With pitchers and catchers arriving in Fort Meyers, FL, the Boston Red Sox are starting to prepare for their 2020 season. That will involve analyzing a lot of data, all of which must be protected. Brian Shield, Vice President of Technology and IT for The Boston Red Sox, shared an in-depth look at everything IT at the Acronis Global Cyber Summit last year, which provided keen insights into how world-class, data-driven organizations safeguard their infrastructure. After his presentation, John Furrier of SiliconANGLE’s theCUBE interviewed Shield to discuss the IT needs of the Sox – from how Acronis enables Fenway Park to respond to cyberthreats to how new 5G technology is being tested at the stadium to how data is used in the MLB to detect talent and signal imminent injuries.

Pax8 is the cloud distribution leader for the IT channel. Born out of the challenges emerging within traditional distribution because of cloud delivery and consumption models, Pax8’s mission is to enable the IT channel to simplify cloud buying through billing, provisioning, automation, PSA integrations, and pre- and post-sales support.

Ransomware continues to be an active, evolving threat and one of the newest strains to emerge is Snake (also known as EKANS, which is simply “Snake” spelled backward). First appearing at the end of December last year, the most interesting feature of Snake is that it targets industrial control systems (ICS) environments – not the individual machines, but the entire network. Designed to terminate specific processes on victim machines, including multiple items related to ICS operations, it also deletes Volume Shadow Copies to eliminate Window backups.  While there is currently no decryption available, systems running Acronis Active Protection – the AI-based anti-malware defense that is integrated into our cyber protection solutions – successfully detects Snake ransomware as a zero-day attack and stops it in its tracks.

The news about the coronavirus pandemic gets a little more frightening with each passing day. The death toll in China has risen to the hundreds and a growing number of countries are closing their borders to travelers from at-risk areas. There’s suddenly a global shortage of surgical masks. And as with almost every worldwide news event these days – whether it’s as trivial as the finale of a popular TV show or as dire as a steadily-spreading, potentially-lethal pathogen – the scammers have come out to take advantage of the situation and your fear. In the case of the coronavirus, we’re already seeing phishing emails that claim to have information on how to protect yourself from the disease, but in fact contain malware-bearing web links or attachments.