At Least One Doomsday Movie Cyberattack Event Is Possible
Charles Leaver, Ziften CEO writes
There is a preponderance of evidence for the idea that cybersecurity will be a major issue for utilities and banks that affects utilities as well as banks over the next couple of years. Any company that works in an industry that could have destabilizing effects if hit, including the banking and oil and gas industries, would do well to have a clear plan for how to defend their servers from attacks. Although it is not yet commonly thought of as a threat to the average person, hacking attempts on infrastructure could destabilize power lines and water supplies for companies. The best bet that security heads of organizations have of keeping their servers up against the barrage of attacks they face from cybercriminals on a daily basis its to use up-to-date software along with a variety of other security tips and tricks in order to create defenses that will last.
The AP News agency recently conducted a review that cyber incidents on federal networks had increased from 30,000 to 50,000 since 2009, which is two-thirds higher. Meanwhile, 60 percent of experts surveyed by the Pew Research center voiced opinions that the U.S. would suffer a major cyber-attack by 2025 that would cause widespread harm. In this context, widespread harm was defined as, "significant loss of life or property losses in the tens of billions of dollars.' These types of incidents are so likely because the opportunity cost of waging cyber warfare is so tremendously low. Organizations can easily make attacks on infrastructure while hiding behind plausible deniability. This seems like a warning designed for governmental agencies, but it is highly likely that any group attempting to attack federal machines would first make most of its moves on private servers in order to both test the efficacy of their attacks and to get the much-needed resources and cash required to conduct such an attack.
Understanding the relationship between public and private security
Although there are many different reasons why an attacker may target a company in the finance or oil and gas industry, there are some similarities. Anyone who was looking to destabilize the daily lives of people within the U.S. would hit one of those groups, which makes security for those institutions a matter of national concern. These types of organizations in particular need to monitor the national understanding of cybersecurity in order to defend themselves from the many potential attacks that can come their way. Understanding the necessity of security features like endpoint threat detection and response software, firewalls, antivirus and encryption is essential for these businesses. As time goes on the risk of being subverted by hackers will become greater, and those organizations that have not made the preparation to deal with attacks that hit them regularly will wind up facing a public that does not appreciate their information being stolen.
The defense of a network often boils down to dealing with essentials like supervising consistent updates to security systems and maintaining a proper grasp of new types of security software. Endpoint threat detection and response software is useful because it can help to alleviate some of these problems by putting a human in charge of monitoring data as it flows through a network alongside user-assisted tools. This means that it is much easier to track and gauge how a given network is being used, which makes it simpler to pinpoint when certain services are being misused. As a part of a fully-features security system, endpoint threat detection software can be a huge benefit to a business.
There is a preponderance of evidence for the idea that cybersecurity will be a major issue for utilities and banks that affects utilities as well as banks over the next couple of years. Any company that works in an industry that could have destabilizing effects if hit, including the banking and oil and gas industries, would do well to have a clear plan for how to defend their servers from attacks. Although it is not yet commonly thought of as a threat to the average person, hacking attempts on infrastructure could destabilize power lines and water supplies for companies. The best bet that security heads of organizations have of keeping their servers up against the barrage of attacks they face from cybercriminals on a daily basis its to use up-to-date software along with a variety of other security tips and tricks in order to create defenses that will last.
The AP News agency recently conducted a review that cyber incidents on federal networks had increased from 30,000 to 50,000 since 2009, which is two-thirds higher. Meanwhile, 60 percent of experts surveyed by the Pew Research center voiced opinions that the U.S. would suffer a major cyber-attack by 2025 that would cause widespread harm. In this context, widespread harm was defined as, "significant loss of life or property losses in the tens of billions of dollars.' These types of incidents are so likely because the opportunity cost of waging cyber warfare is so tremendously low. Organizations can easily make attacks on infrastructure while hiding behind plausible deniability. This seems like a warning designed for governmental agencies, but it is highly likely that any group attempting to attack federal machines would first make most of its moves on private servers in order to both test the efficacy of their attacks and to get the much-needed resources and cash required to conduct such an attack.
Understanding the relationship between public and private security
Although there are many different reasons why an attacker may target a company in the finance or oil and gas industry, there are some similarities. Anyone who was looking to destabilize the daily lives of people within the U.S. would hit one of those groups, which makes security for those institutions a matter of national concern. These types of organizations in particular need to monitor the national understanding of cybersecurity in order to defend themselves from the many potential attacks that can come their way. Understanding the necessity of security features like endpoint threat detection and response software, firewalls, antivirus and encryption is essential for these businesses. As time goes on the risk of being subverted by hackers will become greater, and those organizations that have not made the preparation to deal with attacks that hit them regularly will wind up facing a public that does not appreciate their information being stolen.
The defense of a network often boils down to dealing with essentials like supervising consistent updates to security systems and maintaining a proper grasp of new types of security software. Endpoint threat detection and response software is useful because it can help to alleviate some of these problems by putting a human in charge of monitoring data as it flows through a network alongside user-assisted tools. This means that it is much easier to track and gauge how a given network is being used, which makes it simpler to pinpoint when certain services are being misused. As a part of a fully-features security system, endpoint threat detection software can be a huge benefit to a business.