It’s unfortunate but true:if you shop, whether in person or online, having your data compromised is likely to happen sooner rather than later. It’s a matter of time.

Within the last year alone, Neiman Marcus notified 4.6-million customers about their compromised data. In 2021, CVS left 1.1-BILLION records unsecured on the web – user error. The point is, this is something that continues to happen even though it doesn’t have to. Whether human error or bad actors looking for ransom, Blue Ridge Networks protects your customer data in the retail sector.

Blue Ridge offers two solutions to safeguard your critical data in your retail operations: AppGuard and LinkGuard.

• AppGuard is an agent on your Point-of-Sale machines, computers, and servers which prevents breaches from occurring, without reliance on scanning, detection, or signature identification.
• LinkGuard creates segmentation for your PCI network and reduces the risk from third-party vendors who require access to your network. There is no possibility of uploading malware or downloading sensitive data.

Blue Ridge Networks’ mission is simple: we’ll spare you the corporate hyperbole and say we want to protect you and your interests from the malicious forces out there who seek to damage you, disrupt your operations, and steal the things you work hard to create. While there are those out there who would gladly destroy your business, BRN is working diligently to protect it.

Our solutions are being more-widely deployed in the industry because they work, and Blue Ridge is proud to announce that with the end of June we mark another month with zero reported breaches. That’s zero reported breaches – ever. In fact, our methods are so iron tight that in Gartner’s Top 8 Cybersecurity Predictions for 2022-2023, they declare that 60% of organizations will embrace Zero Trust as a starting point for security by 2025. They note this will require a “cultural shift and clear communication that ties it to business outcomes to achieve the benefits,” and that is exactly what Blue Ridge Networks is here to do for you.

Although the Gartner article referenced above says this shift will occur by 2025, we obviously recommend you don’t wait. In the same article, they also prophesize that by 2025, threat actors will have weaponized operational technology environments to cause human casualties. We believe this capability already exists, and KNOW our solutions can stop these catastrophic attacks before they begin.

By John Higginbotham
CEO, Blue Ridge Networks

The cyberwar on critical infrastructure is here. Unlike cyberattacks in the past traditionally motivated by profit, the goal now seems to be the destruction of Western society. Corporate leaders in America should listen to President Biden when he says it’s our patriotic duty to be vigilant and protect ourselves from Russian cyberattacks amid the invasion of Ukraine.

This isn’t the first war Blue Ridge Networks has been through, and I doubt it will be the last. But it’s clear this war has the potential to change everything. That’s why we are protecting our clients on the frontline and urging IT leaders to reimagine what they’re doing to insulate their networks from bad actors.

Recently, Ukrainian officials said they thwarted a Russian cyberattack that could have knocked out power for 2-million people in the country. About a month ago, Anonymous hackers attacked the pipelines and refineries of Rosneft Deutschland, the German subsidiary of a Russian state-owned oil company, as part of an effort to punish Russian interests  for the war in Ukraine.

I bring up these two specific attacks not only because of their national security implications, but also because they demonstrate that increased attacks are coming from both state actors and loosely aligned groups whose members may never be fully identified.

The IT world is trained to approach cybersecurity problems in an environment of visibility—determining who is accessing your network from where for what effect. But the biggest problems we face today comes from our lack of perfect visibility. Gartner has estimated there is insufficient visibility in up to 70 percent of network operations in critical infrastructure to assess vulnerabilities. Breaches increasingly occur from unknown and undetectable threats . Most breaches aren’t discovered until months or even years after the fact. Our critical infrastructure can’t afford to wait that long. When the problem reveals itself, it’s already too late.

Traditional cybersecurity products based on detection and response methodologies are increasingly ineffective in protecting against zero-day malware, which have no virus definitions or signatures. Even heuristic and AI scanning can’t protect against many forms of sophisticated, targeted new cyberthreats designed to avoid detection. IT cybersecurity approaches are often not compatible with legacy operational technology (OT) infrastructure such as industrial control systems, rendering them vulnerable to cyberattacks. Healthcare, transportation, energy, agricultural, water management, and other critical infrastructure sectors now all face incredible risks to maintain operations in this zero trust environment.

Innovative zero-trust solutions designed to prevent breaches from occurring such as LinkGuard and AppGuard from Blue Ridge Networks are able to protect critical infrastructure and operations by eliminating vulnerabilities to cyberthreats. LinkGuard effectively segments networks, isolating and containing vital network assets from discovery and data exfiltration. AppGuard breach prevention uses patented techniques to stop ransomware and other zero day threats without detection. These solutions elegantly remove the dependency, complexity, and overhead to autonomously prevent breaches.

We’re all in this together.  Blue Ridge Networks is committed to making it easier and more effective for businesses to do our patriotic duty to protect ourselves and our national assets.

Earlier this month, Blue Ridge Networks CEO John Higginbotham and CHIPS President Tony Chiappetta spoke with KSTP (ABC affiliate, Minneapolis) reporter Rich Reeve about the looming Russian cyberthreat during the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Read more about their insights at the link above, and look out for our May newsletter this month, where we feature CHIPS in our Partner Spotlight column. You’ll be able to learn more about our partnership with CHIPS and how we’re keeping clients safe.