Stranger Danger

I’m sure all of us when were younger were taught Stranger Danger. We needed to be cautious of any strangers we met while walking to and from school or in any new places. Today, the strangers that some of us fear the most are of the cyber kind. They can steal our livelihood, identity and more with a few clicks.

Businesses are becoming victims of this Stranger Danger every day. Cyber crime rose by over 600% during the pandemic.  It is estimated by 2025, the cost of cybercrime worldwide for companies will be $10.5 trillion. Unfortunately the pandemic amplified cybercrime due to the uncertainty around remote working and how to protect your business.

Many businesses are not prepared for cyber attacks and do not educate their employees on best practices to help prevent these attacks from happening. The month of October celebrates cybersecurity awareness. Education is the one of the biggest tools going forward to fight the Cyber Stranger.

 

Current State of CyberSecurity

There are some staggering stats surrounding businesses today and the safety of their data. The numbers are only increasing as new threats appear and businesses do not offer the appropriate resources to combat this problem.

A study by Accenture reports that 43% of cyber attacks target small businesses, and under a sixth are equipped to prevent those attacks.

On average, it takes a company 197 days to discover a cybersecurity breach. Needless to say, the longer it takes to discover a security breach, the more a company’s reputation and assets suffer.

A few more stats:

• Globally, 30,000 websites are hacked daily.
• 64% of companies worldwide have experienced at least one form of a cyber attack.
• There were 20M breached records in March 2021.
• In 2020, ransomware cases grew by 150%.
• Email is responsible for around 94% of all malware.
• Every 39 seconds, there is a new attack somewhere on the web.
• An average of around 24,000 malicious mobile apps are blocked daily on the internet.

 

Common Types of  Cyber Attacks

64% of companies worldwide have experienced at least one form of cyber attack in the past year.  What are the most common ones that businesses and their employees see?

1. Phishing: A type of online scam that involves sending an email or other virtual communication impersonating a source that would usually be seen as reputable, such as a bank or an internet service provider. 91% of all cyber attacks start with a phishing email.
2. Malware: Malicious software that gets downloaded onto devices without one’s consent. It causes devices to crash or can allow hackers to view computer activity, access files, and steal information. 27% of malware infections originate from infected USBs.
3. Man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack: This occurs when a user intercepts communication between two people, or between one person and a machine. For example, a hacker might guide a user into a fraudulent site that appears to be the user’s bank’s website to collect their data. According to Netcraft, 95% of HTTPS servers are vulnerable to these attacks.

 

CyberSecurity Best Practices

A recent survey found that 61 percent of employees failed a basic quiz on cybersecurity fundamentals. With the average company spending only 5 percent of its IT budget on employee training, it’s clear that education is an opportunity for many organizations in the future.

Here are just a few best practices to follow:

1. Avoid Pop-ups, unknown emails and links: Malware infections are among the most common cybersecurity threats organizations face. Having up-to-date virus scan and spam detection software is a great safety net, but it’s also critical that all users are trained to understand the dangers of clicking on unusual links, pop-ups or emails.
2. Use strong password protection and authentication: It’s important to require all users to create strong, difficult-to-guess passwords and credentials for their accounts and change them often. Consider multifactor authentication (MFA), which requires an additional token of identifying code to access systems. 63% of data breaches result from week or stolen passwords.
3. Enable firewall protection at work and at home: Firewalls are important gatekeepers, restricting traffic in, out or within a private home or business network.
4. Back up data: Regularly backing up critical data is key to defeating ransomware and to business continuity in general.
5. Control physical access:  Preventing access or use of desktops, laptops and mobile devices should be a high priority as these can be easily stolen or lost. Make sure such devices are set to lock when unattended and grant only limited administrative privileges for such hardware.
6. Minimize data transfers: Be mindful of how many devices contain important data and try to make transfers as minimally as possible.
7. Verify download sources: Before making any downloads, scan the website you’re downloading from to ensure that it’s verified, and only click on legitimate download links.
8. Keep software updated: Update software whenever updates are available is a great way to protect against cyber attacks.
9. Encrypt where possible: Encryption tools can be used to protect data from unwanted individuals. When encryption isn’t possible, password protection is a great alternative. Be sure to choose passwords with a mix of letters, numbers, and characters, and to update your passwords regularly.
10. User activity monitoring and behavior analytics: This can give insights  on when there is suspicious activity around your data. These tools can help you prevent data theft in real-time.
11. Practice robust and continuous employee awareness programs: Even with the best technology in place, human error is often the weakest link. Constant education programs is the most important best practice when it comes to cyber resilience. Human error is responsible for 90% of all security breaches.

 

What Will You Do Next?

Cyber threats are not going away and will continue to be a major concern for all businesses no matter the size. Contact Zunesis to find out how our solutions can provide extra protection. Reach out to find out about our assessments which may discover holes in your current IT environment.

Want to find out how knowledgeable your employees are on the topic of cyber security? Take this quiz from the Cyber Readiness Institute to find out how cyber ready they are.

Last year was characterized by a collective, sudden shift to a remote workforce. 2021 is the year of the hybrid model. As some employees return to work safely, others may remain home or a mix of both.

 

Remote Work = Security Risks

Surprisingly, many organizations are discovering that concerns about potential lost productivity were exaggerated. It is now believed that one-quarter or more of all workers may become predominantly home-based. One of the many consequences of this change is an increase in cybersecurity risks. There is a complexity of implementing effective security to protect computing infrastructure.

As always, vigilance by the security professionals tasked with protecting networks from intrusion is the paramount defense. The basic formula is simple. Cybersecurity is based on defining what needs to be protected and at what points the protection is required. However, the explosive growth of remote workplaces has strained the information technology infrastructure of most organizations.

 

Defense Tactics

A basic defense tactic is to limit the number of potentially vulnerable attack surfaces accessible to a bad actor. With remote work, attack surfaces may be multiplied. A workforce that previously accessed organizational data and code within an organization’s well-protected networks now expect the same level of access from outside of those networks. The obvious counter to this is to require access through encrypted VPN (Virtual Private Network) connections.

Adding to the risk equation, many remote workers use personally-owned devices while “on the job.”  An organization’s well-protected network is potentially compromised by insecure access from computers, smartphones, and tablets beyond the control of the IT security team. Remote workers also are likely to share their Internet access points with family and/or friends. This introduces still more non-secured devices to a shared connection.

 

Supply Chain Relationships

Other pandemic-related challenges faced by security and IT professionals involve changes in supply chain relationships. The introduction of new business partners to fill gaps in a supplier network may inadvertently lead to oversights in vetting these partners and enabling secured communications links.

In manufacturing organizations, accelerating the digitalization of ICS (Industrial Control Systems) also is an issue. Remote management of ICS requires connectivity to many devices that previously were secured, in part, by isolation. However, improvements to operational agility realized as business models adapt to make it likely that they will become ingrained practices. Unless, of course, a future security failure causes a snapback.

 

Zero Trust Architecture

With the trend clearly pointing to workplaces where remote access is the rule, how can organizations manage the increased threat level?  Cybersecurity and IT professionals recommend starting with reinforcing basic security practices to adjust for a remote workforce. They note that workers should be wary of information requests and always verify the authenticity of the source. They should make sure that all devices with network access have up-to-date software and patches, and employ dual-factor authentication for devices whenever possible. Most importantly, experts note that even in a post-pandemic era, cybersecurity is shifting away from a perimeter-based model where all assets inside a network are trusted. Instead, zero-trust architectures. This is where individual, devices and applications are always authenticated and authorized before gaining access to a network, need to become the norm.

The recurring theme of these recommendations is authentication of sources, of users, and of devices. In the last decade, cybersecurity professionals have reached a consensus that authentication schemes should be based on a protected hardware element. The purpose of what is called a “secure element” is to provide a protected root-of-trust that can be embedded in each device capable of being connected to a network (whether a private network or the Internet).

 

Root of Trust

The pandemic’s impact on remote work is an acceleration of a long-term trend that will continue for many years. The evolution of remote workplaces is one of many adaptions made possible by the emergence of connected, smart devices in nearly every aspect of people’s lives. The “Internet of Things,” which is likely to enter an even more dynamic stage of growth as 5G connectivity will make it even easier to link devices together, extends cybersecurity concerns for organizations and individuals alike.

Ultimately, the billions of connected devices in the Internet of Things also represent a multitude of potential attack surfaces. In the smart home of the future, remote workers may ask their smart speaker or smart TV to access files. It will be up to cybersecurity professionals to protect their networks from access by unsecured devices. A root of trust in every device will make what some might think an impossible task possible.