The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the FBI are warning organizations and local governments to beware of a possible rise in state-sponsored cyberattacks. Extra caution should be used over coming days and weeks for cyber threats to your computer systems. Financial institutions and utility infrastructure are special targets so be extra vigilant with any online banking emails or requests for account passwords. Bogus emails are most often the entry point for ransomware attacks or debilitating virus threats. A reminder to computer users and employees about not opening emails from unknown sources as well as using extra caution when confronting obvious misspellings or suspicious emails. If you have a citizen warning/alert mechanism, it does not hurt to issue a public reminder about cyberattacks. Remember you can always point your cursor to hover over the sender’s email name to so if the address is real or foreign. Expect further communications from the FBI and CISA with more directions and suggestions of things to watch for. Attacks will range from very sophisticated and hard to detect (State-sponsored” attacks to amateur-like spoofs simply created in a foreign language from copycat wannabes.
