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VMware SASE Launched by BT as a Managed Service

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The Future of Retail Is Now. Are You Ready?

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More Secure Open Source Software: A Shared Responsibility

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VMware Attends White House Summit on Open Source Software Security

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VMware: A Look Ahead at 2022

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Securing the Future: 7 Cybersecurity Predictions for 2022

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VMware Responds to Log4j Vulnerability

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For This CIO, “Technology Is the Basis of Change”

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IDC MarketScape Positions VMware as a Leader in SD-WAN Infrastructure

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VMware Empowers AWS Customers with the Power of &#8220;AND&#8221;

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Kit Colbert, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, VMware

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VMware is proud to be a <a href="https://staysafeonline.org/data-privacy-week/all-champions/">2022 Champion</a> for Data Privacy Week, supporting the principle that all organizations share the responsibility of being conscientious stewards of personal information. The goal of <a href="https://staysafeonline.org/data-privacy-week/">Data Privacy Week</a> is to raise awareness about the importance of privacy and remind organizations that respecting privacy is good for business. The initiative is led by the National Cybersecurity Alliance, a leading non-profit organization on a mission to create a more secure, interconnected world by promoting public-private partnership.

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Between the universal shift to anywhere work and what is being labeled as “<a href="https://news.vmware.com/dei/worried-about-the-great-resignation">The Great Resignation</a>,” the evolving enterprise landscape has required organizations to adjust their security strategies in real-time to stay one step ahead of attackers and protect stakeholder data. To improve security postures, organizations should consider conducting a baseline vulnerability assessment or threat hunting exercises to identify where systems are vulnerable and where increased security controls need to be applied.

“The lines between work and our personal life have increasingly been blurred over the past few years as our homes now double as our offices,” said Karen Worstell, senior cybersecurity strategist at VMware. “This is not likely to change soon, as companies continue to delay their return to office plans. As we settle into a new era of anywhere work, enterprises must understand that data privacy practices rest on a foundation of strong cybersecurity controls. Data Privacy Week is a time for organizations to set goals for implementing best practices that improve data protection and cybersecurity. These include robust vulnerability management, implementing multifactor authentication, threat hunting, and network micro-segmentation, among others.”

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Creating a Company Culture of Privacy

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In addition to strong security measures, organizations should adopt a privacy framework to help manage risk and create a culture of privacy. The privacy frameworks from <a href="https://www.nist.gov/privacy-framework/privacy-framework">NIST</a>, <a href="https://www.aicpa.org/interestareas/informationtechnology/privacy-management-framework.html">AICPA</a>, and <a href="https://www.dnvgl.com/services/iso-iec-27701-international-standard-for-privacy-information-management-159186">ISO</a> are great places to start. By creating a culture of privacy as well as educating employees on how privacy and security applies to their day-to-day job, organizations can better protect against both internal and external security and data privacy threats.

“We’re all familiar with the concept of The Great Resignation, but what organizations need to be hyper-aware of this Data Privacy Week is its significant impact on insider threats,” said Rick McElroy, principal cybersecurity strategist at VMware. “The number of employees that have left a company but still have access to the network or proprietary data – whether accidentally or purposefully – has significantly increased. Malicious actors know this and will start to target these employees to either carry out cyberattacks or plant ransomware. CISOs need to reevaluate their current security posture to ensure that this type of data is properly protected so that an instance of an employee departing from a company is not linked to a possible security incident.”

At VMware, we understand that a strong security posture and protection of personal data inspires customer and employee trust, enhances customer experience, and accelerates our growth and innovation strategy. By empowering everyone at VMware to be privacy-first champions, we can better enable the business to deliver innovative products and services that solve complex business problems for our customers and partner organizations. VMware employees can visit the <a href="https://source.vmware.com/portal/pages/Legal/IDPD-2022">Privacy Source</a> site to learn more.

2030 Trust Outcome: A Cyber Resilient World and Privacy by Design

VMware’s <a href="https://www.vmware.com/company/esg.html">2030 Agenda</a> is a decade-long ESG commitment and call to action to foster a more sustainable, equitable and secure world. One of the key pillars of this commitment to building a better future is trust. As our technology services and solutions have grown, so too has our ability to drive enhanced security and privacy for our customers to build trust with their stakeholders.

At VMware, we envision a future where customers of all companies are confident their data is secure and being used responsibly, employees can be sure their employers are transparent and ethical, and all stakeholders are effectively safeguarded from the cyberattacks threatening our digital world. VMware is helping to build a more secure future for all through our <a href="https://www.vmware.com/security.html">security solutions</a> that strengthen customers’ ability to defend against cyberattacks and better protect their apps and data. This empowers customers to build trust across any app on any cloud across any device.

By viewing innovation through a lens of digital ethics and stewardship, and by focusing on security, privacy-by-design and transparency, VMware establishes and maintains trust among our people, customers, partners, shareholders and communities. Read more about VMware’s 2030 Trust Goals <a href="https://www.vmware.com/company/esg.html#trust">here</a>.<a></a>

VMware is proud to be a 2022 Champion for Data Privacy Week, supporting the principle that all organizations share the responsibility of being conscientious stewards of personal information.

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ktuttle@vmware.com

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- VMware today announced an agreement with BT, a leading global communications services provider, to offer multinational customers more choice and flexibility in how they embrace a cloud-first approach to networking, security, and edge computing.

Under the terms of the agreement, BT will offer its customers VMware Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) as a global managed service, combining BT’s extensive networking capabilities and in-depth security expertise with VMware technology.

The launch of the BT-managed service builds on the strong partnership between the companies. BT already offers <a href="https://newsroom.bt.com/bt-launches-new-generation-of-software-defined-network-services-with-vmware/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a managed service based on VMware SD-WAN</a>.

The new managed service will help customers accelerate their digital transformation by providing employees wherever they are with flexible, more secure, and reliable access to cloud-based applications and services deployed in public and private clouds, SaaS, or at the enterprise edge. It will support the adoption of the latest digital technologies and workstyles, including IoT and hybrid working.  

As part of the single-vendor ecosystem managed service, BT will provide full end-to-end support across networking and security, protecting access to applications and data across private, hybrid and multi-clouds. This will remove complexity for customers on adopting a full SASE approach and will be especially compelling for those looking to transform both networking and security operations.

VMware’s comprehensive cloud-delivered SASE solution brings together:

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These capabilities are delivered as a service from a global network of over 150 points of presence (PoPs) deployed by VMware and its SASE service provider partners. BT will peer its network PoPs with VMware PoPs, so customers have an enhanced end user experience on the VMware platform.

The new BT-managed VMware SASE service will launch with features including URL filtering; in-line cloud access security broker (CASB) to protect user activity; content filtering to reduce attack surfaces; and content inspection to protect against malware attacks.

For customers looking to adopt hybrid workstyles, BT will provide VMware Secure Access. This zero-trust network access service allows only trusted devices and remote workers to access enterprise applications hosted on premises or in the cloud.

VMware and BT plan to work together to introduce new features to the managed service over the coming months.

Scott Cowling, Director, Software Defined Networks, BT, said, “Many organizations are deploying cloud networking with SD-WAN technology. SASE takes this approach to the next level with an architecture that enables delivery of networking, security, and edge compute services from the cloud. Launching our managed VMware SASE solution will help customers address networking and security challenges seamlessly as one.”

Craig Connors, vice president and general manager for VMware’s SASE business, said, “Leading service providers like BT have modernized their networks so they can deliver a new category of services to enterprise customers. SASE has emerged as the blueprint for modern networking and security, and we are pleased BT has selected VMware SASE to simplify their customers’ multi-cloud journey.”

VMware is a leading provider of multi-cloud services for all apps, enabling digital innovation with enterprise control. As a trusted foundation to accelerate innovation, VMware software gives businesses the flexibility and choice they need to build the future. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, VMware is committed to building a better future through the company’s 2030 Agenda. For more information, please visit <a href="http://www.vmware.com/company" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">www.vmware.com/company</a>.

VMware, VMware SD-WAN, VMware SASE and VMware Secure Access are registered trademarks or trademarks of VMware, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and other jurisdictions.

This press release may contain hyperlinks to non-VMware websites that are created and maintained by third parties who are solely responsible for the content on such websites.

Angela Leaf, VMware Global Communications, Phone: +1 (860) 480-3367, <a href="mailto:aleaf@vmware.com">aleaf@vmware.com</a>

BT will offer its customers VMware SASE as a global managed service, combining BT’s extensive networking capabilities and in-depth security expertise with VMware technology. Learn more:

BT Launches VMware SASE As A Managed Service

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@BT_Global will offer its customers @VMwareSASE as a global managed service. Learn more:

VMware Comment Letter in Advance of the White House Open Source Security Summit

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Last week, I attended the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/01/13/readout-of-white-house-meeting-on-software-security/">White House Open Source Software Security Summit,</a> along with VMware’s Chief Security Officer, Alex Tosheff, and Michael Kennedy, our VP of Global Government Relations and Public Policy. Led by Deputy National Security Advisor for Cyber and Emerging Technology Anne Neuberger, the summit was attended by both private industry leaders and government agencies.

This important gathering was precipitated by the Log4j vulnerability, but the real issue is — how can we ensure source code, build, and distribution integrity in <a>all open source</a> software (OSS)?

Building open source software and contributing to its many communities is a big part of VMware’s engineering and innovation spirit, and we believe the way forward hinges on continued collaboration. As such, we brought some practical recommendations to the table for accelerating both industry and public/private partnerships, as detailed in the following letter we submitted in advance of the summit.

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Anne Neuberger Deputy National Security Advisor for Cyber and Emerging Technology The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Northwest Washington, D.C.  20500

Thank you again for inviting VMware to the Open Source Software Security Summit at the White House. As you may be aware, VMware is both a heavy user of and contributor to open source software. As such, VMware takes open source, and in particular open source security, very seriously. To that end, we participate in and contribute to many open source-related industry consortia, such as the Linux Foundation, Apache Software Foundation, Cloud Native Computing Foundation and the Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF), to name just a few. <del></del>

VMware believes that open source software has been and will continue to be an important source of innovation, industry collaboration, and industry standardization. It has enabled both new and existing businesses to rapidly build out new technologies on openly available, proven software capabilities. And because of the above-mentioned consortia, open source enables industry participants to collaborate around common standards and interoperability, which benefit all participants as well as consumers.  Much of this benefit is due to the fundamental “openness” of open source.<del></del>

Unfortunately, the increasing use of open source in commercial software has also meant that it is increasingly targeted by cyber-attackers. This increased threat of cyber-attacks is not unique to open source software, as evidenced by SolarWinds, Colonial Pipeline, and other recent high-profile cyber attacks. However, while companies have taken steps to address security issues in their proprietary software, the same degree of security hardening has not happened at scale across the thousands of open source projects regularly used by businesses. Security challenges with open source software stems neither from its openness nor because the projects are maintained by “hobbyists”<a href="#_ftn1">[1]</a>. Rather, data shows that historically the main cause of open source vulnerabilities are a lack of security education and awareness, discipline in open-source sourcing, secure build-and-release pipeline, and best practices and reference architectures for properly applying tooling. It is exactly these areas we must address collectively as an industry in order to enhance the aggregate security of open source projects.<del></del>

We recognize the many security issues that we and our industry peers face with open source, and we are firmly committed to addressing them. While we as an industry strive to address open source security issues, we must ensure that we do not unintentionally eliminate what makes open source a critical enabler of innovation – its inherent accessibility and openness. We believe the common guiding principle should be to provide education and apply safeguards to dramatically improve open source security while continuing to enable innovation and collaboration.  On balance, we believe open source is good for the industry and consumers, and that we should be doing more of it, but doing it the right way!<del></del>

VMware recommends that the open source community and industry participants take the following actions. As the responsibility is a shared one, we recommend coordinating and implementing these recommendations across the community in two ways:

VMware is committed to continuing to improve open source security, and we look forward to addressing these issues live in our meeting on Tuesday and at the Summit on Thursday. Thank you for your leadership and the opportunity to engage on these important issues.

Michael Kennedy, Vice President, Global Government Relations and Public Policy

<a href="#_ftnref1">[1]</a> The majority of open source contributors are employed by technology companies, as shown in many studies, e.g., the Linux Foundation OSS Contributor Survey: <a href="https://www.linuxfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020FOSSContributorSurveyReport_121020.pdf">https://www.linuxfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020FOSSContributorSurveyReport_121020.pdf</a>.

Recommended Actions

Open Source Community and Projects

Businesses Incorporating OSS Into Their Products and Services

VMware firmly believes that working with industry and government is key to building more innovative, interoperable, scalable and secure solutions so that innovation can continue to drive benefits for all. To participate in this dialog, visit my <a href="https://octo.vmware.com/strength-in-numbers-the-white-house-open-source-security-summit">Strength in Numbers</a> blog and share your thoughts with the OSS community.

VMware recommendations for ensuring more secure open source software through industry collaboration and public-private partnership.

Building open source software and contributing to its many communities is a big part of VMware’s engineering and innovation spirit, and we believe the way forward hinges on continued collaboration.

More Secure Open Source Software is a Shared Responsibility

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Kit Colbert joined VMware in September 2003 (following an internship in 2002) and currently serves as senior vice president and chief technology officer. He is responsible for ensuring VMware’s long term technology leadership through research and innovation programs, with the primary goal of positively impacting and shaping the future of VMware, its ecosystem, and its customers. As CTO, Colbert’s will shape the technical vision for the company, and the transformation to a cloud and subscription-centric R&amp;D organization. His oversight includes advancing research and development efforts, overseeing the VMware Engineering Services team, the Design/UX team and the company’s ESG commitments. Prior to September 2021, Colbert served in multiple roles, including VMware’s Cloud CTO, General Manager of VMware’s Cloud-Native Apps business, CTO for VMware’s End-User Computing Business, and as the lead architect for the VMware vRealize Operations Suite. Colbert joined VMware as the technical lead behind the creation, development and delivery of the vMotion and Storage vMotion features in VMware vSphere. Colbert is a recognized thought-leader on application modernization and multi-cloud trends. He speaks regularly at industry conferences and serves as the multi-cloud voice for the VMware Office of the CTO blog. Colbert holds a bachelor’s of science in computer science from Brown University.

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Kit Colbert

VMware recommends industry collaboration to ensure source code, build, and distribution integrity in all open source software.

NRF 2022: VMware Powers Global Retailers to Drive Accelerated Innovation

“From unpredictable supply chains to evolving customer expectations and increased competition, there is no shortage of challenges facing retailers today,” said Ed Durbin, director, global retail industry group, VMware. “The stakes are high for survival and growth as retailers look to reinvent themselves with digital business models to navigate changing market dynamics. We give our customers the power to innovate faster, transforming the customer and employee experience to maintain a competitive edge and build resilient retail operations on a trusted digital foundation.”

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The New Reality of Retail in a Digital World

Amid the pandemic’s unpredictable trajectory, retailers are facing a new reality. And as consumer patterns and expectations evolve, the industry must embrace the growing role of technologies like cloud and apps as part of business strategies. Since the start of the pandemic, VMware found that 88% of retail executives increased investment in new digital-first experiences.1

However, as retailers look to innovate across clouds and apps, they must also consider security. Last year, 73% of retail executives experienced a major security breach.2 Increased digital operations have expanded the attack landscape. Retailers now need a faster and smarter path to cloud for their digital businesses, with the ability to build, run and better secure apps across any cloud with freedom and flexibility.

OFS Powers Resilient Operations with VMware

OFS is a family-owned contract furniture manufacturer dedicated to crafting experiences and products that contribute to places where people want to be.

“Our time to value with VMware Carbon Black was almost instantaneous. I’m spending less time tracking down false positives and spending more time triaging and acting on legitimate threats,” said Jeremy Wilkins, Security Administrator, OFS. “We don’t bog down our internal network with legacy virus updates.”

<a href="https://www.vmware.com/products/carbon-black-cloud.html">VMware Carbon Black Cloud</a> delivers cloud native endpoint, workload, and container protection that combines the intelligent system hardening and behavioral prevention needed to help retailers stay one step ahead of attackers.

At Retail’s Big Show, here’s where you can find VMware:   

For more on how VMware is helping global retailers innovate and transform, check out:

VMware Survey Methodology

VMware conducted online surveys with retail executives exploring recent trends. In June 2021, 65 global retail technology executives participated in the executive pulse survey. In September 2021, 110 global retail technology executives participated in the executive pulse survey.

VMware and Carbon Black are registered trademarks or trademarks of VMware, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and other jurisdictions.

This article may contain hyperlinks to non-VMware websites that are created and maintained by third parties who are solely responsible for the content on such websites.

Samantha Mayowa, VMware Global Communications, + 1 (781) 552-3062, <a href="mailto:smayowa@vmware.com">smayowa@vmware.com</a>

Introducing Managed Detection and Response for endpoints and workloads to help security teams stay one step ahead of attackers.

Today, at Retail’s Big Show, VMware showcases the latest solutions to help global retailers innovate faster, boost customer engagement and loyalty and drive business models for the future. Learn more:

VMware at Retail's Big Show

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VMware Answers 'SOS' of Understaffed Security Teams

Today, at #NRF2022, VMware showcases the latest solutions to help global retailers innovate faster, boost customer engagement and loyalty and drive business models for the future. Learn more:

Today, Kit Colbert, VMware’s Chief Technology Officer, Alex Tosheff, VMware’s Chief Security Officer, and Michael Kennedy, VMware’s Vice President, Global Government Relations and Public Policy, attended the White House Open Source Software Security Summit.

Led by Anne Neuberger, Deputy National Security Advisor for Cyber and Emerging Technology, the summit focused on ways to improve the security of open source software. As both a user of and contributor to open source software, VMware encouraged continued industry collaboration on issues from education and common standards to interoperability and distribution mechanisms.

“VMware commends the Biden Administration for convening this incredibly constructive discussion and for recognizing that collaboration is key to advancing the security of open source software,” said Kit Colbert, VMware’s Chief Technology Officer. “We look forward to continued engagement between the White House and industry as we work together to build trust and resiliency in this key building block for technological and economic progress.”

As part of its commitment to open source software and security, VMware is an active participant and contributor to open source-related industry consortia such as the Linux Foundation, Apache Software Foundation, Cloud Native Computing Foundation and Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF).

VMware encourages continued industry collaboration on issues from education and common standards to interoperability and distribution mechanisms.

VMware encourages industry collaboration on issues from education and common standards to interoperability and distribution mechanisms.

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druyak@vmware.com

Happy new year, 2022! It’s time to look deep into our enterprise-technology crystal ball to see what we might expect over the coming year. But first, some context: no psychic powers are required to predict that the trend towards a multi-cloud approach will continue. Multi-cloud gives the enterprise freedom to pursue a best-of-breed cloud strategy to accelerate business transformation and innovative app development. So, we’ll look through the lens of a multi-cloud environment as we consider VMware leaders’ 2022 predictions from cloud, security, apps, and anywhere workspace. I’ll share my own prediction near the end of this post, along with one from a customer.  

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Most companies have already identified solutions for application portability across clouds (although some environments are more conducive to app migration than others). Data portability, however, remains the big challenge — and data is the fuel that propels apps. Traditional storage systems cannot deliver a cloud-like experience. They are defined by fixed hardware boundaries that confine resources. This can result in trapped data, stranded capacity, limited scalability and elasticity, complex placement decisions, and high sunrise and sunset costs. The industry’s march towards the multi-cloud/zettabyte era will only exacerbate these limitations. In the next two years, we predict that we will see the emergence of a cloud-agnostic federated data fabric, which will enable organizations to mitigate data gravity as a key inhibitor to successfully operationalizing a multi-cloud architecture. 

As organizations implement network segmentation to stop the spread of ransomware, attackers have begun to leverage trusted credentials to move freely throughout the network. With a valid set of credentials, attackers can accomplish much of their nefarious activity without raising a single alarm.  

Some of the stealthiest credential attacks use native, authorized tools like PowerShell to gain access by appearing as legitimate activity. Once an attacker can move laterally across an organization’s network, they have the “keys to the kingdom” and can access sensitive customer information and corporate proprietary data.  

Enter the double-extortion ransomware attack, in which an attacker quietly exfiltrates this sensitive information before encrypting a victim’s files and threatening to make sensitive data public. This ensures financial gain for cybercriminals who force organizations to not only pay to decrypt their files, but to prevent harmful data from being sold or publicly disclosed. 

While ransomware attacks like Kaseya and Colonial Pipeline made the nightly news this year, we think that threat actors will take this one step further in 2022 by using a double-extortion ransomware attack as a result of stolen credentials. 

The good news is that we can expect a cadre of tech companies, the open-source community, academia, cybersecurity institutions and government agencies around the world to unite to meet this challenge. We’ve done it before, and we will do it again.

We will see the emergence of tools that bring the Kubernetes (K8s) patterns to new domains —solving new problems and changing the intersection of development, security, and operations practices. K8s has proven to be successful for containerized infrastructure, but its embedded ideas have broader applicability. We will see an increasing number of systems (build systems, infrastructure management, and federated application-control planes) leverage the manifest-based model popularized by K8s. This will mean a transition to a manifest-based approach and will mark a shift from imperative DevSecOps practices to the consumption of intent-driven services that apply a declarative approach to management. This will lead to something of an inversion of IT — moving from systems that try to make sense of what is running and provide APIs to change what is running, to systems that consume manifests that represent intended state and then allow for reconciliation of actual state with intended state. This will allow them to tackle challenges in areas like AI/ML, stream-based processing, app integration and other areas without having to make significant 'full stack' investments in platforms. 

One of the major trends we predict in the end-user computing space is the broad adoption and general acceptance of password-less authentication — something we believe is a “must-have” moving forward. Most attacks can be avoided by using stronger methods of authentication. 

Password-less authentication is a type of multifactor authentication that replaces the user’s password with a different factor (typically a client-side certificate unlocked via biometrics). This would allow users to authenticate to corporate resources from a fingerprint or face scan throughout the course of a day, rather than having to remember a constantly rotating password or using an authenticator app. 

We see 2022 as the year where VPNs start to die off in huge numbers. During the course of the pandemic, companies realized that VPNs were one of their most vulnerable areas. They did not provide sufficient security for remote users who required broad access to the corporate network. Micro-perimeters, real-time security posture checks, and the wide availability of SASE offerings will be VPNs’ successors. 

Today’s multi-party enterprise workflows are fragmented and highly complex to maintain. This causes delays, increased costs and hinders innovation. Workflow data is often siloed within the enterprise — resulting in inefficient and costly steps to share and reconcile data across boundaries. This is where blockchain/digital ledger technology (DLT) enters the picture. While trendy cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) - which are also built on blockchain - capture memes and headlines, blockchain is quietly making waves in the enterprise driving real productivity. Blockchain’s real power lies in how it enables multiple parties to work together on a shared trustworthy source of data, fully and securely digitizing transactions. Maturing technologies, new delivery models, adoption of standards and the energy of an extensive and vibrant ecosystem are accelerating enterprise adoption. In 2022, we suspect that we’ll  see the value of enterprise blockchain becoming increasingly clear, as well as strong acceleration in production deployments across many industries (such as supply-chain use cases, for example), fundamentally changing the nature of doing business across organizational boundaries. In the financial-services industry, it is already meeting customers’ needs for high-frequency, complex business operations. We expect there will be an even broader enterprise blockchain adoption in 2022 and we’ll see major financial institutions more confident to deploy blockchain technology into production.  

A key area of focus for NKI will be applying AI and ML to cancer recognition through imaging and research models. It can support the automatic analysis of medical images for decision support of healthcare providers, as well as the analysis of cells to better understand the origin of cancer. 

To support researchers in conducting their work, we need a capable infrastructure for a wide variety of workloads. It must be a scalable and secure environment that supports data exchange with other institutions. We must work together to amplify our impact. Network virtualization, containerization, and sharing a single platform with workload isolation are all technologies we hope to leverage in the coming years. 

These new technological possibilities will allow researchers to work more flexibly and safely to help make our mission — a cure for every cancer — a reality in the near future.

What do you think of the VMware leaders' predictions for 2022? Let us know and feel free to share your own predictions for the coming year.  

VMware leaders share their technology predictions for 2022 in cloud, security, apps, anywhere workspace, enterprise blockchain and more.

VMware leaders share their 2022 predictions in cloud, security, apps, anywhere workspace and enterprise blockchain.

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VMware Leaders' 2022 Predictions - VMware News and Stories

Check out VMware's 2022 tech predictions featuring CTO @kitcolbert on #enterpriseblockchain, @marcfleischmann on #cloud, @_tomgillis on #security, @patelajayp on #apps, and @brianmadden on #anywhereworkspace.

The past year has thrust cybersecurity into the spotlight and created a renewed focus on evolving security strategies for both the private and public sector. This month, we witnessed the <a href="https://news.vmware.com/security/vmware-responds-to-log4j-vulnerability">critical Log4j vulnerability</a>, which further revealed the fragility of the world’s digital infrastructure. 2021 also saw cyberattacks like Colonial Pipeline, JBS and Kaseya make mainstream headlines and impact everyday consumers.

With cybercrime <a href="https://cybersecurityventures.com/cybercrime-damages-6-trillion-by-2021/">predicted</a> to cost the world $10.5 trillion annually by 2025, up from $6 trillion in 2021, defenders are in a race to stay one step ahead of attackers. We interviewed VMware security experts to get their take on predictions heading into the new year as the threat landscape continues to evolve. Here are the attack trends and emerging threats that should be top of mind for all organizations as we approach 2022.

The Log4j Zero Day will motivate organizations to rapidly adopt a Zero Trust approach.

"In 2021, we saw a massive proliferation of hacking tools, vulnerabilities and attack capabilities on the Dark Web,” said Eric O’Neill, national security strategist at VMware. “Defenders caught the highest number of Zero Days ever recorded, including closing out the year with the severe Apache Log4j vulnerability being exploited in the wild. As a response, 2022 will be the year of Zero Trust where organizations 'verify everything' versus trusting it’s safe. We’ve seen the Biden administration mandate a Zero Trust approach for federal agencies, and this will influence other industries to adopt a similar mindset with the assumption that they will eventually be breached. A Zero Trust approach will be a key element to fending off new attacks in 2022, while also mitigating the fallout from the Log4j vulnerability.”

Supply chain attacks have just gotten started.

“In July 2021, as the world was still reckoning with the devastating SolarWinds breach, the REvil ransomware gang exploited a Zero Day in Kaseya VSA to launch a supply-chain attack on its customers,” said Tom Kellermann, head of cybersecurity strategy at VMware. “Neither of these attacks occurred in a vacuum, meaning security teams must pay closer attention to the threat of island hopping. In 2022, we can expect that cybercrime cartels will continue to seek ways to hijack the digital transformation of organizations to deploy malicious code, infiltrate networks, and gain persistence in systems all over the world. Defenders and organizations will need to monitor networks and services vigilantly for suspicious activities and potential intrusions. Implementing practices associated with Zero Trust philosophy like microsegmentation, threat hunting, and advanced telemetry capabilities can help ensure organizations are not the gateway to or victim of a severely damaging attack.”

Insider threats pose a new challenge for organizations as the job market continues to shift.

"As the Great Resignation took shape, we saw growing challenges associated with insider threats,” said Rick McElroy, principal cybersecurity strategist at VMware. “The sheer number of employees leaving their jobs and potentially still having access to the network or proprietary data has created a headache for IT and security teams tasked with protecting the organization. Insider threats have become a new, distinct challenge for organizations as they try to balance employee turnover, employee onboarding and the use of non-sanctioned apps and platforms. In 2022, I expect we’ll see the number of insider threat incidents increase. Attackers will also start targeting employees to carry out their attacks or plant ransomware. As a result, we’ll see new protocols and guidelines established as organizations work to keep networks and sensitive data protected.”

In 2022, accelerated delivery of the benefits of 5G infrastructure will highlight IoT security needs.

"The pandemic made it abundantly clear how important 5G infrastructure is for rural areas in the U.S.,” said Karen Worstell, senior cybersecurity strategist at VMware. “The rollout of 5G will enable better access to healthcare, educational innovations, and public services. The Biden administration’s infrastructure bill, which includes provisions for broadband delivery and access, provides the industry with another nudge in the right direction to roll it out. As 5G service delivery expands, there will be a growing demand for IoT security and engineering to ensure that network complexity does not become yet another security liability. We must also focus on securing the far edge much like we handle the data center edge today -- this will put new demands on incident detection and response. Future-ready capabilities like EDR (endpoint detection and response) will need to evolve in order to keep an expanding service level and constituency safe.”

Linux-based operating systems will become a key target for cybercriminals.

"Linux powers the majority of cloud workloads and 78% of the websites on the Internet,” said Giovanni Vigna, senior director of threat intelligence at VMware. “Because of this, the Linux-based operating system has become the key driver behind nearly all digital transformation projects undertaken by organizations. This makes the security of Linux environments critical, as bad actors have increasingly started to target Linux-based hosts with various threats – from RATs and web shells to cryptominers to ransomware. Many organizations focus their attention on Windows-based malware and might find themselves blind to this emerging threat until it's too late.”

Adversaries will move laterally and exfiltrate data from unsecure multi-cloud environments.

"With multi-cloud environments on the rise, the attack surface will continue to expand,” said Chad Skipper, global security technologist at VMware. “This will invite greater proliferation of common ports and protocols that will be used by the adversary to move laterally and exfiltrate data once inside an organization’s network. In 2022, we will see the adversary focus their efforts on living and hiding within the common noise of an organization’s networks. Having visibility into this noise to identify the adversary will become more essential than ever before when defending today’s multi-cloud environments.”

Copycat cyberattacks on critical industries will disrupt human lives.

"We are seeing cybercriminals adopt a style of attacks that seek to cause disruption to human lives,” said James Alliband, senior security strategist at VMware. “The attack on Colonial Pipeline that triggered a fuel shortage along the U.S. East Coast, ranging to the attack on Ireland’s healthcare system that effectively shut down the entire country’s hospitals, are only the beginning. There will be copycats as we see bad actors target critical industries such as energy, healthcare and finance with the intent to cause panic while cashing in on a ransom payment. The results of a successful attack can be expensive and dangerous, ranging from cancelled hospital surgeries and rerouted ambulances to people waiting hours at a gas station for fuel. This will be an area that is of real interest to nation-states looking to cause disruption abroad.”

To recap the year’s biggest cybersecurity stories, check out these additional blogs:

For the latest threat research, join the <a href="https://community.carbonblack.com/">VMware Carbon Black User Exchange</a> where more than 30,000 security professionals share best practices and threat intelligence to improve security postures.

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Here are the attack trends and emerging threats VMware security experts are tracking that should be top of mind for organizations in 2022.

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