How to prepare for the next cyber blackout?

The growing reliance on interconnected digital systems has turned cyber infrastructure into one of the fundamental pillars of the global economy.However, this connectivity has also revealed critical vulnerabilities.According to IBM's report, in 2023, the average cost of a data leak reached the record US$ 4.45 million, reinforcing the financial impact of errors and attacks hackers.

In recent years, the world has witnessed a series of incidents harmful to businesses and users.In July, a failure in one of CrowdStrike's security systems affected 8.5 million computers worldwide.In 2022, the attack on the Colonial Pipeline in the United States, paralyzed a significant part of the operations of the largest pipeline network in the country, disrupting fuel supply and generating a temporary crisis.

Incidents like these, in addition to causing billionaire financial losses, compromise personal and strategic information, highlighting the urgency of robust cybersecurity strategies.The question that now arises is no longer whether a collapse will occur, but when and as organizations are preparing to reduce the impacts of the next cyber blackout.

“The cyber-RESPonses not only endanger business operations, but also expose governments to vulnerabilities, disrupting critical services and compromising SENTH sensitive data, analyzes Guilherme Barbosa, Systems Engineer at Unentel, distributor of technological solutions for the B2B market. The specialist warns that attacks of ransomware and failures in critical systems like CrowdStrike can trigger true global blackouts if not countered with robust cybersecurity approaches. 

With digitalization, the global economy has come to rely heavily on cloud computing, focusing on an ever-decreasing number of providers of these services; but the diversification of technology suppliers reduces dependence on a single point of failure, while creating incident response plans ensures that in the event of an attack, operations can be resumed quickly. 

In addition, investment in advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence to detect anomalies and encryption systems enhanced, are essential to protect sensitive data continuous training of teams it is critical to ensure that employees are empowered to identify and address threats by implementing effective cybersecurity practices.

“Diversifying suppliers and adopting robust incident response plans are the first actions companies and governments must take to mitigate the impacts of a cyber blackout.Although the risk is concrete, the severity can be significantly minimized with an efficient exchange of information and an agile response to large-scale” attacks, concludes Guilherme.