Рубрика: Cybersecurity

Even though security solutions are becoming modern and robust, cyber threats are ever-evolving and always on the peak. The main reason for this is because the conventional methods to detect the malware are falling apart. Cybercriminals are regularly coming up with smarter ways to bypass the security programs and infect the network and systems with different kinds of malware.

The thing is, currently, most antimalware or antivirus programs use the signature-based detection technique to catch the threats, which is ineffective in detecting the new threats. This is where Artificial Intelligence can come to rescue.

The researchers and security programs manufacturers are trying to use the potential of Artificial Intelligence to develop the solutions that can detect and fix the sophisticated cyber threats and control the data breaches.

Artificial Intelligence has changed every field it has been introduced to. It can hugely impact cybersecurity in many ways. That’s what we are going to discuss further.

Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Cybersecurity

Vulnerability Management

Currently, the security solutions wait for the vulnerabilities in the IT infrastructures and then take action on them, depending on its nature. The approach becomes different from AI and ML-enabled tools. The AI-based systems are proactive in detecting the vulnerabilities. They can analyze the pattern and discover the loose ends that can be the potential vulnerability.

By recognizing the attackers’ pattern, infiltrating methods can be discovered, and it becomes easy to distinguish when and how any vulnerability would make its way to the network or system.

Improving the Authentication

Most organizations and individuals are still dependent on the traditional method of entering the login id and password for authentication purposes. Let us face it, there are very few people who are serious about creating a unique and strong password. Over that, most people use the same passwords for all or most of their accounts. Such practices can lead organizations or individuals to serious security risks.

However, with modern biometric authentication methods such as face recognition and iris recognition, login authentication has become highly secure and comfortable. The use of AI in biometrics has ensured that cybercriminals cannot hack them.

Behavioral Analysis

Another great advantage of Artificial Intelligence in cybersecurity is its behavioral analysis ability. AI can develop a pattern by accessing users’ working methods. If any malware is introduced in the system, the working way would be changed, and that’s where the AI would detect the abnormality and report it to the authorities.

The abnormalities could be anything like the unusual use of the internet, change in the typing speed, increment in the background activities, and more.

Controlling Phishing

Phishing is one of the most common cyber-attacks used by hackers to capture the login credentials or introduce the malware into the system. Artificial Intelligence can be of great help in detecting and preventing phishing attacks.

AI can detect the most common phishing sources and report them to the system to prepare for the defense against it. AI can easily recognize the difference between a fake and a legitimate website in no time. It can also analyze the phishing pattern according to the specific geographical location.

Threat Hunting

As already mentioned, the traditional security programs use signature indicators to detect threats. This technique is only effective with the already encountered attacks and becomes useless when reporting the threats that have never appeared. Using the AI, the new threats can be recognized quickly. However, with it, the false-positive cases would also increase. To eliminate the number of false-positives, both the traditional detecting method and the AI behavioral analysis detection must be combinedly used.

Drawbacks of Using Artificial Intelligence in Cyber Security

With the advantages it has, using artificial intelligence in the cybersecurity field seems the best solution. However, like every great thing, AI too, has its limitations, which are preventing it from becoming a mainstream tool in the war against cybercrimes.

Here are the top hindrances,

1. Resources: With the immense power it possesses, building and maintaining the AI system is a costly affair. Artificial Intelligence requires a lot of computing power, raw memory, data, and more. It becomes challenging for the lower and middle range companies to fulfill the needs of the resource starving AI system.

2. Unethical Use: AI is not just limited to white hat researchers and security solution providers. Even hackers and other cybercriminals can use it for many unethical purposes. Using the AI, the cybercriminals can train their malware to become AI resistant. The AI-based malware can be hazardous and can evolve itself by learning the detection patterns of the security solutions. It can then penetrate even the AI-based system and destroy it.

3. Data Sets: To train an AI-based system, organizations need to create a large number of data sets. It is through data sets; the AI system evolves itself and creates patterns for the behavior analysis. More the data, the more effective the AI engine. To train a threat detecting AI engine, the security teams need to research many data sets thoroughly. They have to collect the data sets of malicious threats, non-malicious threats, and more. Accumulating such a large number of data sets can be tedious, time-consuming, and resource-consuming that many firms cannot afford.

4. False Detections: Developers are still in the process of improving the AI-based security programs. AI programs need a lot of time to evolve and learn about the threats and how to take action on them. An underdeveloped AI system can be relatively ineffective and frequently raise false-positive results.

5. Unemployment: It is a non-technical drawback of the AI. With the introduction of AI, the need for human involvement is minimal. It can lead to the job cut for thousands of IT workers and thereby increasing the unemployment problem.

Final Words

With cyber threats becoming intimidating in both numbers and complexity, the use of artificial intelligence in the cybersecurity is the need of the hour, and security organizations are working precisely on that. However, as much as everyone wants the AI-based security programs, it is also essential to look into its drawbacks and then work accordingly. An underdeveloped software is worst then the less-effective but fully developed one.

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What are the benefits of Cybersecurity automation?

While zero-trust cybersecurity architectures are in trend, everyone in federal IT security seems to be holding onto it. What underpins the move to zero-trust is automation.

Experts, including inside and outside the government are addressing for accelerated adoption of cybersecurity automation. Automation tools can identify if a user is accessing a network or a piece of data, and also can automate response sending alerts to analysts. This could save time and money of an agency and allow cybersecurity analysts to focus on analysing data and come up with new security strategies.

According to GCN, Mike Witt, Associate CIO for cybersecurity and privacy at NASA, said, “We’ve got to get away from the mind-set of ‘you can account for every alert.’ You’ve got to embrace orchestration and technologies- artificial intelligence, machine learning. You have to embrace this.” He further added, “You have to take advantage of playbooks and push your teams to make a lot of these automated responses, so that you can focus on your limited analyst power on some of the more exciting things.”

DOD Leads to Cybersecurity Automation

Wendi Whitmore, vice president of IBM X-Force focuses on incident response and threat intelligence, states, “Anything working under U.S. Cyber Command, which is much of the military, is a fantastic example.”

“Although the costs of data breaches in the U.S public sector is likely higher than average, federal agencies are leading the way on cybersecurity automation and orchestration,” Whitmore adds.

This Year’s IBM’s “Cost of a Data Breach Report” released on July 29 “is the first time a study could analyse how cybersecurity automation tools impact the cost of data breaches, ” Whitmore explains Nextgov. Such tools were not broadly deployed to observe their effect up until now.

The DOD is continuing its use of cybersecurity automation technology. According to FedScoop reports, the Defence Innovation Unit issued another transaction agreement for a new prototype that will bring an “intelligent decision automation platform” to the Air Force Network.

The technique uses an older form of artificial intelligence and is based on data, instead of creating large neural networks. It also uses advanced probability based on mathematics, which speeds up decision making. The publication adds if the pilot is successful in the Air Force, it can be scaled around the military.

Benefits of Cybersecurity Automation in Government

Experts who do not belong to a government agency are lobbying for increased investments in cybersecurity automation. Vice president of Product Strategy at SolarWinds, Brandon Shopp argues that leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning tools can help agencies improve their approach towards cybersecurity.

Shopp writes in GCN, “AI and ML enable security teams to be more effective with the resources they have. Next-generation automated security technologies can complete tasks such as identifying potential threats, detecting unauthorized behaviours, applying intelligence to qualify incidents, countering and blocking attacks and unauthorized movement of data before execution. As AI and ML become more prevalent in the security market place, agencies can evolve their cybersecurity architecture to respond to altering digital threats.”

Organisations that have invested in automation and orchestration have lower values for data breaches such as $2.45 million versus over $6 million.

“And from that perspective, you can very easily map out to government and the federal sector, perhaps outside the financial services industry,” Whitmore tells Government Technology.

“Certainly they’ve made the most investments in cybersecurity and in technologies that permit them to orchestrate the protection and defence of their environment and then automate the technologies they’re using to do that,” he adds.

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Only 30% of women are employed as scientists and engineers in technology

Technology is improving and advancing. As more and more technological innovations are permeating the industry, a major concern amongst experts is the dearth of women representation in the technology world, specifically in cybersecurity. A study by the Center for Cyber Safety and Education and PwC finds that the number of women working in the US information security field is only 34%, which is less than the average women workforce. The situation outside the US becomes more alarming. A 2018 survey suggests that women representatives in Cybersecurity accounted for only 10% in the Asia-Pacific region, 9% in Africa, 8% in Latin America, 7% in Europe and 5% in the Middle East.

Most Targeted Community Online

Women are the most targeted community online. It is observed that women become the victim of sexual abuse, trolling and pornographic content on the web.

In 2014, reports states that a million US women had their identities stolen online. A safe and secure web place demands equal participation of women representatives. That’s why it becomes imperative that women must be given equal education and roles to combat the dark web of hacking, fraud and online sexual abuse.

Pre-existing Perceptions and Biases

One of the major reasons behind the under-representation of women in the cyber-security is the pre-existing biases. The survey suggests that even though women represent half of the world’s population, only 30% of those are employed as scientists and engineers in technology. Moreover, in this particular sector, men are often perceived as suitable for doing technical jobs. Reports suggest that in 2015, 2,09,000 cybersecurity jobs in the US were unfilled and in 2019 out of around 6 million jobs, 1.5 million job openings were left unfilled.

Lack of Awareness

Another reason behind the absence of women representatives in cybersecurity is the lack of awareness about cybersecurity as a career option. Most women are presented with opportunities in IT fields. The survey suggests that 69% of women have cited unawareness about cybersecurity as the dearth in women’s participation with cybersecurity.

Biases in the Recruitment Process and Work Culture

Moreover, the recruiter’s preference and bias associated with cybersecurity is another reason behind women facing challenges to make a career in cybersecurity. A survey suggests that 82% of the female cybersecurity professionals in the US and 49% of those in the UK believe that cybersecurity has a gender bias problem. Moreover, the cybersecurity gender pay gap in the US and UK is 17% and 19% respectively. Only 53% of those who were interviewed say that their organizations are doing enough to recruit women in security roles.

The Scarcity of Qualified Talent

Another reason why women are often ignored during the recruiting process in cybersecurity is the lack of technical experience, skills and education. The survey suggests that 61% of the respondents cite a lack of qualified talent as a reason for unfilled cybersecurity jobs. Almost 43% of women say that lack of clear career development paths remains another challenge at the start of their cybersecurity career, whereas 23% cites lack of female role model in cybersecurity the reason behind under-representation.

Education about Cybersecurity

As lack of education and skills are amongst the main reason for not recruiting women for cybersecurity jobs, many organizations like Israel’s Shift community is educating high school girls with aptitude, desire and natural curiosity to learn about cybersecurity and assisting them in developing necessary skills.

The big Techs like IBM have launched programs for fostering women’s interest in internal security careers. Microsoft has collaborated with the Data Security Council of India to launch CyberShiksha Program to develop cybersecurity skills amongst female professionals.

Many organizations are facilitating the education of female professionals in cybersecurity. It is observed that the strategies by women professionals related to cybersecurity are far more successful than men. Moreover, reports suggest that women representatives make more agile decisions compared to the opposite gender.

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As artificial intelligence (AI) emerges into the mainstream, there is misinformation and confusion about what it’s capable of and the potential risks it constitutes. Our culture is enriched with dystopian visions of human ruin at the feet of all-knowing machines. On the other hand, most people appreciate the potential good AI might do for the civilization through the improvements and insights it could bring.

Though computer systems can learn, reason, and act, these are still in their infancy. Machine learning (ML) needs massive datasets. Many real-world systems such as self-driven cars, a complex blend of physical computer vision sensors, complex programming for real-time decision making, and robotics are needed. For businesses that are adopting AI, deployment is more straightforward but enabling AI to access information and allowing any measure of autonomy brings serious risks that have to be considered.

What risks does AI cause?

Accidental bias is not new with AI systems, and programmers or specific datasets can entrench it. Unfortunately, if this bias leads to poor decisions and even discrimination, legal repercussions and reputational damage may follow. Flawed artificial intelligence design can also leads to overfitting or underfitting, while AI makes too particular decisions.

Establishing human oversight, stringently testing AI systems can mitigate those risks during the design phase. It is also possible by closely monitoring those systems when they are operational. Decision-making abilities must be measured and assessed to confirm that any emerging bias or questionable decision-making is addressed rapidly.

Although these threats are based on unintentional errors and failures in design and implementation, a different set of risks emerges when people intentionally try to subvert AI systems or wield them as weapons.

How can cyber attackers manipulate AI?

Misleading an AI system can be alarmingly easy. Attackers can manipulate the datasets to train AI, making subtle changes to carefully designed parameters to ignore increasing suspicion while slowly steering AI in the desired direction. Wherein attackers fail to access the datasets; they may employ evasion, tampering with inputs to vigour mistakes. These systems can be manipulated into misclassifications by modifying input data to make proper identification hard.

Though checking the accuracy of data and inputs may not prove possible, every effort should be made to harvest data from reputable and verified sources. Bake in the identification of oddity to empower AI so that it can identify malicious inputs. Also, isolate AI systems with preventive mechanisms that make it easy to turn off if things start to go wrong.

How could AI be weaponised?

Cybercriminals can also employ AI to seek assistance with the scale and effectiveness of their social engineering attacks. Artificial intelligence can learn to detect behaviour patterns, figuring out how to convince people that a video, phone call, or email is legitimate. It then can persuade them to compromise networks and hand over sensitive data. All the social techniques that cybercriminals are currently employing could be enhanced immeasurably using AI.

There is another scope to use AI to recognize new vulnerabilities in networks, devices, and applications as they emerge. The job of keeping information secure is made difficult because of brisk identifying opportunities for human hackers.

How to stimulate the company’s security using AI?

AI can be highly effective in monitoring network and analytics, setting up a baseline of normal behaviour, and flagging discrepancies in things such as server access and data traffic immediately. Detecting intrusions beforehand gives you the maximum chance of restraining the damage they can do. Initially, it may be useful to have AI systems flag abnormalities and alert IT departments to investigate. While AI leans and improves, it may be provide the authority to invalidate threats itself and refrain intrusions in real-time.

With a significant lack of information security, AI can shoulder some of the burdens and allow limited staff to focus on complex problems. As companies try to reduce costs, AI is turning into more attractive, aiming to replace people. It will benefit companies and improve with experience, but ambitious companies must plan to mitigate the potential risk of cyber-attacks now.

The post How Artificial Intelligence is Causing Cyber Attacks appeared first on Analytics Insight.

India has the maximum number of internet users globally and stands among the top 10 countries facing cyber-attacks. Cybersecurity issues now are not only limited to hacking and money related frauds but also have become a threat to national security. Prime Minister of India on Independence Day announced that India will soon have a new cybersecurity policy as its dependence has increased manifold.

The new policy is likely to address the current gaps and provide a robust framework to handle cybersecurity issues. It will focus on significant governance reforms. There are many agencies available at both the national and state levels, trying to resolve cybersecurity issues. However, there is no centralised command to inspect and coordinate efforts to handle broader cybersecurity issues.

NCSC (National Cyber Security Coordinator) and CERT-In (Indian Computer Emergency Response Team) have recently made tremendous efforts to handle cybersecurity issues. It is the time to put a central command on CBI or CEC’s lines, which will be a single point authority at the mid-level. Although RBI, SEBI, IRDAI, TRAI, PFRDA have different cybersecurity framework for their regulated entities, none of the frameworks talk about inter-regulator coordination or incorporated approach to handle cybercrime. Therefore, the existing policy needs to address a unified cybersecurity framework across various regulators.

Demonetisation and coronavirus pandemic have pushed us to embrace digitization, and we cannot return from this point. Though work from home was never forecasted at such a large scale, it is now accepted as a new normal. India has a wide range of digital technologies, but it will not sustain the trend if we do not have a firm shield in data protection laws and privacy policies.

The new cybersecurity policy 2020 would expectedly address the issue of protecting vital information infrastructure in cyberspace. It will create integrated capabilities to respond and prevent cyber threats, reduce vulnerabilities and damage from cyber incidents by mixing institutional structures, people, processes, and technology through a well-defined governance framework. There is an urgent requirement of having comprehensive and unified government institutions for creating a cyber-defence network.

The government needs to consider making a Cyber Defence Agency that has to be confided with the responsibility in implementing the cyber defence strategy for national security. As part of the defence program, cyber commando forces to neutralise any cross-border cyber terrorism or cyber-attack and make specialised cyber police cadres in all state police departments.

Sectorial CERT and state-level CERT will be more impactful for rapid response on any cyber-attack. The state-level CERT will have to ensure faster incident response and association with national agencies. Creating a business environment to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics could also enhance cyber defence.

Government officials need to pass the Data Protection Bill to protect pivotal information such as personal data, business information, and financial information and improve India’s cyber defence policy.

It is high time to consider amendment of the existing IT Act, 2000, which does not fully sync with today’s cyber threat. The act’s most provisions have become unessential and are unable to address the newer cyber threat landscape. Additionally, it’s already delayed, but the high time that they introduce data privacy laws.

With the immense growth of the e-commerce market, people share essential information every day without legal support. The privacy act will be a great appreciation for the forthcoming cybersecurity policy. The amended policy is expected to cover the entire spectrum of present and future cyber challenges.

The post How to Reinforce India’s Cybersecurity Policy appeared first on Analytics Insight.

India is amongst the top five countries facing cyber threats and targeted attacks.

The world is divided to possess nuclear power. Countries like the USA and Iran, are already waging war against each other for nuclear power. Moreover, having an advanced nuclear system is important for the national security. Hence, countries are spending billions of dollars for gaining momentum in their nuclear plans.

But as nuclear power is proving to be authoritative, the nuclear system is becoming prone for cyber attacks. Over the past twenty years, five deadly cyberattacks compromised the national security in five countries. Not only affecting the internal security of any country, but cyberattacks has proven perilous for the privacy of the citizens. As new technological innovations are permeating the industry, the incidence of security breaches, and possibility of cyberattacks has heightened. That’s why scaling up cybersecurity in nuclear institutes and models, become important.

A cybersecurity breach has several implications. Due to a cyber malware, the confidential documents associated with cyber security can be leaked. It can increase the vulnerabilities of nuclear systems. With a disrupted nuclear system, the adversaries can take advantage in corrupting the communication, and preventing the flow of information. Moreover, cyber attacks are a direct threat to the integrity of any nation.

Policies associated with Cybersecurity

In India, many measures are taken to improve cyber security in the nuclear system. For example, in 2013, the department of Electronics and Information Technology created National cyber security policy, to mitigate the incidences of cyber attack. The government has announced setting up of Defence Cyber Agency, for battling cyber warfare and cyber infiltration in India’s defense Network. The Country also has a National Technical Research Organization (NTRO) in collaboration with Cyber Intelligence and Cyber Counter Intelligence to prevent cyber attacks.

Cyber Attacks in India

Many incidences of cyber breaches have challenged the national security of India. According to a report by Symantec, India is amongst the top five countries facing cyber threats and targeted attacks.

In September 2019, the cyber attack at Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant only exposed the dearth of cyber-security management in India. The attack was caused by DTRACK Virus, which was developed by a group of hackers from North Korea. It was a direct attack to the administrative framework of India, and was confirmed by ISRO. The confidentiality of large amount of data was threatened due to this attack. Moreover, it also highlighted the lack of coordination in the administrative framework of the country.

Snowden Leaks was another cyberattack, after which the need to scale up cybersecurity was recognized in the country. It is reported that in Snowden Leaks, the US National Security agency (NSA), was spying the Indian citizens. Though no concrete proof was presented, but it made the government to take the cognizance of this incident and drafted the 2013 policy, which became the pillar for public and private infrastructure.

Framework for Improving the Cybersecurity in the National Security Policy

Undoutedly, many measures have been taken in the recent years for enhancing the cybersecurity of India. From drafting policies to taking protective measures, the authorities have bend backwards to thwart cyber attacks. But the reason behind failure of these national security policies is the lack of coordination in the administrative and local level. To rectify this, the government must deploy a system, where the coordination between employees in the administrative and local level is maintained. Creating clusters of people with different responsibilities will help in easing up the coordination and communication in administrative level.

Moreover, India can also collaborate with other countries like UK and USA, to scale up the cybersecurity system. With this, the scope of India developing its own cyber-security infrastructure will get heightened. Moreover, the government can observe and analyse the areas where it is lacking with cybersecurity.

There is a need to upgrade the National cybersecurity policy as well. Though the policies are coherent and comprehensive, and promises to thwart cyberattacks, but it lacks the pre-requisities of security for modern times. Modification of existing technology will help in countering the possible cyberattacks in the future.

Implementing the new technological advancements in existing cybersecurity system will mitigate the risk of malware and cyberattacks. With artificial intelligence and its subsidiaries, the identification of areas that are not scaled up with cybersecurity will become feasible.

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81% of enterprises accelerated their IT modernization processes due to the pandemic.

Cybersecurity has become a chief concern among many business leaders. As businesses keep shifting and becoming more and more digital, they expose themselves more to the threat surface. And the global pandemic has worsened the cybersecurity vulnerabilities; companies face on a regular scale. In the meantime, cyber threats have grown from manageable to complex attacks built using similar higher algorithms and sophisticated technologies. Hence, to mitigate the risk and damage associated with cybersecurity, enterprises are assessing risks and leveraging technology to improve defenses via security-by-design. Implementing enterprise cybersecurity protocols are important, especially when an organization, its employees, and its customers and relate data, all are at stake.

Fortunately, COVID acts as the necessary enabler behind companies rapidly approaching to implement security protocols. A recent survey of IT leaders completed by CensusWide and sponsored by Centrify reveals that 73% of enterprises (over 500 employees) accelerated their cloud migration plans to support the shift to remote working across their organizations due to the pandemic. This also includes small and medium-sized businesses adjusting and improving their approach to cybersecurity. 60% adjusted their cloud security postures as a result of distributed workforces or remote working. At the same time, 83% of large-scale enterprises moved to adopt cybersecurity practices. And nearly 32% of large-scale enterprises, having over 500 employees are implementing more automation using artificial intelligence-based tools this year.

For the largest enterprises, IT modernization equates to digitizing more processes using cloud-native services (59%), maintaining flexibility and security for a partially remote workforce (57%) and revisiting and adjusting their cybersecurity stacks (40%). Overall, 81% of these enterprises accelerated their IT modernization processes due to the pandemic. Next, 51% of enterprises with 500 employees or more are making remote and secure access their highest internal priority. In contrast, 27% of all organizations’ IT heads have prioritized on providing secure, granular access to IT admin teams outsourced IT and third-party vendors. The survey authors have observed that the larger the enterprise, the more critical remote access becomes. The survey also found that organizations with 250 – 500 employees are more probable to purchase specific cybersecurity tools and applications to meet compliance requirements.

It is important to note that enterprise cybersecurity differs from traditional cybersecurity. The former is a more sophisticated solution that takes the age-old premise of cybersecurity and extends it to all levels of modern-day business computing. Enterprise cybersecurity strategies are designed to safeguard data as it travels between remote wireless devices and onto cloud servers, unlike traditional cybersecurity that protects data locally. Further, enterprise cybersecurity methodologies need to examine third-party providers and protect the increasing number of endpoints connected to a business network via the Internet of Things (IoT).

According to the survey, one out of every three IT leaders interviewed, 34%, say their budgets have increased during the pandemic. Moreover, more leaders are now open to the idea of utilizing cybersecurity practices in the long term as a part of their digital transformation program. IT leaders need to have a proactive response plan that helps them have the edge over future attacks. Though attackers are indeed continuing to innovate and find new ways to attack and extract, developing new strategies and technologies that can counter such threat is always a win. McKinsey suggests that to avoid becoming barriers to the digitization and instead become its enablers, IT and cybersecurity teams must transform their capabilities along three dimensions. This means they must use quantitative risk analytics for decision making, build cybersecurity into the business value chain. Further, they must support the next generation of enterprise-technology platforms, which include innovations like agile development, robotics, and cloud-based operating models.

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Cyber-attacks like ransomwar and phishing are rising exponentially due to COVID.

It is now well established that the COVID pandemic has forced enterprises and institutes to embrace the new normal. As the coronavirus sent shockwaves across industries, nations and governments, impacting every individual, it also became an opportunity for cybercriminals. From phishing attacks on WHO and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to EHR snooping, malware by Russian-language cybercriminal forum XSS to infodemic, such instances took a heavy toll on several industries and people likewise. Even VPNs and Wi-Fi evolved as a new set of targets. Earlier this year, INTERPOL had issued a warning to organizations at the forefront of the global response to the COVID-19 outbreak about ransomware attacks designed to lock them out of their critical systems in an attempt to extort payments. According to the Federal Trade Commission, by mid-August 2020 there had been more than 172,000 fraud reports related to the pandemic itself, at the cost of about US$114.4 million.

Why Healthcare is the target?

One of the main victims of this nefarious activity is the healthcare industry. Cybercriminals are launching Covid-19-themed attacks, now and then, in the form of phishing emails with malicious attachments that drop malware to disrupt systems or steal data and credentials. Once the data from healthcare organizations is breached, it may affect the lives of many patients and also hamper the drug discovery process too. Every developed nation has observed unsurfaced targeted efforts against the healthcare, pharmaceutical, academic, and research industries tasked with providing uninterrupted patient care to infected people and in COVID vaccine research. While it is understandable that healthcare resources have now shifted to focus and budget on their primary role, one cannot afford to ignore the vulnerability due to COVID. According to one estimate, health systems put only 4% to 7% of their budgets toward cybersecurity – which is 2x to 3x less compared to other sectors that also handle highly personal data. This is why COVID related cyber threats have caught many healthcare officials off-guard. So, investing in security and privacy though adds burden on scarce resources, it has become crucial, if not mandatory.

Meanwhile, the Department of Health and Human Services reported a nearly 50% increase in the number of healthcare-related cybersecurity breaches, with 132 reported incidents that targeted network servers, desktop and laptop computers, email and electronic medical record (EMR) systems. This is only the statistics of the first half of the year. Meanwhile, the announcement by Office of Civil Rights (OCR) exercised enforcement discretion about not impose penalties for non-compliance with HIPAA regulations against providers leveraging telehealth platforms that may not comply with privacy rules, during the pandemic mayhem, encouraged more cybercrimes.

Leading the example

UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) recently revealed that the cyber arm of GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters) had handled more 200 cyber incidents related to COVID and coronavirus during the course of this year in its Annual Review 2020 report. This is almost a third of the total number of incidents it was called in to help with over that period. NCSC also secured NHS (National Health Service) from cyber-attacks by performing threat hunting on 1.4 million NHS endpoints in an effort to detect potentially suspicious activity and scanning over one million NHS IP addresses to detect cybersecurity weaknesses. NCSC also helped roll out Active Cyber Defence services, including Web Check, Mail Check and protective DNS, to 235 front-line health bodies across the UK, including NHS Trusts to help protect them against phishing attacks and other threats.

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Self-driving cars connected to intelligent, city-wide traffic grids. Smart homes where everything from the thermostat down to the coffee maker is Internet-connected and app-controlled. Sensor networks that give manufacturers unprecedented visibility into their products and the capacity to continually enhance the end-user experience.

The world has, for several years, been gradually marching towards a world defined by hyperconnectivity. A world where the Internet of Things will underpin and explain every facet of our day-to-day, from our home to our workplace and everything in-between. A world where everything is online and our lives are that much better for it.

It almost feels as though we live in a science fiction novel — though whether or not it constitutes a dystopia perhaps remains to be seen.

As you’ve no doubt surmised, this hyperconnectivity is not without its risks—quite the contrary. Multiple experts have described the growing Internet of Things as a cybersecurity nightmare.

A threat surface larger than any we’ve ever seen before. Manufacturers with no software or security expertise are frantically loading poorly-developed firmware onto their products to be first to market. Endless access points for cybercriminals, and botnets the likes of which the world has never seen.

“IoT device manufacturers have not prioritized security to date, mostly because they are motivated by profit,” wrote Matt Toomey, marketing manager at IT research firm Aberdeen. “Embedding adequate levels of security into IoT devices would cost more, require specialized expertise, and may even involve product redesigns to accommodate different types of processors that power the security features. Therefore, the vulnerabilities proliferate.”

It has been two years since Toomey penned those words. An eternity in the tech sector. And yet nothing has changed.

Insecure IoT devices continue to increase, their numbers now in the tens of billions. Vendors continue to ignore cybersecurity, continue failing to understand even the most basic design principles of creating a secure system. And consumers are, for their part, either ignorant or unconcerned.

Some efforts have been made to develop IoT security frameworks, of course. But as is often the case, these efforts are proceeding at a glacial pace relative to the technology. In the meantime, the problem continues to worsen.

As you might expect, the short-term outlook isn’t great. Businesses that seek to use IoT devices internally will primarily be responsible for carrying out their due diligence, seeking vendors that prioritize security and deploying endpoint management software that allows them to retain visibility into and control over their infrastructure. DDoS mitigation will likely become critical as botnets grow increasingly in size, and guest networks for Internet-connected appliances like refrigerators will become the norm in the workplace.

The automotive industry may provide a glimpse of how IoT security may look in an ideal world in the long-term. There, security operations and computation are primarily managed at the edge, with all network communication wrapped in the highest encryption level possible. Automotive manufacturers know that if their products are compromised, the consequences will be far worse than exfiltrated or lost data.

Lives will be lost.

As more and more of the world is brought online, vendors will need to start subjecting their software and hardware to ever-increasing scrutiny. Extensive code reviews, automated edge security tools, and development life-cycles that prioritize safety over profitability will need to become the norm. Because I can say, without any hesitation, that the alternative is not a world I want to live in.

About the Author

Tim Mullahy is the Executive Vice President and Managing Director at Liberty Center One, a new breed of data center located in Royal Oak, MI. Tim has a demonstrated history of working in the information technology and services industry.

The post How Cybersecurity Will Be Defined In A Hyperconnected Future appeared first on Analytics Insight.

Biometric technology refers to the use of technology to identify a person based on some aspects of their biology.

As technology becomes a pivotal part of our everyday lives, we are increasingly willing to replace the traditional way of security with easy biometrics technology. As an emerging technology, biometrics system can add great convenience by taking over passwords and helping law enforcement catch criminals. However, all is not good. Biometrics technology has its pros and cons and needs secure encryption to conceal our biometric data.

In the past, checkpoints, government organizations, public and private companies were using the physical sign in methods like paper-based signature records to identify employees, contractors, visitors, etc. The old method is being greatly replaced by biometrics technology. The technology not just reduces the time and makes things easy, but also provides highly responsible security system and attendance maintenance solutions without significantly increasing the budget. People welcomed the biometrics technology for its high level of accuracy and efficiency in preventing identity theft and maintaining employees and visitors attendance records. Biometric technology is more sophisticated, cleverer, super sensitive and put in place to help protect companies and individuals. Most importantly, it is impossible to steal or duplicate biological characters. However, it comes with a cost if the biometric data is not well protected. Henceforth, it is mandatory to maintain a secure system to store biometric data.

Biometric Technology and its types

Biometric technology is the science and technology of analyzing human body characteristics. Biometrics is a way to measure a person’s physical characteristics to verify their identity. These include physiological traits, such as fingerprints and eyes, or behavioral characteristics, such as a unique way to complete a security-authentication puzzle. Behavioral biometrics is mostly used for verifying an individual.

Types of biometrics data

Voice recognition: Voice recognition measures a person’s voice patterns, speaking style, and pitch. It is used to find unknown speaker’s identity, thus minimizing threats over phone calls, internet calls, etc. For example, your bank might use voice recognition to verify your identity when calling about your account.

Fingerprint identification: Fingerprint identification is one of the oldest forms of biometrics technology. It comes with a huge range of use cases like unlocking mobile phones, doors, lockers, etc. Fingerprint identification is the cheapest and safest method for protection. Like all other technology, this idea too identifies and verifies a person’s fingerprint with data saved in the system beforehand. Law enforcement, agencies, hospitals and clinics, schools and colleges, gym and fitness centers have adopted the technology to identify and verify individuals rightfully.

Iris recognition: Iris recognition identifies the person’s iris, the colorful area of the eye surrounding the pupil. Although widely used in security applications, it isn’t typically used in the consumer market.

Face recognition: Face recognition measures the unique patterns of a person’s face by comparing and analyzing facial contours. It is used in security and law enforcement, but also as a way to authenticate identity and unlock devices like smartphones and laptops.

Hand geometry: Hand geometry measures and records the length, thickness, width, and surface area of a person’s hand. These devices date back to the 1980s and were typically used in security applications.

The mechanism behind biometric technology

For example, if we take fingerprint into a device, the primary step is to record the biometric information in a database. The information is later used for comparison with live information. Anyone else can put their finger on your device, but is highly unlikely to open the system. Handwriting, voiceprints and the geometry of your veins are other unique biometrics useful for security applications. A biometric system consists of three different components,

• Sensors- Records your information and reads it when your biometric information needs to be recognized.

• Computer- Whenever the biometric information needs access, there has to be a computer storing the information for comparison.

• Software- Software is basically whatever connects the computer hardware to the sensor.

Ways to protect biometric data

There are some common security measures you can make to help protect your biometric data. Encrypt your biometric storage with a strong password. These hectic passwords make it hard to steal your data by simply cracking it by guess. Keep your biometric information in a few, limited places. This will give hackers minimum chance to breach the data.

One of the best ways to keep the device that has biometric data is to keep the software up-to-date. When your device manufacturer notifies you of an available software update or patch, install it right away to help reduce the opportunity of your device being vulnerable to security flaws. It is essentially important to keep your operating system and internet security software current.

Provide two-factor authentication on the device if possible. It will help hackers from easily entering the security system by guessing a single password. Big entities that use biometric should opt for blockchain technology in devices to ensure the safety of user’s data. Blockchain allows only authorised parties to access the data.

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