Tag: ransomware

As we look ahead to 2025, it’s crucial to maintain vigilance, especially during the holiday season, when cybersecurity risks tend to escalate. Many organizations use Amazon Web Services (AWS) to enhance their security posture and improve resilience. In this post, we discuss the AWS best practices for securing your data during the holiday season.

From July 11-12, 2023, the IMAGINE: Education, State, and Local Leaders conference from AWS gathered public sector leaders from around the world in Sacramento, CA to reimagine the future of state and local government and education. At the keynote address, Kim Majerus, vice president of global education and US state and local government at AWS, shared stories of education and state and local organizations using cloud technology to provide meaningful services for their communities. Three guest speakers joined the stage to share how they’re using AWS to protect education services against the rising threat of cyber attacks, advance cutting-edge research, promote innovative citizen services, and more.

Cyber events are unfortunately becoming a common event in higher education. When Hartnell College experienced a cyber event in 2022, they used AWS while working with AWS Partner Ferrilli to recover and rebuild their systems. Based on the lessons learned from Hartnell College’s experience, higher education leaders can explore certain steps to better prevent and prepare against cyber events.

State and local government organizations are experiencing an increase in cyber incidents that impact and disrupt citizen services. In 2021, US President Joe Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which created the State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program (SLCGP) to provide funding to eligible entities to address cybersecurity risks and threats to information systems owned or operated by, or on behalf of, state, local, or tribal governments. This blog post guides you through some resources and approaches to consider as organizations strive to meet the SLCGP funding requirements.

During the 10th anniversary of re:Invent, I was thrilled to share announcements and achievements from AWS Partners and programs for the public sector around the world. Since its launch, AWS’s Public Sector Partner Program participation has increased by an average of 54% year over year, with partners providing solutions in mission areas across healthcare, space, energy, transportation, government, education, and nonprofit. In both the Global Partners Summit keynote at re:Invent 2021, as well as in my public sector leadership session, I highlighted the new and upcoming AWS Partner solutions and accomplishments.

AWS re:Invent 2020 is not over. Additional content will be released January 12-14, 2021 including more than 200 new no-cost, virtual sessions. In the public sector track, watch five new sessions this January on topics from preparing for ransomware to designing AI and ML applications. Hear from customers like the United States Census Bureau and Capella Space in sessions aired first in Americas, then in Asia-Pacific, and finally in EMEA – all available later on demand.

As government agencies and public sector organizations modernize their IT and migrate to the AWS Cloud, the ability to gain a full, clear view of the security of their environments is a primary challenge they experience. This lack of visibility leads to blind spots and gaps in their security posture, leaving opportunity for security issues to arise. As a result, AWS developed a new open source Self-Service Security Assessment (with ransomware analysis modules) tool that provides customers with a point-in-time assessment to quickly gain valuable insights into the security posture of their AWS account.

Data is an organization’s critical asset, which is why safeguarding it against ransomware attacks, natural disasters, emergencies, or technical failures is a top priority. Legacy data storage, such as tape, makes sharing and protecting data costly and time consuming. AWS released a series of educational webinars and whiteboarding videos that discuss how to raise the bar on data protection in the AWS Cloud.

Organizations around the world are making headlines after falling victim to ransomware attacks. Ransomware is malicious code designed to gain unauthorized access to systems and data and encrypt that data to block access by legitimate users. A newly released eBook, “Securing your AWS environments from ransomware,” shares who is at risk and why ransomware is effective, whether to pay or not pay the ransom, and how customers can automatically inherit certain security controls by building on AWS.

The technological revolution allows cities to deliver citizen services more effectively. But sticking with the status quo and not modernizing IT systems can expose cities to cybercrimes including ransomware. A number of U.S. cities have been the targets of recent high-profile ransomware attacks such as Atlanta and Baltimore, with recovery costs running to hundreds of millions of dollars. At the 2019 CityLab Summit in Washington, D.C., the AWS Institute convened a roundtable with mayors, CIOs, and cybersecurity leaders from across the United States to share their experiences and lessons learned.