Developments in ballistic weapons and nuclear programs in Iran are worrying

Perceived liveability in the neighborhood has increased slightly

The score for the quality of life in the neighborhood is 7.6. This is slightly higher than in 2017 and 2012. - In the longer term, from 2008 and 2005 respectively, opinions about physical facilities and social cohesion have changed little. - Satisfaction with the physical facilities is slightly higher than in 2017 and 2012. - Satisfaction with social cohesion is slightly higher than in 2017 and 2012.

20 January 2021

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CBS Veiligheidsmonitor 2019

Perceived nuisance in the neighborhood has not changed

In total, the neighborhood nuisance experienced is the same as in 2017 and less than in 2012. - The physical deterioration from which Dutch people experience a lot of nuisance in their neighborhood is less than in 2017 and 2012. The perceived social nuisance has not changed compared to 2017, but less than in 2012. - The perceived traffic nuisance is higher than in 2017 and equal to that in 2012. - Almost half of the inhabitants (49 percent) of the 70,000+ municipalities will experience in 2019 a lot of neighborhood nuisance; a lot of nuisance is experienced especially in the four largest cities; the neighborhood nuisance is comparable to 2017.

20 January 2021

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CBS Veiligheidsmonitor 2019

Public sense of safety has increased

In 2019, 32 percent of Dutch people sometimes felt unsafe in general. This is lower than in 2017 and 2012. - Public sense of insecurity has decreased by 34 percent compared to 2005. - 14 percent of Dutch people sometimes felt unsafe in their own neighborhood in 2019, this is lower than in 2017 (16 percent) and 2012 (18 percent). - In 2019, public sense of insecurity was around 14 percent lower than in 2008. - Compared to 2017, fewer Dutch people in 2019 indicate that they do not open the door in the evening because they do not think it is safe. A smaller group also feels unsafe at home in the evenings, and the group that is afraid of becoming a victim of crime has shrunk. The proportion that detours because of unsafe places or that feels unsafe on the street at night is comparable to 2017. Compared to 2012, public sense of insecurity at night and avoidance behavior in the neighborhood have also generally decreased. - 36 percent of all Dutch people sometimes feel unsafe in places where groups of young people hang out. One in five sometimes feels unsafe around entertainment venues. Furthermore, 6 percent sometimes feel unsafe in their own home. That is less than in previous years. - 18 percent of the residents of the 70,000+ municipalities sometimes feel unsafe in their own neighborhood. This public sense of insecurity is highest in the G4 (23 percent), followed by the G40 (17 percent) and the other 70,000+ municipalities (13 percent).

20 January 2021

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CBS Veiligheidsmonitor 2019

Victimization of traditional crime has declined

In the longer term, from 2005, crime victimization has decreased by 50 percent. -17 percent of the residents of the 70,000+ municipalities were victims of one or more forms of crime in 2019. This is lower than in 2017 (19 percent). Victimization is greatest in the G4 (21 percent), followed by the G40 (15 percent) and the other 70,000+ municipalities (12 percent). Particularly in the G40 and the other 70,000+ municipalities, victimization has decreased compared to 2017. In the G4, victimization has remained the same. In 2019, 2 percent of Dutch people were victims of violence, 9 percent of property crimes and 5 percent of vandalism. -The victimization rate of vandalism and property crimes has decreased compared to 2017; the victimization rate for violence has remained the same over the past two years. -A total of 14 percent in 2019 were victims of one or more of these forms of "traditional" crime; this is lower than in 2017 (15 percent) and 2012 (20 percent) -In 2019, 23 percent of the crimes encountered by victims of traditional crime were reported to the police. This is comparable to 2017 (24 percent) and less than in 2012 (29 percent).

20 January 2021

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CBS Veiligheidsmonitor 2019

Cybercrime victimization has increased

One in nine Dutch people (13 percent) was a victim of cybercrime in 2019; this is higher than in 2017 and 2012. - In 2019, 8 percent of the crimes encountered by victims of cybercrime were reported to the police. This is comparable to previous years. - Hacking is the most common of cybercrime offenses in 2019 (6 percent). This is followed by sale or purchase fraud (5 percent), internet bullying (4 percent) and identity fraud (1 percent).

20 January 2021

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CBS Veiligheidsmonitor 2019

Citizens and police: satisfaction with the functioning of the police increased

19 percent of the Dutch had contact with the police in their own municipality in 2019; this is less than in previous years. - 66 percent were (very) satisfied with this contact; this is higher than in 2017 and 2012. - In the long term, from 2005 onwards, satisfaction with the contact with the police in their own municipality has increased by 23 percent. - 28 percent is (very) satisfied with the functioning of the police in the neighborhood; 35 percent is (very) satisfied with the functioning of the police in general. A relatively large number indicate that they do not have an opinion on this. Satisfaction with the functioning of the police in the neighborhood and in general has increased compared to 2017 and 2012. - Since 2005, satisfaction with the functioning of the police in the neighborhood has increased by 14 percent. - Satisfaction with the functioning of the police in the neighborhood is slightly higher in the 70,000+ municipalities than the national average (29 versus 28 percent); satisfaction is comparable to 2017. The residents of the four largest cities in particular are relatively positive about the functioning of the police in the neighborhood. -In terms of satisfaction with the functioning of the police in the neighborhood, districts in The Hague and Amsterdam in particular do above average.

20 January 2021

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CBS Veiligheidsmonitor 2019

Social preventive behavior has increased slightly

Social preventive behavior overall increased slightly between 2017 and 2019. The presence of preventive facilities in / around the home has decreased slightly compared to 2017. - Almost seven in ten Dutch people often take valuables out of the car in 2019 to prevent theft. - 45 percent often leave the lights on at night when no one is home. - 63 percent of Dutch citizens have extra security locks. - 12 percent have an alarm system at home. - In terms of the presence of preventive facilities in or around the home, almost all districts in Zeeland - West Brabant, East Brabant and Limburg score higher than average.

20 January 2021

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CBS Veiligheidsmonitor 2019

This threat landscape paper provides valuable insights into emerging trends in terms of cybersecurity threats, threat actors’ activities as well as vulnerabilities and cybersecurity incidents.

The ENISA Threat Landscape 2023 report is a comprehensive overview of the cybersecurity landscape, drawing insights from open sources and ENISA's Cyber Threat Intelligence capabilities. It covers various cybersecurity threats, including threat actors, CVE landscape, ransomware, malware, and more. The report categorizes threat actors, providing insights into their motives, impact, and tactics. It emphasizes the challenges of attribution and highlights the misuse of legitimate tools by state-nexus groups. Additionally, the report addresses evolving tactics of cybercriminals, hackers-for-hire, and hacktivists. It provides recommendations for threat mitigation and offers valuable insights into the attributed threat actors during the reporting period. Overall, it serves as a crucial resource for understanding emerging threats and cybersecurity trends.

31 January 2024

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ENISA Threat Landscape 2023

Digitalization is making Dutch society increasingly vulnerable

Due to the continuing digitalization of Dutch society, the offline and the online worlds are becoming interconnected. More devices contain digital technology, more services are rendered by digital means and more data is processed digitally. Since the cyber resilience of these developments is often subpar this constitutes an increase of Dutch vulnerability.

30 March 2021

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Cyberweerbaar met nieuwe technologie

Increasingly dependence on foreign companies and products is undermining Dutch en European strategic sovereignty as well as introducing new vulnerabilities

The growing dependence of endusers on foreign products and services brings with it a wide array of issues. Foreign states and their companies are not always obliged to follow Dutch or European laws. They can even be under state control or pressured into undermining their users or customers. Loss of service during an issue at the supply side is also a new vulnerability that was introduced by foreign dependencies. As other states and foreign actors are further in the development and implementation of new technologies, the Netherlands and European Union are at risk of becoming increasingly dependent on foreign actors.

30 March 2021

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Cyberweerbaar met nieuwe technologie

New technologies provide opportunities to enhance cyberresilience

Machine learning, post-quantumcryptograpy, quantumcommunications, distributed systems, LiFi and 5G all offer novel ways to enhance once's cyber resilience. From automated 0-day detection and patching to new heights of encryption using quantum. These two examples are not just potential choices, but necessary to combat the new vulnerabilities that these technologies also opened up.

30 March 2021

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Cyberweerbaar met nieuwe technologie

New technologies create new vulnerabilities

New technologies provide new vulnerabilities. Applied machine learning, for instance, could automate the execution of cyberattacks. new technologies can also lead to entirely new ways to attack a target. The creation of deep fakes to manipulate populations is novel attack vector that did not exist before. Lastly new technology and its application provide new vulnerabilities. Machine learning is very vulnerable to data pollution, providing actors with a new way to undermine actors that use machine learning.

30 March 2021

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Cyberweerbaar met nieuwe technologie

Increasing cyber resilience with existing technologies

There is only limited gains to be had by in investing in new technologies if we are not using existing technologies on a larger scale to increase cyber resilience. There is still much to be gained from taking basic security measures (strong passwords, 2-factor authentication *), encryption, the use of Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) *, open data standards *, open source software * and more secure communication protocols.

30 March 2021

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Cyberweerbaar met nieuwe technologie

As protection of the public is a governments social responsibility, it should assist vital infrastructure companies in securing IACS

Cyberattacks to Industrial Automation Control Systems (IACS) in vital infrastructure could lead to large incidents and consequences. Therefore, the government should keep an eye on organisations in the vital sector. Involved sectors believe it is important to show to the public that they are secured and safe out of their social responsibility.

21 May 2021

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Onderzoek Cybersecurity voor Industrial Automation en Control Systems (IACS)

3. Well budgeted State sponsored attacks cannot or hardly be prevented and should be responded to differently

Often State-sponsored attacks are carried out very sophisticated with lot of hours and budget in it, making it hard to detect and prevent. The approach towards it should therefore be handled differently and Attacks should be divided in 6 different threatlevels: a. Threatlevel 1-3: scriptkiddies, hacktivists, internal actors; preventive measures b. Threatlevel 4-5 Professional crime and terrorists: early detection and fast response c. Threatlevel 6: State-actors focus on fast recovery in case of short incidents

21 May 2021

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Onderzoek Cybersecurity voor Industrial Automation en Control Systems (IACS)

Climate continues to be a looming risk as global cooperation weakens

Climate change continues to be a catastrophic risk. Although lockdowns worldwide caused global emissions to fall in the first half of 2020, emissions could bounce back. A shift towards greener economies cannot be delayed until the shocks of the pandemic subside. “Climate action failure” is the most impactful and second most likely long-term risk. Responses to the pandemic have caused new domestic and geopolitical tensions that threaten stability. If geopolitical tensions persist, middle powers will struggle to facilitate a global recovery and reinforce resilience against future crises.

31 May 2021

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External

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The Global Risks Report 2021

The highest likelihood risks of the next decade are extreme weather, climate action failure and human-led environmental damage

Among the highest likelihood risks of the next ten years are extreme weather, climate action failure and human-led environmental damage; as well as digital power concentration, digital inequality and cybersecurity failure.

31 May 2021

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External

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The Global Risks Report 2021

The highest impact risk of the next decade is infectious diseases

Among the highest impact risks of the next decade, infectious diseases are in the top spot, followed by climate action failure and other environmental risks; as well as weapons of mass destruction, livelihood crises, debt crises and IT infrastructure breakdown.

31 May 2021

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External

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The Global Risks Report 2021

Digitization heightens risk of losing digital autonomy

At a time when a growing number of human activities are going digital, individuals and institutions face a heightened risk of losing their digital autonomy. As social identities become more defined by online identities, users will be increasingly at risk of exposure to targeted political manipulation, invasion of privacy, cybercrime, financial loss, and psychological or physical harm. However, the responding regulatory “techlash” risks internet restriction, information censorship and cut communications.

1 June 2021

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External

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The Global Risks Report 2021

States and non-state actors will engage in more dangerous and sophisticated cyberattacks

States and non-state actors alike will likely engage in more dangerous cyberattacks, and these attacks will become more sophisticated. These concerns will continue to create a difficult global trade and business environment, adding to the risk of anaemic global economic growth

1 June 2021

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External

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The Global Risks Report 2021

Preparation for digital disruption needs to become part of the security policies aimed at the continuation of societal processes

In a recent report it is mentioned that preparation for digital disruption needs to become part of the security policies aimed at the continuation of societal processes. Cybersecurity alone, however important, is not enough. Resilience to digital disruption requires action from all actors and stakeholders in a network or chain. Digital disruption, whether caused by cyberattacks or not, increasingly impact vital infrastructures in our society. They bring high economic and societal costs with them. Lastly, attacks on critical infrastructures are used in geopolitical conflicts, with a blurring concept of borders and growing influences on processes and strategic positions of other countries.

24 August 2021

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News

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WRR report emphasizes importance of preparation for digital disruption

Large companies take more measures against cyberthreats

It can be seen that easily applicable measures against cyberthreats are both implemented by small and large companies. For example, more than 80% of all companies utilise anti-virussoftware. However, difficult measures are mostly implemented by larger companies. For example, the use of VPN is larger at big companies.

25 August 2021

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Cybersecuritymonitor 2020

The use of two-factor authentication has increased in the last four years

The utilisation of soft- and hardware tokens (two-factor authentication) to login at a company has increased in the last four years. The utilisation at large companies has increased from 71% in 2016 to 87% in 2019, at SME's it has increased from 29% in 2016 to 54% in 2019 and at small companies it has increased from 23% in 2017 to 42% in 2019.

25 August 2021

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Cybersecuritymonitor 2020

Large companies outsource their ICT-security more often than small companies

About half of the small companies in the Netherlands perform their ICT-security on their own, whilst only 20% of large companies do this on their own. Consequently, large companies have more resources which they can use to outsource their security to other companies.

25 August 2021

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Cybersecuritymonitor 2020

The number of Dutch domain names with DNSSEC is steadily increasing

The percentage of .nl domain names with DNSSEC is steadily increasing. Between the 1st of June 2021 and 1th of October 2020, it has increased from 0 to 56 procent.

25 August 2021

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Cybersecuritymonitor 2020

Large companies report more cyber-related incidents than small companies

From 2016-2019, large companies consistently report more cyber-related incidents than small companies. This has several reasons. For internal incidents, like the disruption of hard- and software, the complex infrastructure of large companies provides a bigger chance of hard- and software malfunction. For external incidents, larger companies are a more interesting target for cybercriminals, leading to potential disruption.

25 August 2021

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Cybersecuritymonitor 2020

Half of the ICT-incidents are not associated with additional costs

From 2016-2019, it can be seen that half of the ICT-related security incidents are not associated with additional costs. This is the case for internal as well as external incidents.

25 August 2021

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Cybersecuritymonitor 2020

The number of internal and external ICT related incidents has decreased

Over the years 2016-2019, the number of internal and external ICT related incidents has decreased. For example in 2016, almost 40% of large companies dealt with ICT related security incidents, whilst in 2019 this number decreased to 20%.

25 August 2021

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Cybersecuritymonitor 2020

In 2019 more data leakages have been reported to the Dutch Data Protection Authority

In 2019, more data leakages have been reported to the Dutch Data Protection Authority, compared to 2018. In 2019, 26956 were reported, whilst in 2018 this number was 20881. Most of the reported data leakages came from the Dutch health sector, financial sector and public administration.

25 August 2021

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Cybersecuritymonitor 2020

64% of data leakages only affect one person

The majority of data leakages in the Netherlands, namely 64%, only affect one particular person. Only 4% of data leakages affect more than 500 people. Such data leakages are mostly caused by hacking, malware and/or phishing. Most data leakages that are caused by hacking and phishing occur in the healthcare sector (18%).

25 August 2021

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Cybersecuritymonitor 2020

In 2020, conflict levels slightly decreased in all regions except for Africa

From 2019 to 2020, conflict levels slightly decreased in all regions except for Africa. Still, many conflicts continued unabated despite the global COVID-19 pandemic, and several took on new dimensions as actors responded to the health crisis. Because the pandemic is a unique development, it is expected that global conflict levels, locations, and agents increase significantly in 2021.

27 August 2021

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External

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Ten Conflicts to Worry About in 2021

Increase in the use of sensors, such as cameras or trackers that monitor and record your movement, to promote quality of life and safety

In the Netherlands, sensors, such as cameras or trackers that monitor and record your movement, are increasingly being used to promote quality of life and safety. Citizens and companies have about 1.5 million security cameras, municipalities have over 3,000 surveillance cameras and the police have about 500 to 1,000. As new technology becomes smaller, more mobile and cheaper, they can be more easily built in, such as with cameras in smartphones. In addition, collection and processing of data is becoming increasingly easier, such as with smart algorithms in apps. This has created an extensive network of sensors that produces a large amount of data. This network consists not only of new sensors, but also of new actors and forms of supervision. Because citizens are not only monitored by the government and companies (surveillance), they also use sensors themselves to monitor each other (horizontal surveillance) or to keep an eye on the government and companies (sousveillance).

20 May 2021

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Burgers en Sensoren

Municipalities are increasingly experimenting with Smart City projects

More and more municipalities in the Netherlands are investing in smart city projects, or are considering doing so. Data promises efficient solutions for the challenges facing municipalities. Namely, it promises to make our lives more efficient, comfortable, sustainable and safer.

31 May 2021

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Voeten in de Aarde

The implementation of Smart City projects has proven to be difficult due to several challenges

Smart city projects look good on paper, but implementation proves difficult. The main challenges are: It is not easy to bring and keep all participating parties (government, institutions, companies and citizens) on the same page. Furthermore, new practices are created by digitization that are not yet sufficiently covered by law. There is also a challenge to develop revenue models that respect public values and citizens' interests. In addition, the learning capacity of municipalities has not yet been professionalized enough in the usually experimental projects.

31 May 2021

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Voeten in de Aarde

Risk management of dependencies and vulnerabilities in the IT supply chain is increasingly important

Due to the increasing (digital) entanglement of (digital and physical) supply and production chains, disruptions in these chains can have a major impact. Organizations are increasingly dependent on a network of providers for the continuity and security of their processes, with whom they do not always have a contract. Risk management on all those dependencies in the supply chain is becoming increasingly important, both to provide insight into risks and to control them with possible measures.

3 June 2021

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TNO 2021 R10245: Vraagstukken en perspectieven voor ICT SCRM – een initiële verkenning

A broad view of supply chain risks is important but sometimes difficult to organize in practice

A broad view of supply chain risks is important but this is sometimes difficult to organize in practice and is certainly not always well invested. The complexity of supply chains means that only a part of suppliers and dependencies can be mapped. Is it a supplier's product or one of the components, such as firmware or chips, does it deal with outsourcing or even the subcontractors? They do not have the capacity to map out more than the first-line suppliers in their own IT chains and the complexity of these relationships is also too great. There is a need to get a better grip on this and to engage with sector partners.

3 June 2021

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TNO 2021 R10245: Vraagstukken en perspectieven voor ICT SCRM – een initiële verkenning

Increasing use of cloud services poses cybersecurity risks

Managing the risks arising from the purchase of cloud services has emerged as a challenge. The trend of migration from IT infrastructures to cloud services will play an important role in the SCRM issue. The customer of the cloud service has no insight into which suppliers contribute to product development within the cloud environment, which is precisely the strength, the knowledge lies with the supplier and the customer does not have to worry about this, but one needs more insight here. Moreover, there is a limited number of large suppliers of cloud services, as a result of which different organizations (will) purchase the same service from the same party. This results in a shared dependency, which means that a disruption of this service can manifest itself all the more extensively. On the other hand, in general, these larger suppliers are reliable in cloud services and this is also the reason that many organizations use them. When looking at what kinds of risks or challenges are seen, this ranges from general cybersecurity threats, such as data leaks, hacked data, or a vulnerability that is used as a stepping stone, to specific risks.

3 June 2021

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TNO 2021 R10245: Vraagstukken en perspectieven voor ICT SCRM – een initiële verkenning

Society is confronted with new risks under the influence of developments in technology, demography and climate

Society is confronted with new risks under the influence of developments in technology, demography and climate. Although risks are inherently uncertain, the uncertainty surrounding new risks is even greater, partly due to the lack of risk data and the multitude of factors that influence the risk. The new risk and crisis types are clearly different from the more regular or routine crises, such as fires and minor floods. These new or unprecedented crises are difficult to identify, are not limited to one particular sector and can escalate very quickly. New technological risks also lead to more fear and uncertainty.

8 June 2021

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Cyberrisico's en Veiligheidsregio's

Most safety regions prepare for cyber scenarios, but many are still looking for ways to adequately prepare for digital disruptions

The majority of security regions are already preparing for possible cyber scenarios. The main activities are building and maintaining regional/national networks, building cyber knowledge and expertise, and practicing cyber scenarios. The security regions rate their own preparation for cyber vigilance and cyber-consequence response with a 5 and 6 respectively. However, The ambiguity and unfamiliarity exist about roles, tasks and powers of the actors involved, procedures for alerting, scaling up and decision-making, and the required own expertise in the field of cyber-consequence prevention.

8 June 2021

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Cyberrisico's en Veiligheidsregio's

Less than half of the safety regions actively collaborate with partners in identifying cyber risks

Currently, less than half of the security regions actively collaborate with partners in identifying cyber risks. Where exchange takes place, vital partners and other security regions are mainly consulted. Sharing 'risk information' between security regions and their partners is not always self-evident.

8 June 2021

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Cyberrisico's en Veiligheidsregio's

Safety regions have difficulty translating national risks into regional risks

Methods such as the 'Regional Risk Profile Guide' offer little substantive guidance and, above all, process information for the inventory of (cyber) risks within one's own region. In addition, it is not always transparent how security regions assess risks, which makes it difficult to compare the methods and outcomes used. 'The Cyber Security Image Netherlands' (CSBN), on the other hand, contains important information for security regions about developments in the field of cyber. The main challenge for many security regions is translating these developments to their own region.

8 June 2021

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Cyberrisico's en Veiligheidsregio's

In most safety regions' risk profiles 'cyber' is regarded as a possible cause of a physical incident

Most risk profiles focus on the failure of utilities (especially ICT and telecommunications), failures at hospitals and BRZO companies and cascade effects. The top 4 risks include failure of vital infrastructure, disruption of the continuity of own assistance, disruption of BRZO companies, and hack of data centers.

8 June 2021

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Cyberrisico's en Veiligheidsregio's

Hybrid conflict has become more salient

Hybrid conflict became more salient during the 2010s and is not likely to wither away in the 2020s. The Netherlands, together with likewise partners in its network of alliances, requires a strategic posture to deal with it. In the case of hybrid threats, a strategic posture can: • assist in defining and preparing the pre-requisites for counter hybrid action in terms of capabilities, legal and doctrinal frameworks, and mandate allocation; • be instrumental in creating unity of action and synergy between counter hybrid measures by tying them together in one coherent whole; • help in communicating to opponents and allies what are considered to be acceptable forms of hybrid behavior. It can thereby be instrumental in the development of international norms that limit hybrid threat behavior; • thus ultimately shape the cost calculus of an adversary which in turn can prompt changes in adversarial behavior.

15 June 2021

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A Framework for Cross-Domain Strategies Against Hybrid Threats

The effectiveness of strategies against hybrid threats varies by domain of application

Modern communication technologies allow for diplomatic negotiations to take place faster as well as more frequently. Likewise, the contemporary information environment presents aggravated asymmetries between offense and defense, as the attack surface of open societies is large and vulnerable to aggressive state and criminal non-state actors. Similarly, the growing prominence of cyberspace as a domain presents new issues to traditional deterrence, given its novel asymmetries of ambiguity and relatively inexpensive offense, and expensive and rarely effective defense. Meanwhile, the military instrument remains a class of its own because it is the only one via which violence and damage can be applied directly. In contrast, the economic domain continues to grow in importance due to the ever-increasing interconnectedness of the public and private sector. In comparison to other domains, the shaping power of law is most dependent upon the perception and commitment of all parties. But even in an antagonized world, law can be a relevant instrument, if only because abiding by its tenets may convey a moral high-ground which can be capitalized on.

15 June 2021

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A Framework for Cross-Domain Strategies Against Hybrid Threats

Hybrid threats are difficult to prevent through deterrence alone, different strategies are necessary

Two axes differentiate between the range of strategies that can be applied against hybrid threat actors. The vertical axis consists of five general strategies: cooperation, persuasion, protection, coercion, and control. In addition, one can also escalate horizontally. For this, the framework uses the well-known DIMEL categorization of instruments and measures of state power, distinguishing between diplomatic, information, military, economic, and legal domains. Five kinds of assessment need to be conducted before, during, and after the employment of strategies in the cross-domain context: cost-benefit assessment, cross-domain orchestration assessment, proportionality assessment, signaling assessment, legal and normative frameworks assessment.

15 June 2021

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A Framework for Cross-Domain Strategies Against Hybrid Threats

Social cohesion in The Netherlands

Trust in national politics has fallen to 37% and only 30% of the Dutch have (much) trust in the national government. In contrast, trust in the news and science has increased. The corona policy, the approach to climate change and the benefits affair increase the vertical polarization between government and citizens. Citizens indicate a need for more openness, fair treatment and a stable government that addresses problems and listens to people. There is cross-fertilization between action groups that oppose government policy and conspiracy theorists. Objective facts matter less and less, while emotions, opinions and political beliefs gain weight in the social debate.

16 February 2022

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Strategisch Omgevingsbeeld 2021

Strategic view on national security in The Netherlands

The security of the Netherlands is constantly threatened by foreign government agencies in order to promote their own economic and political-strategic interests. They use espionage (digital) sabotage and (covert) influence. This affects the prosperity, stability and openness of our society. Government agencies also outsource operations to criminal groups. Advanced digital means are used. Classic means, such as influencing companies through investments and theft of company secrets, remain part of the modus operandi. In the Netherlands, companies and knowledge institutions are the main targets. But vital infrastructure, such as energy supplies and water management, is also targeted, and Dutch social cohesion are increasingly under threat.

16 February 2022

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Strategisch Omgevingsbeeld 2021

The roles and duties of CSIRTs and LEAs in Europe in 2021

The main objective of this report is to present a detailed analysis of the roles and duties of CSIRTs and LEAs and required competences, showing synergies and potential interferences in their activities related to their responses to incidents of a criminal nature and their fight against cybercrime. By facilitating the cooperation between the CSIRT and the LE communities and the interaction with the Judiciary, this work has the final aim to contribute to better respond to cybercrime, which, as reaffirmed at the Octopus Conference on Cybercrime organised by the Council of Europe in November 2021, affects significantly the individuals and ‘often represents a serious interference with the rights and lives of victims’ (Council of Europe, n.d.g).

6 May 2022

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2021 Report on CSIRT-Law Enforcement Cooperation

Dutch citizens believe they are well informed about digital and online security

Most Dutch people think that they are (reasonably) well informed about online safety (65%). Only a small number of people feel that they are under-informed (9%). A number of digital dangers have been presented to people in this study. Of most of these dangers, the Dutch indicate that they know what they are, especially identity fraud (89%). The high level of awareness of identity fraud may be caused by the fact that this form of fraud can also occur offline. Furthermore, about a quarter of Dutch people (23%) indicate that they have had to deal with phishing and 60% are familiar with phishing.

22 January 2021

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Veilig Online 2020

Two-thirds of Dutch citizens have come into contact with a digital risk in the past year. Dutch citizens have basic knowledge about how to recognize phishing messages

Almost half of Dutch citizens (45%) have received emails in the past 12 months with attempted phishing in a private situation, and 16% received such emails in a work situation. Phishing is therefore the most common digital threat. It is therefore important that Dutch citizens are familiar with phishing and can recognize phishing in order to protect themselves. More than four in five Dutch people (83%) are familiar with phishing, and of this group almost everyone knows how to recognize phishing (98%). Particular attention is paid to the e-mail address (59%), the request for personal data (52%) and the language use (50%). To recognize phishing, the Dutch mainly look at the e-mail address of the sender (59%), whether personal information (52%) or money (40%) is requested and what the language use or writing style of the e-mail is (50%). ). Links in emails are viewed by 29%, and 34% look at the target address behind the link. Phishing is also increasingly done via SMS and WhatsApp. To unmask those phishing messages, Dutch people check whether the messages ask for certain information (55%), whether they are asked to enter login details and passwords (51%), whether money is requested (49%) and whether personal information is requested (44%).

22 January 2021

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Veilig Online 2020

Dutch citizens estimate that the chance that they will be harmed by digital risks is low

People's risk assessment of various digital risks is low. Risks are often abstract, so it is difficult for people to imagine. An added problem with this is that people tend to ignore risks. As a result, they often do not take preparatory measures or adjustments to their behavior to reduce their personal risk. In addition, people are often inclined to estimate risks lower or think that it is mainly other people who are at risk.

22 January 2021

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Veilig Online 2020

Dutch citizens have limited concerns about their digital security

46% of Dutch people indicate that they are only slightly concerned about their online security in their private situation. 6% are very concerned. Dutch people who are very concerned or somewhat concerned about their online security indicate that they are concerned because they are afraid of not being aware of cyber criminals' approach (48%), because they are afraid that people will be able to view their data (47%) and because they fear financial data will be stolen (44%). Dutch people who are not concerned about their online security say that they are not worried because they always check whether websites and links are false (43%), because they update their devices (43%) and because they regularly perform virus scans ( 42%). The degree to which Dutch people are concerned about their online security in their private situation has remained stable over the past three years (44-46% are (very) concerned).

22 January 2021

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Veilig Online 2020

The need among Dutch people who are lagging behind in online security to improve themselves in online security is low

Most Dutch people who are willing to take action are also those who have already taken action (61%). The need to improve their own online security in the group that has taken fewer actions for the time being is relatively low. Actions that these Dutch people may be willing to take are using antivirus software (48%), regularly performing (security) updates (43%), checking links (40%), regularly making backups ( 40%) and immediate software updates (39%).

22 January 2021

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Veilig Online 2020

Dutch citizens do not want to pay for better services to increase security and have difficulty with security instructions

Most obstacles Dutch citizens experience are of financial nature. 58% does not want to pay for a service (such as a password manager) and 40% thinks the price of security software / virus scanner is an obstacle. Free services for password managers and virus scanners are not trusted by a third of Dutch people (33%). Most Dutch people indicate that they have no trouble making backups (57%) and know what a good virus scanner is (45%). The Dutch have more difficulty with security instructions (35%) and constantly creating new passwords (34%). They also find it a hassle to have a different password for each device and account (44%). However, they do indicate that they handle their passwords well (69%) and use different passwords (66%).

22 January 2021

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Veilig Online 2020

Dutch citizens often consider their online behavior to be safe

A majority of the Dutch people consider that they deal reasonably to very safely with the various issues presented with regard to safe online behavior. For example, a majority consider that they are good at updating their software (79%), with attempts at phishing emails (73%), the use of their devices by others (61%), making backups (58%), the granting of permissions on web shops (56%) and the use of USB sticks (55%). Furthermore, Dutch people indicate that they have often adjusted the privacy settings of their social media accounts (48%). In addition, the Dutch pay attention to locks on websites (55%). 60% think a website is safe if it has a lock on it. The Dutch people give themselves an average of 7.0 when it comes to dealing safely with online dangers. Dutch people who give themselves an unsatisfactory score feel that they have little understanding of online dangers (37%) and indicate that they are not always aware of them (27%). Dutch people who give themselves a satisfactory score, think that they are well informed (30%) and indicate that they are alert to online dangers (20%).

22 January 2021

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Veilig Online 2020

Few worries about digital security in a work situation

73% say they worry very little about their online safety in a work situation. This percentage is higher than last year (66%).

22 January 2021

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Veilig Online 2020

Employees' home network is the weak spot for companies: Three out of ten people who work from home still have the default password on their router

The occurrence of online risks is more closely monitored and observed in the work situation than in the private situation. Companies do a lot to have online security in order. However, with a lot of people working from home due to the pandemic, the home network and home situation could well become the Achilles heel of the corporate network; router passwords are not changed and children use company hardware. Most Dutch people also do not have a clear picture of what safe online behavior means at work (57%) or in a private situation (52%). The corona crisis has forced more people to work from home. 48% of working Dutch people indicate that they have worked from home in the past 12 months. They often use a network connection with a password at home (78%). This password still appears to be the default password of the router relatively often (29%). Employees are often unable to state what their employer has done about special measures to make working from home possible since the corona crisis (57%). 16% indicate that his / her employer has made business equipment available.

22 January 2021

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Veilig Online 2020

Most companies have agreements about how to behave safely online. It is not difficult to keep to work agreements, but these agreements can be communicated more clearly

Seven out of ten (69%) working Dutch people indicate that agreements have been made with their company / organization about online safe behavior. 13% indicate that no agreements have been made at their company / organization. Agreements that have been made often concern the secure sending / exchange of files (35%), the use of websites and / or e-mail (33%), that only system administrators can install software (31%) and send exchange of personal data (31%). Those who have work agreements (69%) do not find it difficult to (always) keep those agreements (81%). About half (46%) do experience obstacles in guaranteeing agreements about safe online behavior. This is mainly due to the way of communication. This is not always clear (13%), not sufficient (13%) or unambiguous (12%).

22 January 2021

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Veilig Online 2020

The distribution of security jobs mirrors the distribution of economic activity in the Netherlands

Zuid-Holland has the greatest number of security jobs, both in terms of primary and secondary security jobs. Utrecht had the largest share of security jobs of all provinces. Generally, the distribution of security jobs mirrors the distribution of economic activity in the Netherlands. The provinces Zuid-Holland and Noord-Holland are economically large and populous, whereas this is less so for Drenthe and Zeeland.

20 May 2021

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Education and Labour Market in the Security Domain

In 2018 over 1.1 million employed persons were employed in a security related occupation

In 2018 over 1.1 million employed persons or 13 percent were employed in a security related occupation. Almost 11 percent of all employed persons worked in an occupation classified as secondary security. The remaining more than 2 percent worked in an occupation classified as primary security. Compared to employed persons in other occupations, employed persons in security related occupations more often have a full-time job, are more often employee with a permanent contract, often fall into the middle age range (25–45) and are more often highly educated.

20 May 2021

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Education and Labour Market in the Security Domain

The share of students following security related courses increased between school year 2013/’14 and school year 2018/’19

Generally, we see that the share of students following security related courses increased between school year 2013/’14 (9.3 percent) and school year 2018/’19 (10.6 percent). This trend is mainly due to the increase in students studying at higher professional level, although there is also a slight increase at university level. Upper secondary vocational security education decreased however (from 7.1 percent in school year 2013/’14 to 5.7 percent in school year 2018/’19). This reduction was particularly severe between school years 2015/’16 and 2018/’19.

20 May 2021

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Education and Labour Market in the Security Domain

Increase in highly educated security workers and the education of security workers is more often security related

In general, we see a trend towards more highly educated security workers and that education of security workers is more often security related. The share of employed persons who are highly educated has increased from 54 percent in 2013 to 58 percent in 2018. However, we also see that only 22 percent of all employed persons with a security related education actually worked in a security occupation, and this percentage has stayed relatively constant over time. In other words, while those working in security were more often educated to work in security, the share of those educated in security and working in security has not increased.

20 May 2021

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Education and Labour Market in the Security Domain

More security graduates are finding work, wages vary by province and level of education

The share of graduates of different programmes who found work after study was marginally lower for security related programmes than the overall share. For example, 83 percent of graduates in upper secondary vocational security related programmes of school year 2015/’16 found work within one year, whereas the share for all upper secondary vocational programmes in that year was 85 percent. This difference was smaller for higher professional programmes and was effectively zero for university programmes. Over time the general trend is that more graduates are finding work. This trend is particularly pronounced for university graduates from engineering programmes; 72 percent of the university graduates in security related programmes of school year 2015/’16 found work immediately and 89 percent within one year. Hourly wages varied per province. Generally, wages seem to be higher than the national median in Noord-Holland and Zuid-Holland. The level of education was however an important determinant of hourly wages per province. Wage growth was positive for all programmes in higher professional and university education.

20 May 2021

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Education and Labour Market in the Security Domain

Dutch people are more aware of online risks, whilst the number of cybercrime victims is increasing

Two-thirds of Dutch people find their knowledge about digital and online security fairly to very good, and more than half of the people (56%) take measures after a cyber-attack, an increase compared to last year. At the same time, the number of victims of cybercrime are increasing: 71% of the Dutch people have had to deal with this at some time. More than ever before, the Dutch are aware of digital risks. For instance, the number of people who are familiar with phishing mails is growing, they more often only visit websites with a green lock (51%), more often make backups (46%) and are more secure with their passwords. Almost a quarter uses a password safe or manager to protect their passwords.

24 August 2021

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Dutch People More Aware of Online Risks, but Number of Victims Increases

Cyber-espionage threat actors adjust their tactics, techniques and procedures to embrace new technologies

Cyber-Espionage threat actors adjust their tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) to embrace new technology, while keeping their tried-and-true TTPs operational. For example, Phishing (Social) and Backdoor (Malware) have served as go-to Action varieties. Downloader (Malware), Capture stored data (Malware) and Spyware/Keylogger (Malware) have all steadily declined from the 2014 DBIR to the 2020 DBIR, with Scan network (Malware) completely falling off the top 10 list by the time we get to the 2020 DBIR.

25 August 2021

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External

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Cyber-Espionage Report

34% of all cyber-espionage breaches occur in Europe

From 2014-2020, most cyber-espionage breaches occur in the Asia-Pacific region (42%), followed by the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region (34%), and North America (NA) (23%) region. This contrasts sharply with all breaches for this same timeframe, as NA (65%) dominates, followed by APAC (17%) and EMEA (16%).

25 August 2021

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External

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Cyber-Espionage Report

Most cyber-espionage breaches occur in the public domain

Some industries are impacted more heavily by cyber-espionage breaches than other industries. In particular, Public (31%), Manufacturing (22%) and Professional (11%) topped the list for Cyber-Espionage breaches.

25 August 2021

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External

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Cyber-Espionage Report

The top compromised attribute by cyber-espionage breaches is software installation integrity

Looking at cyber-espionage breaches and the top compromised attribute varieties for the 2014-2020 DBIR timeframe, it can be seen that software installation (Integrity) (91%), alter behaviour (Integrity) (84%) and secrets (Confidentiality) (73%) as the top compromised Attribute varieties.

25 August 2021

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External

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Cyber-Espionage Report

The top discovery method for cyber-espionage breaches is screening suspicious traffic

In terms of top discovery methods for cyber-espionage breaches in the 2014-2020 DBIR timeframe, it can be seen that the top two methods are Suspicious traffic (48%) and Antivirus (23%), with Emergency response team a distant third (7%). This contrasts sharply with the top discovery methods for all breaches for the same timeframe, in which it can be seen that Law enforcement (28%), Fraud detection (19%) and Customer (15%), respectively, at the top.

25 August 2021

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External

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Cyber-Espionage Report

External actors are the most involved actors regarding cyber-espionage

From 2014-2020, external actors have been the dominant actor regarding cyber-espionage, ranging 69% to 88% over this timeframe. In contrast, internal actors range from 12% to 34% in the same timeframe.

25 August 2021

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External

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Cyber-Espionage Report

Financial motives are the most prominent motive for cyber-espionage breaches

Over the course of 2014-2020, the most prominent motive for cyber-espionage breaches was financially related. In this timeframe, the financial motive lay between 67% and 86%.

25 August 2021

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External

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Cyber-Espionage Report

Key Cyber Trends in The North America Region 2023

The region referred to as the North America region includes Northern American countries (United States of America, Canada, Bermuda, Greenland, Saint Pierre and Miquelon) and English-speaking Caribbean nations (Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Curaçao, Dominica, Greenland, Grenada, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Sint Maarten, Trinidad and Tobago, and Turks and Caicos Islands).

3 April 2024

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Group-IB Report Hi-Tech Crime Trends 2023/2024

Supply Chain Risks

Perform the Cybercheck to identify and manage the risks in the supply chain of products and services that may threaten your cybersecurity.

15 May 2024

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Cybercheck: Ook Jij Hebt Supply Chain Risico’s!

The Internet of Things (IoT) is growing at a staggering rate

The Internet of Things (IoT) is growing at a staggering rate. It is forecasted that the number of connected things in use globally will surge from 8.4 billion in 2017 to 20.4 billion by 2020, with total spending on endpoints and services exceeding $2 trillion. IoT unlocks tremendous value for the individual, for organisations and for governments.

4 June 2021

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The IoT Security Landscape

There is a need for stronger collaboration towards tackling IoT security challenges

Many government agencies, academic institutes, industry alliances and individual vendors have made efforts towards tackling IoT security challenges; however, there is limited collaboration between these initiatives. Consequently, there exist hundreds of documents with significant duplications and possible contradictions. IoT product developers, and vendors involved in the IoT supply chain and life cycle, may find themselves overwhelmed – or they may take advantage of the lack of clarity to do nothing at all. There is an immediate need for harmonisation on security recommendations and guidelines as well as coordination on security assurances in the form of regulation and certification. Given the continuing exponential growth in the number of IoT devices, there is no time to lose.

4 June 2021

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The IoT Security Landscape

IoT security challenge: cybersecurity and privacy by design

To build cybersecurity and privacy by design into IoT, a set of security principles should be adopted and adhered to. There is currently no single set of IoT security and privacy principles that is internationally recognized and adopted. The diversity in proposed IoT security principles between different countries and initiatives illustrates a lack of collaboration, especially between governments. Due to the lack of globally-adopted principles, a language towards common understanding of shared IoT challenges and issues is lacking. Such a language is required to define a global governance process. Consumers and companies are not uniformly aware of the cybersecurity risks and may not be equipped to respond properly.

7 June 2021

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The IoT Security Landscape

IoT security challenge: lack of standardization

Security standards and guidelines are required for development and operations to stimulate the adoption of secure IoT devices. While numerous standards exist in the IoT space, IoT security has not been standardized significantly until now; a recent ETSI standard is one of the first efforts to standardize IoT security. Manufacturers may not have the expertise to make use of the available guidelines and recommendation. Usability of security guidelines is a challenge and requires more research. While numerous sets of IoT security recommendations exist, it is important to harmonize and align these for global acceptance and adoption as a precursor to developing evaluation and certification schemes.

7 June 2021

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The IoT Security Landscape

IoT security challenge: evaluation and certification

There is a distinct lack of labels to inform end users about IoT device security and risks. However, efforts to create a labelling scheme are under way in various parts of the world. It should be ensured that these schemes are aligned in order to create a level playing field for vendors. There are as yet no CC cPPs specifically for IoT devices. It should be determined whether these can be generic or specific to application domains. Non-CC alternatives can provide a light-touch approach to certification and should be explored.

7 June 2021

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The IoT Security Landscape

IoT security challenge: future-proof legislation

Although there are numerous industry initiatives and best practices in this area, their adoption is voluntary. IoT security legislation is in its infancy and virtually nonexistent outside the US and EU. Enforcing procurement by governments of secure IoT devices can contribute towards IoT security when large countries participate; smaller economies such as Singapore and the Netherlands can work together for greater impact. The EU’s single digital market approach can support IoT security as well. Legislative policy solutions should be sufficiently flexible to deal with societal needs as well as constantly evolving technologies. Regulatory measures for IoT security should make use of inputs from consumers as well as industry representatives on the rights and responsibilities of consumers and vendors.

7 June 2021

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The IoT Security Landscape

IoT security challenge: responsible industry ecosystem

Owing to the lack of legislation and regulation to enforce security in IoT devices, there is no level playing field for IoT device vendors nor a common expectation of security functionality. Liability is likely to be an effective mechanism to drive the industry towards IoT security, but legislation needs to be modernized to address IoT. Encouragingly, numerous industry collaborations exist and provide opportunities for knowledge sharing and mutual learning; however, the role of governments in such initiatives appears limited especially outside the EU.

7 June 2021

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The IoT Security Landscape

IoT security challenge: supply chain security

Modern products are assemblies of parts and components supplied by multiple vendors. To accelerate time-to-market and to reduce costs, device manufacturers increasingly use as many as possible off-the-shelf components using complex, globally distributed, and interconnected supply chains composed of various entities with multiple tiers of outsourcing. However, vulnerabilities can be introduced and exploited at any point in the supply chain. IoT hardware and software manufacturers and suppliers should adopt a cyber supply chain risk management framework (ISO28000, NIST). Cybersecurity requirements, risk and liability should be cascaded into the supply chain via contractual agreements. Organisations wield both contractual and economic power over suppliers. It is important to encourage the use of open frameworks and provide transparency for supply chain security information flows.

7 June 2021

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The IoT Security Landscape

IoT security challenge: product lifecycle support

Keeping software up to date and allowing for patches and updates is critical for a secure IoT device. Updates should be delivered and deployed using a secure and verifiable methodology. Device manufacturers should adopt a secure software development lifecycle, with a documented vulnerability management process in accordance with ISO/IEC 29147 and ISO/IEC 30111. The manufacturer should bear responsibility for an IoT device throughout its product lifecycle, including a responsibility to manage suppliers. Existing device lifecycle management protocols include OMA LWM2M. Cloud-based IoT platforms offer comprehensive, albeit unstandardised, device management functionality.

7 June 2021

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The IoT Security Landscape

IoT security challenge: device identity and root of trust

A hardware RoT is the only immutable trust anchor; the chain of trust should build on a hardware RoT. Currently, only 4% of IoT devices use a hardware RoT. RoT-based cybersecurity can be provided by several solutions including Secure Elements, TPMs, TEEs, Cisco Trust Anchor, Microsoft’s Pluton Security Subsystem, and SIM cards. Solutions to secure firmware and booting are being proposed as a joint effort of the hardware and software industry, however, their adoption for IoT devices is still in the initial stage.

7 June 2021

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The IoT Security Landscape

IoT security challenge: secure OS, cloud and applications

The diversity of operating systems, cloud solutions and application development frameworks that populate the IoT market is large. An in-depth evaluation is required on the security claims made for each solution. Standards are required for software development, deployment and operation processes to secure the OS, cloud back-ends, and applications. IoT-specific secure software development life cycle (SDLC) guidelines need to be defined for developers of IoT applications.

7 June 2021

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The IoT Security Landscape

IoT security challenge: secure communications and infrastructure

The networking and interoperability challenge has seen extensive work as well as significant standardisation; however, an in-depth review is required of the security of these communication solutions and the security and privacy requirements on each level of the communication stack in the IoT ecosystem. Good practices are lacking regarding the technical feasibility of security controls running on resource constrained devices. Security reference architectures are required. Secure gateways can provide high-security deployments even with low-cost IoT devices.

7 June 2021

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The IoT Security Landscape

IoT security challenge: security monitoring and analytics

Data collection and analytics for massive numbers of IoT devices is a major challenge. New metrics and methodologies are required to support IoT infrastructure analytics given the data characteristics of resource-constrained IoT devices. Monitoring and analytics capabilities should provide input for vulnerability management programs. In case vulnerabilities are not solved by the supplier, monitoring tools should be able to detect and disconnect vulnerable devices from the internet. The industry should act as a global community when learning from incidents. This requires an open culture of sharing incidents and mutual learning where security is a joint responsibility.

7 June 2021

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The IoT Security Landscape

Supply chain vulnerability and resilience

Supply chains contain cyber risks. Cooperation in the system is usually based on mutual trust and mitigating the cyber risks is mostly absent. Stepping stone attacks are used to infiltrated a vulnerable organization in the supply chain in order to attack a larger and better protected company. Investments in the resilience of the supply chain as well as the individual organization is necessary to contain threats.

30 March 2021

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Cyber-Ketenweerbaarheid

Cyber attacks make clear that the world needs a Cyberstability Framework

Over the last decade, the number and sophistication of cyber attacks have increased, including attacks on government systems and critical infrastructures. Cyber attacks, which are conducted by both state and non-state actors, make clear that the world needs a Cyberstability Framework. Such a framework will serve to reduce the potential for significant disruptions of cyberspace that will undermine its benefits and reduce people’s well-being, including their rights and freedoms

20 May 2021

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Advancing Cyberstability

Technologies such as artificial intelligence will be further implemented in the coming years, with positive and negative consequences for digital security

The coming years will be characterized by the further implementation of technologies that have been written about and discussed for some time. An example is the application of artificial intelligence. The dissemination of autonomous systems increases digital vulnerability, and smart algorithms have positive and negative effects on digital security.

13 January 2021

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Cybersecuritybeeld Nederland

In the coming years, digital security will be affected by the interaction between technology and other developments

1. For example, the further transition to a data-driven economy, with additional concerns about privacy and digital security, will increase the importance of digital security. 2. The COVID-19 pandemic has further increased the use of digital services and the digital space. This can be an incentive for further digitization. That also increases the importance of digital security. The increasing dependence on foreign technology also increases the importance of digital security. This offers opportunities, but also makes it vulnerable to actions by malicious parties, especially when it concerns foreign parties assertively pursuing their own geopolitical agenda, and to dropouts. Dependence on ICT products or services from countries that have been identified as having an offensive cyber program against the Netherlands is a risk-increasing factor. 4. And rising geopolitical tensions will increase the digital threat from state actors.

13 January 2021

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Cybersecuritybeeld Nederland

Threat against primary targets and targets as a springboard

The annual report (= het jaarbeeld) shows that many types of organizations are targeted by attackers. It can vary by country and by type of espionage at which state actors focus their political espionage activities. For example, top sectors in the Netherlands are an obvious target for economic espionage and the national government for political espionage. Vital processes are a popular target for sabotage by state actors. Wealthy organizations are a favorite target of cyber criminals. In addition to the "primary" targets mentioned, attackers also target targets that can form a springboard to other targets. The digital space, the mostly global supplier chains and concentrations of personal data are ideally suited for this. This concerns, for example, suppliers of hardware and software, vital processes, such as those of telecom companies, or organizations that collect and process personal data on a large scale, including medical and employee data. For these "derived" targets, actors actively look for weak links in chains, as a stepping stone to (more) interesting targets. This means that sectors or organizations that seem to be of no interest to attackers can still be interesting as a stepping stone to another primary target. The threat also exists because outages can occur at or via these targets. For example, system failure due to technical failure or failure due to human errors in implementation

13 January 2021

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Cybersecuritybeeld Nederland

Digital risks seem to be underestimated

Despite the potentially major impact of cyber incidents, they are difficult to put on the agenda. To be able to make a decision, parties must be aware of digital risks. The Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR) argues that the absence of truly disruptive events makes it difficult to put disruption on the agenda, let alone underline its urgency and gain it widely accepted. investing in digital security is not easy. Ideally, an assessment is also required of the risks, possibilities and costs of increasing resilience, but that is not easy. According to the Central Planning Bureau (CPB), organizations have an incomplete picture of the costs and benefits of investing in cyber security and there are various uncertainties. The investment level can then be too high or too low. The first reason for the incomplete picture is that several advice and guidelines are circulating about the optimal level of investments and about necessary measures. A second reason is that information is lacking about the magnitude of digital risks and the financial consequences because organizations: 1) do not notice every attack, 2) do not want to make every attack public, and 3) cannot always estimate the consequences of an attack. are the long term. A third reason is that some of the consequences of inadequate cybersecurity can affect third parties, the aforementioned external effects. Scientific - especially economic - literature also points to an "information problem" for making decisions about cybersecurity.

13 January 2021

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Cybersecuritybeeld Nederland

Organizations are unable to cope with phishing

It is complex for organizations (and citizens) to arm themselves against phishing, which is again the most used (first step of an) attack method in the past reporting period. Nevertheless, basic measures can be used to create barriers or limit further damage. To make phishing less effective, more and more organizations are running campaigns among employees to raise awareness of the dangers of phishing. The government also started an awareness campaign. Research has shown that this has an effect: click rates in phishing exercises drop. In 2018, Google reported that, due to the use of security keys (physical hardware keys, for example USB), none of their more than 85,000 employees has been successfully phished. Due to the use of the keys, the click behavior of the user was no longer relevant. The use of security keys is not (yet) considered a basic measure, but it does show that it is possible to greatly reduce the success rate of phishing. Phishing requires constant vigilance. There is less and less clicking on wrong links, but it still happens. Attackers also adjust their working method. Phishing traditionally takes place via e-mail, but the annual report indicates that cyber criminals also use phishing via SMS (smishing). Attackers also increasingly successfully steal sensitive information via social media in order to approach someone in a targeted manner, which is so-called spear phishing. This makes it difficult for a recipient to recognize that it is phishing.

13 January 2021

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Cybersecuritybeeld Nederland

Resilience against digital threats is not yet in order everywhere. Parties are therefore extra vulnerable to cyber incidents.

This is certainly the case when insufficient basic measures have been taken to create initial barriers against attacks, limit damage and simplify recovery when incidents do occur. The vast majority of cyber attacks still use simple methods. These remain effective because basic measures are insufficiently implemented. Basic measures can also help against advanced attacks.

13 January 2021

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Cybersecuritybeeld Nederland

Unsafe products and services are the Achilles heel of digital security

Digitally unsafe products and services are still a fundamental cause of cyber incidents. They lower the threshold for attackers because they make it easier to carry out successful attacks. The insecurity can for example arise because suppliers supply insecure configurations by default. For example, 2019 saw an increase in abuse of misconfigured cloud applications. This included publicly accessible cloud storage, unsecured databases and unprotected backup servers. Insecurity can also arise because suppliers no longer make security updates available, or because these updates are not easy to install or because update mechanisms can be compromised.

13 January 2021

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Cybersecuritybeeld Nederland

Complete and clear picture resilience of vital processes is (still) missing

A complete and clear picture of the digital resilience of vital processes and associated systems is (still) lacking. Gaining a complete understanding, including the extent to which measures are effective and efficient, is complex. For example, reliable methods and techniques to measure resilience for an assessment of the risks to national security are still under development. The supervision of cyber security in the context of the Wbni has not existed for very long for a number of supervisors. This year, however, the first effects are visible of better insight among regulators into the digital resilience of providers of vital processes.

13 January 2021

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Cybersecuritybeeld Nederland

According to the Court of Audit, the information security of the ministries and government organizations investigated is still not in order.

In May 2020, the Court of Audit found that the importance of information security is more prominent than it previously was at ministries and government organizations and that efforts have been made nationwide. Six of the sixteen ministries and government organizations surveyed have information security in order instead of the three from the previous year. Nine others are not that far yet. The Court of Audit notes that the level of security differs per ministry and points out that the ministries are dependent on each other when exchanging (secret) information. Here, the weakest link determines the strength of the chain. As in previous years, the Court of Audit has critical comments on the management and maintenance of ICT. Management is about whether the systems are working properly and whether there are few failures. The IT management still leaves something to be desired. Good management means, among other things, that only authorized persons have access to the systems, that employees do not have wider rights than is necessary and that changes are tested before commissioning. Maintenance must ensure that the systems keep up with the times and that they continue to function in the future. The Court of Audit finds that six of the eleven ministries examined have sufficient knowledge about the state of the ICT systems, what it costs to keep them up and running and the risk of malfunctions. The Court of Audit is more critical of the other ministries.

13 January 2021

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Cybersecuritybeeld Nederland

Cyber attacks by state actors as a means of information operations

Some countries use information operations as a tool in hybrid conflicts. Through these operations, they try to sow division on subjects that are sensitive to the various target countries or allied organizations. Social polarization and the fragmentation of the political landscape in a large number of countries are a breeding ground for this. In 2019, an investigation by the MIVD brought to light information operations aimed at the Netherlands, other Western countries and allied interests.

13 January 2021

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Cybersecuritybeeld Nederland

Cyber attacks by state actors as a means of sabotage

The AIVD and MIVD regard the possible digital disruption and sabotage of the vital infrastructure as one of the greatest cyber threats to the Netherlands and its allies. Multiple states have demonstrated the ability and willingness to deploy digital sabotage to achieve their geopolitical goals. The AIVD has been observing for some time that some of these states are making preparations to make digital sabotage possible for future use. These preparations consist of the embedding in ICT systems of, among other things, vital infrastructure. In 2019, the MIVD also recognized various preparatory sabotage activities aimed at Western countries and allied interests. At the moment, states lack the intention to use digital sabotage against the Netherlands. However, this intention is changeable and depends on geopolitical developments.

13 January 2021

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Cybersecuritybeeld Nederland

Investment in innovation grows

The good news is that most organizations, on average, spend 10.9 percent of their IT budgets on cybersecurity programs. Leaders spend slightly more at 11.2 percent which is insufficient to account for their dramatically higher levels of performance. And their investments in advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence, machine learning or robotic process automation, are rising substantially. Today, 84 percent of organizations spend more than 20 percent of their cybersecurity budgets on tools that use these three technologies as fundamental components. The finding represents a good step up from the 67 percent being spent three years ago. The increase is even more impressive with respect to the leaders. Three years ago, only 41 percent of leaders were spending more than 20 percent of their cybersecurity budgets on advanced technologies. Today, that has doubled, to 82 percent.

22 January 2021

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Report

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Third Annual State of Cyber Resilience

The basics seem better

The suggestion that organizations are making progress in cybersecurity is valid. In fact, more than four out of five respondents agreed that cybersecurity tools have advanced significantly over the past few years and are noticeably improving their organization’s cyber resilience. Improvements in basic security hygiene back up this finding. Being able to accurately assess the number of cyberattacks against an organization depends on the ability of each organization to detect them. On the other hand, security breaches are real events and likely to be more precisely recorded. With this in mind, cybersecurity teams across industries and geographies deserve recognition for the improved levels of cybersecurity protection over the past year. For example, the total number of cyberattacks dropped 11 percent, from 232 to 206 targeted attacks. At the same time, we have seen a larger drop of 27 percent in the number of security breaches which indicates the basics seem to be improving. On average, organizations now face 22 security breaches per year compared with 30 in the previous year.

22 January 2021

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Report

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Third Annual State of Cyber Resilience

Progress masks hidden threats

Indirect attacks against weak links in the supply chain now account for 40 percent of security breaches. A closer look at the sources of cyberattacks reveals 40 percent of security breaches are now indirect, as threat actors target the weak links in the supply chain or business ecosystem. This shift is blurring the true scale of cyberthreats. If we apply the same average number of security breaches to indirect cyberattacks, the total number—both direct and indirect—could jump to about 280, a potential increase of 20 percent over the prior year. Organizations should look beyond their four walls to protect their business ecosystems and supply chains as well. On average, cybersecurity programs actively protect only about 60 percent of an organization’s business ecosystem. That is an issue when 40 percent of breaches come via this route. In such an environment, few organizations have the luxury of standing still. Fully 83 percent of our respondents agreed that their organizations need to think beyond securing their enterprises and take steps to secure their ecosystems to be effective.

22 January 2021

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Third Annual State of Cyber Resilience

Unsustainable cost increases

Another threat is cost increases beginning to reach what many respondents consider unsustainable levels. Despite rising investments in new technologies for cybersecurity programs, our research highlights many areas where the cybersecurity technologies being purchased by this spending are failing. Looking at a broad range of 17 different components of cybersecurity protection, 60 percent of respondents reported cost increases on all 17 components over the last two years. A significant number, almost one quarter, reported cost increases of more than 25 percent a year across all 17 components. The three areas of cybersecurity protection with the largest increases in cost are network security, threat detection and security monitoring. Reflecting these trends, 69 percent of our respondents said staying ahead of attackers is a constant battle and the cost is unsustainable

22 January 2021

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Third Annual State of Cyber Resilience

Security investments are failing

Failures lead to gaps in protection, lower detection rates, longer business impact and more customer data loss. More bad news is threatening organizations’ cyber resilience in several areas and causing security investments to fail. Our research identifies serious gaps in protection, very low detection rates, much longer business impact and customer data being exposed. Yet, our leaders are, once again, proving the exception in many of these areas. With only a little more than half of their organization covered by their cybersecurity programs, non-leaders are at risk of having many areas unprotected. This contrasts with leaders who are able to cover 85 percent of their organization with their cybersecurity programs. The difference reflects a substantial gap in protection between the two groups.

22 January 2021

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Third Annual State of Cyber Resilience

Despite a decrease in instances ransomware remains the top threat according to cybercrime investigators and the second most prominent threat for the private sector.

The volume of ransomware attacks decreased throughout 2018. The decrease may be a result of increased awareness of potential victims, increased use of mobile devices, declined usage of exploit kits and more focused targeting of private and public entities. This more specialized focus on more valuable targets thus compensates the for the lower volume of attacks and does not diminish the threat ransomware poses.

14 April 2021

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Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment 2019

Primary infection methods for malware remain social engineering, targeted phishing emails and Remote Desktop Protocols.

The more focused targeting of victims for ransomware attacks require specific tactics. According to different reports spear-phishing is the primary infection vector for 65% of hacker groups. Remote Desktop Protocols can be breached through brute force attacks or through buying access exploits on criminal fora. This latter method once again highlights the importance of good patch management.

14 April 2021

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Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment 2019

Technological advancements call for ethical AI practices

With AI bringing new technologies and possibilities to the mainstream, questions arise about the fairness, transparency and responsible use of new algorithms and new sources of data. This requires both governments and international organisations to step in. June 2018, the High Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence (AI HLEG) was set up by the EC. This group prepared The Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI involving human agency and oversight respecting human autonomy, technical robustness and safety: AI is developed with a preventive approach to risks, Privacy and data governance: AI protects data and processes it responsibly, transparency: ai is recognizable and its workings are tracable and explainable. Diversity, non-discrimination, and fairness: AI provides equal treatment and AI products are accessible by all, environmental and societal well-being: AI technologies are designed to be societally responsible. Accountability: AI systems are auditable and minimize negative impact

21 May 2021

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Making AI Work in the Netherlands

Popularity of AI studies is increasing rapidly, providing new AI talent

AI, Data Science and related studies are increasingly popular amongst students.1 Due to new programs in AI and data science, growth is three times as fast in AI focused programmes (22% compound annual growth rate) as in related fields.

21 May 2021

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Making AI Work in the Netherlands

Fintech’s with a predominant tech focus or tech driven solution outperform in the market

Overall the Holland fintech's top 20 by growth is dominated by those companies that have a strong tech component or offer a tech driven solution, confirming that tech is the predominant driver for fintech adoption. In 2019, Factris, Geophy and Onegini saw the largest growth, in number of employees. Though all have a very distinct offering they also are very tech driven companies. Factris offers an online platform with financing solutions for the SMB market, Geophy uses data science and AI-powered valuation solutions to value commercial property, Onegini offers secure identity cloud offerings for regulated industries. This top 3 is indicative of the current trends in fintech, where we see an increased focus on alternative finance platforms, continued growth of sub segments like regtech, legaltech, wealthtech, Proptech and insurtech, and the increased focus on secure identity solutions. In addition, enabling technologies, such as robo-advisory, AI, biometrics, blockchain, API’s and data analytics tools transition the fintech industry into a more mature phase. These enabling technologies continue to spur investments in the Fintech scene, emphasizing the tech side more than ever.

10 June 2021

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State of the Dutch Fintech Market 2020

Collaboration is a strategic imperative for growth & expansion of the fintech market

The Achilles Heel lies in the fact that it is still relatively complicated to achieve successful cooperation between large companies and startups, 18% of the respondents indicate poor conditions here. A missed opportunity as most studies indicate that collaboration is essential to stimulate and grow innovation. In this respect, collaboration should not be seen as a ‘nice to have’ but should be seen as a strategic imperative to further grow and expand business opportunity.

11 June 2021

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State of the Dutch Fintech Market 2020

Risk & security is high on the agenda of many in the fintech industry

82% of the respondents made regular or substantial investments into risk & security in 2020. Fintech's are extremely vulnerable when it comes to data and security breaches. The more an industry gets digitized, the higher the digital or cyber threat will become. With online banking emerging and digitization of banking and related financial services, this topic will remain high on the agenda for the foreseeable future. 74% of the respondents indicate that they invested a considerable or substantial amount into general software development this year. This includes elements such as security or compliance. Compliance in general is high on the agenda of Fintech’s as well.

11 June 2021

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State of the Dutch Fintech Market 2020

The Dutch market for cloud services continuous to grow

The Dutch market for cloud services continuous to grow, especially cloud-based services in the area of application hosting, web hosting, server platforms, as well as storage, backup, security and workplace automation is growing fast in the Netherlands. Leading vendors are Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft and Google. Overall, the financial services industry is highly digitized, and therefore technology adoption rates are relatively high. At the same time, the uptake of cloud services in this industry has been relatively slow, due to concerns on compliance, security and privacy.

11 June 2021

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State of the Dutch Fintech Market 2020

Data security is one of the main drivers for development of the Dutch fintech scene

Access to funding, data access & data quality as well as the entrepreneurial business climate were considered drivers for the Dutch fintech scene, the COVID-19 virus has shifted that completely to the entrepreneurial business climate. Respondents indicate that they expect this to be an important driver for growth post-lockdown. This is followed – though with some distance, by existing customer trust & data security, assuming that respondents see the developments in open banking and the associated regulation as well as the increase of attention on data security as a driver for customer trust.

11 June 2021

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State of the Dutch Fintech Market 2020

The use of API’s in the fintech sector will be one of the most promising developments

App to app integration - is probably the most dynamic technology area at the moment as it has the largest proportion of respondents planning to invest. With the emergence of open banking, increased data accessibility and interconnectivity, the use of API’s in the Fintech sector will be one of the most promising developments to watch for the time to come. With the implementation of PSD2, more and more API opportunities will open up in the financial services industry.

11 June 2021

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State of the Dutch Fintech Market 2020

The most mentioned safety and security problems for multinationals in The Hague are cybercrime, reputational damage and lack of innovation

According to research conducted by the HSD, the most mentioned safety and security problems for multinationals in The Hague are cybercrime, reputational damage and lack of innovation. Other problems that arise are: interruption of business operations, distribution or logistic failure, failure to attract or retain talent, economic slowdown, unethical behaviour, geopolitical tensions and occupational accidents.

22 June 2021

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HSD Research: Utilization of Transactional Environment for Safety & Security within Multinationals

Most commonly feared cyberthreats amongst Dutch organisations

The most commonly feared cyberthreats among Dutch organisations are data leakages (40%), phishing attacks, malware attacks / vulnerability exploits (35%) and extortion / destruction of the organisation's data (25%). In case of a ransomware attack, 30% of Dutch organisations would pay the ransom in order to get their data back. However, opinions vary widely on this topic. For example, about 50% of the surveyed CxOs would pay the ransom, compared to the 29% of CISOs.

23 August 2021

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Results Dutch Cyber Security Landscape Survey

92% of Dutch organisations claim to have an up-to-date cyber security strategy

92% of Dutch organisations claim to have an up-to-date cyber security strategy. On the other hand, 6% of Dutch organisations are starting to set up their strategy, while 15% are already working on a next-level strategy. Furthermore, many success factors are cited for achieving cyber security goals. The most frequently cited factors are increased operational excellence, clear cyber security communication, cyber security awareness training and compliance.

23 August 2021

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Results Dutch Cyber Security Landscape Survey

Researchers are collaborating on an international scale against DDoS attacks

Over forty researchers from the Netherlands and the United States are sharing knowledge, insights and experiences regarding Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. For example regarding orphan domain names can be used for malicious content and DDoS attacks that are conducted via poorly secured IoT devices.

24 August 2021

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International Collaboration Against DDoS Attacks

1.2 million people have fallen victim to cybercrime

8.5% of internet users in the age group of 12 years and older stated that they were a victim of digital crime in in the past twelve months in 2018. This concerns 1,2 million people. Especially young people fell victim. Financial fraud was on top of the list of crime according to a recent report.

24 August 2021

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CBS: 1,2 Million Victims of Cybercrime

India and Pakistan are at risk of increased cross-border violence in Kashmir

In 2020, relations between India and Pakistan plummeted due to increased clashes along the disputed Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) border. India focused on deflecting opportunities for negotiation and tightening control of Kashmir, while promoting pro-Indian politics in the region. Pakistan responded by continuously casting doubt on the bilateral ceasefire agreement with India by highlighting Indian violations and human rights basuses in Kashmir at international diplomatic forums, as well as inciting violence near the Line of Control (LoC). Cross-border violence between India and Pakistan in the Kashmir region is expected to continue increasing in 2021. With both sides adopting non-cooperative militarized strategies, bilateral attempts at resolving the Kashmir conflict remain unlikely in the near future.

15 February 2023

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Ten Conflicts to Worry About in 2021

Myanmar is at risk of dormant conflicts reigniting

In the past few years, conflict has been on the rise in Myanmar. Most notably, the military's use of airstrikes and shelling both during combat and in civilian areas has been increasing relative to 2019. Many civilians have been injured and killed during the conflict over the past two years. While fighting has temporarily stopped, no stable solution to the conflict has been achieved. Furthermore, anti-war demonstrations in 2020 by youth activists were met with state repression. Anti-war sentiment among the youth in Myanmar notably crosses ethnic boundaries, and the continued repression of such activism is only likely to lead to further discontent. As 2021 progresses, in addition to the likelihood of increased disorder resulting from the military coup, the threat that dormant armed conflicts could reignite remains.

15 February 2023

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Ten Conflicts to Worry About in 2021

People Centric Security Trends

Although the 2020 pandemic changed how many people work and interact with organizations, people are still at the center of all business. And they need digitalized processes to function in today’s environment.

30 March 2021

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Gartner Top Strategic Technology Trends for 2021

Location Independent Strategic Technology Trends

Location independence: COVID-19 has shifted where employees, customers, suppliers and organizational ecosystems physically exist. Location independence requires a technology shift to support this new version of business.

30 March 2021

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Gartner Top Strategic Technology Trends for 2021

Avoid Supply Chain Disruptions By Tooling Its Management

The current pandemic has greatly contributed to supply chain failures and, consequently, disruption of critical services. Forrester predicts that firms will use supply chain risk intelligence solutions and mapping tools integrated with GRC solutions to mitigate supply chain risk and improve overall business resiliency.

30 March 2021

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The Top Security Technology Trends To Watch, 2020

COVID-19 Forces Changes To Access Controls And Adoption Of New Security Tooling

COVID-19 will lead to reduced security budgets, forcing firms be more efficient in their security spend. In response, firms will use the MITRE ATT&CK framework, adopt Zero Trust-based identity-centric access controls, protect data with antisurveillance tools, and invest in securing and protecting cloud platforms and workloads.

30 March 2021

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The Top Security Technology Trends To Watch, 2020

Doing Less With More Bolsters Security Resourcefulness And Automation

Companies facing security budget cuts will need to become more resourceful: Focusing on automation, building in-house security technologies, and increasing customer-facing security are early areas of investment. Firms striving to be leaner will need to develop stronger business justification processes and reduce internal process complexities for easier security to keep firms protected.

30 March 2021

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The Top Security Technology Trends To Watch, 2020

Increasing use of sensors and sensor data by the police

The police are increasingly working with sensors. In the late 1990s, the police also used sensors, such as cameras to photograph crime scenes and surveillance cameras on the street. But the number and type of digital sensors that the police have at their disposal has grown enormously. Police officers on the street are supported by digital sensor technology. This affects the role of the police officer. Agents make decisions based in part on information that comes from sensors. In this sense, the actions of the police are informed by data. It is conceivable that sensor data will play a more guiding role in the near future.

20 May 2021

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Burgers en Sensoren

The police automates some of its core activities with smart sensor technology

A smart sensor can also perform core police activities. By the "smart sensor" we actually mean an automated robotic system. The definition of a robot is a "machine that can perceive, think and act". In that case, the three steps of the cybernetic loop are automated. For example, an ANPR camera can collect images continuously. A police officer still decides on the basis of an analysis of these images what action is needed. A fully automated intervention is also conceivable. For example, the Central Judicial Collection Agency (CJIB) could have ANPR cameras automatically issue fines for section controls. In that case, the ANPR camera system collects the data, analyzes it and takes action without human intervention.

20 May 2021

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Burgers en Sensoren

Citizens, businesses and municipalities are collecting more and more sensor data

In the past twenty years, the use of digital sensors in society has grown explosively. Citizens and businesses own a thousand times as many security cameras as the police. That is without all smartphones and other sensors. In practice, these are a great many digital witnesses who can support police work.

20 May 2021

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Burgers en Sensoren

The police are looking for new forms of cooperation to use sensor data from society for livability and safety

In the Netherlands we see various examples in which the police cooperate with citizens, companies and municipalities to promote quality of life and safety with sensor data. An example is that the police stimulate citizens to do their own investigative work, for example by developing new digital platforms that facilitate citizens to do their own investigative work.

20 May 2021

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Burgers en Sensoren

Private parties will carry out and enforce their own investigative work with sensor data

In addition to the police and municipalities, private parties (citizens and companies) are increasingly using sensors and sensor data to make their own living environment more liveable and safer. Citizens and companies not only collect sensor data to share with the police (witnesses), but also analyze the data themselves (detect it) and take action (enforce it). This kind of 'do-it-yourself-policing' takes place on their own initiative. We see this happening more often in the business world, but also by citizens.

20 May 2021

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Burgers en Sensoren

Digital sensors have become more extensive, more mobile and smarter in recent years

Digital sensors have become more extensive, more mobile and smarter in recent years. More extensive: The functions of digital sensors have expanded and have, in fact, digitized all of our senses: they can "look", "hear, "smell", "taste" and "feel". More mobile: Digital sensors have become smaller and smaller. This makes digital sensors more mobile. They are in smartphones, can be worn on the body (such as smart watches and glasses) and can be controlled remotely. Smarter: A camera that can recognize faces is an example of a "smart" camera.

21 May 2021

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Burgers en Sensoren

Multiple factors play a role in people's views on sensor surveillance

Citizens are not simply for or against a particular sensor application. Three personal dimensions can play a role in people's considerations, namely personal characteristics, attitudes, and the direct social environment. Additionally, three dimensions of sensor applications can play a role in people's considerations, namely: 1. Sensor technology: how sensor technology works. 2. Social practice and actors: the social practice in which the technology is applied and the actors who play a role in this. 3. Social, institutional context: the broader social, cultural and institutional context in which the sensor is applied

21 May 2021

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Burgers en Sensoren

Citizens expect the police and society to find a good balance between different values in the use of sensor technology

In addition to security and privacy, citizens find the following values important: democratic rights, efficient and effective business operations, capacity for innovation, transparency, liveability, autonomy or personal freedom and human contact.

21 May 2021

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Burgers en Sensoren

The acceptance of sensor deployment depends on the degree of safety and the type of living environment

The acceptance of sensor deployment depends on the degree of safety: the more unsafe citizens perceive a situation, the more they consider it permissible to use sensors to increase safety and quality of life. The acceptance also depends on the type of living environment: the use of sensors in private space is less acceptable than the application in public space, especially when there is a lot of traffic there.

21 May 2021

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Burgers en Sensoren

Administrative concern about the unprecedented crisis

The Netherlands is faced with new threats. Climate change, the energy transition and advancing digitization create new and complex issues for our society. New and even unprecedented crises seem to be emerging. Concern about the unprecedented crisis is fed by the realization that the increasing interdependence and complexity of technological and infrastructural systems make our society vulnerable to the consequences of minor disruptions in those systems. Such a disruption can cause all kinds of unexpected knock-on effects in other systems and thus suddenly bring entire sectors to a standstill. The social impact of such crises can be great and quickly transcends the regional and even the national level. The question is whether the Netherlands is prepared for such crises and the consequential societal disruptions.

25 May 2021

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Naar een gezamenlijke aanpak van ongekende crises

Societal disruption: small chance, big consequences

social disruption is an unlikely outcome of a complex process. A lot has to go wrong before the conditions are in place that enable a process of social disruption. It is a unique combination: a widely shared fear of a long-term failure of critical facilities, a dwindling confidence in the capacity of government and society to solve the problem and collective behavior that makes the situation worse. It can happen but it rarely happens. But when a society becomes disrupted, the process is difficult to stop. That's because this dynamic process has a self-reinforcing effect (a vicious circle is created). Without timely and adequate intervention, collective behavior can develop that will promote a deepening of the disruption. Here the problem arises that local, regional and national authorities appear to be not or hardly prepared for the specific challenges they will face in such a situation. In fact, the approach and arrangements, which usually seem to work during "ordinary" crises, can be counterproductive in a situation of social disruption.

25 May 2021

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Naar een gezamenlijke aanpak van ongekende crises

Societal disruption requires a specific response: resilience

Limiting the consequences of societal disruption is possible but difficult due to the chance of failure of critical facilities, the difficulty of effective government intervention, the lack of self-reliance in citizens, and the complexity of collaboration between organizations .The most effective response in countering social disruption stems from a high degree of resilience. This is a frequently used term in a variety of policy documents and the confusion surrounding this abstract concept is considerable. There is a distinction between administrative, institutional and social resilience. The general usefulness of resilience is rarely questioned. Now resilience is not something that can be achieved in the short term and with a few simple steps. Organizing resilience requires a long-term strategy and significant investments. However, it is rarely clear how local and regional authorities can strengthen that resilience. Recommendations for authorities therefore include: choose resilience, improve detection and monitoring, work on a resilient organization, and think through planning capacities.

25 May 2021

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Naar een gezamenlijke aanpak van ongekende crises

Cyber disruptions pose specific challenges that can further fuel the process of social disruption

Cyber disruptions can lead to social disruption. Cyber disruptions entail the following specific challenges that can further fuel the process of social disruption: -Unpredictable consequences and complexity -Disinformation and fake news -Lack of expertise and experience -Cross-border reconciliation However, the social process - which is accompanied by social disruption - is not very different from a disruption of a different nature.

25 May 2021

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Naar een gezamenlijke aanpak van ongekende crises

CIO's lead the bold disruptors: 30% of firms will increase spend on cloud, security and risk, networks, and mobility

In 2021, 30% of businesses will continue to accelerate their spend on cloud, security and risk, networks, and mobility — including struggling businesses looking to leapfrog less wily competitors and gain advantage coming out of the pandemic. Leading CIOs will embrace cloud-first and platform strategies for speed and adaptiveness, eschewing stovepipes for end-to-end solutions. Interviews with leading CIOs found that they are collaborating more across organisations, objectives, and budgets, extending IT-business partnerships into enterprise- level shared accountability. They will also invest aggressively in employees, breaking down old ideals and resolving resistance within the organisation. In fact, CIOs focused on employee experience (EX) will help their businesses attract, develop, and retain talent that can provide competitive advantage in a critical year. They will make the investments to foster social collaboration, make information easier to find and use, and provide less distracting security. CIOs who are slow or unable to adapt will become mired in short- term fixes that lead to digital sameness, not differentiation, and their top talent will get frustrated and leave for more visionary pastures.

22 January 2021

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European Predictions 2021

Insurers hone in on cost control, containing claim leakage becomes the top priority for general insurance

Along with the coronavirus pandemic and social and economic crises, 2020 has been, for insurers, a year of claims. 2021 promises more of the same as the virus and other events continue to pressure insurers globally. A key focus for insurers will be controlling claims costs. Along with hefty losses from global natural disasters, COVID-19-related general insurance claim losses could reach $100 billion. The magnitude of the losses will heighten focus on claim leakage, or dollars lost through claims management inefficiencies. As one third-party administrator we interviewed noted, claim leakage is “absolutely a big priority because in our world, anything paid incorrectly comes from our bottom line." In 2021, expect a flurry of smart analytics investments to identify leakage potential at first notice of loss, as well as a sharper focus overall on claim leakage, with management consultants adopting an improved playbook.

22 January 2021

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European Predictions 2021

EU takes bold steps in regulating AI, the European Parliament will draft new AI rules and abandon e-privacy reform

We expect that the European Parliament will not only fail to adopt the e-privacy regulation proposal that’s currently on the table in 2021 but will shelve it altogether. But with Google ending support for third-party cookies in its browser and the advertising industry embracing “cookie-less” approaches, the lack of updated e-privacy rules will have limited impact. Meanwhile, data suggests that many EU citizens find current legislation inadequate for regulating AI-based activities. In just three months, the European Commission collected more than 1,200 formal opinions for its White Paper on Artificial Intelligence. And companies such as Rolls-Royce have announced their own AI ethics frameworks. Forrester predicts that the European Parliament will finalise a draft of a new AI regulation that will be the world’s first. Thus, companies that do business with Europeans should invest in ethical AI approaches now.

22 January 2021

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European Predictions 2021

Critical year for cloud competition in EU, GAIA-X will not make a significant impact in 2021

Europe is buzzing about the new GAIA-X sovereign cloud initiative — but the foundation’s members must now deliver concrete services and a clear value proposition. Three US- based hyperscalers — AWS, Microsoft, and Google — are the primary public cloud vendors for 46% of respondents at European companies, and their expanding network of European data centres and compliance with national rules will help them keep growing. Despite the invalidation of EU-US Privacy Shield, legal (standard contract clauses) and technical (encryption) measures still help when you must transfer personal data outside the EU. If GAIA-X develops sensible policies for data sharing and use, we expect all major cloud providers to engage; if your provider doesn’t, it’s time to find a new supplier. But in 2021, satisfied clients of the “keep my data in Europe” services from non-European-headquartered cloud businesses can stick with their current suppliers.

22 January 2021

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European Predictions 2021

Risk management becomes a top supply chain priority, supply chains reconfigure to become resilient collaborative supply networks by 2022

To boost supply chain resilience, most large manufacturers will regularly pool data about supplier and carrier performance. Supplier rationalisation will yield to supplier risk mitigation as most large manufacturers revisit existing ERP capabilities to automate multivendor sourcing based on risk. By 2022, event monitoring and dynamic production or logistics rescheduling platforms will raise a billion dollars in funding. A minority of global manufacturers will source indirect materials through markets like Alibaba or Amazon, but most will source direct materials from specialist industry marketplaces. Secure product fingerprints will still be too costly for most items in the supply chain to make blockchain verification viable. Companies will focus on working with trusted suppliers using networks such as Trust Your Supplier. Manufacturing leaders must learn to federate data and distribute trust to collaborate with customers and suppliers in multi-enterprise supply networks.

22 January 2021

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European Predictions 2021

Increasing attention is given to the issue of attribution in cyberspace

Attribution can be broadly defined as the process of assigning responsibility for a (malicious) cyber activity to a specific actor on the basis of the available evidence, including all-source intelligence, forensic investigation, and taking into account the political context. Given the sensitive nature of such evidence and the implications that a decision about attribution might have on bilateral relations between the accuser and the accused, states maintain their exclusive right to attribute (or not) a cyber operation based on their own methods, procedures and political interests. the relatively short history of attribution of cyber-attacks, states have used different paths . While many initiatives hardly ever see daylight and are hidden from the scrutiny of public opinion, some states have also opted for more public forms of attribution through indictments under criminal law and political attributions – albeit with a very limited reference to international law and norms that have been violated.

14 April 2021

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Three tales of attribution in cyberspace

NCSC Trend List 2021: Expectations of the NCSC in the field of cybersecurity

The NCSC Trend List helps organizations to look ahead in the field of cybersecurity based on trends and expectations. Trends are things that are already happening and expectations are things that may come into play in the coming years. Depending on developments, these expectations may shift in time and/ or relevance. That is why the NCSC will regularly update the Trend List.

16 February 2022

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NCSC Trend list 2021

Increase in operational technology (OT) targeting incidents

According to X-Force data, a 2000 percent increase in operational technology (OT) targeting incidents in 2019 could portend the rising interest of threat actors to attack industrial systems as we move into 2020.

22 January 2021

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X-force threat intelligence index

The malware landscape shifted in 2019, with threat actors returning to ransomware and building out botnets

The malware landscape shifted in 2019, with threat actors returning to ransomware and building out botnets. Throughout 2019, X-Force IRIS responded to ransomware engagements in 12 different countries in 5 different continents and across 13 different industries. Additionally, destructive malware activity shows that this potentially catastrophic malware trend continues to be a rising threat.

22 January 2021

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X-force threat intelligence index 2020

The top three initial infection vectors were Phishing, Scan and Exploit and Stolen Credentials

The top three initial infection vectors seen in X-Force IRIS engagements in 2019 were a very close first, second, and third: Phishing (31 percent), Scan and Exploit (30 percent) and Stolen Credentials (29 percent). Phishing, most notably, went from making up nearly half of the total incidents in 2018 to less than a third in 2019. By contrast, the scanning and exploitation of vulnerabilities increased to nearly one-third of the incidents from only making up eight percent in 2018.

22 January 2021

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X-force threat intelligence index 2020

Spam email continues to use a limited subset of vulnerabilities

X-Force analysis of global spam activity indicates that spam email continues to use a limited subset of vulnerabilities, with particular focus on just two CVEs: 2017-0199 and 2017-11882. Both of these are patched vulnerabilities that have accounted for nearly 90 percent of the vulnerabilities threat actors attempted to exploit via spam campaigns.

22 January 2021

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X-force threat intelligence index 2020

Most targeted sectors were financial Services, Retail, Media, Education, and Government

Though Financial Services retained its top spot as the most targeted sector in 2019, industry-specific targeting highlighted shifting priorities for threat actors, with Retail, Media, Education, and Government all moving up on the global chart of the most targeted sectors.

22 January 2021

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X-force threat intelligence index 2020

Europe: Mainly financially-motivated threat actors

Unlike Asia, which is mostly affected by rivaling nation states, Europe appeared to be primarily targeted by financially-motivated threat actors. This difference may be explained by the greater potential for theft from European-based companies based on currency exchange rates. Alternatively, criminal motivations could be in pursuit of intellectual property, which can be sold to competitors for significant gain.

22 January 2021

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X-force threat intelligence index 2020

The risk surface will continue to grow in 2020

The risk surface will continue to grow in 2020, with more than 150,000 current vulnerabilities and new ones reported regularly

22 January 2021

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X-force threat intelligence index 2020

the year 2020 could see another big number of lost records due to breaches and attacks

With over four times as many records breached in 2019 as in 2018, the year 2020 could see another big number of lost records due to breaches and attacks.

22 January 2021

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X-force threat intelligence index 2020

Threat actors continue to shift their sights to different attack vectors in 2020

Threat actors continue to shift their sights to different attack vectors, with increased targeting of IoT devices, Operational Technology (OT), and connected industrial and medical systems, to name a few.

22 January 2021

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X-force threat intelligence index 2020

Malware use by threat actors continues to fluctuate in 2020

Malware use by threat actors continues to fluctuate, with ransomware, cryptominers, and botnets all taking lead at different points in 2019. We expect this trend to continue in 2020, meaning organizations will need to protect themselves against varied threats that change over time.

22 January 2021

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X-force threat intelligence index 2020

Spam activity continues unabated in 2020

Spam activity continues unabated, requiring diligent blacklisting, vulnerability patching and threat monitoring by organizations.

22 January 2021

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X-force threat intelligence index 2020

The year-over-year shift in industry-specific targeting highlights the risk to all industry sectors

The year-over-year shift in industry-specific targeting highlights the risk to all industry sectors and a need for meaningful advancements and maturity in cybersecurity programs across the board.

22 January 2021

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X-force threat intelligence index 2020

Geopolitical factors may create challenges for the EU’s internal security

China’s influence on trade, infrastructure and security at a global level, particularly in the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa, will shape the EU’s foreign policy and security stance, including as regards the EU’s internal security. Stability in certain post-conflict areas remains fragile and there is a risk of relapsing into active conflicts should conditions deteriorate. Active conflicts may cause further mass migration movements towards the EU, fueling the migrant smuggling industry that has emerged over recent years

18 May 2021

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European Union Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment

Disinformation is used to spread a sense of disunity amongst the Dutch population

Various state actors spread disinformation in order to weaken European and Western multilateral institutions. Non-state actors strive to spread polarisation, create social disruption and obtain financial benefit. The COVID-19 crisis has provided an impuls to the spread of disinformation. For example, in 2020, disinformation was spread regarding 'Black Pete' and alleged damaging effects of 5G-networks. The latter has led to multiple arsons.

31 May 2021

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Strategisch Omgevingsbeeld 2020

Many knowledge institutions have invested extra in measures that increase cyber resilience

Many institutions have invested extra in measures that increase resilience. Investments were made in particular in VPN solutions, multi-factor authentication, patch management, backups and awareness. A new trend is the interest in insurance against cybercrime.

3 June 2021

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Cyberdreigingsbeeld onderwijs en onderzoek 2020-2021

Increased reliance on a small number of major cloud providers from outside the EEA makes education and research vulnerable

To facilitate distance education and working from home, institutions are deploying new tooling, including video conferencing tools and tools for online proctoring. They usually use cloud services for this. This has made institutions even more dependent on a limited number of large cloud providers, which can disrupt continuity in the event of a disaster.

3 June 2021

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Cyberdreigingsbeeld onderwijs en onderzoek 2020-2021

Disruption, espionage and sabotage are the largest cyberthreats to the Netherlands

The Dutch society is, for a large part, dependent on digital processes. Datanetworks, data, services and systems are becoming more interconnected, making them larger and complex in nature. If digital (vital) processes are affected, the consequent disruption can lead to large-scale societal damage. The extent of the threat, especially by espionage and sabotage, and the lack of cyber resilience pose major risks to Dutch society.

4 June 2021

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Strategisch Omgevingsbeeld 2020

No major shifts in types of cyber threats over time

There are no major shifts compared to 2019 in the types of threats observed. Obtaining and disclosing data, identity fraud and disruption of ICT facilities are still the most common threats. Takeover and misuse of ICT resources is a threat that has increased in 2020.

4 June 2021

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Cyberdreigingsbeeld onderwijs en onderzoek 2020-2021

Knowledge institutions pay more attention to knowledge security

Knowledge institutions pay more attention to knowledge security. Partly because of the changed international relations, they assess the exchange of knowledge in partnerships or the participation of some foreign students in a different way. They also check whether unwanted knowledge and technology transfer to third countries cannot take place in this way

4 June 2021

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Cyberdreigingsbeeld onderwijs en onderzoek 2020-2021

Cybersecurity expertise and resources are still scarce, this calls for even more collaboration

Expertise and resources are still scarce. Collaboration on the theme of cybersecurity within education, research and beyond is as important as ever. Nearly half of institutions spend less than 5% of their total IT budget on information security. It is striking that the percentage of 'unknown' has increased slightly compared to 2019. Almost half of the institutions indicate that they have between 2 and 5 FTEs available for information security. This is a slight increase compared to 2019, but in the coming years, there will still be a great scarcity of cybersecurity expertise

4 June 2021

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Cyberdreigingsbeeld onderwijs en onderzoek 2020-2021

Cybersecurity awareness and training is increasingly crucial

Phishing attempts have exploded and methods continue to become more sophisticated. Investing in training and awareness is becoming increasingly crucial, so that the user also becomes more resilient against the latest threats. Most institutions regularly conduct awareness campaigns. About a quarter of the institutions indicate that new employees receive awareness training when they are hired.

4 June 2021

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Cyberdreigingsbeeld onderwijs en onderzoek 2020-2021

Information sharing about ongoing cyber attacks has decreased

The number of institutions that report directly to the board in the event of a serious incident has decreased slightly compared to 2019; then it was 93%, now 85%. However, the percentage that does not immediately report a serious incident has increased from 5% to 11%:

4 June 2021

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Cyberdreigingsbeeld onderwijs en onderzoek 2020-2021

Cyber risk perception has generally increased

the risks are estimated to be higher in the education process, the research process and the operational management than in 2019. Only in the case of Consciously damaging the image, the risk is estimated slightly lower in all 3 processes. A slightly lower risk assessment is also made for Espionage in the educational process and in operational management.

4 June 2021

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Cyberdreigingsbeeld onderwijs en onderzoek 2020-2021

Threats from nation states are becoming increasingly digitalised

The most common threats from nation states are influencing practices, espionage, information confrontation and the utilisation of economic instruments. These threats are increasingly expressed on digital platforms. Such threats target a wide variety of actors: diaspora, religious communities, the scientific community and businesses.

25 June 2021

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Strategisch Omgevingsbeeld 2020

The number of cyberincidents has increased during the COVID-19 crisis

During the COVID-19 crisis, a situation has emerged in both the physical and digital world in which anti-governmental extremisme can flourish. Also, the number of cyberincidents has increased during the COVID-19 crisis. According to governmental organisations, cyberincidents are currently in the top 3 threats. This is also one of the reasons why 4 out of 10 Dutch citizens worry about the occurrence of a digital attack on the Netherlands. However only 4% of Dutch citizens feel unsafe in The Netherlands.

25 June 2021

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Strategisch Omgevingsbeeld 2020

The digital infrastructure is critical for the functioning of society

The digital infrastructure of a society must remain in order, just like air, water, road and rail. If digital processes do not work properly, this can have major impact on society. Organisations can be unable to do their work, personal data can be exposed and facilities may stop functioning. For example: a hack at a cheese packaging company, a data leak at an ICT service providers for car companies and an ICT malfunction at an hospital can lead to such an impact. In the past year, a great difference can be seen in the cyber security resilience of companies and organisations. Experts are concerned that this gap will expand in the future. Also, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, more processes have been digitised, thereby increasing the importance of digital security even further.

23 August 2021

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Cyber Attacks Affect the Nervous System of Society

Governments are adjusting their cyber ecosystems in order to increase cybersecurity

Cyber attacks can spread and threaten multiple organisations, clients, industries and sectors at once. Governments are interested in utilising the growing information ecosystem. However, this ecosystem is accompanied with new risks. Reliable cybersecurity requires breaking down internal silos, recrafting external relationships, and making sure the public workforce comprises the best cyber talent.

26 August 2021

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Overheidstrends 2021: De rol van de overheid ten aanzien van cyber

In Europe, more supply chain attacks have taken place since 2020

Supply chain attackers managed to have significant impacts in terms of the downtime of systems, monetary losses and reputational damages in 2020. Based on previously observed trends and patterns, supply chain attacks will continue to pose risks in 2021. It is estimated that there will be four times more supply chain attacks in 2021 than in 2020. With half of the attacks being attributed to Advanced Persistence Threat (APT) actors, their complexity and resources greatly exceed the more common non-targeted attacks, and, therefore, there is an increasing need for new protective methods that incorporate suppliers in order to guarantee that organisations remain secure.

26 August 2021

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ENISA Threat Landscape for Supply Chain Attacks

Most common attack techniques and targeted assets in supply chain attacks

Most attack techniques that are used to compromise a supplier in a supply chain attack are unknown (66%), or conducted through exploiting software vulnerabilities (16%). Most assets that are targeted are code (66%), data (20%) and processes (12%). Furthermore, the compromised suppliers' assets are used as an attack vector to compromise customers. Those attacks are most done by abusing the trust of the customers (62%) or by using malware (62%).

26 August 2021

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ENISA Threat Landscape for Supply Chain Attacks

Delloite's 2021 Future of Cyber Survey showcases the current cybersecurity landscape from the perspective of executives.

As organizations navigate an evolving threat landscape and an increase in cybersecurity incidents, it’s important to have plans in place to mitigate such attacks, while also contending with both talent shortages and technology challenges. But how do the cybersecurity views of executives in the US stack-up against those of executives in the rest of the world? Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited’s 2021 Future of Cyber report surveyed over 577 C-suite executives globally –159 in the US and 418 outside of the US in the ROW – across several industries regarding their organizations’ cybersecurity programs.

3 November 2021

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Deloitte Future of Cyber Survey

Software supply chain attacks remain a major problem in 2021 cybersecurity

Throughout 2021, software supply chain attacks grew in both frequency and scale. Researchers concluded that software supply-chain attacks increased by no less than 650% throughout the year. A study issued by the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) reviewed two dozen incidents and found that 66% of supply chain attacks were committed by exploiting an unknown vulnerability, while only 16% leveraged known software flaws. Most attacks actually targeted software code. This year, it seems that organizations were once again caught largely unprepared, as a survey concluded that 82% of companies designate the third party vendors that make up their software supply chain with highly privileged roles. 76% provide roles that could allow account takeover, and, worst of all, over 90% of designated security teams were not aware that such permissions were even granted.

21 March 2022

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Check Point 2022 Cyber Security Report

Cloud services increasingly under attack in 2021

In 2020, the global pandemic brought significant changes to the corporate work environment as well as corporate network architecture. Within those changes, both the shift to cloud-based architecture – meant to address the need for hybrid, remotely- managed networks – and the preference for as-a-service providers over traditional suppliers, have really stood out in terms of the scale of their adoption. Subsequently, in 2021, it became clear that cloud environments were also growing in popularity among end users. By mid-year, Gartner had released its forecast stating that end-user spending on public cloud services was estimated to grow by 23% in 2021 to over US$ 332 billion, compared to US$ 270 billion in 2020 and US$ 242.7 billion in 2019. Enterprises are now allocating large-scale funds to multi-cloud architectures, with Microsoft Azure and AWS leading in popularity, and Google Cloud Platform, IBM, VMWare and others dominating a respectable share of the market.

21 March 2022

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Check Point 2022 Cyber Security Report

The risk of accidental war

An inter-state skirmish escalates to war as governments fail to control action in the absence of accurate information. Weakened multilateralism leads to failure to contain.

1 June 2021

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The Global Risks Report 2021

The risk of anarchic uprising

Young activists, fed up with corruption, inequality and suffering, mobilize against elites. AI-powered social media is exploited to spread disinformation, fomenting social chaos.

1 June 2021

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The Global Risks Report 2021

The risk of a collapse of an established democracy

A democracy turns authoritarian through the progressive hollowing out of the body of law. A legal rather than a violent coup erodes the system, with knock-on effects on other democratic systems.

1 June 2021

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The Global Risks Report 2021

The risk of gene editing for human enhancement

Governments begin classified genetic engineering programmes. A class of people is born with genetic capabilities better suited for space, Arctic, or deep-sea survival, setting off a genetic arms race between geopolitical rivals with undetermined ethical consequences

1 June 2021

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The Global Risks Report 2021

The risk of the deployment of small-scale nuclear weapons

New technology allows for proliferation of low-yield warheads, blurring deterrence frameworks and leading to global nuclear war.

1 June 2021

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The Global Risks Report 2021

Technological developments ask for new knowledge and skills

There are worries about the preparation of the youth for a digital future. New technological developments, such as artificial intelligence, ask for new knowledge and skills. Specialists working in those areas of technology are heavily needed and will continue to be needed. One way in which we can work on those new knowledge and skills is through education at universities, but also in secondary or primary education by implementing new curriculum.

23 May 2021

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CSR Magazine

The distribution of jobs in the security domain across branches of industry is relatively constant over time

The largest branches, in terms of the number of security jobs (both primary and secondary) are, in order, Health and social work, Public administration and services and Information and communication and this order remained relatively constant since 2013. There is slightly more variation over time in the percentage of security workers within a branch. For example, between 2016 and 2018, the share of security workers in the ‘electricity and gas supply’ branch has become greater than the share of security workers in the ‘Health and social work’ branch). But again, the situation remains relatively constant over time.

19 May 2021

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Education and Labour Market in the Security Domain

Universities of Applied Sciences are collaborating in the field of safety and security

Four Dutch Universities of Applied Sciences are collaborating in the field of safety and security. The themes that are central for the collaboration are subversion, cyber crime and cyber security, data and intelligence. The angle of the research is strongly practice-oriented and therefore directly supportive of what practice demands.

21 June 2021

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Institutes for Higher Education Join Forces in National Lector Platform Security     

The application of Artificial Intelligence is widespread

Artificial Intelligence can be applied to almost every sector and domain. For example, AI can be used for the development of self-driving cars, intelligent search engines, navigation systems and chatbots. 86% of companies therefore say that AI will have a big impact in their sector.

11 August 2021

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Strategisch Actieplan voor Artificiële Intelligentie

Cross-cutting crime facilitators and challenges to criminal investigations: Social engineering

Social engineering remains a top threat to facilitate other types of cybercrime.

22 January 2021

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Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment 2020

Cross-cutting crime facilitators and challenges to criminal investigations: cryptocurrencies

Crypto currencies continue to facilitate payments for various forms of cybercrime, as developments evolve with respect to privacy oriented crypto coins and services.

22 January 2021

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Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment 2020

Cross-cutting crime facilitators and challenges to criminal investigations: crime reporting

Challenges with reporting hinder the ability to create an accurate overview of crime prevalence across the EU.

22 January 2021

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Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment 2020

Cyber-dependent crime: ransomware

Ransomware remains the most dominant threat as criminals increase pressure by threatening publication of data if victims do not pay. Ransomware on third-party providers also creates potential significant damage for other organisations in the supply chain and critical infrastructure.

22 January 2021

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Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment 2020

Cyber-dependent crime: emotet

Emotet is omnipresent given its versatile use and leads the way as the benchmark of modern malware.

22 January 2021

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Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment 2020

Cyber-dependent crime: DDoS attacks

The threat potential of DDoS attacks is higher than its current impact in the EU.

22 January 2021

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Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment 2020

Child sexual exploitation online

The amount of online CSAM detected continues to increase, further exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis, which has serious consequences for the capacity of law enforcement authorities. The use of encrypted chat apps and industry proposals to expand this market pose a substantial risk for abuse and make it more difficult for law enforcement to detect and investigate online CSE activities. Online offender communities exhibit considerable resilience and are continuously evolving. Livestreaming of child sexual abuse continues to increase and became even more prevalent during the COVID-19 crisis. The commercialisation of online CSE is becoming a more widespread issue, with individuals uploading material to hosting sites and subsequently acquiring credit on the basis of the number of downloads.

22 January 2021

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Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment 2020

Payment fraud: SIM swapping

SIM swapping is a key trend that allows perpetrators to take over accounts and has demonstrated a steep rise over the last year.

22 January 2021

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Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment 2020

Payment fraud: BEC

BEC remains an area of concern as it has increased, grown in sophistication, and become more targeted.

22 January 2021

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Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment 2020

Payment fraud: online investment fraud

Online investment fraud is one of the fastest growing crimes, generating millions in losses and affecting thousands of victims.

22 January 2021

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Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment 2020

Payment fraud: card-not-present (CNP) fraud

Card-not-present (CNP) fraud continues to increase as criminals diversify in terms of target sectors and electronic skimming (e-skimming) modi operandi.

22 January 2021

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Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment 2020

The criminal abuse of the Darkweb: the Darkweb environment has remained volatile

The Darkweb environment has remained volatile, lifecycles of Darkweb market places have shortened, and no clear dominant market has risen over the past year compared to previous years to fill the vacuum left by the takedowns in 2019. The nature of the Darkweb community at administrator-level shows how adaptive it is under challenging times, including more effective cooperation in the search for better security solutions and safe Darkweb interaction.

22 January 2021

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Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment 2020

The criminal abuse of the Darkweb: Privacy-enhanced cryptocurrencies and privacy-enhanced coinjoin concepts

There has been an increase in the use of privacy-enhanced cryptocurrencies and an emergence of privacy-enhanced coinjoin concepts, such as Wasabi and Samurai.

22 January 2021

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Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment 2020

The criminal abuse of the Darkweb: surface web e-commerce sites and encrypted communication platforms

Surface web e-commerce sites and encrypted communication platforms offer an additional dimension to Darkweb trading to enhance the overall business model.

22 January 2021

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Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment 2020

Key transformative technology that will contribute to the changing dynamics of cyberspace: Ubiquitous connectivity

Devices, networks and services are increasingly hyperconnected and interdependent, operating on sophisticated shared infrastructures. Factors such as the speed, reliability, low latency, agility and intelligence of communications architectures are leading to significant changes in the way in which they are used and relied upon pervasively throughout our environments. Systemic risks related to this development: -Scale and criticality: The sheer scale of the connected ecosystem means that the potential attack surface is expanding rapidly. As previously unconnected systems become connected to each other and to the internet, there is an increased risk to the confidentiality, integrity and availability of digital assets – whether it’s data, information, algorithms or digital services. The potential implications in terms of compromise for industry and society are becoming more severe. -Interdependency: A range of new entangled relationships between actors in the digital ecosystem is evolving. The emergence of new products and growth of new service-based models is creating complex interdependencies between organizations, supply chains, sectors and individuals. This interdependency creates a risk of unforeseen cascade effects: Incidents occurring in one part of the ecosystem could harm those actors and systems dependent on it. Imbalance in perceptions of risk could lead to situations where high-value business., assets are connected to third-party systems whose owners assess them to be low risk and that therefore do not have the appropriate levels of protection. A failure to maintain the visibility and assign the accountability that is needed to assure end-to-end processes across multiple parts of the ecosystem could lead to gaps in security and heightened risk. -Shared resources: Many entities are sharing a growing dependence on a concentrated underpinning infrastructure and set of shared services, including cloud, internet service providers, hardware, software and the equipment supply chain. This creates an attack surface of high-value shared resources with a high probability of attack, and the potential for compromise to have severe and systemic impacts. The homogeneity of the shared technology infrastructure that results from its being delivered by a small pool of providers may result in systemic risk, as the exploitation of a vulnerability found in a widely used resource could affect vast swathes of the ecosystem. Similarly, there is a risk of collateral damage occurring as a result of targeted attacks against a single client via this shared infrastructure. Identifying the critical shared resources, who owns them and their key dependencies is a complex task.

22 January 2021

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Cybersecurity, emerging technology and systemic risk

Key transformative technology that will contribute to the changing dynamics of cyberspace: Quantum

Quantum computers will demonstrate an advantage over classical computers in solving a range of computational and modelling problems (although predictions of the timelines on which this will happen vary). Some problems may become tractable for the first time, enabling new functionalities and presenting new risks to conventional security measures. Risks: Disrupting cryptographic infrastructures: The principal cybersecurity risk is posed by the impact quantum computing will have on currently widely adopted asymmetric cryptography. A sufficiently powerful and error-corrected quantum computer would solve some of the classical mathematical problems on the intractability of which many of these cryptography methods rely. It would therefore have the potential to break the cryptographic security on which enterprises and the wider digital economy rely. ‘Download now, decrypt later’: The potential future quantum threat to cryptography is relevant to the risk decisions being made today. There is a “download now, decrypt later” risk for datasets with extended periods of sensitivity: data that exists now could be harvested by adversaries for decryption in the future. Novel and secondary security risks arising from broader economic and industrial transformation: As organizations face a need to outsource quantum computations on their most valuable IP to third- party services, they could face risks of adversarial interference. There is also a risk that unintended functionalities arising from quantum algorithms. There are also several shared infrastructures that depend on the collective application of quantum-vulnerable cryptography. This includes the interconnected systems and interdependent business models of the industrial internet of things (IIoT), and the distributed-ledger technologies being rolled out across a range of industrial applications. In many cases, “ownership” of these shared infrastructures is highly distributed, and it is not necessarily clear who is responsible for ensuring that they are made quantum-safe. Geopolitical risk and equitable access: The potential concentration of the first sovereign quantum capabilities (technologies and experts) in a small number of advanced nations has geopolitical implications. As with all new technologies that raise the bar in terms of competitiveness, there is a global risk that competition and protectionism will interfere with international collaboration and equitable access. This could act as a major barrier to unlocking the full potential economic and societal benefits of quantum technology to the wider economy, and widen asymmetries in terms of security and industrial capability. If equitable access to the technologies is not ensured, nations that have sovereign quantum capabilities may use them to create a strategic advantage, while other nations fall into “quantum poverty”.

22 January 2021

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Cybersecurity, emerging technology and systemic risk

Key transformative technology that will contribute to the changing dynamics of cyberspace: identity and access management

Emerging next-generation approaches to identity and access management will enable new services, applications and operating models, with efficiency and low friction that can support the fast speed and large scale of the emerging cyberspace. The risks to the security of emerging identity systems can be considered in terms of their confidentiality, integrity and availability. • There will be a major confidentiality risk to the large amounts of personal information managed by identity systems (including personally identifiable information [PII], and biometric, behavioural and locational data). Minimizing the risk to this data will be critical. • There is a risk that the integrity of the identity ecosystem will be subverted, reducing the confidence of participants in it. For participating actors, there are challenges to establishing the integrity of the components they depend on (particularly in cases where there is a trust deficit), and establishing their competence in protecting their part of the ecosystem against abuse. • There is an availability risk: that attackers will attempt to prevent access to or use of identity infrastructure. If the infrastructure does not have the necessary resilience and fallback modes, then attacks on the availability of systems on which services depend critically could have grave consequences. Achieving resilience will be particularly challenging in those elements of society where infrastructure (both technical and governance) is weak.

22 January 2021

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Cybersecurity, emerging technology and systemic risk

Opportunities for safety from emerging technologies

Advances in robotics are creating opportunities to remove humans from hazardous environments (e.g. in manufacturing) and to remove human error from safety-critical decisions. Advances in sensing and analytics could help predict natural disasters.

22 January 2021

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Cybersecurity, emerging technology and systemic risk

Hidden cyber-resilience deficit

It is a fact that even today many organizations can find themselves unknowingly dependent on components of the ecosystem due to a lack of transparency downstream and upstream in supply chains. Without intervention, this may simply grow in complexity: Dependencies will become increasingly unmanageable and opaque as the ecosystem becomes more entangled. This means that it will not be possible to account for the aggregation of cyber risk, and where there is a lack of resilience within organizations, we may be developing a growing and hidden cyber-resilience deficit.

22 January 2021

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Cybersecurity, emerging technology and systemic risk

Widening cybersecurity skills gap

There is already a global capacity shortage in cybersecurity (both specialists and across the wider workforce), and as new technologies emerge, the existing skills gap in delivering cybersecurity is likely to grow. Unless education and training are accelerated significantly, the workforce will not have the necessary cybersecurity capacity and mindset. A lack of cyber literacy among leaders and innovators will prevent appreciation of the risks to organizations and the ecosystem, and prevent the necessary investments being made for cyber resilience.

22 January 2021

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Cybersecurity, emerging technology and systemic risk

Fragmentation of technical and policy approaches

Emerging technologies are driving an increasing interdependence and entanglement at a time when global governance of cyberspace is weak. Many of the relevant technical standards and governance principles are divided into jurisdictional and sectoral siloes. There is a risk of further divergence at the public policy level; geopolitical divergence and protectionist stances make this difficult to reconcile. A lack of interoperability at a governance level could lead to: a failure to realize the potential value of a secure global digital ecosystem: incompatible security-compliance requirements; and suboptimal (and thus costly) security in parts of the ecosystem.

22 January 2021

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Cybersecurity, emerging technology and systemic risk

Existing operational-security capabilities and technologies not fit for purpose

Mitigating threats and responding to incidents individually and collaboratively will require new approaches. Existing operational capabilities are not sufficient technically to address new technologies and data formats and will not deliver the pace and scale of collaborative operations (including information sharing, collective response, and detection, disruption and deterrence of cybercrime) that will be needed to address the emerging risks. There is a need to increase the level of automation within cyber-defence capabilities, ensure that the cybersecurity tools developed can interoperate effectively, and support enriched intelligence sharing at the pace necessary to address emerging threats.

22 January 2021

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Cybersecurity, emerging technology and systemic risk

Underinvestment in support (knowledge, guidance, research investment) and incentives (market forces, regulation) for developing emerging technologies securely

Security is not being considered an integral component of technology innovations. This means it is likely that technologies will be developed with little or no consideration for malicious threats, as has happened in the past. Without the right incentives to prevent this, there is a risk of insufficient security functionality and later costly retrofit. Further, the complexity of supply chains and systems may mean that innovators will make false assumptions about the security inherent in the systems upon which their solutions are layered, causing hidden risk. This hidden risk may also manifest where organizations exploit machine learning without an ability to determine the integrity of and absence of bias in the algorithms.

22 January 2021

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Cybersecurity, emerging technology and systemic risk

Ambiguous accountability

While shared dependence widens the pool of actors affected by the resilience of a part of the ecosystem, it can also create ambiguity in the accountability for ensuring this resilience. Complexity and entanglement are exacerbating a lack of clarity about accountability and where the liability lies for assuring end-to-end services and shared critical infrastructures. Risk transfer (e.g. via contracts or via tech E&O [errors and omissions] insurance) cannot cover the full scope of sideways exposure.

22 January 2021

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Cybersecurity, emerging technology and systemic risk

Key transformative technology that will contribute to the changing dynamics of cyberspace: Artificial intelligence/advanced machine learning

As it becomes possible to automate increasingly sophisticated calculations, activities can be carried out in cyberspace faster and on a larger scale – and most importantly, using huge datasets for training. The ability to aggregate and process such data will lead to huge increases in the predictive powers of algorithms. Substantial investments are being made in AI research and development globally, in particular using machine learning techniques. Global spending on AI was estimated to be $37.5 billion in 2019, and is forecast to reach $97.9 billion in 2023,35 with China and the US dominating global AI funding.36 The emerging technologies are capable of faster, more precise analytics and decision-making, and of deriving insights from big data, outperforming traditional digital approaches and some aspects of human capabilities in diverse fields such as transport, manufacturing, finance, commerce and healthcare. Large corporations in every industry are seeking to create value by taking advantage of new means of data exploitation, business-process improvements (e.g. in sales, production and supply-chain management), cost-efficiency gains and the ability to enhance customer experiences.37 It is anticipated that within the next 5–10 years, AI systems will play an increasingly critical and unsupervised role within organizations, including the use of robotics in physical manufacturing tasks, for example.

22 January 2021

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Cybersecurity, emerging technology and systemic risk

A limited number of Smart City initiatives in the security domain move from innovation to implementation

In the Netherlands, there has been a lot of experimentation in recent years with technology and data-driven innovation around security issues in cities, usually under the heading "Smart City". This often takes place in testing grounds, living labs, or in the form of a pilot. However, the operational implementation of successful innovations resulting from those experiments, which can be of great societal value, remains limited so far. Reasons include focusing too much on the technical solution rather than the societal issue at hand, no clear role division, legal obstacles, a lacking follow up of collected data, obstacles in public-private partnerships, obstacles in collaboration between departments within municipalities, and the complexity of citizen participation.

19 May 2021

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Van Innovatie Naar Implementatie In Smart Cities: Aanbevelingen Voor Succes

Actors and their roles differ per phase in Smart City initiatives

On average fewer actors are involved in the implementation phase (average 7) than in the innovation phase (average 13) of Smart City initiatives. In addition, the diversity in the types of actors involved also decreases in the implementation phase, as for example citizens and knowledge institutes are no longer involved. In the innovation phase, a relatively large number of roles are divided among several parties. In the implementation phase however, this is no longer the case. local and national public parties (mainly municipalities and the police) have many roles in both phases, divided over departments within these organizations.

20 May 2021

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Van Innovatie Naar Implementatie In Smart Cities: Aanbevelingen Voor Succes

Criminals and state actors are joining forces against healthcare with varying motives and agendas

Attacks on healthcare are low-risk, high-reward crimes. Acting with near impunity, criminals and state actors are joining forces against healthcare with varying motives and agendas. Attacking healthcare is a lucrative and global business. Attacking healthcare serves geopolitical interests. Not only does attacking healthcare provide state or state-sponsored threat actors with an attractive target for data theft regarding vaccine research and private medical records, but cyberattacks also weaken geopolitical rivals. Attacks on healthcare are widely under-reported. Many organizations don't know what to report and how to do so. The fear of facing liabilities or reputational loss is hampering reporting as is a lack of faith that reporting will lead to prosecution. Threat actors enjoy near impunity, as attribution and prosecution lag behind. There are no transparent and independent mechanisms to track accountability in cyberspace.

28 May 2021

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Playing with Lives: Cyberattacks on Healthcare are Attacks on People

Healthcare professionals and patients do not benefit fully from legal instruments and existing assistance initiatives designed to protect them

States are not availing themselves of the full extent of norms and laws available to protect healthcare. States have notably tread with caution in legal condemnation or prosecution of cyberattacks on healthcare or in conveying their interpretation of how international law applies, too often relying on political and technical attributions as a means of taking a stand against attacks. Assistance initiatives lack adequate visibility, scale and sustainability.

28 May 2021

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Playing with Lives: Cyberattacks on Healthcare are Attacks on People

The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to a concerning convergence of malicious activities and an exacerbation of its existent threat landscape

The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to a concerning convergence of malicious activities as well as an exacerbation of its existent threat landscape. Healthcare is increasingly under attack owing to a combination of three factors: • Healthcare services are critical to maintain as patient health depends on them. This has made hospitals a target of choice for digital extortion. • Healthcare is the custodian of valuable and sensitive information, such as medical records and vaccine research, making it an attractive target for data theft and cyberespionage. • Healthcare has found itself at the center of strategic inter-state rivalries due to the pandemic, which have spilled into malicious activities such as disinformation campaigns against the sector.

28 May 2021

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Playing with Lives: Cyberattacks on Healthcare are Attacks on People

The Ministry of Justice and Security wants to innovate more easily and faster

The Ministry of Justice and Security (JenV) wants to innovate more easily and quickly. They want to focus on: 1. The actual conversion of innovation ideas into the operational process 2. Making more capacity available to address the major strategic issues (for example with regard to new technologies) for the future 3. Stimulating cooperation between the various JenV units The Ministry increases innovation from five perspectives: strategy, ecosystem, process & governance, results and culture. These five perspectives are put into practice on 4 levels: basic facilities, structural implementation, managed implementation, and proactive implementation.

15 June 2021

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Vijf Perspectieven Op Een Volwassen Innovatiefunctie

Growing world market for Intruder Alarm/Perimeter Protection (IA/PP) products

The world market for IA/PP products reached $6.98Bn in 2019 and will grow to $8.83Bn in 2024 at a CAGR of approximately 4.8%, the highest growth we have recorded in the last 11 years. Perimeter security has become a much more important issue in critical infrastructures such as utilities, transportation, government and defense establishments because of the increasing number of threats, which could disrupt operations and lead to huge losses across the whole economy. Demand for IA/PP systems has grown at a faster pace through the integration with Video Surveillance and Access Control. Demand for intruder sensors and alarm products being the staple products of this business have had only a marginal impact on growth in demand. IA/PP is now pushing forward by applying and connecting; radar, thermal / multi-sensor cameras, advanced sensor technologies, wireless technology and also deeper integration with video surveillance & access control. The main driver for growth in the next five years will be the increase in investment in industrial complexes particularly in Asia and the BRIC countries and advances in sensor technologies microwave, active infrared, passive infrared, fiber optics and acoustic sensors. These sensors usually cover large areas and offer volumetric protection by detecting the motion of the intruder within the protected space.

12 May 2021

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Major Trends in the Intruder/Perimeter Protection Market 2020

Creating a resilient IT-infrastucture with 3 principles

Because of the digitization of our society, many organizations' IT infrastructures are becoming more complicated, and thus also more vulnerable. The Dutch National Bureau for Connection Security (NBV) has developed a simplified approach to counteract cyberthreats. In this approach, the key is an organization-wide plan which looks more broadly than just the technical side of things. This approach is based on 3 main principles with 4 supporting pillars.

15 October 2021

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Verdedigbaar Netwerk: Hoe Doe Je Dat?

Return Cold War dynamics has major effects on cybersecurity and digital sovereignty

Great power competition has direct consequences for the quantity and types of cyberattacks that countries suffer. Western countries have taken steps to protect their territory and have put more emphasis on protecting their norms and values. There is also increasing attention towards topics such as digital sovereignty and strategic autonomy.

10 November 2022

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NCSC Onderzoeksagenda 2023 - 2026

NIS-2 shows: chain and network dependencies are increasingly important in risk management

It has become clear that the protection and security of network- and information systems are extremely network dependent. There are certain risks attached to being involved in an ecosystem and being dependent on chains for important processes. In the EU NIS-2 Regulation, more and more sectors are being designated as vital, so that those organisations and sectors will have to take more steps to ensure the safety of their network- and information systems.

10 November 2022

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NCSC Onderzoeksagenda 2023 - 2026

Cyber ​​attacks by state actors are no longer rare.

State actors and cybercriminals form the main threat in relation to willful acts, whereby they cannot always be clearly distinguished from each other due to mutual relationships. State actors can hire, tolerate or pressure cyber criminals to carry out cyber attacks on desired targets.

11 January 2023

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Nederlandse Cybersecuritystrategie 2022-2028

A strict national and international approach to cybercriminals, whereby cybercrime will be less lucrative

The government, together with the business community, has a view on the digital threat from home and abroad. The Netherlands is above all capable of limiting digital attacks by state and non-state actors through the deployment of broad attribution and response mechanisms, preferably in cooperation and coalitions with EU and NATO partners and other like-minded countries.

11 January 2023

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Nederlandse Cybersecuritystrategie 2022-2028

Development of the national covering system

The purpose of the system is enabling organizations (public and private) to build their resilience level and thus their effectiveness increase through information about cybersecurity widely, efficiently and effectively

11 January 2023

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Nederlandse Cybersecuritystrategie 2022-2028

Cyber ​​security requirements for a larger group of companies (NIB2)

Cyber ​​incidents do not stop at national borders. The EU is therefore also involved in strengthening the digital security and resilience within the Union.

11 January 2023

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Nederlandse Cybersecuritystrategie 2022-2028

Organizations respond, recover and learn quickly on and from cyber incidents and crises.

For a response to a national cyber crisis, a efficient cooperation between government organisations, industry, science and social organizations of great importance ─ also across local, regional and national borders.

12 January 2023

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Nederlandse Cybersecuritystrategie 2022-2028

The Netherlands has a strong cybersecurity knowledge and innovation chain

To be able to take measures now and in the future taking action against digital threats must involve the development and application of Dutch knowledge and expertise in the field of cybersecurity are continuously strengthened.

12 January 2023

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Nederlandse Cybersecuritystrategie 2022-2028

The Netherlands has a grip on cybersecurity threats from states and criminals

In the coming years, the Dutch government will focus on reinforced information exchange and increasing resilience, which contributes to limiting digital threats.

12 January 2023

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Nederlandse Cybersecuritystrategie 2022-2028

States adhere to the normative framework for responsible state behavior in the digital space

Given the current geopolitical tensions, cyber threats and attacks in the coming period will only increase. The best way eliminate that threat is to make the geopolitical arena more to our liking, by promoting the international rule of law in the digital area.

12 January 2023

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Nederlandse Cybersecuritystrategie 2022-2028

It is necessary to make international agreements in order to counter the threat of destabilizing cyber attacks.

The need for stability has led to the establishing of a normative framework for responsible state behavior in the digital space, which the UN member states have reconfirmed by consensus in 2021.

12 January 2023

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Nederlandse Cybersecuritystrategie 2022-2028

Citizens respond quickly and adequately to cyber incidents

It is important that citizens are enabled to respond quickly and effectively to digital threats, attacks and disruptions. This can be done by being informed at an early stage about current threats that are relevant to them and, in particular, about what they themselves can do to stay safe from them.

26 January 2023

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Nederlandse Cybersecuritystrategie 2022-2028

Governance, direction and cooperation

Within the cabinet, the ministers involved work closely together under the responsibility of the Minister of Justice and Security as the coordinating minister for cybersecurity.

26 January 2023

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Nederlandse Cybersecuritystrategie 2022-2028

Financial substantiation for digital resilience.

This government is investing an additional 111 million euros structurally in cybersecurity, the breakdown per department is shown below. These resources are part of a broader structural investment of 300 million that will strengthen the AIVD and MIVD, among other things, and investments will be made in the field of economic security and vital infrastructure.

26 January 2023

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Nederlandse Cybersecuritystrategie 2022-2028

Protect domains against email spoofing and phishing by implementing email authentication with SPF, DKIM and DMARC.

The NCSC advises organisations to protect their domains against email spoofing and phishing by implementing email authentication using SPF, DKIM and DMARC. SPF allows domain owners to specify which mail servers are authorised to send email on their behalf, DKIM allows them to digitally sign emails, and DMARC enables them to publish a policy on how receiving mail servers should handle emails that fail SPF or DKIM checks. For government organizstions, the use of these email authentication techniques is mandatory, while for other organisations it is strongly recommended as an effective way to combat email-based attacks. The implementation of email authentication is considered a best practice that has already been widely adopted.

3 April 2024

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Handreiking 'Bescherm domeinen tegen phishing'

The ethical and social issues in AI for law enforcement

This chapter delves into the ethical and social issues in AI for law enforcement agencies. Reviewing the data bias and fairness caused by historical and representational biases. Further considering the trade-off between public security and individual privacy and the risk that advanced technologies might infringe on fundamental human rights. Which highlights the importance of accountability and transparency in law enforcement agencies, especially with AI. To limit the risk of discrimination and infringement of human rights a balanced integration, community engagement and continuous monitoring and evolution are necessary.

19 September 2024

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AI and policing - The benefits and challenges of artificial intelligence for law enforcement

It is necessary to AI technology is transparent and verifiable

The public sector is increasingly experimenting and working on a modest scale with Artificial Intelligence (AI), for example in the field of mobility and health. In order to do this in an honest and responsible way, it is necessary that AI technology is transparent and verifiable. Artificial Intelligence has had a major impact on our daily lives. For example, AI is in our smartphones, helps us shop and contributes to scientific research. As such, AI can have great benefits, such as recognition of speech, images and patterns, translation machines, robots and question and answer systems can improve convenience and our user experience.

24 August 2021

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TNO and CBS are Joining Forces on Transparent and Verifiable AI Use

Increase in the use of sensing for safety

Sensing offers a sixth sense for the security sector. The technological developments cannot be stopped. However, ready-made sensing solutions are hardly available. Seven building blocks that provide tools for successful application in practice are: testing in practice, business agility, culture of information-driven action, collaboration in an ecosystem, microservice architecture with open source software, meeting legal and ethical requirements, and IT competences for sensing. With attention to legal and ethical frameworks, sensing can contribute to a safer future.

20 January 2021

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Trends in Veiligheid 2020

The importance of a European digital fist through civil-military cooperation

Geopolitical tensions increasingly manifest themselves in the digital domain. European countries and companies are increasingly targeted. From the European Commission, the focus of cybersecurity cooperation is on preparation, responsive measures, and legislation aimed at the civil domain. Europe must also facilitate more cooperation between the civilian, military and intelligence domains so that all cyber capacities are optimally used. The Dutch security domain can initiate this and be a pioneer.

20 January 2021

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Trends in Veiligheid 2020

The Development of a Recognized Cyber Picture

A military commander wants to gain insight into both his cyber and his regular area of operations at a glance. Such an integral picture does not yet exist. • The techniques and tactics in the operational cyber domain are constantly changing. In order to achieve and maintain a sustainable strategic advantage, this image must therefore be constantly adjusted. For this, the commander needs an extensive team of analysts, architects and developers. • Current insights and technology from the civil technology domain are projected on the needs of military commanders. These results are now being processed by NATO in the further development of the Recognized Cyber Picture. • This will ultimately lead to future military commanders being able to make simultaneous decisions about the deployment of physical and digital weapon systems in their area of operations.

20 January 2021

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Trends in Veiligheid 2020

Citizen participation in online investigation

• Public OSINT initiatives such as Bellingcat are increasingly making important contributions to criminal investigations • The success of public OSINT researchers is due to a combination of much available open information and a well-cooperating network of various specialists, also internationally. • Investigation authorities can make passive use of such results, but also actively seek cooperation in hackatons or by consciously sharing certain information. • Points for attention in this collaboration are the protection of the research, but also privacy legislation and the safety of civilian participants.

20 January 2021

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Trends in Veiligheid 2020

Physical safety feeling decreases, but people do feel safe digitally

Ten years ago, 33% of the Dutch sometimes felt unsafe. Now that is 45%. The Dutch have started to feel somewhat less safe in the past 10 years. Online people do feel safe. The Dutch are increasingly aware of their own responsibility in online security, and they take it too. Almost half of the people are even willing to sacrifice privacy if it benefits the fight against crime. We are concerned about the influence of social media on the information we read, for example regarding the elections.

20 January 2021

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Trends in Veiligheid 2020

Stability and chaos required: on the way to a new control room system

Keeping up with technological trends also requires creating some chaos: • Room for experimentation offers the opportunity to "do things differently" and to innovate permanently. • Experimenting with "couleur locale", with data analysis, knowledge technology and with new functionalities is a goal in itself. • Managing critical data independent of context versus using and analyzing it within any predictable or unthinkable scenario is a basic skill.

20 January 2021

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Trends in Veiligheid 2020

Digital resilience and decentralization require citizen participation and support

• There are many innovations that can be used in the interest of digital resilience, but we must not forget what this security is for. • The Digiwacht are volunteers who guarantee local digital resilience. • A municipal cybersheriff, elected by citizens to ensure their digital resilience. • National artificial intelligence to protect the digital Netherlands, trained throughout the Netherlands.

20 January 2021

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Trends in Veiligheid 2020

Capacity challenges in the police force, shift to Information-Driven Action

• Due to demographic developments, among other things, the police have capacity challenges. In 2040 there will be only 2 working people per 1 pensioner. • To be future-proof, the police must change their way of working. • We propose to act Information-driven, to really realize the use of new technologies in a pressure cooker environment and to apply digital triage. • By working in these innovative ways, the police can solve more cases and strengthen confidence in the police.

20 January 2021

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Trends in Veiligheid 2020

Knowledge and opportunities of artificial intelligence in the security domain

• Artificial intelligence (AI) is still new and unknown to many - and the unknown is scary. • AI is everything that machines cannot yet do. • Nuance 'science' and 'fiction' from AI. • Mirror performance of AI with performance of humans. • Focus on knowledge and prevent a digital skills gap.

20 January 2021

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Trends in Veiligheid 2020

The decentralization of supervision of Public Order and Safety leads to fragmentation of information

• Responsibilities of the police are increasingly shifting to the municipal BOAs. • Recording data in municipal systems detracts from the formation of an integrated security picture. • A more valuable and smarter information provision can lead to early insight and identification, and possible prevention of criminal activities in the future. • Communication between the authorities remains important. Mainly for information, knowledge and share "gut feeling" about potential offenders.

20 January 2021

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Trends in Veiligheid 2020

There is a continuing strong relationship between executives and security professionals

Over the years in our survey, we’ve measured four critical practices for fostering a mutually beneficial relationship between executives and the security organization . This exercise evaluates top-down security buy-in, where we’ve found a slight downward trend from last year . Looking at these results: • Eighty nine percent of respondents said that their executive leadership still considers security a high priority; however, this is down slightly (7%) across the preceding four years. • The percentage of organizations who have clarified the security roles and responsibilities within the executive team has fluctuated over the past few years – landing at 89% this year. Considering cybersecurity’s growing visibility and the dire need for security leaders at top levels, clarifying roles and responsibilities needs to remain high. • The incorporation of cyber risk assessments into overall risk assessment processes is down by 5% from last year, but is still high with 91% of respondents saying they use them. • Although down by 6% from last year, executive teams establishing clear metrics for assessing the effectiveness of security programs is still rather high with 90% of our respondents doing so. Over four years, these responses are slightly down, which may indicate: 1) that the scope of security responsibility is changing, 2) that communication with the executive team isn’t as clear as it used to be, 3) that executive management has other business priorities, or 4) that CISOs and executives are re-evaluating their metrics. And although these numbers are down, they are still very high . Perhaps this is because security has now become operationalized, but requires a greater voice at the executive table. The fact that the numbers are still very high indicates a continuing strong relationship between executives and security professionals.

22 January 2021

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Securing What's Now and What's Next

time-to-detect and time-to remediate are important metrics for assessing the effectiveness of an organization's security program

90% agreed their organization’s executives had established clear metrics for assessing the effectiveness of their security program. IT decision-makers responding to our survey rated time-to-detect highest as a key performance indicator (KPI). Establishing clear metrics is an integral activity for a security framework, and it isn't an easy task to agree across multiple executives and security teams how to measure operational improvement and security outcomes . IT decision-makers responding to our survey rated time-to-detect highest as a key performance indicator (KPI). However, when you’re reporting to the C-suite or board of directors, time-to-remediate ranks just as important, as it represents an aggregate of total impact that may include: system downtime, records affected, cost of investigation, lost revenue, lost customers, lost opportunities, and out-of-pocket costs. It can also be a proxy metric for the overall effectiveness of the IT organization, as remediation can require a lot of collaborative work across departments .

22 January 2021

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Securing What's Now and What's Next

the best way to allocate security spend is through outcome-based objectives and metrics

Sixty one percent are using this planning method, a 10% increase from the previous year and an encouraging trend. ‘Percent of revenue’ and ‘outsourcing costs’ were the least used factors to determine security budgets. Fifty-four percent base spending on the previous years’ budget. Although this may not seem like a precise way to quantify security costs – especially when the average cost of a data breach globally ($3 .92M) is rarely factored in – if your budget is flat year over year or you have predictable SaaS subscriptions, your forecasted budget will probably see very little change .

22 January 2021

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Securing What's Now and What's Next

Organizations are spending more on prevention versus being reactive in their cybersecurity posture

In exploring how security budgets are spent, we surveyed our respondents on five categories (Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover) that describe the lifecycle of cybersecurity defense and breach management: • The category Identify saw a rise in expenditures from 21% to 27% from 2019 to 2020 • Protect and Detect remained basically the same at 25% and 18% respectively • Spending in the Respond and Recover categories declined somewhat in the same timeframe to 15% and 14% respectively Enterprises are always trying to find the right balance between being proactive and being responsive and resilient, and that pendulum swings back and forth every year. Last year, organizations may have been concentrating their efforts on the basics (asset inventory, discovery, etc.). And theoretically, if you spend right on Identify, Protect and Detect up front, you shouldn't need to spend as much on Respond and Recover, as they aren’t needed as often.

22 January 2021

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Securing What's Now and What's Next

The business impacts of security breaches

Organizations having more than 100,000 records impacted from their most severe data breach rose from 15% last year to beyond 19% this year. Large enterprises (10K or more employees) are more likely to have less downtime (0-4 hours), as they will likely have more resources available to help respond and recover . Small to mid-sized organizations dominated the 5-16 hour recovery timespan, and catastrophic downtimes of 17-48 hours were similarly low for organizations of all sizes. The most impacted business areas were operations and brand reputation. the number of respondents experiencing a hit to brand reputation from major breaches has risen from 26% to 33% in three years. With the impact to the overall brand on the rise, it’s crucial to include crisis communications planning into your overall incidence response plan.

22 January 2021

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Securing What's Now and What's Next

At 61%, the percentage of survey respondents reporting that they voluntarily disclosed a breach last year is at the highest level in the previous four years

This shows that, overall, organizations are proactively reporting breaches, perhaps as a result of new legislation – or maybe from increased social consciousness and a desire to maintain customer trust. The upside to this is that more than double the number of organizations that experienced a breach that lasted over 17 hours disclosed the breach voluntarily versus those that disclosed the breach involuntarily or due to reporting requirements. More than half of all breaches (51%) put organizations on the defensive, having to manage the public scrutiny that comes with a breach. But while governmental reporting requirements have increased, involuntary disclosure remains largely the same at just over a quarter (27%) of breaches. And 61% of respondents are now finding that their credibility rises when they voluntarily disclose a major breach, thus preserving their brand reputation.

22 January 2021

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Securing What's Now and What's Next

Outsourcing of security has increased significantly

Compared to last year’s report, outsourcing has increased significantly, possibly indicating a historical trend as vendor landscapes become so complex to manage in-house. Interestingly, organizations reported that they’re expecting their outsourcing to decrease in the future. Our respondents are outsourcing for a variety of core reasons, and it’s not only cost. Cost efficiency is marginally ahead as the number one reason at 55%. However, it's quickly followed by security teams that want more timely responses to incidents (53%). We found that 34% of you are outsourcing incident response services, and 36% are using external/third-party services to analyze compromised systems, which has risen from last year. Using an incident response service has become an efficient approach for protecting assets, mitigating risk, and maintaining compliance. It can help your organization protect against the unknown by having proactive planning and expertise to coordinate and carry out a response.

22 January 2021

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Securing What's Now and What's Next

Patching is critical in breach defense, as 46% of organizations (up from 30% in last year’s report) had an incident caused by an unpatched vulnerability

In addition, those that had a major breach due to an unpatched vulnerability last year experienced higher levels of data loss. For example, 68% of organizations breached from an unpatched vulnerability suffered losses of 10,000 data records or more last year. For those who said they suffered a breach from other causes, only 41% lost 10,000 or more records in the same timeframe. It’s well known that patching can be difficult and cause disruptions. However, these results show that there is a tangible ROI in implementing a minimum baseline policy for the most recently released patches. Organizations should maintain an up-to- date inventory of all devices in their environment and perform a risk analysis for any missing patches. Then, create a change management process to enforce version control and documentation.

22 January 2021

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Securing What's Now and What's Next

The most common causes of downtime are malware and malicious spam

Interestingly, the third cause diverges depending on the length of downtime . For breaches with downtime between 0-4 hours, phishing is the third most common cause . For downtime between 4-24 hours, it’s spyware. For anything over 24 hours, it’s ransomware. Significantly, ransomware doesn’t discriminate; it was the most destructive threat for both small and enterprise organizations in terms of downtime. The large amounts of resultant downtime may be due to the depth of investigation needed to assess the damage, attempt to restore backups, and fix the entry vectors.

22 January 2021

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Securing What's Now and What's Next

More than half (52%) told us that mobile devices are now very or extremely challenging to defend

They’ve overtaken user behavior, which was the biggest challenge from last year’s report . With a zero-trust framework, you can identify and verify every person and device trying to access your infrastructure. Zero trust is a pragmatic and future-proof framework that can help bring effective security across your architecture – spanning the workforce, workload, and workplace. A zero-trust framework achieves these three success metrics, among others: • The user is known and authenticated • The device is checked and found to be adequate • The user is limited to where they can go within your environment Having zero trust in place removes much of the guesswork in protecting your infrastructure from all potential threats, including mobile devices.

22 January 2021

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Securing What's Now and What's Next

Only 27% of organizations are currently using multi-factor authentication (MFA)

This number is low for such a valuable zero-trust technology. Survey respondents from the following countries showed the highest adoption rates of MFA in this order: USA, China, Italy, India, Germany, and the UK. The industries with the highest adoption rates (in this order) are software development, financial services, government, retail, manufacturing, and telecommunications.

22 January 2021

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Securing What's Now and What's Next

Private cloud infrastructure is a top security challenge for organizations

Private cloud infrastructure is a top security challenge for organizations. (Fifty percent of organizations find it very or extremely difficult to defend).

22 January 2021

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Securing What's Now and What's Next

In 2020, we continued to see more than 83% of organizations managing more than 20% of their IT infrastructure in the cloud (whether internally or externally)

Through our research, we’ve found that increased effectiveness, efficiency, and visibility are some of the main drivers for organizations to move their security (88%) and infrastructure (89%) to the cloud. And it’s not surprising to see that 86% say utilizing cloud security has increased visibility into their networks.

22 January 2021

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Securing What's Now and What's Next

The overwhelming number of security alerts is having an impact on cybersecurity fatigue

Of those who say they are suffering from cyber fatigue, 93% of them receive more than 5,000 alerts every day. Defined as virtually giving up on proactively defending against malicious actors, 42% of respondents are suffering from cybersecurity fatigue. The overall number of daily alerts you are dealing with has increased over previous years. In 2017, 50% of organizations were receiving 5,000 or fewer daily alerts; now only 36% are in this category. And the amount of organizations who receive 100,000 or more daily alerts has grown from 11% in 2017 to 17% in 2020. Perhaps because of this increase in volume and the processing resources needed, alert investigation is at its lowest level in over four years at just under 48%. (The number was 56% in 2017, and it’s been decreasing every year since.) The rate of legitimate incidents at 26% is consistent year-over-year and suggests that many investigations are turning up false positives. On a positive note, the number of legitimate threats that are remediated has improved since last year’s report, and we’re now back to 2017 levels at 50%. However, this still means that half of all real incidents are being left unattended. To deal with the increasing noise and volume of alerts, we advocate for an approach that has automation at its heart. Automation enables policies to be enforced more consistently, quickly, and efficiently. When a device is determined to be infected or vulnerable, it’s automatically quarantined or denied access with no action required from an administrator.

22 January 2021

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Securing What's Now and What's Next

Shift in focus towards industry

We have seen a shift in the hackers’ behaviour in the last six to 12 months as they focus more on industries such as energy and manufacturing. We believe there are three reasons for this. Firstly, reliance on automation (i.e. managed by computers). Secondly low maturity in cyber resilience (e.g. poor back-ups, limited disaster recovery planning or testing). Finally, low tolerance to what is often a high-impact outage. This offers rich pickings for ransomware attacks.

14 April 2021

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Hiscox Cyber Readiness Report 2020

Evolved ransomware techniques

We are seeing hackers’ ransomware techniques evolve. Typically in larger attacks there are two distinct phases after the initial infection. The first phase is lateral movement. This is where attackers look for valuable assets (e.g. finance data) and assess the size of the target to set the ransom amount. The second phase is ransomware attack. This often happens at the weekend when there is less chance to react and when hackers can cause the most damage. There can typically be a period of one to three weeks between these two phases. Companies with good detection capabilities can stop the attack in this time and therefore suffer shorter outages, lower overall costs and less impact to business.

14 April 2021

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Hiscox Cyber Readiness Report 2020

Two commonly seen types of ransomware attack

We commonly see two types of ransomware attack. The first is targeted attacks. These are focused on larger organisations (so called ‘big game ransomware’) where a hacker group will specifically target key individuals with highly personalised phishing scams. The second is mass scanning. This is where hackers will look for key weaknesses in servers exposed on the internet (e.g. remote access and VPN servers). In these cases, the attacks are mostly indiscriminate, and the attackers will infect any company they find vulnerable.

14 April 2021

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Hiscox Cyber Readiness Report 2020

Standalone cyber insurance

As a cyber insurer, it is only natural that we would promote standalone cyber insurance. But it is important to point out that standalone cyber insurance is dedicated to getting businesses back up and running quickly after a cyber attack. Cyber insurance provides a range of services like IT forensic response, crisis communication, legal advice and, if necessary, credit card monitoring. Coverage in other policies rarely provides all these specialised services, and, in some cases, may not respond at all.

14 April 2021

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Hiscox Cyber Readiness Report 2020

More organisations are choosing to use Zero-Trust principles for securing their IT-infrastructure

More and more organisations are choosing to use Zero-Trust principles for securing their IT-infrastructure. Zero-Trust principles provide organisations with new possibilities to minimise (unknown) risks. With the number of malware and ransomware attacks increasing, a new vision on securing IT-infrastructures is necessary.

26 August 2021

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Factsheet 'Bereid u voor op Zero Trust'

Successful implementation of Zero Trust leads to minimal exposure of cyber attacks

When Zero Trust principles are implemented successfully into an IT-infrastructure this leads to minimal exposure of cyber attacks, a higher continuity of critical processes, an increased and cost-effective compliance and a 'future-proof' architecture.

26 August 2021

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Factsheet 'Bereid u voor op Zero Trust'

Rogue In-Flight Data Load (RIDL)

Rogue In-flight Data Load (RIDL) is a new class of unprivileged speculative execution attacks to leak arbitrary data across address spaces and privilege boundaries (e.g., process, kernel, SGX, and even CPU-internal operations).

30 March 2021

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RIDL: Rogue In-Flight Data Load

Digital experience, analytics, and cloud as enabling technologies that have proven their value

Digital experience is one of the 9 macro technology forces and a pillar of innovation. Digital experience is an enabling technology that has proven its value. It continues to be a critical driver of enterprise transformation. 64% of participants in Deloitte's 2018 global CIO survey say digital technologies will affect their business in the next three years. Analytics includes foundational capabilities and tools that generate powerful insights. Data management, data governance, and supporting architecture are age- old problems that not only are critical building blocks for AI programs but are tactical concerns as organizations work in a dynamic and complex regulatory environment with mandates on data residency, privacy, and usage. CIOs understand what’s at stake: 60 percent of them say that data and analytics will affect their businesses in the next three years. Cloud's takeover of the enterprise is nearly complete: 90% of organizations use cloud-based services. cloud investments are expected to double as a percentage of IT budget over the next three years.

17 May 2021

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Tech Trends 2020

Digital reality, cognitive technologies, and blockchain as disruptive technology

As the change agents of the coming decade, these newer trends may no longer be considered novel, but they’re on the cusp of becoming as familiar and significant as their predecessors. - Digital reality technologies have the goal to promote more natural user engagement by seamlessly extending a human-centric experience beyond the confines of keyboards and screens. Commercial application is growing, for example: many companies are using digital reality technologies to deepen emotional connections and empathy among customers and employees. - Cognitive technologies have the potential to transform nearly every industry. These technologies personalize and contextualize the human-technology interaction, allowing businesses to provide tailored language- and image-based information and services, with minimal or no human involvement. Demand for these technologies is skyrocketing. - Financial services and fintech companies continue to lead blockchain development, but other sectors are also advancing blockchain initiatives.

17 May 2021

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Tech Trends 2020

To carry the weight of technology driven transformation foundational technologies need to be stable, strong and sustainable

Three foundational technologies - Business of technology: - Risk - Core modernization The business of technology, risk, and core modernization are foundational technologies. To carry the weight of technology-driven transformation and innovation initiatives, they need to be stable, strong, and sustainable. The business of technology, risk, and core modernization may seem prosaic and dull, but these forces are undeniably the heart of the business. And companies continue to make considerable investments and advances in these well-established domains. Combined, they provide a reliable, scalable foundation for digital transformation, innovation, and growth, and are a requirement for successful investments in analytics, cognitive, blockchain, and other disruptive technologies.

17 May 2021

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Tech Trends 2020

Emerging forces on the horizon: ambient experience, exponential intelligence, and quantum

Three technology developments and innovations—the horizon next—are waiting in the wings. We will begin to feel their impact toward the end of the 2020s. - Ambient experience: technology as part of the environment. As devices become seamless and ubiquitous, they and we are becoming increasingly inseparable. - Exponential intelligence: will build on today's cognitive capabilities. Today, AI lacks the ability to recognize and respond to the nuances of human interaction and emotion. The future promises more. -Quantum: harnesses the counterintuitive properties of subatomic particles to process information and perform new types of computation, communicate “unhackably,” miniaturize tech, and more

17 May 2021

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Tech Trends 2020

Earning trust in a time of constant tech disruption as a challenge and opportunity

With the advent of digital technology, businesses have been asking customers to trust them in new and deeper ways, from asking for personal information to tracking online behavior. In what is recognized as an emerging trend, some companies are approaching trust not as a compliance or public relations issue, but as a business-critical goal that must be pursued.

18 May 2021

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Tech Trends 2020

It and finance leaders work together to develop flexible approaches for funding innovation

An obstacle for innovation ambitions slowing innovation efforts is the sourcing and distribution of funds. IT's operations and development processes are becoming nimbler and product-focused while the finance function continues to budget, fund, and report in the same way as it has been doing for decades, leading to tension between IT needs and finance procedures. Over the next 18 to 25 months, there is the expectation to see more It and finance leaders working together to develop flexible approaches for funding innovation at the speed of agile.

18 May 2021

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Tech Trends 2020

Leveraging next-generation digital twin capabilities to design, optimize, and transform the enterprise

Companies are using digital twin capabilities in a variety of ways. Digital twins can simulate any aspect of a physical object or process. They may take many forms, but they all capture and utilize data that represents the physical world. As the digital twins trend accelerates in the coming years, more organizations may explore opportunities to use digital twins to optimize processes, make data-driven decision in real time, and design new products, services, and business models. Sectors that have capital-intensive assets and processes like manufacturing, utilities, and energy are pioneering digital twin use cases already. Others will follow as early adopters demonstrate first-mover advantage in their respective sectors. Longer term, realizing digital twins' full promise may require integrating systems and data across entire ecosystems. Recent MarketsandMarkets research suggests efforts are already underway: The digital twins market had an estimated worth of US$3.8 billion in 2019 and is projected to reach US$35.8 billion in value by 2025. Over the course of the last decade, deployment of digital twin capabilities has accelerated due to a number of factors: - Simulation: tools for building digital twins are growing in power and sophistication. - New sources of data - Interoperability: the ability to integrate digital technology with the real world has improved dramatically. - Visualization: The sheer volume of data required to create digital twin simulations can complicate analysis and make efforts to gain meaningful insights challenging. Advanced data visualization can help meet this challenge by filtering and distilling information in real time. - Instrumentation: IoT sensors, both embedded and external, are becoming smaller, more accurate, cheaper, and more powerful. - Platform: Increased availability of and access to powerful and inexpensive computing power, network, and storage are key enablers of digital twins.

18 May 2021

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Tech Trends 2020

Reshaping human-machine connections through AI, neuroscience, and human-centered design

The way we experience technology will be changed with a growing class of AI-powered solutions (referred to as affective computing or emotion AI). As part of the emerging human experience platforms trend, during the next 18 to 24 months more companies will ramp up their responses to a growing demand for technology to better understand humans and to respond to us more appropriately. Early trend participants recognize that the stakes are high. The ability to leverage emotionally intelligent platforms to recognize and use emotional data at scale will be one of the biggest, most important opportunities for companies going forward. The human experience platforms trend reverses traditional design approaches by starting with the human and emotion-led experience we want to achieve, and then determining which combination of affective and AI technologies can deliver them. The big challenge that companies will face is identifying the specific responses and behaviors that will resonate with—and elicit an emotional response from—a diverse group of customers, employees, and other stakeholders, and then developing the emotional technologies that can recognize and replicate those traits in an experience. In the coming months, we expect growing demand for technologies to become more human. We’ve reached a point in the digital revolution at which everyone’s connected to technology but not necessarily to each other The human experiences platforms trend is fueled by a growing demand from system users that technologies engage us in more meaningful, human-like ways. In the coming years, we expect this demand to become a nonnegotiable expectation. Today, trend pioneers are integrating affective computing, AI, and neuroscientific research into their strategies and systems to transform the rules of user engagement. In the near future, “emotionally intelligent” technologies and tactics will likely give rise to new business models and ways of working.

18 May 2021

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Tech Trends 2020

Evolve the role of architects to transform systems architecture and support the speed of business

The 'architecture awakens' trend is a direct response to external pressures many CIOs face today as established organizations are struggling to keep pace with the changing technology landscape. In the coming months we expect to see more organizations move architects out of their traditional ivory towers and into the trenches with the goal to move the most experienced architect to software development teams that are designing complex technology. Once redeployed and empowered to drive change, architects can help simplify technical stacks and create technical agility that currently gives younger competitors a market advantage. The role of the architect will be redefined to be more collaborative, creative, and responsive to stakeholder needs. Going forward, their mission will be to do bold new things not only with traditional architectural components but with disruptive forces (blockchain, AI, Machine learning).

18 May 2021

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Tech Trends 2020

Blockchain has great disruptive potential

Blockchain is believed to have great disruptive potential, whether applied alone or in combination with other capabilities. Interest in DLT has exploded, with blockchain- and cryptocurrency-focused startups collecting almost $3.9 billion in investments in the first three quarters of 2018 – that’s nearly three times the total for all of 2017. The World Economic Forum also predicts that blockchain technology will account for 10 percent of the global GDP by 2027. With all the attention on blockchain technology, we’ve also seen great progress in this field – this is mainly driven by smaller open-source parties, rather than bigger technology companies.

28 May 2021

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Technology Trend Report 2020

BEC fraud is increasingly occurring in the Netherlands

CEO- and digital invoice fraud, also known as BEC fraud is amongst the top three forms of cybercrime that cause the most financial damage. According to the FBI, between 2016 and 2019, BEC fraud caused 26 billion-dollars in financial damages worldwide. BEC fraud is also increasingly occurring in the Netherlands.

22 June 2021

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New Approach Against CEO- and Digital Invoice Fraud to Oppose Cyber Criminals

Annual visual Ransomware 2023

This report gives a brief overview of all the ransomware-incidents reported to the National Cyber Security Centrum and the National Police. The focus is put on how ransomware incidents are reported, who the victims are, how organisations initially respond to them, who the victims are, and the broad variety of ransomware threats.

27 March 2024

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Jaarbeeld Ransomware 2023

In the biological, physical and digital domain, new technologies are rapidly developing

Many new technologies are developing in the biological, physical and digital domain. In particular, the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the emergence cyber-physical systems are important. The latter technology provides a link between the physical and the digital world. Such technologies can provide new ways of delivering services, but can also facilitate new forms of crime. For example, AI can be utilised in order to commit identity forgery, AI snooping and vehicle hacking.

30 April 2021

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The future challenges facing criminal justice systems

Importance of data sharing outside government has increased as the result of opportunities of digitization

Public organizations are data-intensive organizations. Data is the basis for public services, case handling and decision making. Because of this there is a lot of attention already paid to data sharing by government. However, sharing data outside of government is a new development. The importance of data sharing beyond the lines of government has grown steadily in recent years as a result of the opportunities that have arisen through digitization. Data sharing is regarded as a precondition for leading the way on the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

23 May 2021

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De Overheid als Partner bij Datadelen

Developments such as artificial intelligence and blockchain will influence the way data is shared dramatically

Developments such as artificial intelligence and blockchain are underway and will dramatically influence the way data is shared in the coming years. For example, new possibilities are emerging to transfer data from the source so that citizens and companies themselves can keep a firm grip on their data.

23 May 2021

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De Overheid als Partner bij Datadelen

Responsive government: further digitization and fast development result in datafication of society and the economy

Responsive government: further digitization and fast development of data technology result in datafication of society and the economy. Data sharing is no longer a means of automation or the digitizing of existing processes. It is the backbone of many public tasks and a source of economic growth. In addition to bringing opportunities, this age of datafication also poses challenges causing more attention is being paid to safeguarding public value in the digital society. Government is increasingly seeking cooperation with business and civil society to seize opportunities and keep a grip on the risks.

23 May 2021

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De Overheid als Partner bij Datadelen

Increase in unstructured data sharing

Data sharing requires trust, especially in healthcare. Public values must be protected in doing so. That also means that principles like "Register at source" and "Capture once" are used in data sharing, as is data protection by design. The technology for that exists, but this is not yet being used sufficiently. They are also now mainly structured data shared, or digital documents, such as a PDF. Modern data sharing is all about especially to share unstructured data with the help of search engines. This is increasing at an incredible speed.

23 May 2021

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De Overheid als Partner bij Datadelen

OT reliance threatens secure operations due to increasing cyber risk

There is a wide range of reliance on operational technology (OT) systems ranging from purely manual to highly automated processes. OT is hardware and software that monitors or controls industrial equipment, assets, processes and events. This OT reliance threatens secure operations due to increasing cyber risk. The operational technology domain culturally has been more safety-aware than security-aware compared with IT, challenging effective security governance and policy in integrated IT/OT environments. Additionally, from a security perspective, OT networks have been unmanaged for many years. They are a mix of OT protocols, unidentified assets, legacy systems and devices with unsecure communications. Third, applying a “one-size-fits-all” security controls methodology across IT and OT, as well as not fully accounting for differing security requirements, lead to decreased security efficacy from a cyber security perspective.

1 June 2021

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HSD Report: Implications of OT and IT Integration for Cyber Security

The interconnectivity between IT and OT increases risk of cyber-attacks in both environments

With the raise of technologies such as Big Data, Data Analytics and the Internet of Things, organisations have increasing business needs to integrate OT with IT networks via connections to the internet. This interconnectivity is mostly used for the exchange of data for the purpose of management information and to provide access for suppliers and maintenance personnel. This development introduces the IT personnel as stakeholders in the OT field. Due to the interconnectivity between IT and OT both environments are more conducive to cyber-attacks.

3 June 2021

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HSD Report: Implications of OT and IT Integration for Cyber Security

There is no clear concept of an 'OT security person'

There is no clear concept of an ‘OT security person’. Whereas there is a general consensus on IT roles and functions with their according tasks and responsibilities, these functions are lacking for OT. This hiatus shows for example through the scarcity of OT security job vacancies. Also, the OT counterpart of IT security study programmes is not established. Young professionals in OT usually have a solid basic knowledge, but universities and schools embed little attention to security in their programmes.

3 June 2021

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HSD Report: Implications of OT and IT Integration for Cyber Security

Unclarity regarding OT security responsibilities

Who is, or should be, in charge of OT security? Is it someone in the operational part of the organisation? Or an IT or HSE officer? Maybe OT is a shared responsibility, that can not be attributed to one person. OT security often comes down to the IT manager as a side task; but the IT manager also does not have the appropriate knowledge. This may result in a wrong approach to OT security.

3 June 2021

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HSD Report: Implications of OT and IT Integration for Cyber Security

Lack of OT security awareness on boardroom level

The general awareness at boardroom level is not sufficient yet. Boardroom members usually do not have a technical background: explaining to them why OT security is important, is therefore a challenge. At the same time, organisations are willing to learn. Internally, stakeholders see that employees at all levels are increasingly open to OT security training and awareness sessions.

3 June 2021

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HSD Report: Implications of OT and IT Integration for Cyber Security

Lack of organisational communication about cyber attacks

The general tendency in companies is to not communicate about cyber attacks that they have endured, due to not knowing about the attack, feelings of embarrassment, or fear of reputational damage. The persistent silence about cyber attacks counteracts the learning process. Severe cyber incidents must be connected with business continuity management and crisis management.

3 June 2021

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HSD Report: Implications of OT and IT Integration for Cyber Security

Asset management and validation is lacking in OT environments

In OT environments asset validation is lacking – at least on the Dutch market. The problem here is that the source code of OT assets is often not provided by the supplier. As a result, companies possibly use these assets without being able to test these components for security.

3 June 2021

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HSD Report: Implications of OT and IT Integration for Cyber Security

Patching is a challenge in OT environments

Patching, the installation of software updates, is a challenge in OT environments. A patch can result in unforeseen incompatibility with connected systems, thereby disturbing the production process. This is even more of a challenge because organisations cannot simply put their systems on hold for a couple of hours. To prevent compatibility issues, organisations usually wait for vendor approval for a patch. Dependent on the vendor, it can take some time before a patch can be installed, possibly leaving the system vulnerable in the meantime.

3 June 2021

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HSD Report: Implications of OT and IT Integration for Cyber Security

Testing OT environments is challenging

Testing within OT environments is not as trivial as testing within IT environments. Testing on the production environment can cause undesired, or severe, disruptions in the production process. Because, whereas the simulation of IT environments can be done relatively easily and cost effective by cloning the IT environment on a separate network or to the cloud, you cannot ‘copy-paste’ an OT environment with its the physical components. Regarding the latter, the development of OT simulation software is evolving; this software enables so-called digital twins.

3 June 2021

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HSD Report: Implications of OT and IT Integration for Cyber Security

Lack of Root Cause Analysis in OT security

A lack of, or unjust, root cause analysis is a problem in OT environments. When a defect or an unplanned disruption in the system happens, it is sometimes classified as a maintenance issue such as ‘component is defect – must be replaced’, while the actual cause could be a hack. In this case, there is a wrongly diagnosed root cause and a solution that will not solve the problem.

3 June 2021

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HSD Report: Implications of OT and IT Integration for Cyber Security

Digital Security cluster contains various technologies crucial to a nation's security (JenV)

The cluster Digital Security in the TechAgenda of JenV contains various technologies that are crucial in securing society. These are technologies that impact the security of data-exchange, communication, identification, data storage and use of networks and infrastructure. These include: cybersecurity and post-quantum cryptography, but also blockchain. Important terms and developments within blockchain are privacy enhancing technologies (PETs), self sovereign identity (SSI), smart contracts. Within cybersecurity, automated vulnerability scanning and automated response are crucial and need to be implemented into the ministry. Digital security is not only important for society, but it is also something that the ministry itself needs to work on.

13 January 2023

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TechnologieAgenda JenV

Cyberthreats in the Dutch healthcare sector throughout 2023

This report titled "Cybersecurity Dreigingsbeeld voor de zorg 2023" by Stichting Z-CERT provides an overview of cybersecurity threats in the Dutch healthcare sector for 2023. It highlights the following key dangers: Ransomware, dataleaks (hacking), espionage, ransomware at distributor, DDoS at distributor, financial fraud, DDoS, and dataleaks (phishing). The report emphasizes the importance of cybersecurity measures like multifactor authentication and vigilance against evolving cyber threats. It also discusses the impact of generative AI in cyberattacks and the need for enhanced security protocols. Additionally, the document addresses the significance of collaboration between healthcare institutions and their suppliers to strengthen information security. Overall, the report underscores the critical need for robust cybersecurity practices to safeguard sensitive healthcare data and systems from malicious cyber activities.

21 March 2024

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Cybersecurity Dreigingsbeeld voor de Zorg 2023

In the US there is a huge need for privacy advice and compliance management

"During my visit in 2018, I saw that the security and compliance market in the US is or can be enormous. That is when I thought, this is the place to be for us!”. We noticed that in the US there is a huge need for privacy advice, also with the CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) coming in effect in 2020, and our compliance management framework (software-tooling). In 2020, we have managed to interest the first four partners and are going to be in the US before the phase of a final offer. We extended our lease contract with Bwtech. At the beginning of 2020, we want to go back to the US. We are currently preparing for this.

18 May 2021

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How Audittrail Entered the US Market Through Soft-Landing Programme

Russia's military capability build-up as the main potential threat to the physical security of the Netherlands and the NATO alliance

Due to Russia's build-up of military resources and capabilities and Russia's location on the borders of Europe, Russia poses a potential threat to the physical territorial integrity of the Netherlands and the NATO alliance. An increase in instability is occurring due to the further development of conventional and tactical nuclear weapons.

4 June 2021

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Dreigingsbeeld Statelijke Actoren

Largest neighboring country of the Kingdom, Venezuela, is unstable

Although a military conflict between Venezuela and the Kingdom of the Netherlands does not seem likely, there is a chance of unintended escalation through misinterpretation and incidents (as a result of the decline in military professionalism) within Venezuela.

4 June 2021

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Dreigingsbeeld Statelijke Actoren

State actors are getting more and more digital tools to influence digital territorial security

These digital tools are getting increasingly advanced and more difficult to attribute. Multiple actors can now also be attacked from one strategic postion. States use digital tools for multiple reasons, amongst which espionage, influence and sabotage or in order to achieve their own political, military economic and/or ideological goals.

5 June 2021

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Dreigingsbeeld Statelijke Actoren

Russia tries to access essential and vital infrastructure from allies on structural basis

This accessing of essential infrastructure of allies has the goal of finding procedures for digital disruption or sabotage of said infrastructure. In the current context, Russia has no intention to proceed with digital disruption or sabotage.

5 June 2021

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Dreigingsbeeld Statelijke Actoren

Iran carries out preparatory acts for digital sabotage

Especially with regards to the oil and gas industry. The impact of the political and economic competition with Saudi Arabia is one where the impact of these preparatory actions on the Netherlands should be regarded as collateral damage.

5 June 2021

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Dreigingsbeeld Statelijke Actoren

Dutch dependency on Chinese technology forms a danger for society

Dutch dependence on Chinese technology and services brings the risk that it offers Chinese (state) actors opportunities for (preparatory actions for) digital sabotage.

5 June 2021

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Dreigingsbeeld Statelijke Actoren

The use of Dutch infrastructure by state actors to carry out cyber attacks threatens the Dutch position

The Netherlands is attractive for cyber actors, partly due to the high quality of the infrastructure. The use of Dutch ICT infrastructure by state actors to carry out cyber attacks to third countries and the use of that ICT for cyber espionage can be seen as a threat to the Dutch territorial integrity and the Dutch position abroad.

5 June 2021

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Dreigingsbeeld Statelijke Actoren

Intelligence and influencing activities of various state actors form a threat to social and political stability in The Netherlands

Even though there can't be any statements made about the increase or decrease of intelligence and influence activities, it is clear that technological developments in recent years offer new possibilities. New possibilities for for example large-scale intelligence gathering or unwanted foreign interference through social media. The geopolitical and security interests of the state actors behind the threats will remain broadly unchanged in the coming years. It is therefore estimated that the intelligence and influence activities will continue.

5 June 2021

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Dreigingsbeeld Statelijke Actoren

China and Russia engaged in exerting covert political influence aimed at the Netherlands

This covert political influence involves collecting political intelligence and attempts to secretly influence policy in the Netherlands. These activities can affect the functioning of the democratic system. Political intelligence can be used to influence decision-making and to play countries off against each other. The effectiveness of these activities is hard to measure. Influence can take the shape of the spread of fake news by state actors, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic the spread of conspiracy theories developed faster.

5 June 2021

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Dreigingsbeeld Statelijke Actoren

The intelligence and influence activities of Turkey, Iran and China, among others, focus on their diaspora.

While taking advantage of necessities that require people to maintain access to the country of origin (family, possessions, religious/cultural needs), the governments of countries like Turkey, China and Iran can put implicit and explicit pressure on communities to conform to certain standards. This can rage from self-censorship in public debate to active cooperation with intelligence services. Some governments are also prepared to use force against opponents abroad. Pressure on social cohesion can also arise from state actors that combine the national identity of diaspora with religion. From a number of Islamic countries, including Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, become religious groups and organizations of wahabi salafist signature financed abroad.

5 June 2021

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Dreigingsbeeld Statelijke Actoren

The Chinese use of both legal and illegal economic resources and (digital) espionage poses the greatest threat to the Dutch economy

The Chinese use of both legal and illegal economic resources and (digital) espionage poses the greatest threat to the Dutch economic security. The Chinese activities are extensive and structural. In particular, the Dutch top sectors and knowledge institutions are interesting because of the high-quality infrastructure, technology and knowledge they possess. A large part of the China's (digital) espionage activities are over aimed at improving Chinese competitiveness.

6 June 2021

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Dreigingsbeeld Statelijke Actoren

Russia dependence and the continuous espionage threat from Russia towards the Dutch high-tech sector

From Russia there is a continuous espionage threat from human sources towards defense suppliers and other companies from the Dutch high-tech sector who have unique, high-quality knowledge about technologies, which can have both civilian and military applications. The biggest potential threat from Russia to Dutch economic security lies in the dependence on Russia as a gas supplier.

6 June 2021

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Dreigingsbeeld Statelijke Actoren

Pressure on the international legal order by China, Russia and Iran

An objective within the Russian pursuit of geopolitical influence is the undermining of unity in the West (NATO and EU). Rusland richt zich net als China op toegang tot internationale organisaties. Russia also threatens this international legal order through the deployment of military resources. China's lack of recognition of international law and the threat Chinese intelligence services pose for the Dutch government make it that China can be seen as a threat to the integrity of Dutch decision-making processes and international matters. Iran makes efforts to gather intelligence on political decision-making in the Netherlands and Europe.

6 June 2021

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Dreigingsbeeld Statelijke Actoren

Cyber attacks by state actors as a means of espionage

Countries spy to achieve their own political, military, economic and / or ideological goals. Research by the AIVD shows that more and more countries are spying politically and / or economically. State actors remain very successful in compromising (government) systems within and outside the Netherlands. This despite investments in the digital resilience of public institutions. In 2019, the MIVD also recognized various cyber espionage activities against the Netherlands, other Western countries and allied interests. The intelligence obtained through political espionage serves as inside information for states to prepare for political or social developments. This intelligence can also be used to influence decision-making and elections or to get a grip on the diaspora. For example, intelligence is gathered to play countries off against each other in order to undermine unity and international cooperation within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union. The Netherlands is a target of economic espionage. After all, the Dutch economy is highly developed, innovative and internationally oriented. Espionage activities are aimed, for example, at improving their own economic development or to gain knowledge from countries that are facing sanctions.

13 January 2021

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Cybersecuritybeeld Nederland

State actors and criminal actors respond to current events

Actors respond to current events, by: - Responding to the Covid-19 pandemic. Soon after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, there were indications that actors were (opportunistically) abusing the situation to carry out "thematic" cyber attacks. - Active abuse of various vulnerabilities: In 2019 and early 2020, active abuse of various vulnerabilities by state and criminal actors was observed. The AIVD and MIVD confirm that state actors have exploited vulnerabilities in Fortigate and Pulse secure VPN software. Therefore, the AIVD and MIVD have also advised companies and other organizations about measures. The vulnerabilities in Citrix ADC and Citrix Gateway servers were actively exploited by actors soon after the available exploit - which was published on January 9, 2020.

13 January 2021

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Cybersecuritybeeld Nederland

Changing DNS settings as an attack technique

Incidents indicate (renewed) interest in changing Domain Name System (DNS) settings as an attack technique, also known as a DNS hijack. By changing DNS settings of organizations, for example by hacking a registrar, incoming network traffic can be temporarily diverted and intercepted. This can be used for espionage purposes, among other things. Cyber attacks against DNS can have a significant impact on the integrity of the Internet.

13 January 2021

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Cybersecuritybeeld Nederland

Abuse of Dutch ICT infrastructure for cyber attacks

The Dutch ICT infrastructure is also abused by state actors in cyber attacks on other countries. The Netherlands is attractive for this because the digital infrastructure is of high quality and ICT capacity can be rented relatively easily. This form of abuse can damage the international image of the Netherlands and it can be bad for allied interests and the integrity of the Dutch ICT infrastructure. As in previous years, the Dutch ICT infrastructure was also abused for various forms of cybercrime, including for facilitating cyber attacks. Dutch servers are also abused for botnet spam. Of all servers that cyber criminals worldwide use for spamming via botnets, approximately 6.3 percent are located in the Netherlands.

13 January 2021

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Cybersecuritybeeld Nederland

Hardware vulnerabilities with (potentially) major consequences announced

The past year saw further growth in the number of vulnerabilities in hardware. A certain type of attack (transient execution attack) again led to changes this year in all Intel processors and all popular operating systems. SSDs with hardware encryption contain such serious vulnerabilities that the encryption is of no value. Even newly released memory chips (DRAM) appear to have known vulnerabilities. The "DRAM vulnerability" is particularly worrying because there is no solution for it and will remain for years to come. There are currently no alternatives.

13 January 2021

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Cybersecuritybeeld Nederland

New technologies, whilst threatening on the short term, can enhance cyberresilience on the long term.

Quantum computing, Artificial intelligence and other upcoming technologies stand to change the world. In the short term quantum computing will undermine pre-quantum encryption drastically. AI can be applied to offensively detect and weaponize 0-days and attack systems. On the longer term, quantum encryption and automated 0-day patching can enhance resilience. These are just two concrete examples where these technologies will be in a position to enhance cyber security and resilience on the longer term.

29 March 2021

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Advies ‘Naar structurele inzet van innovatieve toepassingen van nieuwe technologieën voor de cyberweerbaarheid van Nederland’

Strategic technological dependence on foreign actors is undermining the national autonomy of the Netherlands and Europe at large

Upcoming technologies, their applications, but also the systems necessary to run them, think about the computing power needed for certain AI applications, are being developed by both domestic and foreign actors. On certain themes the foreign actors are in the lead. If this lead is not shrunk or reversed there is a risk of a wider dependence on that foreign actor and its government. This could undermine the strategic autonomy of Dutch organizations and the government, but also threaten the geopolitical security of European Data for instance. The current technological armsrace has wider political and economic dependency issues, but could also undermine the competitive edge of Europe.

29 March 2021

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Advies ‘Naar structurele inzet van innovatieve toepassingen van nieuwe technologieën voor de cyberweerbaarheid van Nederland’

How violation of cyberspace affects national security

Violation of (the security of) cyberspace poses a risk to national security. After all, important elements for the functioning of cyberspace are vulnerable to system failure and/or misuse. Boosting resilience to this is a limited possibility for individual states and organisations. The complexity of this global ICT chain is explained within the report.

10 September 2021

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Cyber Security Assessment Netherlands

Means and targets used by state actors to achieve theirs objectives

State actors use their instruments to promote their interests in the geopolitical force field. They pursue to promote their objectives and this is also makes itself felt in cyberspace. In this snippet the means used by states is further elaborated.

13 September 2021

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Cyber Security Assessment Netherlands

53% of cybersecurity attacks cause over US$500,000 in damage

53% of cybersecurity attacks cause over US$500,000 in damage

22 January 2021

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2020 Global Networking Trends Report

Increased mobility causes cybersecurity risks

According to the Cisco “VNI Forecast Highlights Tool,” global business mobile data traffic will grow sixfold from 2017 to 2022 at an annual growth rate of 42%.12 Business mobile users will continue to expect immediate and high- performance connectivity anywhere, anytime, and on any device over Wi-Fi and public 4G and 5G networks. At the same time, wireless IoT devices will become increasingly ubiquitous in all aspects of our lives. Employees accessing cloud applications from corporate and private devices when off network is creating a lack of visibility and control that network and security administrators haven’t faced. And a wave of IoT devices will add to wireless networking requirements in terms of scale, different traffic patterns, and security.

22 January 2021

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2020 Global Networking Trends Report

Cybersecurity threats are becoming increasingly sophisticated and dangerous across a broader attack surface that is no longer contained within well-defined and defended perimeters

Cybersecurity threats are becoming increasingly sophisticated and dangerous across a broader attack surface that is no longer contained within well-defined and defended perimeters. In particular, as workloads move off-premises, there is a danger that IT will lose visibility. While the network will continue to be a powerful ally in identifying and containing threats, network and security operations need to share data and integrate tools and workflows to best combat the continued rise in number and sophistication of attacks. In addition, the network can extend the reach of IT into cloud environments to help protect applications and data even when not directly under their control.

22 January 2021

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2020 Global Networking Trends Report

Changing role of network security

Key findings • Network strategists identified security as a top investment area, second only to AI. • 43% of network teams identified improved embedded network security capabilities as a priority. • In 2019, 48% of CISOs identified “time to remediation” as a main key performance indicator (KPI), up from 30% in 2018. • Almost 75% of network leaders were confident they will have AI-enabled adaptive or automated policy definition and enforcement in two years.

22 January 2021

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2020 Global Networking Trends Report

IT talent survey: Top skills and expertise are needed

Data from our IT talent survey reveals that across IT in general, advanced technologies such as cloud expertise, enterprise architecture, big data and analytics, DevOps, and cybersecurity top the list of technical skills and expertise in need. Our own IT talent survey reveals that a lack of business acumen is the number-one skills gap in IT today. Filling this gap will be critical as organizations transition to intent-based networks. By speaking the language of the business, IT can effectively translate business objectives, or intent, into high-level IT policies, which in turn can determine infrastructure and device configurations.

22 January 2021

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2020 Global Networking Trends Report

Smaller organizations faced about the same level of public scrutiny as their larger counterparts.

One common myth is that the media only wants to talk about massive and devastating corporate or governmental data breaches. This could lead some smaller organizations into believing that they won’t face much, if any, public scrutiny when they suffer a cyberattack. This is false. Last year, smaller organizations faced about the same level of public scrutiny as their larger counterparts.

30 March 2021

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Big Security in a Small Business World

Downtime

When an SMB gets hit by a cyberattack that results in a level of downtime (loss of business hours), the myth suggests that they don’t have the resources to rebound nearly as fast as their larger counterparts. This is false. Data suggests that there is very little difference in the amount of downtime suffered by SMBs and larger organizations.

30 March 2021

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Big Security in a Small Business World

Lack of dedicated security personnel

With everyone pitching in wherever necessary in SMBs, there’s an assumption that cybersecurity is just one aspect of someone’s job. And that this person is also balancing other aspects of IT management such as managing data centers and evaluating new hardware. The myth is that SMBs have few, if any, dedicated resources for cybersecurity. This is false. While this may be the case for some, SMBs overwhelmingly told us that they do have dedicated employees for cybersecurity. In fact, less than 1% of SMBs told us that they didn’t have anyone dedicated to security. Perhaps even more surprising, 60% said they had over 20 people dedicated to security – although we didn’t specify what level of involvement that dedication may entail or if the employees were outsourced with a managed security service provider (MSSP).

30 March 2021

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Big Security in a Small Business World

Keeping infrastructure up-to-date

With the frequency of consumers upgrading to the latest smartphone, it may seem that larger organizations can afford to replace each element of their security infrastructure. But what about smaller businesses, where that cycled investment might have greater impact on their annual IT budget? This is partially true. When asked to describe their infrastructures, and their strategy for investing and replacing key security technologies, here’s what SMBs told us: Almost all SMBs are diligent about keeping their infrastructure up to date.

30 March 2021

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Big Security in a Small Business World

Difference in threats between SME's and Corporates

Cyber criminals want the biggest prize, so they’ll use their most stealth and dangerous tactics against the larger businesses, right? This is partially true. We compared the types of cyberattacks that SMBs and large enterprises reported they’ve experienced in the past year, with how much downtime (loss of business hours) the attacks caused. We did this using four categories based on organizational number of employees and ranked the events most likely to create more than 24 hours of downtime.

30 March 2021

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The future challenges facing criminal justice systems

Threat hunting

Threat hunting is a proactive security exercise, with the intent of finding and rooting out attackers that have penetrated your environment and haven’t raised any alerts. This contrasts with traditional investigations and responses that stem from alerts that appear after potentially malicious activity has been detected. The whole concept of threat hunting sounds like it involves a mysterious crime scene investigation, with its nuances and complexity out of reach for smaller businesses. SMBs have their hands full trying to investigate alerts; they don’t have time to go hunting for other threats, right? FALSE: From our survey data, not only do 72% of SMBs have employees dedicated to threat hunting, but this is also close to the percentage of large organizations who have a threat hunting department. Although their levels of maturity may differ from larger organizations due to less resources, our data suggests that SMBs recognize the value of, and are embracing a proactive approach towards cybersecurity.

30 March 2021

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Big Security in a Small Business World

Testing incident response plans with drills/exercises

As Mike Tyson often said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” Until you know how your incident response plan performs in action, it’s only worth the words on the page. But smaller businesses don’t have the luxury of time and resources to test their plans, right? Surely that would cause more disruption than it would be worth. FALSE: This myth is simply not true. Only one percent of SMBs never test their plan, and four percent rarely test. Twelve percent test every two years, 36% test annually, and the largest percentage (45%) test every 6 months.

30 March 2021

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Big Security in a Small Business World

SME Leadership Taking Security and Data Privacy Seriously

Here’s the big one – the one that the collective industry has unfortunately been peddling for years. As an SMB, you’re in the dark on how much danger you’re in – and haven’t nurtured an organizational culture around security and data privacy. FALSE: Our data proves that this myth is very far removed from the actual truth. And there are three ways to prove this from our survey of IT decision-makers from different sized organizations.

30 March 2021

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The future challenges facing criminal justice systems

SME's patching vulnerabilities

Patching often falls under the basics of cybersecurity, but in practice, it can be challenging to implement. One myth suggests that SMBs would rather use their resources elsewhere than find ways to minimize the disruption caused by patching. This is false: Fifty-six percent of SMBs patch daily or weekly, compared to 58% of large businesses – showing that for the very regular patching routines, all business sizes approach it the same.

30 March 2021

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The future challenges facing criminal justice systems

Measure the efficacy of security programs

Assumptions have been made that smaller businesses employ more of a ‘spray and pray’ approach to cybersecurity. The implication is that they don’t have the measures in place to be able to monitor and measure what’s really working, and therefore can’t optimize what they have. This is false. An impressive 86% of SMBs say they have clear metrics for assessing the effectiveness of their security program, compared to 90% of larger organizations.

30 March 2021

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Big Security in a Small Business World

AI race underway in the financial services sector

Currently, a third of financial service providers use AI applications on a functional level. In three years, 95 percent of the market expects to use AI in their day-to-day operations. There will be an AI race within the financial services industry. Within the financial services industry, the idea is maturing that artificial intelligence will fundamentally change competitive dynamics. more than half of the companies have prioritized the coordination of the AI strategy to 'board level', due to the expected impact of AI technology on the overall value chain within the financial services industry.

7 June 2021

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Ai-race op komst in de financiële dienstverlening

AI technologies provide opportunities in the Justice, Police and Defence sectors

AI technologies can be utilised to improve various security related issues. For example, the police can use AI to improve the selection of case material, the selection of promising cold cases or the handling of alerts. In the justice domain, AI can be used to gain insights into child abuse or financial debts. Lastly, defence can use AI to improve weapon- and detection systems.

11 August 2021

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Strategisch Actieplan voor Artificiële Intelligentie

AI technologies provide opportunities in the Healthcare, Agriculture and Energy sectors

AI technologies can be utilised to improve various issues. For example in the healthcare sector, AI is used to precisely analyse cells, read röntgen images or establish diagnostics. In the agriculture domain, AI is used for 'precision agriculture', the selection of new crop strains and system integration. Lastly, the energy sector uses AI to reduce traffic jams, reduce emissions and the automatic detection of flaws in power grids.

11 August 2021

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Strategisch Actieplan voor Artificiële Intelligentie

There is a gap in the labor market between the supply and demand for cybersecurity expertise

Developments in the field of digitization are moving at lightning speed and digitization has penetrated into the capillaries of our society. The training or retraining of people who can adequately and efficiently address the safety aspects of this development, both on a technical and social science and humanities level, lags far behind, both in numbers (quantitative) and knowledge levels (qualitative). A gap has thus been created in the labor market between the demand for and the supply of cybersecurity expertise, in all areas, not only technical, but also organizational, administrative, legal, economic and ethical, for example.

24 May 2021

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Dcypher: Nationale Cyber Security Educatie Agenda

More qualified educators with cybersecurity knowledge and skills are needed

By including security and privacy in the digital world in the curriculum of primary and secondary education, young people become familiar with cybersecurity. Cybersecurity also comes into the picture in secondary education as a study choice. In primary education (PO) and secondary education (VO), more qualified teachers with cyber security knowledge and skills are therefore needed. Cybersecurity experts can be deployed to provide short-term knowledge transfer in education, for example to develop teaching materials that can be used by primary and secondary teachers. For the long term, new teacher training courses will have to be developed and current training courses adapted.

24 May 2021

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Dcypher: Nationale Cyber Security Educatie Agenda

A lack of a supported and accepted Body of Knowledge and Skills on cybersecurity hinders the development of the cybersecurity workforce

It is not immediately clear what the profile of a good information security officer or cybersecurity expert is. That makes it difficult for educational institutions to determine what the content of a curriculum should be. Students find it difficult to form an idea of what they want when determining their study choice. It is difficult for employers to formulate realistic expectations for starters. A supported and accepted Body of Knowledge and Skills (BoKS) helps with this. Due to the international dimension of the field, coordination on this is necessary. Professionals must be able to acquire an (inter) nationally recognized level of professional competence if they meet the requirements of education, experience and professional ethics.

24 May 2021

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Dcypher: Nationale Cyber Security Educatie Agenda

The benefits and challenges of large and complex data sets in law enforcement agencies

The application of AI in law enforcement agencies could ease the navigation of large and complex data sets which could lead to faster detection of patterns in criminal activities, correlations between data types and forecast resource requirements. Some challenges that are currently being faced include financial budgets, expertise, compliance to law and regulations and limited interoperability.

13 September 2024

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AI and Policing: The Benefits and Challenges of Artificial Intelligence for Law Enforcement

Several cyber-attacks targetic strategic national interests attributed to state-sponsored organisations

Over recent months, several cyber-attacks targeting strategic national interests were attributed to APT groups close to state-sponsored organisations. National elections have also been the subject of great speculation. - Including new economic threats and the risk of destabilising a country's economy

13 May 2021

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What are the cybersecurity trends for 2021?

EU citizens' awareness of the risks and challenges of cyber space

European Commission prepared a special Eurobarometer survey in 2019 with the aim of understanding EU citizens’ awareness, experiences and perceptions of cybersecurity. The results of this survey show that Internet use in Europe continues to grow, particularly via smartphones, and citizens are more aware of the potential dangers when going online. According to the survey’s findings, concerns about online privacy and security have already led more than 9 in 10 Internet users to change their online behaviour – most often by not opening e-mails from unknown people, installing antivirus software, visiting only known and trusted websites and using only their own computers. While these results are quite encouraging, many users still fall into online fraud and e-mail phishing baits. This reveals that malicious actors are using sophisticated attacks that are harder to detect and avoid. Hence, mitigation strategies have to be updated regularly to accommodate the latest available intelligence (CTI) on attack techniques.

22 January 2021

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The Year in Review

Cyber-offenders: Sextortion attacks

Cyber-offenders are likely to Continue targeting teenagers and young adults with sextortion attacks (webcam blackmail) affecting psychologically and ultimately physically the victims.

22 January 2021

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The Year in Review

Cyber-offenders: Cyberbullying attacks

Cyber-offenders are likely to Increase the number of cyberbullying attacks during and after the COVID-19 pandemic with adolescents using digital platforms even more for personal or educational purposes.

22 January 2021

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The Year in Review

Cyber-criminals: AI-based tools to create deep fakes

Cyber-criminals are likely to Increase the use AI-based tools to create highly believable counterfeits (image, audio and video format) – commonly known as deep-fakes – to defraud companies.

22 January 2021

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The Year in Review

Cyber-criminals: Business Process Compromise (BPC)

Cyber-criminals are likely to Improve the tactics that compromise business processes to obtain financial advantage. The threat = Business process compromise (BPC)

22 January 2021

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The Year in Review

Cyber-criminals: Business e-mail compromise (BEC)

Cyber-criminals are likely to lower one level in the organisation - below executive – to compromise business emails. Business e-mail compromise (BEC)

22 January 2021

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The Year in Review

Cyber-criminals: Managed service providers (MSPs) to distribute malware

Cyber-criminals are likely to increase the use of managed service providers (MSPs) to distribute malware.

22 January 2021

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The Year in Review

Cybersecurity challenge: Dealing with systemic and complex risks

Cyber risk is characterised by the speed and scale of its propagation as well as the potential intent of threat actors. The interconnectedness of various systems and networks enables cyber incidents to spread quickly and widely, making cyber risks harder to assess and mitigate.

22 January 2021

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Emerging Trends

Cybersecurity challenge: widespread of adversarial AI detection

The detection of threats exploiting AI to launch an attack or avoid detection will constitute a major challenge for the future of cyber defence systems.

22 January 2021

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Emerging Trends

Cybersecurity challenge: supply chain and third party threats

The diversified supply chain that characterizes the technology industry today provides new opportunities for threat actors to take advantage of these complex systems and exploit the multiple vulnerabilities introduced by a heterogeneous ecosystem of third party providers.

22 January 2021

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Emerging Trends

Cybersecurity challenge: security orchestration and automation

Cyber threat intelligence and behavioural analytics will gain importance with the automation of processes and analysis. Investing in automation and orchestration will allow cybersecurity professionals to invest in the design of more robust cybersecurity strategies.

22 January 2021

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Emerging Trends

Cybersecurity challenge: reduction of false positives

This long waited promise is key in the future of the cybersecurity industry and in the fight against the alarm fatigue.

22 January 2021

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Emerging Trends

Cybersecurity challenge: zero-trust security strategies

With an increasing pressure on IT systems from new business requirements such as remote working, digitalization of the business model and data sprawl, zero trust is seen by many decision makers as the solution de facto to secure corporate assets.

22 January 2021

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Emerging Trends

Cybersecurity challenge: enterprise cloud migration errors

With many businesses migrating their data to cloud-based solutions, the number of configuration errors will increase exposing data to a potential breach. Cloud service providers will address the issue by implementing systems that identify these type of errors automatically.

22 January 2021

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Emerging Trends

Cybersecurity challenge: hybrid threats

New modus operandi adopt virtual and physical world threats. The spread of disinformation or fake news for example, is a key fixture of the hybrid threat landscape. The EUvsDisinfo15 is a flagship project of the European External Action Service’s East StratCom Task Force established to address the disinformation threat.

22 January 2021

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Emerging Trends

Cybersecurity spending

According to Gartner, many boards of directors will demand improved data and understanding of the returns after years of intensive investment in cybersecurity. This is mainly due to a growing spend in cybersecurity proportionately to the investment made in new technologies. According to a report from IDC22, spending on cybersecurity reached $103 billion (ca. €87,5 billion) in 2019, which is 9.4% higher than the previous year. Security managers will soon be scrutinised for the results obtained from years of investment and are essential to maintain improved data about the results obtained.

22 January 2021

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Emerging Trends

Cyber threat intelligence will help defining cybersecurity strategies

Cyber threat intelligence (CTI) aims at helping organisations becoming better prepared by improving their knowledge about the threat landscape. Instead of relying exclusively on information generated by internal systems or feeds (what is known about the known), the effectiveness of CTI will be determined by the knowledge about the why, the how and the what that is unknown to the cybersecurity team. The value proposition of any CTI capability or program is to improve the preparedness of the organisation to protect its critical assets from unknown threats. "With more cybersecurity automation and orchestration seen as a growing trend, cybersecurity teams will spend less time in monitoring activities and more in readiness and preparedness tasks.

22 January 2021

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Emerging Trends

Shortage in cybersecurity skills

The lack of highly-skilled tech professionals is already issue for Europe’s digitalisation ambition. According to a study, over 70% of European firms report that lack of skills is hampering their investment strategies, while 46% of firms report difficulties in filling vacancies due to skills shortages in key areas such cybersecurity.

22 January 2021

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Emerging Trends

Malware is getting an upgrade

Malware family strains are being upgraded into new versions with additional features, distribution and propagation mechanisms. Emotet for example, a malware originally designed as a banking Trojan back in 2014, has become one of the most effective malware distributors of 2019.

22 January 2021

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Emerging Trends

Threats will become fully mobile

Users are increasingly dependent on mobile devices to secure their most sensitive accounts. The use of 2fa tied to an app authenticator or via a text message is one of the examples. With more malware going fully mobile, fraudulent apps, SIMJacking and operating systems exploits make these devices the weakest link and therefore, extremely vulnerable to attacks.

22 January 2021

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Emerging Trends

Attackers are using new file types such as disc image files (ISO and IMG) for spreading malware.

DOC, PDF, ZIP and XLS files are still the most commonly used attachment type for spreading malware but other types are getting popular. A few campaigns distributing AgentTesla InfoStealer and NanoCore RAT were found using image file type in 2019.

22 January 2021

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Emerging Trends

Increase in targeted and coordinated ransomware attacks

In 2019, we saw an escalation of sophisticated and targeted ransomware exploits with the public sector, health care organisations and specific industries at the top of the list. Attackers are spending more time gathering intelligence about their victims, knowing exactly what to encrypt, achieving maximum disruption and higher ransoms.

22 January 2021

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Emerging Trends

Credential-stuffing attacks will widespread

Credential stuffing - the automated injection of stolen username and password combinations through large-scale automated login requests directed against a web application - will proliferate as a result from a decade of an abnormal number of data breaches and trillions of personal data records stolen.

22 January 2021

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Emerging Trends

Emerging trend in attack vectors: attacks will be massively distributed with a short duration and a wider impact

These attacks are meant to affect the highest number of devices possible to steal personal information or block the access to data by encrypting the files.

22 January 2021

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Emerging Trends

Emerging trend in attack vectors: finely targeted and persistent attacks will be meticulously planned with well-defined and long-term objectives

Malicious actors plan this type of attacks to reach high value data such as financial information, intellectual and industrial property, trade secrets, classified information, etc.

22 January 2021

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Emerging Trends

Emerging trend in attack vectors: malicious actors will use digital platforms in targeted attacks

Malicious actors will explore the potential of digital platforms to support targeted attacks (e.g. social media, gaming, messaging, streaming, etc.). From personal data theft for spear-phishing attacks to broad malware distribution, digital platforms with a high number of subscribers are efficient attack vectors increasingly popular among malicious actors.

22 January 2021

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Emerging Trends

Emerging trend in attack vectors: the exploitation of business processes will increase

With more automation and less human intervention, business processes can be maliciously altered to generate profit for an attacker. Commonly known as Business Process Compromise (BPC) this technique is often undervalued by process engineering specialists due to the lack of a proper risk assessment.

22 January 2021

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Emerging Trends

Emerging trend in attack vectors: the attack surface will continue expanding

E-mail is no longer the prime and only tool and top attack vector for phishing. Malicious actors are now using other platforms to communicate and attract victims to open compromised web pages. A new trend is emerging with the use of SMS, WhatsApp, SnapChat and social media messengers.

22 January 2021

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Emerging Trends

Emerging trend in attack vectors: teleworking will be exploited through home devices

With more people in teleworking and connecting their devices to corporate networks, the risk of opening new entry points for attackers will increase. With the COVID-19 pandemic, this trend will urge IT Managers to tighten security policies and make urgent changes in the IT infrastructure.

22 January 2021

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Emerging Trends

Emerging trend in attack vectors: obfuscation techniques will sophisticate

Threat actors are continuously innovating to make threats more effective and less susceptible to detections. The Anibus, an Android banking Trojan and bot, has been distributed by masquerading as innocuous app, primarily through Google Play Store.

22 January 2021

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Emerging Trends

Emerging trend in attack vectors: the automated exploitation of unpatched systems and discontinued applications will increase

The abnormal increase in Telnet traffic to port 445 observed in 2019 unveiled the expansion of worms and exploits such as Eternal Blue. Telnet, which is no longer used except in the realm of IoT devices, saw the greatest volumes during the period.

22 January 2021

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Emerging Trends

Emerging trend in attack vectors: cyber threats are moving to the edge

Edge devices are deployed at the boundaries between interconnected networks. We have seen a growing trend with attacks targeting these devices — such as routers, switches, and firewalls — having a significant impact to an enterprise and to the connected digital ecosystem.

22 January 2021

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Emerging Trends

Increase in collaborative innovation to tackle societal challenges

The world around us is constantly changing, partly due to rapid technological developments, social media and international connections. More and more challenges arise that are too large for one party to tackle. Think of the climate issue and the climate goals of Paris, or the debt problem. Collaboration with the market, government and science (triple helix) and even with society (quadruple helix) is increasingly taking place to solve these issues and create value together. On both social issues and technological developments. Investing in common ground, formal and informal structures, solidarity and honesty, in independence, is key for successful collaborative innovation

9 June 2021

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Innoveren over grenzen heen

AI will affect all sectors, tackling challenges together is crucial

AI will affect all sectors, if this is not already the case. Many parties run into the same problems, and it is best to tackle them jointly. Then companies can compete on their best propositions

9 June 2021

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Innoveren over grenzen heen

Creating a network in which organizations provide attributes that confirm reliability is key for data security

Data is increasingly taking on a leading role in our society. How do you ensure that that data can be trusted – and at the same time prevent your information from being endlessly double-checked? Collaboration is the key to success. By not placing the verification of data with one party, but by constructing a connection network in which several organizations provide attributes that confirm the reliability.

9 June 2021

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Innoveren over grenzen heen

There are several preconditions for successful application of technology in an urban environment

When applying technology in an urban environment, a number of preconditions are important, namely: privacy and societal acceptance, cybersecurity, embedding in existing infrastructure and processes, and the ability to scale up.

10 June 2021

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Technologieverkenning: Tech voor een gezonde en weerbare stad tijdens COVID-19 en erna

Trends en ontwikkelingen digitale veiligheid

Nieuwe uitdagingen door versnelde digitalisering mede door pandemie: we brengen bestaande ICT-systemen voor beschikbaarheid over naar de cloud, persoonsgegevens die door grootschalig test- en contactonderzoek worden verzameld vormen privacyrisico, werknemers moeten kunnen inloggen vanuit huis met hun eigen apparatuur. Nieuw inzicht in lokale vitale processen door lockdown: stedelijke functies zoals het onderwijs, gezondheidszorg, lokale distributie van levensmiddelen en de detailhandel worden (deel) opgeschort of moeten online plaatsvinden. Het is zichtbaar geworden wat de stad nodig heeft voor basisniveau van functioneren en belang digitale continuïteit en veiligheid is. Aanvallen van statelijke actoren: samenleving afhankelijk van grote (buitenlandse) techbedrijven en statelijke actoren vallen grote organisaties aan voor geopolitieke belangen. Zowel medewerkers als toeleveranciers kwetsbaar, systemen worden gemanipuleerd of gesaboteerd. Digitale criminaliteit: niet alleen statelijke actoren die aanvallen uitvoeren. Ook criminelen voeren voor financieel gewin aanvallen uit. Afgelopen jaar in Nederland talrijke aanvallen met ‘gijzelsoftware’ en aanvallen waarbij een groot aantal persoonsgegevens illegaal werd verhandeld. Door de pandemie is er sprake van een verschuiving van traditionele naar digitale criminaliteit: verkoopfraude, valsheid in geschrifte en hacken. Voor online criminaliteit is sprake van een toename van 54% in vergelijking met 2019. Voor de Eenheid Den Haag was er sprake van een toename van 42%.

4 April 2022

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Agenda Digitaal Veilig Den Haag

Extended detection and response capabilities emerge to improve accuracy and productivity

Extended detection and response (XDR) solutions are emerging that automatically collect and correlate data from multiple security products to improve threat detection and provide an incident response capability. For example, an attack that caused alerts on email, endpoint and network can be combined into a single incident. The primary goals of an XDR solution are to increase detection accuracy and improve security operations efficiency and productivity.

21 January 2021

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Gartner Top 9 Security and Risk Trends for 2020

Security process automation emerges to eliminate repetitive tasks

The shortage of skilled security practitioners and the availability of automation within security tools have driven the use of more security process automation. This technology automates computer-centric security operations tasks based on predefined rules and templates. Automated security tasks can be performed much faster, in a scalable way and with fewer errors. However, there are diminishing returns to building and maintaining automation. SRM leaders must invest in automation projects that help to eliminate repetitive tasks that consume a lot of time, leaving more time to focus on more critical security functions.

21 January 2021

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Gartner Top 9 Security and Risk Trends for 2020

Enterprise-level chief security officers (CSO's) emerge to bring together multiple security-oriented silos

In 2019, incidents, threats and vulnerability disclosures outside of traditional enterprise IT systems increased, and pushed leading organizations to rethink security across the cyber and physical worlds. Emerging threats such as ransomware attacks on business processes, potential siegeware attacks on building management systems, GPS spoofing and continuing OT/IOT system vulnerabilities straddle the cyber-physical world. Organizations primarily focused on information-security-centric efforts are not equipped to deal with the effect of security failures on physical safety. As a result, leading organizations that deploy cyber-physical systems are implementing enterprise-level CSOs to bring together multiple security-oriented silos both for defensive purposes and, in some cases, to be a business enabler. The CSO can aggregate IT security, OT security, physical security, supply chain security, product management security, and health, safety and environmental programs into a centralized organization and governance model.

21 January 2021

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Gartner Top 9 Security and Risk Trends for 2020

Privacy is becoming a discipline of it's own

No longer “just a part of” compliance, legal or auditing, privacy is becoming an increasingly influential, defined discipline of its own, affecting almost all aspects of an organization. As a rapidly growing stand-alone discipline, privacy needs to be more integrated throughout the organization. Specifically, the privacy discipline co-directs the corporate strategy, and as such needs to closely align with security, IT/OT/IoT, procurement, HR, legal, governance and more.

21 January 2021

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Gartner Top 9 Security and Risk Trends for 2020

New "digital trust and safety" teams focus on maintaining the integrity of all interactions where consumer meets the brand

Consumers interact with brands through an increasing variety of touchpoints, from social media to retail. How secure the consumer feels within that touchpoint is a business differentiator. Security for these touchpoints is often managed by discrete groups, with specific business units focusing on areas they run. However, companies are increasingly moving toward cross-functional trust and safety teams to oversee all the interactions, ensuring a standard level of safety across each space where consumers interact with the business.

21 January 2021

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Gartner Top 9 Security and Risk Trends for 2020

Network security transforms from the focus on LAN-based appliance models to SASE

Cloud-delivered security services are growing increasingly popular with the evolution of remote office technology. Secure access service edge (SASE) technology allows organizations to better protect mobile workers and cloud applications by routing traffic through a cloud-based security stack, versus backhauling the traffic so it flows through a physical security system in a data center.

21 January 2021

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Gartner Top 9 Security and Risk Trends for 2020

A full life cycle approach for protection of the dynamic requirements of cloud-native applications

Many organizations use the same security product on end-user-facing endpoints as they did for server workloads, a technique that often continued on during “lift and shift” cloud migrations. But cloud-native applications require different rules and techniques, leading to the development of cloud workload protection (CWPP). But as the applications grow increasingly dynamic, the security options need to shift as well. Combining CWPP with the emerging cloud security posture management (CSPM) accounts for all evolution in security needs.

21 January 2021

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Gartner Top 9 Security and Risk Trends for 2020

Zero-trust network access technology begins to replace VPN's

The COVID pandemic has highlighted many of the problems with traditional VPNs. Emerging zero-trust network access (ZTNA) enables enterprises to control remote access to specific applications. This is a more secure option, as it “hides” applications from the internet — ZTNA only communicates to the ZTNA service provider, and can only be accessed via the ZTNA provider’s cloud service. This reduces the risk of an attacker piggybacking on the VPN connection to attack other applications. Full-scale ZTNA adoption does require enterprises to have an accurate mapping of which users need access to what applications, which will slow adoption.

21 January 2021

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Gartner Top 9 Security and Risk Trends for 2020

Experts foresee an AI growth path with three intelligence levels and two important conditions

Experts foresee a growth path with three intelligence levels: assisted AI (technology as support for human decision-making), augmented AI (technology as enrichment of human capabilities) and autonomous AI (technology as executing complex tasks without human control or guidance). two important conditions for going through this growth path are access to reliable data and support for experiments in the public sector. AI applications need data to train, improve and execute the algorithms. The required data is often not with one organization, data sharing between organizations and even between sectors is an important precondition for the development of AI solutions. Additionally, if no one dares to experiment, we cannot learn how to develop and deploy AI effectively, which means the technology will increasingly come from other parts of the world where different norms and values prevail.

8 June 2021

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Aan de slag met AI binnen de overheid

The ministry of defense will continue to focus on improving social safety in 2021

The ministry of defense wants to strengthen social safety within the organization with various measures in 2021. For example, there will be a (temporary) reporting and registration system where employees can go with suspicions of abuse, complaints or integrity violation. There will also be an analysis and revision of the internal integrity system. The Ministry of Defense is also committed to professionalizing the employees who deal with reports and complaints.

9 June 2021

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Defensie zet in 2021 verder in op verbetering sociale veiligheid

A growing number of organizations have CISO's

The importance of information security in the highly digitized world has increased significantly in recent decades and will continue to rise in the next decade. A continuous stream of examples of cyber attacks that paralyze entire institutions underlines this importance. It is therefore not surprising that more and more companies and institutions have a CISO (Chief Information Security Officer) or even an entire Information Security Office

27 May 2021

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HSD CISO Whitepaper: een robuustere cybersecurity

In recent years there has been a change in the role of the CISO

In recent years there has been a change in the role of the CISO, from a minimal realization of the role, to a more mature, full realization of the role. For example, the focus of the CISO has moved from technology to the organisation, the CISO has shifted from being difficult to being supportive, and there has been a growth in CISO Office team size as the mindset has shifted to security being essential for an organisation.

27 May 2021

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HSD CISO Whitepaper: een robuustere cybersecurity

Several factors can play a role in an increased focus on resilience and robustness in cybersecurity

factors can play a role in increasing resilience and robustness in cybersecurity: -The management (board / board of directors) is often still too naive when it comes to cyber incidents and the resulting consequences. A business impact analysis and having the CISO speak the language of the board can solve this. -Awareness campaigns are too rational, people do not "feel" the risk, and they are too focused on prevention. Practicing cyber incidents can solve this. -Technical systems can contribute to increased robustness. Make sure to compartmentalize, standardize and simplify them. -In a society that relies heavily on automation, the shortage of specialists, capacity and knowledge in the field of cybersecurity is a serious risk in the longer term -The government plays an important role when it comes to the prevention of major cyber incidents and the preparation for dealing with such incidents should they occur.

27 May 2021

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HSD CISO Whitepaper: een robuustere cybersecurity

Safety of OT (Operational Technology) is underexposed

Safety of OT (Operational Technology) is underexposed. There are still too many legacy systems that hang unpatched and unprotected on the internet. More awareness is needed in this area.

27 May 2021

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HSD CISO Whitepaper: een robuustere cybersecurity

The Netherlands has an excellent position in the world when it comes to coordinated vulnerability disclosure

The Netherlands has an excellent position in the world when it comes to coordinated vulnerability disclosure (previously often referred to as responsible disclosure). This contributes to overall cyber security. There is still room for improvement on this.

27 May 2021

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HSD CISO Whitepaper: een robuustere cybersecurity

Child sexual abuse material (CSAM)

The area of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) has remained a grave concern during the pandemic; with children spending more time online, the potential increase in demand for CSAM and attempt to engage in child sexual exploitation continues to be a considerable threat.

22 January 2021

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How Covid-19-related Crime Infected Europe During 2020

Pandemic-themed campaigns in cybercrime activities

Pandemic-themed campaigns have appeared across a wide range of cybercrime activities, including phishing campaigns, ransomware, malware and business email compromise attacks. Healthcare and health-related organisations have also been targeted and fallen victim to ransomware attacks.

22 January 2021

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How Covid-19-related Crime Infected Europe During 2020

Fake news, conspiracy theories and harmful narratives

The volume of fake news, conspiracy theories and harmful narratives undermining public institutions disseminated online around the COVID-19 pandemic has been substantial.

22 January 2021

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How Covid-19-related Crime Infected Europe During 2020

The first- and second-most commonly cited causes of breach are malware and malicious spam.

The first- and second-most commonly cited causes of breach are malware and malicious spam. Ransomware causes the most destructive amount of downtime (over 17 hours) and also doesn’t discriminate – this includes small, medium and large businesses and enterprises. Brand reputation has increasingly become an area of security breaches, to such an extent that brand reputation is now the second-most impacted business area after operations. Businesses and enterprises who show collaboration between security, networking, endpoint management, or security groups, showed significantly lower breach costs. It therefore comes as no surprise that voluntary breach disclosure is at an all-time high.

21 June 2021

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Cisco 2020 CISO Benchmark Report

Forty six percent of organizations had an incident caused by an unpatched vulnerability

Forty six percent of organizations (up from 30 percent in last year’s report) had an incident caused by an unpatched vulnerability.

21 June 2021

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Cisco 2020 CISO Benchmark Report

It is necessary to explore the guidelines by which technology serves our society

In 2019, over 80 organisations in the Netherlands signed a declaration to accelerate innovation. One way that this is done is through the implementation of technology in our society, also known as 'Smart Society'. "Learning from the development of a Smart Society requires us to shift our focus from technology to exploring the guidelines by which these technologies serve our society”. “There are many opportunities for technology and data to improve the security of our cities. To realise these opportunities, we have to work in an agile way, innovate together and scale-up the discovered solutions”

12 August 2021

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The Development of Smart Secure Cities

Digital and physical processes in society have become intertwined and crisismanagement should be able to deal with this

Most measures listed online focus on preventing a cyber emergency, only a very few concern the period during or after the emergency. This approach is too restricted. Digital and physical processes in society have become intertwined very rapidly. As a result, it's conceivable that a future cyber emergency will also affect the physical domains such as healthcare and transport. Fortunately, crisis and disaster management organizations are devoting more and more attention to the intensive interaction between the digital and physical spheres.

25 May 2021

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CSR Magazine

The human factor as a vital but weak link in cybersecurity requires testing and practise

The human factor is vital to achieving effective cybersecurity. There are three levels: - organizations must have enough people on staff: minimal reliance on external parties - people hired must be qualified for the job: personal must have mastered yesterday's technology, but be ready to work with the technology of today and tomorrow - effective employee screening: government services must be kept secure It is vital to keep conducting drills and surprise the organization with things like pen tests form outside the organization, mystery guests, external ethical hackers and more.

25 May 2021

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CSR Magazine

Water management as a (cyber)security issue

An interesting case for the Netherlands is the issue of water security. It is a traditional and typically Dutch security topic. Today, these efforts are being combined with a cyber related aspect. Today there is a desire to link the information from various water management structures together. However, this does entail increased risks.

25 May 2021

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CSR Magazine

European Commission working to put in place the building blocks of a truly Digital Single Market

Over the last four years, the European Commission has worked to put in place the building blocks of a truly Digital Single Market that supports the development of new technologies and applications and at the same time ensures legal certainty and the necessary protections for consumers and businesses alike. The Commission has proposed a dedicated funding stream for digital as part of the next EU budget period from 2021. The Digital Europe Program will invest over €9bn in artificial intelligence, supercomputing, cybersecurity, digital skills and the modernization and digitalization of the public sector.

25 May 2021

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CSR Magazine

The EU needs to become more resilient to cyber-attacks and create an effective cyber deterrence

Cyber-attacks have increased in numbers, but also in scale and geographical spread. It is clear that the EU needs to become more resilient to cyber-attacks and create an effective cyber deterrence. The human factor plays a very important part in this. With some 95% of incidents said to be enabled by some type of human error – intentional or not - there is a strong human factor at play. Technology can only take us so far in keeping us safe in the digital world. People - but also businesses and public administrations - need to have the skills and the right tools to be able to quickly detect and actively protect themselves against attacks. The legislative framework that is currently in place works to ensure the safety of networks and systems and to raise awareness of the risks. This framework is continuously being reexamined and adjusted, with the additions of Acts.

25 May 2021

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CSR Magazine

Efforts to prepare young people for tomorrow's labour market must be speeded up

Digital developments are progressing at lightning speed and their impact on our day-to-day lives is enormous. The application of artificial intelligence, Big Data and robotics serves to accelerate this process. It's crucial that we properly prepare young people for this reality: they are our future and must be ready to enter tomorrow's labour market. That is why it's so important that young people are taught the necessary skills, running the gamut from programming to how to use digital tools prudently and securely. A great deal of effort has already been made, but this must be speeded up. The shortage of teachers in primary and secondary educations means other solutions must be considered.

25 May 2021

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CSR Magazine

Training teacher through the use of hybrid teachers

In order for pupils to learn digital skills, teachers will have to be digitally literate. Public-private partnerships can offer assistance. However, even though most businesses are willing to help, they are often unsure of how to go about it. This is often because schools aren't certain of what they want from the business community. What is needed: Combining strength and establishing shared goals and hol one another accountable for attaining those goals.

25 May 2021

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CSR Magazine

Chain dependence increases the cyber threat level in the manufacturing industry

Due to the high level of chain integration companies in the manufacturing industry are increasingly digitally connected. Companies are, generally speaking, very dependent on digital information-exchange, not only within the company, but across the chain. Consequently, it is important that the entire supply chain takes steps to increase cyber resilience. An important development in this industry is the Smart Connected Supplier Network (SCSN), which focuses on the (technical) rollout of digital messaging in the chain.

23 December 2022

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Verhogen cyberweerbaarheid bij bedrijven in de Zuid-Hollandse maakindustrie

Rapid development of IoT is expected to continue

A new era of connectivity is on the horizon. Over the past years, the number of connected devices out there has grown exponentially, and it is anticipated that figures will only continue to rise. By 2020, it’s predicted that there will be 31 billion connected devices in existence – a statistic that is expected to more than double to 75 billion by 2025. The catalyst that will boost IoT to its long-awaited full potential is the next generation of communication networks, as well as blockchain. The potential impact of IoT will be greatly heightened by other technological trends such as AI, 5G, and voice control technology, all of which ultimately serve to make connected devices smarter than ever.

28 May 2021

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Technology Trend Report 2020

Quantum computing has evolved from a theoretical concept to a practical phenomenon

In recent years we’ve seen the relevant hardware and software necessary for QC move out of university labs and into business contexts – that is, the technology has evolved from a theoretical concept to a practical phenomenon. Companies are increasingly aware of this: Research shows that 40 percent of businesses are taking proactive steps towards QC, with 36 percent planning to take steps to invest in QC within the next two to five years. In the financial industry specifically, QC could make a difference in the areas of fraud detection, dynamic portfolio analysis and optimisation, clustering and arbitrage.That said, QC still has a lot of maturing to do before it’s a viable computing option for enterprises that can deliver meaningful, cost-effective business results.

28 May 2021

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Technology Trend Report 2020

Cybercrime, and specifically ransomware, is growing exponentially

Ransomware is a dynamically evolving risk, impacting organizations around the world with rapidly increasing loss frequency and severity. Claims have increased significantly in frequency and severity in recent years and continue to evolve. - By 2025, Global cybercrime damage costs are expected to reach $10.5 trillion. Global ransomware damage costs are predicted to reach $20bn in 2021, up from $325m in 2015. - By 2021 a ransomware attack on businesses is predicted every 11 seconds. - AIG has seen an increase of more than 150% in frequency of ransom and extortion claims notifications since 2018. - All sizes of company are impacted by ransomware, across all types of industries. Ransom and extortion claims accounted for 1 in every 5 cyber claims in 2020, up from 1 in every 10 claims in 2018. Ransomware is rapidly evolving, fueled by the rise of ransomware as a service (RaaS), data exfiltration prior to encryption, and deeper, more invasive attacks.

28 May 2021

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Ransomware: a call for enhanced resiliency

Providing guidance for national government organizations to implement references to central government security.txt file on their web servers

This document provides guidance for Dutch national government organizations (Rijksoverheidsorganisaties) on implementing references to the central "Rijksoverheid security.txt" file on their web servers. A security.txt file is a standardized approach for organizations to publish contact information for reporting security-related concerns. The guidance encourages organizations to use a centralized file, with a link to the central security.txt, streamlining the process and improving efficiency. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) serves as the central contact point for Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure (CVD) for government systems, making a central security.txt file advantageous. The document outlines the benefits of centralization, the risks associated with security.txt, and provides instructions on implementation for Rijksoverheidsorganisaties, including using HTTP 302 Redirects and considerations for IP addresses. The goal is to enhance the reporting of security vulnerabilities while minimizing administrative overhead for government organizations.

18 January 2024

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Handreiking security.txt

Growth in the application of artificial intelligence

With 'big data' as fuel, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to provide insight into social phenomena and to improve policy and decision-making. Municipalities can use this to create new added value for their residents. The Dutch cabinet and Europe recognize the opportunities offered by AI. The starting shot has therefore been given to get started with this new technology. Narrow AI systems are rapidly penetrating the average living room and workplace. Opportunities and threats AI not only creates opportunities, but also presents us with challenges. Consider, for example, the issue of transparency of the operation of AI systems and the outcomes they generate. The social effects that AI systems generate are not necessarily positive. AI systems and the data that feed them, for example, can reinforce existing prejudices, unlawfully discriminate against individuals and systematically stigmatize population groups. Legislation that offers opportunities and gives confidence AI is technology in development, also when it comes to embedding it in society. Good, effective legislation can provide powerful support in this regard. An important condition is that sufficient space is built in to exploit the opportunities offered by AI and to strengthen confidence in this technology. Politicians, policymakers and society are faced with a fundamental challenge: how do we ensure that the relationship between desired and undesired outcomes and effects turns in the right direction? Collaborate and knowledge sharing Various municipalities are already off the starting blocks with AI projects and are thus gaining valuable experience. However, it is evident that a lot of knowledge still needs to be acquired by the government in general - and specifically by municipalities - in order to fully utilize the opportunities offered by AI. That knowledge is also necessary to be able to conduct the political conversation about socially responsible use of people and AI in a meaningful way.

22 January 2021

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Trends in de informatiesamenleving 2020

Digital security is becoming increasingly important

Digital security is becoming increasingly more important. We are seeing a shift in crime rates from "physical" to digital. Due to the growth in digital products and services, the potential digital vulnerability of society is increasing. In addition, the physical and digital world have become intertwined and that entails new risks. In order to do their job properly, drivers must be aware of these risks and vulnerabilities.

22 January 2021

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Trends in de informatiesamenleving 2020

‘AI for Good’ - values, ethics, legal

Europe is committed to AI that benefits public values, under the motto "AI for Good". This results in a great deal of attention for the ethical aspects of AI. This attention is also seen in the Netherlands, within the Cabinet and the government departments. The Platform for the Information Society recently published the essay "AI and Human Rights" on this subject. This essay convincingly argues that only under strict conditions can ethical frameworks suffice. If the ethical frameworks do not meet those conditions, then such frameworks must also have a legal form. In the letters to Parliament regarding this matter, these intentions to take action on this are expressed as well. However, we must continue to pay close attention that the frameworks for AI are constructed in the right way, also including the perspective of local governments.

22 January 2021

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Trends in de informatiesamenleving 2020

Knowledge gap in the field of AI

In the field of AI, there is a large knowledge gap between the large tech companies on the one hand and SMEs, governments and residents on the other. In comparison, the EU spent 1.1 billion Euros on AI research between 2014 and 2017, whereas big tech companies like Google spent between 20 and 30 billion dollars in 2016 alone. To ensure that public values are safeguarded in the use of AI, governments need more in-house knowledge from various disciplines (policy officer, lawyer, data scientist, financial specialist, etc.). With this knowledge, governments can build their own resources and regulate the market.

22 January 2021

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Trends in de informatiesamenleving 2020

Digital security & Covid 19

With the rapid development of digitization, digital security is a major challenge. The COVID-19 crisis once again underlines how important it is that our digital resources function properly and that residents can rely on government information and act safely in the digital world. However, that safety and reliability are far from self-evident. Europol notes, for example, that the number of cyber incidents since the crisis has increased in line with the widespread adoption of digital working. In the Netherlands, the Fraud Help Desk has to deal with a doubling of the number of monthly reports (from 6,500 per month in December to 15,000 in April), with the increase in Whatsapp fraud in particular being striking. The Tax and Customs Administration also sees more than a doubling of phishing reports. Prior to the current crisis, Statistics Netherlands noted in its annual Security Monitor that the number of victims of cybercrime is increasing, while traditional crime is decreasing.

22 January 2021

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Trends in de informatiesamenleving 2020

Digital sovereignty and dependence

An important issue in a European context is the management of the digital infrastructure. It is becoming increasingly clear that there are negative sides to the European dependence on non-European tech companies. In her "political guidelines", European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen already spoke of "technological sovereignty". Also around the COVID-19 contact tracing apps, we see that European countries need to adapt their approach to the solutions offered by US tech companies. This dependence has significance for European strategic interests in the current and future geopolitical playing field, in which the possibilities of digital warfare are a factor. Investigative journalist Huib Modderkolk illustrates this in his book Het is oorlog maar niemand ziet het (''It is war but nobody sees it'') in a disturbing way. GAIA-X, a proposal for a federal European data infrastructure, is also an example of an ambitious initiative that the EU is currently taking to bring about renewal, whereby Europe gains sovereignty.

22 January 2021

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Trends in de informatiesamenleving 2020

Municipalities and digital security

It is important to ensure the safe handling of information and systems in the DNA of the municipality and society. If we consider information as the most important raw material with which the municipality carries out its production, then information security deserves the same place in the organization as finance. In this construct, the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and Data Protection Officer (DPO) are the accountant and controller for the purpose of dealing with (information) systems and (personal) data. Municipalities are slowly but surely growing from a reactive and incident-driven approach to a preventive and risk-based cyclical approach. The major challenge is to also create digital awareness and risk awareness in the municipal 'regular' security function. The IT world can still learn a lot from the regular security world in the field of crisis management. Conversely, the municipal security arm can learn a lot from the CISO role about making digital risks transparent and manageable.

22 January 2021

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Trends in de informatiesamenleving 2020

Chain spreading of digital risks

In general, we can say that the opportunities of the information society are also accompanied by shifting risks, new vulnerabilities and interdependencies that are not always predictable. These risks are not limited to the own organization, but spread easily through chains and networks - also internationally. Responsibility for digital security within such chains as a whole is still unexplored territory. This is risky because a digital disruption can have major social effects. Digital disruption refers to serious disruptions (intended and unintentional) to society, with both digital and physical dimensions. Consider, for example, the consequences of the ransomware attack on a Ukrainian accounting system that also affected the Maersk shipping company and thus the port of Rotterdam in 2017, or the national failure of the emergency number 112 as a result of a KPN outage in 2019.

22 January 2021

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Trends in de informatiesamenleving 2020

Existing fundamental rights are under pressure due to digitalization

Experts and leading institutions are concerned about the influence of digitization on our democracy and the ability of residents to make decisions about their (digital) living environment. As early as 2011, the Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR) warned in the iGovernment report against "faltering democratic control". In more recent years, concerns have only increased. Opinion makers, scientists and advisory councils point to the erosive effect that digitization appears to have on democratic processes. The various advice and reports highlight a number of key challenges. A first challenge is that digitization and social media influence the functioning of our democracy, as noted by the State Committee on the Parliamentary System and the Council for Public Administration (ROB), among others. For many citizens, the rapid technological developments are too complex to really fathom them. There is a knowledge inequality between the market and society. In this context, the Rathenau Instituut therefore advocates strengthening "technological citizenship".

22 January 2021

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Trends in de informatiesamenleving 2020

There are rights that we require in an information society that we are currently might not possess

In addition to existing fundamental rights that are under pressure due to digitization, experts also identify possible missing rights. One example of this is the right to meaningful contact, as formulated by the Rathenau Institute (2017). The rapid rise of artificial intelligence and robotization raises questions about meaningful and "face-to-face" contact. But is it desirable that people end up in situations where they only deal with robots? The answer to that question almost certainly seems "no". There is a lot of psychological research that shows that people cannot live without contact with their fellow human beings. The right to meaningful contact can stipulate that we must avoid such situations. Another example is the right to repair. Critics argue that large technology companies are "planned obsolescence." This means that these companies ensure that their products - smartphones, for example - do not last longer than two years, while a longer lifespan is quite possible. For example, research shows that the average lifespan of a desktop computer decreased between 1985 and 2010 from 10.7 to 3.5 years. The right to repair could allow people to access information about the hardware and software of products, enabling them to repair them themselves - rather than buying a new product every two years. An extension of this is the right to interoparability. A small, accessible example: it is not in the public interest that you need a different charger for Apple smartphones than for all other smartphones. Ideally, there is one type of charger that you can use for everything and is therefore interoperable. This is also applicable in other areas: if systems from different providers of online platforms are interoperable, people can leave a social network without leaving their friends behind.

22 January 2021

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Trends in de informatiesamenleving 2020

Aanpak Identificatie van digitale veiligheidsrisico’s steden

Identificatie van risico’s (mogelijke oorzaak, kans en impact van een incident) • Identificeer vitale processen en digitale infrastructuur op het niveau van de stad. • Definieer dreiging en ontwikkel scenario’s. • Begrijp de risico’s op het niveau van de stad: welke kwetsbaarheden en (keten)afhankelijkheden zijn er? Wat is de waarschijnlijkheid dat een incident zich voordoet? En wat zijn de mogelijke gevolgen hiervan? • Ontwikkel een doorlopend situationeel beeld en publiceer hier periodiek over.

4 April 2022

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Agenda Digitaal Veilig Den Haag

Aanpak Preventie van digitale veiligheidsrisico’s steden

Preventie (maatregelen om risico’s te verlagen) • Prioriteer kritieke processen op basis van dreiging en risico’s. • Zorg voor de juiste contacten met organisaties uit deze processen. • Werk aan bewustzijn en gedragsverandering bij organisaties en groepen die een hoog risicoprofiel hebben en/of kwetsbaar zijn. • Agendeer bij organisaties het belang van preventieve maatregelen. Waaronder het gebruik, de ontwikkeling en de inkoop van veilige hard- en software; het waarborgen van redundante connectiviteit; het toepassen van identiteit- en authenticatie management (waaronder Multi-Factor Authenticatie); het zo snel mogelijk doorvoeren van (automatische) updates; het doorlopend uitvoeren van penetratietesten en oplossen van kwetsbaarheden (inclusief Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure programma); het zorgen voor actuele backups; het beschermen van gevoelige data (onder andere door encryptie); het behalen van relevante certificeringen; en het trainen van gebruikers en medewerkers. • Stimuleer samenwerking en kennis- en informatiedeling tussen organisaties uit geprioriteerde processen. Bijvoorbeeld op bovengenoemde onderwerpen en het delen van strategische kennis, ervaringen en informatie over risicoanalyses, vertrouwelijke gegevensuitwisseling, inkoopeisen etc. • Onderzoek stimuleringsmogelijkheden en sturingsinstrumenten in het geval van een collectief actieprobleem of marktfalen. • Ondersteun de attributie, opsporing en vervolging in het digitale domein door de inlichtingendiensten, de Politie en het OM.

4 April 2022

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Agenda Digitaal Veilig Den Haag

Aanpak Detectie van digitale veiligheidsrisico’s steden

Detectie (maatregelen om incidenten (tijdig) te kunnen detecteren) • Agendeer bij organisaties in de stad het belang van het continue monitoren van het eigen netwerk, apparaten en applicaties (waaronder een Security Operations Centrum en endpoint detectie); het registreren van het digitale gedrag van apparaten, applicaties en gebruikers (logging); het leren herkennen van afwijkend gedrag en datastromen; het testen en updaten van detectieprocessen en -protocollen; en het samenwerken en elkaar helpen bij incidenten. • Zoek voor de digitale infrastructuur en lokaal vitale processen actief naar kwetsbaarheden en datalekken via open bronnen en op het darkweb (scannen en threat hunting). • Onderzoek stimuleringsmogelijkheden en sturingsinstrumenten in het geval van een collectief actie- probleem of marktfalen. • Zorg voor een construct waarmee informatie over kwetsbaarheden, datalekken en andere dreigings- informatie (technisch en juridisch) kan worden gedeeld met en tussen organisaties in de stad.

4 April 2022

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Agenda Digitaal Veilig Den Haag

Aanpak Respons van digitale veiligheidsrisico’s steden

Respons (tijdens een incident snel en adequaat kunnen reageren) • Zorg samen met de veiligheidsregio voor adequate voorbereiding op crisisbeheersing van een fysiek veiligheidsincident dat veroorzaakt wordt door een digitaal veiligheidsincident. • Agendeer bij organisaties in de stad het belang van een crisisplan (inclusief procesafspraken, de technische reactie op een incident, een communicatiestrategie, digitaal forensisch onderzoek en het waarborgen van de continuïteit van bedrijfsvoering & dienstverlening tijdens een incident) en het periodiek oefenen van dit plan samen met partners. • Creëer een meldpunt waar organisaties melding kunnen doen van incidenten en koppel zulke meldingen ook terug richting andere organisaties in de stad (zie ook bij detectie). • Moedig getroffen organisaties aan om aangifte te doen bij de Politie.

4 April 2022

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Agenda Digitaal Veilig Den Haag

Aanpak Herstel van digitale veiligheidsrisico’s steden

Herstel (herstellen of beperken van schade na een incident) • Agendeer bij organisaties het belang van een herstelplan: organisaties kunnen na afronding van het forensisch onderzoek, het verwijderen van alle malware en het oplossen van kwetsbaarheden de getroffen systemen, apparaten en applicaties opnieuw aansluiten en herstarten. Bijvoorbeeld door het herstellen van backups, of bij een zware aanval, het (gedeeltelijk) opnieuw opbouwen van de ICT. • Evalueer na afloop het incident en de reactie hierop, zodat indien nodig de bestaande plannen, protocollen en contracten met toeleveranciers kunnen worden verbeterd. • Communiceer na afloop open en transparant met stakeholders (incl. het publiek) over de geleerde lessen. • Organiseer schadeafhandeling en nazorg in het geval van immateriële schade.

4 April 2022

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Agenda Digitaal Veilig Den Haag

Wet- en regelgeving en rol gemeente op het gebied van digitale veiligheid

Om de (mogelijke) rol van de gemeente op het gebied van digitale veiligheid te duiden is het belangrijk om te kijken naar de juridische context, het nationale stelsel voor digitale veiligheid, verschillende beperkingen en de inzet van andere steden. Het Nederlandse stelsel voor digitale veiligheid is in hoge mate nationaal en sectoraal georganiseerd. Er ligt voor digitale veiligheid op dit moment geen expliciete opdracht (met daaraan gekoppelde versterkings- gelden) van de Rijksoverheid aan de Nederlandse gemeenten, zoals dat bijvoorbeeld bij de bestrijding van ondermijning en radicalisering wel het geval is. Wel zijn er veel verschillende kaders zoals Baseline Informatiebeveiliging Overheid, Algemene Verordening Gegevensbescherming (AVG) en de ‘Wet beveiliging netwerk- en informatie- systemen’ (Wbni). Daarnaast de sectorale wet- en regelgeving en de Europese: 'EU Cyber Security Act' en de nieuwe ‘EU strategie inzake cyberbeveiliging voor het digitale tijdperk’

4 April 2022

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Agenda Digitaal Veilig Den Haag

Data sharing for AI: Data Sovereignty, Trust and Security

The need to get a grip on (the conditions for) the use of data when it is shared with other parties is rising. We do want to share data, but data misuse must be prevented in order to give organizations and individuals the confidence to share their sensitive data. The starting point is therefore "controlled data sharing". Controlled data sharing can be broken down into three aspects: • Data sovereignty is the ability of a natural person or organization to be fully self-determining with regard to its data, ie the ability for a legal entity to decide exclusively using its data as an economic asset. It requires people and organizations to control the circumstances over how their data is shared and how it may be processed by other parties. • Trust is the property of obtaining assurance that the entities (persons, organizations, or systems) with which data is shared are actually the entities they claim to be and that they will act accordingly. Trust can be achieved through adequate identification, authentication and certification methods. • Security is the property of being able to guarantee that the actual sharing of data is protected against unauthorized misuse of this data by security breaches, whether as a result of malicious intent or accidentally. It includes aspects such as encrypted data transport and storage and software certification and attestation

30 March 2021

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Verantwoord datadelen voor AI

An increase of hypersonic weapon technology including behavioral engineering.

In the years 2018 and 2019 there has been an increase in hypersonic weapon technology and behavioral engineering. The latter entails a technological area which encompasses information operations, misleading and manipulation. Related to this are hybrid threats and the possible impacts of it.

19 April 2021

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Strategische Kennis- en Innovatieagenda Defensie 2021-2025

Organizations will invest in new access control and video analytics solutions

In a recent Genetec report, the State of Physical Security 2020, 54% of respondents said that access control will be a big project to focus on in 2021 and 46% said the same about video analytics. Many physical security professionals know that upgrading to modern access control solutions will help them to reach new goals. This might include strengthening cyber hygiene or deploying new a physical identity management solution to automate employee and visitor access requests. During the re-opening phases, the latter will help limit physical interaction while keeping people safe, buildings secured, and compliance in check. Implementing video analytics further strengthens site security and delivers more insights. From people counting and directional flow to object left behind and crossline detection, analytics are giving security teams a clearer picture of what’s happening in their environment. Remote teams can also stay top of threats while securing near-empty facilities during this pandemic. As machine learning continues to push the intelligence of analytics forward, users will see higher accuracy rates, and this will boost confidence in various edge and software-based analytics.

12 May 2021

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Top physical security trends for 2021

Personalized solutions will address industry-specific needs

Physical security solutions have traditionally been cookie-cutter. While certain functionality might appeal to one business more than another, rarely have security platforms been designed to address a specific industry. That’s all changing. Customized product portfolios are becoming increasingly popular as users' needs evolve and procuring enterprises seek more sophisticated solutions. Airports, cities, mass transit, cannabis, and other industries require solutions that are designed to help them manage their unique environments. Since custom-built solutions cost a fortune to develop and maintain, vendors will be pushed to provide an easier and more affordable path to address these tailored industry needs.

12 May 2021

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Top physical security trends for 2021

The Netherlands lags behind in investing in areas that are central for future innovation

The main areas of concern are the speed of embedding technology, access to markets, capital, talent and the ability to scale successfully. There is insufficient availability of capital, a small talent pool and a homogeneous startup sector, insufficient market access and a gap between technology and new businesses.

24 May 2021

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Empowering Dutch Leaders in Tech 2020

The Netherlands is moving up the rankings in business dynamics, but moving down the rankings in innovation capabilities

The innovation ecosystem is one of the main indicators of success for remaining internationally competitive. Interestingly, the Netherlands has contradictory trends in the two indicators defining a global competitive ecosystem. The Netherlands is moving up the rankings in business dynamics, but moving down in the international rankings in innovation capabilities. This is an alarming trend for the competitiveness of the country in the near future.

24 May 2021

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Empowering Dutch Leaders in Tech 2020

Scaleups have limited access to the Dutch and international markets

‘Internationalisation’ is indicated as the biggest challenge by founders from mid-stage scaleups (between €1M – €5M revenues). Access to international buyers, local partners and local talent are three of the biggest internationalisation challenges for scaleups. Additionally, ‘market reach’ is one of the biggest disadvantages for the Dutch tech ecosystem. At most multinationals, the sales procurement process is still unnecessarily complex for scaleups.

24 May 2021

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Empowering Dutch Leaders in Tech 2020

There is a modest and fragmented supply of venture funding

Notwithstanding a steady increase in deals, venture capital (VC) fund investment volume and a number of government support programs, The Netherlands is still a long way from realising this vision. There are a variety of issues signaled in the ecosystem and although qualitative data is not readily available, the challenges are apparent: • There is a modest and fragmented supply of venture funding, spread over regions, sectors, funding stage and fund type (private/ public). • Overall deal sizes are small causing a relatively small overall impact, where only a few funds invest in multiple stages. • There is a specific shortage of early and late stage funding and venture debt. • Dutch VC find it hard to attract Dutch institutional investors in their funds and there is for now low presence of focused foreign VC that could provide material contribution in terms of capital and best practices.

24 May 2021

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Empowering Dutch Leaders in Tech 2020

Limited access to talent for scaleups

Scaleups will need to hire 12,000 individuals every year for the forseeable future. Currently, 48% of all software development roles in the Netherlands are hard to fill. Scaleups must compete for talent with larger companies, and the domestic pool of talent is not sufficient, thus attracting international talent is crucial. Additionally, there is a lack of diversity, as in recent years only 0.8% of venture capital in the Netherlands was invested in female founders and only 5.7% in mixed teams.

24 May 2021

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Empowering Dutch Leaders in Tech 2020

Responsible AI: Connecting the ethics of AI with technological practice

After a period of formulating frameworks, principles and starting points, it is now time to concretely link ethics with practice. A new approach is needed to anchor AI and the underlying data in ethically responsible and socially meaningful applications: -Focus on the pursuit of social values -The business community takes joint responsibility for social innovation -Knowledge institutions provide responsible AI education and research -Introduce ethical guidance and regulation -Organize ethics from the perspective of citizens and stakeholders -Connect AI with sustainability -Support wide access to responsible and meaningful solutions

25 May 2021

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Mensgerichte Artificiële Intelligentie

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the most influential technology at the moment

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the most influential technology at the moment. Algorithms play an increasingly important role in our actions everywhere in society. Three levels of impact of AI can be distinguished. At an individual level, AI systems influence the choices, behaviors and frameworks of interpretation of individual users: search engines color the information with which people build their world view, expert systems provide doctors and judges with a framework for a diagnosis or a judgment. At the social level, this influence is reflected in a wide variety of domains, including healthcare (such as detecting cancer cells in images), education (adaptive teaching materials) and justice (expert systems), traffic and transport (via self-driving vehicles), and journalism. ('automated journalism'). Finally, at the social level, AI influences the organization of society: predictive policing changes the nature of the enforcement task of the police, search engines influence political engagement and algorithms are involved in military decision-making.

25 May 2021

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Mensgerichte Artificiële Intelligentie

The rise of AI ethics in The Netherlands

The major impact of AI on people and society entails a special responsibility. How can we design AI systems responsibly? How can we determine whether these systems use responsible data? And how can we properly embed and use them socially? The importance of these questions is widely recognized and in 2019 there was almost no industry, government, company that had not drawn up an ethical code. The year 2019 has already entered the books as the year of AI ethics. AI ethics themes that have arisen include for example fairness and justice, transparency, and liability. The pursuit of "responsible AI" is also crucial in international relations. Europe is increasingly profiling itself as a "third way", alongside the capitalist approach of "Big Tech" in the West and the centralist approach to state control in the East. In this third way, people are central. The Netherlands has the potential to be a core player in this third way. Scientific research in the field of AI is of a high level and the Netherlands has many successful AI-related companies.

25 May 2021

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Mensgerichte Artificiële Intelligentie

80 percent of large companies have adopted AI to enhance their core business operations

Today, approximately 80 percent of large companies have adopted examples of machine learning and other forms of AI to enhance their core business operations. Five years ago, this figure was less than 10 percent. Nevertheless, most companies still only use AI tools as point solutions – for fraud prevention, for instance – discrete applications that are isolated from the enterprise’s wider IT architecture.

28 May 2021

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Technology Trend Report 2020

A rise of broad AI solutions is expected

At present, most AI applications fall under the Narrow AI category – meaning, they’re built for a specific task. In the future, the rise of Broad AI solutions is expected – systems that can work on a broad range of problems.

28 May 2021

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Technology Trend Report 2020

Quantum computing will have a significant impact on the field of AI

While it will still be many decades before we see Quantum Computing (QC) take off on a large scale, it’s predicted that when this happens, it will have a significant impact on the field of AI – leading to enhanced judgement, improved interaction, greater degrees of trust and products that are far more intelligent. In general, AI is going to change almost every aspect of daily life and the nature of work as we know it. To manage AI and harness its power within organisations, new jobs, roles and skills will be required. As AI tackles less complex, more mundane duties, employees can start taking on higher-value, more rewarding tasks.

28 May 2021

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Technology Trend Report 2020

AI is bringing about a massive transformation in the banking industry

AI is bringing about a massive transformation in the banking industry. It yields many new data-driven insights, while increasing productivity and presenting new cost-saving opportunities. AI allows banks to enhance the customer experience, accelerate business growth, mitigate risks and increase operational efficiency.

28 May 2021

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Technology Trend Report 2020

Despite rapid developments, three challenges hinder the widespread adoption of blockchain solutions

Despite rapid developments, three major challenges continue to hinder the widespread adoption of blockchain solutions: -limited scalability: As the amount of data stored continues to increase, blockchain systems tend to become slower and have much greater storage demands. -the competition paradox: . The technology enables or forces competing parties from all over the world to cooperate equally to redefine markets and improve global industries. It can be difficult to get competitors to work together. -privacy challenges: how can we justify information and transactions being memorised forever?

28 May 2021

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Technology Trend Report 2020

While Extended Reality (XR) is capable of completely changing the way people live and work, barriers exist to its wider expansion

XR-based solutions and innovations are gaining traction throughout the business world and are starting to feature in a growing number of customer-facing products and services. In fact, research suggests that by 2022, 70 percent of enterprises will be experimenting with immersive technologies for consumer and commercial use, and 25 percent will have deployed them to production. While XR is capable of completely changing the way people live and work, the technology is still predominantly employed only in the entertainment industry, often to enhance (video) games. XR headsets tend to be expensive and relatively difficult to acquire. Another challenge is that, currently, Virtual Reality only allows for single-person use.

28 May 2021

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Technology Trend Report 2020

The maturation of sensor and voice control technology

Sensor technology is becoming increasingly sophisticated and this has implications for IoT. Every object can be fitted with multiple sensors that are able to collect useful information on how the item is performing and on its internal and external conditions. This data can then be used to determine if maintenance is urgently required, for example. New human-machine interaction opportunities through voice user interfaces (VUIs) – used in the case of digital assistants like Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant – also expand the possibilities in the IoT realm. The integration of voice control into IoT devices completely changes the way people interact with their environment and carry out their work and life duties.

28 May 2021

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Technology Trend Report 2020

5G technology will power billions of new connected devices and supercharge the adoption of transformative technologies

5G technology will power billions of new connected devices and supercharge the adoption of transformative technologies. It will provide the basis for a truly intelligent network of cars, robots, drones, and more — all of which will be able to communicate in real time in response to people’s needs. In many ways, it will reinvent the business world. In the face of such rapid developments, companies must anticipate and seize opportunities.

28 May 2021

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Technology Trend Report 2020

The rise of Secure Multi-Party Computation

As SMPC provides a secure, (more) private platform for the safe interchange of large amounts of data, it can be deployed in various ways to solve complex issues and enable better decision-making, for example in the financial industry and food & agriculture. The future certainly looks promising for SMPC, but it must be noted that we’re still in the exploratory stage when it comes to this technology, mainly due to its technical complexity (speed) and issues around scalability.

31 May 2021

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Technology Trend Report 2020

Voice technology has rapidly grown in popularity, but challenges prevent wider adoption

In the United States (US), voice-activated technology has become one of the most popular applications for AI today, and it’s predicted that the use of DVAs and other conversational interfaces will only continue to rise. Ease of use and time savings are two of the primary reasons why people choose to use voice assistants. While the technology has evolved rapidly in the US and other parts of the world, developments have been much slower in the Netherlands. The reason for this lag is simple: DVAs aren’t yet fluent in Dutch. That said, as soon as the issue of language is resolved, there’s no doubt that a ton of opportunities will open up in the field of voice recognition here, too.

31 May 2021

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Technology Trend Report 2020

Thinking cybersecurity is solely the IT department's responsibility is a common cybersecurity mistake

IT teams are often lacking resources and sufficient support. Taking care of an organization's cybersecurity is not a one-man-job, nor is it solely a technical issue. Cybersecurity must be spread in all levels of an organization.

11 June 2021

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Five Most Common Cybersecurity Mistakes

Forgetting to train employees is a common cybersecurity mistake

Not everyone is interested or familiar with cybersecurity related risks and threats. Employees need assistance and support to become and stay compliant with cybersecurity policies. Offering people training and exercises to make the learning process as comprehensive as possible is necessary.

11 June 2021

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Five Most Common Cybersecurity Mistakes

Overlooking actual cybersecurity risks is a common cybersecurity mistake

Organizations should perform cybersecurity assessments on a regular basis. If an organization does not regularly assess their cybersecurity risks, overlooks them or does not mitigate the findings, the risks of vulnerability to cyberattacks increases significantly. Organizations should constantly be fully aware of both their operating environment and their cybersecurity status and have the ability to implement plans rapidly into action.

11 June 2021

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Five Most Common Cybersecurity Mistakes

Not defining specific security requirements is a common cybersecurity mistake

Cybersecurity related risks and threats pose significant challenges and should not be underestimated - especially for budget reasons. Working with an outsourced IT service company, is vital for the organization to give a clear, comprehensive brief to the service provider about their roles and responsibilities. Always stay alert and involved and always double-check.

11 June 2021

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Five Most Common Cybersecurity Mistakes

Defining security policies, but not implementing them is a common cybersecurity mistake

Writing down the organization’s cybersecurity crisis plan and policies is the right thing do. Unfortunately, policies and plans are useless unless put into use. Enforcing security policies in both processes and ways of working ensures that the organization operates more safely and effectively at all levels.

11 June 2021

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Five Most Common Cybersecurity Mistakes

With the increasing desire and need to move to the Cloud IAM becomes even more important

With the increasing desire and need to move to the Cloud, a good IAM becomes even more important. Due to cost or complexity, an organization cannot transfer all applications or systems to the Cloud at the same time. This requires a hybrid solution in which the old applications ran on location and the new applications in the Cloud. A hybrid solution also requires a Hybrid identity. The scope has been greatly increased due to this hybrid solution. Examples include local Identity Lifecycle Management (ILM), the tightening of laws and regulations, and multifactor authentication.

14 June 2021

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De toekomst van IAM

Increased legislation and regulations lead to more attention for compliance

Due to increased legislation and regulations and industry and company regulations, there is clearly more attention for compliance. IAM is evolving towards Identity and Access Governance (IAG). At IAG, policy is taken to determine who may have access to the information or systems. Stricter laws and regulations force us to approach IAM even more from a policy point of view. This is seen as a major hurdle because requirements are constantly being added or adjusted, which inevitably makes the IAM solution more complex. More complexity is rarely seen as a plus. Checking policy compliance and comparing the used – and administered access rights is becoming increasingly important. This is not easy, which is why the security officer and the compliance officer must be involved in the approach.

14 June 2021

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De toekomst van IAM

Increase in location independent work and self-reliance of employees creates additional risks

there is more interest in location-independent working and self-reliance of employees, and at the same time this creates additional risks. With home workers you can exercise less control on which devices or applications an employee has used to access sensitive company information. IAM must be flexible and be able to deal with these requirements and wishes of internal and external users

14 June 2021

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De toekomst van IAM

Increased attention to scalability of IAM platforms

There is increased attention to scalability of an IAM platform due to exponential growth of data, systems and users, both in-house and in the Cloud.

14 June 2021

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De toekomst van IAM

Outdated and custom applications prevent a link with an IAM platform in the cloud

Because suppliers opt for the SaaS Cloud model, they no longer maintain the local applications and therefore become obsolete. There are still too many outdated and custom applications. These are not suitable for the Cloud and prevent a link with an IAM platform in the Cloud.

14 June 2021

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De toekomst van IAM

SSO allows customers to access applications and products/services with one account and password

In the past, customers had to log in with different accounts in different ways to access, for example, different banking or insurance products. Nowadays they can easily access all kinds of applications and products/services with one account and password, whether or not in combination with MFA. Thanks to Single Sign-on (SSO), you can easily log in anywhere with one account and password. This applies to on-premise applications or Cloud applications for which it is authorized. SSO is extended to the Cloud and all associated SaaS applications. This architecture makes it possible to offer the user a central point (portal or hub) from which he can access all the desired applications with one click, without having to log in again and again.

14 June 2021

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De toekomst van IAM

The future of IAM is cooperation: the development of IAM as a service

The “As a Service” approach appears to be embraced more and more. Organizations can be taken care of in the context of a service and are given more time for their core tasks. In turn, Managed Service Providers use their specialist knowledge and experience to create confidence that things are well arranged. You can also apply this philosophy to IAM. A logical next step is therefore to purchase Hybrid IAM in the form of a service. “IAM as a Service” from a Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP).

14 June 2021

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De toekomst van IAM

The demand for faster delivery of new products and services increases vulnerability

The demand for faster delivery of new products and services is increasing and vulnerability is increasing as a result. Organizations are more open and expose themselves to security risks and this increases the chance of cybercrime, not a nice feeling for a CISO.

14 June 2021

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De toekomst van IAM

Increased (temporary) collaboration may pose security risks

The emergence of chain collaboration ensures that complete IAM environments can be accessed in autonomous domains (Federated Identity Management). This can only be done on the basis of trust in each other. The emergence of more and more temporary collaborations where the identities do not come from an HR system. Think of partners or external users in the form of customers. After the collaboration, it is necessary that you deny access in a controlled manner.

14 June 2021

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De toekomst van IAM

The rise of Consumer Identity and Access Management (CIAM)

Consumer Identity and Access Management (CIAM): An IAM solution specifically tailored to the needs of organizations that process large amounts of information about consumer identities. While similar to traditional IAM at first glance, CIAM solutions should provide a smooth yet secure customer experience, with the ability to scale quickly to handle large amounts of customer data. An example of this is a pharmacy app that keeps track of whether or not a customer wants a reminder message about the repeat prescription.

14 June 2021

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De toekomst van IAM

Increase in scaremongering about the impact of cyberattacks

The flow of messages about cyber attacks is increasing and often the survival of organizations would be endangered. Is this real or just oversimplified scaremongering? Of course there are successful digital break-ins, but unfortunately it is too often scaremongering. This backfires because organizations become desensitized to these kinds of warnings in the long run.

15 June 2021

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Risico onderzoek

Crucial risk analysis on information security requires a rare combination of technical and business knowledge

A risk study on information security helps to cover the risks. Although researching risks is an excellent aid in forming judgments when researching and managing risks, it is certainly not a questionnaire that one can go through. In-depth knowledge of an organization, such as primary business processes in relation to technology, is necessary. And this can hardly be processed in a questionnaire. An ideal, but unfortunately very scarce, combination of technical knowledge and business knowledge is necessary. Only then will you cover the entire spectrum of legislation and regulations, business processes, technology, information security and vice versa during the risk assessment. Consultants often lack technological knowledge and experience, and information security specialists are technology driven and often loose sight of the importance.

15 June 2021

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Risico onderzoek

An integral assessment of chains of collaborating organizations is increasingly important

Information security is only as strong as the weakest link in an ecosystem and cybercriminals know it. An integral assessment is therefore necessary. Not only within an organization but also within the chains of collaborating organizations and suppliers. An integral assessment of the chains in particular is becoming increasingly important. On the one hand, this is due to the increasing tendency towards collaboration to solve complex issues in the healthcare and financial sector and, on the other hand, due to the fact that there are (large) differences between the organizations in terms of policy, approach, risk management and support for security in a chain. And that introduces risks and vulnerabilities precisely at the interfaces.

15 June 2021

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Risico onderzoek

Risk-based security is key for organizations

Organizations have a limited budget, time and resources regarding information security. This requires a targeted use of budget, time and resources. The deployment must correspond to the risks and consequences in relation to the importance of the asset and/or business process. This together determines the seriousness and is a guideline for the deployment of security measures (risk-based security).

15 June 2021

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Risico onderzoek

Eight European security clusters are collaborating on a variety of security related topics

The collaboration between eight European security clusters brings together various skills and competences regarding science, academia, business and the public sector. Joint international R&D and innovation projects focus on the following sectors and topics:   1) Aerospace systems (drones, air systems, and satellite applications for security missions) 2) Information and cyber security 3) Disaster resilience and innovations for law enforcement and border security 4) Critical infrastructures security 5) Dual-use defence technologies for the civil sector

21 June 2021

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Eight European Security Clusters Join Forces for a More Secure Europe

Cooperation is necessary in order to increase the resilience of citizens and companies against cybercrime

''Good cooperation between central government and municipalities in securing our digital infrastructure and combating cybercrime is more important than ever.''That is one of the reasons why multiple cities, municipalities and security institutions will be collaborating in order to make citizens and companies more resilient against cybercrime.

21 June 2021

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Government Increases Cyber Resilience Through City Deal

SOCs are crucial in detecting cyberattacks

Cybersecurity has become a basic pre-condition for a prosperous and safe society in the 21st century. Automatically carried out cyberattacks are increasing and therefore, countering those attacks cannot only be done through human actions anymore. Consequently, Security Operation Centers (SOC) are crucial in detecting such attacks and are at the core in most cybersecurity strategies.

22 June 2021

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Consortium Targets Automatic Prevention of Cyber Attacks

15 countries are working together in order to exchange knowledge and build research, innovation and technical collaborations and capability in host regions

Through the United Nations, the Global Ecosystem of Ecosystems Partnership in Innovation and Cybersecurity (Global EPIC) was established in order to connect ecosystems around the world, with the aim of facilitating knowledge exchange as well as building research, innovation and technical collaborations and capability in host regions. In particular, the partnership has been designed to combat growing world challenges by facilitating global collaboration while enabling positive local cybersecurity and economic benefits.

23 August 2021

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The Value of International Collaboration in International Peace and Security

Organisations are collaborating in the field of automated detection of cyberthreats

The cooperation focuses on the automated detection of cyberthreats using advanced technologies like Artificial Intelligence with the aim of safeguarding a secure and robust digital economy in the region. The Netherlands is experiencing the fast-growing digitalisation of processes and services and has thus achieved a strong economic position. Critical sectors such as logistics, healthcare and the manufacturing industry are transforming their business models and processes under the influence of digitalisation in order to remain competitive. This growing digitalisation makes the Netherlands susceptible to cyberattacks. This is particularly true in light of the fact that the techniques used by cybercriminals to break into corporate and governmental networks are becoming increasingly sophisticated. 

24 August 2021

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Signing Letter of Intent Consortium Automated Security Operations

An overview of the Cybercheck

This chapter provides a overview of the Cybercheck, which is intended for public and private organisations that have Protectable Interests (Te Beschermen Belangen, TBB) with regard to National Security. It is intended as a guide for mapping and controlling supply chain risks for products and services from countries with an offensive cyber programme to protect the Protectable Interests. Management bears full responsibility for digital risks, however often times the CISO or a trusted partner is responsible for the execution of this check. The Cybercheck can be implemented for products and services that are already in use as well as for those under consideration for procurement. It is applicable to all physical and digital, environmental components of the products and services in use of the organisation. This relates to the software, operating system, firmware and hardware. Malicious actors are known to exploit developmental and maintenance stages of products and services.

26 September 2024

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Cybercheck: Beware of supply chain risks!

Proper assignment formulation and thorough supervision of the execution of security tests

Proper assignment formulation and thorough supervision of the execution of a security test ensure a result that meets the needs of the client. Ideally, security tests do not provide any major surprises, but provide confirmation of the quality of the development process.

30 March 2021

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Whitepaper Securitytesten

Identity and access management (IAM) for secure healthcare

Cooperation with (chain) partners but also with third parties (for example suppliers) requires a number of security measures that do not stand in the way of the cooperation benefits, but at the same time guarantee the security of the data exchange. IAM offers many advantages and lays the foundation for further security. It helps prevent data leaks and increases privacy, it enables integration with partners in the chain and with third parties in the cloud, and it creates administrative relief and operational cost savings.

14 June 2021

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Identity & Access Management voor de Zorg

Tools are developed in order to make ICS-SCADA systems more resilient

The 'Security Check Process Automation' has been developed in a public-private partnership in order to make ICS-SCADA systems more resilient. The tool allows organisations to quickly identify potential risks and protective measures they can take against them. "I am particularly pleased to be able to offer a practical self-scan to organisations that use ICS or OT devices. There is great diversity in security maturity within the ICS domain. There are organisations that are very mature, but there are also organisations that need to significantly increase the digital resilience of their ICS landscape, but unfortunately lack the knowledge to do so. I hope that with this tool we can provide help to all of them."

23 August 2021

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Launched: Tool to Increase Cyber Resilience in OT Environments

Companies are collaborating in the field of Customer Identity & Access Management SaaS

Two Dutch companies have merged their forces in order to become the largest European vendor of Customer Identity & Access Management (CIAM) SaaS. The merger expedites the combined vision of making digital business for all European enterprises simple and safe. Catering for an outstanding omnichannel and frictionless (digital) customer experience is key for online services, no matter whether customers use web or mobile technology. Privacy protection and implementing the highest security standards have defined proper stewardship. Who the user is, what the user is allowed to do, enabling the user to opt-in or out defines the relationship and its governance. Identity management therefor is fundamental to any online interaction.

23 August 2021

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Onegini and Iwelcome Merge to Become The Largest European Identity & Access Management Software Vendor

Cybercrime increasingly affects businesses and individuals

“Cybercrime increasingly affects businesses as well as individuals and with a cost of cybercrime in hundreds of billions of euros the demand for skilled professionals will continue to grow.”

24 August 2021

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Results International Cyber Security Summer School 2019

Experts from law enforcement, the private sector and academia are sharing knowledge on cybercrime

Experts from law enforcement, the private sector and academia are sharing knowledge on cybercrime. The conference looked at ways how to effectively combine the expertise, resources and insights of law enforcement, the private sector and academia to make the internet a more secure environment, especially in a society, which is becoming increasingly dependent on digital capabilities. Two conclusions of the conference: Business Email Compromise (BEC): while BEC is not new, it is evolving, causing increasing economic damage. BEC exploits the way corporations do business, taking advantage of segregated corporate structures, and internal gaps in payment verification processes. Dark web: as the dark web evolves, it has become a threat in its own right, and not only as a medium for the sale of illicit commodities such as drugs, firearms or compromised data. The impact of law enforcement action in this arena is palpable as the environment remains in a state of flux.

24 August 2021

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Recap 7th Europol-INTERPOL Cybercrime Conference 2019

Organisations are collaborating in the field of cyber certification processes

Since the EU Cybersecurity Act came into force at the end of last year, it has become increasingly important for organisations to be able to demonstrate that they have taken all necessary measures against potential cyber threats. This is also mandatory in the critical infrastructure. Two organisations are collaborating and sharing knowledge in the field of cyber certification processes. The collaboration between both companies, with each their unique expertise and high quality standards, will contribute significantly to the protection of digital resilience of companies and organisations.

24 August 2021

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Hudson Cybertec Supports TÜV Nederland With Cyber Security Certification in Critical Infrastructure

Artificial intelligence (AI) will play an increasing role in both cyber- attack and defense

AI is the new arms race, but unlike earlier arms races, anyone can get involved – there’s no need for the sort of resources that were previously only available to governments. This means that while AI is undoubtedly being researched and developed as a means of crippling an enemy state’s civil and defense infrastructure during war, it’s also easily deployable by criminal gangs and terrorist organizations.

14 April 2021

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The 5 Biggest Cybersecurity Trends In 2020 Everyone Should Know About

Political and economic divisions between east and west lead to increased security threats

In 2019, we saw the US government effectively embargoing partnerships between US tech firms and the Chinese mobile giant Huawei, due to fears over the close links between Huawei and the Chinese state. If more barriers like these go up, it could easily have the effect of preventing international cooperation on both the technological and regulatory challenges of cybersecurity, and that’s only likely to benefit the bad guys.

14 April 2021

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The 5 Biggest Cybersecurity Trends In 2020 Everyone Should Know About

Political interference increasingly common and increasingly sophisticated

Cybercrime targeting elections has taken two forms. The first involves the spreading of “fake news” and false narratives – usually designed to slur a candidate – via social media. The second is direct attacks against candidates' or digital electoral infrastructure. Countering the false narratives means building systems, either automated or manual, that can sift out lies, propaganda, and bad-faith by analyzing both content and metadata – where the information originates from, and who is likely to have created it.

14 April 2021

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The 5 Biggest Cybersecurity Trends In 2020 Everyone Should Know About

The cybersecurity skills gap continues to grow

During 2020, research suggests the number of unfilled cybersecurity jobs will increase from just 1 million in 2014 to 3.5 million. This deficit of skills is likely to become a growing matter of public concern during the early part of this new decade.

14 April 2021

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The 5 Biggest Cybersecurity Trends In 2020 Everyone Should Know About

Vehicle hacking and data theft increases

Vehicles today are basically moving data factories. Modern cars are fitted with an array of GPS devices, sensors, and in-car communication and entertainment platforms that make them an increasingly profitable target for hackers and data thieves. Criminals have learned to piggyback into private networks through connected home appliances and smart devices, thanks to the lack of security standards among the thousands of device manufacturers and service providers.

14 April 2021

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The 5 Biggest Cybersecurity Trends In 2020 Everyone Should Know About

Artificial intelligence (AI) will play an increasing role in both cyber-attack and defense

AI is the new arms race, but unlike earlier arms races, anyone can get involved – there’s no need for the sort of resources that were previously only available to governments. This means that while AI is undoubtedly being researched and developed as a means of crippling an enemy state’s civil and defense infrastructure during war, it’s also easily deployable by criminal gangs and terrorist organizations. So rather than between nations, today’s race is between hackers, crackers, phishers and data thieves, and the experts in cybersecurity whose job it is to tackle those threats before they cause us harm. Just as AI can “learn” to spot patterns of coincidence or behavior that can signal an attempted attack, it can learn to adapt in order to disguise the same behavior and trick its way past our defenses. This parallel development of offensive and defensive capabilities will become an increasingly present theme as AI systems become more complex and, importantly, more available and simpler to deploy. Everything from spam email attempts to trick us into revealing our credit card details to denial-of-service attacks designed to disable critical infrastructure will grow in frequency and sophistication. On the other hand, the tech available to help us avoid falling victim, such as deep learning security algorithms, automation of systems that are vulnerable to human error, and biometric identity protection, are getting better too.

25 May 2021

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The 5 Biggest Cybersecurity Trends In 2020 Everyone Should Know About

Political and economic divisions between east and west lead to increased security threats

There is no end in sight to the “trade war” between the world’s superpowers, talk of fracturing among international organizations like the UN or EU, and an ongoing tech-driven arms race among nations that are economic competitors. Russia recently announced that it had tested an 'unplugged' internet, basically a country-wide alternative to the global internet, which could give their Government control over what citizens can access on the web. Countries like Iran and China are already censoring content and block access to external information. In 2019, we also saw the US government effectively embargoing partnerships between US tech firms and the Chinese mobile giant Huawei, due to fears over the close links between Huawei and the Chinese state. If more barriers like these go up, it could have the effect of preventing international cooperation on both the technological and regulatory challenges of cybersecurity, and that’s only likely to benefit the bad guys.

25 May 2021

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The 5 Biggest Cybersecurity Trends In 2020 Everyone Should Know About

Political interference increasingly common and increasingly sophisticated

Targeted disinformation campaigns aimed at swaying public opinion have almost become an accepted feature of democracy today. Cybercrime targeting elections has taken two forms. The first involves the spreading of “fake news” and false narratives – usually designed to slur a candidate – via social media. The second is direct attacks against candidates' or digital electoral infrastructure. Both forms of digital electoral interference are likely to become a growing problem over the next 12 months, partly due to the fact that they have proven to be highly effective up until now. Consequently, we can expect more investment in technology designed to counter them, as well as efforts to raise public awareness of the issue. Countering the false narratives means building systems, either automated or manual, that can sift out lies, propaganda, and bad-faith by analyzing both content and metadata – where the information originates from, and who is likely to have created it. Facebook and Google have both invested in technology designed to determine whether or not political messaging fits patterns that suggest it could be part of a targeted “fake news” campaigns. This is because of the overwhelming evidence that these tactics are being increasingly adopted by state actors with the aim of causing political unrest.

25 May 2021

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The 5 Biggest Cybersecurity Trends In 2020 Everyone Should Know About

The NCSC-NL recommends that you ask your email provider to secure all their connections with STARTTLS and DANE

The NCSC-NL recommends that you ask your email provider to secure all their connections with STARTTLS and DANE. DANE is an internet standard that, combined with STARTTLS, prevents stripping attacks. If two email providers both use STARTTLS and DANE, an attacker cannot intercept email that is being send between these providers.

14 April 2021

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European Cyber Security Perspectives 2020

The existing standard of PGP presents various challenges that must be addressed:

the existing standard of PGP presents various challenges that must be addressed: 1. lack of forward secrecy 2. lack of efficient group messaging/email mechanism 3. fossil cryptographic schemes in the standard 4. improper default security settings, e.g. compression before encryption 5. poor usability 6. problematic trust model and key management 7. rather naive design of the key revocation mechanism 8. insecure design of key IDs 9. asymmetric cryptographic schemes that would soon become broken in the face of attackers who have access to quantum computers

14 April 2021

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European Cyber Security Perspectives 2020

Cyber attacks directed at operational technology can lead to physical harm and undermine the wider market and society

the existing standard of PGP presents various challenges that must be addressed: 1. lack of forward secrecy 2. lack of efficient group messaging/email mechanism 3. fossil cryptographic schemes in the standard 4. improper default security settings, e.g. compression before encryption 5. poor usability 6. problematic trust model and key management 7. rather naive design of the key revocation mechanism 8. insecure design of key IDs 9. asymmetric cryptographic schemes that would soon become broken in the face of attackers who have access to quantum computers

14 April 2021

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European Cyber Security Perspectives 2020

Supply chains make companies more vulnerable.

Companies are cooperating ever more intensively with partners, suppliers, subsidiaries and the like. “While introducing scalability, cost-effectiveness and increasing efficiency by outsourcing more and more these days, supply chains also make companies more vulnerable”, warns Sander Peters, Head of Security Research at KPN Security. “Cooperation increases the risk of a cyberattack.”

14 April 2021

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European Cyber Security Perspectives 2020

New threats emerge from disinformation and technology evolution

Emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), present new avenues of expression for potential geopolitical activity, including disinformation. One menacing use of AI is in the creation of ‘deepfakes’, which are high-quality forged images or videos that could be used for anything from discrediting or blackmailing a political opponent, rival company or extortion target, to causing worldwide panic with a video of a head of state purportedly claiming to have launched a nuclear weapon.

14 April 2021

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European Cyber Security Perspectives 2020

New threats emerge from 5G entering the security mix

Another watershed technology with the potential to enable massive surveillance and disruption is 5G. This technology’s local processing of data means those who control the infrastructure could tamper or spread disinformation to 5G users.

14 April 2021

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European Cyber Security Perspectives 2020

AI has the potential to contribute to the security of The Netherlands

AI has the potential to contribute to the security of The Netherlands, without the government becoming some kind of Big Brother. Not only to fend off cyber attacks, but also (and perhaps especially) in the detection and prevention of crime. But then a good infrastructure is needed that makes this possible, valuing information sharing, collaboration, and a clear focus on the societal goal.

8 June 2021

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Aan de slag met AI binnen de overheid

HCLTech's strategic focus on disruptive technologies, strong partnership mentality, and ability to guide clients through digital transformations position it as a leader in the crowded IT services market

HCLTech's banking and financial services solutions were highlighted during the Financial Services Advisor and Analyst Day in New York City. The event emphasized the impact of technologies like generative AI (GenAI) and sustainability solutions on financial services. Despite being less known outside financial services, HCLTech has successfully built a reputation, particularly with five of the top 10 banking institutions. The company's client strategy focuses on disruptive technologies, including cloud, digital, and AI, guiding discussions around these investments early on. HCLTech's shift from infrastructure-led to business-led offerings supports clients in embracing technology solutions and avoiding disruption. Case studies showcased collaborations with an American financial services company, a U.S.-based insurer, and a U.S.-based credit union. The clients praised HCLTech's partnership mentality and technology expertise. The discussion also covered HCLTech's digital business strategy, with roughly half of Financial Services revenue generated through digital. The company's focus on analytics, data strategies, and a partner ecosystem allows it to serve as a technology partner and guide clients' transformation projects. Overall, the event highlighted HCLTech's ability to create long-term relationships, provide frictionless experiences, and stay ahead of market trends in the crowded IT services market.

18 January 2024

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In a Crowded IT Services Market, HCLTech’s Banking and Financial Services Solutions Shine Like a Diamond

How and why CFOs must take their (financial) responsibility to invest in cybersecurity

The whitepaper highlights the crucial role CFOs play in managing cyber risks and making strategic cybersecurity investment decisions for small and medium-sized businesses. It emphasizes the importance of quantifying potential costs and benefits through risk analysis, measuring key metrics, and implementing a robust cybersecurity program to protect financial stability, operational efficiency, and reputation. The paper provides pragmatic formulas to calculate the financial impact of cyber threats, data breach risks, and vulnerability indices, enabling CFOs to make informed decisions and justify cybersecurity investments. It also offers actionable steps based on risk levels to enhance an organization's cyber resilience, from implementing patch management and security awareness training to deploying advanced threat detection technologies and penetration testing.

1 May 2024

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Kwantificeren van cyberrisico’s

Resilient Delivery Strategic Security Trend 2021

Resilient delivery: Whether a pandemic or a recession, volatility exists in the world. Organizations that are prepared to pivot and adapt will weather all types of disruptions.

30 March 2021

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Gartner Top Strategic Technology Trends for 2021