In right now’s unstable geopolitical and financial local weather, unhealthy actors corresponding to cybercriminals are mendacity in wait, looking for to make the most of the state of affairs to conduct an assault and additional their prison enterprises. Businesses typically overlook this reality, which may expose them to a crippling assault, a cybersecurity professional mentioned.
“Bad actors are always looking for opportunities to leverage turmoil as a prime opportunity to attack,” mentioned Jeffrey Wheatman (pictured above), senior vice chairman at Black Kite. “The noise distracts people and organizations – people often stop paying attention to things that should be top of mind, like having and maintaining good cyber hygiene.”
According to Wheatman, unhealthy actors exploited the chaos brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing lockdowns. Many folks had been all of the sudden thrust into an unfamiliar work-from-home setting, which led to lapses in safety.
“During the pandemic, stores and gyms closing threw a wrench into people’s everyday routines,” Wheatman mentioned. “Goods became scarce, giving bad actors the perfect opportunity to craft fake ads to steal credit card information on Facebook and other social media platforms. Many people fell for these schemes, including me, which leads to having to cancel credit cards and get new ones. The panic that comes from not being able to easily access goods can lead to many poor decisions online. Understandably, when users are nervous about the health and well-being of friends and family, being cyber-safe takes a backseat.”
Bad actors additionally conceal behind the veil of battle. According to Wheatman, it’s no coincidence that cyberattacks have elevated because the Russia-Ukraine battle started in February. Microsoft reported that Russian hackers have focused greater than 120 organizations in 42 nations exterior Ukraine because the battle started, with US-based targets making up 12% of those assaults.
“Geopolitical conflicts provide ample opportunity for bad actors to strike – and they will,” he mentioned.
Wheatman offered an instance throughout the Russia-Ukraine battle, the place the Russian invaders attacked Ukraine’s conventional telecommunication pathways. To assist regain communications, Starlink was rolled out within the closed-off areas of Ukraine.
“As frequently happens, when a technology becomes ubiquitous, researchers and attackers take a closer look,” Wheatman mentioned. “Back in August, researchers were able to compromise a Starlink user terminal, inject code, and potentially upload code to the satellites – while only using $25 worth of hardware. Would you be surprised if attackers were able to do something similar, or worse? It has long been proposed that the future of warfare will be a hybrid between traditional kinetic attacks and cyberattacks – with one being used to distract defenders as a prelude to the other – and I think the future is now.”
Given this dire state of affairs, Wheatman mentioned that companies should be capable of analyze the cyber weaknesses of their suppliers and different third-party distributors to cut back vulnerability to unhealthy actors.
“Companies worldwide have seen an increase in cyberattacks, specifically targeting their digital supply chain as a method of access and they have experienced the ‘shock waves’ of third-party incidents,” Wheatman mentioned. “Even if an organization considers itself to have strong safety protocols, it solely takes one susceptible vendor to be inclined to an assault.
“According to our latest annual Third-Party Breach Report, software vendors were the most common source of supply chain attacks, accounting for 25% of all incidents in 2021,” he mentioned. “Additionally, 1.5 billion users’ PII was leaked due to a third-party breach. Recovery after exposing sensitive data is both expensive and time-consuming and plays into the aggregation risk of a situation.”
Wheatman highlighted the significance of defending the third-party route, with analytics agency Forrester predicting that 60% of safety incidents in 2022 will end result from third-party incidents.
“In the insurance market, third-party vendors rarely meet the insurance requirements established by the companies that hire them,” he mentioned. “This is a sobering fact – considering by 2026, the global cyber insurance market is forecasted to grow at a compounded average of 25% yearly. It’s crucial that insurance companies assess their cyber posture and make improvements now.”
Many main cyberattacks start with unhealthy actors attacking by way of third events, earlier than island-hopping their approach into their goal organizations.
“We’re redefining vendor risk management with the world’s first global third-party cyber risk monitoring platform, built from a hacker’s perspective,” Wheatman mentioned. “Our recently announced FocusTags provide a fast and simple way for users to track high-profile cyber events and quickly identify which vendors have been affected within their supply chain. When cyber events disrupt the digital supply chain, time is of the essence. FocusTags provide immediate visibility into the cause and effect so companies can manage the incident and protect their bottom line. And Black Kite’s Ransomware Susceptibly Index provides unique insight into your exposure to ransomware within your digital and physical supply chain.”