It is no secret that in the 21st century, cyber threats are often as dangerous as bombs. But why, exactly, did cyber-attacks become such a go-to modus operandi for countries and nations in recent years?
Cyber Security
Cyber criminals, state-sponsored hackers and even the occasional disgruntled employee are constantly looking to gain unauthorized access for a variety of purposes: theft of money, cyber espionage, personal information for sale or for use in scams, and damage to critical infrastructure for just a few of the most common.
So how does an organization mitigate an entire world full of continual cyber attacks? Just as buildings have a number of necessary elements of physical security: access control, cameras, alarms and so on; there are similar key elements of cyber security that are absolutely vital for just about any modern business.
It starts with identifying and closing the most common doors that attackers use. For example, phishing attacks on employees are far and away the most common initial point of entry. The breach of even a low-level employee account can quickly turn into an escalation in access privileges and the ability to reach sensitive information. This is also true of smart devices, which are generally more poorly secured than computers and phones.
NSA released a list of the 25 top vulnerabilities exploited by state-sponsored Chinese hackers. In response, Beijing accused the US of being an "empire of hacking."
Advancements such as Infrastructure as Code, DevSecOps and Security as Code are making a difference in the world where the most life-critical organizations release new code hourly.
Technical ability and mindset, Python coding language, and the CISSP certification are among the most desired skills for cyber security jobs, SpecOps' study found.
The website defacement only lasted for about 30 minutes and in itself was a fairly minor incident, with the attackers posting a cryptocurrency scam reminiscent of the Twitter breach in July.
Nokia's Threat Intelligence Report noted an increase in IoT attacks stemming from poor security practices, the use of automated tools by attackers, and Internet visibility of devices.
While the threat of ransomware is real, with the right preparation organizations can increase resiliency against an incident. A multi-layered approach is key.
Twitter hack report reveals that employees were tricked into visiting a phishing page that captured their VPN credentials, a technique that worked due to move to remote working during the pandemic.
The advertising industry was very unhappy with the tweaks made to ad tracking systems in iOS 14 leading to a coalition of publishers and advertisers in France to initiate an antitrust complaint.
Iranian hackers impersonated Munich Security Conference and Think 20 Summit organizers to target high ranking diplomats and government officials for intelligence collection.









