Public Sector Cyber Security Threats on the Rise According to Verizon’s 2023 DBIR Business
Author: Phil Muncaster,The is Verizon's annual breach activity assessment, detailing breach event statistics in conjunction with 80+ industry leading cyber security partners. The highlights the need for government agencies to leverage more robust services to help increase security protection and better manage assets. As the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports, . Both Federal and State and Local government agencies are especially through third party software and internet-enabled devices. Public sector cyber security can be greatly enhanced through partnering with cyber security leaders that can deliver managed and professional security services, as well as private and secure network connections. The reveals that 20% of incidents and 11% of breaches analyzed this year were linked to the Public Administration sector, the . In contrast, in the , the public sector recorded the second-highest number of incidents at 12% and came in third for total number of breaches at 10%. The public sector is . So, the key questions of government cyber security are: What, according to industry experts, is driving these trends? And how can your organization take measures to protect itself from public sector cyber security threats?,What are the main government cyber security threat trends?,As always, there are plenty of insights to consider from the latest DBIR, which is based on an analysis of . Most notable are the following:83% of breaches involved external actors, and the primary motivation for attacks continues to be overwhelmingly financially driven, at 95% of breaches. Financial incentives may also be a factor here as over two-thirds (68%) of government breaches are , according to the DBIR. The government is the major target for Espionage attacks—while across all industries just 3% of threat actors were motivated by espionage, yet in the public sector cyber security space it's . This is also up significantly from , indicating that cyber espionage may be becoming a more acute threat. As the DBIR notes, was expected to be a factor in increased State-sponsored attacks, including Espionage. carried out network penetration and espionage against 128 organizations in 42 countries allied with Ukraine, prioritizing government entities among NATO members. The U.S. was their number one target, alongside Baltic nations and Poland. The DBIR also reveals a concerning uptick in breaches resulting not from external actors only, but rather by collusion involving . The latter refers to third-party actors (typically external actors) working with government partners or employees to achieve their strategic goals. It's particularly worrying considering the share of , while multiple actor threats stood at zero over the past two years of the DBIR. Although misuse (internal malicious activity) peaked as an in 2019, public sector cyber security teams must be alert to the possibility of disaffected colleagues colluding with threat actors. The key is to catch such plans early on. The refers to complex attacks that leverage malware and/or hacking to achieve their objectives, including deploying ransomware, according to the 2023 DBIR. Such attacks are a pronounced threat to public sector cyber security, in fact, system Intrusion was present in . Malware and ransomware, which can exist in systems for several months or longer before being identified, and should continue to be . Alongside deliberately malicious insiders, there remains a heightened risk from those who succumb due to poor security training or negligence. Of the 3,270 :,Solutions to help improve cyber security,Seek out a solutions provider with a range of service offerings that can empower your government cyber security team to mitigate the threats listed above, and many others. provides change management, incident management and health monitoring on specific cloud security service instances. A service instance for SASE Management is the unique cloud security tenant that is managed by Verizon. Integrated support will be provided across the customer's cloud security instances and Verizon-managed Software Defined WAN (SD WAN) which are connected to their cloud security instances. helps provide secure, private multi-cloud connectivity through software-defined circuits. With a secure cloud fabric, government agencies can create a non-bifurcated infrastructure that allows for a secure, private connection between their different cloud environments, regardless of whether they are hosted on public or private clouds. This means that data can be transferred between different cloud environments without having to go through the public internet which is vulnerable to bad actors. This also supports private government agency-to-government agency communication. solutions can help protect your organization against bad actors. With the increase in remote work and remote access, government agencies need a variety of customizable and scalable solutions to help secure endpoints. can help you safeguard servers and endpoints, such as laptops, desktops and mobile devices, from today's growing and ever-changing threats. Cyber Risk Programs is a customizable, continuous, objective, risk assessment and management program designed to help measure the effectiveness of cyber risk controls. It helps identify risks that potentially threaten the organization, assets and brand reputation. Verizon's solutions can be customizable cyber security event-monitoring solutions, designed for agencies looking to help enhance their SIEM and related security investments with a monitoring and analytics ecosystem customized to their specifications and requirements. These SOC-based solutions provide a hybrid operating model leveraging a dedicated team of highly skilled security analysts working in a dedicated environment. These analysts monitor and analyze security events for the customer, providing alerts based on an agreed service level through an appropriate interface, agreed with the client. Verizon's Security Operations Center (SOC) managed services are offered in two varieties:,Threat intelligence, automation, and better endpoint security for mobile devices can be enhanced through partnering with cyber security leaders that can deliver managed and professional security services, as well as private and secure network connections. Help identify security risks and threats before they can potentially seriously harm your organization with a public sector,To find out more about the threat landscape in the public sector space, whether you're managing federal, state or local government cyber security, check out the . Verizon, 2023 Data Breach Investigations Report,Verizon, 2023 Data Breach Investigations Report: Public Sector Snapshot,If you'd like to receive new articles, solutions briefs, whitepapers and more—just let us know. . * Indicates a required field. We will follow up from your contact request using the information provided. Choose your country to view contact details. Manage your account or get tools and information. These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. 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