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Why zero trust is the way forward for improved cybersecurity – Federal News Network

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Why zero trust is the way forward for improved cybersecurity – Federal News Network

The pandemic is poised to leave a lasting impact across the global business landscape: namely, our overall mentality around work and the booming increase in remote operations across both the public and private sectors. Most employees are now working from home, and are oftentimes accessing sensitive company information from unsecure networks. More recently, there has been extra pressure on cyber defense in the United States as some of its largest organizations across the country have fallen victim to some form of a security breach.

This boom in ransomware attacks has coincided with a fast-moving remote work shift, with more than 304 million attempts taking place in 2020 with a current average of about 7 per hour in 2021. As the United States continues to face attacks across critical sectors — energy and infrastructure, healthcare, and operational technology (OT) — a cultural shift in cybersecurity is taking place. The Kaseya ransomware incident is the latest example of a highly sophisticated attack whose implications have governments increasingly worried.

The world is being exposed to new data vulnerabilities as it switches to a more hybrid remote work culture. For businesses and organizations, achieving true zero trust architecture means looking toward identity-based solutions that are flexible and can support the work-from-anywhere environment. By following these new blueprints around cybersecurity this will enable the U.S. (and other governments) to help mitigate the massive challenges that lie ahead.

The ransomware pandemic

When you look at the increase in ransomware incidents over the last year, one can easily identify several contributing factors that explain why these attacks have gained traction. The pandemic has kept employees remote for much longer than anticipated, leading to new gaps and holes in enterprise security that IT and security teams have been scrambling to mend. Over a year later, keeping sensitive company information and IP secure while constituents are scattered across the country — instead of working from the safe confines of their office VPNs — has been an issue that many struggle to solve.

The cryptocurrency boom has also given hackers the ability to remain anonymous while cashing out on large-scale raids. The ability for hackers to hide behind an anonymous ransomware group and engage in nefarious exchanges of cryptocurrency for data makes carrying out these hacks all the more appealing to threat actors. And people are catching on. Some of the most sophisticated ransomware groups are offering to sell their tools to aspiring hackers, leading to the emergence of “ransomware as a service.

Ransomware attacks have proven to be extremely lucrative for successful hackers. The Colonial Pipeline breach in May resulted in a loss of almost $5 million in Bitcoin. Mere weeks later, across the United States and Australia, the JBS hackers made off with $11 million. Although many of these attacks are simply born out of opportunity, targeted ones against ill-prepared small-medium businesses (SMBs) and public entities have been on the rise. Almost half of all SMBs have been the target of ransomware to some degree, and over 70% …….

Source: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/commentary/2021/11/why-zero-trust-is-the-way-forward-for-improved-cybersecurity/