Four steps to build cyber resilience in the public sector

Nation-state-sponsored cyber attacks pose an ever-present risk to the public sector. But in a year when more than fifty countries are heading towards high-profile elections, it is more important than ever that democratic countries strengthen their defenses against malicious actors. With a recent and urgent warning from GCHQ highlighting the severity of modern geopolitical cyber risk, strengthening cyber resilience should be a top priority for the public sector. The security and operational success of government organizations are increasingly in the public eye. As a result, threat actors know that the national and reputational damage of a successful attack is significant, providing ample ammunition for extortion. But while financial gain may be attractive to ransomware groups, nation-state attackers will see an opportunity to cause devastating disruption and undermine our national security. It may sound obvious, but all critical providers of national infrastructure must have a clear understanding of the threat.

Worryingly, there is a common misconception that threat actors must use highly complex hacking methods to break into networks, while simple blind spots remain. The weakest point of an organization’s defense is almost always its own people. Bad actors will often secure their first foothold in a corporate network through social engineering tactics, tricking organizational members into exposing their companies to malware or revealing their credentials on a fake login page. This problem is exacerbated by hybrid cloud environments in which users access corporate and cloud-based networks through personal devices or on unsecured networks while away from the office. Now that national actors have sufficient resources and time to detect critical vulnerabilities, proactively strengthening defenses is crucial.