30 million dollars.
Earlier this year a pharmaceutical company quietly filed a required SEC report detailing a breach and paid a ransom to retrieve its data.
Isn't that comforting?
Brian Krebs article on low profile Ransomware group "Dark Angels" outlines in beautiful detail a critical issue facing our countries infrastructure and business leadership.
Ransomware payouts have increased "fivefold in the past year, from $400,000 in 2023 to $2 million" according to a report by cybersecurity firm Sophos.
Why is this important? Unfortunately because, over the past 4 years we have seen the sharpest increase in history in the volume and severity of cyber attacks on both the public and private sector and what has the response of government and business leadership been?
Largely this. Creating initiatives and hiring consultants. Blowing up the CISO job title and elevating it to god like status. Workshopping, publishing, creating logos and joint task forces.
You know what hasn't happened?
Telling the truth.
Being honest with their citizens, their clients or themselves.
The state of cyber security/resilience in this country is laughable, pathetic, and catastrophic.
It didn't become so overnight.
This is years of ignoring budget requests. Years of hiring board positions and consultants instead of quality, experienced staff. Years of failing to heed warnings from industry professionals, organizations and publications.
Hop on Amazon and search cyber crime/cyber threat and treat yourself to how obvious this issue is in our community. The concern has been decades on the making.
It is past time for leadership at every level to get serious about investing in quality security.
If you are a decision maker and you don't know what quality security looks like and you just don't know where to start then turn to the vast resources of the professional community.
If you are in government or large enterprise and you need advice and guidance then ask Kyle Hanslovan. If you are operating an SMB and just need to know where to begin then reach out to your local #MSP. We aren't here to sell you needless crap. The vast majority of team members and leaders in the security industry today are here because we genuinely care. These are our communities and workplaces too and we are dedicated to keeping them safe.
Harden the Target, Stay Vigilant!
#realtechsupport #realcyber
