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As renewable energy generation expands across the US, the federal government is becoming more concerned about vulnerabilities in new systems being a target for cyberattacks.  The US FBI recently warned the US private sector and individual owners of renewable power of the potential for hacks, saying that reductions in the cost of implementing energy infrastructure and increased clean energy incentives will not only attract investors but also the attention of cybercriminals.

Government incentives,

Cybersecurity is vital to the maritime industry, and yet vulnerabilities are increasingly being exploited by criminals.  Below are two examples of recent cyberattacks against Gard, as well as our key recommendations to prevent losses.

Successful cyber-attacks can have serious consequences, such as operational disruptions, data leakage and financial losses. It is therefore important to raise awareness and improve security measures among maritime stakeholders, including crew members, operators, an

Chinese-linked hackers have snooped around critical US infrastructure and have put themselves in a position to attack at “the right moment,” FBI director Christopher Wray ominously warned.  Speaking at the 2024 Vanderbilt Summit on Modern Conflict and Emerging Threats, Wray underscored that the bureau and other federal authorities have been scrambling behind the scenes to counter the threat, which he said is “upon us now.”  “The PRC [People’s Republic of China] has made it clear that it consider

Cyber-attacks targeting Web3 cost organizations $1.84bn in 2023 across 751 incidents, according to Certik’s Hack3d: The Web3 Security Report 2023.  The average cost per incident was $2.45m in 2023.  However, there was a wide disparity between the losses suffered, with the 10 most costly attacks alone accounting for $1.11bn. The highest costs occurred in Q3, where $686.5m was lost from 183 hacks.

The report, which examined hacks, scams, and exploits in the entire Web3 industry, found there was a

The reliability and security of the power grid have become increasingly important topics in recent years.  With the dependence on electricity growing and new threats emerging, it is crucial to ensure that our lights stay on, especially for critical infrastructure like the military.  This article explores the risks the power grid faces and the potential consequences if it were compromised.

Research and Reporting:  According to industry experts, the power grid is vulnerable to both physical and cy

Politically-motivated hackers from all over the world have leapt into the escalating conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas.  Hacktivists are using tactics similar to what was seen at the beginning of the Ukraine-Russia war: leaking stolen documents and launching distributed denial-of-service and defacement attacks on government websites, media outlets, and critical infrastructure.[1]

The recent surge in hacktivism comes on the heels of the Red Cross issuing ethical guidelines f

Cyber-attacks and crimes are no ‘new’ news.  However, with more of our information being shared online than ever before, we might be more vulnerable than we might like to believe.  A 2020 report suggests that cyberattacks on infrastructure were the fifth top risk of the year.  Not only that but it is expected that the cost of cybercrimes might reach $10.5 trillion dollars by 2025.

These numbers are alarming, and for us to better understand the tremendous impact that cyber-attacks might have on c

A newly identified espionage operation run by hackers linked to China’s government has targeted dozens of organizations in Taiwan since the middle of 2021.  Microsoft on Thursday attributed the campaign to a previously unidentified group it named Flax Typhoon.  The goal of the campaign is to not only perform espionage on targeted Taiwanese entities but “maintain access to organizations across a broad range of industries for as long as possible,” the tech giant said.

The group is mainly targeting

According to IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report 2022, the global average total cost of a data breach increased by USD 0.11 million to USD 4.35 million in 2022, the highest it's been in the history of this report.  The increase from USD 4.24 million in the 2021 report to USD 4.35 million in the 2022 report represents a 2.6% increase.

See:  https://www.ibm.com/reports/data-breach

In addition to the financial costs the US Government has additional timed reporting planned for all publicly held compa

Companies in Finland are increasingly the target of cyber-attacks, Finnish authorities said last week.  Firms are reporting an uptick in cyber-attacks, the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency (Traficom[1]) and the Finnish Security and Intelligence Service (SUPO[2]) said in a joint press conference.  But despite the greater frequency of corporate cyber-attacks, the agencies said an event that could paralyze systems in Finland was highly unlikely.

The SUPO chief reported that Russia is inc

A pro-Russian hacking group is claiming responsibility for cyber-attacks on several hospitals in the United States.  The attack came just days after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said it took down a ransomware group that was also targeting hospitals in what was called “The Hive” attack.

The US Attorney General says they’ve seen how cyber-attacks on medical facilities can be very disruptive.  “The Hive ransomware attack was able to prevent the hospital from accepting new patients,” th

A major insurance company is seriously re-thinking insuring for cyber-attacks.  As cyber-attacks continue to grow, they will become “uninsurable,” the CEO of Europe’s Zurich Insurance said.  The Financial Times broke the story earlier this week predicting that cyber-attacks could pose a larger threat to insurers than systemic issues like pandemics and climate change.  “What will become uninsurable is going to be cyber,” Zurich said. “What if someone takes control of vital parts of our infrastruc

A Russian official threatened the West on 08 June 2022, asserting that a “direct military clash” could result if Western governments continue to mount cyberattacks against its infrastructure.  “The militarization of the information space by the West and attempts to turn it into an arena of interstate confrontation, have greatly increased the threat of a direct military clash with unpredictable consequences,” the Russian foreign ministry’s head of international information security said in a stat

Ever since the beginning of the Internet Age, the potential to weaponize digital technologies as tools of international aggression has been known.  This was exposed by Russia’s 2007 cyber-attack on Estonia, which was widely recognized as the first such act by one state against another.  In 2016, NATO officially recognized cyberspace as a field of military operations alongside the more traditional domains of land, sea and air.

The current Russia-Ukraine War demonstrates the next major milestone i

A rise in any price by 92% hurts.  That's real cash like money.  This is the kind of thing that starts cutting into your whole cyber budget.  The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) recently reported, "Many US cyber insurers dramatically increased their rates during 2021, alarmed by a rash of cyber-attacks that struck companies around the world and drew the attention of national governments.  Data from regulatory filings and collated by ratings agencies shows that among the largest insurers, direct writte

Several days ago, our friends at FortiGuard Labs shared a valuable check list considering the current Ukrainian crisis.  We would like to share with our readers and thank Fortinet.   With Russian military operations currently underway in Ukraine, the question of whether cyber warfare will also be employed remains unanswered.  While researchers have seen cases of destructive cyber actions focused on Ukraine, at this point specific attribution is not possible. 

As a result of these actions, there

Considering the sensitive information it holds, it is no wonder that the financial services industry continues to be one of the most targeted critical infrastructure sectors by current cyber-criminals.  Recent societal and technological changes during 2021 have made matters worse.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has created a ripe target field for cyberthreats as industries and individuals alike became vulnerable as they wrestled with remote working practices, mass digital disruption, and widening

The US government is working to draw attention to supply chain vulnerabilities, an issue that received particular attention late last year after suspected Russian hackers gained access to federal agencies and private corporations by sneaking malicious code into widely used software. 

The US National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC) recently warned that foreign hackers are increasingly targeting vendors and suppliers that work with the government to compromise their products in an e

As Maritime technology progresses, towage vessels (tugboats) and their crews are increasingly connected to online services during operations, increasing their vulnerability to cyber threats, malware, viruses, and hackers.  These cyber security concerns were raised by the US based Maritime Transportation System (MTS) - Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC)[1] after a tugboat fell victim to a phishing email.  This was the first time a tugboat reported receiving this type of phishing email

Ransomware attacks have matured over the years, adopting more stealthy and sophisticated techniques, while at the same time fixing many of the implementation errors that earlier iterations had.  Many attacks are now gaining a new data leak component, which exposes companies to more than the traditional data loss associated with ransomware.  The trends observed by researchers over the past year indicate that these attacks are not going away and are likely to increase in frequency.  With the adven