Have you entered The Internet of Things (IoT) yet?

2017 has been a big year concerning cyber security, positively and negatively. The rise of Ransomware into the mainstream news with global attacks on businesses and record numbers of data breaches such as Yahoo having one billion accounts accessed by hackers. IT security is one of the fastest moving industries, and it's vital that every business tries to keep up and stay protected.

Your business is only as secure as how you store and manage your passwords. Often overlooked, passwords are the first line of defence to protecting your business from anyone and a strong password can often make the difference. However sometimes no matter how strong a password is they still fall into the wrong hands. How passwords are stored plays a vital role in the safety of your business and ensuring that only authorised users can access approved applications.

1.4 Billion hacked and leaked passwords have been collated in a single file and are currently sitting on the dark web. Security firm 4iQ who discovered the files say that rather than this being a new breach it is a collection of several previous breaches. None of the passwords are encrypted and all the data has been put into a searchable, interactive database.

Risk plays a critical role in almost every business decision with business executives having to balance risk and reward if they want to be successful. IT is often overlooked with other risks being valued with more importance; IT vulnerability isn’t even considered a board level problem in many cases. Failure to identify, assess and mitigate IT risk sets your business up for security breaches and financial losses down the line.

There is a common belief among business professionals that technology is a key part of the future for successful companies and industries. Productivity and employee engagement are also vital to any company’s success, and emerging technologies are capitalising on these industry needs.

Businesses in the UK have cut the amount of cash they are prepared to spend on cyber security despite the rise in global attacks this year.

The ICO has launched a new dedicated advice line to help small organisations prepare for the new GDPR law which comes into place on the 25th May 2018.

After researchers recently reviewed over 270 million lines of code in applications worldwide they discovered 1.3 million weaknesses which could allow hackers easy access to corporate systems.

Here are the four key IT challenges that businesses need to meet in terms of their IT provision, if they are going to increase productivity and decrease costs.