2023 marks the 20th anniversary of Cybersecurity Awareness Month. In the two decades since its inception, cybersecurity threats have grown in complexity and frequency in ways few experts could have envisioned. Companies are feeling the growing threat. In a recent survey sponsored by Cohesity, 93% said they felt the threat of ransomware attacks increased in 2023 (up 19 percentage points from 2022), and nearly half said that their organization was the victim of a ransomware attack in the prior six months.
The reality is that most organizations lack strong cyber resilience strategies or data security capabilities to address threats and maintain business continuity. Eight of ten respondents expressed concerns that their organization’s cyber resilience strategy can’t address today’s cyber challenges and threats. Thirty-three percent of respondents noted a lack of collaboration between IT and security professionals as one of their top challenges.
More than ever, business leaders, security, and IT professionals need to team up on cybersecurity. Sharing threat information across public and private partnerships and multi-disciplinary groups is critical for facilitating collaboration and staying agile in a rapidly evolving threat landscape.
This month we’re highlighting the importance of teamwork—across the industry, between teams, and private and public sectors—so that diverse knowledge and talents can bring forth success stories, best practices, and a culture of examining our pitfalls. During the month of October and beyond, Cohesity will feature conversations with our customers and industry experts to provide best practices for organizations building a cyber resilience strategy that focuses on teamwork over individual excellence.
Easterly: Everything CISA does is “By, with, and through partnership”
Jen Easterly, director of Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), joined Cohesity’s Catalyst conference earlier this year to discuss the state of cybersecurity in the U.S. today. CISA leads the charge to protect and defend our critical infrastructure through public-private partnerships. From shopping for essentials to storing and safely accessing medical records, powering our homes, and getting gas—most of the nation’s critical infrastructure lives within the private sector. Easterly notes that everything her agency does is “by, with, and through partnership.”
The evolution of the internet wasn’t created with security and safety in mind. Rather, our digital world was created “with incentives of features, driving down cost, and time to market,” said Easterly. The “cybersecurity industry has been built up after, which adds complexity, and sometimes complexity prevails against easy solutions to security. We want technology that’s secure by design and secure by default.” For example, she notes, that multifactor authentication could be similar to how a seatbelt comes with a car.
Watch the fireside chat with Jen Easterly and Sanjay Poonen, Cohesity President and CEO:
In terms of the threat landscape, Easterly notes that accessibility to information is critical, particularly for organizations that lack resources to defend themselves. CISA launched stopransomware.gov which brings all the resources from the federal government together on how to build resilience, and what to do in the event of an attack.
If your organization wants to get hands-on with ransomware simulations (with no impact to your infrastructure), check out our Ransomware Resilience Workshops.
Data Security Alliance: Better together
As Easterly notes above, CISA knows that if they’re going to be successful in their mission to protect and defend critical infrastructure, they’ll need to do this in partnership with private sector players. “If we don’t have that trust with our partners, we really don’t have anything,” Easterly said.
This emphasis on partnership and trust is why Cohesity formed the Data Security Alliance. With our leading industry partners in Cohesity’s Data Security Alliance, including Cisco, BigID, Palo Alto Networks, Tenable, Microsoft, CrowdStrike, and Qualys, we collectively deliver critical technical integrations, best practices, and thought leadership to improve cyber resiliency for the world’s largest organizations. Collectively, leading cybersecurity, data security and management, and services vendors partner to seamlessly bridge enterprise IT and security by sharing context and enabling fully integrated cybersecurity workflows.
For a deeper look at best practices in cybersecurity and cyber resilience, read this paper from the Data Security Alliance.
Join the conversation on teamwork in cybersecurity
Over the month of October, we’ll be sharing cybersecurity content that emphasizes teamwork at the foundation of cyber resiliency. If you have a story to share that highlights how your team(s) have come together to tackle cybersecurity challenges, tag us on LinkedIn or X (formerly known as Twitter)—we’d love to feature you and keep the conversation going together.
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