• Η Kaseya, η Colonial Pipeline και η JBS είναι μόνο μερικά παραδείγματα εταιρειών που έχουν πέσει θύματα κυβερνοεπίθεσης κατά τη duration ενός long weekend.
• And who does not like weekends and holidays? Cybercriminals are no exception, but they actually prefer to "work" during this time.
Everyone loves a long weekend and the holidays, but such dates can also be recorded in the calendars of cyber criminals. Once a cyber attack gains access to a corporate network during the holidays, it will have more time to spread, as offices are empty, making it easier for perpetrators to go unnoticed.
And now that we have reached this point, Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. , a cyber security provider, has issued a stern warning about the dangers behind not paying attention to your office's cyber security during the holiday season.
The trend of attacks σε Σαββατοκύριακα και οι αργίες δεν είναι κάτι καινούργιο. Το FBI και η Υπηρεσία Κυβερνοασφάλειας και Ασφάλειας Υποδομών (CISA) έχουν ήδη προειδοποιήσει για τους κινδύνους, μετά από τις μεγάλης κλίμακας attacks that took place in the US this year.
On July 4th, Independence Day, Kaseya, company IT management software for msps, suffered a massive attack affecting 1.000 companies, with victims located in at least 17 countries.
The catastrophic cyber attack on the Colonial Pipeline - which supplies about 45% of the fuel throughout the East Coast of the United States - took place on Mother's Day weekend. As a result of this ransomware attack, it was forced to suspend its activities to deal with the threat.
On the Friday before Memorial Day weekend, giant JBS was forced to pay the equivalent of $ 11 million in Bitcoins as ransom to repel a cyber attack.
During a vacation period or a weekend, companies often operate with a core team, consisting of a small number of staff on alert for any type of incident. This facilitates the operation of criminals in cyberspace in various ways.
On the one hand, it allows the full development of a ransomware before anyone notices it and on the other hand causes more panic during the response operations, especially if the victim's IT teams are not available to respond. This, in turn, could increase the chances of a ransom claim being paid.
“Long weekends create the perfect conditions for threat actors to cause maximum damage. You have to take into account the fact that, at the moment, everything is "paralyzed", so once criminals gain access to the network, there is much more time to expand the attack and reach a large number of computers and their data. This is one of the reasons why it is essential to have a good cyber security prevention strategy and not wait until the damage is already done before dealing with it. problem”, explains Vassilis Nikolopoulos, head of the Security Engineering team at Check Point Software Technologies in Greece.
Συμβουλές για την προστασία μιας εταιρείας από cyber attacks
• Prevention strategy: In this day and age, it is important to have a precautionary cyber security strategy to prevent data theft and cyber security issues. In contrast to a response strategy, these methods aim to monitor attack markers (IoAs) and deal with all processes, technology, systems, and people, with an emphasis on preparing for an attack without waiting for it to happen.
• Zero trust strategy: σύμφωνα με το Threat Intelligence Report της Check Point Software , το 98% των κακόβουλων αρχείων στην Ελλάδα στάλθηκαν μέσω ηλεκτρονικού ταχυδρομείου. Αυτός είναι ο λόγος για τον οποίο, σε ολόκληρο τον κλάδο, οι επαγγελματίες ασφαλείας κινούνται σε μια νοοτροπία ασφάλειας μηδενικής εμπιστοσύνης: καμία συσκευή, χρήστης, ροή εργασίας ή σύστημα δεν πρέπει να θεωρείται αξιόπιστη από προεπιλογή, ανεξάρτητα από τη θέση από την οποία λειτουργεί, είτε εντός είτε except της περιμέτρου ασφαλείας. Η application αυτών των αρχών επιτρέπει την υιοθέτηση μιας attitude"Denial by Default" security where systems are made more inaccessible and isolated until a level of trust is established that will bring the highest level of protection to a system.
• Mobile device protection: Data mobility is one of the key points to consider when developing a cyber security strategy. In today's example, in which hybrid work has been adopted in most companies, there is a situation of multiple devices with many not having the appropriate security measures. These operations become the focus of many malicious cybercrime campaigns and, therefore, it is important to equip all devices with safeguards against any cyber attack.
• Cyber training: πολύ συχνά ένα από τα κύρια σημεία εισόδου για μια κυβερνοεπίθεση είναι το ηλεκτρονικό ταχυδρομείο ή η συσκευή ενός υπαλλήλου, γι ‘αυτό και αυτός είναι ένας από τους πιο αδύναμους συνδέσμους σε οποιαδήποτε εταιρεία: η έλλειψη κατάρτισης για τα μέλη της. Είναι υψίστης σημασίας να εκπαιδεύονται τα μέλη της εταιρείας, ώστε να είναι σε θέση να εντοπίζουν και να αποφεύγουν πιθανές επιθέσεις. Ένα μήνυμα κοινωνικής engineeringς που ενθαρρύνει τον χρήστη να κάνει κλικ σε έναν κακόβουλο σύνδεσμο είναι αρκετό. Η εκπαίδευση θεωρείται συχνά μια από τις σημαντικότερες άμυνες που μπορούν να αναπτυχθούν.
