Top Reasons State and Local Governments Are Targeted in Cyberattacks

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Ransomware attacks affected at least 948 U.S. government entities in 2019 and cost local and state governments over $18 billion in 2020. These agencies are prime targets for cyberattacks. Their dispersed nature, the complexity of their networks, the vast amounts of valuable personal data they process and store, and their limited budget prevent them from staying current with the latest best practices.

Strengthening your defense starts with understanding the top reasons why threat actors choose to target state and local governments. Then, implement the latest technologies and best practices to protect your organization from attacks.

Reason 1: The Vast Number of Local and State Government Agencies

There are 89,004 local governments in the U.S., plus numerous special districts and school districts. That equates to 2.85 million civilian federal employees and 18.83 million state and local government employees — each representing a potential target for threat actors.

Since it takes only one person to click on one malicious link or attachment to infect the entire system with ransomware, the large number of people who have access to sensitive data makes government entities prime targets for social engineering attacks.

Moreover, the dispersed nature of these networks makes it extremely challenging for government agencies to gain visibility of all the data and activities. When one agency suffers an attack, there are no procedures or methods to alert others, coordinate incident response plans, or prevent the same attack from happening to other entities.

Reason 2: These Agencies Process Valuable Personal Information

How much personal data have you shared with state and local government agencies? Somewhere in their dispersed systems reside your social security number, home addresses, phone numbers, driver’s license information, health records, etc. The information is attractive to cybercriminals because they can sell it on the dark web or use it for identity theft.

Many of these agencies also hire contractors and sub-contractors to handle their computer systems or process user data. The more people with access to the data, the larger the attack surface — creating more opportunities for supply chain attacks where criminals target less secure vendors to infiltrate their systems.

Without the know-how or resources to partition their data or implement access control, many government agencies leave their door wide open for criminals to access their entire database. All malicious actors have to do is target one of the many people who can access any part of their systems.

Reason 3: They Can’t Afford Security Experts and Advanced Tools

Almost 50 percent of local governments say their IT policies and procedures don’t align with industry best practices. One major hurdle is that they don’t have the budget to offer wages that can compete with the private sector and a workplace culture to attract and retain qualified IT and cybersecurity professionals.

Meanwhile, cybercriminals are evolving their attack methods at breakneck speed. Organizations must adopt cutting-edge cybersecurity software to monitor their systems and detect intrusions. Unfortunately, the cost of these advanced tools is out of reach for many government entities due to their limited budgets.

Moreover, political considerations and bureaucracy further hamstring these organizations. The slow speed of many governmental and funding approval processes makes preparing for and responding to fast-changing cybersecurity threats even more challenging.

Reason 4: IoT Adoption Complicates the Picture

From smart building technology and digital signage to trash collection and snow removal, Internet of Things (IoT) tools, mobile devices, and smart technologies play an increasingly vital role in the day-to-day operations of local governments.

While these technologies help promote cost-efficiency and sustainability, they also increase the attack surface and give hackers more opportunities to breach a local government’s systems and networks —  if it fails to implement the appropriate security measures.

Unfortunately, many agencies jump into buying new technologies without implementing proper security protocols. Not all agencies require IoT devices to perform their functions. You should therefore balance the cost and benefits, along with the security implications, to make the right decisions.

How Government Agencies Can Protect Themselves Against Cyberattacks

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. The most cost-effective way to avoid the high costs of ransomware attacks and data breaches is to follow the latest cybersecurity best practices. Here’s what state and local governments should implement to stay safe:

  • Complete visibility into your entire IT infrastructure to provide a comprehensive view into all the possible hybrid network access points to understand what’s connected to your network and what data and files are most at risk. This way, you can prioritize your data security resources.
  • Intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDS and IPS) protect your wired and wireless networks by identifying and mitigating threats (e.g., malware, spyware, viruses, worms), suspicious activities, and policy violations.
  • A mobile device management (MDM) solution allows administrators to monitor and configure the security settings of all devices connected to your network. Admins can also manage the network from a centralized location to support remote working and the use of mobile and IoT devices.
  • Access control protocols support a zero-trust policy to ensure that only compliant devices and approved personnel can access network assets through consistent authentication and authorization, such as multi-factor authentication (MFA) and digital certificates.
  • Strong spam filters and email security solutions protect end users from phishing messages and authenticate all inbound emails to fence off social engineering scams.
  • Cybersecurity awareness training for all employees and contractors helps build a security-first culture and makes cybersecurity a shared responsibility, which is particularly critical for fending off social engineering and phishing attacks.
  • A backup and disaster recovery plan protects agencies against data loss and ransomware attacks by ensuring operations don’t grind to a halt even if you suffer an attack.

Final Thoughts: Managing the Many Moving Parts of Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is an ongoing endeavor, and it starts with building a solid foundation and knowing what and who is in your systems.

You must map your networks, take inventory of every device, and know where all your data is (including the cloud) to gain a bird’s-eye view of what your security strategy must address. Next, assess your security posture, evaluate your network against your policies, and prioritize resources to address the highest-risk vulnerabilities. Also, you must continuously monitor network activities and potential attack paths to achieve constant visibility, prioritize your efforts, and meet compliance standards.

State and local governments worldwide trust RedSeal to help them build digital resilience. Request a demo to see how we can help you gain visibility of all network environments to jumpstart your cybersecurity journey.

Tales from the Trenches: Vol 9 — The Law of Unintended Consequences, OR Some Doors Swing Both Ways

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Since 2004, RedSeal has helped our customers See and Secure their entire complex network. And while those customers may have understood the value of understanding their environment, how it was connected and see what’s at risk, there is often an “Aha” moment when the true significance is clear. The stories of these moments are lore within the walls of RedSeal. But these tales so clearly illustrate the value of RedSeal beyond just theory that we think they’re worth sharing. In the words of our team in the field, the ones working directly with our customers, this blog series will share the moments where it all gets real.

In this edition of the series Bill Burge, RedSeal Professional Services, explains how RedSeal can show you ALL the access from a network change, not just the one access you are expecting.

The Law of Unintended Consequences, OR Some Doors Swing Both Ways

“The law of unintended consequences” states that the more complex the system, the greater the chance that there is no such thing as a small change.

While working with a customer in the early days of my RedSeal Professional Services tenure, I looked for an opportunity to prove the capability of Zones & Policies. In an unfamiliar environment, the easy starting point is creating a policy that examines the access from “Internet to all internal subnets.”

It is easy to setup and easy to discuss the results, UNLESS the results say that most of the Internet can get to most of the internal network.

I thought “I MUST have done something wrong!” I got the impression that the customer felt the same thing, even though neither of us came right out and said it. So, I tore into it.

Using some ad hoc access queries and Detailed Path queries, we figured out the problem and why.

After looking into it, thinking something was amiss, it turned out that RedSeal was RIGHT. It seems there had been a pair of firewall rules for DNS requests:
SRC: inside, SRC PORT: any, DST: outside, DST PORT: 53, PROTOCOL: UDP
(and for the responses)
SRC: outside, SRC PORT: 53, DST: inside, DST PORT: any, PROTOCOL: UDP

At some point, because DNS resolutions got large enough that the responses did not fit in a single UDP packet, DNS needed to include TCP. So, someone simply made a small change and added TCP to each of these rules.

The unintended consequence was that you could reach just about any internal system from the Internet IF you initiated your request from port 53.

After this was verified by the firewall and networking teams, I might have well gone home. Everybody disappeared into meetings to discuss how to fix it, whether it could be done immediately or later that night, etc.

A little time later, I ALMOST felt guilty to point out that they had done pretty much the same thing with NTP, on port 123. (Almost…)

Interested in how RedSeal can help your team? Click here to set up a demo or an introductory call.

Top 4 Cyber Challenges for Credit Unions

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Credit unions continue to be the primary targets of cyberattacks like phishing, ransomware, and supply chain attacks. This is due to the highly confidential nature of the data they collect and store. If this data falls into the wrong hands, the outcome can negatively impact the institution’s reputation, as well as its legal and financial standing.

Cyberattacks aimed at credit unions come at a high cost. Financial loss can range from $190,000 for small credit unions to as high as $1.2 million for large credit unions.

As technology advances, so have the cyber threats targeting credit unions. The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) has continuously encouraged credit unions to “strengthen their institution’s cyber vigilance and preparedness efforts” to protect themselves and their members.

Read on to learn how credit unions can mitigate cybersecurity risks. The key is to first understand the primary threats and then how to reduce their impact.

Cybersecurity Trends in the Finance Sector

Over the last decade, cybercriminals have found creative ways to target credit unions. Attacks have increased in volume and severity, with hacking and malware being deployed to cripple financial institutions. The first half of 2020 saw a 238 percent increase in cyberattacks targeting the finance sector.

Between March and June of 2020, ransomware attacks aimed at banks increased by 520 percent compared to the same period in 2019. A huge spike was also observed in 2021.

In June of this year, several credit unions in Canada discovered evidence of attempted access by unauthorized personnel. A 2020 survey by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) found that 46% of credit unions experienced a cybersecurity incident in the past year. Phishing attacks continue to be a major threat to credit unions, with the NCUA reporting that they accounted for over 50 percent of incidents in 2020.

According to a recent IBM report, the average cost of a data breach in 2022 was $4.35 million. The finance sector is a primary attack target, only second to healthcare organizations, with the average financial breach costing $5.97 million. Credit unions, as a result, are increasingly turning to technology to improve their cybersecurity posture.

Credit unions should also be aware of the risk employees or contractors with access to sensitive information pose to cybersecurity. They can potentially misconfigure servers, networks, and databases and become compromised by hackers. Combating this may involve implementing measures such as keeping an updated inventory of cloud resources, reviewing misconfiguration by identifying unintentionally exposed resources, and reviewing security policies.

With large amounts of money at risk, following cybersecurity best practices can help credit unions stay on top of cyber threats.

Common Cyber Challenges for Credit Unions

Credit unions and financial institutions face a wide range of cybersecurity dangers and challenges —  from hackers looking to exploit loopholes to sophisticated cyber warfare/cyber espionage maneuvers of advanced persistent threat (APT) actors.

Learning about the potential risk factors can help credit unions mitigate these risks.

Here are the most common cybersecurity challenges credit unions should be aware of.

Sophisticated Cyberattacks and Ransomware

A ransomware attack, which involves encrypting files and locking users out of their systems, happens every 11 seconds. Criminals then demand a ransom to release the data. Credit unions must have strategies in place to ensure their systems are protected from such attacks.

Ransomware attacks not only cause credit unions to lose large amounts of money in ransom payments and fines; they also erode consumer trust. In most cases, ransomware attacks happen because employees fall for phishing scams that trick them into downloading suspicious attachments, clicking malicious links, or launching sketchy .exe files.

By regularly assessing and analyzing your entire system, you’re better able to spot any new vulnerabilities and emerging threats. It’s also important to educate employees and customers about cybersecurity best practices so they are equipped to handle various types of cyberattacks.

Supply Chain Interruptions via Third-Party Vendors

Credit unions typically use third-party partners to offer better features and functionalities to their members. Cybercriminals take advantage by attacking less secure software vendors. These vendors then inadvertently deliver malicious code in the form of compromised products or updates, enabling cybercriminals to access the credit institution’s network.

To minimize this risk, credit unions should thoroughly vet vendors before entering into a business partnership with them. They should also scrutinize their security practices and perform regular system updates and maintenance to ensure their existing infrastructure performs optimally for the longest time possible.

Emerging Threats Associated with the Internet of Things (IoT)

Hacking techniques are continuously becoming more sophisticated. IoT adoption is increasing exponentially, and hardware assets connected to the internet such as cameras, printers, sensors, and scanners are becoming a major target of exploitation by cybercriminals.

With over 50 percent of all IoT devices susceptible to severe cyberattacks, credit unions should focus on investing in cybersecurity solutions that make it easier to identify all IoT devices connected to their network. This way, they can easily monitor IoT devices for any security issues and take action before the risks become harder to mitigate.

Shortage of Cybersecurity Skills

The demand for cybersecurity experts, especially among credit unions, is outpacing the supply of qualified professionals. According to the 2022 (ISC)2 Cybersecurity Workforce Study, even with an estimated 4.7 million professionals, there’s still a global shortage of 3.4 million workers in this field. This will affect smaller credit unions as they will find it difficult to hire expertise well-versed in various cloud technologies.

Technical skills such as secure software development, intrusion detection, and attack migration are by far the most valuable skills in this field. Security teams in the credit union space must look for innovative solutions to optimize productivity. This includes identifying security tools and technologies that are easy to use and deploy, providing more opportunities for external training, and identifying solutions that streamline cybersecurity processes.

How Credit Unions Can Strengthen Their Cybersecurity

To ensure your credit union has optimal protection against potential cyberattacks, RedSeal recommends a proactive approach by performing regular cybersecurity assessments to identify any loopholes in your system and also ensure proper defenses are in place. These include having an up-to-date inventory, identifying unintended exposures, and setting a security baseline to meet current and future compliance requirements. It’s also important to establish security protocols that follow industry guidelines and continuously apply security patches and updates to the system.

Working with a prioritized set of risks allows security teams to better allocate resources to areas where they’re needed most.

Want to know more about how you can mitigate cyberattacks in your credit union? Check out this white paper on digital resilience and ransomware protection strategies.

National Cyber Strategy — What We Know So Far

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I’ve run into several folks who wanted to ignore the Biden Administration’s recently announced National Cybersecurity Strategy – “isn’t that just for Federal agencies?”. That would be a dangerously flawed assumption! This is a major shift in strategy, and regardless of how small your organization is, it’s going to change how you get to a secure state, and how you show that you’re doing it.

The administration makes no secret of its goals, even if they are controversial. They openly describe a target of shifting the playing field, and as always, this creates winners and losers. You need to be agile to ensure you’re on the winner side of this equation! The tilted playing field is aiming for two effects. One goal is to change the economic risk/reward so that bad actors think twice. The other is a significant shift in the burden of defense, pushing it up from smaller mom-and-pop scale organizations, transferring it to larger, more capable companies.

Both of these sound great, but somebody somewhere has to pay for all this. There are new spending initiatives included in the strategy, but they are focused more on training of a new generation of cyber talent, not so much on the shifting playing field. To achieve the two goals, then, the strategy relies more on stick than carrot.

If you’re a defender of your organization, you don’t need to worry too much about the stick that will be applied to bad actors – you can just take some comfort in the idea that the government has a renewed emphasis on pursuit, hacking back, and on punishment. But that doesn’t mean you can rest. The strategy specifically calls for increased regulation, and even liability, of online businesses – and this means pressure.

We’ve heard plenty of talk about resilience over the last few years in this industry, but now we’re talking about a requirement for resilience.  This means defenders have to do more than just achieve some reasonable level of security – they also have to be able to show they are effective. We don’t test the resilience of buildings by knocking them down every once in a while, just to see – instead, we inspect plans and demand that architects and builders can show how they know their buildings are safe. Expect this kind of thinking to come home to roost in cybersecurity – not just exhortations to do better, but real requirements to prove resilience.

OK, but if your job is securing an organization that is going to face this increased regulation and liability, what can you do?  It’s no longer enough to just follow compliance check-lists and formalities – that can prove you’ve got a compliance program, but it won’t show resilience.  A check-list attestation is the cybersecurity equivalent of being able to fog a mirror – hardly the same as being able to demonstrate fitness or health!

The new strategy requires resilience – both being resilient, and being able to show it. Resilience means, first and foremost, realizing that incidents will happen, but planning ahead to contain the damage. A resilient army is not one that avoids ever getting into combat – it’s an army that has the resources and planning to bounce back and continue to fight. Likewise, your network needs to be able to bounce back, if you’re to have any hope of meeting the requirements of the new national strategy.

This means you need to map out your whole environment – physical sites and across cloud networks. You need to understand what depends on what, and where attacks can spread.  It’s going to require a complete inventory – a challenging objective in itself – but beyond that, some means to demonstrate that a failure in one part of your environment won’t bring it all down. This is the goal of the strategy – resilience, and ability to demonstrate resilience; for those who cannot, new fines, new regulations, and an uphill battle to compete with those organizations who have resilience plans baked right into their networks.

Fortunately, this shift doesn’t require super-human efforts and endless nights at the keyboard. The effort to map out your environment, and see where there are resilience gaps, is automatable. The new strategy presents a new opportunity to get funding and executive buy-in for better, more efficient resilience planning, as a competitive advantage instead of a burden.

RedSeal’s unique approach – mapping out your whole environment, including on premises and in the cloud, and then finding and prioritizing defensive weaknesses and resilience gaps – is an ideal fit into your response to the National Cybersecurity Strategy. And make no mistake – you will need a response, ready or not. New regulation is coming, new liabilities are coming. These are not designed to punish all market participants – rather, they are designed to shift the playing field in favor of those who can deliver resilience, leaving behind those who are stuck in the past.