It's not just companies that are targeted by cybercriminals. The conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which does not point to a peaceful solution in the short term, has made it clear that cyberattacks can be a lethal weapon. In more than a year of hostilities, Ukraine has recorded cyberattacks on various government agencies and their infrastructure.
But even in times of peace, governments have been targets of attacks, with the leaking of sensitive data of the populations of the most diverse countries, including Brazil. As government entities regularly collect sensitive personally identifiable information from citizens, from social security details to financial information and health data, it is only natural that they also become a priority target for cybercriminals.
“In the eyes of hackers, the various spheres of government are seen not only as easy targets, but also attractive due to the fact that they give high visibility to their illegal actions”, comments Caio Sposito, country manager Brazil at Arcserve, the world's most experienced provider of solutions backup, recovery, and immutable storage for unified data resiliency against ransomware and disasters.
According to the SonicWall's 2022 Cyber Threat Report global ransomware volume skyrocketed by 105% a year and the numbers were particularly cruel to governments. Ransomware attempts on government entities increased by an impressive 1,885%. This is more than double the increase seen by the healthcare (755%), education (152%) and retail (21%) sectors combined.
“The recipe for protecting data held by government agencies includes adopting immutable backups. The copy is made in almost real time, which allows the system to return to operation even in the event of a successful attack”, comments Caio, who points to the exponential growth in the number of data generated by the public sector as something that must be taken in consideration.
“This trend indicates that their storage systems will soon reach the limits of their capacities. Governments need a scalable storage solution that can accommodate significant data growth without the need for expensive upgrades”, recommends Caio Sposito, adding that choosing efficient protection solutions already available on the market will allow Governments to protect their confidential data and use them to leverage services provided to your citizens.
