Reaction Third-Millenium: 2023 is still a challenging year for companies on the cybersecurity front. Threats and risks are becoming more advanced and sophisticated, and companies must be ready to defend themselves. Ransomware remained the most persistent and dangerous threat to European companies in 2022 and the most economically costly. According to CrowdStrike’s Global Threat Report 2022, there was a worrying annual increase of 82 per cent in data leaks related to ransomware attacks this year, with an average cost of €1.72 million for companies affected by this cyber-attack.

Moreover, between 2021 and 2022, the growth in cyber-attacks was 21 per cent, with a total number of 2,489 serious incidents in 12 months. To defend against these threats, companies must increasingly consider adopting advanced tools to make other cyber-attack techniques more profitable. In addition, companies need to take preventive measures such as training employees on cybersecurity, constantly updating software, and implementing reliable security systems.

Reaction – Third Millenium

This and much more was discussed during “Reaction,” a conference organized by Infonet Solutions in Padua, in northeastern Italy. The area is among the most flourishing from the point of view of Italian technology companies and, therefore, among the most targeted by cybercriminals. “We are in the midst of a global campaign, in which criminals are no longer kids acting alone, in a hoodie, in their room. We are facing trained teams, specialized groups, equal to those of traditional crime, acting with very specific purposes, moved and not by states,” says the Postal Police, which opened the event after greetings from Infonet managers.

“From our point of view,” Microsoft’s Stefano Longo tells us instead, “we are convinced that such a situation can only be countered with artificial intelligence. And that is why Microsoft, even in its defence suites, has introduced the Copilot platform, based on OpenAI technology, to speed up and automate threat scouting.

How to use the AI

“AI has revolutionized the way companies work, and this poses serious rethinks in the security sphere as well, both from an attacker and defence perspective. For this reason, perhaps today more than ever, there is a need to ‘team up,’ because only embedded in a valuable ecosystem is it possible to raise the level of protection without skimping on data usability.” Also emblematic were the afternoon’s speeches, in which Infonet Solutions’ main partners brought their testimonies on current and future trends in IT, with their solutions for dealing with the most egregious but also “hidden” threats.

The topic of Marco Compostella, Senior Channel Account Manager, is certainly interesting and concerns Vision 360, the platform on which the vendor focuses the bulk of its offerings. But also, on the IOT explosion: “Many find themselves working with data from connected devices located just about everywhere in the enterprise. The issue of the evolving speed of attacks and fraud systems in such a scenario is really central. Knowing where the data is located is therefore critical”.

Marco Zennaro, Commercial Account Executive Marco, follows him, according to whom the “systems” approach is a recurring keyword in our corridors. “You no longer must protect a location but ‘the data,’ 360 degrees. And in this way, you make sure that you have in your hands, always available, secure information but also “genuine,” that is, uncorrupted and free of problems. When you say cyber hygiene, you also manage to be always ready to “react” to new threats coming from outside.”

The importance of pentesting

Also participating in “Reaction” was Pentera, a company famous for its “penetration testing”, but explaining how this is only one part of proper IT security management. “Pentesting is definitely a way for companies to know the state of their network and infrastructure, but to this, we need to add more,” says Bruno Grollino, Regional Sales Director Italy, Malta, Cyprus of Pentera, “for example, continuous evaluation and software assessments.

In short, thanks to the speeches of the many guests in the room, including HPE, Nutanix, Aruba Networks, Palo Alto Networks, Tenable, and Manage Engine, the Italian cybersecurity vendor landscape is active and alert. But can the same be said of customers, i.e., companies? Perhaps not. It is a shared belief that the budget dedicated to security is still not as valuable as other items in the budget for companies. Too little is still being spent, and it is not always spent well when it comes to IT. Making a group is then central not only to share experiences and best practices but also to exchange opinions and investment strategies. This is somewhat the goal Infonet has set itself with its “Reaction”.