Risk from artificial intelligence vectors presents a growing concern among security professionals in 2023.
As CISOs work to future proof their cybersecurity strategy and infrastructure for tomorrow's emerging threats, artificial intelligence (AI) attacks are looming large in their thoughts. Even without the hype that's billowed around ChatGPT and generative AI's skyrocketing popularity, AI risk has started to unfold as a growing concern among security researchers and pundits in 2023.
A new report from Proofpoint provides global insight into CISOs' challenges, expectations and priorities for 2023.
According to a new survey of 1,600 chief information security officers from around the world by cybersecurity company Proofpoint, 68% of respondents feel their organization is at risk of being attacked in the next 12 months, with 25% of them rating that risk as very likely. The year before, only 48% believed a cyberattack would hit them within the next year.
Geographically speaking, the most concerned CISOs are located in the U.K. (84%), Germany (83%) and Singapore (80%), with the U.S. being at 73%. Regarding the business verticals, CISOs in retail (77%), manufacturing (76%) and finance (71%) feel the most concerned about cyberattacks.
Cybersecurity is a huge concern. Businesses and individuals stand to lose a lot of time and money in the event of an unauthorized exposure or corruption of sensitive data. And lately, these types of attacks have started impacting businesses that affect the entire population.
For example, the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack in 2021 led to the shutdown of a crucial pipeline system that supplied about 45% of the east coast's fuel. Operations didn't resume until an unknown amount-likely in the millions of dollars-was paid to the attackers.
These types of incidents involving high-profile organizations are, unfortunately, all too common. The San Francisco 49ers were hit with a ransomware attack that exposed information about 21,000 people. And the Glenn County Office of Education in California experienced a ransomware attack that cost it $400,000.
In today's interconnected world, operational technology (OT) systems play a crucial role in industries such as manufacturing, energy, and transportation. However, with increased connectivity comes the risk of cyber threats targeting these critical infrastructures.
To effectively safeguard OT systems, organizations must employ robust security measures, including threat intelligence. This article explores the role of threat intelligence in OT security, highlighting best practices and providing insightful use cases to demonstrate its effectiveness in mitigating risks and protecting vital industrial operations.
New Specops Software research has unearthed the length of time it takes modern attackers to brute force user passwords. Plain text password storage is rare in these modern times, requiring attackers to adopt password cracking methods to make use of the majority of (hashed) password leaks.
However, with the help of newer password-cracking hardware and software, the time to crack passwords is now considerably short.
Darren James, Senior Product Manager at Specops Software, states 'the recent headline-making news of the possibilities of AI have some security researchers and IT teams wondering what this technology means for password security. We've long known that passwords are vulnerable to brute force cracking attempts. Recent advancements in automation and hardware have made these attacks all the more accessible for today's cybercriminals.'
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