Foreign Cyber Threat Resources

Ensuring the security of cyberspace is fundamental to protecting Americas national security. Foreign countries, such as Russia, China and North Korea, pose a real cyber threat to the United States for their interest in obtaining intellectual property and financial gain.
 
To be proactive, businesses, organizations and government entities can take action on an ongoing basis to protect themselves against malicious foreign cyber activity. Here are some of the steps that organizations can consider to improve cybersecurity:

• Apply software security patches in a timely manner. Critical security patches should be applied immediately. Don’t forget to update firmware on devices.
• Segment networks. Identify and classify sensitive data and segregate it onto separate networks. Limit access to security controls that monitor the status of these networks.
• Employ antivirus, firewalls and intrusion detection/prevention systems to monitor traffic for suspicious activity and malware. Keep this software up-to-date and check the configurations regularly to make sure nothing has been changed.
• Educate your users. Provide security awareness training that teaches users how to spot phishing attacks and other social engineering tactics. These are some of the most common methods of infection.
• Formulate policies and procedures to codify security expectations and have a response plan.
• Implement least privilege access policies. Do not assign more privilege to a user than they need.  Implement an exit policy so that when a user leaves the organization all of their accounts are terminated.
• Disable unnecessary ports, and review your settings for Remote Desktop Protocol to make sure you only allow authorized connections.
• Have backups. You may opt for daily, monthly or weekly backups. Store these backups off the network and test them regularly to make sure they work as intended. Make sure users know which drives are backed up so they can help save important information.
• Use multifactor authentication, which adds a layer of protection in case account credentials become compromised.
• Be on the lookout for unusual cyber activity, including collecting logs and reviewing them for activity at odd hours and unexpected locations. If you have reason to believe your network has been breached, report it.

 
While there is no known credible threat to Florida at this time, these practices can help organizations prevent network compromises that may come from foreign countries.
 
Additional Resources
 
Visit the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) Shields Up page for more information on foreign cyber threats, best practices, mitigation strategies and open-source intelligence products. You can also visit CISA’s Russia Cyber Threat Overview and Advisories page for more information.
 
Secure Florida
 
For those interested in obtaining cybersecurity training for their organization, Secure Florida offers FREE training classes within the state of Florida. Visit Cybersecurity Training (secureflorida.org) for more information or to schedule training for your organization. 
 
Last Updated: March 1, 2022