Palo Alto Networks CEO, Nikesh Arora, recently joined the CNBC segment ‘Closing Bell’ where he expressed his concerns about cybersecurity. Mr Arora referred to the current conflicts between Russia and Ukraine as both an act of economical and cyber warfare.
In the CNBC interview Mr Arora said, "I’ve never been worried about cybersecurity more than now."
He also expressed that he thought the conflict was unlikely to settle down anytime soon and predicted that ransomware attacks will hit the $50m benchmark with organisation's focusing on their cybersecurity posture and in turn channeling their funding toward thoughtful strategy.
Palo Alto Networks are constantly monitoring the evolving conflicts between Russia and the Ukraine and have stated, “There is no way to know for certain what shape an attack may take, but taking a number of steps will help provide broad protection against what we expect to come.”
"And although this environment is constantly changing, Palo Alto Networks continue to release new threat intelligence and deployment protection advice to reflect findings." To listen to the CNBC interview click here.
To support organisation's against the latest cyber threats and attacks Palo Alto Networks have provided the following steps your business can take to prepare.
1. Patch all internet facing and business-critical software
Patch any software containing vulnerabilities, especially for those internet-facing and necessary for business operations. Examples include; webmail, VPNs and other remote access solutions.
2. Prepare for ransomware and/or data destruction
Brace your organisation for ransomware or those disguised as destructive attacks. Ransomare demands jumped 144% in 2021. To download the 2022 Unit 42 Ransomware Threat report click here.
3. Ensure a quick response is prepared
Organisation's should designate key contacts across the organisation, particularly those in key areas as a way to prepare for critical infrastructure disruption or cybersecurity incident.
4. Lock down the network
Successful attacks can be prevented even through small policy changes. For example, scans can be used to detect early indicators of compromise (IoCs) and decrease the time between updates, whilst performing gap analysis across major threat vectors to signify areas in need of prioritisation.
The latest cybersecurity information including research, best practices, mitigations, and threat intelligence is being released from the Unit 42 blog. You can access the blog here.
You can also access the Palo Alto Networks Resource Centre to get updates on the evolving threat landscape and sign up for live threat briefings via the Resource centre to support your business during these unpredictable times.