As tensions between Russia and Ukraine continue to escalate, there is a high probability that we will continue to see a rise in cyberattacks against Ukrainian-allied governments (particularly United States based firms) and Ukrainian interests.
What We Know:
The US Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) recommends that every organization in the US applies “Shields Up” and, given the ever-growing threat landscape, organizations should already be on the lookout for adversarial activity and ransomware.
As always, adversarial activity WILL attempt to take advantage of the situation through disinformation, social engineering or phishing, and other attack tactics and techniques that may leverage established or novel and sophisticated cyber tools.
It's important to remember that almost any organizations could be a target for direct action or fallout from cyber-attacks at any time - either targeted or opportunistically – which means the fundamentals of cybersecurity are always critical, not just during a time the cyber threat is heightened.
What You Should Do:
To help safeguard your network and IT assets we offer the following guidelines and resources:
Educate Users
- Cyber training and security awareness can be an effective step to preventing social engineering attacks, as the first line of defense is usually your employees and users.
Deploy MFA (Multi Factor-Authentication)
- If you cannot yet deploy MFA to all users for all activity, at least validate that all remote access to the organization’s network and privileged or administrative access requires multi-factor authentication.
Patch Vulnerable Software
- Ensure that software is up to date, prioritizing updates that address known exploited vulnerabilities identified by CISA, and those that are internet-facing. You should also audit what devices and applications are available from the internet and ensure that nothing is accessible unnecessarily. For Align Managed customers, the Network Operations Team will continue to patch Align IT Suite Platform endpoints in accordance with its normal day to day practices.
Create a Response Plan
- Designate a crisis-response team with main points of contact for a suspected cybersecurity incident and roles/responsibilities within the organization, including technology, communications, legal, and business continuity. Identify the decision makers for each department to avoid confusion in the heat of an incident.
Test Ransomware and Disaster Readiness
- Test your backup procedures to ensure that critical data can be rapidly restored if the organization is impacted by ransomware or a destructive cyber-attack; ensure that backups are isolated from network connections.
Additional Information and Cybersecurity Guidance:
- Align Managed Services clients that are leveraging Managed Threat Protection (Guardian endpoint and Guardian network) will have continued 24x7x365 monitoring by our Security Operations Center (SOC) against known and unknown threats in real-time. This enables us to continuously monitor, detect and respond to suspicious activity in your network, safeguarding your critical infrastructure from malicious hackers.
- Preventing cybercriminals from infiltrating your network starts with your first line of defense, your staff. Align's clients are better equipped at dealing with current and emerging risks because they have created a robust culture of security through leveraging our Security Awareness Training.
- Familiarize your team with our Service Desk's contact information:
- Email: help@align.com
- (US) Phone: 1-855-482-5446
- Explore more information on Align's Cybersecurity Advisory Practice.
Do you have further other cybersecurity concerns?
If so, we advise you to contact the Align Managed Services team at help@align.com or via phone
at +1 855-IT-ALIGN (1-855-482-5446)
Thank you,
The Align Team
Account Management Team email: AccountMGMT@align.com
Align Managed Services Team email: help@align.com
Cyber Team email - cyber@align.com
Alex Bazay, CISO - abazay@align.com
Dan Lyons, Sales and Bus Dev - dlyons@align.com
Phone: 1 855-IT-ALIGN (1-855-482-5446)
Additional Information and Cybersecurity Guidance:
- Preventing cybercriminals from infiltrating your network starts with your first line of defense, your staff. Align's clients are better equipped at dealing with current and emerging risks because they have created a robust culture of security through leveraging our Security Awareness Training.
- If you are a managed services customer, familiarize your team with our Service Desk's contact information:
- Email: help@align.com
- (US) Phone: 1-855-482-5446
- Explore more information on Align's Cybersecurity Advisory Practice.
