For some time now, insurance companies have been singled out.

Especially because of a remark about their tendency to pay the ranks are demanded by hackers during ransomware attacks. According to several authorities, in particular the National Information System Security Agency and the Paris prosecutor's office, this behavior encourages the increase in computer attacks. Faced with mounting criticism, the insurance company AXA France is the first insurer to suspend this option from its insurance policy.

In practice, there is no denying that since 2020, hackers who operate on ransomware have literally taken their ease and multiplied their operations. All layers and sectors are affected by the proliferation of ransom programs. In 2021 the trend remains constant.

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In a study carried out by opinion way, on behalf of the club of computer security experts, 19% of French companies, i.e. one in five companies, reported being the victim of a ransomware attack in 2020. 57% of businesses admitted to having experienced computer attacks of any kind.

According to another study conducted by the insurance company Hiscox on the security of small and medium-sized enterprises and very small businesses, 2 out of 3 companies generally agree to pay the ransom demanded by hackers to have the decryption keys necessary to unlock their computer systems or files. While more studies are needed to confirm these figures, the reality is not that far from that.

To protect businesses in a certain way, insurers have provided options to guarantee against the risk of computer attacks with ransomware. In other words, if the business is attacked or a ransom is demanded, it will be refunded at the limit that has been set by the franchise. The problem is that paying hackers seems to be a way to motivate them to continue. Especially when companies find that they have nothing to lose because she is paying herself back.

It is in this context that during the senate hearing a few weeks ago, the National Agency for Security of Information Systems and the Paris prosecutor's office pointed the finger at this practice of insurers they urged them to stop it.

In this regard AXA then decides to suspend its guarantee, a guarantee "including the refund of the ransom and the associated support service (is suspended) pending clarification of the regulatory plan of this type of coverage," EXPLAINs AXA France in a letter sent to its broker partners.

"The repayment of ransoms has become a topic of place for cyber-insurance. In this context, AXA France, which had completed its range of an option in this regard, considered it appropriate to suspend its commercialization until the consequences were drawn from these analyses and the insurance intervention framework was clarified. It is essential that the government implements its position on this issue in order to allow all market players to harmonize their practices," stresses the insurer.

But the reality is clear on the side of the Paris prosecutor's office and the National Information Systems Security Agency. "France is now one of the most attacked countries in terms of ransomware (…) because we pay ransoms too easily," says Johanna Brousse, deputy prosecutor in charge of the cybercrime section of the Paris prosecutor's office. She does not hesitate to denounce these contracts which "guarantee the payment of ransoms" because "paying ransoms penalizes everyone. This encourages hackers to attack our economic fabric more easily because they say to themselves: 'the French pay anyway'.

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According to a figure provided by the Digital Health Agency, we learn that 34 patient-endangered situations have been identified because of computer security incidents, and this only in the year 2020.

A total of 9 percent of computer security incidents were the sources of patient risk as described by CERT Health. This out of a total of 369 reports.

Of the 34 endangered, two were qualified as proven. For the other 32, there is more talk of potential endangerment. "Mainly incidents related to the loss of telecom links (especially for Samu), or total unavailability of the information system (SI). described in the CERT Health report.

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The time that in 2019 19 percent of computer security incidents had been categorized as potentially endangering patients.

The 369 incidents that were reported during the year 2020 the water was through 290 facilities including 250 health facilities.

In terms of the majority of reports, namely 301, they come from health facilities. 31 reports come from shelters for dependent elderly people. For radiotherapy centres, there were 4 reports of computer security incidents. The rest comes from a medical biology lab.

For 30 specific reports, they include "primarily statements made by liberal firms and public institutions in the medico-social sector," the report says. "In 2020 as in 2019, the Ehpads represent a growing share of the declarations received," it reads.

It was observed that the CERt Health accompanied 90 accurately reporting. This makes a total of 20 reports higher than in 2020. For technical support, the public body had to intervene nearly 32 times either for remediation or for an investigation. This situation has not been observed in 2019.

With respect to CERT Health's areas of intervention, the organization has acted in:

– 40% of cases for malware incidents

– 28% was for compromised computer systems

– 27% for malicious emails.

Overall, 7 security incidents were "followed up with the IS Security Officer (ISSF) of the social ministries. They came from 5 public health facilities, including 2 essential service operators (ESOs). The report notes.

For its part, the National Information Systems Security Agency has responded to nearly 14 security incidents. Among these incidents 10 years were reported by public health facilities comprising 10 operators of essential services and two residential facilities for the elderly

On the side of the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products, there were 4 officially reported incidents. The same is true for the Health Directorate, precisely when these incidents have had an impact on the health of patients.

"In 2020, as in 2019, almost half of the reports (162) are resolved by the structure before they are reported," notes the ANS. "On the other hand, the share of these resolved reports decreases in 2020, particularly in favour of reported 'under investigation' incidents," the share of which "increases by about 6% each year, reaching 27% in 2020," the administrative authority added. In addition, "21 structures did not provide further information as a result of their declaration, despite a request for further information and/or a proposal for support."

"In view of its hospital activity (4.41% of national activity is almost four times less than the Ile-de-France region), the Burgundy-Franche-Comté region is leading the way in terms of incident recovery," the CERT report states. "The Central-Val de Loire and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (Paca) regions report few incidents in relation to the number of hospitals located in their health territories," the report says.

In addition, the Digital Health Agency reminds us that reports related to computer security incidents were mandatory. "Especially in areas where the number of reports reported to hospital activity is low."

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Netskope recently released the report of a study on the collaboration of network and IT security teams and the impact that this collaboration could have on the digitization of companies.

First of all, there is a break in these different relationships

The time that the study was carried out from February to April 2021. It was conducted by an independent organization called Censuswide on behalf of Netskope. It has involved nearly 2,675 IT professionals in three continents such as Europe, North America and Latin America. The countries, which were concerned are among other things France Canada the United Kingdom Germany the United States and Mexico Chile, Brazil, Colombia and Argentina. For the sample swims. There are 373 professionals for France surveyed, 376 for the United Kingdom, 367 for Germany. Respondents are part of the organization that counts nearly 5,000 people by email to the user of the service.

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Participants included:

– IT security managers;

– IT system professionals;

– architects or network administrators.

From this study it can be remembered that:

– 54% of information systems managers in Europe said that there is a lack of collaboration between the different specialist teams at both the IT and security levels. This problem unfortunately prevents us from taking full advantage of the digitization of their service.

– 46% of cybersecurity professionals and 48% of network professionals agree that the relationships between the different teams are not good;

– 54% of IT network professionals and 58% of IT security professionals;

– 58% of security professionals and 54% of network professionals have never met anyone on the other team;

– 45% of the IT security and network teams in Europe are generally made up within the same group and have the same supervisors. Yet 43% of IT professionals say these two teams do not work together.

– 44% of IT and network security professionals feel their relationship is conflicting. For 13 percent the relationship is dysfunctional, for 10 percent the relationship is frosty and another 10 percent irrelevant.

These figures should be seen as a warning to the entire IT sector. 51% of those who participated in the study confirmed that the difficult relationship between these two teams is an obstacle that prevents their businesses from taking full advantage of digital transformation. In such a situation, resource waste is clearly being made when we know that estimates for global spending on digital transformation have been estimated at $6800 billion from 2020 to 2023.

But the study did not only show negative results. There is also an encouraging aspect."European network and security professionals identify similar priorities for their team's activity in 2021, setting out the same three main priorities: "Supporting the increase in productivity of the company as a whole," "Increasing visibility and control" and "Developing infrastructure to support business growth." "the report" notes.

"Digital transformation projects are driven by both teams (85% of respondents are currently working on or have just completed a digital transformation project). 56% of these projects involve both network and security transformation, and 56% have a coordinator within the network and security teams. the study states.

For his part, Netskope's Vice President and General Manager EMEA, Andre Stewart, commented on the results: "All large companies have their policies and often the different divisions compete for budget or strategic importance at the board level, but the digital transformation is underway. A more dispersed workforce using more applications for greater efficiency creates exponential data growth and a much wider attack surface for cyber criminals. This means that network and security transformation must now take place at the same time as digital transformation. Given this obvious gap between network and security teams, CEOs and/or CIOs need to get involved, otherwise the progress and competitive advantage that could be gained from digital transformation will be small."

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Digital data is a very important commodity in the IT field.

For hackers it is a resource that can pay off a lot. For this he does not skimp on any means to obtain it. The problem is that for a very long time and even today the general opinion believes that the information that interests them much more is those of the living. While even the dead can have information that is valuable to our cyber criminals. It was in this context that the Alfred Dallaire Funeral Home told its clients that it had been hacked. Nearly 1,300 people have been affected by this data compromise.

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"When I read that there had been a security incident following my sister's death, I thought they had lost her ashes, my heart was upside down," said Diane Despatie, an estate liquidator following her sister's death. She had made contact with the Funeral Home Alfred Dallaire for the purposes of the genre. Unfortunately the consequences have been such as they are today.

"When I realized that I had just had my personal data hacked, I was angry," said the deceased's sister, who claims to have been the victim of the Desjardins leak.

"I didn't even get a call! It seems to me that when you're in the empathy business, it's not the right tone. ».

The latter received a letter from the funeral home which indicates that she had been the victim of a security incident in which an unauthorized person had access to the personal data of his clients as well as the deceased persons reported by them.

"When I read that there had been a security incident following my sister's death, I thought they had lost her ashes, my heart was upside down," Said Diane Despatie. 

While the company has indicated that information that may have been hacked during the intrusion was not used in malicious actions, many victims of the leak are not satisfied with this statement.

"I had no guarantees," said one victim, who was on condition of anonymity.

"I have to deal with my sister's estate and the theft of both of our identities. If I denounce the situation, it is for the other bereaved families, it is really not easy. Diane Despatie laments with emotion.

The funeral home offers a free subscription to the monitoring service offered by TransUnion's credit. But many victims think that was enough.

According to Julia Duchastel, Vice President of Memoria Spaces, this security incident affects only a small proportion of the funeral home's clients.

It was mentioned that an investigation was opened and computer security experts were engaged by the company that was the victim of the incident.

On the side of the deceased, it is observed that the information that has been stolen includes:

– dates of birth;

– birthplaces;

– social insurance numbers;

– the driver's licence number;

– the health insurance number;

– and the places of death;

On the parent side of the deceased, the stolen data include:

– addresses;

– the names of the parents;

– social insurance numbers;

– date and place of birth.

All of its data can make it easy for hackers to impersonate their victims.

"This is highly sought-after data. The identities of some freshly dead people are very interesting information for the malicious, unfortunately, to make a near perfect identity," notes Mr. Bancal. Cybersecurity expert.

Of course for a deceased person, identity theft could easily go unnoticed because no complaint can be made, for example.

"By the time you realize it, you'd potentially think it was the dead man who did the scam," he says. It's hurting estates. explains the specialist. He explains that one should be wary of statements that the data has not been used to me in bad activities.

"For the hacker, this information is money. There are quite a few people who think they know the dark web… Hackers, when they have this kind of data in hand, they are not going to talk about it immediately, they will use it first. , "he explains.

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Telework is now presented as a generalized professional mode.

If before the coronavirus pandemic some companies had difficulty adopting the remote collaboration model, today it is a fact, everyone literally switches to telework which has many advantages. However, we will not forget that remote collaboration weakens the security of businesses. That's why cybersecurity experts have focused on raising awareness and recalling investments in the IT sector.

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"It is now clear, especially in times of crisis, that companies must be able to empower their employees to work from anywhere – and in the present situation, from home. Otherwise, their activities may be shut down – not only in the event of containment, but also in the event of fire, flooding or other force majeure events on their premises. Serge Niango, Head of Sales Engineering at Citrix.

Telework is not known to have started with coronavirus. But the massive shift of companies bers this mode of collaboration is of course recent. Today 76% of French people show that they are in favour of remote collaboration according to a study by Happydemics. In addition, only 24 percent of employees and 21 percent of managers are in full-time return to work. Yet 57% of French employees prefer part-time telework and work in the office the rest of the time. About 3 days of remote work per week.

"The resilience of the company always involves at least the people who are essential to the immediate operation of the activities and, ideally, all employees. Resilience has long been not considered a telework priority: companies allowed their employees to work from home simply because it speeded up workflows and increased productivity while facilitating work-life balance. That's why, even before the crisis, an increasing number of users were accessing the company's resources remotely – from home, hotels, airports or trains. Serge Niango notes.

In addition, there is a growing use of cloud services to foster remote collaboration. This has helped to amplify the trend of telework. 70% of companies located in the EMEA area use one or more cloud services according to an IDG study. According to INSEE, 69% of companies in France use the cloud for file storage. 61% for messaging services.

"After storage and messaging, security will in turn migrate to the cloud. In other words, the features designed to secure the use of distributed resources will merge with those designed to speed up remote access to create a unified cloud service. Analysts and market specialists are also seeing a strong enthusiasm among French companies for SASE strategies, or "Secure Access Service Edge", a model that consolidates network and security services within a cloud architecture to protect users, applications and data, regardless of their location. But after all, it's mainly concerns about data security and information sovereignty that have long slowed the adoption of cloud offerings. Serge Niango points out.

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