By Rusty Chapin, Manager of DevOps, BitTitan
In October, cybercriminals unleashed a wave of ransomware assaults against the U.S. health care system. Amid the coronavirus pandemic and national elections, these unprecedented attacks hobbled at least five hospitals, including those in Baltimore and Atlanta. The attacks led the FBI to issue a warning of increased hacking activity. That activity is not likely to die down anytime soon.
With the increase of remote working, the threat from cybercriminals is on the rise. And criminal organizations don’t just prey on large corporations. More often than not, they’re looking for companies that aren’t prepared for an attack. Mitigating the most immediate cyberattack risks should be one of the top priorities of any organization, no matter its size.
Cyberattack risks often go unnoticed. Through everyday actions, end users can make themselves and their companies easy targets for ransomware and other cyberattacks. There is good news, however. With a few simple actions, many companies can significantly reduce their risk profile. One of these actions – leveraging the cloud – helps manage risk and gives companies multiple layers of protection against these growing threats.
Three common attacks
The idea of a hacker as a guy in a hoodie trying to steal your identity from a cybercafe is sorely outdated. These days, the threat of cyberattacks comes from multinational organizations with hundreds of collaborators hunting your organization’s weaknesses. These people are professionals, and they know what to look for: organizations that do not regularly install security patches to vulnerable systems, or companies that lack security training. The size of the organization doesn’t matter – a system is only as secure as its weakest point.
Cybercriminals have three main attacks that can put your company at risk. The first is exfiltration, the data equivalent of a bank robbery. When a system is exfiltrated, the criminals breach the walls of your secure system and move data to an outside party – all without your knowledge.
The second major risk is lateral movement, the inside job of data theft. Someone enters your secure system, and once they’re inside, they elevate those credentials, giving themselves more control and access. With those new, elevated credentials, they can move to other systems and take what they want.
The last risk is the oldest. Phishing attacks stretch back to a time before networks or computers. These are the confidence men of data theft. Whether through email or phone, they target individual users, trying to talk them out of sensitive information, or have them open a file, or visit an unsafe website. If a hacker can get their hands on sensitive data with a phone call, there’s no need to create a sophisticated software attack.
All three of these attacks can lead to one devastating outcome – ransomware. Like the Boston and Atlanta hospitals, your organization can be crippled when critical data is held hostage.
How the cloud can help
There is, however, one way to lower your risk profile to such attacks: using the cloud. In a cloud-based system, IT teams can rollback changes to locked or corrupted files, defeating the threat of ransomware simply and quickly. Rather than paying to unlock the files being held hostage, you have immediate access to the previous versions of those files. The cloud can also help IT teams see threats before they materialize. Companies using the cloud are more aware of large batches of data being moved and have more control over credential security, mitigating both exfiltration and lateral movement attacks.
As more companies move their data to the cloud to increase security, it’s important to ensure that the data migration is secure as well. To maintain this security, all data in transit should be encrypted. It’s important to follow compliance regulations and never to store data during migration.
Data sovereignty is also key. Many companies have specific security considerations, especially those working with government agencies or medical data. During the migration, you should ensure that your data stays within specific regions or countries to ensure compliance with laws and guidelines.
With the rise of remote workforces and sophisticated cybercriminal organizations, the threats to your secure data will only become more pronounced. Security is more vital than ever. Constant monitoring helps avoid breaches, theft and malicious attacks. Thankfully, the tools to combat these threats are equally sophisticated. By using tools like the cloud and staying vigilant and current with your security practices, you can rest easy knowing your company will be able to mitigate the risk of attack.
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About the Author
Rusty Chapin is the manager of DevOps at BitTitan, where he leads a team of engineers to deliver first-class cloud solutions to MSPs and IT professionals. His areas of expertise include database development, SQL server clustering, large-scale SQL server deployment, datacenter operations, IT management and executive mentoring, monitoring system design, and process analysis.
