The sustainable nonprofit: NGOs and nonprofits are easy targets for cybercrimes

It’s time or NGOs and nonprofits to tighten their cybersecurity standards

“We do not attack health care, education, charitable organizations, [and] social services,” said a representative of LockBit 2.0 (a prominent cybercrime gang) in an interview with the Russian YouTube channel OSINT earlier this year.

As honorable as that makes cybercriminals sound, a glance at recent news headlines tells a different story. From the United States to Australia to Ireland, all kinds of public service organizations have been affected by cybercrime during the past twelve months. Overall, more than 50 percent of NGOs now report that they have been targeted by a cyberattack. What this means is that, as long as hackers can make money from breaching an organization’s cybersecurity, no sector is off limits, regardless of the charity’s or NGO’s mission.

NGOs and nonprofits are easy targets

For any cybercriminal, the ideal victim is not an organization with vast resources but one that is easy to hack and has a lot to lose when its network is breached. Unfortunately, most NGOs and nonprofits more than fit this bill. According to a survey by CohnReznick, more than two-thirds of nonprofits failed to assess their levels of cybersecurity risk. And a 2018 study by NTEN found that eight in ten nonprofits didn’t have a cybersecurity policy in place....

Read the full column article by Rob Shavell, co-founder and CEO of Abine / DeleteMe (The Online Privacy Company).

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