You Thought Ransomware Was Bad

In the never-ending escalation of cyber threats, an emerging type of attack could dramatically raise the stakes. Called Destruction of Service (DeOS), these attacks could soon become common — and devastating.

As outlined in Cisco’s Midyear Cybersecurity Report (download it here), behavior such as locking systems and encrypting data are precursors to DeOS. Right now, federal agencies and other organizations can usually recover from malware or ransomware attacks with a “safety net” of backups and other resources.  A DeOS attack would try to destroy that capability.

The Internet of Things will probably be a vector for these attacks, according to our researchers.

DeOS isn’t the only threat vector that demands attention, of course. Cyber-attckers are creative and tenacious, and will use any tool that works. The good news is, many organizations have a good handle on defense and can fend off most or all attacks.

The single most important strategy for cybersecurity is to adopt an open, integrated and simplified approach. Many cybersecurity shops have grown up piece by piece, buying individual solutions as needed to address problems as they arose. The resulting patchwork quilt is difficult to manage and multiplies security alerts unnecessarily.

Find out more about emerging cybersecurity trends and threats in our free report.