In the wake of the recent spate of cyberattacks our expert professional and managed security services team Cynergy, share their insight on the the destructive malware operation that has taken down more than a dozen organisation websites and share their guidance on how to ensure organisations can better their chances against an attack.
The new year not only brought a new start for many but also a new cyberattack, this time it was the websites of various Ukrainian government, not-for-profit and information technology organisations that suffered. At this moment in time there has been no conclusive proof as to who is responsible, but it has been widely reported that this incident is not too dissimilar to the ruinous NotPetya attack in 2017 and the cyber-attacks against Georgia against in 2019.
According to Microsoft this malware attack has focused on the destruction of data and not ransomware, although if you were to look in detail you would find a ransom note, a single Bitcoin wallet payment, and a single Tox ID giving the impression it was!
To date the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) have not identified any current threats in the UK and have urged UK organisations to bolster their cyber security resilience in response to this new cyberattack.
In line with their guidance, our Cynergy team recommend taking following the below actionable steps:
- Scan for vulnerabilities and ensure the patching of systems
- Increase staff education to help protect organisations against phishing attacks
- Review your organisation’s access controls and enable multi-factor authentication
- Implement (and test) an effective incident response plan
- Check that backup and restore processes/mechanisms are working as intended
- Ensure that online defences are working as expected
- Keep up to date with the latest threat and mitigation information
Should you require any further advice on reducing the cyber risk within your organisation please get in touch with us below or speak to us via our live chat at the bottom right of this page.