Even government agencies are vulnerable to cyberattacks. For instance, in New York, a county’s real estate records or clerk’s office was attacked by a hacker who deleted files, and records and held them hostage. However, the cyberattack was traced back to a third-party records management vendor.
This is a common occurrence in cyberattacks – your computer system, whether you’re a government agency or a private sector company, has connections to many other organizations such as vendors, customer or client systems, and CRM providers like Salesforce, Google, or Amazon. Any of these connections could be a vulnerability for a hacker to get into your system, even if you have the best protections in place. If one of your vendors, clients, customers, or providers has a vulnerability and a hacker exploits it, they may use it to jump into your system. This is where third-party protection is crucial, whether it’s through your insurance company, cyber insurer, or cyber defense system. Third parties are often the vulnerability because you trust and give them access to your system. If a third party isn’t secure, which you may never know, you could have a vulnerability yourself by proxy. In the case of the government agency in New York, their county clerk was essentially shut down due to the hack, which came through a third party. Therefore, it’s essential to be aware of your connections and follow best practices to prevent such incidents from happening in your business.
Don’t leave your business vulnerable to cyber attacks.
Get a quote for cyber liability insurance from Risk Coverage.
