Things that go bump in your infrastructure.
Halloween is drawing nigh. While thoughts of ghosts and vampires lurking in the dark may send chills down the spine, there are much more terrifying things to fear this fall. Real things. Things that lurk around the perimeter of infrastructure in highly regulated industries. Something that could hobble lives, shuts down supply chains and cost your company its livelihood.
The boon of ransomware has been escalating, causing willful damage companies and to entire communities. But, unfortunately, pulling the curtains and locking the doors no longer secure you. Savvy adversaries are developing new methods of cyberattack to infiltrate entire networks and impact critical infrastructure across healthcare, financial, retail, manufacturing, oil, and gas—the industries on which our very lives depend.
In the latest round of cyberattacks, Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, was hacked, and around $100 million of Binance Coin was stolen. Can your organization afford to lose even a fraction of that? And what are you doing to prepare for the next, more sophisticated round of cyberattacks?
Agility is key to adapting to unknown future horrors.
In April 2021, the Colonial Pipeline, the largest fuel pipeline in the U.S., was attacked by hackers. As a result, the company temporarily shut down its entire network—representing 45% of the fuel used along the east coast of the US.
Something as basic as an unprotected password led to severe fuel shortages and gas price spikes. The hackers got $4.4 million in ransom for their efforts, and it took two weeks and over $1 million for the pipeline to resume operations. A comprehensive audit trail of events carried out during the session, and tamper-proof session recordings, could have stepped up the inspection process.
Insecure endpoints enable ransomware to take hold. Therefore, all endpoints and devices must be assessed before accessing networks, VPNs, applications, and content. And this assessment of endpoint health and security capabilities must be continuous — not just at the point of login.
SIEM solutions can monitor a network continuously, capture any information about possible threats and malware, and report them to the administrators for preventive actions. With meaningful insights like that, Colonial Pipeline could have mitigated damage to their network. This is a tactic all modern organizations with critical services—from finance to healthcare to energy—should implement to protect their customers and their infrastructure.
Cyber resilience can keep ghosts and monsters at bay.
Most cybersecurity professionals will tell you that a data breach is more a matter of “when” than “if.” Nothing can be fully secured, and the more complex your stack is, the more likely malicious actors will find a way to hijack your system. Focus on having repeatable, proven processes that show you know how to respond when something goes wrong, which it most likely will at some point.
Cyber resiliency is vital. Cyber resilience is about showing that you can protect data and quickly respond when something goes wrong. The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity spans IT and OT to promote the protection and resilience of critical infrastructure. NIST 800-70 offers best practices for using security configuration checklists like the Center for Internet Security (CIS) controls that are mandated to secure the infrastructure of critical industries.
Security challenges are only expanding throughout the nation as threats, vulnerabilities, and risk continue to shift; budgets and investments remain limited; and technology, economic and social change remains the norm. Implementing CIS benchmarks and establishing a practice of continuous network monitoring can go a long way to avoiding the horror stories others have experienced at the hands of cybercriminals.
Defeating the boogeyman could be easier than you think.
Organizations require multiple layers of defense to achieve complete protection against ransomware attacks. A mature, resilient cybersecurity posture combines a range of IT security solutions that work in an integrated fashion to protect against threats.
SteelCloud can help organizations meet various challenges — like managing unpredictable, complex, multi-domain operations; understanding and addressing different areas of risk where significant uncertainties are involved; conducting regular risk assessments and collaborating with partner organizations like information technology. Better yet, our ConfigOS software can automate the process of meeting CIS benchmarks and continuous monitoring, and maintenance. Watch it in action and see how much it simplifies complex cybersecurity.
Cybercrime can make you want to run screaming in the other direction. But you are not powerless to defeat it. Face it head-on with CIS benchmarks, continuous monitoring and the resilience and agility you need.
