Cyberwarfare Targets Enterprises In Los Angeles

Cyberwarfare Targets Enterprises Across Southern California & Los Angeles

Cyberwarfare is the use of cyberattacks intended to cause significant harm, including the disruption of vital computer systems. Cyberattacks and their ability to steal data and damage technical infrastructure have the potential to result in financial losses and cause harm to your organization’s reputation.

As businesses and organizations increasingly rely on computers, networks, programs, social media, and global data to grow, they also become more vulnerable to cyber threats. Ransomware, data breaches, and other common cyber attacks can have a significant adverse effect on organizations of any size and typically arise from insufficiently protected systems and data.

What Are the Potential Risks?

From data breaches and phishing to infiltrations of infrastructure, cyberattacks are varied and don’t discriminate between individuals or the size of an organization when searching for targets. Today, cyber warfare or cyber attack is commonly used to describe information security matters.

A cyber attack is an attack mounted against your digital devices by means of cyberspace, a virtual space that doesn’t exist. However, since it is difficult to visualize how a digital signal in the cyber world can represent an attack, a digital attack is typically described in physical terms.

Cyber attacks are executed in the virtual world, but the intent of the attacker and the potential consequences are genuine. While many cyberattacks are merely a nuisance, others have severe consequences, even having the potential to threaten human lives.

Cyberattacks can cause electrical blackouts, failure of military equipment, and national security breaches. In addition, a cyberattack can result in the theft of valuable, sensitive data, including financial and medical records. Even when a security breach doesn’t result in stolen data and personal information, it can disrupt phone and computer networks, paralyzing your systems, making data unavailable, and interrupting your organization’s ability to function.

Current Threats

Cyberattacks are nothing new, but their prevalence is increasing dramatically, often targeting businesses in the greater Los Angeles area. For instance, in October of 2021, Planned Parenthood Los Angeles experienced a ransomware attack that involved the data exportation of files containing the sensitive health information of over 400,000 individuals.

Cyberattacks are committed for several reasons, including theft of information, financial fraud, activist causes, or to disrupt critical infrastructure and vital services of a government or organization. The most common types of security risks include:

• Nation-states
• Cyber-criminals
• Hacktivists
• Insiders and service providers
• Developers of substandard products and services
• Poor configuration of cloud services

Recent world events have generated new concerns about cyberwarfare. In response to the threat to global stability presented by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, national law enforcement and cybersecurity experts gathered in Washington to discuss the heightened threat of cyberattacks by Russian affiliates. The security briefing by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, Homeland Security Director Alejandro Mayorkas, and FBI Director Christopher Wray encouraged governmental agencies, businesses, and individuals to be vigilant and prepare for potential cyberattacks.

Officials warn that organizations of all sizes should fully expect and prepare for Russian cyber warfare. Security experts emphasized that attackers will not necessarily limit the scope of disruptive cyber operations to reach obvious targets, such as governmental agencies or businesses with crucial infrastructure roles. Instead, the purpose of cyber warfare is to disrupt economies and society across a broad range, leaving no one immune.

Who Is at Risk?

Cyberwarfare associated with world conflict can affect businesses and organizations of all sizes. Adequate cybersecurity controls designed and implemented throughout your entire system are necessary to protect the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of information assets. Cybersecurity is relevant to every organization and encompasses all systems that support their business operations and objectives. Implementing the appropriate cybersecurity measures is also critical to maintaining compliance with regulations and laws.

Determining your organization’s cyber risk involves understanding what information might be valuable to an outsider or could cause a significant disruption in your operations if the data were unavailable or corrupted. As a result, it’s increasingly important to identify information, such as names, social security numbers, health records, or other personally identifiable information. A cyber-attack that successfully acquires this data, or releases it to the public, can cause financial damage to you, your clients, and business partners, as well as harm your reputation.

When assessing your potential cyber risk, consider the following potential targets of cybercriminals:

• Customer data
• Employee data
• Intellectual property
• Third and fourth-party vendors
• Product quality and safety
• Contract terms and pricing
• Strategic planning
• Financial data

Measures You Can Take To Improve Your Cyber Security

At GenIX, as a provider of managed IT services, we are committed to fulfilling our responsibility of informing clients of the risks that are currently present. Our team suggests that every organization conduct vulnerability assessments to ensure their IT is secure. The vulnerability assessment will find any holes in the network that can be remediated before a breach occurs. Some organizations may also benefit from a penetration test that provides a more in-depth analysis of their current security posture.

Our team of security experts at GenIX takes a proactive approach to your security needs. Therefore, we provide your team with ongoing support and training. In addition, we provide clients with reminders of phishing threats and business emails that can compromise your network. We have also developed a phishing test that pretends to have information about the current conflict to see if employees unwittingly expose the system to a breach.

GenIX: Your Cyber Security Expert

At GenIX, we believe it’s critical for your organization to have a solid cybersecurity-focused partner to aid in the prevention of cyberwarfare threats that target enterprises in Los Angeles. Our team puts security first to ensure that you have the best security solution possible. In addition, our security experts consistently look at different tools and processes to improve the security of your system and decrease cyberwarfare attacks.

Now is the best time to review your security and ensure that your system is safe. Our team of security experts can provide the protection your organization needs and develop an incident response plan, ensuring that if a breach does occur, the proper steps are taken to contain the breach and minimize the damage. Contact us today and learn how partnering with GenIX for your cybersecurity needs can aid in the prevention of cyberwarfare threats impacting Los Angeles businesses.