The 3 Threats to Watch for Election 2020 Cybersecurity
The Biggest Factors in Election 2020 Cybersecurity Are Also Threats to Your Business
As we come down to the wire in the US Presidential Election, cybersecurity has been a major concern for election officials for good reason. A huge increase in cybercrime in 2020 coupled with the knowledge that there was confirmed foreign interference in the 2016 Presidential election has ensured that everyone knows that this time around, focusing resources on cybersecurity is essential to ensure a free and fair election.
But the threats that we’re facing in the elections aren’t very different from the threats that your business is facing every day. Each of these cybercrime dangers has been a threat to businesses all year. More than 80% of businesses have experienced an increase in cyberattacks in 2020. Here are three of the biggest threats to US Election 2020 cybersecurity (and your company’s cybersecurity) and how they can be mitigated.
Phishing
Just like it’s been for the rest of the year, phishing has been a huge factor in Election 2020 cybersecurity. From the loss of more than $3 million in campaign funds by the Wisconsin GOP to a ransomware incident ending in data exposure for voters in Hall County, Georgia, many of the nastiest incidents that have impacted technology and information security in the runup to the 2020 Elections have started with a phishing email. That’s not unusual though – 90% of incidents that end in a data breach start with a phishing email.
Don’t let this happen to your business. Phishing is a nasty minefield that every business moves through, but it’s easy to train employees to avoid those hazards. But regular security awareness and phishing resistance training works. Businesses that do regular training, at least quarterly, have up to 70% fewer cybersecurity incidents.
BullPhish ID is the ideal phishing resistance training and testing solution to teach employees to spot and stop phishing, a menace that’s increased by more than 600% in 2020. The key to security awareness training remaining effective is continuous refreshment. With BullPhish ID, you’ll never run out of fresh training material or have to buy more – 4 new phishing simulation campaign kits are added every month detailing the latest scams, including COVID-19 scams, Google’s biggest phishing topic in history that’s still chugging along and luring in unwary users.
Ransomware
In another familiar pattern, ransomware is a major risk and a major concern for Election 2020 cybersecurity. Not only could cybercriminals use ransomware to steal election results and voting data, but they can also use it to impact the election process itself by gaining control over everything from electronic voting machines to computer systems used to maintain voter records or tabulate votes. It’s an especially favored tool of nation-state actors, who have successfully impacted the US elections before in 2016.
Don’t let this happen to your business. Ransomware is the monster under the bed for cybersecurity professionals for good reason. It can cause devastating damage to systems and data fast, followed by an expensive and complicated recovery. Ransomware costs are expected to exceed 20 billion in 2021 – and that’s a problem for every business since a new attack will be launched every 11 seconds by 2021 as well.
More than 60% of the information on the Dark Web can hurt businesses, and that’s where cybercriminals go shopping for the data that powers spear phishing attacks to deliver ransomware. Plus, on the Dark Web, they can quickly gain access to huge amounts of credential and password information, another danger to your business. But when you add Dark Web ID to your security stack, your business credentials are monitored by human and machine analysis 24/7/365, ensuring that if they appear in a Dark Web data dump, you’re alerted to address the vulnerability before the bad guys can.
Nation-State Hackers
State-sponsored cybercrime with shadowy origins in Russia, Iran, China, and other cyber-savvy nations have been responsible for everything from industrial sabotage to infrastructure interference in 2020, and that’s a threat that just keeps growing. CISA, the FBI, and HHS just released a rare joint warning to the healthcare industry of increased risk of ransomware from nation-state actors. While ransomware is the favored tool of many nation-state hackers, that’s not the only weapon in their arsenal. Other types of cyberattack and direct hacking have also been weapons wielded recently by nation-state hackers, and they can produce extremely disruptive results.
Don’t let this happen to your business. Nation-state hackers have a variety of tools at their disposal, but one mitigation can help protect your company’s systems and data from their depredations no matter which one they use: secure identity and access management. A requirement for data privacy compliance in many industries, secure identity and access management is a top priority for CISOs worldwide because it works. This jack-of-all-trades solution provides strong protection against intrusion, phishing, ransomware, insider threats, and credential compromise. It’s not a magic bullet for cybersecurity threats, but it’s close.
Passly is the right solution for the job for companies of any size. Rather than having to buy and manage multiple solutions to get the protection your business needs, Passly provides multiple secure identity and access management tools in one cost-effective tool. With Passly you don’t just get multifactor authentication, (a recommended mitigation against many types of cybercrime), you also get single sign-on with customizable LaunchPads for every user, giving you better access control to add and remove permission fast. Add in secure shared password vaults, seamless integration with more than 1k apps, and simple remote management, and it’s easy to see why choosing Passly is a winning move.
