Acer, a Taiwanese advanced electronics technology company, has been hit by a second cyberattack this week, bringing the total to at least three this year afflicting the company. When back-to-back attacks like this occur, it raises the question of whether or not they are truly separate or a continuation of one another.
In this case, the Desorden Group has claimed responsibility for both of the most recent attacks. A relatively new hacker group, Desorden Group recently claimed to have hacked into the Malaysian servers of ABX Express Enterprise.
“Upon detection, we immediately initiated our security protocols and conducted a full scan of our systems,” an Acer spokesperson is reported by ZDNet.
The statement continues: “We are notifying all potentially affected customers in India. The incident has been reported to local law enforcement and the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team, and has no material impact to our operations and business continuity.”
Pondering over the attacks, Nick Tausek, Security Solutions Architect at Swimlane, finds: “Enterprises affected by frequent cyberattacks not only have compromised and exposed data to consider, but also the overarching success of their businesses.”
However, Tausek, reminds us: “When critical servers and IT infrastructures are repeatedly forced offline, day-to-day operations are significantly impacted: The average cost of IT downtime is $5,600 per minute.”
In terms of counter actions, Tausek recommends: “To prevent recurring attacks, it is important for companies to take a look at IT ecosystems in their entirety, not just infected servers or databases.”
With other measures, Tausek puts forwards: “Additionally, companies must take the proper course of action to ensure that valuable data, such as the employee details compromised in this attack, is protected.”
Splicing these recommendations together, Tausek establishes: “Organizations must implement robust, multi-faceted cybersecurity platforms that automate detection, response and investigation protocols. With comprehensive security automation, security teams are allowed full visibility into IT systems and can properly detect and respond to threats in real-time.”
This means that: “Security-related tasks can be carried out in an infinitely more dependable manner, ultimately keeping valuable data safe and ensuring crucial businesses continue to run smoothly.”
