The rise of remote work and the extended enterprise have forced us to change the way we think about IT security. In the past, most security investments focused on preventing external threat actors from infiltrating the network at the perimeter. However, many experts agree that insider threats are a significant security risk.
Ransomware is among the most damaging cybersecurity threats of all time, costing the U.S. economy hundreds of billions of dollars annually — and there’s no relief in sight. Analysts predict that these digital extortion schemes will represent more than half of all global cyberattacks in 2024.
Worse yet, the attacks are becoming increasingly complex and sophisticated.
In 1978, a marketing manager with Digital Equipment Corporation sent an unsolicited electronic message to hundreds of ARPANET users promoting the company’s new mainframe computers. It is the first known instance of spam, and it kicked off more than four decades worth of unwelcome, unwanted and unrelenting email abuses.
According to IBM researchers, the average organization takes 287 days to detect and respond to a data breach. By that time, it’s already too late. With nearly 10 months to rummage around in compromised systems, malicious actors have ample time to steal sensitive information, plant malware, manipulate data or sabotage infrastructure.
Cyber insurance provides a critical hedge against financial losses stemming from cyberattacks, but these policies have become more expensive and difficult to obtain. Following years of increasingly sophisticated and expensive attacks and breaches, insurers are raising premiums and imposing stricter security requirements in efforts to reduce their exposure.
State and local government agencies are stepping up their IT modernization efforts in order to streamline operations, cut costs and make critical services and programs accessible to their constituents. But there is still much work to be done.
Only 13 percent of state and local agencies have made substantial investments in modernizing operations, according to a new survey from the Center for Digital Government (CDG). However, 56 percent said they are planning to upgrade their technology systems over the next two years in order to meet their communities’ rising expectations for digital access.
The increased volume and sophistication of cyber threats, ever-expanding attack surfaces and a global shortage of security professionals contribute to an impossibly challenging cybersecurity environment. As a result, more and more organizations are turning to managed service providers (MSPs) for help.
Another day, another data breach. In late January, T-Mobile was in the spotlight once again when the wireless carrier reported a breach that exposed the data of 37 million customers.
The good news is that organizations recognize the seriousness of today’s threats and the consequences of a breach.
The recent Uber hack is a stark reminder that unsecured privileged account credentials represent the keys to the kingdom for malicious actors. In the Sept. 15 breach, an attacker compromised an administrator account with elevated privileges to gain unfettered access to the ride-hailing company’s IT systems.
Phishing attacks have soared to record levels over the past year, driven in large part by the increased use of popular messaging platforms as a delivery mechanism. Forty percent of IT professionals say they’ve seen an uptick in messaging-delivered phishing attacks over the past 12 months, according to one study.
