Fraud, ransomware, and breaches have significantly increased over the past few years. 2023 saw a 72% increase in data breaches since 2021, and 343,338,964 victims were left vulnerable due to cyberattacks. The good news is many states and organizations are funding grants to build cyber resilience. And I was excited to see that Massachusetts, the state I live in, is also on its way to becoming cyber resilient. The Healey-Driscoll Administration recently announced they are funding $7 million to local governments and state agencies to enhance cybersecurity initiatives and reduce cyber risk.

A lot of organizations are following this path, as the US Small Business Administration recently announced that it is funding $3 million to strengthen cybersecurity infrastructure for small businesses, which is critical as smaller businesses aren’t as equipped to counter attacks as medium and larger businesses. The US Environmental Protection Agency has a list of funding options available to increase cyber resilience in water systems in the US, as they also have been a target for hackers over the past year. 

Funding grants to build cyber resilience is a huge win for the cybersecurity industry. However, aside from funding, we need to come together as a cybersecurity community to build a robust security strategy. As President Biden stated, “robust collaboration, particularly between the public and private sectors, is essential to securing cyberspace.” By aligning with the industry frameworks, complying with cybersecurity regulations and standards, and embracing a collaborative approach, we can build the resilience needed to thrive in the age of interconnectivity.

To learn more on how to build cyber resilience, we invite you to visit our marketplace, where we have an array of cybersecurity vendors and service providers who can assist with your resilience needs.

Now let’s take a look at what else made industry headlines this week.

Jul. 19: A cyber outage impacted media, retailers, banks, airlines, and telecoms companies globally.

Jul. 18: India’s organizations recorded the second-highest number of weekly attacks per week.

Jul. 18: Huawei will be the first company to release the world’s first tri-fold phone.

Jul. 17: CISA recently released a playbook guide for infrastructure resilience planning.

Jul. 17: Cybersecurity analysts warned of an increase in cyber threats targeting the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympics.

Jul. 16: Konfety, an ad fraud campaign, is using over 250 Google Play decoy apps to hide malicious twins.

Jul. 16: Microsoft’s threat intelligence team warns that the threat actor, Scattered Spider, has added RansomHub and Qilin to its repository for use in attacks.

Jul. 15: “MuddyWater hacking group has partially switched to using a new custom-tailored malware implant to steal files and run commands on compromised systems,” Bleeping Computer reported.

Jul. 15: A breach attack on mSpy exposed 2.4 million users emails and leaked online in June.