The ongoing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has prompted 66% of organizations to change their cybersecurity strategy and policies as a direct response to the conflict, a new study from machine identity management software provider Venafi has found.
The new report has focused on the security impact around the increasing number of nation-state attacks and recent shifts in geopolitics. The study found that 64% of respondents suspect their organization has been either directly targeted or affected by a nation-state cyberattack, while 63% of decision makers were not sure if they’d ever know if their organization was hacked by a nation-state actor.
Furthermore, 77% of respondents believe that the the world is in a perpetual state of cyberwar, and 82% believe geopolitics and cybersecurity are intrinsically linked.
“Nation-state attacks are highly sophisticated and they often use techniques that haven’t been seen before. This makes them extremely difficult to defend against if protections aren’t in place before they happen,” said Kevin Bocek, vice president, security strategy and threat intelligence at Venafi. “Because machine identities are regularly used as part of the kill chain in nation-state attacks, every organization needs to step up their game. Exploiting machine identities is becoming the modus operandi for nation-state attackers.”
According to the State Special Communications Service of Ukraine, since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion, 1,123 cyberattacks have been launched against Ukraine targeting the country’s government bodies, as well as commercial and financial institutions, the security and defense sector, companies in the energy sector, transport and telecom industries.