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The Centre for Cyber Security (CFSC) belonging to the Danish Defence Intelligence Service (DDIS or Forsvarets Efterretningstjeneste, FE in Danish) warns of the danger of potential upcoming cyber attacks that might impact Denmark in the context of the conflict in Ukraine.
Given the current situation happening in Ukraine, Danish companies are urged to boost their cyber resilience to be prepared to face a cyberattack, because, even if potential cyberattacks would not be directly directed at Denmark, they might target other countries, an issue that can later extend and impact Denmark too. In this case, the consequences would be damage to Danish IT systems triggering consequently operational and financial losses, as the Center for Cyber Security mentions.
The situation in Ukraine places demands on the cyber preparedness of Danish authorities and companies. CFCS does not expect that the current situation in Ukraine will lead to destructive cyber attacks directly targeting Denmark. However, as we have seen in the past, for example in the context of the Not-Petya attack in 2017, destructive cyberattacks targeting other countries may spread to Denmark. This can cause widespread damage to Danish IT systems, resulting in significant operational and financial losses.
Source (quote translated from Danish)
50 Million DKK on the Table for Cyber Resilience
Simon Kollerup, Minister for Industry, Business, and Financial Affairs, is also of the opinion that the current situation requires a greater emphasis on cybersecurity enhancement, as he underlines the potential cybersecurity danger posed by notorious Russian hacking groups.
As the dr.dk publication mentions, that is why the Ministry of Industry, Business, and Financial Affairs is putting up a pool of 50 million DKK for small and medium-sized businesses. These companies can apply for a grant in order to benefit from an assessment of their cybersecurity status and further be advised what measures to implement in order to boost it.
More specifically, starting with the 17th of March, as the same publication further explains, Danish companies that have less than 250 employees have the possibility to apply to the Danish Business Authority for a grant worth up to 50.000 DKK to use on cyber resilience in order to receive guidance on cybersecurity and data security. The funds come from the European Union serving cybersecurity improvement purposes.
This comes as a help for small companies that do not benefit from professional IT assistance, as Simon Kollerup further states.
We can see that four out of ten small and medium-sized enterprises do not have sufficient digital security in their companies. (..) And this is a threat we can avoid if we take action now and raise our defenses in the individual company. This pool will help do that.
Source (quote translated from Danish)
Experts Warn of Potential Threats Posed by Russian Hackers
Jens Myrup Pedersen, who is a professor of cybersecurity at Aalborg University, is also concerned about potential cyberattacks coming from the Russian side given the context. Due to the unpredictability of the situation, he recommends an immediate “360-degree check of your company’s IT security” as the best action to take right now.
The expert also depicted some scenarios on how cyberattacks might impact Denmark, mentioning that these can affect critical infrastructure such, for instance, the financial and energy sector, but the focus might stay on smaller Danish enterprises as these lack the professional preparedness they need on cybersecurity. He especially stressed the danger posed by ransomware attacks.
Small and medium-sized enterprises would be an obvious target because they do not have the same knowledge and awareness of cyber security as they should. (..) Companies can get quite far with basic cyber hygiene by upgrading their general knowledge of IT security. Because we’d do well to be prepared for a bit of everything at the moment.
Source (quote translated from Danish)
How Can Heimdal™ Help?
Cybersecurity is essential at any moment because prevention is always a more effective approach than the burden of mending up damages. If you’d want to find more about cybersecurity for small businesses, we wrote an article on this topic stressing topics like the importance of a risk assessment, the role of employees’ knowledge on cybersecurity, the necessity of a backup, the importance of an updated system to close off vulnerabilities in a timely manner along with the significance of limiting privileged permissions to avoid malicious insiders that can further trigger data leakage and business disruption. Besides, you’ll find there also a comprehensive video on “why cybersecurity is important for businesses”.
This being said, you must know that Heimdal, a Danish-based cybersecurity company, is always prepared and has a solution for every potential issue you might have. From DNS protection featuring an awarded cloud-based product called Threat Prevention to Patch and Asset Management to deploy patches in less than 4 hours from the release, Privileged Access Management to escalate and deescalate privileged permissions on the go and have control over privileged sessions and Ransomware Encryption Protection, to many more. A whole unified cyber suite that works on cyberattacks prevention to give you and your business that piece of mind you eagerly crave. Visit our home page to find more or contact us at sales.inquiries@heimdalsecurity.com!
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Hi! My name is Andra and I am a passionate writer interested in a variety of topics. I am curious about the cybersecurity world and what I want to achieve through what I write is to keep you curious too!
