The world has been battling cybercrime for quite a while now. A cyber attack is meant to access, change, or destroy sensitive information, steal money from users, or disrupt normal business operations. Security software and hardware tools protect your devices from unauthorized access, data breaches, phishing attempts, and other malicious activities.
The threat of cyberattacks is increasing, ranging from DDoS attacks to cybersecurity exploits that result in data breaches. According to 47% of respondents in 2021, cyber security breaches resulted in production delays and downtime in affected departments.
More than half of the respondents said they considered privacy the most significant cybersecurity issue for 2022. As for risk analysis, 46 percent of respondents opted for it. Companies foresee a major increase in cloud service threats in 2022, followed by ransomware and crypto mining. At the same time, 36% of respondents predicted an increase in malware attacks via software upgrades.
This article will discuss the most recent cyber attacks and how to prevent them. Here are some of the recent cyber attacks incidents.
Russian Hacks on Ukrainian Outlets
As the world emphasizes on Russian-Ukraine physical invasion, security experts are stimulating an escalation in the country’s long-standing tendency for online disruption.
The Canadian Cybersecurity Center released a report warning of an aggressive new malware strain called HermeticWiper. It infects the systems’ master boot record that corrupts physical drives and partitions until the system becomes unusable and data gets irretrievable.
Russia-based cybercriminals have launched this malware attack against strategic industrial, infrastructural, and government organizations in Ukraine. A recent report says that the attack was followed by a wave of similar destructive malware called IsaacWiper. It’s a potentially catastrophic malware, especially for a country whose resources are already limited.
Logistics Company Expeditors International Slowed by Hackers
Over the last couple of years, the logistics industry has faced supply chain disruptions and growing pandemic-related challenges that have affected worldwide shipping and transportation systems. The Seattle shipping firm Expeditors International was discovered in mid-February. However, that cybercrime can intensify any bad scenario.
According to a representative, it was apparently compromised by a targeted cyberattack that shut down most of its operations on February 20. Even though the specific nature of the attack has yet to be revealed, all signs are pointing to it being ransomware.
Bernalillo Data Breach
Bernalillo, the most famous county in New Mexico, discovered a data breach recently. However, criminals didn’t reveal details of ransomware demands; the country has labeled the breach as a ransomware issue. The consequences include blocking the jail’s camera feeds, closing down of government buildings, and entrapment of inmates due to automatic door mechanism failure.
Consequently, the country turned most of its system offline, making some public services unavailable to users. However, safety services, such as rescue operations, continued to run, owning unspecified backup contingencies. The Bernalillo received $2 million in recovery funds approved by the county commissioners.
Nvidia – Microchip Manufacturer Attack
Nvidia, the largest microprocessor manufacturer in the United States, targeted a ransomware attack by the cyber gang Lapsus$ on February 23. The hackers claimed to have stolen source code for Nvidia’s latest graphics cards, but Nvidia has not confirmed or denied this claim. The company said it was forced to take down its corporate email system to detect and mitigate the attack.
Data Security Incident at Monongalia Health System
Data security is a top priority for Monongalia Health System, Inc. (MHS). Recently, MHS discovered that a data security incident had occurred in one of its information technology systems. After knowing the incident, MHS promptly hired a leading data security firm to investigate the matter and quickly took steps to respond to and stop the situation.
MHS determined that an unauthorized individual gained access to certain MHS employee email accounts as part of this investigation. In response, MHS has retained a leading forensic expert who determined that the email accounts contained:
- Protected health information of some patients.
- Certain personal information of some employees.
- Personal information of some individuals who were referred to an MHS practice or program but never became patients.
How to Defend Your Company Against a Cyber Attack?
Cyber-attacks have already been on the rise over the past few years, and with more incentive for criminals to target businesses (after all, they have deeper pockets), we can expect that it’ll only worsen. As such, organizations need to be prepared to respond to ransomware attacks and prevent them from happening in the first place. Here are some steps you can take to protect your organization from a ransomware attack:
- Backup your data to the cloud – The most important thing you can do is back up your data on the cloud or another external source. If your data has been backed up, a ransomware attack doesn’t impact you because you can wipe clean and reinstall the affected devices.
- Implement multi-factor authentication (MFA) – If a hacker does manage to steal someone’s login credentials, having an additional layer of security can stop them from logging into their account.
- Train your employees to identify phishing emails – Phishing emails are designed to trick you into clicking on a link or downloading an attachment that will infect your computer with ransomware. The best way to avoid this is by educating your employees about phishing emails and how they work.
- Create an incident response team – The incident response team should include representatives from various departments within your organization, such as IT, legal, and human resources. This ensures that the team has all the information they need to deal with any incident that arises.
- Limit Employee Access to Your Data & Information – Not everyone in your company needs access to everything. Some employees may only need access to specific data or information. It is a good idea to limit employee access to data and information only when necessary for their job. This way, you will drastically reduce the number of people who could potentially threaten your company.
Final Words
As technology continues to evolve, attacks like these will happen more frequently—and with more sophisticated code. Hackers are finding new and advanced ways to encrypt your data without you even realizing it. They’re doing it at an alarming rate. As a result, you must keep your security infrastructure up to date. Because if you’re not prepared for cyber attacks to escalate over time, you may end up on that list.
