What cyberwarfare means for your organization

Over the past several years, governments around the world have dramatically increased their capacities to wage cyberwar. From Russia’s repeated cyber assaults on Ukraine to the emergence of cyberthreats from North Korea, Iran, and many other countries, cyberwarfare is a daily reality governments and companies have to face. 
The private sector has an essential role to play in the national defense against acts of cyberwarfare, as hostile governments often target companies to damage the country more broadly (the devastating SolarWinds cyberattack, for instance, originated in Russia). 
In NINJIO’s State of Cyberwarfare Report, we take a look at why cyberwarfare is becoming more dangerous all the time, as well as how companies can keep the entire country safe. Here are some of the key findings:

The tactics governments use to wage cyberwarfare are always evolving, but one constant remains: social engineering is a crucial element of the vast majority of successful attacks.

Cyberwarfare is increasing in scale and intensity. One study found that the number of “significant” state-sponsored cyberattacks spiked by 100 percent from 2017 to 2020. Another found that 80 percent of businesses are worried about being targeted by a state-sponsored cyberattack, while a majority of respondents say this concern has increased over the past five years.

State-sponsored cyberattacks are increasing, and, according to a Yale journal, “despite the threats posed by these attacks, the states responsible frequently escape with impunity because of the difficulty in attributing cyberattacks to their source.”

Companies are integral to our national defense against cyberwarfare. Many are responsible for overseeing important sectors like critical infrastructure, while interconnected networks and systems make it increasingly likely that an attack won’t remain isolated in a single country or organization.

While state-sponsored cyberattacks may sound exotic and unlikely to the owners of SMBs, small businesses are also at risk; more than 40 percent of cyberattacks targeted small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in 2021.

The top sectors targeted by ransomware attacks include healthcare, financial services, information technology, and manufacturing.

Attacks can be prevented with cybersecurity training, but there’s a lot of work to be done. One report found that 60 percent of executives believe their employees couldn’t identify a cyberattack that was targeting their business; another found that almost a third of employees lacked adequate cybersecurity training prior to being attacked, while 29 percent didn’t even know what ransomware was. 

So what can companies do to protect themselves and the country from acts of cyberwarfare? Check out this article for several guidelines for identifying and thwarting cyberattacks by making your training platform as effective as possible.