There was a time, decades back, when implementing a relational database or rebooting in-house servers were the typical tech headaches many companies had to contend with. Those resources still need minding, of course, but current IT woes can include ransomware attacks launched by hacktivist, criminal rings funded by aggressive nation states who want to pick cyber fights for geopolitical agendas.

In short, things got complicated in recent years, and continue to do so.

Though cybersecurity is often marked as a cost center for organizations, bad actors escalate the frequency and deviousness of their attacks. Further, organizations that lapse on their infrastructure updates, possibly to save on costs, run the risk of getting kicked in the teeth at critical times.

Breaches and system failures seen in the past year included tech issues at Southwest Airlines that grounded flights, a shadowy attack on the supply chain in Australia, and a ransomware attack on MGM Resorts that temporarily impacted guest services.

January kicked off with a hack that affected the Security and Exchange Commission’s account on X (formerly known as Twitter), giving the bad actor the chance to push a message that briefly triggered a boost of attention for the Bitcoin ETF.

There are lists of biggest hacks or worst impacts on infrastructure, but in this episode of DOS Won’t Hunt, let’s take a look at the idea of complexity and sophistication in cyberattacks and the pressure to modernize despite pushback when it comes to costs.

Listen to the full podcast here.