AI CO-SELLING DCs Go Green THE QUOTA DILEMMA channelvisionmag.com Volume 22 Issue 4 JULY - AUGUST 2023 The Voice of the Channel Sponsored by CYBERSEC’S NEW PRIORITY Hybrid or heterogeneous Why IT needs trusted advisors more than ever Scan to to view THE CIO HOT SEAT
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JULY - AUGUST 2023 EMERGENT 8 I Never Want to Talk About Low-Code Again By Mike Fitzmaurice BUYER’S SIDE 12 The CIO Hot Seat Why IT leaders need trusted advisors more than ever By Martin Vilaboy CYBER PATROL 20 An Overlooked Element of Executive Safety Protecting your customers with data privacy By Dimitri Shelest 24 Cyber Schooling CISOs prioritizing employee security training By Brady Hicks ZETTABYTES 28 Heterogeneous over Hybrid ‘Hybrid connectivity’ isn’t always truly hybrid By Tristan Wood 36 Leverage Partnerships to Ensure Fiber Broadband Success By Nathan Stenson MOBILE & WIRELESS 40 Knowing Where You Are New Wi-Fi standard improves indoor location accuracy By Bruce Christian CHANNEL MANAGEMENT 42 The Quota Dilemma Managing time for sales success By Peter Radizeski 44 Partners Must Take Care of Their Customers, or Someone Else Will By Glen Nelson 46 Conversational Starters Mosaicx’s co-sales program provides agents with an entry into AI By Martin Vilaboy 48 Help Provided Quest Technology Management helps clients, partners find ways to succeed By Bady Hicks CORE COMMUNICATIONS 50 Meeting Intelligence How AI can uplift the video conferencing experience By Robyn Rawlings 54 Data Centers Turn Green The search for ways to run cleaner data centers continues to grow and evolve By Bruce Christian 60 Bolster Your Mobility with Snom DECT Products 6 Editor’s Letter 62 ICYMI 66 Ad index CONTENTS Volume 22 – Issue 4 4 CHANNELVISION | JULY - AUGUST 2023
Join us October 3rd Dallas Cowboys Stadium | 9am-3pm Can’t make it in person? Register for our virtual live feed! Keynote Speaker - former Cybercrime Prevention FBI Agent Scott Augenbaum Run through the tunnel onto the field for a Cowboys Game Day Experience Invite your customers to register and earn $100 for every business that attends* REGISTER NOW TO SAVE YOUR SEAT! DON’T GET HIT FROM THE BLIND SIDE Contact your Telesystem Channel Manager to learn more and take advantage of our offer EARN UP TO 6x Cybersecurity Bundles *Earn a $100 prepaid gift card for every individual business who registers and attends on October 3rd.The business must list your name on their registration form to qualify. Only one person per business is counted toward gift card earnings. Gift cards will be mailed before October 31, 2023.
The educational program for CVxEXPO 2023 is coming together, and we’re getting excited about bringing the channel partner community another schedule of sessions and presentations filled with real-world advice attendees can take home to recharge their channel strategies in 2024. At CVx, your time won’t be wasted with veiled marketing pitches, over-presentation and over-hyped 10,000-foot views. Short on slide decks of “differentiators” and provider’s solution menus, our two-days of concurrent sessions will be loaded with practical sales advice; honest discussions on key topics; opportunities impacting the channel; expert training in sales and compliance; and actionable tactics that can be used immediately to accelerate sales and operational strategies. And we couldn’t think of a better complement to the theme and goals of CVx’s unrivaled educational content than a keynote presentation by Tim Basa, senior vice president of sales for Telarus. No one in the channel brings it like Basa. His dynamic and humor-filled stage presence is backed by nearly three decades of success in and out of the trenches of B2B technology sales. Part business coach, part strategic advisor, part motivational speaker, Tim will be tossing out his time-tested advice on a range of topics including time management, maximum-results marketing, approaching customers confidently and ways to attract prospects rather than chase them down. This fun and fast-paced keynote is sure to serve as a call to arms to your sales organization. Meanwhile, the highly curated schedule of panels and training includes three concurrent sessions organized into three tracks: Sales & Marketing Training Track; Technology Opportunities Track; Compliance & Regulatory Track. Details on topics and our cast of expert speakers can be found at cvxexpo.com. And check back for further updates. The education at CVxEXPO 2023 – conveniently located one flight directly below the main expo hall – takes place in the afternoon of Tuesday, November 14, and in the morning on Wednesday, November 15. And to help keep your travel dollars in your pocket, complimentary lunch and breakfast, respectively, will be served to all attendees in the foyer right outside the meeting rooms. Like everything at the value-packed CVx, all educational tracks are open to all registrants – no tiered badges at CVx. And since qualified partners and channel executives attend for free – thanks to our generous sponsors – CVx represents the biggest bang for your trade show budget. There are few better places than the Sonoran Desert in the winter for partners to recharge channel strategies for 2024. We look forward to seeing everyone in Scottsdale this November. ChannelVision Hits the Stage LETTER Martin Vilaboy Editor-in-Chief martin@bekabusinessmedia.com Bruce Christian Senior Editor / Event Coordinator bruce@bekabusinessmedia.com Brady Hicks Contributing Editor brady@bekabusinessmedia.com Percy Zamora Art Director percy@bekabusinessmedia.com Rob Schubel Digital Manager rob@bekabusinessmedia.com Jen Vilaboy Ad Production Director jen@bekabusinessmedia.com Berge Kaprelian Group Publisher berge@bekabusinessmedia.com (480) 503-0770 Anthony Graffeo Publisher anthony@bekabusinessmedia.com (203) 304-8547 Michael Burns National Account Executive michael@bekabusinessmedia.com (262) 993-9116 Beka Business Media Berge Kaprelian President and CEO Corporate Headquarters 10115 E Bell Road, Suite 107 - #517 Scottsdale, Arizona 85260 Voice: 480.503.0770 Email: berge@bekabusinessmedia.com © 2023 Beka Business Media, All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in any form or medium without express written permission of Beka Business Media is prohibited. ChannelVision and the ChannelVision logo are trademarks of Beka Business Media 6 CHANNELVISION | JULY - AUGUST 2023
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EMERGENT Once you’ve seen enough circus acts involving dancing bears, you stop being amazed at the fact that a bear can dance and start to think about how good the bear is at it. This has happened to low-code development. During a relatively short time span, low-code development has become the default approach to helping developers quickly build and introduce new applications. What used to be quite revolutionary and novel has, in some ways, become as ubiquitous as drag-and-drop. In fact, a recent study conducted by Vanson Bourne and WEBCON revealed that 84 percent of CIOs anticipate the growing significance of low code in the next 12 to 24 months. It’s become clear that we don’t need to persuade anyone that “low-code is good” any longer, and I for one am happy about it. What remains very much worth discussing is “what organizations can achieve” using low-code (or traditional) platforms and tools. We can talk less about the merits/caveats of tools and more about the best practices: for example, business process solutions and data-driven decision-making. It’s also still worth talking about citizen development; yes, low-code and citizen development are often discussed together, but who’s building things is different from how they’re being built. The aforementioned survey found that 70 percent of companies are transitioning towards involving non-technical users in their application development – but it also found that only half of those who have attempted citizen development reported success. This seeming discrepancy isn’t hard to explain; it stems from the misconception that providing individuals with low-code tools alone will transform them into proficient developers. The resulting lesson that is hopefully sinking in is that there’s more to development than just coding – it’s still necessary to think like a developer. I NEVER WANT TO TALK ABOUT LOW-CODE AGAIN By Mike Fitzmaurice 8 CHANNELVISION | JULY - AUGUST 2023
EMERGENT 10 CHANNELVISION | JULY - AUGUST 2023 Additionally, the notion that citizen developers dominate the landscape (even the low-code landscape) just isn’t accurate. The survey revealed that it’s professional developers who are the main users of low-code tools. Ultimately, effective application building requires collaboration among users, stakeholders and developers. By involving all parties in the design process, reducing ambiguity and utilizing technology that handles deployment details at the platform level, organizations can enhance application development outcomes. The organizations achieving success with low-code investments understand this. That need to collaborate can’t be stressed enough. More than 80 percent of CIOs highlighted the need to increase the pace of development, and more than half of them struggle with the risks associated with managing a large array of applications. Since IT lacks bandwidth and non-IT users lack expertise, getting past this app gap requires them working together and sharing responsibilities. An additional critical way to address this is for organizations to start viewing applications as mass-produced products rather than individually crafted works. The resulting effort looks more like a factory than an artist’s studio. By implementing a common user interface approach, a unified security model, standardized documentation and training processes, organizations can enhance productivity while effectively managing the growing number of applications. Indeed, the most significant risks and challenges in application development are not during the construction phase itself. Design, including requirements gathering and specifications, still remains a manual and adversarial process between customers, vendors or IT departments – to their detriment. Deployment, which encompasses change management, documentation, training, security and more, is often neglected until the last moment. Although low-code tools that focus on design and deployment exist, they aren’t commonplace. We should explore and promote their adoption to alleviate these challenges. In truth, though, the marketplace of ideas has a limited amount of bandwidth, and some of the attention paid to low-code was being diverted to robotic process automation (RPA). While RPA has become more prevalent, it is still not as commonplace as low-code. What seems to be taking place is that organizations are realizing that RPA is not a panacea and that it works best in conjunction with digital business process management and application integration. Such a shift towards a more holistic approach is a positive development. Finally, a great deal of our collective attention has been shifting to AI-generated coding. It definitely deserves attention, but similar to low-code and RPA, AI is not a magical solution. AI requires a corpus of examples from which to create models it can use to generate useful code. Acquiring a large volume of diverse examples from various companies (companies which may be reluctant to share proprietary information) can pose (and is posing) a significant challenge. But that pales in comparison to the biggest issue: AI lacks the ability to explain its decisions, adapt to changing business conditions, and avoid unexpected consequences. Cleverness without transparency has its limits when application needs are complex and evolving. In the end, low-code won. It’s normal. We should focus on what we do with it. Patterns and practices are how we evolve as an industry; without them, we’ll just keep throwing new tool after new tool, attempting to solve business problems we don’t really understand. Real digital transformation is an organizational change, not a technological one, and in this very brief inflection point between low-code hype and AI hype, it’s my hope that we can spend at least a little bit of time on organizations and solutions. I’ll keep my fingers crossed. o Mike Fitzmaurice is vice president of North America and chief evangelist at WEBCON. Who builds applications in your organization? Source: Vanson Bourne, WEBCON How closely do the following describe your organization’s delivery strategy for new applications? Source: Vanson Bourne, WEBCON Has your organization increased, or does it plan to increase, its use of the internet as a primary option for connecting sites to your WAN? Source: Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) Which of the following technology categories has your organization already invested in? IT/Professional developers within IT External consultant/VAR/ system integratar Business users/citizen developers 72% 67% 49% 49% 42% 41% custom low-code 0 50 25 75 IT works in partnership with business users/citizen developers to develop needed applications IT develops applications on its own IT purchases and/or subscribes to ready-made solutions available on the market Business users/citizen developers create their own applications We rely on consultant partners or system integrators to develop our solutions Yes, we have implemented this Yes, we are amid this change Yes, we are planning to do this No 23% 22% 19% 19% 17% 0 5 10 15 20 26.2% 9.6% 1.3% 62.9% 82% 64% Cloud Cumputing Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) Who builds applications in your organization? Source: Vanson Bourne, WEBCON How closely do the following describe your organization’s delivery strategy for new applications? Source: Vanson Bourne, WEBCON IT/Professional developers within IT External consultant/VAR/ system integratar Business users/citizen developers 72% 67% 49% 49% 42% 41% custom low-code 0 50 25 75 IT works in partnership with business users/citizen developers to develop needed applications IT develops applications on its own IT purchases and/or subscribes to ready-made solutions available on the market Business users/citizen developers create their own applications We rely on consultant partners or system integrators to develop our solutions 23% 22% 19% 19% 17% 0 5 10 15 20
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No longer are the days when business IT and network services primarily are used to execute a task or provide a certain intended capability. (You need two people on opposite sides of the planet to talk? Here you go. Need an engine to process online orders? How about this? Need to save money on this? We got tech for that.) Even optimization of existing systems is no longer enough on its own. Today, business technology stacks, as well as the CIOs and IT leaders that manage them, are being asked to do a whole lot more for the business. One even could argue that it’s an unfair amount. Quite literally, CIOs and their staffs are being asked to “transform” organizations and their operations. Pandemic shutdowns and the resulting remote revolution officially kick-started the era of digital transformation, and CIOs are sitting on the hot seat. “Technology is no longer just an enabler. It’s now a strategic business function,” said Salman Ali, CIO, McDonald’s Germany, in an Info-Tech Research Group briefing. THE CIO HOT SEAT By Martin Vilaboy Why IT leaders need trusted advisors more than ever BUYERS SIDE 12 CHANNELVISION | JULY - AUGUST 2023
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BUYERS SIDE “Digital transformation has given technology a new front seat that’s really driving the business,” he continued. For CIO and CIO-types, digital transformation has necessitated whole new levels of understanding into just about every element of business and operations. It would seem, in their present situations, that CIOs could use a good deal of trusted advice, possibly more than ever before. And that trusted advisor must be able to advise on a lot more than the tech. IT decision makers, quite frankly, need “big picture” trusted advisors. Of course, it’s not lost on us that this is a time when momentum is moving toward self-service and automated channels, and some very large forces are behind the push. Even so, it’s not hard to argue that IT departments are facing unprecedented pressures. In addition to supporting an expanding and increasingly mission-critical infrastructure, IT executives are being tasked with finding ways to accelerate growth, discover and drive revenue, improve CX and EX, monetize proprietary technology, and sometimes even create and drive organizational strategy. In a recent survey of more than 1,300 IT operations professionals by IT and security management provider Kaseya, the most popular budget driver for 2023 was “business growth,” coming in just ahead of both security and the updating of outdated infrastructure. To make the shift from delivering outcomes to discovering outcomes, IT leaders will need to acquire deeper understanding of many, if not all, lines of business. After all, IT touches everything, and with the rapid pace of innovation and some transformative technologies brewing, often LOB department heads will be unaware of what solutions are available and what can really help. In some cases, no one yet knows how and where certainly technologies will be applied. The “killer app” could be a highly customized and personalized solution that hasn’t even been conceived yet. More than likely, IT pros will be expected to push innovation into business segments. In turn, CIOs must be able to communicate across large and complex buying circles that can include leaders representing sales, supply chain, HR, customer experience, marketing, etc. Being influential within those buying circle will require CIOs to discover, explain and “sell” the ROI of technology deployments within each business segment, necessitating a deeper understanding of the challenges, processes and objectives of those business segments. “CIOs will need to find business champions to vouch for the important contributions IT is making to their area,” advised analysts at Info-Tech Research Group. “CIOs should develop their handle on how KPIs influence revenues and costs. Keeping tabs on normalized year-over-year revenue comparisons can help demonstrate that IT contributions are making an impact on driving profitability,” they continued. For organizations that have migrated significant resources from on-premises data centers to the cloud, Info-Tech even recommends CIOs appoint a type of “cloud economist” to closely monitor cloud usage and adjust it to financial expectations, particularly when cloud-based data IT Department’s Top 2023 Budget Drivers Business growth 32% Updating outdated IT infrastructure 29% Security incidents or concerns 28% Innovation and strategic initiative(s) 28% Digital transformation 27% Regulatory compliance 27% Economic concerns 25% Remote workforce management 22% Competitive pressure 11% Other 2% Source: Kaseya ‘2023 IT Operations Survey’ Planned Changes to IT Investment Strategy in Response to Market Environment Investing in new digital services/solutions in response to market changes 67% Accelerating movement to opex (cloud) versus capex (premises) technology solutions 62% Increasing use of third-party service providers 55% Delaying some IT initiative due to shifts in budget and/or strategy 45% None of the above 1% Source: MarketPulse Research 14 CHANNELVISION | JULY - AUGUST 2023
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BUYERS SIDE flows aren’t directly connected to the revenue-generating activity seen in the business. Skeptics and Shortages Indeed, the paths to profits and positive outcomes must be clear. After a few years of rapid adoption and necessary reactions, CIOs are facing some pushback from CxOs who want to see better returns on what they’ve already deployed, several surveys suggest. And make no mistake, said Liz Hilton Segel, McKinsey & Co. senior partner, IT investment “is 100 percent on the minds of CEOs.” When McKinsey asked whether companies are engaged in some form of digital transformation, 89 percent said that they are. “But only one-third said they think they’re getting the financial value they anticipated at the start,” said Hilton Segel, in a recent research note from McKinsey. In a survey by FinOps solution provider SoftwareOne, only 27 percent of the 99 percent of organizations utilizing cloud technology said they are greatly exceeding the value they expected from their cloud investment, “largely due to rushed implementations and flawed service configuration,” said SoftwareOne researchers. The pressure is palpable to CIOs. According to Info-Tech’s survey, almost nine in ten CIOs say that business frustration with IT’s failure to deliver value is a pain point. Supervisors have a slightly more favorable opinion, with 76 percent agreeing that it is a pain point. “Similarly, nine in ten CIOs said that IT limits affecting business innovation and agility is a pain point, while 81 percent of their supervisors say the same,” said InfoTech researchers. In the Kaseya survey, for its part, respondents citing an inability to support strategic business as a concern doubled in 2023. One barrier to success, in particular, that popped up more than once among survey respondents was technical debt, or the price a company pays for short-cut fixes in IT implementations or for choosing easy but limited solutions. Almost three quarters (72 percent) of SoftwareOne respondents said their organization’s digital transformation efforts are lagging due to technical debt. Half cited a complex legacy IT infrastructure as one of their key challenges during the next year. Functions Respondents Outsource to Trusted Advisor/MSP 2023 2022 IT security 27% 22% Network monitoring 23% 19% Cloud infrastructure management 22% 21% Help desk 20% 17% Endpoint management (e.g., desktops, laptops and servers) 18% 14% Backup management 16% 19% Compliance reporting 16% 11% Patching and software management 14% 13% Security operations center 12% 12% Onboarding or offboarding of users and devices 12% 6% Other 3% 5% Source: Kaseya ‘2023 IT Operations Survey’ 16 CHANNELVISION | JULY - AUGUST 2023 Source: Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) Yes, for many of our sites Yes, for some of our sites Yes, for specific applications (ATMs, mobile point of sale, etc.) No, it is only a backup option 39.9% 50.0% Source: NordLayer Projected cybersecurity investments for 2023 0% 20% 40% 60% 59% 53% 45% 37% 37% 11% 1% 5% Can’t disclose None Other Purchase of cybersecurity solutions/service/apps Cybersecurity traning for employees Increased staff dedicated to cybersecurity questions External cybersecurity audits Preparation for organizational certifications (ISO27001, SOC2, etc.) Source: Expero CIOs are pushing on multiple fronts to deliver resources for business growth Upskilling teams Increasing AI and automation Investing in hyper local knowledge Outsourcing system management Recruiting Reassigning resources Deprioritizing projects Cutting headcount 46% 46% 42% 37% 36% 34% 28% 23%
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BUYERS SIDE Looking broader at the specific barriers to achieving the goals of digital transformation, CIOs surveyed by Info-Tech pointed to a wide variety of challenges, all at relatively equal rates. And while the complexity of today’s IT infrastructure was clearly number one on the list, organizational and cultural challenges were highly represented. What also can’t be forgotten are the pervasive talent shortage issues facing IT leaders. “CIOs are finding it difficult to hire the talent needed to create the capacity they need as digital demands of their organizations increase,” said Info-Tech researchers. “This could slow the pace of change as new positions created in IT go unfilled.” Indeed, the importance of attracting and retaining talent has increased for almost all CIOs and CISOs, as 94 percent of such executives surveyed recently by CEO.digital stated that it’s become increasingly critical to their roles during the last two years. In relation to cybersecurity skills, in particular, talent shortages leading to capacity constraints was on top of the list of challenges faced by IT professionals, showed Info-Tech findings. Fifty-four percent said they are concerned or very concerned with this issue. In a separate survey from SD-WAN provider Expereo, 49 percent of CIO admit to struggling to find cybersecurity experts; whilst 41 percent have trouble finding artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) experts. “CIOs may need to consider reskilling and rebalancing workloads of existing staff in the short term and tap outsourcing providers to help make up shortfalls,” said the research firm. Add it all up and it could be why as many as 80 percent of the respondents to the Kaseya survey said they outsource one or more IT services to an advisor or MSP, up from 64 percent in the 2022 survey. Not only are more respondents outsourcing IT services but they are also outsourcing a greater number of IT services, showed the Kaseya data. More than a quarter (27 percent) of the respondents said they outsource IT security, up from 22 percent in 2022. All told, a full 84 percent of IT decision makers surveyed by MarketPulse Research already use or have “definite plans to use” third-party providers in 2023, and an additional 13 percent are considering the use of third-party providers. More than half of respondents (55 percent) said they have plans to increase their use of third-party trusted advisory services. When considering the complexity and mission-critical importance of the current realities faced, compounded by the demands to discover rather than just deploy and support innovation, CIOs and IT leaders, it would seem, have never been more in need of the vision of a trusted expert. That’s of course assuming the “expert” can help IT decision makers – as well as the buying circles they face – discover, understand and convey how solutions can drive the intended outcomes within their specific business model, processes, industry or competitive advantage. Certainly, for many situations, persuading the buying circle will require more than what can be gleaned from a FAQ page. CIOs and IT personnel are being advised by business coaches and experts on how to be “IT superheroes” for their companies. Most superheroes of fiction and comic book lore rely on a trusted, behind-the-scenes companion to help them save the day. o 18 CHANNELVISION | JULY - AUGUST 2023 Source: Info-Tech Research Group Specific challenges in achieving success with digital transformation Organizational/Cultural challenges Data mgmt/Analysis challenges Technology-related challenges 39% 34% 33% 32% 32% 30% 29% 28% 27% 27% 25% 23% 8% Complexity of IT infrastructure Organizational issues (e.g., poorly defined roles & responsibilities) Integration of legacy systems with new applications Data collection/management/analysis Too many competing priorities API development & deployment Business & IT strategy are not well aligned Cultural issues (e.g., resistance or lack of buy-in) Inability to act on data (e.g., to make business process changes) Lack of sufficent budget Lack of staff and/or correct skill sets Lack of vision or strategy None
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Protecting your customers with data privacy By Dimitri Shelest Companies go to great lengths to protect their top executives. Keeping them safe, healthy and happy so they can perform their duties without unnecessary distractions is critical for the productivity of the company. At one time, executive protection meant providing bodyguards and secure transit, and fortifying executive offices against external threats. As more executives work from home, efforts have extended to bolstering home defense systems. Still, there’s a missing element. In today’s digital world, it’s also necessary to protect executives online. That should include protecting their personal data. Executives have access to some of the company’s most sensitive information, and they’re increasingly being targeted by hackers looking to steal company secrets or to perpetrate cybercrimes. Personal data provides fuel for these crimes. Digital data warehouses store all kinds of details about all of us. It used to be just addresses, phone numbers, aliases and relatives. Now, it’s far more detailed information such as political affiliation, names of neighbors, resting heart rate, and even Amazon wish lists. All this data is collected legally by companies. Every time you interact with a computer – be that via a smart device, a bar code at checkout or on a website, data about you is being collected. In the U.S. there is essentially no limit to the amount of data companies can collect, and few limits on how they can use it. CYBER PATROL AN OVERLOOKED ELEMENT OF EXECUTIVE SAFETY 20 CHANNELVISION | JULY - AUGUST 2023
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Most data can be sold to anyone who will pay for it – including bad actors. They can use it to personalize their workplace phishing attacks and business email compromise schemes to make them more effective. Executives are particularly at risk for “whaling” attacks, where a criminal impersonates an executive via email or another means of communication and asks the target for money and/or information. A successful whaling attack can be quite lucrative, since executives have a lot of credibility and power. In one such attack, a Mattel finance executive sent $3 million to a fraudster impersonating the company’s CEO. With the possibility of such large payouts, criminals will go to considerable effort to use personal details that make their requests compelling and believable. Executives also face risks from social media, where they are more visible and accessible than ever before. This can be great for brandbuilding and engagement. Unfortunately, it also puts them at risk of harassment or worse from a variety of bad actors, both online and in real life. This can come from dedicated customers or fans who are unsatisfied with a product or service. For example, in 2022, Strauss Zelnick, the CEO of Nasdaq-listed video game developer Take Two Interactive, was forced to lock his Twitter account after being bombarded by a wave of harassment from customers dissatisfied with the latest Grand Theft Auto game. It can also come as a result of taking a stand – or not taking a stand – on social issues. Gone are the days when staying neutral was the preferred corporate strategy. According to research from Accenture, customers are increasingly aligning their spending with their values. They demand to know where companies stand on issues that matter to them. Executives are expected to “walk the walk” and stand for the company’s values. But one false move can place them in the crosshairs of cancel culture and harassers can quickly descend. This kind of harassment, while still very upsetting for the individuals involved, can at least be somewhat anticipated and crisis communications strategies can be at the ready. But threats to executives can also arise unexpectedly when a company is caught in the cross currents of the news cycle. For example, after the contentious 2020 election, figures ranging from the head of strategy and security at Dominion Voting systems to the CEO of social media app Parler were forced to go into hiding with their families after receiving death threats when their personal information as well as that of their family members was leaked by hackers. These scenarios don’t even include the possibility of threatening behavior from a disgruntled or terminated employee. In a turbulent economic environment such as the one we are navigating now, this issue may come into the foreground as executives grapple with layoffs and cost-cutting measures. This doesn’t just happen to executives at big companies or celebrity CEOs. Anyone who is involved in making decisions that can impact other people’s lives, contradict their political views or offend their values can become a target. The effects are devastating. Researchers are just beginning to understand the impact of online harassment, but it appears to be very similar to other types of trauma. Victims might have difficulty concentrating and making decisions. They might experience increased levels of anxiety and even paranoia. They might come to fear opening messages or looking at their devices. Many individuals have even had to change jobs or alter their daily routines because of cyberstalking and harassment. Clearly, none of this is optimal for executive productivity. But it not only affects their own well-being. It can deplete morale of the company as a whole, and ultimately affect a company’s bottom line. The good news is that there are steps that companies can take to protect their executives, their families and their organizations. It starts with educating them about the threats and the fact that they are possible targets. Like the general public, executives can avoid oversharing personal information on social media. They can protect their web browsing by using browser extensions to block trackers. They can maintain strong passwords, use a separate email address for sensitive activities, and be on high alert for any suspicious sounding communications. They can also remove their data from people search sites that publish it. There are currently more than 190 of these sites. Data from my company, OneRep, shows that the average person has data records on 46 of them. People search sites are legally required to remove your information on request, but they aren’t legally required to make it easy for you to submit that request. Few people, least of all executives, have the time to approach 46 sites and request their data be removed. Even if they could, it’s a Sisyphean task. Our data shows that much of this information resurfaces within four months – when they get their next data dump from their data broker. Fortunately, there are technology companies that can comb all the people search sites, locate your records, and automate the removal process. They also provide continued monitoring and removal of your data should it reappear. The proliferation and widespread availability of personal data is dangerous for public-facing executives, their families and their companies. Companies understandably prioritize protecting the physical safety of top executives, but in today’s polarized, always-on world, keeping executives safe online is also imperative. It’s a small investment that pays dividends in peace of mind. o Dimitri Shelest is CEO at OneRep, a privacy protection company that removes public records from the Internet. CYBER PATROL 22 CHANNELVISION | JULY - AUGUST 2023
By Brady Hicks When it comes to cybersecurity, today’s organizations are only as strong as their least-knowledgeable employees. Internet-based attacks go down every day, destroying critical business assets with surgical precision. They strike broadly, targeting all employees to capitalize on the bad habits of the most vulnerable. While offering access to new security technology and services can help, those tools have their limits. According to Verizon, about 80 percent of modern data breaches involve some sort of “human element.” Compounding this issue is the persistent work-from-home movement in which geographically remote staff go largely unsupervised every day. Fortinet recently reported that 60 percent of businesses allow staffers to log in and work remotely. Of those, 62 percent observed a direct attack. It all adds up to a significantly widened strike surface, replete with more vulnerabilities and points of entry than ever before. At each location, a singular staff member wields incredible power over network and information access, often with limited understanding of the daily threats that they face. In turn, IT and security decision makers don’t show much confidence in employees helping them shut down attacks. Even when it comes to arguably the most invested employees, there isn’t much faith in their ability to protect personal hardware, systems and networks. When Ponemon Institute, in a survey sponsored by privacy protection company BlackCloak, asked IT and IT security practitioners to rate how confident they were in CEOs and executives’ abilities to prevent attacks on their personal hardware, systems and networks, only 26 percent of respondents were confident. A similar 28 percent were confident in high-level executives’ abilities to recognize a phishing email. CISOs prioritizing employee security training CYBER PATROL CYBER SCHOOLING 24 CHANNELVISION | JULY - AUGUST 2023
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So perhaps it’s not surprising that when browser security brand Red Access asked CISOs to name the most important criteria for hybrid and remote employees to successfully adopt a new security solution, employee training and communication topped the list, named by 61 percent. Likewise, when CISOs were asked more generally about the most important criteria when selecting a security solution or product to deploy within their organizations, employee user experience (35 percent) was cited more often than even pricing (34 percent) and level of security (33 percent). Similarly, “cybersecurity training for employees” was a top area of projected investment for 2023 among 500 organizations recently surveyed by NordLayer. Cited by 53 percent of respondents, training was topped only by the planned purchase of security solutions in general (59 percent). More than four in 10 respondents expressed intent in investment in “additional staff dedicated to cybersecurity questions.” “It is essential to invest in security training, tools and dedicated employees in the company and view security as continuous learning and growth,” warned NordLayer researchers. When it comes to preventing cyberattacks among hybrid workers specifically, organizations surveyed by Fortinet cited a lack of user awareness and training about cybersecurity hygiene as their top concern. A full 80 percent of respondents expressed plans to invest in cybersecurity training and awareness services. Of course, training and awareness only can go so far if a solution is overcomplicated, difficult to use or perceived as counterproductive. In turn, CISOs are placing priority on security software that is more user friendly. Solutions need to be seen as fluid with the employee’s day-to-day work, not prohibitive or inconvenient. Indeed, CISO’s widely agreed (73 percent) on the importance of a seamless staff experience, showed Red Access findings. When posed with questions regarding the importance of integrating security solutions within the understanding of employee jobs, respondents largely identified it as either very (47 percent) or extremely (26 percent) important. On the flip side, a full 99 percent of CISO expressed either significant (22 percent) or moderate (77 percent) concern over the potential for a drop in productivity from deploying a cybersecurity program that protects hybrid/remote employees’ browsing activities. CISOs need to discover their own balance between effectively protecting their workforce and not skirting productivity. Above all else, it is incumbent for CISOs to continue to evolve cybersecurity policy, keeping staff members updated throughout the process as trends in security change. This includes a focus on assessing the most-likely threats, creating a set of strategic objectives and practices for remote workers and updating that strategy as necessary. Partner and customer investments in cybersecurity are for naught if those resources are not properly employed. So much of all of this can vary, based on the companies’ behavior. For most CISOs, the goal is to minimize the impact of an errant click or stolen credential. By promoting generally safer cybersecurity policy and more sound common-sense habits based around awareness, businesses are automatically more secure. o In general, what are the most important criteria for you, as a CISO, when you select a security solution/product to deploy in your organization? Ability to integrate with other tools 45% Ease of deployment 38% Employee user experience 35% Ease of management 35% Pricing 34% Compliance to regulations 34% Level of security 33% Little IT resources required 31% Source: Red Access CYBER PATROL 26 CHANNELVISION | JULY - AUGUST 2023 Source: Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) Does your organization use wireless connectivity as a primary WAN connectivity for any of its sites? Source: Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) Yes, for many of our sites Yes, for some of our sites Yes, for specific applications (ATMs, mobile point of sale, etc.) No, it is only a backup option 39.9% 7.1% 3.0% 50.0% Skills gaps Inconsistent global performance across geographies (i.e., middle mile) Hardware complexity Lack of traditional service-level agreements None - we perceive no significant challenges 17.3% 16.3% 14.7% 13.1% 6.1% Source: NordLayer Projected cybersecurity investments for 2023 0% 20% 40% 60% 59% 53% 45% 37% 37% 11% 1% 5% Can’t disclose None Other Purchase of cybersecurity solutions/service/apps Cybersecurity traning for employees Increased staff dedicated to cybersecurity questions External cybersecurity audits Preparation for organizational certifications (ISO27001, SOC2, etc.)
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