This year, the Supreme Court may decide Students for Fair Admissions v. The President and Fellows of Harvard College, a case that could prevent schools from considering a student’s race in the admissions process. It has major implications for diversity in the U.S. military and national security more generally.

To discuss the military’s efforts to increase diversity and breakdown what the case might mean for U.S. national security we have Bishop Garrison and Heidi Urben.

Bishop recently served as a Senior Advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Defense with a focus on human capital and diversity, equity, and inclusion issues. He is a West Point graduate and U.S. Army veteran where he served in Iraq and earned several awards, including two Bronze Stars. Heidi is a Professor of the Practice at Georgetown University’s Security Studies Program and a retired U.S. Army colonel. She teaches, researches, and writes about civil-military relations, military and defense policy, and national security.

Listen to the podcast (transcript available as well) by clicking below.

 

The post Just Security Podcast: Promoting Diversity in the U.S. Military appeared first on Just Security.

Cyberattacks represent a serious problem for small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

Consider that in 2019, 43% of attackers went after small businesses, and in 2021, 60% of SMBs said they were victimized by a cyberattack.

Even more worrisome? For small and midsize businesses, cyberattack impacts go beyond downtime, lost data and reduced consumer trust. According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, up to 60% of SMBs are forced to close within six months of a cyberattack.

But it’s not all bad news. While security threats remain a key concern for SMBs, greater awareness of potential problems has set the stage for a more effective response.

In this piece, we’ll consider what makes SMBs such tempting targets, tackle what’s changed for these companies and explore how giving security a seat at the table can reduce total risk.

Small Businesses, Tempting Targets

Large enterprises often seem like the more logical target for attackers, given the potential payout and the complexity of their IT stack. However, SMBs have actually become top-priority targets for attackers.

Three factors play a role in the habit of threat actors going after SMBs.

1. Reduced Awareness and Protection

Many small businesses can’t afford large, in-house IT teams. In some cases, they may have a team of one or two staff handling all tech concerns for the entire organization, or they may contract out this work to a third party. In other instances, non-tech staff may share the burden of trying to keep security on track.

The result is an ideal environment for attackers. Not only are many SMBs missing core security solutions such as security information and event management (SIEM) frameworks, but they may also be missing intrusion detection and next-generation firewall (NGFW) tools. And in some cases, SMBs haven’t even taken the steps to implement simple security measures such as two-factor authentication, which could help frustrate common threats.

2. High Value-to-Effort Ratio

SMBs are also tempting targets thanks to a high value-to-effort ratio. For attackers, this means that the low bar of security compromise requires minimal effort. But if they can access critical data, the payoff could be substantial.

Consider an attacker who successfully phishes an SMB owner. Armed with legitimate credentials, they could access business networks to steal intellectual property and financial data, or encrypt critical operational data using ransomware.

Even if the ransomware payout isn’t much — tens of thousands compared to possible millions in the case of enterprises — the bar is so low that the effort is worth the earnings.

3. Lower Chance of Repercussions

Finally, attackers are less likely to get caught while attempting to breach SMB networks. Owing to the lack of security tools in place, the time between intrusion and detection is substantial. This may even allow adversaries to slip in and out unnoticed. The lack of existing defenses also increases the risk of attackers deploying advanced persistent threats (APTs) to monitor user behavior and select their ideal strike point.

What are SMBs Doing Differently?

So what’s different? What are SMB owners doing now that they weren’t doing last year or the year before?

Put simply, they’re paying attention. As noted by recent survey data, 67% of SMBs are more worried about IT security than last year. And this isn’t just an academic concern; these businesses are spending more to reduce their security risk. Consider that in 2021, just 32% of SMBs were investing the recommended 6-15% of their IT budget into cybersecurity. One year later, 68% of companies align with these recommendations. 46% plan to keep their spending the same over the following year, and 48% plan to increase their spending.

The result is an SMB market that sees the impact of cybersecurity threats both at scale and closer to home. This market is finally taking its security seriously by investing time and effort into key controls and skilled personnel.

In other words, they’ve taken the first step to solving the security problem: acknowledging there is one.

Giving Security a Seat at the Table

Effective SMB security is all about table stakes.

In practice, this means identifying and implementing basic security tools and controls that help keep attackers at bay, coupled with an increased operational awareness of business vulnerabilities.

It’s certainly worthwhile for SMBs to consider more advanced threat detection and intelligence solutions. However, adopting basic cybersecurity hygiene practices is often enough to frustrate attacker efforts. Here’s why: Threat actors are all about low-hanging fruit. Consider the rise of Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS), which sees skilled attackers creating and then selling malware packages to less-skilled users.

These packages are ideal for compromising poorly protected SMB networks since they require minimal configuration and monitoring. But if businesses implement table stakes security tools that let them detect common threat vectors, the path to network compromise becomes more complicated. This, in turn, helps SMBs avoid simple attacks.

When it comes to more complicated threats, meanwhile, the use of intrusion detection tools coupled with regular assessments of security posture and examination of security data can help companies act before it’s too late. For example, by partnering with a leading managed security services provider — such as IBM — SMBs can detect the telltale signs of attacks on their networks and take action to reduce the impact. In addition, they can pinpoint common threat vectors and deploy targeted solutions to address the risk.

SMB Security: Going Up!

 By seeing security as essential for both short-term survival and long-term business, SMBs have reached a tactical tipping point. This increased awareness has led to a commensurate boost in security budgets, putting small businesses in a better position to detect, identify and frustrate attacker efforts.

While this isn’t a magic bullet — attacks will still get through and data is still at risk — the upward trajectory of table-stakes spending suggests that SMB cybersecurity may (finally) be changing for the better.

The post Why SMB Cybersecurity May Be Changing for the Better appeared first on Security Intelligence.

The fast-spreading Omicron subvariant XBB.1.5 is estimated to account for 43% of the COVID-19 cases in the United States for the week ended Jan. 14, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed on Friday.

The sub-variant accounted for about 30% of cases in the first week of January, higher than the 27.6% the CDC estimated last week.

Wall Street’s main indexes opened lower on Friday as remarks from executives of major U.S. banks deepened concerns about a slowdown in economic growth, while a slump in Tesla’s shares also pressured the Nasdaq.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) fell by 257.18 points, or 0.75%, at the open to 33932.79.

The S&P 500 (.SPX) opened lower by 22.57 points, or 0.57%, at 3,960.60, while the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) dropped 94.74 points, or 0.86%, to 10,906.37 at the opening bell.

Russia said on Friday that its forces had taken control of the salt-mining town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine, claiming to have made its first big battlefield gain after half a year of military setbacks.

However, the spokesperson for Ukraine’s eastern military command, Serhiy Cherevatyi, denied that Russian forces had seized control of Soledar. Reuters was not able to immediately verify the situation in the town.

Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had captured the town, long the focus of heavy fighting and bombardment, on Thursday evening. It said this would make it possible to cut off Ukrainian supply routes to the larger town of Bakhmut, to the southwest, and trap remaining Ukrainian forces there.

Ukraine said earlier on Friday that its forces were still holding out in Soledar after a “hot” night of fighting in what has become one of the bloodiest battlegrounds of the entire war.

“The capture of Soledar was made possible by the constant bombardment of the enemy by assault and army aviation, missile forces and artillery of a grouping of Russian forces,” Moscow’s defence ministry said.

The ministry statement credited the town’s capture to Russian troops and aviation without mentioning the role of the Wagner mercenary group founded by Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Prigozhin, who has harshly criticised the failings of the regular army, issued a premature claim earlier this week that Soledar had already fallen, and said the fighting there was exclusively being waged by his men.

In comments issued through his press service on Friday, and apparently aimed at the defence establishment, he complained about “infighting, corruption, bureaucracy and officials who want to stay in their positions” and what he called constant attempts to “steal victory” from Wagner.

The capture of the town, if confirmed, would mark Russia’s first significant gain since last July. It follows months of Russian battlefield defeats and major retreats near Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine and from Kherson in the south.

It comes two days after a reshuffle in which Russia’s Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov was placed in direct charge of the war in Ukraine, in a move some analysts saw as slapping down Prigozhin but also lining up Gerasimov as the fall guy if the war continues to go badly for Russia.

Both sides have endured heavy losses in the battle for Soledar.

Around 100 people have been evacuated from Soledar to the nearby Russian-held town of Shakhtarsk, RIA news agency quoted a local official as saying. Ukraine said on Thursday more than 500 civilians including 15 children were trapped inside Soledar.

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Russia said its forces had taken control of the town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine, claiming Moscow’s first big battlefield gain in half a year, but Kyiv said its troops were still fighting in the town.

Reuters was not immediately able to verify the situation.

* “The capture of Soledar was made possible by the constant bombardment of the enemy by assault and army aviation, missile forces and artillery of a grouping of Russian forces,” Moscow’s defence ministry said.

* Serhiy Cherevatyi, spokesperson for Ukraine’s eastern military command, and a Ukrainian officer in the area both told Reuters Soledar had not been captured. “Last night artillery fire was like from hell, both sides. From what I know, our boys have managed to exit some parts in an orderly manner and now (assault) groups are counterattacking, but we still hold the town,” the officer said by telephone.

* Ultra-nationalist mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, whose Wagner Group of fighters-for-hire includes prisoners promised pardons for service, complained after the military took credit for the battle without mentioning his fighters.

* Ukrainian officials said on Thursday more than 500 civilians were trapped inside Soledar, including 15 children.

* Moscow’s February invasion of Ukraine has resulted in more than 50,000 reports of alleged war crimes, Ukraine’s top war crimes prosecutor Yuriy Belousov said, as grim details of the alleged torture emerged.

* France is hoping to deliver ‘AMX 10-RC’ light combat tanks to Ukraine in two months’ time, French armed forces minister Sebastien Lecornu said.

* A Russian foreign ministry official said Belarus may enter the conflict in Ukraine if Kyiv decides to “invade” either country. Russia used Belarus as a springboard to invade Ukraine in February 2022, and since October has deployed troops in Belarus for joint military drills. But the border area is now heavily waterlogged, making an imminent Russian attack unlikely.

* Kremlin-watchers are examining Russia’s latest switch of battlefield leadership after Valery Gerasimov, chief of the military’s general staff, was unexpectedly given direct command of the invasion.

* A close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested confiscating property and assets of Russians who discredit the country’s armed forces and oppose the war in Ukraine.

* China’s exports and imports with Russia hit a new high of 1.28 trillion yuan in 2022, Lyu Daliang, spokesperson of the General Administration of Customs, told a news briefing in Beijing. Trade with Russia accounted for 3% of China’s total for the year, he added.

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