Spikes in E-Crime has Companies Turning to the Offensive Cyber Approach

In May of this year, President Biden responded to a rash of high-profile cyber attacks by issuing an Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity. Attacks on energy, health care, financial services and more are costing U.S. companies billions of dollars and threatening the nation’s security. This is compelling the U.S. government to become more proactive in its efforts to counter cyber terrorism.

U.S. companies, however, are also further building capacity with their own measures to safeguard sensitive information.

“Compliance driven measures are just one piece of a cyber defense strategy,” explains Lee Watson, CEO of Forge Institute, a provider of workforce cybersecurity training, among other services and programs. “The private sector bears responsibility in updating its cybersecurity measures. For example, more than 80-percent of nations' critical infrastructure is owned and operated by the private sector. It’s important for those companies to harden their cyber defenses and ensure their workforce is trained to meet the evolving complex cyber environment.”

A growing trend among digitally driven companies is to harden their cybersecurity through workforce cyber training. An essential training course is a program known as Red Team Operations. A 2020 survey revealed 92% of companies are performing red team exercises, compared to 72% in 2019.

“Think of it this way,” says Watson. “Blue Team Operations is defensive in nature, it’s how you strengthen passwords, anti-virus detection, smishing recognition. Training in Blue Team Operations is important. Red Team Ops is offense driven. You’re really getting into the mind of a hacker.”

Red Team Ops training enables key members of your staff to probe your systems for weaknesses or other vulnerabilities so you can better develop countermeasures to thwart cyberthreats. More companies are investing in Red Team Training as a way to constantly test their own systems and beat hackers at their own game.

“At Forge Institute, we see companies from nearly every type of industry register for Red Ops Team courses,” says Watson. “If you have the choice between investing in workforce training or potentially enduring the cost of a cyber attack, many companies are choosing the former.”

Industry experts expect the cost of cyberattacks to reach $10.5 trillion by 2025.

SOURCE:

1. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/05/12/executive-order-on-improving-the-nations-cybersecurity/

2. https://www.exabeam.com/security-operations-center/2020-red-and-blue-team-survey/

3. https://www.embroker.com/blog/cyber-attack-statistics/