to those who look to modernize their support of business continuity – nothing quite softens any perception of risk than hearing how best to proceed from those who have gained the most recent experience.This is not to say that it will be the only focus area for NTI but rather, represents an alignment with one of the most topical areas of interest to the NonStop community. Modernization. It takes the form of choosing wisely products, methodologies, services and perhaps most of all, partners. To this extent, ensuring there is always choice available to the NonStop community will remain newsworthy and while the fireworks welcoming the new year are well and truly over, isn’t it satisfying to know that with NTI, security, migrations and business continuity remain central to the business of NTI in 2024. What Happens Next? Five Data Protection Predictions for 2024 It’s been another year full of incidents. But 2024 has plenty in store for IT and business leaders. As organizations continue to adapt to economic, political and business uncertainty, the value of effective data protection will never be so obvious. Regulatory and technological change promises to make it another challenging year for industry professionals. So what might they expect? Here are five suggestions: 1. AI will continue to power both attack and defence There’s good and bad news for network and data defenders next year. On the plus side, the AI revolution will start to have a positive impact on their ability to mitigate business risk. Think AI assistants to help security operations teams more rapidly analyze and respond to emerging threats—plugging chronic skills shortages. Or AI systems that help to automatically and continuously discover and classify all enterprise data, before applying strong protection to it. However, on the other side, the bad guys will also step up their use of AI. Legitimate accounts with generative AI (GenAI) tools will be hijacked so that threat actors can use the technology to supercharge phishing and fraud campaigns. New malicious tools in the mould of WormGPT and FraudGPT will also emerge. As enterprise threats mount, the need for watertight data security policies and controls will only grow. 2. Organisations will need to consolidate onto security platforms The modern, digital operations that customers demand to power seamless user experiences come at a cost. That cost is complexity – the arch-enemy of security. As cloud-native digital environments invite risk, stretched security teams will struggle with a surfeit of controls. The average organisation had 76 such tools in 2022. The number could be even greater today. This will drive a renewed push for simplicity by CISOs in 2024. That means consolidating onto fewer security platforms that can handle multiple functions. In the data protection sphere, it could be platforms capable not just of protecting data but also of continuously discovering and classifying it before applying encryption or tokenization, in line with policy. 3. The regulatory landscape will become more complex and fractured The patchwork of data protection regulations covering the globe will continue to grow in 2024. We’ll have the EU AI Act, the NIS 2 regulation and the Cyber Resilience Act all likely coming into force over the year. In the US, new SEC rules around breach reporting and transparency will force boards to take cyber more seriously. At the same time, another Schrems challenge to EU-US (and UK-US) data transfer agreements is likely. Amid this continuous turmoil, compliance teams must keep a level head. Strong data protection across the board is beginning to look like a smart move to mitigate risk and minimize the compliance burden. 4. The attack surface will expand as digital transformation continues As organizations struggle with macroeconomic and business uncertainty, some will be forced to cut back spending. Others will pivot to digital investments in a bid to become more efficient and create the seamless experiences customers are increasingly demanding. Unfortunately, at the same time, such digital investments will increase the corporate attack surface, opening up new opportunities for threat actors. Smart organisations will layer up cyber-defences in response, combining protective measures and best practices like patching, with strong risk-based authentication and detection and response. A data-centric approach will be critical to managing the growing risk of compromise across an expanded attack surface. 5. Boards will increasingly view cybersecurity as an enabler As important as data-centric security is for mitigating risk, it can also be a driver of sustainable business growth. Boards looking to drive competitive advantage in 2024 will consider how a keener focus on security can help them do so. It could bolster compliance efforts, opening doors to new markets and protect digital transformation initiatives vital to long-term growth, as well as winning over end customers and business partners. In a year where customer loyalty will be increasingly hard-won and easily lost, security-centric organizations will find themselves in the driving seat. Learn how to discover, classify, and protect all sensitive data. Click the button below to download the solution brief for our Data Security Platform: Gravic Publishes New HPE Shadowbase Web Page on Digital Resilience We recently released Version 6.802 (T1122^ABG), which includes a number of enhancements in key areas, including improved performance, parallelism, and usability. This line of HPE Shadowbase Data Validation products provides confirmation to key stakeholders that your business continuity environment is working, up-to-date, consistent, and making sure the backup/standby database is ready to take over in an instant. It includes support for NonStop Enscribe, SQL/MP, and SQL/MX database comparisons, which can be done even while the application is actively updating either or both databases. Please see the new features for more information. Download it today! Gravic Publishes New HPE Shadowbase Web Page on Digital Resilience Please check out our new web page on HPE Shadowbase Digital Resilience Solutions and learn how to recover critical applications and data after a Malware or Ransomware attack. Today, the post-attack reactive goal is Detection and Recovery, which is different from the ultimate future goal of pre-attack proactive Identification and Prevention. Malware and Ransomware recovery architectures require an innovative approach with distinct personnel, processes, procedures, hardware, software, and infrastructure from existing Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity architectures. HPE Shadowbase software replicates data into immutable storage and quickly recovers applications on an air-gapped, isolated, and therefore, fully protected system. Gravic has actually been providing Digital Resilience solutions for 40+ years. Please contact us for more information. Gravic Publishes Two Real-world Use Case Articles Gravic published a use case article, Major UK Bank Migrates its BASE24™ Application to Active/Active for Continuous Availability in the November/December issue of The Connection. A large bank in the U.K. provides lending, wealth management, card processing, and many other services for over 48 million customers worldwide. The bank’s original Disaster Recovery solution reached Mature product status, and did not support automated failover and recovery, nor continuous availability via a more advanced active/active business continuity architecture. The bank decided to explore alternative options and chose HPE Shadowbase as their replacement solution. It also rearchitected the new solution so that its BASE24™ classic ATM application could leverage the new solution’s dual-site active/active capability. With careful planning, best practices, and extensive testing, the bank migrated to the new solution with only a few minor difficulties during the process. Learn about the bank’s journey to Continuous Availability, what went well, what could have gone better, and how the bank successfully completed the project with no application downtime. Gravic will publish the use case article, Real-world Use Case: Avoid Data Corruption by Switching from Passive Replication to Automated Failover and Recovery in the upcoming January/February issue of The Connection. Recently, a customer called us and was concerned about “missing DR files.” After further investigation, the customer identified the cause: application failover did not include all of the customer’s applications. The customer replicates data in a uni-directional Active / Passive Post-Disaster Recovery configuration using two HPE NonStop systems. Every few months, the customer does failover testing. This architecture requires the customer to manually failover all of the required applications and switch replication in the opposite direction. For some reason, one of the customer’s applications was not properly configured to failover and process transactions in the reverse direction. Please read our article and learn how we helped resolve this customer’s issue, setting them up with a better approach to avoid these fail-over faults in the future. Gravic Presented on HPE Shadowbase Digital Resilience at BITUG Little SIG In December, Gravic presented on HPE Shadowbase Digital Resilience and Data Recovery at the BITUG Little SIG held in London. Data is a key aspect of digital resilience, and ensuring its continuous availability has never been more important. This is especially true as new government regulations, such as the European Union’s Digital Operations Resilience Act (DORA), impose stringent technical requirements on businesses to protect, detect, and recover from information technology incidents. We discussed exciting and innovative HPE Shadowbase solutions that are helping NonStop customers maximize digital resilience and address emerging business needs, like Cloud Integration, Streaming Data Analytics, and Virtualization. Please contact us if you would like us to present this topic to you or if you would like more information. For additional information, please view our Shadowbase solution videos: https://vimeo.com/shadowbasesoftware, or follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter. Specifications subject to change without notice. Trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. Copyright © Gravic, Inc. 2024. TCM –Commitment to the NonStop community and Regional event participation as 2023 draws to a close.For the year 2023, TCM was visibly active through our participation in numerous regional events. While our home town event in Edinburgh proved to be an occasion where once again TCM’s sponsorship of social engagements drew considerable participation it was also a time when the investments in personal and products highlighted the occasion. Again, this proved to be the case as well in Denver where TCM’s participation in the NonStop TBC 2023 Conference was hard to ignore.These gathering of the NonStop community have continued through the year as even now, there has been further events held in Scandinavia and shortly will continue back here in the UK. The annual end of year gathering for the BITUG Little SIG on December 7, 2023, in London will likely prove to be an opportunity to reflect on the many updates, messages and roadmaps that seemed to be enthusiastically promoted with little prompting, and the London event will close out the year with heightened expectations for what will likely transpire in 2024.As we look back at the events of 2023, we not only had the opportunity to interact with the NonStop sales and support teams but were able to use the occasion to validate our overall strategy. When it comes to our customer-driven priorities it has been these recent events that have helped reaffirm our 2023/2024 strategy is strongly aligned with the needs of the NonStop user community. Most important of all, it was met with the approval of all those we interact with on a regular basis – our clients could see the value TCM was providing in situations that called for tapping the expertise that is prevalent across all that TCM pursues on behalf of these clients.It is this reaffirmation of our strategy and with it, the support we have from the NonStop user community that sustains our interest in NonStop events, whether their reach is regional or global. TCM readily admits that each gathering represents a litmus test measuring the longer-term future of NonStop.With what we have witnessed this year, it is clear to the management at TCM that our priorities are not just strongly aligned with those of the NonStop community but represent a valuable asset to the NonStop team.When it comes to the major events such as this one in Denver, Colorado, and previously, in our home town of Edinburgh, Scotland, TCM finds them to be a valuable extension to our own sales and marketing programs. These events are always useful in terms of providing positive reinforcement of our support of the NonStop community even as they allow us an opportunity to converse with the Americas sales team. TCM continues to make inroads into the Americas marketplace, so the timing of this latest major event, the NonStop TBC2023 Conference, couldn’t have been better – we met with a broader population of the NonStop sales and solutions architects than we had experienced previously.Looking back on the NonStop TBC2023 Conference, what stood out for TCM was how one of the best attended presentations was that given by Shiva Subramanian, NonStop Solutions Architect, TCM Solutions – NonStop, Evolution Through Modernization. There would be a few that would argue against virtualization as it is a part of any business journey into modernization. However, when it comes to moving from the hardware to a virtual system, we at TCM have observed that many NonStop users have faced serious challenges as to how best to begin the journey, knowing full well that the underlying infrastructure of the NonStop applications may be best described as legacy.Will TCM see NonStop users moving to virtual NonStop (vNS) this year or next? Possibly but it would seem that such moves will likely take place towards the end of 2024 and even into 2025. “As I look at the business potential in 2024, I believe we will see an increase of NonStop Customers struggling with the management of ageing applications. Additionally, we see a push for Customers to align application management across multiple platforms. Using modern opensource tools, this standardization approach is possible,” said Andy Vasey, Services Business Consultant, TCM Solutions. “We have also been recognizing availability of resources for ageing languages e.g. Cobol, decrease significantly. Using a standard aligned approach, reduces this business risk of reliance.”As has been our observation of late, when a NonStop user chooses to deploy in a virtual machine and in so doing, pursue an overhaul of the underlying infrastructure, challenges quickly arise. Sorting through the many industry buzzwords might deter even the most adventurous NonStop user from tackling any project to upgrade their software stack recognizing, as they seem to be doing, that it calls for experience they simply do not possess. Virtualization doesn’t mandate overhauls and upgrades and yet this technology journey has proven that pursuing both leads to cost savings easily realized by any business. Experience, access to well-earned intellectual equity and the realization that someone else is further along in their journey has contributed materially to the success of TCM this year.Embarking on a virtual journey may appeal to just a few intrepid users, but closer to home TCM has been generating considerable interest in a tool that was only recently announced; TCM InSight. Together with Colin Yates, Technical Director, TCM Solutions, Andy Vasey provided the NonStop community with further updates on TCM InSight, a tool designed to provide simple snapshot assessments of all that has gone into the installation of solutions on NonStop systems, quickly and accurately giving a better understanding for each NonStop users of their respective systems and setups. Long a valuable tool for internal use by the TCM consultants on site, it has now been productized and is being viewed positively by the NonStop user community with strong take-up across EMEA. It is a help to both the NonStop user and TCM to better understand how the NonStop system and its supported applications perform in the users’ business environment.Experience tells us that following our participation in this year’s events, there are likely to be many more serious conversations with the NonStop community to follow concerning the individual journeys of NonStop users, whether focused on modernization or virtualization or simply coming to better understanding of their NonStop systems and settings, and TCM will be only too happy to join you on your journey wherever your path might take you.nonstop@tcm.uk.com www.tcm.uk.com 2024 Top 5 Cybersecurity Predictions Steve Tcherchian, CISSP, PCI-ISA Chief Product OfficerXYPRO Technology Corporationhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/xyprolinkedin.com/in/stevetcherchian2024 promises to be a year marked by unprecedented challenges and innovations. Picture this: a bustling metropolis where the heartbeat of daily life synchronizes with the hum of digital connectivity. Now, imagine the sudden jolt when schools, utilities, critical infrastructure, entertainment giants, financial institutions, and your vacation destination all find themselves under siege by malicious hackers, disrupting the rhythm of normalcy. Teachers cannot take attendance and record grades, students cannot access homework, schools are shut down, tourists are locked out of their hotel rooms, transportation stops working – this isn’t something out of an H.G Wells novel. This was the reality of the last few years. The colossal attacks on LAUSD, MGM Resorts, Boeing, Mr. Cooper, and more sent shockwaves through our daily lives, thrusting the importance of digital resilience into the spotlight. We can no longer focus solely on the prevention of cyberattacks; we must fortify our ability to endure them and rebound quickly.Unplugging everything is not a solution. We saw how poorly that worked in the attacks on MGM and LAUSD. The interconnected nature of our modern world demands a strategic shift. As we delve into cyber resilience, ransomware threats, AI-based scams, and the looming shadow of quantum computing, it becomes clear that the digital realm is no longer just a virtual space—it’s the infrastructure of our reality, and its protection is a shared responsibility. This article explores the 2024 cybersecurity terrain – where the challenges are real, the threats are dynamic, and our commitment to not only safeguarding the integrity, availability, and confidentiality of information but also the recovery from an attack (our resilience) must be paramount. Cyber Resilience The massive 2023 attacks catapulted the importance of digital resilience to new levels. Everyone is now paying attention. With the escalating sophistication of cyber threats and the persistent ingenuity of threat actors, organizations must shift their focus from preventing attacks to fortifying their ability to withstand and quickly recover from them. Modern technology’s interconnected nature means no company is immune to breaches. “Unplugging everything” is not a realistic strategy. Resilience must be a primary concern.Introducing Digital Resilience. If you haven’t heard of this term – you will. Think of digital resilience as giving your computer, devices, and company the ability to keep working after a problem. It’s a bit like having a superhero for your digital world – but at the global infrastructure level! So, imagine if your computer faces a problem, like a sudden glitch or the operating system crashes. Digital resilience is the superpower that quickly figures out what went wrong, stops the problem from becoming worse, and finds a way to fix itself so you can get back to playing games, doing homework, or whatever you were doing without interruption. It’s all about making sure your devices bounce back from hiccups and stay strong. Now, we have to apply this concept to quickly recover from ransomware.The increasing interdependence on global digital infrastructure and the proliferation of emerging technologies like AI and modern payments underscores the urgency for a robust cyber resilience strategy. Beyond the traditional firewalls and antivirus software, embracing a holistic approach that encompasses best practices, reducing the attack surface, proactive threat detection, rapid incident response, and comprehensive recovery plans is a must. The ability to adapt and recover swiftly from cyber incidents will minimize the impact of breaches AND ensure the continuity of operations. In 2024, cyber resilience is not just a goal; it’s a strategic imperative for safeguarding the integrity, availability, and confidentiality of sensitive information of our companies and our customers. Ransomware 2.0Ransomware will continue to loom as a large, formidable, and persistent threat – because we make it too easy!As technology advances, so do ransomware attacks, with cybercriminals adopting more insidious tactics and leveraging technologies to maximize their impact. Meanwhile, the tactics used to infiltrate companies are still elementary. Phishing, fake phone calls, and credential stuffing are all still very lucrative methods to deploy ransomware, It’s the damage done afterwards that keeps increasing. The evolution of ransomware from mere data encryption to sophisticated strategies, such as double extortion and the targeting of critical infrastructure, signals a dark turn. 2024 is poised for an alarming surge in ransomware incidents, fueled by the increasing connectivity of devices, Ransomware as a service, the proliferation of cryptocurrencies facilitating anonymous transactions, the lack of qualified cybersecurity professionals, and a shocking continuing failure to follow best practices.Organizations across all industries must brace themselves for READ MORE HERE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Share FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail