Government agencies are one of the most highly targeted entities for cyber attacks in the US. Hackers utilize both simple and sophisticated attacks to deceive agencies and steal the nation’s most critical data assets. While cybercriminals can gain a high quantity of data assets from other entities such as large financial corporations or healthcare providers, the quality of data that can be obtained through an attack on government agencies has put them in the crosshairs of countless criminal organizations.
Hackers are often driven by what they can gain through cyber attacks. However, many cyber-criminals target and attack government agencies out of spite and malicious intentions towards the agency. Government organizations must be knowledgeable of all threats that could potentially target their data.
Protecting data assets is critical at not only the federal level, but also at the state and local level. Unfortunately, many of the smaller government agencies don’t have the required bandwidth in the IT department to fully mitigate all cyber-related threats. For this reason, all employees of government agencies should possess strong cybersecurity awareness. All employees should study the latest trends in the threat landscape and utilize their knowledge to form a barrier against cyber attacks.
Government agencies have a higher standard to uphold as they must adhere to compliance regulations such as HIPAA and PCI. Industry regulations make it vital for agencies to ensure that all endpoints are strongly secured with constant monitoring. Zero-trust policies are often necessary to help decrease unauthorized user access.
Unfortunately, hackers that specialize in government attacks are known to continue spreading attacks across multiple agencies once they find a successful scheme. Agencies must make cybersecurity a cohesive priority to prevent ongoing attacks to various agencies. Each agency must be willing to learn from its own mistakes and the mistakes of other agencies and immediately patch any vulnerabilities.
Summary:
Government agencies are one of the most highly targeted entities for cyber attacks in the US. Hackers utilize both simple and sophisticated attacks to deceive agencies and steal the nation’s most critical data assets. Many cybercriminals target and attack government agencies out of spite and malicious intentions towards the agency. Government organizations must be knowledgeable of all threats that could potentially target their data. All government agency employees should study the latest trends in the threat landscape and utilize their knowledge to form a barrier against cyber attacks. Zero-trust policies are often necessary to help decrease unauthorized user access. Finally, agencies must be willing to learn from any mistakes and immediately patch vulnerabilities.
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