Monday Morning Impact – June 13

Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report: Ransomware Threat Climbs Further

According to the Verizon Business 2022 Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR), ransomware breaches increased by 13 percent in the past year, representing a higher jump than was registered in the past five years combined.

Organized crime also continues to be a pervasive force in the world of cybersecurity. Roughly four out of five breaches can be attributed to organized crime with external actors approximately four times more likely to cause breaches in an organization than internal actors.

Heightened geopolitical tensions are also driving increased sophistication, visibility, and awareness around nation-state affiliated cyberattacks, according to the report.

“Over the past few years, the pandemic has exposed a number of critical issues that businesses have been forced to navigate in real-time. But nowhere is the need to adapt more compelling than in the world of cybersecurity,” said Hans Vestberg, CEO and Chairman, Verizon. “As we continue to accelerate toward an increasingly digitized world, effective technological solutions, strong security frameworks, and an increased focus on education will all play their part in ensuring that businesses remain secure, and customers protected.”

For many businesses, the past year has also been dominated by supply chain issues, and this trend was also reflected across the cybersecurity landscape. Sixty-two percent of system intrusion incidents came through an organization’s partner. Compromising the right partner is a force multiplier for cybercriminals and highlights the difficulties that many organizations face in securing their supply chain.

The research also notes that people continue to be the weakest link in an organizations’ cybersecurity defenses. Twenty-five percent of total breaches in the 2022 report were the result of social engineering attacks, and, when you add human errors and misuse of privilege, the human element accounts for 82 percent of analyzed breaches over the past year.

Marking its 15th anniversary, the DBIR analyzed 23,896 security incidents, of which 5,212 were confirmed breaches.

Channel Impact^®
The Verizon DBIR has become a key industry indicator to the evolution of cybersecurity threats. The company urges readers to consistently assess their exposure, mitigate risks, and take appropriate action.

Palo Alto Networks and Deloitte Collaborate on Managed Security Services

Palo Alto Networks and Deloitte have expanded their existing strategic alliance to offer managed security services to their shared U.S. clients, thereby making Palo Alto Networks’ cybersecurity portfolio available in managed offerings from Deloitte.

“Our customers are asking for managed secure access service edge (SASE), cloud, and threat detection and response capabilities,” said Prem Iyer, vice president, Global Systems Integrator Ecosystems for Palo Alto Networks. “By offering our innovative security solutions portfolio as a managed service through Deloitte, we’re providing newly extended support to customers who want their cyber programs to truly enable their critical business initiatives.”

“We’re advising our clients every day on how cybersecurity can help empower their strategic business priorities — but building it all in-house can be challenging and costly,” said Kieran Norton, Deloitte Risk & Financial Advisory infrastructure solution leader and principal, Deloitte & Touche LLP. “Together with Palo Alto Networks, we are able to advise, equip and operate security capabilities for organizations as they work to manage cyber threats with agility and resilience.”

Expanded solutions offered as managed services will include Zero Trust Enterprise Enablement; Multicloud Automation and Orchestration, combining Palo Alto Networks Prisma Cloud, and the Cortex XSOAR automation and response platform, with Deloitte’s cloud security controls framework and library of cloud security use cases; the Deloitte OpenCloud, management plane; and 5G security support.

Channel Impact^®
As organizations work toward digital transformation, many are turning to managed security service providers and managed detection and response providers to better leverage advanced technologies to counter cyberthreats. The updated alliance will offer threat detection, 5G security and Zero Trust enablement.

Aryaka Networks Introduces Certified Partner Program

Aryaka, a San Mateo, California-based SD-WAN and SASE company, has rolled out its new Aryaka Certified Partner (ACP) online training and certification program for allied sales agents, VARs, and MSPs.

The initiative is designed to assist partners in gaining a comprehensive understanding of Aryaka’s SD-WAN and secure access service edge (SASE) solutions through self-paced online training.

The ACP certification courses include online training tracks that cover market trends, opportunities, solutions, and budget planning, as well as Aryaka’s services, competitive comparison, and top use cases.

“We’re excited to rollout ACP online training to our Aryaka Accelerate partners,” said Craig Patterson, channel chief and vice president of sales for Aryaka. “Our revamped certification program gives partners a roadmap to sell Aryaka’s new easy-to-consume ‘T-shirt sized’ SD-WAN and SASE solutions to SMBs and enterprises.”

Launched in December 2021, Aryaka’s “EZ” and “Pro” solutions leverage the provider’s new FlexCore Layer 2/3 global architecture and tiered support model to offer customers options for SD-WAN and SASE.

Channel Impact^®
The training program is designed to accelerate partner uptake of the updated Aryaka value proposition that has been expanded beyond SD-WAN to include SASE.