Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, which means that companies are once again surveying the threat landscape. They can’t like what they see. By July 2021, threat actors attempted more than 304 million ransomware attacks, surpassing the 2020 total just halfway through the year. At the same time, the number of phishing scams is soaring, and the cost of a data breach is more expensive than ever before, reaching $4.24 million, according to the most recent industry study.

Already a significant concern before 2021, this year has revitalized cybersecurity as a top priority for every organization. Highly consequential cybersecurity incidents at companies like Colonial Pipeline, Kaseya, and T-Mobile brought front-page coverage to the issue, while cybersecurity attacks on small and medium-sized businesses soared, spreading the reach of threat actors.

October is a month that generates much buzz amongst the cybersecurity community. It’s National Cybersecurity Awareness Month (NCSAM) – a time when security professionals work around the clock to raise awareness of growing cyber risks amongst general user communities.

While there’s no real way to prevent them all, understanding vulnerabilities, common types of cyberattacks and how to prevent them can help college and university leaders prioritize their security strategies to help keep institutional data and students safe.

Despite the steady drumbeat of hacks that are reported on a nearly weekly basis, it is safe to say that cybersecurity is still far from a “top of mind issue” for most people. Massive data breaches like Equifax, Marriott, and many, many more are chalked up to being yet another part of the modern life. While each of those cybersecurity incidents was quite serious in its own right, for the public whose data were compromised, they represented more of an inconvenience than a serious concern.

Departing employees are a source of insider threats that often get overlooked. According to a study by Biscom, one in four departing employees steal data when leaving. Whether they do so out of negligence or with malicious intent, such cases can only have negative outcomes for organizations, from losing their competitive advantage to facing penalties for non-compliance with cybersecurity requirements.

What was once the thing of spy movies and industrial espionage news headlines is now, sadly, a common occurrence for public organizations and private enterprises around the globe. Insiders… employees, consultants, partners… have emerged as one of the most immediate and serious threats facing IT and cyber security teams and practitioners today. It is not however because every insider has turned malicious.