Page 218 - Cyber Defense eMagazine Special RSA Conference Annual Edition for 2022

Securing Your Organization During Global

Turmoil

Repelling Cyber Criminals Trying to Capitalize on a Crisis

By Kevin Orr, President, RSA Federal

Current geopolitical crises unfolding around the globe have far-reaching implications. In just a few short
months, we have seen change on a global scale, impacting people, business and society as a whole.
Unfortunately, it is this type of environment in which cyber criminals thrive. As a result, organizations
today must quickly adapt to new market dynamics, evolving partner and customer relationships and
changing business operations during these turbulent times.

At its infancy, the landscape of data security was fairly simple, allowing for an open-door system of
exploration, protected from hackers by firewalls and other, relatively standard, cybersecurity measures.
However, as personal data became more and more omnipresent in the digital landscape, so too did
mining and theft of it. As a result, certain aspects of protection did not keep up, leaving personal data and
information more easily accessible for cyber criminals to collect and exploit. Today, the current
geopolitical crisis combined with the increases in always-on access brought on by trends like remote
work and the potential for everybody to interact with anybody has created a much more complex
landscape. This complexity has also enabled opportunity for data to be compromised, creating an
inherent need for enhanced cybersecurity measures to secure the copious amount of data and
information that is disseminated online.

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