Smarttech247: Cyber Threat Level Increases for Irish Companies

Cybersecurity firm Smarttech247 has warned that Irish organisations, and in particular State bodies, need to be on high alert for an attempt by Russian hackers to breach their systems.

The level of threat is believed to have increased in recent weeks with strong intelligence and evidence suggesting that Russia or threat actors aligned with Russia may specifically target Ireland as a result of its public support for Ukraine.

Smarttech247: Cyber Threat Level Increases for Irish Companies

Raluca Saceanu, CEO of Smarttech247, says, “Cyber attacks from Russia are nothing new. Ireland was the victim of an attack on state infrastructure just last year, when the HSE was crippled by Russia inspired Conti ransomware. Now, as the war continues, it is increasingly likely that hackers will target infrastructure in countries that are staunchly opposed to the war. The aim will be to disrupt and punish those countries through cyber attacks. All organisations, both public and private, need to redouble their efforts to protect their systems.”

State-sponsored attacks commonly use zero day vulnerabilities in software to launch their attacks and they rarely make noise, but cause significant disruption. Common targets include aerospace, defence, government, financial companies and utility/energy organisations.

Key Actions

Smarttech247 is advising that companies and State bodies take a number of key actions, including;

• Enhance cybersecurity awareness training particularly around phishing and other social engineering attacks.
• Have an up to date Incident Response Plan.
• Maintain a strong Threat and Vulnerability program and scan for unpatched systems.
• Enable multi-factor authentication across entire systems.
• Enforce strong password protocols for all users.
• Monitor your systems 24/7 for anomalous behaviour.

Raluca Saceanu added, “Russia has a history of sophisticated and heavily targeted cybersecurity attacks, but these are not the only ones we should be worried about. Criminal underground gangs will leverage the momentum to launch their own targeted attacks, like in the case of the recent Lapsus$ attacks on Okta and Microsoft. We already know the high cost of a compromised system. It is incumbent on all organisations to act now to ensure their data is secured.”