LeadingIT December 2020 Newsletter - Online Version

Chicagoland CybersecurITy Support

December 2020

Cybersecurity And Teleworking Consequences From COVID-19 Pandemic

How Safe Are Autonomous Vehicles From Cyberattacks?

Microsoft Sheds Light On The Current State Of Cyber Crime In Annual Report

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Teleworking During The Pandemic Although teleworking was nothing new in the business environment, and companies were gradually adopting it, many organizations were severely unprepared when the pandemic struck. For many businesses, this was the first time that their employees were to collaborate, communicate, and operate outside the office.

While employees were enthusiastic about the shift, the IT departments struggled to understand and prepare for the new way of working.

Teleworking has proven to be a challenge to companies due to the following reasons: 1. Businesses hadn't established a teleworking policy, which made the transition difficult 2. Businesses initially lacked the appropriate tools to transition their employees and facilitate teleworking 3. Employees were finding it hard to resolve technical issues without an expert on-site But despite the challenges faced, this new way of working has also benefitted businesses in the following ways: • Businesses have been able to cut down on operational costs.

• Employees have been able to keep a balance between their work and their private lives.

• Increased productivity as remote workers are likely to take fewer days off or leave of absence.

Cybersecurity And Teleworking Consequences From COVID-19 Pandemic Early this year, a worldwide pandemic, COVID-19, changed how businesses operate. In order to adhere to laid out restrictions, companies across the globe were forced to shut down their offices and shift their business operations from the traditional office space workplace to a work-from-home model to maintain business continuity.

• Teleworking offers businesses better disaster preparedness and the flexibility to deal with unexpected events.

• Businesses that have embraced teleworking experience increased employee satisfaction and retention.

As COVID-19 cases continue to rise globally, it's quite clear that teleworking is here to stay and will be adopted even post COVID-19.

According to a survey by Gartner, 74% of participants in the study plan to move their workforce to remote permanent positions post COVID-19.1 Cybersecurity During The Pandemic While the world is focusing on health and stabilizing the economy during the pandemic, cybercriminals worldwide are capitalizing on this crisis. With companies being faced with scaling down operations, low profits, cutting down costs, and the possibility of a looming shutdown due to the pandemic, the confusion and uncertainty have led companies to get distracted when it comes to their cybersecurity.

In a single month, organizations that would typically gather in a shared physical location had to shift their operations to the internet and ensure that their communication networks were private and secure. The IT infrastructure that businesses long depended on, cloud computing, data centers, servers, and mobile devices that their remote employees use to

1

https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2020-04-03-gartner-cfo-surey-reveals-74-percent -of-organizations-to-shift-some-employees-to-remote-work-permanently https://blog.iomart.com/cost-of-a-data-breach

2

https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/ng/Documents/risk/ng-COVID-19-Impact-on-Cybersecu rity-24032020.pdf 3

4 https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2020/06/09/2045639/0/en/Beazley-Breach-Insight-Ranso mware-rises-25-in-Q1-2020.html

collaborate have not only become crucial overnight but have also increased their cybersecurity risks.

year.2 Deloitte has also reported a spike in email phishing, ransomware,

How Safe Are Autonomous Vehicles From Cyberattacks?

and malware attacks as malicious attacks use COVID-19 as bait to

With a world that is becoming highly connected, there is a corresponding

impersonate brands.

rise in cybercrime threats. The fusion of automobiles and computerized

A Spike In Cyberattacks During COVID-19 The shift in communication and operation of businesses through the internet has attracted cybercriminals and increased the risk of cyberattacks. According to iomart, large-scale data breaches have grown in frequency and intensity in 2020, with the number of breaches increasing by 273% in the first quarter of the year, compared to the same time last

3

systems is cause for concern for many people, with autonomous

273%

“... [increase] in breaches in the first quarter of the year...”

vehicles that rely on wireless internet connections seen as especially vulnerable to attacks.

Automated Cars’ Connectivity Features That Expose Attack Surfaces The wireless connectivity features built into modern vehicles expose new attack surfaces that cyber-attackers can exploit. Most new cars have a built-in LTE modem, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and several safety-critical, programmable Engine Control Modules (ECMs). The continuing deployment of highly autonomous vehicles that operate without human intervention makes high-speed connectivity vital. After all, there needs to be a way to send the commands to summon the car from a parking garage, go park itself, or summon a driverless taxi. Autonomous cars also need to continually download traffic updates, information on road conditions, and

Beazley also reported an increase of 25% in ransomware attacks in the United States during the first quarter of 2020 compared to the last quarter of 2019.4 The industries that have mainly been affected by the attacks were the healthcare sector, manufacturing, and financial services. The reduced level of cybersecurity is a factor that has aggregated these security risks.

maps in real-time.

What Does Vulnerability Of Automated Cars Mean For The Auto Industry?

According to a report in the Journal of Engineering and Technology Management titled “Trust in driverless cars: Investigating key factors

Your IT infrastructure is very crucial to your business operations. It's vital to

influencing the adoption of driverless cars,” although autonomous cars

ensure that it is adequately protected against attacks.

promise many benefits, the potential for hacking is cause for concern.4

The following are cybersecurity controls that you should implement to enhance your cybersecurity: 1. Installation of security software such as antivirus programs to detect and remove malicious programs 2. Implementation of robust user authentication processes such as complex passwords, MFA, and biometric authentication 3. Secure mobile devices used by employees through encryption, password protection, and enabling the 'remote wiping' option: 4. Implement a firewall to establish a barrier between your internal network and incoming traffic from external sources 5. Implement cybersecurity awareness training programs

The report says that the main concerns surrounding many people’s unwillingness to adopt semi-autonomous or self-driving technology relate to privacy, liability, safety, trust, reliability, and security.

The car not only risks the driver's personal information, but it is also a danger to the life of the occupants and anyone near the vehicle.

Cybercrime and hacking will always pose a significant threat to the development and adoption of many technology types. However, is there a way to prevent cybersecurity threats?

Protect Your Business From The Threat Of Cybercrime A security breach in its systems could devastate customer trust in even the most successful business. Just like Forbes claims that many people now think twice before getting behind the wheel of semi-autonomous or driverless cars, a cyberattack on your business could erode your

Get in touch with our team today to discover how we can help you keep

customers’ trust in your company or products.5 Potentially,

your network and data safe.

this could cause: • Loss of your customers • Lower sales • A reduction in your profits

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0923474817304253

4

https://www.forbes.com/sites/lanceeliot/2020/02/03/ai-self-driving-cars-could-spark-anappalling-mobility-frenzy/#443f7bb83c57 5

Microsoft Sheds Light On The Current State Of Cyber Crime In Annual Report A recent report from Microsoft sheds light on the current state of

companies learn a costly lesson when productivity drops, and data

cybercrime.1 The software giant released of its annual Digital Defense

must be retrieved.

Report, which analyzes cybercrime over the past 365 days, to the public.

The analysis shows how adaptable hackers have proven to be. What did the report find?

Ransomware may be on the rise, but malware in general controls a smaller share of the cybercrime market than it once did. Afterall, why would hackers exert the effort to hack a computer or create malware

Cyber Criminals Target Humans, Not Machines According to the Microsoft report, a whopping 70% of cybercrime takes the form of phishing, the most common type of social engineering attack. In these attacks, scammers pretend to from a trusted institution, usually via email, and send unwitting recipients to a Web page where

when it's so easy to get victims to provide their login information?

Companies must become as adaptable as scammers have proven to be if they want to avoid falling victim to phishing and ransomware attacks, strengthening both technological and human measures to fight cybercrime.

they would log in with their actual credentials. However, the website is fake, and this information goes straight to the scammers, who can then use it to log into the real institution's website, instead of logging the

https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2020/09/29/microsoft-digital-defense-report-cyber-threats/

1

user in. Therefore, Microsoft refers to phishing as "credential harvesting." In 2019 alone, the software company blocked one billion emails that included URL intended to harvest the victim's credentials.

These results make a compelling argument for cybersecurity training.

By increasing user vigilance and adherence to security policies, phishing attacks may decrease. This is especially important in 2020 when so many people work from home for the first time due to the COVID-10 pandemic. In 2020, some phishing scams reflect the significance of the pandemic in our lives with scammers posing as the CDC and World Health Organization and targeting medical organizations. With concern shifted to COVID-19, some people may have overlooked their role in cybersecurity and fallen victim to these scams.

This report also serves as a prescient reminder of the importance of password security. If a scammer successfully harvests a victim's email and password with a phishing attack, they may have access to more than just the account at the imitated institution if the victim uses the same email address and password combination for other websites.

Therefore, it's important to use strong and unique passwords for different websites and services.

Ransomware Is A Persistent And Pernicious Threat Microsoft also reported an increase in ransomware attacks in which hackers lock down the victim's computer and hold data hostage unless the victim pays to unlock their files, often via cryptocurrency. However, hackers may not release data after receiving payments, and victims cannot guarantee that the ransomware is fully removed from their systems. While ransomware has proved lucrative for some hackers,

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