20 Years of Defense: Understanding Today’s Cybersecurity Landscape

October is the 20^th annual Cybersecurity Awareness Month, a time to raise public knowledge and come together to address responsibilities in this critical area. So much has changed in the digital realm over the past two decades, fundamentally reshaping the way businesses, individuals, and governments interact with technology. As the landscape continues to evolve in even more advanced ways, it’s imperative to learn about what today’s threats are and how to protect ourselves from them.

Since its very beginnings as a company, Infused Innovations has been at the forefront of cybersecurity and continues to lead organizations with the most current and sophisticated security tools available. In a new Digitally Transformed podcast series devoted to cybersecurity, CEO Jeff Wilhelm talks with host Justin Starbird about the current security arena and the best ways to avoid falling victim to threat actors.

What Kinds of Threats do Organizations Face Today?

Along with rapidly advancing technologies, malicious actors have greatly improved their tactics over time. Most of these threat actors fall into a few main categories:

• Nation-state groups. These are powerful, very well-funded groups targeting governments or societies through political motivation. Ongoing attacks and social engineering from such actors can have devastating effects on an international scale. 
• Financially motivated criminals. Much of cybercrime is carried out simply for financial gain, as there is a lot of money to be made through this nefarious means. Phishing and ransomware are common examples of these attacks and can be extremely costly to targeted organizations.
• Hacktivists. These actors may have a particular agenda to target certain companies and expose information about them. These are often industry-specific and can threaten smaller organizations as well as large companies.

With various types of attacks out there, one thing is clear: no one is immune to these costly breaches. Not only does a successful attack carry a tremendous financial burden, it can also damage a company’s reputation and affect its business for years afterward.

The Best Approach to Cybersecurity

How can you cover all your bases with so many threats lurking in today’s digital environment? The most comprehensive strategy is an “onion” type, layered approach which provides simultaneous protection at different levels. These layers should include company education and employee training, robust security tools, continuous monitoring, and adapting your defenses over time to keep up with changing threats. Incorporating the Zero Trust security model into the whole approach provides the strongest defense, as it assumes threat everywhere and proactively sets up safeguards against them. And, of course, basic measures like regular patching and software updates, use of encryption, and having incidence response plans in place can keep an organization in a better position to defend itself when attackers strike.

How to Protect Your Organization

If your company doesn’t have a dedicated security team, or you struggle to balance security with the myriad other aspects of running a business, you’re not alone. This is a concern that many organizations face. 

In working with clients, Infused Innovations brings the best combination of flexibility, expertise, and reliability for collaborative partnership on cybersecurity. With years of experience, our team has identified security measures that apply to most organizations, and we’ve therefore developed Zero Trust security accelerators with fixed price & scope and quick time-to-value. At the same time, we can provide expert advice on what sorts of threats are specific to your industry, organization size, and other relevant factors, and we are committed to helping you achieve the security posture that is best for your particular business. We’ve worked with organizations both private and public, and we understand the risks, regulations, and laws around each side.

Dedicated to innovation and constantly moving forward, Infused Innovations is also passionate about staying ahead of evolving threats with the most cutting-edge tools. Learn more about these resources in our cybersecurity podcast series: listen to the first episode here, and look out for more coming soon.