Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

One of the worst things about ransomware attacks isn’t just the mayhem they cause as your data is encrypted by criminals and your business is put on hold — it’s not knowing when they’ll happen. But what if you had some advance notice about the next cyberattack before it hit? What if you could find out if your data was up for bid on the dark web?

Last year was a tough one for schools, local, and state governments. Not simply because of COVID-19, which forced every local government and school to navigate a pandemic, but also because the pandemic brought with it a different set of dangers. While local governments and schools were trying to figure out remote learning, remote work, and how to run public meetings safely and effectively online, cybercriminals took advantage of the fact that the remote world is new to most small governments.

One of the most common misconceptions about cybersecurity is that the responsibility and ownership sits solely on the shoulders of the CISO and the security team. Common assumptions are anything related to cybersecurity, a security issue or security initiative resides with the security team and the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). Phishing attacks? That’s a problem for the security department. Vetting vendors and third parties? That belongs to the vendor management team.

Digital transformation changes the perimeter. When organizations had all their applications on-premises, the network firewall kept the right users inside the gate and malicious actors outside. However, the move to the cloud changed all that. In today’s hyper-connected ecosystem, understanding the components and types of access control can help you strengthen security.

Many businesses are shifting workloads to the cloud in an effort to increase efficiency and streamline workloads. In fact, according to the Flexera 2021 State of the Cloud Report, roughly 90% of enterprises anticipate cloud usage will expand even further as a result of COVID-19. While cloud computing can offer organizations a competitive advantage, it is important not to rush into cloud adoptions without understanding the risks involved as well.

Good data governance can go a long way toward reducing business risk. If your content and your data are secure, you’ve eliminated danger to your customers’ information and secured your proprietary information. From a digital perspective, you’re ahead of the game. But data governance shouldn’t be your only concern.

SecurityScorecard’s Investigations & Analysis team conducted an investigation into the details surrounding the USAID.gov attack. As has been previously reported, the attack has been potentially attributed to the organization commonly known as Cozy Bear, but our investigation found that the campaign is likely much larger, and began much earlier than has been reported.