Cyber Risks Heating Up for Businesses with International Tensions Flaring
You might be aware that security issues have been moving from Trojans and Phishing to explosions at night. The military action involving Iran and the United States led many to speculate about possible cybersecurity repercussions. However, experts have a question as to whether the threat landscape has actually changed or not.
In the Cyberworld, there is a war going on all the time and there are attempts of nation state-backed attacks happening all the time. Players like Iran, China and others are always engaged. Threat actors are always probing and poking to see which data is visible and which opportunities are available. This constant probing in the cyber world has marked a clear difference from the situation when there was a cold war era and the battlefields were pretty defined. Now the Internet is the battlefield and most of the businesses are on this battlefield, whether or not they are a direct target.
But why are these businesses at risk of threats related to international socio-political affairs? What does that overall threat landscape look like to enterprises?
Attacks from different Directions
It may seem like the biggest immediate risk is criminal Organizations, which have an ultimate, straightforward goal to extract data or behavior from the company that can be converted to money. But, these nation-state sponsored attacks are going to be more specific. These would be financially focused and would be looking to impact the Organization they are attacking along some other line, whether that is to make a statement and cause panic. Making a statement is like attacking from different targets than most criminals might have in their sights. Panic may point to the large-scale economic disruption that might result from DDoS attacks against financial services institutions.
Apart from traditional IT targets, many industrial infrastructures around the globe are also vulnerable to cyberattack and most of these industrial environments are underprepared to defend themselves. These industrial targets are vulnerable and their vulnerability may have wide-ranging impacts. Just one or two systems that haven’t been protected or haven’t been patched will allow the attackers to wreak and cause whatever type of havoc they have at their disposal. This havoc can extend well beyond the shop floor.
The top Cybersecurity company in Bangalore, Neumetric believes that an Organization should always remember that every IoT device is part of the network and at the same time, it is the gateway of choice of the attacker to penetrate the network.
Defending the Enterprise
In the year 2012, the Disttrack attack against Saudi Aramco that devastated the company had put all of Saudi Arabia on its heels for half a year, but it led to a better successful defense of Bahrain. Before the Saudi Aramco attack, Middle East computer security was worse and was almost non-existent.
But losing 32,000 computers, workstations and servers in one of the world’s first nation-state attacks and the shutting down of the number one wealth producer for the country has a way of creating a spotlight.
Layers of security are critical for protecting both IT and OT infrastructures. These days, many enterprises and Organizations are focusing on network security solutions to secure the network and are also adding another layer of security embedded into each and every device. One thing that every enterprise should understand is that cybersecurity is cultural and it needs to be recognized that technologies are tools in the battle and not the battle.
The security culture should extend to the C-suite and the executive board. The day is not far when companies will be evaluated on their cybersecurity and resilience, just as they are evaluated for their financial statements. Organizations need to evolve the debate from whether we do cyber in enterprises to how we can create value from it.
Neumetric, a cybersecurity services, consulting & products Organization, can help you reduce your security cost without compromising your security posture. Our years of in-depth experience in handling security for Organizations of all sizes & in multiple industries make it easier for us to quickly execute cost-cutting activities that do not bring value to you, while you continue focusing on the Business objectives of the Organization.
