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The Official Cyber Security Summit took place on March 23, 2023, in New York City at the Sheraton Times Square, bringing together IT executives, cybersecurity professionals and providers from around the globe to educate in cyber protection, defense, and mitigating the risks of attacks. Having gone hybrid due to COVID in the last few years, the summit this time around was fully live allowing for in-person interactions, educational sessions, and a vendor showcase. This year, a reported 800+ registrants and attendees made up a busy vendor showcase and education forum.
Hot topics and themes of the show:
- Phishing and ransomware continue to be the top culprits for cybercrime
- Artificial intelligence (AI) is being used in a variety of cyber solutions to analyze and detect security breaches—in opposition, AI is being used to mimic humans and our language patterns to offer more sophistication to scams
- Countless security tools and solutions create challenges in administration as well as control of vendors, partners, and tools; further, assurances that each will communicate as part of an overall security policy and program
Cybersecurity Is National Security, Cyber Risk Is Business Risk
According to Michael DeNicola of the New York Cyber Branch of the FBI, cyberattacks now emanate from around the world and are increasing in number and growing in technical sophistication. The FBI collects data and analyzes trends in cybercrimes to predict future occurrences, utilizing the Internet Crime Complaint Center as a central hub for the reporting of cybercrime. Through the IC3 website, more than 800,000 complaints of cyber and internet crime were reported in 2022 alone. While the number of complaints may have declined slightly, the value of losses is significant at an estimated $10.3 billion, which is a significant increase from prior years and is likely higher due to the amount of unreported cybercrime.
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As cybercrime develops and becomes more sophisticated, organizations must continue to educate themselves and be vigilant against these threats. The initiation of fraudulent occurrences often begins with business users at the desktop, falling victim to email phishing scams, also known as a BEC or business email compromise. The result can not only hurt one business but other businesses associated with the hacked organization, too. Once inside an organization, cybercriminals can wreak havoc.
Daily news stories profile well-known companies dealing with cyberattacks. For instance, in January of this year, T-Mobile once again fell victim to a data breach, having affected some 37 million customers. While the breach was discovered in January, the intruders were thought to have been in the company’s systems for months. T-Mobile is said to have suffered from at least five data breaches since 2018, despite having invested millions in securing their systems.
What Does Keypoint Intelligence Research Say?
According to recent Keypoint Intelligence Primary Research as well as a white paper on Managed IT Services, cybersecurity is the top reported IT and operational challenge—and every IT decision maker interviewed indicated that their company outsources at least one cybersecurity area. As part of this research, we quickly understood that security is not just one “thing” but a spectrum with a wide variety of challenges and, often, tailored security solutions.
For many services providers as well as dealers, adding security capabilities to the portfolio can align with customers who are looking for added capabilities and offerings to what is required from their business. Today’s customers are well informed and will vet services of a prospective provider to feel confident in who they will be working with. Customers are contacting managed services providers (MSPs) to get the best help possible to take some of the burden, or all of it, off their internal IT specialists—their expectations are high, to say the least.
On the buyer side organizations must develop, redevelop, and continuously iterate a security strategy. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to cybersecurity. Preparation and planning for the unexpected are vital—and once security measures and solutions are introduced, organizations must constantly test their environment and security solutions. A common theme echoed throughout the event, directly to IT professionals, was the genuine vulnerability of their users. Be persistent and actively educate everyone in the organization on best practices, it is key to forming responsible employees and a safer environment. Simple task changes such as utilizing multi-factor authentication (MFA) can make a huge difference in ensuring protection. However, if you are breached, the best offense is a good defense. Having the right partnerships and solutions in place to mitigate such an event is crucial. If a bad actor gets into your system, businesses will be left in a better position the quicker they detect, respond, and remove the threat. Lastly, inform your local FBI of the breach, no matter how benign or minor it may seem.
Keypoint Intelligence Opinion
The NY Cyber Security Summit is one of many events dedicated to informing and educating cyber professionals on the evolving threat landscape. Cybercrime is growing in intensity and complexity, while many IT budgets are flat or stretched. More than ever, managed IT services providers are expanding their portfolios and increasing skills in cybersecurity to meet the increasing needs of customers.
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