SIDECHAIN INSIGHTS
Can you believe it’s already Cybersecurity Awareness Month? Where has this year gone??? This year’s theme is Building a Cyber Strong America, highlighting the need to strengthen the country’s infrastructure against cyber threats, ensuring resilience and security. If you’re like me, you’ve received emails all month from banks, phone companies and others highlighting the need to be vigilant at all times – Cyber threats don’t take time off! If you haven’t already, we here at Sidechain urge you to take action now. And if you don’t know where to start, ask us!
QUICK TAKE
- CISA has been highlighting the importance of taking daily action to reduce risks for more than 20 years now. Watch as CISA’s Acting Director discusses our focus on government entities and small and medium businesses that are vital to protecting the systems and services that sustain us every day and make America a great place to live and do business.
- It’s a Cyber tune-up checklist! The cybersecurity landscape of today includes common and significant threats like phishing attacks, ransomware, malware, insider threats, Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs), DDos attacks, MitM attacks and many more. And if you don’t know what those are, then read this!
QUIZ
IIn honor of Halloween, here’s a cybersecurity All-Hallows inspired quiz! The first five people to send their correct answers to us here, will receive Sidechain swag!
1. Phishy Costumes: Your office gets an email: “🎃 Company Costume Contest—upload your photo here to win a $100 gift card!” The link points to costum3-contest.win. What’s your best move?
A. Click it—free money!
B) Forward to friends to increase your odds
C) Hover to inspect the URL, report as phishing, and verify via an official channel
D) Open it on your phone instead (safer)
2. Pumpkin Passwords” Which Halloween-inspired password practice is strongest?
A. Pumpkin2025! for every account
B) Pumkp1n! (slightly misspelled) for important sites
C) A unique, random password for each account stored in a password manager
D) Your favorite horror movie title + birth year
3. Haunted Wi-Fi: At a coffee shop, you see Free_Haunted_WiFi and CafeOfficial. You must access payroll. What’s safest?
A. Use Free_Haunted_WiFi; it has more bars
B) Use CafeOfficial, turn off HTTPS-only mode so it loads
C) Use CafeOfficial with a trusted VPN or your phone hotspot, check HTTPS lock
D) Use Free_Haunted_WiFi but only for a minute
4. Trick-or-Treat Thumb Drive: You find a USB labeled “Party Photos – Oct 31” in the lobby. What now?
A. Plug it into your laptop—curiosity!
B) Hand it to a coworker who “knows tech”
C) Turn it in to IT/security for safe handling; do not plug it in
D) Plug it into a kiosk first
5. Ransomware “Treat”: A pop-up says files were “encrypted by the Pumpkin King” and demands crypto. What action helps before this ever happens?
A. Keep one backup on the same PC
B) Rely on autosave
C) Follow 3-2-1 (+ immutability) backups and test restores regularly
D) Rename files with spooky names so attackers won’t find them
Keep scrolling to see if you got it right!
INDUSTRY TRENDS & NEWS
- October marks Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2025, with this year’s theme “Building a Cyber Strong America” emphasizing the critical need to strengthen infrastructure against evolving cyber threats. As organizations across healthcare, manufacturing, energy, and other critical infrastructure navigate an increasingly connected landscape, Internet of Things (IoT) security has emerged as a cornerstone of this national effort.The numbers paint a stark picture. With more than 27 billion IoT devices now in use globally, the attack surface has expanded exponentially. More than 50% of these devices contain critical vulnerabilities that attackers can exploit right now. Perhaps most concerning, one in three data breaches now involves an IoT device—a statistic that underscores why IoT security can no longer be treated as an afterthought. Read more here and ask us how we can help.
- If you want to know how bad it is out there, here’s a comprehensive list of data breaches just in 2025 alone and the year isn’t over yet.
- Thinking of moving to AWS? Or were you affected by the outage on Monday, October 20? While it wasn’t the result of a cyberattack (the root cause was issue with the Domain Name System or DNS which acts as the Internet’s phone book. A problem with how this systems translated web addresses into the numeric IP addresses that computers use prevented services from finding each other, leading to widespread failure) analysts are stating that if comparable vulnerability were deliberately targeted by malicious actors, the damage would be far worse. And for some it was already pretty dire.
SIDECHAIN BLOG
Read our latest blogs here. We’re continuing with our series around Data-Protection-As-A-Service (DPaaS)!
5 Ways DPaaS Reduces Risk and Improves Compliance. In today’s business landscape, data isn’t just important—it’s everything. Customer records, intellectual property, financial data, and healthcare information are among the most valuable assets any organization has. Protecting it is essential, yet cyberattacks, ransomware, insider threats, and compliance requirements make that protection increasingly difficult.For companies in regulated industries like healthcare, finance, or professional services, the risks aren’t just operational—they’re existential. One breach, one compliance failure, or one prolonged outage can lead to millions in losses and permanent reputational damage.That’s where Data Protection as a Service (DPaaS) comes in. By outsourcing backup, encryption, and compliance processes to a specialized provider, businesses can reduce risks, lower costs, and simplify compliance—all while focusing on growth.
DID YOU KNOW?
The answers to the quiz are:
- C – Suspicious domain + gift-card lure = classic phish. Verify via a known channel.
- C – Unique passwords + a manager beat “clever” themes every time.
- C – Use the official SSID with VPN or a personal hotspot, and verify HTTPS.
- C – Unknown USBs can deliver malware. Let IT analyze safely.
- C – 3-2-1 (3 copies, 2 media, 1 off-site/immutable) + tested restores limits ransomware impact.
Remember the first 5 correct responses will win Sidechain swag!
With October being the most cybersecurity aware month of the year, here’s some facts and figures worth thinking about!
- The global cybersecurity market is expected to grow from $218.98 billion in 2025 to $562.77 billion by 2032, a CAGR of 14.40%.
- Companies that use AI and automation for security see an annual average cost savings of $2.22 million compared to those that do not.
- Cyberattacks occur frequently, with one source estimating a new attack every 39 seconds.
- 70% of cybersecurity professionals report that their organizations are understaffed, which hinders their ability to handle advanced cyberattacks.
- Key figures for 2025 include a projected $10.5 trillion in global cybercrime damages by year’s end and a 14.40% compound annual growth rate for the cybersecurity market, which was valued at $193.73 billion in 2024
