Cyber Awareness

By Eric Mowrey

The last few months and years have seen an increasing and evolving cyber threat landscape. And an increasing number of articles, news bites, posters, and blog posts about these threats and issues.

While the constant blaring of this news can have a numbing effect, constant awareness is key to protecting yourself and your business from bad actors. Some statistics to bring the scope of the problem into focus: • Between 2015 and 2020, the number of Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) reported per year rose a whopping 183% - from 6,487 to 18,358. (Coble, 2022) • There have been almost as many CVEs received in the first three months of 2022 as in 2015. • 93% of networks are vulnerable to external breaches. (Barker, 2022) • 43% of Cyber-attacks are aimed at SMBs. (Bissell, Lasalle, & Dal Cin, 2022) • IoT Devices are subject to more than 5,200 attacks per month. (Brooks, 2022) • In 2021, 33% of reported breaches were directly because of successful phishing attempts. (Identity Theft Resource Center, 2022)

With the growing number of ways cybercriminals can target an organization and the fact that the largest single factor in breaches (phishing) rests solely on the human factor, ongoing individual vigilance is a must. A plethora of catch-phrases and sayings act as reminders. While some may be rather corny, the concepts they convey are important to keep in mind: • Never share your password! • Don’t use the same password everywhere. • Change your passwords regularly. • Use Multi-Factor Authentication. • Lock your computer when you leave. • Your financial institution won’t ask for your account details. They have them already. • The IRS conducts business by mail. Yes, Postal Mail. Not by email or phone call. • Random people don’t offer millions of dollars to strangers. • It takes less time to call your contact about an unexpected email than it takes to recover from a cyber-attack. So if you’re not expecting it, confirm! • If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!