It’s no secret that cybersecurity threats have become more sophisticated and dangerous. Hackers now use bots to carry out constant attacks and have become master manipulators, using convincing language and realistic graphics to fool people into clicking malicious links.
Remote and mobile working gives organizations the flexibility and agility they need to meet today’s operational requirements. Unfortunately, it also creates a multitude of new security challenges.
Cybercriminals are increasingly targeting endpoint devices such as laptops, tablets and mobile phones because they provide a direct route into corporate networks.
In our last post, we discussed how regular network assessments can help organizations identify any gaps in their security posture in order to make the necessary modifications to close those gaps. A penetration test, or pen test, is perhaps the most critical element of a comprehensive testing process.
The FBI has confirmed that 2020 was a record year for cybercrime in the U.S., with all-time highs in both the number of attacks reported and the resulting financial losses. For the year, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center received 791,790 cybercrime complaints (up 69 percent from 2019) with reported losses exceeding $4.1 billion.
Ransomware is a cash cow for cybercriminals, netting more than $350 million in ransom payments last year — although it is likely much more because many victims don’t report attacks in order to preserve their reputation. It’s easy money for the crooks because most companies just pay the ransom so they can regain access to their encrypted data and get back to business as quickly as possible.
As organizations continue to shift more and more workloads to the cloud, they may inadvertently create security vulnerabilities. Recent research finds that configuration errors, insecure interfaces, unpatched applications, and poor encryption and authentication practices are opening the door for a variety of exploits.
It’s hard to imagine how businesses could have overcome pandemic-driven operational challenges without the cloud. By some estimates, organizations accelerated their cloud adoption plans by an average of six years in order to ensure remote workers had access to the applications, data and services they needed.
The Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack in May created chaos that rippled throughout the economy. The six-day shutdown interrupted the flow of gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other petroleum products between Texas and the East Coast. It drove gas prices to their highest levels in years, led to panic buying across large swaths of the country and forced airlines to adjust their flight schedules to conserve fuel.
In last year’s SolarWinds hack, Russia-backed attackers hijacked a routine update for the company’s remote monitoring software in order to launch what Microsoft president Brad Smith called "the largest and most sophisticated attack the world has ever seen.
Financial managers recommend building a diversified portfolio of investments in several different companies and industries in order to reduce your risk profile. In a similar way, network segmentation limits cybersecurity risks by breaking up the corporate network into smaller, isolated parts.
