Arraya Insights

by

Right now there are nearly as many theories about who hacked Sony Pictures as there are people signing up at their local gyms to get started on those New Year’s resolutions. Even though the FBI is still steadfastly convinced North Korea’s fingerprints are all over the attack, another theory has been gaining steam lately.

The idea, which is being heralded by cyber security firm Norse, claims the hack on Sony may have been an inside job. Norse believes it’s narrowed down the field of potential hacker suspects to a small group of people, including one ex-Sony employee. That person had been employed by Sony for roughly a decade before being laid off back in May. It just so happens that this former employee was described as having a “very technical background” and had a working knowledge of Sony’s systems.   [Read more…] about Theories Abound on Motive for Sony Pictures Hack

by

Our recent posts on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology’s “Federal Health IT Strategic Plan 2015-2020” have covered the scope of the plan and gone in depth on one of its top goals, namely, expanding the adoption of health IT.

In this post, we’re going to focus on another goal laid out in the plan: advancing the security and interoperability of health information. As healthcare providers have started to leave paper in the dust and embrace digital records, there’s been an increased need to make sure the sensitive information is not only available but that it’s protected as well.

If that data isn’t fully locked down, it could prove costly for healthcare organizations. According to one estimate by the Ponemon Institute, data breaches could wind up costing the healthcare industry $5.6 billion annually. That same study also revealed that 40% of organizations aren’t confident in their ability to keep patient data shared on health information exchanges secure and private. [Read more…] about Advancing Health IT Security and Interoperability: 3 Targets

by

Your network security has been breached and your company’s sensitive data is in the hands of cyber crooks. That in and of itself is a bad enough spot to be in, but the salt in the wound? Hearing security experts say that a simple fix could have prevented the attack in the first place.

It’s not much, but at least there’s some solace that can be taken from knowing a hacker had to step up their game and really break a sweat to best your company’s digital security. But knowing that there was an easy solution which could have stymied them? That’s the type of thing that can keep IT pros up at night and it’s the situation one major bank has found itself in, according to experts. [Read more…] about Missed Upgrade Leads to JPMorgan Chase Cyber Attack

by

In our previous post on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology’s “Federal Health IT Strategic Plan 2015-2020” we laid out the basics of the report and what it could mean for the future of healthcare IT. This time around, we’re going to focus on the number one goal listed in the plan: Expand the adoption of health IT.

Taking into consideration the HITECH Act and Meaningful Use regulations, getting healthcare providers to upgrade their technology has clearly been a high priority of the Feds for a while now. Even though they’ve gotten the ball rolling, the plan is to go even further in the coming years.   [Read more…] about 3 Ways the Feds are Hoping to Increase Healthcare IT Use

by

The road to cloud adoption has been well-traveled. IT leaders have rushed to embrace cloud tools for the agility and savings they can bring to their organizations. Despite all of that foot traffic, there are still plenty of bumps which companies will need to deal with. These bumps can keep longstanding cloud adopters from really seeing the full return on their cloud investments. Likewise, they can also derail recent adopters early on in the process by frustrating users and eventually IT teams.

More than four out of five (81%) organizations say that within two years they’ll be using cloud services such as IaaS, PaaS, or SaaS to support their enterprise management software. So what should companies who are looking to get started with the cloud – or who are planning to expand their reliance on it – be on the lookout for? [Read more…] about 3 Challenges Which Can Stall or Derail Cloud Adoption

by

What’s healthcare IT going to look like over the course of the next several years? Well, short of a crystal ball, a new plan compiled by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology – in collaboration with more than 35 other agencies – is the best way to find out.

The plan, dubbed the “Federal Health IT Strategic Plan 2015-2020,” presents a detailed series of goals the Feds will look to push over the next five years. It also lays out a number of strategies designed to help actualize those goals.

The over-arching mission in all this is to “Improve health, healthcare, and reduce costs through the use of information and technology,” according to the plan. That’s something over-worked and cash-strapped healthcare IT teams everywhere can definitely throw their weight behind. [Read more…] about What the Future Holds for Healthcare IT: Feds Lay Out Their Focus

by

One of the knocks against solid-state drives (SSDs) was that, despite the higher level of performance they offered, they weren’t as durable as their counterparts, hard disk drive (HDD). As a result, the opinion prevailed that they just couldn’t be counted on. At least not for the long haul, anyway. There was always the fear that an SSD would just unexpectedly conk out, leaving users in a decidedly unenviable position.

One ongoing study seems to indicate that those fears may be misplaced. The study, which is being conducted by Tech Report, is investigating just how far SSD can be pushed before it finally breaks down.

Six consumer-grade SSDs were brought in to be the test subjects in the experiment. Of the six SSDs which started the race over one year ago, only two are still going strong. [Read more…] about Punishing Test Casts Doubt on Long-held SSD Beliefs

by

Rising user expectations. Concern over how applications perform. Rapidly advancing and changing security threats. The desire to balance operational simplicity with cost optimization. Sound familiar? They’re just a few of the headaches companies face with their branch office and wide area networks.  

As organizations have expanded to cover more territory, these networks have become an absolutely critical part of keeping a company’s employees united and in the loop – even if they’re rarely if ever in the same place. It’s up to IT to ensure the networks are running up to the top of their capabilities and that they’re doing so securely and efficiently. [Read more…] about New Releases From Cisco Ease Wide Area Network Complications

by

The term Organizational Effectiveness has become a trend in businesses lately. It refers to how well companies are able to achieve the goals and outcomes that they’ve laid out. High organizational effectiveness requires creating work environments that engage employees and enable them to do their best. As we already talked about in Making Social Learning a Habit in the Workplace, setting up the right environment for employees to excel in is key.

But employee engagement isn’t something you can just set and forget. It needs to be constantly monitored and reinforced. If leaders remove themselves from that process and just assume employees are engaged, it’s a safe bet those previously high levels will start to erode.     [Read more…] about Fostering Employee Engagement: Focusing on What Matters

by

Experts are predicting data centers everywhere are about to be hit with a massive increase in the amount of work they’re expected to handle. Is yours going to be ready to manage all of that extra traffic?

By 2018, global data center IP traffic is estimated to almost triple from where it stood back in 2013, according to Cisco’s Global Cloud Index. Data center traffic could reach 8.6 zettabytes by the end of 2018, a fairly eye-catching spike considering 2013 topped out at 3.1 zettabytes. That’s good for a compound annual growth rate of 23%.

And Cisco projects that cloud data centers will be the ones shouldering most of that increased workload. Come 2018, Cisco predicts cloud data centers will process over three quarters (78%) of workloads, compared to just 22% for traditional data centers.  [Read more…] about How the Cloud Could Change the Face of Company Data Centers