CYBERATTACK IMPACTING IDO/NGO COMMUNITY

By: Joe Gleason

As you may be aware, the US Agency for International Development appears to have been the target of a complex cyberattack. The likely culprit is the Russian intelligence service, SVR, which has been implicated in the recent “Solar Winds” attack on US Government agencies. It is likely that the ultimate targets of this event are NGOs and international development organizations, especially those engaged in rights, democracy and civil society programs. While this is a developing story, this report provides an overview of the incident. Read the report here.

As with any wide-scale cyber incident, it’s important to evaluate potential vulnerability and exposure. IT security firm Volexity describes some of the known and suspected technical details of the incident and may be useful to IT teams as they evaluate organizational risk to this event. Read it here.

Unfortunately, these types of events are growing in both frequency and impact, reinforcing the importance of cyber security plans, procedures and resources. Please let us know if you have any questions or would like to discuss in more detail.

If you suspect you’ve been impacted by this event, please contact the response resources of your Cyber Liability policy and update us when possible, so we can support. If you have any insurance-related questions/concerns about this incident, please do not hesitate to reach out to AHT for any assistance.