Cloud Hosting

background. New Year 2023 celebration concept.getty

The pace of technological innovation has led to a transformation in many areas of our lives. In 2023, although it is only Spring, the impact of emerging technologies including artificial intelligence/machine learning, 5G, IoT, and quantum are significantly impacting everything connected to the internet.

The introduction of these potentially disruptive technologies do have implications on cybersecurity and the challenges of keeping us safe. In particular, AI is the hot topic of focus as generative artificial intelligence can leverage ChatGPT-powered for code, and ai/machine learning to amplify social engineering capabilities and help identify target vulnerabilities for hackers. These evolving tech trends and statistics are already telling a story for 2023.

As data continues to be produced and stored in greater volumes, and as connectivity greatly expands globally on the internet, the attack surface has become more exploitable with gaps and vulnerabilities for criminal and nation state hackers. And they are taking advantage.

In fact, the global cyber-attacks Rose by 7% already in Q1 2023. Weekly cyber-attacks have increased worldwide by 7% in Q1 2023 compared to the same period last year, with each firm facing an average of 1248 attacks per week. The figures come from Check Points latest research report, which also suggests that the education and research sector experienced the highest number of attacks, rising to an average of 2507 per organization per week (a 15% increase compared to Q1 2022). The Check Point report also shows that 1 in 31 organizations worldwide experienced a ransomware attack weekly over the first quarter of 2023. Global Cyber Attacks Rise by 7% in Q1 2023 - Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

In addition, key malware statistics for 2023 are adding to cybersecurity difficulties. It is estimated that 560,000 new pieces of malware are detected every day and that there are now more than 1 billion malware programs circulating. This translates to four companies falling victim to ransomware attacks every minute. A Not-So-Common Cold: Malware Statistics in 2023 (dataprot.net)

To top it off with more alarming statistics, so far almost 340 million people have been affected by publicly-reported data breaches or leaks in 2023 according to a public data breach tracker created by the U.K. news site The Independent. Cyber Security Today, April 28, 2023 Data on over 340 million people exposed so far this year | IT World Canada News

Last year, global 5G connections increased 76% in 2022 to 1.05B; 5G penetration hit 32% in North America. Global 5G connections are set to reach 1.9B in 2023. For cybersecurity that means less latency and faster attacks by threat actors. Global 5G Connections Set to Hit 1.9B in 2023 | TV Tech (tvtechnology.com)

Both cyber-attacks and vulnerabilities are expanding. A new report, State of Cyber Assets Report (SCAR) shows released by the cyber asset management company JupiterOne, analyzed over 291 million assets, findings, and policies to determine the current state of enterprise cloud assets. The report found that the number of assets organizations manage on average has increased by 133% year-over-year, from 165,000 in 2022 to 393,419 in 2023. The number of security vulnerabilities has grown disproportionately, jumping up 589%. According to the report, data is the most vulnerable type of asset, accounting for nearly 60% of all security findings.

The report also highlighted the challenges that security teams are facing, showing that, on average, a security team is responsible for 393,419 assets and attributes, 830,639 potential security risks, and 55,473 policies. This has led to security fatigue and staffing shortages in many organizations. Report: Cyber vulnerabilities skyrocket 589%, underscoring importance of cybersecurity | WRAL TechWire

While many industry sectors have been the target of cyber-attacks, including financial, education, and retail, the healthcare industry still is in the cross hairs of criminal hackers. This makes sense as many health institutions still lack the proper investment and expertise in cybersecurity because their funding goes to medical equipment and operations. Criminal hackers tend to go for the low hanging fruit. In the case of healthcare, the liability risks make ransomware a logical means of extortion.

Stethoscope on laptop keyboard, blue lighting

getty

According to the IBM 2022 Cost of a Data Breach report, the healthcare industry is still the costliest industry for a breach at $10.1 million on average for the twelfth year in a row. Fortified Health found that 78% of data breaches in 2022 were from hacking and IT incidents, an increase from 45% in 2018. Unauthorized access the second leading cause accounted for 38% of incidents in 2018 and now is only responsible for 16%. Other causes noted were theft, loss and improper data disposal.

Attackers often set their sights on healthcare organizations because breaches and incidents have a high impact. Because healthcare is an essential service, organizations are more likely to pay ransoms to provide continuous care when business disruptions can have devastating consequences. Additionally, healthcare organizations possess high-value data, such as personal and financial information. Attackers can often resell records for high prices on the dark web. Hacking Caused 80% of Healthcare Data Breaches in 2022 (securityintelligence.com)

Phishing is still one of the preferred methods used by criminal hackers. Why, because it is easy to do and successful, especially now that many of the attacks are being automated.

New research shows that up to a half of all HTML email attachments are malicious. This rate of malicious HTML prevalence is double compared to what it was last year and doesn't appear to be the result of mass attack campaigns that send the same attachment to a large number of people.

Barracuda used its telemetry to perform an analysis in May 2022 and found that 21% of the HTML attachments its products scanned that month were malicious. This was by far the highest malicious-to-clean ratio of any file type sent via email, but it progressively got worse since then, reaching 45.7% in March this year.So, for anyone who receives an HTML attachment via email right now there's a one in two chance it's maliciousAttacks increasingly use malicious HTML email attachments | CSO Online

Emerging technologies combined with the ability to be paid in cryptocurrencies that are hard to trace has accelerated ransomware attacks in recent years. The trend continues, ransom demands, recovery times, payments and breach lawsuits all on the rise.

In 2022, we saw increases in average ransom demands, average ransom payments, and average recovery times in most industries, the report authors wrote. The lull in ransomware that marked the start of the year is over. Ransomware groups have resumed attacks, and organizations must redouble their efforts to defend themselves against increasing attacks.

Baker Hostetlets Digital Assets and Data Management examined over 1,160 incidents from 2022. While many organizations have bolstered security and resilience, the data shows that threat actors continue to adapt and find footholds onto the network through evasive malware, social engineering, multi-factor authentication bombing, and credential stuffing.

The average time to recover from ransomware rose in nearly every sector, and in most cases, significantly. In 2021, the average recovery time for all sectors was just over a week. Last year, the retail, restaurant, and hospitality sectors saw an increase in the average recovery time from 7.8 days in 2021 to 14.9 days in 2022, or a 91% increase.

Healthcare saw a 69% rise in the length of recovery, followed by a 54% uptick for the energy and technology sectors, and 46% in the government industry segments. These increases mirrored a spike in ransom demands in 6 out of 8 industries, with an average payment of $600,688. Ransom demands, recovery times, payments and breach lawsuits all on the rise | SC Media (scmagazine.com)

For a detailed examination of the ransomware threat, please see my FORBES article Ransomware on A Rampage:

One of the biggest vulnerabilities for cyber-attacks has been on the supply chain. This was highlighted by the Colonial Pipeline and Solar Winds breaches and many others. It is a formidable task to protect any business or organization from the bast array of cyber- attacks, but when they are part of a supply chain with other parties or vendors, it becomes even a larger challenge. The reality is that 9 out of 10 companies have recently detected software supply chain security risks.

Reversing Labs Software Supply Chain Risk Survey found that nearly 90% of technology professionals detected significant risks in their software supply chain in the last year. More than 70% said that current application security solutions aren't providing necessary protections. More than 300 global executives, technology and security professionals at all seniority levels directly responsible for software at enterprise companies, were surveyed for the study.

Nearly all respondents (98%) recognized that software supply chain issues pose a significant business risk, citing concerns beyond code with vulnerabilities, secrets exposures, tampering and certificate misconfigurations. Interestingly, more than half of technology professionals (55%) cited secrets leaked through source code as a serious business risk followed by malicious code (52%) and suspicious code (46%).9 out of 10 companies detected software supply chain security risks | Security Magazine

And data released from Black Kites 2023 Ransomware Landscape Report finds the number of ransomware victims announced in March 2023 was nearly double that of April 2022 and 1.6 times higher than the peak month in 2022. Other key findings from April 1, 2022, through March 31, 2023, include:

Black Kite Research: Ransomware Attacks Resurge with Victims Doubling in 2023 (yahoo.com)

Data Breach Button on Computer Keyboard

getty

Because company reputations and stock prices can be impacted by a breach disclosure, that is often a reluctance to report an incursion to the public. New laws that require disclosure, especially in the banking and financial community are on the books and should help to quell this trend, but apparently it has not taken root yet.

New research released by cybersecurity vendor Bitdefender today surveyed over 400 IT and security professionals who work in companies with 1,000 or more employees. Bitdefender found that 42% of IT and security professionals surveyed had been told to keep breaches confidential i.e., to cover them up when they should have been reported.

Perhaps even more shockingly, 29.9% of respondents admitted to actually keeping a breach confidential instead of reporting it. This research highlights that an alarming number of organizations are willing to ignore their obligations to report data breaches to regulators and customers, in an attempt to avoid legal and financial penalties. A third of organizations admit to covering up data breaches | VentureBeat

While the threats are more sophisticated and capable, there are some basic cyber-hygiene measures that any company or individual can do to make themselves less of a target. They include:

Multi-factor authentication (MFA): MFA helps limit the possibility of unauthorized access. Enforcing always-on MFA through additional physical controls or temporary secondary codes makes life for a cybercriminal more difficult.

Identity and access management: Identity and access management (IAM) ensures that only the right people and job roles in your organization can access the tools they need to do their jobs. Through single sign on applications, your organization can manage employee apps without having them log into each app as an administrator.

Strong password management: There are practical remedies to get beyond that bad habit of using easy passwords to crack. Do not use default passwords on your devices and when you do create passwords make them complicated. Consider making them long or using phrases with letters, numbers, and characters.

Protective Tools: for better protection also consider using firewalls, and adding antivirus & intrusion detection software to your devices.

Update and Backup: be sure to update and patch your network in a timely manner and maintain a robust backup program that segments and encrypts sensitive data.

Finally have an Incident Response Plan, anyone in the growing and sophisticated cyber universe can become a victim and attackers always have an asymmetrical advantage.

This is just a small snapshot of some of the trends and statistics that are emerging on the cyber ecosystem in 2023. It is more important than ever to be vigilant and cyber-aware as there is much to be worried about on the cyber-threat horizon.

About The Author:

Chuck Brooks

Chuck Brooks

Chuck Brooks is a globally recognized thought leader and subject matter expert Cybersecurity and Emerging Technologies. Chuck is also an Adjunct Faculty at Georgetown Universitys Graduate Cybersecurity Risk Management Program where he teaches courses on risk management, homeland security technologies, and cybersecurity. LinkedIn named Chuck as one of The Top 5 Tech People to Follow on LinkedIn. He was named Cybersecurity Person of the Year for 2022 by The Cyber Express, and as one of the worlds 10 Best Cyber Security and Technology Experts by Best Rated, as a Top 50 Global Influencer in Risk, Compliance, by Thompson Reuters, Best of The Word in Security by CISO Platform, and by IFSEC, and Thinkers 360 as the #2 Global Cybersecurity Influencer. He was featured in the 2020, 2021, and 2022 Onalytica "Who's Who in Cybersecurity" He was also named one of the Top 5 Executives to Follow on Cybersecurity by Executive Mosaic, He is a GovCon Expert for Executive Mosaic/GovCon Wire, He is also a Cybersecurity Expert for The Network at the Washington Post, Visiting Editor at Homeland Security Today, and a Contributor to Skytop Media, and to FORBES. He has an MA in International relations from the University of Chicago, a BA in Political Science from DePauw University, and a Certificate in International Law from The Hague Academy of International Law.

Chuck Brooks, President of Brooks Consulting International, is a globally recognized thought leader and subject matter expert Cybersecurity and Emerging Technologies. Chuck is also Adjunct Faculty at Georgetown Universitys Graduate Applied Intelligence Program and the Graduate Cybersecurity Programs where he teaches courses on risk management, homeland security, and cybersecurity.

LinkedIn named Chuck as one of The Top 5 Tech People to Follow on LinkedIn. He was named as one of the worlds 10 Best Cyber Security and Technology Experts by Best Rated, as a Top 50 Global Influencer in Risk, Compliance, by Thompson Reuters, Best of The Word in Security by CISO Platform, and by IFSEC and Thinkers 360 as the #2 Global Cybersecurity Influencer. He was featured in the 2020, 2021, and 2022 Onalytica "Who's Who in Cybersecurity" as one of the top Influencers for cybersecurity.

Chuck has served at executive levels in both government and industry. He is a two-time Presidential Appointee and was one of the group of initial people hired to helped set up the Department of Homeland Security, including the Science & Technology Directorate.

Chuck has written over 300 articles and has keynoted dozens of conferences worldwide. He has over 82,000 followers on LinkedIn and almost 18,000 followers on Twitter.

Chuck has an MA in International relations from the University of Chicago, a BA in Political Science from DePauw University, and a Certificate in International Law from The Hague Academy of International Law.

Follow Chuck on social media:

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckbrooks/

Twitter:@ChuckDBrooks

Read more:
Cybersecurity Trends & Statistics; More Sophisticated And Persistent Threats So Far In 2023 - Forbes

SAN FRANCISCO Digital risks confronting organizations remain the same year after year, and the threat and potential damage awaiting unsuspecting victims is abundantly clear. Yet, many organizations still struggle to address the fundamentals required to take cybersecurity seriously.

For the things that do go wrong, theres a good chance the initial point of intrusion or attack will sound like a broken record to longtime RSA Conference attendees. Phishing, unpatched vulnerabilities and generally lackadaisical processes come up time and again.

To shake the industry into action, a cataclysmic event may be required.

Maybe we need another Snowden moment, Chester Wisniewski, field CTO of applied research at Sophos, told Cybersecurity Dive last week at the annual industry gathering.

When Edward Snowden, a former intelligence consultant and whistleblower, leaked highly classified information from the National Security Agency in 2013, it created a revelatory moment in technology.

Suddenly we went, oh, geez we kind of have to encrypt the internet. And look, it took us 10 years but the whole internets encrypted now, Wisniewski said.

Many cybersecurity experts, Wisniewski included, were lecturing the industry to fully encrypt the internet starting two decades ago. The repeated warnings finally reached a rallying point after Snowdens revelations hit.

Persistent prodding from the threat intelligence community is making an impact. More organizations have been roused into taking security more seriously.

Here we are in 2023, find a website thats not encrypted. You cant find one, but it took a Snowden moment to get everybody to go and do it, Wisniewski said.

Repetition will spur action eventually

Fear is a powerful motivator, but repetition such as threat intelligence from researchers and analysts about supply chain attacks, exploited vulnerabilities and ransomware might be whats required to push more organizations into action.

Theres a lot of gamblers out there, said John Shier, field CTO of commercial at Sophos.

Repetition plays an important role for cybersecurity professionals, precisely because it can eventually hammer the preventable dangers home for business leaders that need to hear their message the most.

John Dwyer has watched best practices go unfollowed his entire 15-year career.

Over extension of privileges, over extension of connectivity and over extension of access has been prevalent for a long time, Dwyer, the head of research at IBM Security X-Force, told Cybersecurity Dive.

Since I started in my career, people have been saying take away local administrative rights, and its still a common problem today, Dwyer said.

Despite the recurrence of long-ignored threats, Dwyer said hes seen a change during the last five years, marked by more organizations willing to invest in security and apply best practices.

On the outside, it may seem like no one's actually taking any of this stuff to heart, Dwyer said. People have been talking about the same thing forever, and youve had the same kind of vendors saying the same thing. What changed is that the threat landscape changed so that every organization on the planet is now actually targeted, more or less.

More organizations are assessing ways to reduce risk through security controls, better architecture and zero-trust models that limit privilege and access, but acquiring the investment needed to achieve those goals remains a hurdle for some companies, according to Dwyer.

Same old problems beats the alternative

Hearing about and sharing the same threats year after year might be tiring on some level for cybersecurity professionals, but for organizations under attack its probably better than the alternative.

Companies can patch vulnerabilities in hardware or software before a threat actor exploits them, strictly monitor supply chains and limit the impact of phishing attacks.

Phishing is still king, and how long have we been talking about phishing? Dwyer said.

Just because someone gets phished doesn't necessarily mean that your organization is going to burn to the ground. There's a whole bunch of stuff that happens in between that, Dwyer said. I think we just need to move to assume you're going to get phished, assume that you're going to get exploited. You still have a lot of opportunities to prevent a crisis, even if that happens.

Much like the long slog the industry endured before encryption became standard and universally adopted, strengthened defense practices and infrastructure might percolate through businesses from the top down.

Early on, Wisniewski said, it was just the richest, biggest companies that understood the problem.

Continue reading here:
Companies need a wakeup call to fix chronic security shortcomings ... - Cybersecurity Dive

Whether they take the form of a targeted attack or an accidental leak, cyber incidents are a major threat to the U.S. school system.

From public school districts to higher education and everywhere in between, malicious actors are chomping at the bit to get ahold of student data. Of course, hackers are just one part of the problem.

Education institutions are also struggling to keep personal information safe from internal cyber risk. Worse yet, transformative classroom technologies are making it harder than ever to uncover student safety signals and mitigate preventable incidents.

Luckily, its not hard to pinpoint the solution: Schools need insight into whats lurking behind the scenes, no matter whether thats a potential cyber attack or inappropriate content. The only problem? As it turns out, visibility isnt so easy to obtain.

Lets explore everything you need to know about K-12 cybersecurity and safety, including what your school district can do to better protect students from cyber risk.

At first glance, you might assume K-12 cybersecurity and cyber safety are one and the same. Indeed, both are concerned with student well-being, but theres a notable difference.

Specifically, cybersecurity involves proactively safeguarding sensitive information from a potential threat. This can include both internal and external cyber risk factors such as a student inappropriately accessing data on a school-provided device or a threat actor attempting a data breach.

On the other hand, cyber safety is more associated with ensuring students and staff members are safe from physical or emotional harm stemming from cyber incidents; the goal being to prevent such incidents in the first place. (Looking for an example? More on this later.)

The common denominator is that both are crucial in todays increasingly digital school district.

According to a recent report, the K-12 school system experienced a 275% increase in ransomware, 157% rise in malware, and 146% leap in IoT attacks all in 2022 alone.

In essence, that means malicious actors are targeting K12 schools at an accelerated rate. Why? Because theyre a goldmine of sensitive data. Whether youre a private or public school, chances are youre processing the following:

And, because your district has this information, its safe to say your edtech vendors do, too. When you allow vendors to access your data, youre entrusting them to mitigate cybersecurity risk. But, if their abilities are lacking, a third-party data breach could expose your student data at which point, anything could happen. Theres no telling how a threat actor might exploit your personal information.

Where safety is concerned, your school district must also be wary of how students and staff are using technology.

Despite their benefits, edtech tools and cloud applications especially arent always operated with the best intentions. For instance, a student may use a school-provided cloud resource (such as a Google Doc) to cyberbully a classmate. Another cyber risk to consider is that users could be using apps to share inappropriate content, such as pornography or depictions of graphic violence.

Not only are these incidents harmful to youths, but they also violate the Childrens Internet Protection Act (CIPA). CIPA requires you to implement internet security and safety policies for monitoring activity and blocking access to content deemed obscene, inappropriate, illegal, or harmful to minors.

Per the Federal Communications Commission, violating CIPA can result in your school district losing its E-Rate eligibility.

More than just school network or endpoint protection, education institutions are in dire need of cloud security.

Many districts rapidly adopted cloud services during the pandemic. According to CoSNs EdTech Leadership Survey, 97% are using some type of cloud-hosted learning management system. This corroborates our own research in collaboration with EdWeek, which found that over 90% of schools are using cloud domains like Google Workspace or Microsoft 365.

Unfortunately, as cloud technologies rose to the forefront of the school system, so did cybersecurity threat vectors of all shapes and sizes.

With the available data we saw a three-fold increase in cyber incidents affecting the K-12 education sector last year, said Doug Levin, co-founder and director of the K12 Security Information Exchange. That increase was due to the greater [uptick] of technology by schools and the exploitation of IT systems of third-party educational technology vendors that schools rely upon.

Whats important to remember is that remote learning isnt going anywhere. In fact, CoSNs 2022 report indicates that about quarter of schools offer hybrid learning options in the 2022-23 academic year.

Sadly, education institutions arent putting much of their budget into securing student data. When they do, most of their resources are put toward school network security not the cloud.

Consequently, theyre vulnerable to countless cloud-based attack strategies and risks. Lets unpack some of the most common ones:

Inappropriate and harmful behavior among students has long been a lingering problem in the U.S. school system. Although strides have been made over the years, recent tech developments are further stoking the flames of toxicity.

Of course, schools were struggling with cyberbullying well before they ever adopted cloud technology. But, with more digital channels in students hands than ever before, its becoming increasingly difficult to monitor, investigate, and prevent.

Its no surprise that toxicity comes in many forms. Whats more shocking is that there might be traces of them floating around your cloud domain.

K-12 cybersecurity isnt a walk in the park, but were here to help. Here are a few of our cybersecurity recommendations plus a few quick tips to help you shield your school district.

Its important for all users to understand their role and responsibility in keeping the district safe from cyber risk. Both students and staff should be trained on best practices. That way, everyone can do their part.

Here are a few tips you can use when safeguarding your district:

The biggest pain point IT administrators have is that they cant see the full scope of their cloud domain. A cloud monitoring tool can take you behind the scenes of whats really happening, unearthing previously hidden risks and enabling you to intervene.

DLP software is a cybersecurity tool that focuses on preventing critical information from being exposed. With DLP, you can implement custom policies or rules that users must follow when it comes to the cloud. If a student downloads an unsanctioned app, youll be notified right away of exactly whos involved and what actions they took. If someone is discussing suicide or self-harm, youll be similarly alerted and can implement the appropriate response protocol.

Sometimes, all you need is a buffer between your district and the cloud. Thats what CASB has to offer.

When you have a solution with CASB capabilities, you can insert an additional security layer that users must bypass before accessing cloud services. Cloud access security brokers are designed to give you more visibility into who has access to data and how they use it. That way, they can identify suspicious user activity and stop malicious actors in their tracks.

All things considered, K-12 cybersecurity isnt simple. A lot of factors are at play, and you need every advantage you can get to protect your students.

Luckily, thats what ManagedMethods is for. With our automated cloud security platform, you get all these capabilities rolled into one easy-to-use dashboard.

The post A Comprehensive Guide to K-12 Cybersecurity and Safety appeared first on ManagedMethods.

*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from ManagedMethods authored by Alexa Sander. Read the original post at: https://managedmethods.com/blog/a-comprehensive-guide-to-k-12-cybersecurity-and-safety/

Read more:
A Comprehensive Guide to K-12 Cybersecurity and Safety - Security Boulevard