Security Magazine logo
search
cart
facebook twitter linkedin youtube
  • Sign In
  • Create Account
  • Sign Out
  • My Account
Security Magazine logo
  • NEWS
    • Security Newswire
    • Technologies & Solutions
  • MANAGEMENT
    • Leadership Management
    • Enterprise Services
    • Security Education & Training
    • Logical Security
    • Security & Business Resilience
    • Profiles in Excellence
  • PHYSICAL
    • Access Management
    • Fire & Life Safety
    • Identity Management
    • Physical Security
    • Video Surveillance
    • Case Studies (Physical)
  • CYBER
    • Cybersecurity News
    • More
  • BLOG
  • COLUMNS
    • Cyber Tactics
    • Leadership & Management
    • Security Talk
    • Career Intelligence
    • Leader to Leader
    • Cybersecurity Education & Training
  • EXCLUSIVES
    • Annual Guarding Report
    • Most Influential People in Security
    • The Security Benchmark Report
    • Top Guard and Security Officer Companies
    • Top Cybersecurity Leaders
    • Women in Security
  • SECTORS
    • Arenas / Stadiums / Leagues / Entertainment
    • Banking/Finance/Insurance
    • Construction, Real Estate, Property Management
    • Education: K-12
    • Education: University
    • Government: Federal, State and Local
    • Hospitality & Casinos
    • Hospitals & Medical Centers
    • Infrastructure:Electric,Gas & Water
    • Ports: Sea, Land, & Air
    • Retail/Restaurants/Convenience
    • Transportation/Logistics/Supply Chain/Distribution/ Warehousing
  • EVENTS
    • Industry Events
    • Webinars
    • Solutions by Sector
    • Security 500 Conference
  • MEDIA
    • Videos
      • Cybersecurity & Geopolitical Discussion
      • Ask Me Anything (AMA) Series
    • Podcasts
    • Polls
    • Photo Galleries
  • MORE
    • Call for Entries
    • Classifieds & Job Listings
    • Continuing Education
    • Newsletter
    • Sponsor Insights
    • Store
    • White Papers
  • EMAG
    • eMagazine
    • This Month's Content
    • Advertise
  • SIGN UP!
CybersecurityManagementSecurity NewswireSecurity Enterprise ServicesSecurity Leadership and ManagementLogical SecuritySecurity & Business ResilienceSecurity Education & TrainingCybersecurity News

5 steps to strengthen cybersecurity defenses in wake of Ukraine-Russia crisis

By Ivan Vinogradov
cybersecurity-controls-freepik1170x658.jpg
April 8, 2022

With the ongoing events in Ukraine, it is to be expected that the type of cyberattacks will become more aggressive, advanced, and persistent due to the involvement of state actors and organized crime. 


In fact, Conti, a ransomware gang affiliated with Russia, has gone public with the intent to engage in retributive actions against governments that introduce sanctions against its host state. These threats should not be taken lightly, as anyone can become a victim of these extremely threatening cyberattacks — both directly and indirectly.


In today’s current situation, the threat largely seems to apply to industries that are utilitarian, relevant to government or social function — or simply large enterprises that are high-profile and would thus generate media attention.


Given our ecosystem and supply chain, even if organizations might not directly be a target, it has been seen that organizations can still indirectly be affected by the cyberattacks of companies they interact with or subcontract with.


Though it sounds daunting, actions are available to strengthen an organization’s cybersecurity posture. 


Below are five practical steps for increasing an organization’s security posture:


1. Analysis

Threat intelligence is critical in analyzing potential cyber threats. It enables organizations to evaluate the validity and impact on the organization. 


Organizations benefit from high-quality threat intelligence feeds and suppliers with historical knowledge and experience with relevant threat intel related to state-related attacks. If an organization does not have threat intelligence sources, free and publicly available options can be utilized. For example, government CERTs, industry-specific publications, and vendor reports are good sources for threat intelligence and proactive measures. 


It is important to integrate threat intelligence into other security solutions within an organization, whether through STIX/TAXII or directly. 


2. Detection

A good cybersecurity defense requires an effective detective mechanism based on the foundational mechanism of Sysmon to allow the detection of a wide range of attacks. One of these is ransomware, a mainstay amongst instigators perpetrating advanced and persistent cyberattacks. An example would be PowerShell activity, common to almost all types of malware in the wild. 


Organizations should start with the Sysmon configuration template hosted here. Sysmon can be downloaded from the dedicated Microsoft Page and deployed through Group Policy. Deploy it on endpoints as well as servers for holistic protection. 


3. Protection 

Account control is one of the most important aspects of an organization’s security. Whether petty criminals or governments, all entities utilize the strategy of gaining control of valid credentials. 


Most security solutions are equipped to deal with account takeover. Looking for sophisticated solutions that detect, investigate and respond automatically will help an organization from start to finish.


However, owning a sophisticated and automated solution is not necessary to secure an organization’s accounts. Restricting privileges and setting up password requirements in Active Directory is the first essential step toward account security. This is also doable with orchestration solutions if the organization’s environment is mixed or Linux-based or has a wide fleet of virtual machines.


Account control provides a countermeasure to some of the most destructive strains of malware, such as ransomware, including Conti’s, as described above. Regular security best practices are just as important, for example, regular periodic backups, multi factor authentication (MFA), etc. 


However, in the situation of Conti, when actors announced malicious intent as opposed to pure financial benefit, organizations should look at less explored controls — such as segmenting away the most valuable infrastructure, primarily data, given the nature of the adversary, as well as implementing at the very least a basic honeypot.


The latter would be important for rapid detection; even a single server not accessed by users is easy to monitor through almost any solution — and most ransomware tactics still involve discovery and lateral movement that will eventually touch it as well.


4. Response 

In the modern environment, it’s crucial to have a centralized overview. This can be achieved by a basic log management solution or more advanced solutions, like a SIEM. A SIEM provides the ability to contextualize, evaluate, validate, and investigate across multiple security controls, giving operations and response teams a much-needed health overview of an organization’s IT infrastructure resulting in a quicker response to potential threats.


Once you have a SIEM or other aggregation/orchestration solution, it is easy to configure a much tighter feedback loop in terms of time-to-detect of a particular threat. For example, a SIEM can implement alerting configured to detect wider patterns than a singular message. 


5. Recovery and Business Continuity

From a resilience perspective, engage, test, and run drills on the business continuity plans. Organizations should expect to be impacted and ensure that staff is trained, systems have restoration capability, and response teams have the necessary tools to recover from an impact on their IT infrastructure. 


A common capability in any recovery situation would be to have recovery tools such as incident management, communications channels, restoration points etc. If the IT infrastructure is unavailable due to an attack, the incident team will need platforms to manage the incident, communicate, access recovery plans and access data recovery points. 


These steps should increase an organization’s security posture to protect against any potential attacks related to the ongoing Ukraine-Russia crisis. It is important to realize that there is no perfect security strategy, but a defender can, with a bit of effort, make it significantly more difficult for a sophisticated attacker to succeed. 

KEYWORDS: business continuity cyber security ransomware security posture threat intelligence

Share This Story

Looking for a reprint of this article?
From high-res PDFs to custom plaques, order your copy today!

Ivan Vinogradov is a security analyst at Logpoint.

Recommended Content

JOIN TODAY
To unlock your recommendations.

Already have an account? Sign In

  • Security's Top Cybersecurity Leaders 2024

    Security's Top Cybersecurity Leaders 2024

    Security magazine's Top Cybersecurity Leaders 2024 award...
    Top Cybersecurity Leaders
    By: Security Staff
  • cyber brain

    The intersection of cybersecurity and artificial intelligence

    Artificial intelligence (AI) is a valuable cybersecurity...
    Security Leadership and Management
    By: Pam Nigro
  • artificial intelligence AI graphic

    Assessing the pros and cons of AI for cybersecurity

    Artificial intelligence (AI) has significant implications...
    Cybersecurity
    By: Charles Denyer
Manage My Account
  • Security eNewsletter & Other eNews Alerts
  • eMagazine Subscriptions
  • Manage My Preferences
  • Online Registration
  • Mobile App
  • Subscription Customer Service

More Videos

Sponsored Content

Sponsored Content is a special paid section where industry companies provide high quality, objective, non-commercial content around topics of interest to the Security audience. All Sponsored Content is supplied by the advertising company and any opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily reflect the views of Security or its parent company, BNP Media. Interested in participating in our Sponsored Content section? Contact your local rep!

close
  • Sureview screen
    Sponsored bySureView Systems

    The Evolution of Automation in the Command Center

  • Crisis Response Team
    Sponsored byEverbridge

    Automate or Fall Behind – Crisis Response at the Speed of Risk

  • Perimeter security
    Sponsored byAMAROK

    Why Property Security is the New Competitive Advantage

Popular Stories

Rendered computer with keyboard

16B Login Credentials Exposed in World’s Largest Data Breach

Verizon on phone screen

61M Records Listed for Sale Online, Allegedly Belong to Verizon

Security camera

40,000 IoT Security Cameras Are Exposed Online

Security’s 2025 Women in Security

Security’s 2025 Women in Security

Red spiderweb

From Retail to Insurance, Scattered Spider Changes Targets

2025 Security Benchmark banner

Events

July 17, 2025

Tech in the Jungle: Leveraging Surveillance, Access Control, and Technology in Unique Environments

What do zebras, school groups and high-tech surveillance have in common? They're all part of a day’s work for the security team at the Toledo Zoo.

August 7, 2025

Threats to the Energy Sector: Implications for Corporate and National Security

The energy sector has found itself in the crosshairs of virtually every bad actor on the global stage.

View All Submit An Event

Products

Security Culture: A How-to Guide for Improving Security Culture and Dealing with People Risk in Your Organisation

Security Culture: A How-to Guide for Improving Security Culture and Dealing with People Risk in Your Organisation

See More Products

Related Articles

  • critical-infrastructure-freepik1170x658v5.jpg

    Global hybrid warfare introduces cyber threats to companies amid the Russia-Ukraine crisis

    See More
  • cyber security

    President Biden signs executive order to strengthen U.S. cybersecurity defenses

    See More
  • Security newswire default

    UK, EU Seek to Strengthen Cyber Defenses

    See More

Related Products

See More Products
  • school security.jpg

    School Security: How to Build and Strengthen a School Safety Program

  • security culture.webp

    Security Culture: A How-to Guide for Improving Security Culture and Dealing with People Risk in Your Organisation

  • 9780367221942.jpg

    From Visual Surveillance to Internet of Things: Technology and Applications

See More Products
×

Sign-up to receive top management & result-driven techniques in the industry.

Join over 20,000+ industry leaders who receive our premium content.

SIGN UP TODAY!
  • RESOURCES
    • Advertise
    • Contact Us
    • Store
    • Want More
  • SIGN UP TODAY
    • Create Account
    • eMagazine
    • eNewsletter
    • Customer Service
    • Manage Preferences
  • SERVICES
    • Marketing Services
    • Reprints
    • Market Research
    • List Rental
    • Survey/Respondent Access
  • STAY CONNECTED
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • YouTube
    • X (Twitter)
  • PRIVACY
    • PRIVACY POLICY
    • TERMS & CONDITIONS
    • DO NOT SELL MY PERSONAL INFORMATION
    • PRIVACY REQUEST
    • ACCESSIBILITY

Copyright ©2025. All Rights Reserved BNP Media.

Design, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing