Notes

15 Top Cybersecurity Risk Bloggers You Need To Follow
Cybersecurity Risk Management - How to Manage Third-Party Risks

A day doesn't go by without a news story about data breaches that reveal hundreds of thousands or even millions of people's private information. These breaches usually stem from third-party partners, like a vendor that experiences an outage in their system.

The process of assessing cyber risk begins with accurate information about your threat landscape. This information allows you to prioritize threats that require your immediate focus.

State-Sponsored Attacs

If cyberattacks are carried out by a nation-state they are likely to cause more damage than other attacks. Attackers from nations are usually well-equipped and possess sophisticated hacking techniques, making it difficult to recognize them or fight them. As such, they are often capable of stealing more sensitive information and disrupt vital business services. In addition, they can create more lasting damage by targeting the company's supply chain and harming third-party suppliers.

The cost of a nation-state terrorism attack is estimated at $1.6 million. Nine out of 10 companies believe they've been victims of an attack that was backed by a state. Cyberspionage is becoming more and more popular among nation-state threat actors. It's therefore more important than ever that companies have solid cybersecurity practices.

Nation-state cyberattacks can take many forms, from taking intellectual property, to ransomware or a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. They may be conducted by government agencies, employees of a cybercrime outfit that is a part of or contracted by an entity of the state, freelancers who are employed to carry out a specific nationalist campaign or even just criminal hackers who attack the public at large.

The advent of Stuxnet changed the rules of cyberattacks, allowing states to use malware as a weapon and make use of it against their enemies. Since then states have been using cyberattacks to achieve political as well as military objectives.

In recent years there has been a marked increase in the number of government-sponsored attacks and the level of sophistication of these attacks. For example the Russian government-sponsored group Sandworm has been targeting consumers and enterprises with DDoS attacks and ransomware. This is different from traditional crime syndicates which are motivated by financial gain. They tend to target businesses and consumers.

Responding to a national-state actor's threat requires a significant amount of coordination among various government agencies. This is a major difference from the "grandfather's cyberattack" where a business would submit an Internet Crime Complaint Center Report (IC3) to the FBI but not need to engage in significant coordinated response with the FBI. In addition to the increased level of coordination responding to a nation-state attack also requires coordination with foreign governments, which can be particularly challenging and time-consuming.

Smart Devices

Cyber attacks are increasing in frequency as more devices connect to the Internet. This increase in attack surfaces can create security risks for both companies and consumers. Hackers, for instance attack smart devices in order to steal data or compromise networks. This is particularly true when these devices aren't properly protected and secured.

Smart devices are particularly attractive to hackers because they can be used to gain an abundance of information about people or businesses. For instance, voice controlled assistants like Alexa and Google Home can learn a number of information about users via the commands they receive. They also gather information about users' home layouts and other personal details. Additionally they are frequently used as an interface to other types of IoT devices, including smart lights, security cameras, and refrigerators.

Hackers can cause severe harm to people and businesses when they gain access to these devices. They could employ them to commit variety of crimes, including fraud and identity theft. Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks and malicious software attacks. Additionally, they could hack into vehicles to spoof GPS locations and disable safety features. They can even cause physical injuries to drivers and passengers.

There are empyrean group to reduce the harm caused by these devices. For instance users can change the default passwords that are used on their devices to block hackers from gaining access to them and also enable two-factor authentication. Regular firmware updates are required for routers as well as IoT devices. Furthermore using local storage instead of cloud can reduce the risk of an attack when you transfer or storage data between and these devices.

Research is still needed to understand the effects of these digital threats on our lives and the best ways to reduce them. Studies should concentrate on finding technological solutions that can mitigate the harms caused by IoT. Additionally, they should look at other potential harms related to with cyberstalking and the exacerbated power asymmetries between household members.

Human Error

Human error is among the most common factors that can lead to cyberattacks. This can be anything from downloading malware to allowing a network to attack. By establishing and enforcing strict security controls, many of these blunders can be avoided. For example, a worker could click on an attachment that is malicious in a phishing attack or a storage configuration error could expose sensitive data.

Additionally, a user could disable a security feature on their system without even realizing they're doing this. This is a common error that exposes software to attack by malware or ransomware. According to IBM, the majority of security incidents involve human error. This is why it's important to understand the types of mistakes that can lead to a cybersecurity breach and take steps to prevent them.

Cyberattacks can be committed for a variety of reasons, including hacking, financial fraud or to steal personal data or disrupt the vital infrastructure or essential services of the government or an organization. They are typically perpetrated by state-sponsored actors, third-party vendors or hacker groups.

The threat landscape is always changing and complex. Organisations must therefore constantly examine their risk profiles and revise protection strategies to stay up-to-date with the most recent threats. The good news is advanced technologies can reduce an organisation's overall risk of being a victim of a hacker attack and improve its security capabilities.

It's crucial to remember that no technology will protect an organization from every possible threat. Therefore, it is essential to devise a comprehensive cyber security strategy that is based on the different layers of risk within the ecosystem of an organization. It is also important to conduct regular risk assessments instead of using only point-in-time assessments, which are often in error or omitted. A thorough assessment of the security risk of an organization will enable an efficient mitigation of these risks and will ensure compliance with industry standard. This can ultimately prevent costly data breaches and other security incidents from negatively damaging a business's reputation, operations, and financials. A successful strategy for cybersecurity should include the following components:

Third-Party Vendors


Third-party vendors are businesses that do not belong to the company but offer services, software, and/or products. These vendors have access to sensitive information like financials, client information or network resources. When these companies aren't secured, their vulnerability is an entry point into the company's system. This is why cybersecurity risk management teams have begun to go to the extremes to ensure that third-party risks are identified and controlled.

The risk is growing as cloud computing and remote working become more common. A recent survey by the security analytics firm BlueVoyant revealed that 97% of the companies that were surveyed had negative effects from supply chain weaknesses. A disruption to a vendor even if it just impacts a small portion of the supply chain can have a domino-effect that threatens to affect the entire business.

Many companies have taken to creating a process which accepts new vendors from third parties and requires them to sign to specific service level agreements that dictate the standards by which they are held in their relationship with the organization. Additionally, a thorough risk assessment should include documenting how the vendor is tested for weaknesses, then following up on the results, and then resolving them in a timely manner.

A privileged access management system that requires two-factor authentication to gain access to the system is a different way to protect your company against risks from third parties. This stops attackers from gaining access to your network easily by stealing credentials of employees.

Also, ensure that your third-party vendors are using the latest versions of their software. This will ensure that they haven't introduced unintentional flaws into their source code. These flaws are often unnoticed, and then be used to launch further prominent attacks.

In the end, third-party risk is a constant risk to any company. While the strategies mentioned above can aid in reducing some of these risks, the best method to ensure that your third-party risk is minimized is to continuously monitor. This is the only method to fully understand the security position of your third party and to quickly spot possible threats.

Homepage: https://www.philon.cyou/cybersecurity-the-secret-life-of-cybersecurity/