Page 172 - Cyber Defense eMagazine Annual RSA Edition for 2024

attacks”. And while nation states did not cause any disruption, it did find evidence of China and Lebanese
Hizbullah taking steps to influence the election.

With the election on the horizon, recognizing these looming threats will be critical. The landscape is
complex and ever-evolving, marked by ransomware attacks on critical infrastructure, and the shadow of
international geopolitical tensions. Identifying these nuances will be key to grasping the full scope of
challenges that lie ahead.

Ransomware: A continued threat to critical infrastructure

Given the level of concern about electoral interference, the US government will certainly step up security
measures to prevent threat actors from entering networks or disrupting proceedings during 2024. Last
March, the White House unveiled its National Cybersecurity Strategy, which reclassified ransomware
attacks as a tier one national security threat.

As the election process goes on, ransomware will be a significant threat to critical infrastructure. Bridewell
research, which surveyed 500 cyber security decision makers in the US transport and aviation, utilities,
finance, government, and communications sectors, found organizations have suffered on average a total
of 26 ransomware-related security incidents in the last 12 months. The government sector alone
witnessed an average of 22 attacks.

Most respondents across IT and OT environments (64% and 59% respectively) agreed the volume of
threats increased over the previous 12 months, with more than a quarter strongly agreeing. Even before
the presidential campaigns began in earnest, organizations were repeatedly coming under siege from
malicious actors exploiting a variety of vulnerabilities within their IT and OT infrastructure.

As ransomware continues to pose a significant threat to critical infrastructure, it becomes imperative for
organizations to enhance end-user awareness and implement proactive threat detection and response
systems.

Budgets and breaches: The financial barrier

In the government sector, Bridewell found almost seven-in-10 organizations have seen a reduction in
their cybersecurity budgets, and more than three-quarters have reported a surge in insider cyber threats.
This is not good news for the protection of critical infrastructure and governmental functions against
foreign state-affiliated groups. As if to confirm this, in October it was revealed that Russian hackers had
breached 632,000 Department of Justice and Pentagon email addresses in an attack using the MOVEit
file transfer programme that had probably occurred in May.

Financial services organizations remained high on the list of targets attractive to groups, but 86% of these
organizations told Bridewell they too had had cyber budget cuts. Spending may have come back up this
year, but across the landscape there are likely to remain important areas of weakness.

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