Since Russia has attacked Ukraine, US national security officials have been keeping an eye on various threats, particularly cybercrimes. U.S law enforcement has expressed concerns about the cyberattacks that Russia could launch at any time against America’s critical infrastructures.
While it is uncertain when such attacks could happen, cybersecurity experts advise that both public and private sectors should start preparing for one. Last year, prior to the said invasion, there has been reports of ransomware incidents against 14 out of 16 U.S critical infrastructures according to Cristopher Wray, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
What is more alarming is that several cybercrime groups have publicly pledged alliances with the Russian government. Since then, criminal activity targeting American infrastructure has been on the rise, raising great concern for more aggressive Russian attacks moving forward.
An executive order to improve national security was implemented by President Joe Biden’s administration. This executive order mandated the use of multi-factor authentication (MFA) in IT systems to make it harder for attackers to breach.
Additionally, multiple alerts from the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) urged organizations and individuals to take aggressive steps in protecting their digital data. One of the best ways to do this is by enforcing MFA, which is an identity verification with multiple credentials for enhanced security.
As bad actors continuously exploit inadequate security configurations, weak controls, and other poor hygiene practices to breach or compromise a system, it is crucial to achieving “zero trust”. In line with improving national security, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released a federal strategy to move the U.S government toward a “zero trust” approach which was due to the assumption that internal and external threats to network security are always present and becoming more sophisticated day by day.
One of the ways to achieve “zero trust” is for organizations, whether in public or private sectors to move toward facial biometric authentication. Facial biometric authentication refers to the method of identifying or verifying a subject through image, video, or any audiovisual element of the face. Put simply, this type of identification method is used to access an application, service, or system and works like a face scanner.
Furthermore, this method of biometric identification collects a set of unique biometric data of each individual associated with their face or facial expression to verify, authenticate, or identify a person
You can learn more about how facial biometrics can help protect America’s infrastructure from cyberattacks by reading this article from authID.