Cyber security plays a massive role in today’s tech savvy world. According to industry insiders, average cost of data breach for various companies has increased from $3.8 million to $4 million recently. Most of the companies today have embraced open source for infrastructure software; additionally they have also embraced cloud storage. Both of these comes with their own blend of positives and negatives. Like if a data centre gets attacked or fails then it could be deadly for a company, and most of the open source softwares are vulnerable to cyber attacks which posses a massive threat.
So, here we are listing out some of the cyber security threats and their potential solutions, that can change the cyber world.
DDoS Attacks Targeted On Internet of Things Devices
As per recent trend, cybercriminals have got all out to target various IoT devices, that includes survellience cameras, security systems, electronic appliances, cars, commercial enviornments, vending machines, robots in various manufacturing plants etc. There are more than 12 billion IoT devices that can be connected to the Internet and researcher’s estimate there would be 26 times more IoT devices than people by the end of 2020. This threat came into spotlight recently after a revelation, where thousands of low security IoT devices were being used to launch massive-scale DDoS attacks. These attacks impacted various DNS service providers.
DDoS is a kind of DOS attack which makes sure that multiple systems are compromised, with the help of Trojan virus. Ultimately, the victims of DDoS attack gets maliciously controlled and used by the hackers.
To counter the threat, FTC has started targeting some IoT device manufactures, whose products come without adequet security.
Ransomware
Ransomware has seen steady improvement over the years since its first appearance way back in 2005. In its early days, cybercriminals would use fake apps and fake antiviruses to alert victims, and then they ask for fees as a charge for fixing some fake problems. Even it showed FBI warnings, which contained threat messages. Ultimately, they began to lock down systems or any specific app until the demands were met.
However, the main threat these days are crypto ransomware, where the attacker encrypts the file and the victim needs to pay in order to get the key and unlock their own file. According to various agencies, Ransomware has caused damages of around $325 million till date.
In order to stay safe from the Ransomware, the user must use reputed and original antivirus and anti maleware softwares. Users shouldn’t open email attachments, until they are completely sure. Use of storng password is must and one should not reuse older passwords. Keeping all the softwares up to date is another thing one must follow, and last but not the least a user must backup all the data to prevent data loss.
Business Email Compromise Schemes
A BEC attack is a form of fishing attack where the offender pretends to be an executive and targets a vendor or a customer who would transfer funds or classified information to the attacker.
BEC attack is completely different from other attacks, in case of BEC attacks, the attackers are highly motivated and these kind of attack mostly passes through spam filters and even evades email whitelisting campaigns. All these together makes it hard to recognize that the email is not from an authentic source.
So how can one be safe from a BEC attack? Don’t worry there are few guidelines which will make life a bit easier.
A company must implement a multi factor authentication, as a security policy, the authentication system will make the hacker’s life much more difficult and ultimately it will prevent the criminal from gaining access to a employee’s mailbox. One must also check on organiztion’s spoofability, that helps to know how secured the company is. There’s nothing like teaching employees how to spot phising attacks which will eventually help employees and the company to be safe.
Risk Of Using Cloud
Recently most of the companies have started using cloud services. Popular apps like Dropbox and Google Drive are being used by companies, and sadly there are many users who are using these services from their non-corporate mail accounts which eventually expose sensitive data to outside threats. Companies also lack specific usage policies when it comes to cloud service, that can lead to sharing sensitive information to unapproved apps, which can lead to severe data breach.
So, to get rid of risk related to clouds, one organization must have a strict and clear policy about how and when to use it. An employee must be barred from sharing sensitive data to unapproved apps.
Third Party Vendors Increases Risk
A company might build brilliant security system with great policies to keep their customers and their data safe, but unless and until their third party vendors use the same level of security the data and customers will always be at risk. Just look at the recent Wendy’s incident, where more than 1000 franchised location of Wendy’s were hit by a Point-of-Sale malware attack, that eventually led to massive data breach.
Until companies make sure that policies are tighted up enough and the third party vendor is taking all the needed security measures, these kind of attacks will continue to take place. To prevent cyber attacks, organizations should come up with a policy, by which one should ensure that third party vendors are taking same security measures as the company.
In addition to all these, stortage of skilled IT professionals is also hurting to a great extent; there are more than a million vacant IT professional jobs across the globe. So, with more skilled professionals and by filling the vacant positions, the cyber threats can be minimized to a great extent. However, one still has to religiously update and patch firewalls, firmwares, changing the default password of the router and setting up strong passwords to not to get trapped in the world of web.
So, these are the type of cyber attacks that could hurt your company to a great extent, we have also listed out the prevention methods, that will eventually help you to be safe in the web.
