Over the past decade, there has been a significant increase in the number of cyberattacks launched on civilians, businesses, and government agencies worldwide. While some are individual attacks launched on unsuspecting citizens to steal their financial data, others are state-sponsored attacks geared towards Federal agencies.
In fact, this is why President Biden gave Prime Minister Putin a list of 16 critical infrastructures at Geneva, which must remain off-limits from local hackers in Russia. Apart from the Russians, the Chinese and the North Korean hackers also need to be controlled. For this reason, the Biden government has allocated $9.8 billion for the year 2022, which is a $500 million increase from the year 2021. Additionally, $650 million from the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan (ARP) has been dedicated to protecting civilian Federal networks.
This move was necessary because the nation has been incurring huge losses due to cybercrime. In 2019, 791,790 cases of cybercrime were reported to the FBI with losses exceeding $4.2 billion dollars. Now that is just the tip of the iceberg because much more has been lost due to economic espionage. This refers to stealing well-guarded intellectual property and trade secrets. As a matter of fact, the US lost over $400 billion in 2018 because of Chinese hackers.
So how did this happen? Every agency has most likely been under siege — the US Energy Department to the NSAID which was attacked this very year by the Russian group Nobelium. In fact, even the defense contractors, banks, and other financial institutions have not been spared.
While the infrastructures of some agencies are compromised directly, others are attacked through one or more service providers. This indirect approach often involves supply chain attacks which have increased by 42%. That is worsened by the fact that it now takes an average of 197 days to identify a breach and at least 69 days to contain it.
Why? Because organizations do not adequately invest in cybersecurity. To identify and manage risks in a prompt manner, businesses need a proactive infrastructure protection plan and expert risk management capabilities. At i-VisioNET, we provide comprehensive cybersecurity solutions for businesses of all types. For more information on how you can protect your business, get in touch with our experts before it is too late.
