Monday, August 23, 2021
Identifying the Hidden Threat
What do professional basketball and cybersecurity have in common? Okay, maybe not a comparison that you run across every day, but stick with me here. The elite in both basketball and cybersecurity have a habit of getting people to look one way, but the threat is happening where they least expect it.
In the basketball world, most sports analysts and fans only focus on vanity metrics, but this can lead them to miss identifying the greatest offensive threats.
Using the 50-40-90 club gives a more accurate view of which players pose a greater offensive threat. If you haven't heard of this stat before, the 50-40-90 metric looks at the players who complete a season with at least 50% field goals, 40% three-pointers, and 90% free throws. This is an elite club where only two players in history have ever accomplished this feat more than once — being Steve Nash and Larry Bird. Currently, only nine NBA and one WNBA players have made it to the 50-40-90 club, the most recent being Kyrie Irving for the 2020-2021 NBA season.
In the 2020-21 season, there were five players who are nearing 50-40-90, yet only one of the five isn't recognized as one of the biggest threats on their team respectively.
Tobias Harris is the one player who is flying under the radar. With career-high stats, such as 0.8 blocks per game, 3.5 assists, 55.6 EFG%, 11.5 2PA, and 6.3 2P per game. This, in addition to almost making the 50-40-90 club, Tobias is the hidden threat that vanity metrics just can't see. Will he really still continue to be snubbed from the All-Star Game yet another year?
Let's turn our focus from basketball to cybersecurity. Cybersecurity can have the same kinds of blind spots when it comes to identifying hidden threats with the most common methods. The cost of underrated threats can be enormous.
Something as simple as e-mail phishing is enough to get into most companies and subject them to a number of cyber threats. 97% of users cannot identify a sophisticated phishing email, a gateway to more malicious attacks such as ransomware. Zero days are also a concerning issue, where vulnerabilities are part of the software itself. This year has been strife with attacks so far — for example, the Colonial Pipeline hack of May 2021 was successful due to novel techniques that broke past standard barriers. This resulted in a $4.4 million ransom payout to Darkside and 45% of East Coast fuel being affected.
89% of companies have experienced some form of data breach in the past 3 years alone. Phishing attacks are a massive and growing threat as 97% of people cannot recognize a sophisticated phishing e-mail when they see one, not to mention the ransomware attack that often comes in the aftermath of hackers laying the groundwork.
The time has come for all to step up, be vigilant, and identify the hidden threat before it is too late. Learn more in the visual deep dive below:
