It seems like every time you check the news, you read another alarming headline like “Database leak exposes 191M voter registration records” and “21.5 million exposed in second hack of federal office.” It’s clear that government is fighting a constant war in cyberspace, and it’s occasionally losing. But is that the whole story?
What’s often lacking in these attention-grabbing articles is the truth of how government is hacked and what agencies are doing to counter those attacks. Those are the details that are critical to truly understanding the state of government cybersecurity and, more importantly, how agencies can improve their defenses to face future challenges.
In this guide, we’ll sidestep blanket terms like “breach” and “leak” to truly explain how internal and external hackers are targeting government information systems. We will also:
- Define common tactics, such as malware, insider threats, and phishing, as well as more sophisticated attacks such as distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks and advanced persistent threats (APTs).
- Highlight case studies of state, local, and government agencies that have endured these cyberattacks and provided countermeasures for future attempts.
- Relate firsthand perspectives from leading government information security experts.
- Provide first steps to better cybersecurity for your agency.
If government is going to fight a war in cyberspace, we must first understand the weapons both sides are deploying. This guide explores the various types of cyberattacks and how we counter them to create a more secure public sector.
