Is Your Business Prepared for a Potential Russian Cyberwar?

As Russia continues its invasion of Ukraine, people and countries around the world are condemning their actions. As of now, Russia seems to be keeping its focus on Ukraine, but that may change. Given the various sanctions that countries, including the United States, are placing on them, Russia may want to retaliate in some way. In the event of a direct war between Russia and the United States (or any of our allies), it is almost certain that Russia would launch a major cyberwar against the U.S.

This may be an overt attack or something that they try to keep hidden. Either way, every business needs to make sure that they are prepared for a potential Russian cyberwar by putting a data security management plan in place.

Cyberwars do not exclusively target military agencies; Russia could also launch a broad attack on all digital assets in the United States, which could very well include regular businesses.

The incentive for attacking a business would be that a successful hack would allow them to obtain the personal information of its employees and customers. This in turn could open the door to identity theft and access to the financial accounts of these individuals. They could also install ransomware.

All of this would amount to an attack on the financial systems of the United States, which is why all businesses need to make sure that they are ready for this type of threat.

Creating a Digital Risk Management Plan

To protect your business, you will want to make sure that you have evaluated your technology and taken measures to make sure that your data is as secure as possible. Some of the specific areas that you need to analyze include:

• Password Management – Making sure that your employees are using strong passwords and changing them on a regular basis is the first line of defense against almost all types of cyberattacks.
• Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) – Make sure you set up MFA, especially for remote access and access to privileged and administrative access to your systems.
• Access Control – Each employee account on your systems should only have the right to perform the specific tasks that are needed for their job. Limiting access based on need will help to minimize the damage a compromised account could cause.
• Network Security – Keeping your network safe through the use of firewalls, intrusion detection, and other tools will help to keep unauthorized access away from your systems.
• Backup Routines – Keeping your key files backed up on a secure system will allow you to restore the data should something happen. There are many types of backup technology out there, so make sure to choose the one that will provide you with the level of protection you require. The frequency with which you perform backups should also be considered, whether it is done once a day, three times a day, or even more often. This will depend on the nature of the data your business deals with—the volume of data it receives daily, the rate at which that data is received, and other factors.
  Backups should be tested to make sure that viable data can be extracted from them.
• Data Recovery Plans – When a system is compromised, you need to be able to restore it from a safe backup point very quickly, and in the proper sequence. Having a team of people who know how to perform data restoration and can help you define a robust recovery plan is critical. These plans should define workarounds for key business functions, even manual ones, that will allow your company to resume doing business after an event. They should also be rigorously tested.

Bottom line, the risk of a Russian cyberwar is a wake-up call for all businesses to have a robust data security management plan.

Performing a Risk Assessment

It can be extremely difficult for you to perform a good risk assessment on your own company. Having an experienced IT services company with data security expertise perform an assessment will help you get honest and objective results. The assessment process can include things like penetration testing, analyzing system settings, and much more.

 

Implementing Effective Data Security Solutions

Once you have had a data security management firm analyze your systems, they will provide you with recommendations on how to improve your security. At this point, you will need to implement the various data security solutions that they identify. This can be done by your own internal IT team, or you can have experienced consultants come in to take care of it for you.

 

Working with Experienced Data Security Management Professionals

If you want to make sure that your systems are safe from Russian cyberwar attacks, or any other type of hacking attempt, you need to have experienced data security management professionals available to help you. For many companies, working with knowledgeable consultants is the best way to get industry-leading security experts at a price that is easily affordable.

 

Want to Learn More?

GSDSolutions provides IT support in the Bay Area and the Central Valley to help clients fully utilize technology resources and reduce the risk of cyberattacks and data breaches. Our affordable and predictable cost model can be tailored to the fit the needs of any size business, and our proactive approach to cybersecurity will significantly reduce your vulnerability to hackers.

 

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