Texas Businesses are Being Targeted by Cybercriminals and Online Threats

The United States as a whole has seen a growing wave of cybersecurity threats, and the great state of Texas is no less likely to see these threats. In fact, there are plenty of reasons that Texas would be targeted directly. Let’s briefly review some of these reasons, and how they support the importance of cybersecurity preparedness for Austin businesses.

Texas Features One Thing in Particular That Cybercriminals Can Easily Target

That thing is its power system. Texas’ power grid has been no stranger to issues in the recent past—and with attacks specifically targeting the United States power systems having been recorded and resulting in legal action, it isn’t outside the realm of possibility that the Lone Star State could have its energy infrastructure tampered with.

This is an issue that the U.S. Department of Energy is quite cognizant of. Texas A&M University put out a press release announcing a collaborative research project between the DOE and Texas A&M, the intent of which is to develop cybersecurity protections for power grid facilities that utilize artificial intelligence. As the press release stated:

“The connections between cyber and physical assets are growing, bringing greater risk to both network and physical infrastructure security. With expertise in power systems, machine learning, software development, and cybersecurity, the multidisciplinary team will develop, test and pilot a solution grounded in the real-world utility environment to provide a practical solution for utility companies in response to cyber-physical intrusions.”

Fortunately, these kinds of protections are becoming more and more accessible to businesses. At the same time, these protections will unfortunately only help to solve one-half of the problem.

Modern Cybercriminals Will Also Target Users and their Errors

We’ve spoken about phishing before, and how cybercriminals will choose to go after the inherent fallibility of your team to bypass your cybersecurity protections and gain access to your network. By using topics that are of interest to we Texans, these attacks can be used to our detriment. As Morgan Wright, SentinelOne’s chief security advisor, stated, “They will use our own biases, they will use our own feelings against us to be able to get entry into the system.”

Of course, a simple error in your protections could also let in a threat. Just last month, the Texas Tribune reported that nearly two million Texans had their personal information publicly available for just shy of three years. According to the Tribune, this was due to a programming error that allowed public access to what should have been a private area in the Texas Department of Insurance’s web application. Wright was only too familiar with this method of attack, stating that it’s another opportunity for cybercriminals:

“They’re looking for that mistake, they’re looking for that crack in the armor.”

You Need to Ensure Your Team Members Aren’t Creating that Crack

Everyone in your business, regardless of their role, needs to understand the seriousness of modern cybercrime and—crucially—be able to spot the warning signs of an attack and respond appropriately. Otherwise, you’re apt to feel the consequences in lost business, spent finances, and regulatory impacts.

We can help you prepare your business and the team that keeps it going to deal with such efforts. Give us a call at (512) 343-8891 to get started.