BotNet News

Cyberthreat News is a monthly roundup of key cybersecurity stories.

The pace of cyberattacks is escalating as the world rushes toward digitalization. Banks are collaborating with technology companies; governments are leapfrogging traditional financial systems with digital currencies and work-from-home arrangements. Such transformations, fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic, present a unique opportunity to create more efficient and innovative ways of transacting money, but they also expose new vulnerabilities that must be addressed in order to protect consumers and businesses from cyber attackers.

Breaches at Equifax, Yahoo and the US Securities and Exchange Commission put high-profile companies’ reputations at risk, but cyberattacks affect a wide range of smaller organizations every day, including critical infrastructure providers. The rate of attacks shows no sign of slowing down, and the threats are evolving faster than we can understand them or defend against them.

Cybercriminals are refining their business models to extort victims, threatening to publish stolen data or launch distributed denial-of-service attacks that would disrupt services to their customers. An attack on software used by the BBC and BA to pay their staff demonstrates how critical it is for companies to test and secure their supply chains.

The pace of attacks is accelerating, but significant progress has been made in enabling government bureaucracies to evolve away from siloed efforts and stovepipes and move toward real-time coordination and collaboration. As the threat grows, it’s vital that the public and policymakers have clear, accessible information to help them make informed decisions about how to best protect themselves and their assets.