At the time of writing, much of Europe and the U.S. is in the midst of a major heatwave, delivering record temperatures and concerns about climate change. Just as the heat is rising, so is the threat of cyberattacks.
New data has emerged that reveals 2022 is looking like it could be the worst year ever for cybersecurity in terms of the volume and severity of attacks. How can organizations hope to protect themselves against this threat?
Will 2022 be the Worst Year Ever for Cybersecurity?
There are no 'good' years in cybersecurity. Such is the nature of modern cybercrime that each year can be expected to show more threats, data breaches, ransomware, and attacks.
But it's still shocking to see the hard data in front of you. New research has revealed that Q2 2022 reached an all-time peak, with global cyberattacks increasing by 32 percent compared to Q2 2021.
Furthermore, one in 40 organizations has been affected by ransomware, a 59 percent increase compared to the previous year. Overall, it’s shaping up to be the worst year ever for cyberattacks. What can organizations hope to do against what must feel like continuous attacks?
There's no silver bullet, unfortunately. But just as the attacks get more sophisticated, so do the defenses to protect against them. With the right combination of people, processes, and technology, there is no reason organizations can’t enhance their cybersecurity stance for the rest of 2022 and beyond.
Related Reading: The 5 Biggest Cybersecurity Threats of 2022: How to Avoid Cybersecurity Attacks
Data Breaches Impact both Vaxxed and Unvaxxed
While the vaccine debate is highly polarized cyber criminals don’t care one way or the other. They will target unvaccinated and vaccinated individuals equally.
According to this article, a dating website created explicitly for people who are not vaccinated against COVID-19 and claiming to be the world’s ‘largest unvaccinated platform’, ran into trouble recently when it was revealed itself as vulnerable to a major data breach.
Its administrator dashboard was openly accessible to anyone, meaning the personal data of every person that signed up to the website was available to anyone who wanted it. The vulnerabilities have since been fixed, but it is a useful reminder that data breaches can occur to any organization in any sector. Criminals are entirely agnostic when targeting organizations of different political or ideologies.
School’s Out For the Summer
Schools, colleges, universities, and other education establishments might be closed for summer vacation, but that hasn't prevented the sector from becoming one of the most targeted by cybercriminals.
New data from Sophos has shown that the number of ransomware attacks against schools and universities is rising and that those attacks are becoming more impactful, with victims struggling to recover when their networks are hit.
There’s a perception that education is a softer, easier target. Whether that’s true or not, attackers increasingly see the sector as potentially lucrative. Many victims choose to pay a ransom. The average ransom paid by K – 12 schools following an attack was $1.97 million, while the average for higher education establishments was $905,000.
The former figure feels high, but large school districts are vast organizations. Education is vulnerable as a sector because it relies on its networks for teaching, remote learning, accessing resources, and more. Without these, operations grind to a halt.
There’s also the question of keeping confidential student data secure, so cybersecurity must be a priority for any school, college, or university.
Related Reading: GoAnywhere MFT At-A-Glance for Educational Organizations
Cybersecurity on Screen – The Undeclared War
In last month's edition of this blog post, we took an initial look at a new television show in the UK (also available to stream globally), The Undeclared War. The show is about a Russian cyberattack on the UK, leaving much of the internet unavailable.
The first few episodes had big areas that didn’t ring true such as graduates working on the cybersecurity frontline on their first day! But as the show progressed, it featured many elements with which cybersecurity teams worldwide could likely identify.
Russian cyberattacks were among the most prominent with their attempts to influence international and UK public opinion and spread fake news. Such attacks are now commonplace, and organizations are alert to the threat from Russia.
It’s easy to be critical when the industry you work in is captured on screen, and that’s certainly true of The Undeclared War. But overall, it's very believable, and the program-makers got more right than they got wrong—a worthwhile watch for anyone in the industry.
Extreme Weather – to Commute or Stay Home?
During the recent spell of hot weather, many workers have been tempted to stay home and work. Hybrid work schedules have increased significantly over the past two years, and given the extreme temperatures, people have understandably not wanted to commute when it is busy and hot.
With large spikes in people working remotely, employees will inevitably send many more files from home. This is a potential cybersecurity threat. But it needn’t be.
With GoAnywhere MFT, it’s never been easier to move data securely inside and outside an organization. Even if the entire department decides it is too hot to travel to the office, file transfer security need not be a concern.
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Preparing for the Second Half of 2022
If the data is to be believed, the next several months could continue to be challenging for cybersecurity teams. These challenges are at the forefront of all we do, and we are only too glad to share our experience and expertise.
Improve Your Cybersecurity Stance
Be sure to check out the many tutorials, webinars, white papers, and more, designed to help you navigate file transfers as well as the wider cybersecurity issues organizations are facing today.
