Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, prioritizing employee health, safety, and well-being will continue to be key to building resilience, continuity and operational readiness in 2021 and beyond. Accomplishing this requires a robust communications system across the enterprise.

The SolarWinds hack is a strong reminder why third-party risk management is so important. Not only was SolarWinds breached, but the hack is now believed to have affected upward of 250 federal agencies and businesses. Here, we speak to Jonathan Ehret, Vice President of Strategy & Risk at RiskRecon, who believes organizations should be asking their vendors about the third-party risk management and cybersecurity policies they have in place to protect against a breach and leak of critical data. 

Some 200 individuals have been charged with federal offenses connected to the siege at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Among them are at least 15 examples of family affiliated extremism. These instances include: five sets of husbands and wives; two cases of fathers and sons, mothers and sons, brothers, and cousins; and an instance of father/daughter and brother/sister participation. Although of a different strain and less serious offenses—none specifically terrorism nor involving murder —such kin-connected radicalism is neither a new phenomenon nor one unique to the United States or elsewhere. 

Fraudsters are taking advantage of the pandemic and increasing the threat landscape for governments and enterprises around the world. Where are the threats coming from and can security leaders expect to see an elevated threat landscape into the future?