Budget and resource constraints play a major role in cyberattacks against small organizations. As the global economy tightens, many resource-strapped organizations, such as nonprofits, local governments, and hospitals, don't have the money to invest in cybersecurity.
To make matters worse, cybercriminals see these organizations as easy prey. They may not be able to respond to exorbitant ransom demands like large corporations, but at the end of the day, data is data, and it always has some value on the dark web. Small organizations often require less time and resources to carry out a successful attack, allowing cybercriminals to obtain a higher return on investment than larger organizations.
On a darker note, cybercriminals understand that organizations that lack critical infrastructure resources, such as hospitals, are more likely to pay ransoms. With lives at stake, these organizations cannot afford to waste time. Paying the ransom is often the only option. In the most extreme cases, healthcare providers may even approach the national government to cover ransom payments, as happened with Change Healthcare earlier this year.
These issues underscore the importance of ensuring small organizations can protect themselves. Nonprofits, small businesses, and local governments play an important role in society and the economy, and we cannot afford to leave them to the wolves. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) understands this fact and recently released a resource guide for university cybersecurity clinics.
What is University Cybersecurity Clinic?
The University's Cybersecurity Clinic provides cyber security by training students from diverse backgrounds and academic expertise to strengthen the defenses of nonprofits, small businesses, hospitals, and other under-resourced organizations. We are trying to address the security talent shortage. We are also introducing cybersecurity to students who may not have considered a career in industry and developing a talent pipeline for cyber civil defense.
What does the CISA Resource Guide cover?
CISA provides a variety of resources to university cybersecurity clinics, including grants, partnerships, speakers, guidance, and technology. But let's take a closer look at these services.
Information sessions and partnerships
The university's cybersecurity clinic invites CISA speakers and cybersecurity advisors to come and work with students to provide information on cybersecurity best practices, CISA service offerings, and both unclassified and classified threats. You can request it.
CISA speakers can keynote at international conferences, speak to small, intimate groups, and everything in between on topics such as:
- Overview of current threats
- Introduction to CISA and its programs
- Commentary on current events
- Detailed research on specific issues
- Overview of government policies and programs
CISA Cybersecurity Advisors are subject matter experts (SMEs) in a variety of cybersecurity activities aimed at improving an organization's cyber resilience posture and financial security. Clinics can establish relationships with advisors and help students better understand the role and the broader cybersecurity landscape.
guidance
CISA offers a variety of guidance resources that university cybersecurity clinics can use to inform their education. They include:
- Guidance for small organizations –
- Cybersecurity Performance Goals (CPG) – These are cybersecurity baseline goals developed by CISA and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to help small and medium-sized businesses establish basic cybersecurity protections.
- StopRansomware.gov – This website consolidates knowledge from across the U.S. federal government into one website, providing trusted information, resources, and tools to help prevent and mitigate ransomware attacks.
- Incident response plan – This resource provides advice on actions to take before, during, and after a cybersecurity incident.
tools and services
CISA also offers tools and services that small organizations can use to protect themselves from cybercrime through university cybersecurity clinics. They include:
- CISA exercise – This resource allows clinics and their clients to perform exercises that examine their organization's cybersecurity and physical security plans and capabilities and improve their security posture.
- Vulnerability scan notification – These tools provide organizations with information about potential vulnerabilities and enable them to remediate issues.
- Catalog of free commercial services and tools – Academic cybersecurity clinics can use this resource to better understand common cybersecurity tools and services, which organizations can leverage to improve their security posture.
- Cybersecurity Assessment Tool (CSET) – This tool helps organizations assess their operational technology and information technology security posture.
- MS-ISAC and EI-ISAC – The Multistate Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) and the Election Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EI-ISAC) provide members with direct access to a suite of services and information products that help protect and educate organizations. . About cyber intrusion.
Subsidy
CISA administers a four-year, $1 billion state and local cybersecurity grant program. The program is designed to help state, local, tribal, and territorial governments strengthen their cyber posture and increase their resilience to cyber threats, but in some states: may be granted a subsidy. Used by universities to enhance their clinics or start new clinics.
It is encouraging that CISA recognizes the wealth of untapped potential in U.S. universities and is supporting them accordingly. It remains to be seen whether university cybersecurity clinics will improve the security posture of small organizations, but it is at least clear that CISA is working to help under-resourced organizations protect themselves from cybercrime.
Editor's note: The opinions expressed in this guest author article are solely those of the contributor and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Tripwire.
