INTERVIEW
ACRONIS
REMOTE SECURITY
CNME Editor Mark Forker spoke to Kevin Reed, CISO, at Acronis, to discuss how the security landscape has evolved since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the concept that security is everybody’s responsibility – and the role Acronis is playing in terms of equipping its customers with the solutions to combat cyberattacks following the move to remote working.
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to local privileged access, and then eventually attackers are attempting to compromise the whole network, or organisation in a bid to successfully execute their mission,” said Reed. During the first few months of the global COVID-19 pandemic every organisation was forced to implement a work from home model as part of their efforts to maintain business continuity, but as a result of this change enterprises were forced to open their networks. “What we observed during the first few months of the pandemic was a massive growth in hackers scanning the internet specifically for remote desktop protocols. Attackers were proactively
eed is regarded as one
acted as a trigger for an
scanning for misconfigured
of the most prominent
acceleration in the volume of
servers because they wanted to
thought leaders in
certain types of cyberattacks.
send spam. We also witnessed
the cybersecurity
We observed that with so many
the use of CellNet, a legacy
ecosystem - and has played a key
industries on a global scale
protocol used traditionally for
role positioning the Singaporean
transitioning to remote working
remote access, but it is now
security vendor as a global leader
there was a direct correlation
used primarily on IoT devices
in that space.
with specific types of hacking
was another target for hackers.
methods used by cybercriminals.
Hackers used the protocol to
threat landscape of the security
They are sophisticated
essentially search the internet
industry had changed since the
individuals, and they altered their
for typically misconfigured
global health crisis in 2020,
tactics to allow them to adapt and
home browsers and then
Reed highlighted the agility of
exploit the vulnerabilities that
attempted to authenticate itself
cybercriminals to changes in the
existed within many enterprises
and once successful would just
marketplace.
when moving their workforce to a
continue to scan. I do think that
remote environment,” said Reed.
it is important to stress that
When asked about the how the
“Over the last number of years, we have experienced exponential
Although the sophistication
companies were forced to provide
growth in cybercrime, but the
of attacks has increased over
remote access, without being
COVID-19 pandemic certainly
the years, Reed highlighted that
given the time to adequately
phishing remained the most
protect themselves against cyber
effective way for a cybercriminal
threats,” said Reed.
to infiltrate organisations. “We have seen that phishing
What we observed during the first few months of the pandemic was a massive growth in hackers scanning the internet specifically for remote desktop protocols.” MAY 2021
success and then they move on
There is a growing perception within the IT cybersecurity
continues to grow and is
ecosystem that security is
undoubtedly the preferred
everybody’s responsibility - and
method of technique for
that employees need to take more
cyberhackers. If you look at
responsibility when it comes to
the whole attack life cycle you
security, and that organisations
will see that there is initial
need to provide their employees
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