CONTENT FROM RAYTHEONLAST YEAR, BUSINESSES ACROSS SECTORS STRUGGLED
to keep their doors open. But the economic reper-
cussions of the COVID-19 pandemic were not the
only corporate disruption in 2020. With consumers
spending more time online and businesses struggling
to support suddenly distributed workforces, networksecurity became more vulnerable than ever, leading
to a 400% uptick in cybercrime reports, according to
the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
“ We’ve seen an increasing prevalence of ransom-
ware attacks as the world has become more virtual,”
says John DeSimone, vice president of cybersecu-
rity, training, and services at Raytheon Intelligence
& Space, a leader in developing advanced sensors,
training, and cyber and software solutions. “Digital
technologies that address ransomware attacks
are even more of a priority, as those attacks have
increased in sophistication.”
Raytheon employs more than 3,000 cybersecurity
experts globally to help public- and private-sector
clients protect critical assets. “Everyone wants to be
cyber secure,” DeSimone says. “But keeping up with
increasing digital threats is a challenge: Hiring and
retaining highly skilled in-house cyber experts for
around-the-clock protection is usually not afford-
able or practical.” And there is a lot at stake. What
used to be individual networks managing distinct
services, such as data, video, and voice, are quickly
converging. Meanwhile, the IT components con-
nected to those networks are proliferating in data
centers, throughout supply chains, and especially on
far-flung connected devices. That may help auto-
mate business, but it also creates weaknesses.
“All of these systems are now interconnected,
and therein lies the additional cyber vulnerability
exposure,” says DeSimone. “Any time access to criti-
cal business systems and networks goes unchecked,
there’s more inherent vulnerability.”
In response, companies are deploying new tools,
such as machine learning for more accurate and
faster cyber threat hunting or smart sensors for
advanced analytics. Raytheon offers these services
to clients without the in-house overhead. Critical
asset protection helps companies secure their most
important assets without overspending by offering
everything from managed detection and response to
advanced threat hunting according to need.
“ Trust no one” may be a warning common in
cinematic thrillers, but it’s also become something of
a mantra in cybersecurity. Zero-trust architectures
operate on the principle of “never trust, always
verify” and treat all users as potential threats—
giving only authenticated users access to sensitive
data. These architectures can provide another key
tool for establishing data resilience, by helping
maintain operations after a disruption.
In short, if 2020 was the year many companies
became aware of new cyber vulnerabilities, 2021
is providing a chance to address them. “ The
cyber-threat landscape is constantly changing,”
DeSimone cautions. “And so are the opportunities for
companies to fight back.”■A CRITICAL TIME FORBUSINESSES AND
C Y B E R S E C U R I T YCybercrime has accelerated during thepandemic. Here’s how to fi ght back.