{"id":2716,"date":"2020-11-10T19:12:45","date_gmt":"2020-11-10T19:12:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fbijohn.com\/index.php\/2020\/11\/10\/the-cyber-threat-landscape-will-get-worse-before-and-if-it-gets-better\/"},"modified":"2024-01-15T13:15:29","modified_gmt":"2024-01-15T13:15:29","slug":"the-cyber-threat-landscape-will-get-worse-before-and-if-it-gets-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fbijohn.com\/the-cyber-threat-landscape-will-get-worse-before-and-if-it-gets-better\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cyber Threat Landscape Will Get Worse Before (and IF) It Gets Better"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
With October Cybersecurity Awareness Month at the halfway point, it is important to note that cyber-thieves and ID theft criminals never rest and continue to stay ahead of law enforcement, businesses, and consumers. <\/p>\n\n\n
Cybersecurity Awareness Month<\/a>\u00a0was launched by the National Cyber Security Alliance & the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in October 2004 \u2013 with a mission to educate consumers, small and medium-sized businesses, corporations, and colleges.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n Based on the above, now is a great time for consumers and businesses to evaluate their cybersecurity posture<\/a> \u2013 especially during the COVID-19 environment \u2013 with a focus on response and recovery. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Why response and recovery? Because consumers and employees continue to click on phishing emails, organizations continue to experience data breach events such as ransomware<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n Two recent examples include Blackbaud (Blackbaud Ransomware Attack Gets Worse<\/a>) and Twitter (Twitter Hackers Posed as Company IT Officials Making a Support Call<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n Blackbaud \u2013 a cloud technology company, confirmed in early October that \u201cstolen data also included bank account data and Social Security numbers, far more personally identifiable information than the company first thought.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Specific to Twitter, the New York State Department of Financial Services released its findings and concluded: “The hack was relatively unsophisticated, caused by scammers who posed as members of Twitter’s IT help desk and directed employees to a phishing website designed to look like a company site.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n Blackbaud is your typical data breach example where their first statement on July 16, 2020, said while they were hacked, \u201cthat credit card information,<\/em> bank account information, or Social Security numbers were not stolen.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fast forward 60 days later, Blackbaud now admits that their data breach \u201chad access to more unencrypted data than previously disclosed, including bank account information, Social Security numbers, usernames and\/or passwords.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Unfortunately, the final story for most data breaches rarely reflects the initial news report and speaks of what’s known at the moment, but never discusses the long-term \u2013 which is exactly what happened to Blackbaud and Twitter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n