Cybercriminals have reared their head in 2020 with an increase in ransomware attacks, putting thousands of businesses and millions of people at risk. What does this mean for cybersecurity teams? As threats continue to increase, security professionals are faced with new challenges amidst this changing landscape. It is time to start adapting and making changes in order to prepare for the future.
In recent months, a number of healthcare organizations as well as state and local governments have been the victims of cyberattacks. While this is unnerving to hear, the grim reality is these attacks only represent a small fraction of the businesses that have been attacked. While healthcare and government organizations continue to be a popular target, other industries such as entertainment, IT, and energy lead the way in industries suffering from ransomware attacks. In fact, nearly 55% of those industries have experienced an attack within the last year.
As ransomware attacks become increasingly successful, it highlights the risks for these critical infrastructures and businesses and emphasizes the need for new security measures to combat these threats. As today’s professional landscape continues to change and more and more people work from home, it is becoming increasingly evident that the old security methods are no longer sufficient and new steps need to be taken to protect businesses and the general public from cyber attacks.
There is no doubt that the security industry is evolving and scrambling to come up with solutions to these problems. However, new and advanced security technologies can be costly and this is becoming a challenge for many businesses. While larger companies might be updating their systems as soon as new technology becomes available, smaller businesses are not. This leads to an even larger cybersecurity issue: How can we protect our small businesses in an effort to tackle this growing problem?
While the cost of implementing new security software is high, the cost of failure is staggering. With the average cost of a ransom at nearly $1.4 million and the average cost of recovery sitting at nearly $700,000 if the ransom is not paid, it is nearly impossible for local governments, schools, and small businesses to adequately defend themselves against these attacks. As more and more companies become aware of the losses associated with ransomware attacks they are reaching out and looking for new ways to mitigate these risks. Thus, there has been an increased shift to a more proactive strategy to help limit the number of attacks.
This new approach involves more government action and new policies on how to handle cybercriminals. It is adamant that the government and law enforcement step in and devise new strategies for dealing with such attacks. The punishment needs to be harsh enough that it deters these cybercriminals from coming back. Furthermore, companies need to embrace cloud services in order to enable remote collaborations. This also means adopting or designing
cloud-native security systems to protect the remote workforce.
2020 has highlighted that no company is immune to data breaches and cyber crimes have grown exponentially. No security system is invincible, so it is crucial for businesses and organizations to focus on recovery, as this is vital to their success. The pandemic has accelerated changes to the cybersecurity industry and has emphasized the need for security measures to be more flexible, collaborative, and stricter.
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