There is hope in these uncertain times: with the right planning and execution, businesses can bounce back from what's quickly becoming a global recession and return to good health. It takes the right strategy, a flexible approach and a desire to achieve organizational resilience.
From a security perspective, we also tend to look at IoT in the wrong way. With every new device, we assume the technology will be vulnerable with a very high risk of compromise. The reality is that most IoT devices have a very low risk individually, but their functionality is what leaves them susceptible.
With security resources and budgets stretched thin to accommodate remote workforces, cybercriminals were quick to capitalize on the increased attack surface and general uncertainty, striking with a 667 percent increase in coronavirus-related cyberattacks.
“There are only two types of companies: those that have been hacked, and those that will be.” When former FBI Director Robert Mueller spoke those words in 2012, he sounded hyperbolic. Almost a decade later, it seems prophetic.
Due to COVID-19 concerns, many United States Government (USG) personnel must now operate from home while continuing to perform critical national functions and support continuity of government services.
Sitting on the frontlines as a red-teamer, people regularly ask me, “Should I do a pentest or hire a red team?” But that’s not the question they should be asking.
Organizations need to enhance current technical security controls to mitigate against the threat of deepfakes to the business. Training and awareness will also need revamping with special attention paid to this highly believable threat.
Hackers will always exploit a crisis, and the coronavirus outbreak is no different. Since January, cybercriminals have leveraged the COVID-19 pandemic to stage all manner of cyberattacks, from ransomware take-overs of hospital systems to private network hacking. But the latest cybercrime scheme exploits the greatest cybersecurity vulnerability of all: human emotion.
Threat actors launched a cyberattack against the Texas Office of Court Administration, the IT provider for many Texas courts, and encrypted their computer systems with ransomware, leaving those systems useless. Cognizant, which has a large presence in Dallas-Fort Worth and is one of the world’s largest and most sophisticated providers of information technology services for other companies, was hit with ransomware with losses currently estimated between $50 million and $70 million.
There is a trade-off between technology innovation and security. The adoption of emerging technologies like 5G will fuel the proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) which are often built with basic security controls, creating a larger attack surface. At the same time, reliance on data means that data breaches can cause greater damage.
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