Column: Work to secure Hawaii’s digital future

SonicWall’s 2022 Cyber Threat Report revealed that Hawaii is one of the top 10 riskiest states for malware. Within the past year, we’ve seen several instances that highlighted Hawaii’s vulnerability and fragile digital infrastructure, such as the cyberattack on TheBus and TheHandi-Van servers, and the ransomware attack on Kronos, the timekeeping software used by the Queen’s Health Systems.

With remote work and learning, the growth of tech jobs and companies, and the rise of esports, Hawaii can address its vulnerabilities and prepare to leverage opportunities in these arenas. It’s imperative that Hawaii as a state and as a community of enterprises takes stock of its technology infrastructure.

Our state is on the cusp of an economic transformation. There’s so much opportunity to shift away from an overdependence on hospitality and tourism. We have the means and drive to cultivate technology and innovation. Our ready and capable workforce, our unique geography situated between the mainland and Asia, our temperate climate, and our welcoming culture make Hawaii an ideal setting for doing business in a post-pandemic world.

New federal funding will give our state an opportunity to fortify its digital infrastructure, including internet access, to prepare for what’s next. In the meantime, Hawaii’s organizations must collectively pursue digital transformation to stay globally competitive, leverage the opportunity that awaits, and safeguard the success of our economy for future generations. From an advanced technology standpoint, here is where we should focus:

>> Proactive cybersecurity management. Ensure that your cybersecurity management technologies are dynamic and scalable. Solutions must be able to grow with your organization in a seamless fashion. How are you monitoring risk 24/7? Have you established multifactor authentication (MFA), where users must provide two or more verification factors to access a system or resource such as an email account?

Going beyond the basics of security management, consider your approach to privileged access management. How are you safeguarding special access in a way that maintains efficiencies but also protects data and critical infrastructure? Security postures should be proactive. Next-generation antivirus software, secure data storage, continuously updated operating systems — the methods to adding layers of security to your enterprise are diverse and ever evolving.

>> Hybrid cloud. A hybrid cloud environment allows organizations to digitally transform by enabling data security, seamless updates and data redundancy, while still supporting their legacy infrastructure. Many Hawaii companies have hesitations about moving to “the cloud,” but hybrid cloud extends the life of legacy systems by adding layers of built-in data storage and advanced cybersecurity protection to existing environments.

Hybrid cloud is flexible, customizable and scalable. It also respects the significant investments organizations have made in still critical, on-premises systems. This structure allows organizations to experiment with a variety of new solutions and resources, while still leveraging on-premise resources as appropriate.

>> Intelligent data management. Idle data is useless data. Every day, companies are collecting huge amounts of data produced from various devices and sources, but collecting that data means very little if it’s not used to generate actionable insights. For this reason, companies are using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning tools to unlock insights from massive sets of data. Intelligent data management ultimately helps create efficiencies and gain understanding, even in dynamic environments such as retail, health care and tech.

By building up our collective digital infrastructure, we can work toward a more economically secure future for Hawaii. This is true regardless of industry or organization size. Take steps today to improve digital capabilities and efficiencies so that your organization is poised for growth, and that we as a community can leverage this moment of change.

Kelly J. Ueoka is president of Pacxa, a Hawaii-based IT services provider.