Category Archives: Cybercrime

Cyber Secure by Design

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In 2019, victims lost $2.7 billion to cybercrime, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

When it comes to ransomware attacks and data breaches, most cybersecurity experts agree that it’s not a matter of if, but when your business or organization will become a target or a victim of cybercrime. In CyberEdge Group’s 2019 Cyberthreat Defense Report, an astounding 78% of surveyed organizations admitted being victims of cyber attacks. That’s why it’s important to have the right incident response tools and plans in place.

Cybersecurity must become a priority and a core business objective for organizations of all sizes and technology orientation. In order to conduct business and navigate today’s increasingly complex technology threat environment, it is critical for businesses and organizations to devote their time, talent and treasure to securing and building resiliency in cyber technology equipment, systems and protocols.

Cyber security incident plan

Organizations need a written incident response plan, spelling out the necessary steps to address a cybersecurity incident, vulnerability assessments and details on who is is notified, who is responsible for implementing the plan after a data breach.

An incident response plan is a documented, written plan with 6 distinct phases that helps cyber professionals and IT staff recognize and deal with a cyber security incidents like a data breach or ransomware attacks. An incident response plan should be set up to address a suspected data breach in a series of phases. Within each phase, there are specific areas of need that should be considered. The incident response phases are:

  1. Preparation
  2. Identification
  3. Containment
  4. Eradication
  5. Recovery
  6. Lessons Learned

Cybersecurity needs to become core to an organization’s overall business strategy. Organizations and boards need to take effective steps to become “secure by design”. They need to ensure security procedures, controls and policies are integral within all levels of the organization, in all technology solutions and business process from the outset.

Cyber security solutions need to provide the latest cyber threat protection required for an organization’s operations. Whether a business’s digital transformation is migrating to the cloud, application development, leveraging the power of the IoT or integrating IT and operational networks, taking a “secure by design” approach is crucial for business continuity by identifying, responding to, and protecting against known and unknown threats and minimizing the potential effects on core assets.

Shortage of cyber security and IT staff

In most organizations, there exist a critical shortage of cyber security staff. As a result, it has become nearly impossible for organizations to review the plethora of cyber alerts, not to mention investigate and respond to all security incidents. Statistics show that the average time to identify and remediate a cyber security breach is over 100 days. Additionally, the Mandiant Security Effectiveness Report 2020 found that 53% of successful cyber attacks infiltrate organizations without being detected, and 91% of all incidents didn’t generate an alert.

To help address this shortage, the security industry is developing tools to perform automated incident response. An automated tool can detect a cyber security condition, and automatically execute an incident response playbook that can contain and mitigate the incident. For example, upon detecting traffic from the network to an unknown external IP, an incident playbook runs, adding a security rule to the firewall and blocking the traffic until further investigation.

By supplementing manual incident response with automated playbooks, organizations can reduce the burden on security teams, and respond to many more security incidents, faster and more effectively.

Weakest link

Cyber-resiliency also involves recognizing that security is no longer solely a technology or governance, risk and compliance issue. Instead, the whole workforce, including both technical and non-technical employees, should be a student of cybersecurity. Since cyber security is as strong as the organization’s weakest link.

Research participants felt that their respective organizations had invested adequately in cyberthreat solutions. Although four in five respondents (81.7%) felt their employers had invested adequately, that means one in five (18.3%) was not confident in this regard. Given the sophistication and magnitude of today’s cyber threats and the advancements in modern cyber threat hunting technology, the survey results are discouraging.

To implement truly robust and effective measures, businesses and organizations must employ multi-faceted risk mitigations solutions like:

  1. Centrally manage and promulgate robust teleworking solutions to empower and enable employees, customers, and third parties.
  2. Leverage role-based rather than location-based identity and access management solutions, analytics, and controls.
  3. Establish two factor authentication, such as manual phone calls, a system of shared secrets, or other authentication controls.

Technology:

  1. https://www.itproportal.com/features/cyber-security-awareness-month-2020-six-experts-share-their-thoughts-on-staying-safe-online/
  2. https://cyber-edge.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/CyberEdge-2019-CDR-Report.pdf
  3. https://www.itgovernanceusa.com/blog/how-long-does-it-take-to-detect-a-cyber-attack
  4. https://www.fireeye.com/current-threats/annual-threat-report/security-effectiveness-report.html
  5. https://www.securitymetrics.com/blog/6-phases-incident-response-plan#:~:text=An%20incident%20response%20plan%20is%20a%20documented%2C%20written,incident%20like%20a%20data%20breach%20or%20cyber%20attack.
  6. https://www.ey.com/en_us/consulting/covid-19-steps-to-defend-against-opportunistic-cyber-attackers?WT.mc_id=10642922&AA.tsrc=paidsearch
  7. https://www.cynet.com/incident-response/incident-response-plan-template/

Be Cyber Smart: Prevent Identity Theft and Internet Scams

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Americans are more vulnerable than ever to cyber attacks arising from the pandemic.

Today’s technology allows Americans to connect around the world, to bank and shop online, and to control their homes, smart devices and cars from their mobile phones. And with the advent of 5G, this capability to connect and to control will expand exponentially. With this added convenience comes an increased risk in cybercrime of identity theft and internet scams.

Additionally, most Americans and business owners are not well versed in cybersecurity, nor understand the financial impact it can have on their everyday remote work and online lives and businesses. Meanwhile many people approach security as a purely technical challenge dictated by technology and security updates. With this change in behavior brought by COVID pandemic comes additional cyber security risks to privacy and personal information.

Cybercriminal activity is one of the biggest challenges that humanity will face in the next two decades and it causes far more financial damage than people can imagine, according to Cybersecurity Ventures. By 2021, Cybersecurity Ventures estimates that cybercrime could cost upwards to $6 trillion to protect and/or recover from cybercrime. When companies like Yahoo or Equifax are hacked, it causes the size, sophistication, and cost of these crimes to grow at an astronomical rate.

Did you know

  • The average financial cost of a data breach for a US company in 2019 was $8.19 million. That’s an increase of 130% since 2006!
  • 7-10% of the U.S. population are victims of identity fraud each year, and 21% of those experience multiple incidents of identity fraud.

Cybercrime costs include damage and destruction of data, stolen money, lost productivity, theft of intellectual property, theft of personal and financial data, embezzlement, fraud, post-attack disruption to the normal course of business, forensic investigation, restoration and deletion of hacked data and systems, and reputational harm.

Common internet scams

As technology continues to evolve, cybercriminals will use more sophisticated techniques to exploit technology to steal your identity, personal information, and money. To protect yourself from online threats, you must know what to look for.

Cybercriminals — from government-backed groups to organized crime gangs — are using the public’s fear, uncertainty, and curiosity about the pandemic to adapt their techniques, tactics, and targeting strategies.

  • There has been an increase in the number of phishing, malicious sites, and business email compromise attempts linked to the pandemic. This malicious content can appear as fraudulent news updates, precautionary guidance, virus maps, friend requests, or employer’s memos.
  • Cyber criminals, conducting data theft for economic gain, extortion, disruptive or destructive ransomware attacks, have targeted individuals and organizations perceived as under pandemic-related stress and strain.

Some of the most common Internet scams include:

  • COVID-19 Scams take the form of emails with malicious attachments or links to fraudulent websites to trick victims into revealing sensitive information or donating to fraudulent charities or causes. Exercise caution in handling any email with a COVID-19-related subject line, attachment, or hyperlink, and be wary of social media pleas, texts, or calls related to COVID-19.
  • Imposter Scams occur when you receive an email or call from a person claiming to be a government official, family member, or friend requesting personal or financial information. For example, an imposter may contact you from the Social Security Administration informing you that your Social Security number (SSN) has been suspended, in hopes you will reveal your SSN or pay to have it reactivated.
  • COVID-19 Economic Payments scams target Americans’ stimulus payments. CISA urges all Americans to be on the lookout for criminal fraud related to COVID-19 economic impact payments—particularly fraud using coronavirus lures to steal personal and financial information, as well as the economic impact payments themselves—and for adversaries seeking to disrupt payment efforts.

Simple tips for online safety and protection

Getting educated and savvy on how to recognize and react to phishing emails and cyber threats may be the best way to protect yourself virtually and financially against cybercrime.

  • Double your login protection. Enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) to ensure that the only person who has access to your account is you. Use it for email, banking, social media, and any other service that requires logging in. If MFA is an option, enable it by using a trusted mobile device, such as your smartphone, an authenticator app, or a secure token—a small physical device that can hook onto your key ring.
  • Shake Up Your Password Protocol. According to NIST guidance, you should consider using the longest password or passphrase permissible. Get creative and customize your standard password for different sites, which can prevent cyber criminals from gaining access to these accounts and protect you in the event of a breach. Use password managers to generate and remember different, complex passwords for each of your accounts. Read the Creating a Password Tip Sheet for more information.
  • Be up to date. Keep your software updated to the latest version available. Maintain your security settings to keeping your information safe by turning on automatic updates so you don’t have to think about it, and set your security software to run regular scans

Protect yourself from online fraud

Stay Protected While Connected: The bottom line is that whenever you’re online, you’re vulnerable. If devices on your network are compromised for any reason, or if hackers break through an encrypted firewall, someone could be eavesdropping on you—even in your own home on encrypted Wi-Fi.

  • Practice safe web surfing wherever you are by checking for the “green lock” or padlock icon in your browser bar— this signifies a secure connection.
  • When you find yourself out in the great “wild Wi-Fi West,” avoid free Internet access with no encryption.
  • If you do use an unsecured public access point, practice good Internet hygiene by avoiding sensitive activities (e.g., banking) that require passwords or credit cards. Your personal hotspot is often a safer alternative to free Wi-Fi.
  • Don’t reveal personally identifiable information such as your bank account number, SSN, or date of birth to unknown sources.
  • Type website URLs directly into the address bar instead of clicking on links or cutting and pasting from the email.

If you discover that you have become a victim of cybercrime, immediately notify the business and authorities to file a complaint. Keep and record all evidence of the incident and its suspected source.

For more information about how you can Do Your Part. #BeCyberSmart, visit www.cisa.gov/ncsam

References:

  1. https://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/publications/NCSAM_TheftScams_2020.pdf
  2. https://www.ey.com/en_us/consulting/covid-19-steps-to-defend-against-opportunistic-cyber-attackers?WT.mc_id=10642922&AA.tsrc=paidsearch
  3. https://cybersecurityventures.com/hackerpocalypse-cybercrime-report-2016/
  4. https://www.cisa.gov/shop-safely