Cybercrime and attacks are on a prowl. Organizations realize the importance of security solutions and the standard security solutions are not strong enough to protect devices and networks in workplaces. The new and modern solutions must detect new and advanced malware and vulnerabilities in networks, operations systems and apps, cloud etc.
Check Point’s Infinity Architecture solution is a fully consolidated cyber security architecture that provides unprecedented protection against Gen V mega-cyber-attacks as well as future cyber threats across all networks, endpoint, cloud and mobile.”
Venugopal N, Director of Security Engineering, India, Check Point Software Technologies (India) Ltd
What are the cyberattack trends based on the mid-year report by Check Point and potential impact on the India region?
In the wake of growing incidences of cyber security and ever-changing threat landscape, enterprises need to be prepared more than before. One of the dominating and major ongoing trends in 2019 is targeted ransomware attacks. But what ends with a ransomware attack usually starts with a more silent sequence of bot infections. New tools, techniques and adoption of digital assets have resulted into modern and challenging cyber threats leaving organizations paralyzed.
According to Check Point’s mid year trends report, some of the major trends identified in 2019, are as follows:
- Advance Email Attacks: There has been an increase in email scams involving blackmailing such as “Sextortion” and “Business Email Compromise” (BEC). The email scammers have also increased the use of evasion techniques in order to bypass email security solutions.
- Cloud Breaches: With cloud becoming an increasingly popular source to store data, it’s becoming apparent that relying on cloud providers is not enough. Based on the reports from threat Intelligence team of Check Point, poor management of the cloud resources remain the most prominent threats to the cloud ecosystem – with massive data theft being the most common attack employed against it.
- Mobile Evolution: Trends in 2019 show that more than 35% of organizations have been impacted by a mobile attack. There has been a sharp rise of almost 50% in mobile banking trojans infiltrating mobile arena’s when compared with the statistics of 2018.
It is interesting to note that that according to Check Point’s threat intelligence unit, an organization in India was attacked on an average of 1,767 times per week in the last 6 months, compared to the global average of just 595 attacks per organization.
1. What is the potential impact of cyber-attack on the India market?
Digital transformation is eroding traditional network perimeters with the adoption of cloud computing, cloud-based subscription services, and the ubiquity of mobile devices. The increased expansion of vectors means more ways to attack an organization.
Keeping in view of the latest trends, cyber attackers have become increasingly sophisticated and have already started to perpetrate next generation crimes such as data theft, fraud, identify theft, etc. Most businesses are not prepared for cyber attacks today. They are trying to protect their IT environments against 2019 attack technology with security technology from 10 years ago that relies on detection only. They are stuck in the world of 2nd and 3rd generation security, which only protects against viruses, application attacks, and payload delivery. What this means is that networks, virtualized data centers, cloud environments, and mobile devices are left exposed.
The key to cyber defence is an end-to-end cyber security architecture that is multi-layered and spans all networks, endpoint and mobile devices, and cloud.
2. How is the end consumer affected in such a scenario?
A cyber attack can maliciously disable computers, steal data, or use a breached computer as a launch point for other attacks. Cybercriminals use a variety of methods, including malware, phishing, ransomware, denial of service, among others.
Consumers should be vigilant to keep their phone’s operating system and apps up to date. Any time you provide a personal identifiable information, you should question the legitimacy and applicability. One person or a weakly enforced legislation will not deter poor practices or ill intents. Only through awareness and social encouragement can we protect ourselves against the next identify theft or social engineering attacks.
When it comes to emails or messages on social media, consumers should be mindful about clicking on any links (or any part of the message) sent through any digital communication means. They need to exercise caution and discretion when tempted to interact with such means of communications.
3. What are Check Point’s offerings when it comes to providing its customers with a wholesome security portfolio?
Cybercrime and attacks are on a prowl. Organizations realize the importance of security solutions and the standard security solutions are not strong enough to protect devices and networks in workplaces. The new and modern solutions must detect new and advanced malware and vulnerabilities in networks, operations systems and apps, cloud etc. The security “generation gap’’ identified, needs to be filled by deploying evolved security infrastructures combined with real time threat prevention, shared intelligence and advanced security across all enterprise environments.
Check Point’s Infinity Architecture solution is a fully consolidated cyber security architecture that provides unprecedented protection against Gen V mega-cyber attacks as well as future cyber threats across all networks, endpoint, cloud and mobile. The architecture is designed in a manner that resolves the complexities of growing connectivity and inefficient security.
4. What is your strategy for safeguarding your clients’ data?
Check Point Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Software Blade combines technology and processes to revolutionize DLP, helping businesses to preemptively protect sensitive information from unintentional loss, educating users on proper data handling policies and empowering them to remediate incidents in real-time.
KEY BENEFITS
- Prevents data loss of critical business information: UserCheck technology empowers users to remediate incidents in real time.
- Combines technology and processes to make DLP work: Innovative MultiSpect data classification engine combines users, content and process that deliver unrivalled accuracy.
- Easy deployment for immediate data loss prevention: Protect sensitive data from day-1 with pre-configured policies and the broadest support for file formats and data types.
