Security eMagazines

february 2024

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By Taelor Daugherty, Assistant Editor

Closing the Gap Between Physical and Cybersecurity

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With an increase in in-person work, security leaders have looked into improving their physical security solutions. This could include updating their access control measures, video surveillance or hiring additional security staff.

According to the Genetec State of Physical Security Report, 33% of respondents stated that their physical security systems were on-premises and 67% were cloud or hybrid-cloud. Fifty-five percent of respondents stated that their information technology (IT) department has access to physical security data.

The report found that project delays due to supply chain issues are a bigger problem in the United States and Canada, with 55% of end-users concerned. Globally, 42% faced these delays.

Security leaders are also aware of the connection between physical and cybersecurity. Protecting security systems from cyberattacks and threat actors helps ensure that they’re working properly to protect buildings and employees.

According to the report, cybersecurity issues were prioritized in the responses of “information technology” respondents. The survey data also indicates that they have higher budgets compared to other departments, which could make it easier to focus on cybersecurity measures.

Thirty-one percent of end-users indicated that their organization was targeted by cybercriminals in 2023. In response to cyber threats, 42% of organizations increased deployments of cybersecurity-related tools in their physical security environments in 2023, up from 29% in 2022.

Staffing shortages and supply chain issues were also a concern, according to the report. Thirty-eight percent of respondents are having issues attracting talent and another 38% stated they are also experiencing labor shortages. Half of respondents believe supply chain issues will greatly increase or somewhat increase, while the remainder believe they will stay the same (28%) or somewhat decrease or greatly decrease (22%). This could lead to a number of issues in 2024, as projects may be paused or shut down.

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Phishing Is the Top Attack Method Used by Threat Actors

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The cyber threat landscape is constantly changing with new technology and cyberattack methods. Security leaders have worked to mitigate the risks associated with artificial intelligence (AI) while also working to meet a number of federal regulations and guidelines.

IBM recently released their 2023 X-Force Threat Intelligence Index, analyzing cyberattacks throughout all of 2022. In almost one-quarter of all incidents remediated in 2022, the deployment of backdoors at 21% was the top action on objective.

At 27%, extortion was the clear impact of choice by threat actors, according to the report. Manufacturing accounted for 30% of incidents that resulted in extortion, as cybercriminals continued the trend of exploiting a strained industry.

Phishing remains the leading infection vector, identified in 41% of incidents, followed by exploitation of public-facing applications at 26%. There were twice as many thread hijacking attempts per month in 2022, compared to 2021 data. Ransomware’s share of incidents declined from 21% in 2021 to 17% in 2022.

The number of incidents resulting from vulnerability exploitation in 2022 decreased 19% from 2021, after rising 34% from 2020. The total number of vulnerabilities tracked in 2022 was 23,964 compared to 21,518 in 2021. Industrial control systems (ICS) vulnerabilities discovered in 2022 decreased for the first time in two years — 457 in 2022 compared to 715 in 2021 and 472 in 2020.

Find out more here.