CYBER-CRIMINALITY INCREASES WITH GLOBAL POWER PLAYS

We’re watching … but are we seeing the threats for what they are? Ticking time bombs!

Nations across the globe are seeking economic power and domination and use every tool available to advance their goals. Their destructive efforts resulted in the 2020-2022 cyberattacks on JBS Foods (impacting meat packing subsidiaries in the U.S.A., Australia, and Canada); the Colonial Pipeline (affecting flow and pricing of gasoline to our nation); SolarWinds on U.S. Federal government (impacting their monitoring of network activity, and breaching key customers); and multiple Power Grids (impacting businesses and homes relying on a badly aged U.S. Energy Grid according to Departments of Homeland Security, Energy, and Defense). Unravelling the infrastructure of a nation as sprawling and vulnerable as the United States is easier than you could imagine and the cyberworld’s bad actors are working to prove it.

None of us are at our best when we lack a residence with electricity: convenient heat and refrigeration are necessities in today’s American mind. We expect hot and cold water ‘on tap’. When these are not available, we become worse than impatient. Imagine the chaos that would ensue if there was no “IT” to drive business operations, no email, no social media, no cellular service, and no working TVs or radios (unless you’re an amateur radio operator). You get the point. Cut off from the “connected” life you currently enjoy, how would you and your loved ones, employees, friends, and family fare?

Don’t think for one minute this isn’t part of cybercriminals’ growing repertoire of tactics and strategies for the ultimate damage they seek to inflict. They further intimidate with ransoms to ‘undo’ the damage they create and return control of a seized prize to the ransomed entity. The real question is this: What happens when systems and networks are so entangled by these abhorrent plays for power and money that the ransomed goods — in IT’s case, data and credentials – are non-returnable? Those who belong to the group of ransom victims know well the disappointment of getting partial vs. complete return of data which were seized. Was this because cybercriminals chose not to return it all, or because they were unable to once they opened the gate and exposed it. We’ll never know.

Any country’s infrastructure is the ‘bones’ of a good nation. Like we’re taught in the nursery rhyme, ”All the King’s horses and all the King’s men, couldn’t put Humpty together again.” Must our otherwise intelligent, generous, grateful citizens allow the nation to get to this? Are we really wringing our hands over whether or not we should implement cybersecurity measures in our firms and in our private use of the internet? As we each take responsibility to become cyber-aware*, learn how to recognize online scams and deceit, and implement enhanced cybersecurity measures coast to coast, only then can we claim we’re seeing the cybercriminal landscape for what it is and doing ours to counter its overtake of all we hold dear.

Have eyes to see and the fortitude to put in place enhanced cybersecurity that safeguards the people and the assets you value!

Cyber Awareness Training is a benefit that desirable workplaces offer their employees, who can and should share the knowledge with their family members.

Data-Guard 365 is a MSSP firm headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, with offices in Indianapolis, Atlanta, and other strategic locations across the globe. The company is a one-of-a-kind business partner whose people, processes, and technology provide invincible cyber security for a price point that pays for itself.

www.Data-Guard365.com / (317) 967-6767 / info@data-guard365.com