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Today organizations and individuals tend to create and store bigger and bigger volumes of data. At the same time, the amount of data breaches is also becoming a serious issue, which is not surprising. The number of reported data breaches rose 17% to 1,473 in 2019 from 1,257 a year earlier, according to a new report by the nonprofit Identity Theft Resource Center, suggesting that a trend-defying drop in data breaches recorded in 2018 was a mere “blip.”

Here are some important cybersecurity statistics for 2020. This will help you to get a better idea of how important it is to secure your personal and business data from various types of cybercrime.

According to Cybersecurity Ventures, the damage related to cybercrime is projected to hit $6 trillion annually by 2021, up from $3 trillion in 2015. — This represents the greatest transfer of economic wealth in history, risks the incentives for innovation and investment, and will be more profitable than the global trade of all major illegal drugs combined.

2. By the end of 2020, security services are expected to account for 50% of cybersecurity budgets. — Security as a service is on the way to surpassing on-premises deployments, and hybrid deployments are enticing buyers.

3. By 2020, the estimated number of passwords used by humans and machines worldwide will grow to 300 billion. (Cybersecurity Media) — Furthermore, the report estimates that Fortune 500 company employees in 2020 will own an average of 90 business and personal accounts that will require log-in IDs and passwords — meaning they will collectively be managing approximately 5.4 billion passwords. In an on-camera interview, report co-author and Thycotic Cyber Strategist Joseph Carson also told SC Media that the average individual will have to manage 60 to 90 accounts by 2020.

4. 83% of enterprise workloads will move to the cloud by the year 2020. (Forbes) — The prediction is that 41% of enterprise workload will be run on public cloud platforms by 2020. Another 20% will be private-cloud-based, while 22% will rely on hybrid cloud adoption. Further data cited by Forbes, suggests only 27% of workloads will be on-premise by 2020. This would spell a 10% drop in absolute terms in just one year — as the same number for 2019 is at 37%.

5. The industry with the highest number of attacks by ransomware is the healthcare industry. Attacks will quadruple by 2020. — Medical devices have an average of 6.2 vulnerabilities each; 60 percent of medical devices are at end-of-life stage, with no patches or upgrades available. Cybersecurity blogger and author Brian Krebs reports hospitals that have been hit by a data breach or ransomware attack can expect to see an increase in the death rate among heart patients in the following months or years because of cybersecurity remediation efforts. This is according to a study by Vanderbilt University.

6. According to Cybersecurity Ventures, businesses will fall victim to a ransomware attack every 11 seconds by 2021, up from every 14 seconds in 2019… increasing from every 40 seconds in 2017!

7. In 2020, 30% of successful cyber attacks will be on the shadow IT resources of organizations. — Business units manage the truth of the enterprise and will draw in with any device that causes them to carry out the responsibility. Organizations should figure out how to address shadow IT and make a culture of acknowledgment and protection versus detection and punishment.

8. In 2020, 99% of security vulnerabilities exploited by hackers will still be the ones known to cybersecurity experts. — Organizations should remain focused on fixing the vulnerabilities they know exist. While these vulnerabilities are barely noticeable, they’re additionally simpler and cheaper to fix than to mitigate.

9. Since COVID-19, the US FBI reported a 300% increase in reported cybercrimes. — As if a pandemic wasn’t scary enough, hackers leveraged the opportunity to attack vulnerable networks as office work moved to personal homes.

10. 90% of malware comes from emails — The most common types of malware delivered via spam email are downloaders, bots, and backdoors, which collectively account for 52% of all infections. Banking Trojans account for 42% and Emotet, Trickbot, and Panda banking Trojans are most common.

Cybervore, Inc. is proud to introduce our revolutionary new cybersecurity software, which reinforces any perimeter and encryption tools and maximizes data protection even if it is stolen, locked up, or erased.

Fragglestorm is based on a patented ground-breaking technology called Smart Data Fragmentation™, which can be used by anyone: individuals, small and medium-sized businesses, enterprises.

Today, in COVID-19 era, healthcare industry is facing much bigger cybersecurity challenges than ever. Hackers around the world take advantage of the current situation for cyber espionage. It’s time to increase cyber-hygiene and online safety even more than before.

Healthcare providers and related services have a unique requirement for security of data placed upon them by The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) laws and rules.

HIPPA requires a stringent adherence to the protection of data about patients. This includes assuring the data is not otherwise destroyed and is always available for healthcare professionals to reference and access in the performance of their responsibilities. This set of requirements and implementations often cause issues with ease of access between medical facilities, both external and internal, as well as the patient being able to access their own records from a single point.

Today, in COVID-19 era, healthcare industry is facing much bigger cybersecurity challenges than ever. Hackers around the world take advantage of the current situation for cyber espionage. It’s time to increase cyber-hygiene and online safety even more than before.

Fragglestorm can aid in providing secure management of access to patient records and other medical data. It assures its availability and resiliency even after a ransomware attack. Recent revelations that hackers have bypassed even two factor authentication (2FA) methods demonstrate the need to seek out the best security solutions to prevent theft of data and the tremendous costs (fines, records loss, etc.) associated with data breaches and ransomware. According to the report, healthcare breaches cost organizations $6.45 million per breach or an average of $429 per record.

Fragglestorm provides several core functions that address the needs of those faced with providing services in the Healthcare field:

Data is always secured by use of:

o Encryption

Data is encrypted according to user-selected algorithms and keys

Cybervore has no backdoor method to access encrypted data or otherwise recover owner’s lost keys

o Smart Data Fragmentation™

The data is fragmented as specified making it impossible to be of use to a hacker even if copied

This is comparable to going to a puzzle store and dumping all the puzzle pieces on the floor

A hacker can’t determine what piece goes with another piece to even begin encryption cracking

Fragglestorm fragments are smart, a.k.a. Smart Fragments™

Any fragments missing (with replication) will be automatically recreated

Fragments can be reassembled into files without the control database

The authentication credentials must be presented

Only an authorized data portion in use (in memory) is ever viewable outside of Fragglestorm'

Data is kept highly available by replication

Loss of access to a given storage location is transparently handled with no user or IT intervention Data is resilient by versioning

o Ransomware attacks - Once the ransomware has been contained, a Fragglestorm utility can identify attacked files and automatically revert the last ‘good’ copy in place

o This function allows rapid recovery from ransomware infections

Managed Data Distribution for supporting data transition to multiple cloud services

o Fragglestorm can actively aid in management of storage in hybrid multicloud storage environments

o Data according to specified filters, and parameters can be distributed across cloud, and local storage to specification

Interfaces with everything

o The main interface is presented as a letter-drive, such as a C:\, in Microsoft Windows

Any number of drives may be defined

Each drive can have different end storage configurations with Geolocation specifications (if supported by storage location)

Each drive can have different fragmentation, replication, and versioning specified

o Allows any activity or process to be performed in a secure manner

The data is always protected

Results of operations are automatically protected in real time by simply locating them on the defined drive

Allows indexing and other operations to occur without loss of protection on the data

Resultant indexes and metadata are automatically secured

Indexing occurs across all cloud location and storage devices transparently

Data Sharing

o Fragglestorm provides for data sharing and access to multiple users

o Several users can be defined for every defined drive

Each user can have different defined levels of access

Recommended to prevent one user from controlling access to data

o Select folders and files can be shared securely via methods similar to Google Drive, Dropbox, and etc.

Performance

o Fragglestorm was designed with performance as a primary requirement, the user sees no change in speed

o Utilization of low level operating system components provides the highest level of security possible

o Fragglestorm provides the user the same performance experience by utilizing low level operating system methods

Providers of financial and related services have a unique requirement for security of data placed upon them by the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission), FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) and various state privacy laws such as the CPAA (California Consumer Privacy Act) recently in effect on January 1, 2020. These agencies, rules and acts require a stringent adherence to protection of data of clients, maintaining privacy, and a strict reporting policy of breaches.

Recent revelations that hackers have bypassed even two factor authentication (2FA) methods demonstrate the need to seek out the best security solutions to prevent theft of data, and the tremendous costs (fines, client loss, etc.) associated with hacker breaches and ransomware. The financial services industry contributed 62% of exposed data in 2019 and has the second-highest cost per breached record, behind healthcare. The United States has the highest costs in the world for data breaches, costing an average of $8.19 million or about $249 per record. Fragglestorm aids in providing secure management of access to financial files and data. It assures data is available and resilient even after a ransomware attack to protect an organization from the penalties of such attacks. Fragglestorm provides several core functions that address the needs of those faced with providing services in the Financial Services field:

Data is always secured by use of:

o Encryption

Data is encrypted according to user-selected algorithms and keys

Cybervore has no backdoor method to access encrypted data or otherwise recover owner’s lost keys

o Smart Data Fragmentation™

The data is fragmented as specified making it impossible to be of use to a hacker even if copied

This is comparable to going to a puzzle store and dumping all the puzzle pieces on the floor

A hacker can’t determine what piece goes with another piece to even begin encryption cracking

Fragglestorm fragments are smart, a.k.a. Smart Fragments™

Any fragments missing (with replication) will be automatically recreated

Fragments can be reassembled into files without the control database

The authentication credentials must be presented

Only an authorized data portion in use (in memory) is ever viewable outside of Fragglestorm'

Data is kept highly available by replication

Loss of access to a given storage location is transparently handled with no user or IT intervention Data is resilient by versioning

o Ransomware attacks - Once the ransomware has been contained, a Fragglestorm utility can identify attacked files and automatically revert the last ‘good’ copy in place

o This function allows rapid recovery from ransomware infections

Managed Data Distribution for supporting data transition to multiple cloud services

o Fragglestorm can actively aid in management of storage in hybrid multicloud storage environments

o Data according to specified filters, and parameters can be distributed across cloud, and local storage to specification

Interfaces with everything

o The main interface is presented as a letter-drive, such as a C:\, in Microsoft Windows

Any number of drives may be defined

Each drive can have different end storage configurations with Geolocation specifications (if supported by storage location)

Each drive can have different fragmentation, replication, and versioning specified

o Allows any activity or process to be performed in a secure manner

The data is always protected

Results of operations are automatically protected in real time by simply locating them on the defined drive

Allows indexing and other operations to occur without loss of protection on the data

Resultant indexes and metadata are automatically secured

Indexing occurs across all cloud location and storage devices transparently

Data Sharing

o Fragglestorm provides for data sharing and access to multiple users

o Several users can be defined for every defined drive

Each user can have different defined levels of access

Recommended to prevent one user from controlling access to data

o Select folders and files can be shared securely via methods similar to Google Drive, Dropbox, and etc.

Performance

o Fragglestorm was designed with performance as a primary requirement, the user sees no change in speed

o Utilization of low level operating system components provides the highest level of security possible

o Fragglestorm provides the user the same performance experience by utilizing low level operating system methods

Recently our CEO Frederick Callis was interviewed by CEOCFO Magazine. Learn more about Cybervore and our next product - Fragglestorm!

CEOCFO: Mr. Callis, what is Cybervore™?

Mr. Callis: Cybervore is a cybersecurity software company. We make a product called Fragglestorm™ which provides a secure method to help businesses transition their data to cloud services. How secure? It makes data useless to any unauthorized person- only an authorized user can access their data. Cool, right?

CEOCFO: How does Fragglestorm go beyond encryption?  

Mr. Callis: Well, encryption jumbles the actual data but keeps the data all together. Through certain brute-force technologies, today’s encryption can be compromised. Soon, through the commercialization of quantum computing, encryption will become handicapped and broken.

To protect and manage data in today’s multicloud services world, the Fragglestorm process takes the actual data, uses the encryption but then fragments the data into multiple puzzle-like pieces. We then wrap technology around those pieces, thereby making the ‘data smart’, which by the way, we call Smart Fragments™. As such, these smart fragments become impossible to break or reassemble unless you are the authorized user.

For example, if a document was stolen or compromised in any way, even if the encryption is broken, the hackers only have a very small piece of the puzzle. It gets better. Let’s take lots of data in general and all of these are turned into smart fragments. If we dump them all together, you can start to see how hard it is to hack through or try to break them. Finally, let’s make it even more difficult. Let’s place those pieces in different locations across storage devices or cloud services. As a result, Fragglestorm allows the data to become ultra-secure and hardened against being broken or useful by any bad actors.

CEOCFO: Is this a novel approach? Has it been tried before? Is it in use now in other ways?  

Mr. Callis:  Yes.  Think of how data is stored on a disc drive on any computer. Data is separated into pieces on a disc drive which allows the data to be stored more efficiently. However, when you put data on a network or cloud service, you are outside the data center which is why businesses are so concerned about security and resiliency. Regarding how it is in use in other ways, up until recently, encrypting the data was good enough. But times are changing and we believe encryption plus Fragglestorm can fill the void specifically against encryption-breaking systems such as quantum computing.

Our approach enables the fragments themselves to reassemble into a file when authenticated credentials are presented. In today’s marketplace other companies may use fragmentation, but no one has developed software that simultaneously assures availability, accessibility, security and ransomware recovery into one product. CEOCFO: How do you create a system that will do this? How do you separate the data and how do you put it back together?  

Mr. Callis: It is based upon mathematical algorithms and processes. There is a lot of detail that goes into how fragments are made and how they are made smart. They are connected almost a little bit like the blockchain concept, but it is not public blockchain. It is more of a private blockchain built for performance. As such, a smart fragment would know another smart fragment; how they all go together. You cannot even come up with fake fragments, because they are intelligent to each other. Awesome, right? CEOCFO: Who is using this?  

Mr. Callis: Right now we are a software startup. We have early adopter customers that wish to remain anonymous and we have a product release scheduled for the end of this year. CEOCFO: Who would be the most likely types of companies, industries or size of organizations that you would be targeting? Who needs this more than others?   Mr. Callis: Our initial target market is small to medium-size businesses. They are the biggest targets of cybercriminals and we can help them the most. As far as industry verticals: healthcare, financial services, and legal/accounting.  

CEOCFO: Would you be working through MSPs or would you be looking at reaching the end customer directly?  

Mr. Callis: We work through both MSPs and carriers to offer Fragglestorm. They are market-positioned between their users and cloud services which makes them ideal to work with. Fragglestorm offers MSPs and carriers new ways to further protect their customers as they transition their data to multiple cloud providers. To them, this is a competitive value.

CEOCFO: When you are speaking to the right person, do they recognize the concept and the effectiveness?  

Mr. Callis: Yes. The example I use is: take your name and social security number as one saved document. By using Fragglestorm, the document is encrypted and then fragmented. Those pieces are wrapped in our secret sauce, copied or replicated as well as versioned into multiple copies. These pieces are then intelligently stored across different locations which could include on-premise devices, PCs/servers, or multiple cloud services. The value here is even if the data is stolen, the hackers only have a piece - if they can break it. That is how Fragglestorm makes data ultra-secure and manageable anywhere. CEOCFO: Would this be in conjunction with other security measures? How does this come together?  

Mr. Callis: We complement other security solutions - we do not replace them. In other words, sometimes the hackers get in or a virus infects computers and servers. They will always need other security products to help them. We are the last line of defense. What we do is make the data useless to any unauthorized user no matter where the data is located; only an authorized user can access and reassemble their data. CEOCFO: Are you seeking funding, partnership or investment as you move forward?  

Mr. Callis: Yes. We need money to grow. We have a great management team which is experienced in building new businesses. But in this cybersecurity marketplace, rapid growth requires capital and strategic alliances. It takes a village. We are in a business where hopefully, a.k.a. through hard work, we can align with the right lead investment firm.

CEOCFO: When did you recognize that this was the way to go as a product? When did you recognize this was something needed and that you could do it?  

Mr. Callis: About two years ago, we were awarded a patent for Smart Data Fragmentation™ after years of researching and looking deeper into the security and management of data. We found so many businesses were getting hacked or ransomed regardless of all the security products they had installed. We also noticed that corporate hacks and breach reports were showing up on national and global news channels, not just on tech news. With the rise of quantum-computing which greatly handicaps encryption and the ongoing exposure to financial penalties, legal, and compliance problems, we concluded there is a huge growing market place for smart data fragmentation. CEOCFO: There are so many ideas to look at regarding cyber security. Why Cybervore now?

Mr. Callis: Data is a business’s most important asset and it is also a huge liability. Today’s basic business operations and intelligence require data to be safe and resilient. If they cannot get to their data to make decisions or operate, they are out of business. This is especially true for small to medium-sized businesses which are the fastest-growing piece of the U.S. economy.

Fragglestorm can help businesses simplify their access to multiple cloud services while keeping their data safe because there is protection no matter where the data is located.

Its’ beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

No matter what your business does, whether you’re a software-selling company expecting rather a calm season or an e-commerce company expecting a very high season, there are some steps you can make to ensure your Christmas period runs easily.

Cybervore a developer of content search and management software solutions have prepared  some tips that will help almost any business to prepare for Christmas and New Year holidays:

1. EDIT YOUR SPECIAL HOURS ONLINE

Whether you are selling services, Christmas cookies or anything else, your present and future clients need to be aware of your availability during holidays.

So if you have an important online presence, don’t forget to refresh your Special Hours in your Google My Business profile (https://business.google.com)

2. PREPARE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA FOR HOLIDAYS

Social media is a great way for interacting with your existing and potential customers. Business is business, but even if you are not expecting big sales during holidays season, share some Christmas spirit and seasonal happiness with your users: images, quotes, greetings. Even if you are a company selling legal services or software, you can add some cheerful but decent posts.

3. SEND GREETING CARDS TO YOUR CLIENTS

Your clients are very important for your business’s success. Show them that they are important for you, by sending them personal greeting cards and maybe some small presents. You never know at which extend such a fine gesture will boost your clients' willingness to cooperate with you!

4. ORGANIZE A PARTY AND SOME NICE SURPRIZES FOR YOUR STAFF

The pre-Christmas period is a great opportunity for team-building! Any business depends tremendously on relations between their employees and management. Create a beautiful Christmas atmosphere in your office to motivate your employees and boost their productivity. Organize a Christmas party for your staff and allow them to bring their spouses to make everybody happy. And don’t forget about Secret Santa!

5. MAKE SURE YOUR OFFICE IS READY TOO

You made sure your business is ready for Holidays. But how about your office space? Think about reducing energy consumption and keeping your office safe over holidays.

Switch off all the lights

Turn down the thermostat

Unplug laptop chargers

Shut down all the non-essential equipment (fridges, kitchen appliances, water coolers, printers, etc.)

Today, in the era of Big Data, we must acknowledge the need for problem-solving search technologies. Keeping any amount of data is not a big deal: most of the companies can afford it. But it’s obvious, that in order to be successful, organizations need to find their data easily and quickly in order to analyze it. No matter if you have a well-structured or unstructured data: using an enterprise search engine like CybervoreQuery, you will find any amount of data stored anywhere, because it is fast, easy-to-use, and flexible.

The information volume is growing on a monthly basis, and organizations need better tools to find, structure and analyze their data ASAP. Analytics is very important in business, because if you don’t analyse your Big Data… you just have lots of data. If you start to examine your data, you can draw conclusions and draw predictions concerning your business’s next steps, make better decisions. This will result in higher sales and bigger efficiency for your company.

Nowadays most of our work is done on PCs and laptops. Searching and not finding a file on your computer is frustrating, time-consuming, and…expensive! CybervoreQuery will definitely help you to find your files easily and quickly on your PCs, laptops, clouds. But obviously, keeping your computer organized is also important for your productivity and profitability. Here are some tips, which will help you to organize and manage your files:

1. Stop procrastinating - Managing your files is an important part of your business. By spending too much time on locating your data you lose too much money. So don’t forget that every minute counts, act now, organize your files now…and you will gain much more time for your future work!

2. Define your root folder – Before starting to organize your data, you must decide where to store it. You can do that on My Documents or any other home folder: the main idea is to have a single location for most of your data, in order to organize and manage it easily.

3. Create folders – Start creating large main folders, organized in a logical hierarchy. Imagine them as drawers for your bookshelf. Don’t create a messy root folder or desktop with just lots of files: how difficult it would be to find a book in a pile, instead of taking it from a shelf. However, the folders should be organized as well: you can choose any system, just do not forget to stick to it.

Privacy settings on Facebook do not protect users from handing over photos, posts or metadata that is relevant to a court case, a New York judge has ruled.

In a decision (PDF) handed down yesterday, chief judge Janet DiFiore said that a court could ask someone to hand over any relevant materials as part of discovery ahead of a trial – even if they are private.

The threshold for disclosure in a court case "is not whether the materials sought are private but whether they are reasonably calculated to contain relevant information", she said.

The ruling is the latest in an ongoing battle over whether a woman injured in a horse-riding accident should hand over privately posted pictures to the man she has accused of negligence in the accident.

Kelly Forman suffered spinal and brain injuries after falling from a horse owned by Mark Henkins, who she accuses of fitting her with a faulty stirrup.

In the age of developing information technologies most of us deal with lots of data. At the same time, we often encounter a frustrating problem: searching for a document we know we have, but not finding it. Or spending an important amount of time to search for an email, file and other content across our computers storage devices, and Cloud Services. This is not only frustrating, but also time-consuming and surely Expensive.  This is a common problem, and it results in the following statistics: businesses are losing up to $5,700 per worker annually.

CybervoreQuery™ is a new kind of desktop search tool working with Microsoft Outlook®. This file search software comes with the following benefits:

-          It quickly finds up to 400% more content

-          It’s an easy Outlook add-in helping to manage all your content

-          It helps to organize all your content without opening multiple programs

-          It has a focused search saving time across your PC, storage devices, and localized cloud services

If you buy it now you will benefit even more, because you’ll get your 40% discount!

Microsoft this morning announced a new feature for its Translator program that will let people use their smartphones to have conversations in several languages at the same time.

The update works with one-on-one conversations or in a situation where a multitude of languages are being used; for example, one person speaking English, another Spanish, and a third person Chinese. Microsoft is pitching the new tool as a great option for tour guides talking to people all over the world, to taxi drivers and hotels that get a lot of international guests.

“At the end of the day, our goal is breaking the language barrier,” Olivier Fontana, director of product strategy for Microsoft Translator, said in a blog post.

David Williams is VP of technology at Coupa, which provides cloud spend management solutions for customers like Salesforce.com, Rent-A-Center, Amazon and SUBWAY. You can follow David on Twitter @metakube and on the company blog, Coupa Cabana. Your company just on-boarded another software product that promises to make work better, faster and easier. If you’re familiar with traditional enterprise software, you probably found yourself rolling your eyes already. But some newer players are giving the dinosaurs a run for their money by focusing on simplification and usability. Not all business software is created equal, and there are some principles to keep in mind to identify truly better business software.