Cybersecurity insurance is normally an effective way for businesses to protect themselves from the financial impacts of ransomware. But a recent “sophisticated cybersecurity attack” against CNA Financial, one of the top 10 cyber insurance firms in the U.S., potentially provided a gold mine of confidential policyholder information to the attacker.
CNA Financial is “unable” to say whether any data was stolen, but if it was, the ransomware operator now knows which companies have applied for or hold cyber insurance policies through CNA, the scope of their coverage, and the limits of deductibles. Talk about an unfair negotiating advantage for future attacks.
CNA Financial is just the latest victim in a long string of high-profile cyberattacks targeting everyone from computer manufacturer Acer to major universities, including the Stanford School of Medicine and the University of California.
The big takeaway from these attacks is that no organization—no matter how large or how technology-savvy—can afford to be passive when it comes to cybersecurity and data protection.
Today’s cybercriminals are committed to their craft, and they are willing to exploit whatever weaknesses they can to get access to sensitive data they can sell or hold for ransom.
For example, in the early days of the COVID-19 health crisis, phishing scams preyed on people’s fears and uncertainties using pandemic-themed emails with malicious links to articles promising answers and reassurance.
Now that employees are slowly going back to their physical offices, phishers and ransomware operators are targeting these workers with official-looking surveys or health notices from HR.
Additionally, the world is becoming more and more reliant on connected devices and IoT/edge computing, which compounds and complicates data security even more.
Today’s IT environments are complex. It’s tough to protect against security threats, data loss, and disruptions when you are also juggling multiple processes, third-party vendors, IT infrastructures, and distributed teams.
Each of these moving parts broadens the organization’s attack surface and decreases visibility into your systems.
It’s hard to protect what you can’t see, which is why an integrated, all-in-one approach to cybersecurity and data protection provides a much higher level of security than many disparate systems and infrastructures struggling to work effectively together.
In 2019, the world’s most experienced data protection provider joined forces with a global leader in network and endpoint security to create a new generation of integrated cybersecurity and data protection technology: Arcserve solutions secured by Sophos.
Collectively, these solutions deliver the most comprehensive set of technologies available with a consumer-grade user experience.
Arcserve solutions remove many data protection challenges by eliminating the complexity of multiple tools and management interfaces, letting you manage all of the solution’s robust capabilities from anywhere in the world with a few clicks on a single management interface.
With industry-leading support for customers and partners from one of the most experienced data protection teams out there, Arcserve delivers peace of mind with all of our Sophos-powered solutions:
Arcserve backup appliances eliminate standalone, discrete products for threat prevention, ransomware disaster recovery, and application availability.
Arcserve UDP Secured by Sophos delivers comprehensive data protection and cybersecurity for your critical backup infrastructure.
Drastically improve service delivery by deploying a fully managed service extension to Arcserve’s data protection software and appliances.
Ransomware is undoubtedly here to stay. And, unfortunately, it’s only going to get harder to detect and more expensive to remediate.
Honestly, it’s hard not to feel helpless when even an InfoSec firm like Qualys falls victim to a double extortion ransomware attack. But the good news is that you don’t have to sit around and wait to be a victim.
To learn how to elevate your cybersecurity and data protection game, download Your Guide to a Ransomware-Free Future for more best practices and additional ways to improve your long-term ransomware strategy.