The president of the USA Joe Biden warned about the worsening of cyber threats from the Russian side. The government of the country sponsored these atrocities. An overwhelming majority of countries globally imposed economic sanctions on the Russian Federation because of their despicable war against Ukraine. Because of this, they caused such an expected reaction.
According to Biden’s announcement on Monday, intelligence information says that Russian cyber villains now are looking for weaknesses and learning ways of potential attacks. Those IP addresses maintained a preparation for cyber-attacks by scanning websites and other internet systems for potential weaknesses. They scanned 5 American power generating companies and at least 18 companies in other sectors, such as defense and finances. Cyber villains used these IP addresses for cyberattacks against foreign companies’ critical infrastructure and their activity grew after the Russian invasion.
Why Is Cybersecurity Defense Important?
The private sector rules the major part of critical infrastructure in the USA. That’s why the federal government can’t protect everyone. So, president Joe Biden urges every entity of the private sector to make an effort in strengthening their cybersecurity defense and practice all standards. They developed cybersecurity standards collectively during the previous year. The White House published a newsletter with a detailed description of steps to take for improving cybersecurity defense in the preparation for possible Russian cyberattacks. It described immediate actions to enforce recommendations as well.
Here are some steps, that the White House mentioned in this information sheet:
– Realization and Supporting Multi-factor Authentification
Multi-factor authentification will significantly harden the usage of stolen or hacked accounts for hackers. They won’t have the possibility to get access to an internal network with important data. It’s necessary to launch a security software that will scan computers and devices for potential threats continuously. Cybersecurity defense teams should make sure that all software and programs update in time. It is necessary to correct all defects, especially those from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) Known Exploited Vulnerability Catalog.
– Implementing of Trustworthy Buckup Processes
Reserve copies should be stored offline, so that hackers, who can jeopardize a network, cannot reach them. Confidential data should be encrypted when stationary and transmitted. These measures should be implemented to make sure that in case data is stolen, nobody can make use of it.
– Security Training Is a Must for Cybersecurity Defense
This training is needed so that workers can detect, report, and avoid dangers in time. Additionally, the White House urges operators of critical infrastructure to interact actively with FBI and CISA offices in their area. The aim of this action is to establish relationships before any cyber threat occurs. Such a collaboration is also useful for conducting training and testing contingency plans to react fast and efficiently in case of cyber invasion.
What About the Healthcare Field?
The health sphere also didn’t stand by. American Hospital Association (AHA) encouraged hospitals and healthcare systems to look through the newsletter and take actions immediately to improve their cybersecurity defense. They should also check AHA directives and warnings concerning risk-reducing procedures. Hospitals and healthcare systems encourage to enhance network monitoring so that it can detect extraordinary network activity. They also urged to make sure of employees’ knowledge, that the risk of getting phishing letters with malicious software raised.
American Hospital Association suggests limiting traffic from Russia, Ukraine, and closer territories and checking networks and backups for activity, reliability, and safety. Also, it urges to provide emergency reservation of electricity and make sure fuels and generators are in place and recently checked up. Also, it is important to notice all internal and external clinical and operative services of critical importance. And it’s necessary to accordingly develop a plan of non-stop work on about a month and a half and well-established outage procedures. It would be a good way out in case those services would come out of order because of cyberattacks.
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