As the year draws to an end, we like to take stock of all the positives and negatives on our personal and professional fronts. We reminisce the victories, mull over the difficult times and make resolutions that we intend to carry through in the upcoming year.

Complex and highly interpretive, software audits are like an evil spirit that can cast a gloomy shadow on any organization’s profitability and reputation. However, as CIOs and IT specialists, you would know that if your company licenses any software, it is only a matter of time before the vendor sends you an audit notification. Larger players, such as Microsoft, SAP, Adobe, IBM and Oracle are known to send out frequent audit requests to their customers. In fact, given the surge in the use of multiple technologies and hybrid environments, many of these companies see software audits as a mainstream revenue generation mechanism.

While information security threats continue to multiply and data breaches take on never-seen-before levels, cybercrime issues are worsening in both, scale and depth. With the backing of cartels and mafia, hackers have greater access to resources, and are leading increasingly sophisticated attacks. Unfortunately, that means the lifeblood of the new digital economy, data and information, needs to be continually guarded and secured. As CIOs and CXOs, you want to ensure that your company invests in the best possible safeguards and systems to avoid being exploited at the hands of cybercriminals. Hence, budgeting for them correctly should be your priority.