In a March 21, 2022, statement, President Joe Biden cautioned businesses in the private sector to harden their cyber defenses, reiterating earlier warnings related to potential cyberattacks against U.S. organizations by Russia as retaliation for recent economic sanctions.
While there is no evidence of an imminent attack tied to the Russia-Ukraine crisis, Biden’s top cybersecurity officer Anne Neuberger noted that the everyday cyber risks businesses face and the potential for Russia-led cyberattacks call for urgency.
A February 2022 report from cybersecurity authorities in multiple countries noted that evolving tactics and techniques of cybercriminals demonstrate their growing sophistication and their increased threat to organizations globally. These cybercriminal “professional” behaviors include:
- Increased use of ransomware-as-a-service for hire.
- Ransomware criminals utilizing third-party services to negotiate payments, assist victims with making payment, and arbitrate disputes between themselves and other cybercriminals.
- A 24/7 help center to expedite ransom payment and restoration of encrypted systems or data.
- Transferring of an existing victim to an infrastructure owned by another group.
As businesses continue to rely on computers and digital storage of essential data, cyberattacks will continue to be a potential exposure. With the increase of virtual work, socialization and education, and the profitability of cyberattacks, they won’t be going away anytime soon.
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What it means for your business
While many small and mid-size businesses believe they are immune from cyberthreats, authorities in the February 2022 report said cybercriminals largely shifted away from larger corporations mid-2021 to reduce scrutiny. Industries targeted are varied including:
- Emergency services.
- Food and agriculture.
- Government facilities.
- Education sector.
- Charities.
- Legal professional.
- Health sectors.
In addition to ensuring you’re taking the steps necessary to protect your organization from cyberattacks in the first place, you also want to be sure you have the right coverage for your needs. There are often cyber exclusions in many commercial insurance policies, but cyber liability coverage can help protect your business from:
- Business interruptions.
- Data breaches, including costs for customer notification, some legal costs and credit monitoring for those affected.
- Damages to third-party systems, if, for example, an infected email from your servers crashes the system of a customer or vendor.
- Data or code loss due to a natural disaster or malicious activity (physical losses are covered on a different type of policy).
- Cyber extortion, including ransomware, which is malicious code installed into a computer on your network that prevents you from accessing it until a ransom is paid.
The spectrum of cyber risks is limitless—threats, some more serious and sophisticated than others, can have wide-ranging effects on the individual, community, organizational and national levels—but you don’t have to face them alone. Kapnick can help.
For more information about how to protect your business from cyber threats, reach out to Kapnick’s cyber experts at [email protected].
