New data from cybersecurity vendor CrowdStrike shows just having security technologies in place won’t prevent one… let alone two… cyberattacks.
It’s a longstanding belief that organizations should consider themselves becoming a victim of a cyberattack as a case of when and not if. The latest from CrowdStrike’s CrowdStrike Services Cyber Front Lines Report provides some insight into some of the why and how of cyberattacks in the last 12 months. Do keep in mind this is written by CrowdStrike’s own services team perspective, so some of the data within revolves around the organization’s sampled having CrowdStrike software and services employed.
There are a few themes that point to reasons why both the bad guys are working so diligently to compromise your network, and why they’re being successful. According to the report:
- 63% of the attacks experienced are financially motivated with 71% of those attacks being ransomware
- 56% of orgs are working from home more often
- 60% are using personal devices
- 30% of organizations have their antivirus “were either incorrectly configured with weak prevention settings or not fully deployed across the environment”
- This resulted in antivirus failing to provide protection in 40% of incidents
I’ve repeatedly said over the years that organizations cannot simply rely on software solutions to intervene when cyberattacks occur. Even in today’s modern use of machine-based learning to help identify phishing scams and malware, the bad guys seem to still find ways to circumvent detection.
That’s why you need to augment your security strategy by shoring up your human firewall – your users. By enrolling them in continual new school Security Awareness Training, they become vigilant naturally, able to quickly assess whether the content they interact with in email or on the web may be malicious in nature – allowing them to avoid interacting with the suspicious content and becoming another stat in a report like CrowdStrike's.
New-school Security Awareness Training is critical to enabling you and your IT staff to connect with users and help them make the right security decisions all of the time. This isn't a one and done deal, continuous training and simulated phishing are both needed to mobilize users as your last line of defense. Request your one-on-one demo of KnowBe4's security awareness training and simulated phishing platform and see how easy it can be!
