Increased Safety Measures Make All the Difference — Security Today
Proactive Cybersecurity: Increased Safety Measures Make All the Difference
The infrastructure of the United States is under attack, as foreign criminals use advanced skills and exploit company vulnerabilities to cripple operations, disrupt industrial control systems, and ultimately inflict significant damage, both monetarily and economically.
First, there are multiple ways of attacking companies, both resulting in tangible and intangible losses. Take the hacking organization, Darkside, which launched a major ransomware assault against the Colonial Pipeline leading it to close operations and freeze its IT systems. This remained in place until they ultimately paid a ransom of $4.4 million.
In February, hackers attempted to boost the amount of sodium hydroxide scheduled to go into the water supply at a Florida plant nearly 100 times the usually allocated amount. Thankfully, a plant operator caught the anomaly in real time and adjusted the chemical levels before any serious harm inflicted to its population.
Then there was the 2020 SolarWinds attack, when hackers tied to Russia’s foreign intelligence service added malicious code to the company’s Orion IT monitoring platform. This allowed hackers to infiltrate all Orion software networks, influencing Fortune 500 companies, large U.S.-based telecommunications companies, and hundreds of educational institutions, as well as the military, the Pentagon and the State Department. Overall, estimates show total damage from the assault exceeded $100 million.
Ultimately, the immense cost of such intrusive invasions is just a fraction of the impact and it can happen to any organization. The ultimate goal of these cybercriminals is to disrupt normal business operations and everyday life by targeting the critical infrastructure that keeps companies afloat. Despite these warnings and examples of attacks that have inflicted devastating damage, both economically and financially, many institutions remain unprepared. The best way to combat these cybercriminals is to have the best preventative measures in place before an attack happens. Addressing vulnerabilities and risks within industrial control systems and operational technology remains critical in the continued fight against these potential cybercrimes.
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