{"id":34894,"date":"2020-04-24T15:30:41","date_gmt":"2020-04-24T15:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2020\/04\/24\/in-chaos-theres-opportunity-and-thats-bad-news\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T18:25:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T18:25:10","slug":"in-chaos-theres-opportunity-and-thats-bad-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/commentary\/2020\/04\/24\/in-chaos-theres-opportunity-and-thats-bad-news\/","title":{"rendered":"In chaos, there\u2019s opportunity \u2026 and that\u2019s bad news"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This year is only four months old and it\u2019s already one for the history books \u2014 and not in a great way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the defense community works in tandem with the broader government to keep citizens safe and healthy, cybersecurity threats are only becoming more aggressive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we\u2019ve learned anything about cyber adversaries, it\u2019s that they will seize on any opportunity to gain an advantage in targeting their victims, including exploiting the fears of the public during a global pandemic. As COVID-19 has moved from the East to the West, adversaries have followed suit, using lures that play into people\u2019s desperation for information on the disease. In \u201cThe Art of War,\u201d Sun-Tzu said\u201cIn the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The COVID-19 virus is infecting more than just people. The pandemic has created chaos and handed adversaries an irresistible opportunity to exploit the situation to gain entry into our networks, whether that\u2019s to steal intellectual property, disrupt operations, or gain a strategic advantage if they are a nation-state actor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Already, we are seeing an increase in phishing campaigns using COVID-19<\/a> as a hook to launch malware in emails disguised as alerts. Particularly vulnerable are the thousands of remote workers \u2014 government employees and contractors alike \u2014 who are using their own home networks, which are largely less sophisticated and secure than their work environments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The stakes are high, particularly for those in defense jobs, where an errant click can have devastating consequences. Coincidently, 2020 is the year when the DoD\u2019s Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification has grown teeth and will force more than 300,000 defense contractors to up their cybersecurity game or face bottom-line consequences. Now is not the time to make mistakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In CrowdStrike\u2019s recent Global Threat Report,<\/a> we captured and analyzed real-world inputs from observed trends in cyber-attacks on commercial and government enterprises. The following are some of the notable attack vectors and trends we observed across the public sector during 2019:<\/p>\n\n\n\n