There is no specific handbook on malicious cyberattacks, but hopefully … [+]
The current course of events can tell us a lot about the world around us. When you see a cybersecurity incident hit the major news channels, it can be pretty big news. Customers, shareholders, and the cybersecurity community will find it interesting if details of how companies are responding to threats are available. One of the details of these nuanced stories is when companies take extreme measures and actually shut down their computers and networks completely to minimize the damage caused by cyber threats.
The ramifications of shutting down all or most of a company’s computer assets are the result of a startling decision and show a sad state of preparation and planning. It basically means that the company goes cold and shuts down. It is letting the world know that they are now, and for the foreseeable future, ‘closed for business’.
Inconvenience of the supply chain
As we know attacks do happen, but it’s becoming clear that system shutdowns also happen. Just a few months ago, a massive cyberattack crippled the international listed shipping company known as Expeditors International (EXPD). The company has over 300 of her locations worldwide and over 18,000 employees handling air, sea and land freight. The attack and subsequent company response were continuing signs of a vulnerable state of cybersecurity in a critical industry.
The technical culprit was ransomware. This is a plague that is seen in daily headlines and relentless. Expeditors announced that it had completely halted its global operations during the time of the attack to mitigate its impact. After some time, Expeditors solved the problem with “limited capacity”. Overall, the company cost him $60 million in business losses and repairs.
One Night in the City, Cyber Attack Style
Businesses can be attacked, but what about whole towns? In another recent headline, the city of Palermo in southern Italy was hit by a cyberattack. With around 1.3 million inhabitants and millions of visitors a year, the municipality has many services and data dependent businesses. The attack disrupted police operations, online portals, websites, public video surveillance, communications, and many other systems. Response – A prolonged shutdown that took days to recover, and a voluntary shutdown at its core.
Attacks on industrial targets aren’t just for towns. About six years ago, there were reports of a cyberattack in Kyiv, Ukraine. The malware behind this attack has been labeled “Industroyer”, and researchers have uncovered the special scope of this offensive cyberweapon, making its potential impact known. Reports indicate that systems were taken offline in an attempt to contain the damage in a series of events.
so many challenges
Although there is no specific handbook on malicious cyberattacks, it is desirable to have countermeasures planned at all foreseeable stages. A cybersecurity maturity model can be a good guidepost to reach that holistic security apex. We all know that malware and viruses are nasty and destructive. We all know that spreading contagion carries an unacceptable risk, and that if the system shuts down and restarts, the infection can get worse. All you need to do is disconnect or isolate from the network and recover from a standby disaster recovery solution.
Does not fall, slow recovery
It’s hard to imagine your entire business, every employee, every customer and partner going offline for a week. It is impossible to reconcile these possibilities with respect to power, water, or food systems. When the IT department decided to shut everything down, they made this desperate decision in a seemingly impossible situation. Poorly planned, they decided to give the cyber hackers exactly what they wanted. The problem with all this is that according to the latest data, 60% of the small businesses that are victims of cyberattacks will go bankrupt within his six months.
Whole system shutdown should not be high in anyone’s strategic plan. It is better to implement a comprehensive security solution, a real disaster recovery strategy, and be better aware of what is going on, assets, identities, files and behavior across your computer network. much better than operating without knowing It’s unfortunate that today’s cyberattacks are brutal and the last resort is often to shut down systems to manage the safety of the entire environment.
In most cases, even minor incidents can take days to restore a system, especially in complex environments. There are an endless number of internal and external dependencies, integrated communications, and analyzes to perform and validate in the recovery process. The speed and redundancy of cloud systems can help with these efforts, but being prepared for the recovery process in advance makes all the difference.
Preparing for the challenge
It’s more clear than ever that businesses, critical infrastructure systems, local governments, and organizations of all kinds are at risk of massive disruption from ruthless cyberattack incidents.
No one likes to make such a call to completely stop an operation, but sometimes it has to happen due to a complete failure of upstream preparation. If you have to stop working, have the hackers already won? You should do everything you can to prevent a single failure from becoming a total failure and a complete shutdown. A complete outage is truly a last resort, and a comprehensive security posture is in place by deploying intelligent systems, monitoring around the clock, and taking remedial measures in advance of these potential incidents. recommend to.
.