Tag Archives: cyber attacks

As Students Go Back to School Threat Actors Go Back to Work

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School systems are at high risk for cyber attacks because threat actors know they are traditionally underfunded and understaffed, meaning many vulnerabilities may remain open.

Once in, hackers have access to incredibly valuable and personal information on children and their families, leading to ransom requests. In fact, the education sector is now the number one sector for ransomware attacks, with a 44% increase in the past year.

The eye-opening statistics don't stop there.

  • The education sector sees an average of 2,297 attacks weekly.
  • By the end of 2021, nearly one in three U.S. districts had experienced a breach.
  • The monetary losses to school districts following a cyber incident range from $50,000 to $1 million.
  • Six months into 2023, at least 120 schools faced a ransomware attack, compared to 188 in all of 2022.

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Strengthening Cyber Resilience With Collaboration

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Today's organizations know that stopping 100% of cyber-attacks is not a realistic goal. Rather, the focus has shifted to cyber resilience, "the ability to anticipate, withstand, recover from, and adapt to adverse conditions, stresses, attacks, or compromises on systems that use or are enabled by cyber resources."

A critical pillar in becoming resilient is communication and collaboration. The Cyber EO focused on improving the nation's cybersecurity and highlighted the need to improve collaboration with threat intelligence sharing between public and private organizations as well as the creation of cross-government cyber boards. In recent months, key strides have been made in facilitating information sharing around cyber best practices, resource availability, as well as process and policy. Continue reading →

Taming the Superpower of Data – Data Privacy in Our Digital World

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Data helps organizations make more informed decisions about how they serve their customers. Data informs policy and procedures and feeds more personalized interaction with people. But with great power comes vast responsibility. The data that organizations hold can be incredibly personal. It's more than just someone's social security number. It is information about where people live, work, shop, keep their money, get their news, and more. Individuals should have control over who knows this information and, if they do have it, how they use it. However, most of us do little to understand our privacy rights beyond blindly clicking a checkbox that allows sites to collect information about our activities.

Data privacy practices ensure that the data shared by customers is only used for its intended purpose. A multitude of laws, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) have been enacted to provide guidelines to organizations and promises of data privacy to individuals.

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Looming Threats in Cyber Warfare, Espionage Hero, & Technologies Offer Hope

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Posted by Andrew M. Scott

Advances in technology and our increased reliance on technology to deliver services to citizens have created a new battleground for both perpetrators and victims - one that is fought virtually. Government agencies are no exception. In its ongoing military conflict with the U.S., the real threat of cyber warfare capabilities from Syria, Iran and China poses imminent threats.

The new arena of cyber-attacks offers assailants the opportunity to gather critical information by infiltrating networks and data, then using that information to attack their victim with highly sophisticated tactics and tools such as malware, malicious files and spear phishing.

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GovSec Conference Delivers Comprehensive Agenda to Prepare Government Security Professionals to Handle 21st Century Threats

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Originally posted on Fort Mill Times

Seven Tracks Focus on Strategies and Tactics for Addressing Emergency Situations, Disasters and Cyber Attacks

WASHINGTON --

With an increase need to prevent and respond to incidents impacting our nation on a local, state and federal scale, government agencies, law enforcement and first responders have realized that they all have a stake in protecting their communities and the homeland from natural disasters and manmade threats. Scheduled for May 13-15 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., GovSec - the Government Security Conference and Expo, taking place in conjunction with TREXPO and CPM East - is presenting seven paid conference tracks that will help enable these security professionals to engage effectively in a national approach to prevention, mitigation and response to 21st century threats.

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