THE ANTI-DOTE FOR CYBER THREATS IS THIS

What are the trends to worry about when it comes to cyberattacks? And how to be ready to fight them? Why does 'knowing your enemy' matter?

- Pratima H

Ask any good toxicologist about the most potent poison in the world and the answer would, somehow, boil down to this adage - Anything can turn into poison in the right dose. So says Balaji Rao, Country Manager - India & SAARC, Mandiant, a player in dynamic cyber defense and response space, when he warns us about the wrong use of cloud or new technology investments. He may not be an expert in toxicology, but he can surely smell a bad odour or reaction when it comes to the attacks on any organisation's cyber immune system. Let's see what's mushrooming in this world today.

A lot of studies have come out on what has damaged cybersecurity defence last year? But if you were to look ahead, can you see what's coming?

We see an evolving landscape here. The last few years have not been easy. There has been a lot of exposure and lot of factors have emerged. Specially geo-political factors. The latest Russia-Ukraine situation and the stance that other countries have taken remind us of how a war can start with a cyber-attack. We can envisage the unprecedented danger of cyber threats. I see that cyber-attacks are a very strong weapon - in a global sense, now. It is quite alarming and companies need to be prepared for that.

Are there any new patterns that we need to be wary of?

According to Mandiant Special Report M-Trends 2022, when the initial infection vector was identified, supply chain compromise accounted for 17 per cent of intrusions in 2021. This stood at less than one per cent in 2020. Note that organizations in APAC were notified by an external entity in 76 per cent of intrusions in 2021 compared to 48 per cent of intrusions in 2020. But we also see that the global median dwell time continued to improve in 2021 with organizations now detecting intrusions in three weeks.