Cybersecurity Perspective Europe vs. USA

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The tsunami of cybersecurity threats continues unabated; ransomware, phishing and data theft, to name but a few examples of cyber-attacks, continue to cost companies across the globe millions in lost revenue, data loss and ransom. While this is a global phenomenon, there are some nuances in how individual countries approach the thorny cybersecurity issue.

Nuvias Frontier has teamed up with Vation Ventures for an insightful content series, diving deeper into the trends furthering innovation across the industry. By tapping into our combined ecosystems, we intend to provide you a unique opportunity to hear from innovation experts. We start by presenting you an overview of the cyber threat landscape in Europe and in the USA. landscape.

decoration cyber security
decoration cyber security

Cybersecurity Awareness Month

Cybersecurity awareness month is celebrated in Europe and in the USA every year, during the month of October. The 2022 theme for the National Cybersecurity Awareness Month (NCSAM) in the USA is "See Yourself in Cyber," highlighting how cybersecurity, however complex, is all about people and human behaviour, a fundamental building block to ensuring a solid security posture.

European Cyber Security Month is celebrating its tenth anniversary in 2022. Like the NCSAM, the ECSM has themes; in 2022, the focus is phishing and ransomware.

Cybersecurity in Europe

Top priorities

The EU’s cybersecurity awareness month focuses on phishing and ransomware for a reason
– they are top priorities across the region.

The European Union (EU) intends to invest
€1.6B
in cybersecurity through to 2027, as part of the “Digital Europe Programme.”

Major trend

Top cyber threats in the EU include

icon_ransom-wareRansomware

Ransomware has blighted the European landscape. ENISA has described ransomware across the block in 2022 as becoming “more efficient and causing more devastating attacks.” Ransoms doubled in 2021.

icon_supply-chain-attacksSupply chain attacks

A report on supply chain attacks has concluded that organizations must update their cybersecurity defenses to match the rise in frequency and complexity of supply chain cybersecurity attacks. The report has provided a taxonomic analysis of supply chain attacks to help in this endeavor.

icon_phishing -Phishing

Phishing is a continuing problem in Europe and throughout the world. Research shows that phishing continues to be a severe threat to the enterprise. A Cyber Security Breaches Survey of UK businesses, published in March 2022 by the National Cyber Security Programme, shows that in the last 12 months, 39% of UK businesses identified a cyber-attack; Of the 39% of UK businesses who identified an attack, the most common threat vector was phishing attempts (83%). And while phishing attacks were the most prominent attack, only 19% of businesses have leveraged mock phishing exercises for their staff in the past 12 months.

phishing

icon_misconfigurationHuman error and misconfiguration

Cyber-attacks exploit human error: accidents and errors contributed to 95% of cyberattacks, according to the IBM Threat Intelligence Survey. Errors include accidental mis-delivery of emails and sharing of passwords leading to unauthorised access to sensitive data. Around 50% of threats came down to misconfiguration, according to the European Council.

icon_data-theftData theft

Data breaches, particularly in the healthcare sector, have increased and are expected to continue to be a focus for cybercriminals. The data is used for secondary attacks, such as identity theft and fraud. Data theft is now also associated with ransomware attacks as a method to leverage ransom payment.

Cybersecurity in the US

Top priorities

The FBI identified that
ransomware attacks affected
649
critical infrastructures in 2021.

In May 2022, the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)
placed the protection of Critical Infrastructures as a top priority. 

Major trends

The expanded surfaceicon_cloudsecurity

Many trends in the cybersecurity threat landscape are interlinked. For example, the attack surface has increased exponentially with the explosion of cloud computing, edge devices, and remote working. Also, the supply chain, and attacks that focus on third-party vendors, have added to the expanding attack surface. Manufacturing and other sectors’ cyber-physical systems have new connectivity-related vulnerabilities associated with an expanded attack surface. Therefore, visibility of the supply chain is a vital aspect of attack mitigation. Tools that provide visibility and that offer identity-centric zero trust can prevent exploitation of expanded attack surfaces.

cybersecurity trends US

Identity and fraudicon_identity

Identity-based fraud is becoming a focal point for cyber-attacks as it offers rich sources of verified data and login credentials. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recorded 2.8 million consumer fraud incidents in 2021. This is an increase of over 70% on 2020 figures. As a result, robust identity verification checks are essential to prevent identity theft and synthetic identity account opening.

icon_carThe connected car

As autonomous and connected vehicles become popular in the USA, automotive hacking is expected to become an increasing problem.

Innovation has an important role in enabling business to keep up with the fast evolving cyber threat landscape. In its annual CXO survey, Vation Ventures, a leading innovation consulting and research firm, provides some insights into the acceptance of emerging technologies for Cybersecurity:

97% of CXOs
surveyed said their current focus on emerging technologies was in the cybersecurity area. CXOs identified endpoint and email security as the top two measures deployed (85% and 81%, respectively), with identity management coming in a close third (70%).
blue_lady_background_jobbies-_3 email-security
blue_lady_background_jobbies-_3 email-security

Discover more about differences in approach: privacy and security legislation

What does the future of cybersecurity look like across the EU and the US and how distribution agents help with privacy law compliance by completing the form to download the full report Cybersecurity Perspectives: Europe vs. USA created by Nuvias Group and with Vation Ventures.