Each year, the landscape of cyber threats grows in its sophistication, power, venom, and breadth. There often seems very little organizations can do about it. It’s clear that both small entities and large enterprises are equally as vulnerable, and it appears that the do-gooders are always reacting to attacks instead of proactively preventing them.
But it’s not all doom and gloom. Yes, the cybercrime world is active and vicious, but there are technology leaders like Microsoft who are watching the evolution of cybercrime unfold and investing immense amounts of funds into creating technologies and methodologies to combat it. Below is research on recent developments in the cybersecurity world—particularly those of nation-state actors—and how to protect your organization against them.
New Tactics from Nation-State Actors
We often hear about ransomware, malware, phishing, and other commonplace threats crossing business’ lines, but less often do we hear about how nation-state actors are creating new tactics and techniques to attack organizations.
Microsoft’s 2021 Digital Defense report found that “nation-state actors continue to focus operations and attacks on government agencies, intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and think tanks for traditional espionage or surveillance objectives.”
The pandemic exacerbated vulnerabilities for attackers to exploit, with the increased reliance on virtual private networks (VPNs) and a collective reliance on global telecom infrastructure. Nation-state actors are continuing to focus on evolving techniques to help them maintain access, and they are even using old ones that continue to work such as spear phishing and password spray campaigns.
Microsoft has also discovered that nation-state actors appear to increase the scale and volume of their attacks to evade detection and improve their success chances across multiple targets. Unpatched third-party software or on-premises infrastructure are particularly at risk and will become even more easily exploited as they get more outdated.
It is now essential for organizations to update their solutions, maintain asset inventory, perform backups and containment plans, and more. Cyber attackers will continue to innovate, so organizations must be ready and in an “assume breach” mentality. Adopting methods like Zero Trust will help organizations protect corporate identities, data, networks, and more as they take a “never trust, always verify” approach.
Organizations should consider adopting Microsoft’s solutions that incorporate their five-pronged approach to disrupt nation-state actors, which includes:
- Empowering organizations by providing actionable information so you can rapidly respond to threats. Microsoft also provides alerts to certain industries and customer segments to raise awareness about malicious activity and to provide guidance on how to respond.
- Leveraging knowledge of the global threat landscape and technology to help protect and defend against nation-state activities at scale.
- Warranting a one-time deletion or shutdown of infrastructure associated with a nation-state attacker so you’re proactively protected.
- Deploying its Digital Crimes Unit, which uses litigation to seize domains and assets used by nation-state actors against Microsoft customers. Historically, this approach makes Microsoft an outlier among technology leaders as one willing to take legal action against attackers.
- Using the company’s powerful voice to raise awareness about nation-state activities and to drive a broader discussion about what can be done to combat threats across the public and private sector.
Ensure You’re Protected Against Evolving Cybercrime with Point Alliance
The experts at Point Alliance have kept our ears to the ground for what has been changing in the landscape of cybersecurity, and we have deep experience helping organizations like yours leverage the expertise, technology, and prowess of leaders like Microsoft to stay safe. Contact us today to learn more about how you can safe
