If we don’t look too closely, the world seems to be righting itself, and in that vein, Dell Technologies World was back in person for the first time in over two years. Described as a “theme park for passionate technologists,” the company’s flagship event took place in Las Vegas last week, with new advanced breakouts and hands-on labs, interactive demos, and curated learning tracks, all designed to inspire customers and partners to learn and innovate by gaining actionable insights and sparking new ideas.
The event had four different tracks, Multi-Cloud and “As-a-Service" (aaS), The Future of Work, Innovate with Data, and Modern Security. Each track featured a learning path and solutions pavilions where different services and solutions were showcased.
As part of the Dell Technologies family, Secureworks® exhibited within the Modern Securities pavilion, supporting the Dell MDR solution. This combines Dell Technologies’ security expertise and deep knowledge of IT environments with the leading Secureworks Taegis™ XDR security analytics software. Our kiosk showcased the Taegis XDR platform, demonstrating how the software can detect, investigate, and respond to advanced threats across IT environments.
In addition to demonstrating our solutions and showcasing our partnership with Dell Technologies, Secureworks presented several sessions within the Modern Securities pavilion, and cybersecurity was on the forefront of the entire conference. In the opening keynote, Michael Dell stated that, “Ransomware attacks are the number one threat for most organizations, occurring every 11 seconds with an average cost of $13M per occurrence.” He even stopped by the Modern Security pavilion and got a demo on some cybersecurity solutions. Later in the week, John Scimone, President, Global Security for Dell, led a panel on cyber resiliency, with three industry experts each with a unique and different perspective on security and privacy programs within organizations. A theme that we see echoed in our sales pitch for Taegis and Dell MDR.
Many of the solutions discussed this week were around what to do when disaster strikes. We saw demonstrations on edge solutions, cyber vaults, and data recovery, among many other topics. But just as important – if not more important – is a plan for when this disaster does strike. Michael Dell highlighted how ransomware is the number one threat to organizations today, and that a new incident is happening five times every minute, on average. In accordance with this shared challenge, a key piece of our messaging and sales pitch centers on the active adoption of best practices for cybersecurity and the idea that security begins and ends with everyone. Indeed, cybersecurity best practices are for more than just the information security or IT teams – it is a responsibility we all share. If we can break this down to an elementary level and talk about disaster planning, we can use the example of a fire drill as an analogy for how to approach a cybersecurity preparedness plan.
1. Meet with experts
Much like meeting with a local fire chief or fire marshal, companies need to communicate with their cybersecurity provider, to learn best practices and planning tips.
2. Create a response team
Next companies should create an in-house safety committee, or a cybersecurity response team, each should include representatives from each area or the business. You need some skin in the game, and representatives from each area of the businesses will know their own nuances and be able to articulate how a fire or a data breach will affect the day-to-day workings of their departments – enabling the team to make a company-wide plan.
3. Communicate the plan
It’s important to gather the company together and explain the plan, get buy in, make sure everyone from the CEO down to the interns understands their roles, responsibilities, and seriousness of the event. Whether it be a fire or a cyber threat, both are a BIG DEAL, and it’s important that everyone understand the threat and impact to the business.
4. Practice the Plan
Not just once. Practice at minimum twice a year, once with your cybersecurity provider and once on your own, write down lessons learned, revise the plan to reflect those lessons, and then, practice again. Back when we were all in offices, it was mandated that fire drills occur at least twice a year. In fact, you’ve been practicing fire drills since you were a child, and that’s the level of comfort and knowledge that your company should have in cybersecurity planning.
5. Set goals.
The goal in any cybersecurity solution planning should be to BE READY FOR ALL THINGS AT ALL TIMES. This is also the goal for emergency planning. Unexpected, unplanned and unthinkable emergencies happen all the time. Organizations should prepare for a cyber-attack, because it is not a matter of “if” but of “when.” Being prepared is the best plan for dealing with the threat and avoiding a scramble in the case of an emergency.
Establishing a culture and best practices adoption is one of the most important things an organization can do, because much like a fire, these threats happen unexpectedly and can be crippling to businesses. As Craig Bray, Senior Systems Engineer, at Secureworks is always saying, “When a tornado takes out the data center, it’s not just the janitor’s responsibility to clean it up.”
Dell Tech World 2022 was an amazing experience. We were finally able to see each other in real life, build deeper relationships across Dell and our key partners, and continue to deliver our message on the importance of cybersecurity planning and response. We can’t wait to see what next year’s event will bring – but you can feel assured that this topic will still be on the main stage and at the forefront of the conversation.
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