SES Blog

Cyber Security is becoming a major issue for organisations across the globe and according to a recent report by Positive Technologies, many businesses are still not implementing necessary basic security controls.

Worrying figures release recently in the fourth annual Hiscox Cyber Readiness Report state that one in six businesses are still opting to pay ransoms demanded by malicious individuals when falling victim to ransomware attacks.

Barely a week goes by without news of another cyber incident making the headlines and the stakes have never been greater for businesses. Data theft has become commonplace, the scale of ransomware demands has risen steeply and the environment businesses are operating in has become more hostile than ever.

We are overwhelmed by stories of organisations falling victim to cyber threats but a recent report released by ForgeRock, the ForgeRock Consumer Identity Breach Report puts the overall scale of the situation into perspective, summarising that 5 billion records were exposed by breaches in 2019 alone.

Recently we published an article summarising some of the findings from Proofpoint’s 2020 “State of the Phish” report. That article focused on the rise in phishing threats over the last 12 months. However, this week we will be focusing on another concerning finding from the report – a lack of understanding when it comes to common phishing and ransomware threats.

Security threats are increasing year on year and 2019 was no different. Organisations across the world were constantly targeted by scams and vast quantities of data was breached by malicious actors. 

We are now almost two years on from the introduction of GDPR. During the first year of enforcement, the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) were quite lenient in their enforcement of the regulation, giving businesses the extra time they needed to adapt to the tightening regulations.

A recent report by cyber security company Proofpoint highlighted that 55% of all organisations were successfully breached by phishing scams in 2019.

In the final part of our three part series, which explored how malicious individuals are using the global COVID-19 pandemic as a distraction to further their criminal activities, we are focusing on how threat actors are spreading fake news and misinformation to further their nefarious gains.

This week we are focusing on how threat actors are continuing their criminal activity whilst the rest of the world is in turmoil and providing advice and guidance on how to protect yourself in these torrid times.

For many organisations, cyber security has taken a backseat as we deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. However, a change in working practices and a growing thirst for the latest information have led malicious actors to exploit the outbreak for their own nefarious gains. 

With the outbreak of the Coronavirus (COVID-19), there are an increasing number of employees working from home—either to prevent the virus from spreading or because they have been required to self-isolate.