Heightened geopolitical tensions have fueled a wave of politically motivated cyberattacks in the past year, and hacktivism, or the use of hacking to promote a political agenda or protest social injustice, is on the rise, according to a cybersecurity and insurance expert.
While hacktivism can be carried out by civilians or government actors, state-sponsored hacktivism has become a more prominent and large-scale threat amid the Russia-Ukraine war.
“I think hacktivism will be on the rise due to social, economic, and environmental instability and it’s the one threat that isn’t often paid attention,” said Mohamed Jama (pictured), vice president, the Hull Division.
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Earlier this year, Canadian Centre for Cyber Security called for a “heightened state of vigilance” amid threats of attacks from Russian-aligned cybercrime groups that have vowed to retaliate against countries supporting Ukraine.
Canada has pledged more than $5 billion in direct financial, military, humanitarian, and immigration assistance to Ukraine.
According to Jama, all types of Canada businesses are at risk due to these retaliatory cyberattacks. He also noted the rise of privateering – when a government hires a contractor to conduct cyberespionage on its behalf – could also compromise cyber infrastructure.
Though state-versus-state cyber warfare grabs more headlines, the private sector isn’t immune from hacktivism. For example, hackers leaked sensitive data, including names and personal information, of donors to Canadian truckers’ anti-vaccine protests in early 2022.
“Cyber criminals will find creative ways to continue being a threat to organizations,” Jama said.
Amid the current landscape, ransomware will also continue to be a significant threat despite the dip in attacks in 2022.
Jama attributed the decrease to organizations implementing “minimum security controls,” but stressed that leaders need to continue to be vigilant and keep up their strong cyber security measures.
“It’s a whack-a-mole game to defend your organization, but you have to remember its costly for threat actors to try and breach you, and the more difficult it is for them to find easy targets, the lower the chances of you being attacked,” he said.
“The landscape of the cyber world is changing continuously. We should remain steadfast and make sure that we don’t get too comfortable.”
A new index by Cisco has revealed that only a small percentage of Canadian companies – 9%, or fewer than one in 10 – have a mature level of cybersecurity readiness. This percentage is below the global average of 15%.
For Jama, the findings aren’t a surprise. He said most companies have the technology and tools for protection, but they lack proper configuration to defend themselves from the continued onslaught on cyberattacks.
“It definitely falls in line with what we see,” he told Insurance Business. “This is because a lot of organizations don’t have the right configurations in their technology stack.”
Jama advised brokers to go beyond basic cybersecurity requirements and delve into their clients’ network security, information technology, and governance environment.
“Brokers need to take a 360-degree consultative approach when analyzing a client’s cyber insurance needs. This will help build a viable submission for underwriters to give you the best coverage,” he said.
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