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Business Evolves with Technology

Recently, Forbes outlined 5 ways retail is attempting to redefine itself. Overall, businesses are experimenting with new technologies, utilizing IoT devices to craft a more engaging shopping experience. But are they exposing themselves to security risks?

“Smart IoT devices such as beacons and smart shelves offer retail companies the efficiency to ensure their staff are effectively utilized, but physical IoT technology that is not secured properly can leave networks accessible to threats,” notes Rob Brown, director of services at Syxsense.

“Although smart in name, smart IoT uses open wireless networks and Bluetooth in order to communicate, creating more vulnerable endpoints in brick-and-mortar establishments,” he continues. “Tracking these IoT devices in retail companies is essential, because without knowing which ones you have, you cannot identify which ones are less secure or have known vulnerabilities which can be exploited.”

So, how can massive businesses with thousands of stores be expected to track a complex network of IoT devices? They can implement an IT management solution that leverages live, accurate, actionable, and secure data.

What Is Realtime Security?

• Live:  Realtime Security pulls live data from thousands of devices, direct to a web console, in seconds. By eliminating stale data, IT management and security decisions are based on what is happening right now, not in the past.

• Accurate: If device scans are run at night when devices are offline, hidden behind a firewall or roaming, security and IT teams have an incomplete view of their environment. Realtime Security eliminates blind spots enabling teams to manage their environment with 100% visibility.

• Actionable: With no steep learning curve, Realtime Security’s simple to learn web interface leverages AI, and empowers teams with the information and skill to act instantly.

• Secure:  Why juggle multiple consoles for device and security management? In a single place, security and IT operations can understand their exposed security risk, patch, deploy software, stop security breaches, satisfy compliance agencies and more.

Whether organizations are looking for endpoint security or IT management capabilities, including patch management, software distribution and remote control, Realtime Security is the only cloud-based approach to security and systems management which enables 10-second endpoint visibility and control thousands of devices.

Critical Updates for Apple and More

On the same day that Apple announced their new set of products, they released a massive group of updates. These patches address critical vulnerabilities throughout their operating systems and software offerings. The OS vulnerabilities, both iOS and macOS, could allow arbitrary code execution.

While Apple won’t reveal much about how potential exploitation of these bugs might work, they are rated as critical. It’s important to assess how many Apple devices are lurking within your network. Then implement a strategic rollout of the needed updates.

One-Third of Oracle Updates are Critical

The latest release of Java contains fixes for multiple critical vulnerabilities. Surprisingly, this number is down from the same time last year. Could Java be trending in the right direction? Only time will tell, but for now, this is positive news.

Legacy Java still needs to be monitored, as well. Java 8 ends public support in January 2019, but many companies still use Java 8, 9, 10, and 11. It’s important to track what versions of Java are running in an environment. Legacy software still gets regularly targeted for exploitation.

How does Syxsense help?

Syxsense displays graphs and icons that illustrate, at a glance, the vulnerability of your devices.

By clicking on a gadget, you’ll jump right into a patch deployment process, prepopulated to deploy all related updates to all devices that need them. You can easily modify this task to be more specific or start the task as-is, to save time.