Microsoft is working with the U.S. Government to stop cybercriminals

This year, cyberattacks were on the rise, especially to critical infrastructure and important tech companies in several major countries around the world. Attacks on companies like SolarWinds, Kaseya, or Colonial Pipeline show that ransomware groups are getting brave. For the U.S., Pipeline was a critical attack, so Microsoft is starting to step up its game and now it’s working closely with the Biden-Harris administration to put a stop to cybercriminals and ransomware groups.

Tech supply chains are still targets for cybercriminals

Microsoft has stated that many of the cybercriminals are coming from Russian groups dedicated to creating chaos through cyberattacks to important tech supply chains and companies that work closely with the government. These are only dedicated to offering the best services to the American people. The tech giant also said that there is a Russian group called Nobelium (or Cozy Bear) looking to infiltrate different tech companies; this has been happening for several months. Among those companies, there are cloud software companies and managed service providers.

Cybercriminals try to infiltrate these companies as clients. Once there, they will find ways to breach security and have access to customers, processes, and partners. The data shared by Microsoft shows that this group of cybercriminals is very persistent, but their success rate is not that high. However, it’s concerning that many of those companies have been the receiving end of more than 23000 attempts.

There is still so much to do to put a stop to cybercriminals

Many experts stated that the world is practically in the middle of a cyberwar because of the increasingly serious attempts in the rising of cyberattacks, and some of them have been quite successful. This is forcing countries to take action in the cybersecurity area to fight cybercriminals and their illegal groups. The United States is always one of the major targets for them. To protect its critical infrastructure, national agencies, public services, and inhabitants, the government is putting in place several initiatives.

One of them is the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative (JCDC): “It will lead the development of the Nation’s cyber defense plans, which outline activities to prevent and reduce the impacts of cyber intrusions. Leveraging new authorities provided by the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2021, the JCDC will bring together public and private sector entities to unify deliberate and crisis action planning while coordinating the integrated execution of these plans.” This will bring together important players in the country, especially tech giants like Microsoft, Amazon, and Google.

There is so much to do to put a stop to cybercriminals, but the first step has been made: a solid plan that unifies the important parts of the different aspects in the country. Keep in touch with our blog to read the latest news and innovations in the cybersecurity world.