THANK YOU FOR SUBSCRIBING
Government CIO Outlook | Thursday, March 31, 2022
Cyber-attacks are constantly on the rise, making it important for public sector companies to improve security measures.
Fremont, CA: Data breaches and online frauds have become commonplace, serving as a continual reminder that businesses must have a strong fraud prevention and cybersecurity policy in place. Though the commercial sector normally makes the news, comparable occurrences frequently occur in the public sector. The public sector encompasses a wide range of services, including healthcare, education, parks, libraries, and more. Similarly, the legal system, law enforcement, and other government agencies are important parts of the public sector. Because of their vital significance, cybercriminals have turned their attention to these departments and organizations. In recent years, even high-profile events such as elections and the Olympics have been targeted by fraud campaigns, putting pressure on government officials to address cybersecurity.
Stay ahead of the industry with exclusive feature stories on the top companies, expert insights and the latest news delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe today.
Public sector firms are frequently targeted by phishing, ransomware, and malware. Stolen personal information is frequently utilized in internet fraud and identity theft. Illegal cryptomining, cyber espionage, and software supply chain attacks are all threats to the industry.
Although these dangers may have a large impact, there are additional areas of worry, such as data leaking, which has a smaller impact but a greater reputational impact. Employees may occasionally lose vital data if they leave their tablets, smartphones, or computers on public transportation or use public WiFi access points. Furthermore, the majority of successful cyberfrauds are the consequence of insider errors, such as phishing emails or business email intrusion.
What's worse, public entities' inability to patch known flaws is a much bigger issue. 56 percent of respondents feel their firms are at a disadvantage in responding to vulnerabilities because they employ manual processes, according to a study by Ponemon Institute. Security spends more time traversing manual processes than responding to vulnerabilities, according to 51 percent of respondents, resulting in an insurmountable backlog.
According to another study, phishing (95 percent), malware (86 percent), and ransomware (54 percent)were the most common forms of assaults faced by the respondents. Only 3 percent of respondents had to deal with other types of attacks, such as targeted attacks from insiders or malevolent hackers. This explains why antivirus software and firewalls were the most common countermeasures utilized by these public-sector organizations. Other essential protections, on the other hand, were still lacking—only 70 percent of firms used log management or network traffic analysis, tools that can assist detect unexpected behavior
More in News