In recent years, there’s been a marked increase in the number of cybersecurity attacks taking place worldwide. According to some reports, in 2018, almost half a billion personal records were stolen by cybercriminals. These nefarious parties are developing ever-more sophisticated ways in which to dupe and trick users and systems alike into making mistakes which compromise their data.
The team at Impress Solutions, providers of cybersecurity solutions and managed security services, has seen this alarming trend and wanted to go into more detail about some of the threats faced. Hopefully, in this way, you can better protect yourself and your business from them.
The Increase in Ransomware
Ransomware does exactly what it says on the tin; it’s malware designed to access and take hold of your data so that you have to pay a cybercriminal, usually financially, to regain access to it. It represents the ultimate lack of control in a business setting and places a company completely at the behest of cybercriminals. Ransomware leads to financial difficulties, breaches of privacy and a lot of stress on top of that. In fact, in 2021 it is thought that ransomware attacks will cost businesses somewhere in the region of $20 billion, globally.
Fortunately, protecting yourself against such attacks is not impossible, although it’s requiring increasing levels of diligence and proactivity. Firstly, you should be making regular backups of your data. Make sure, however, that this is an offline or cloud-based backup. Otherwise, the ransomware can spread to those backups over the network in the same way they did your original files. Moreover, you can limit the spread of ransomware in the same way you may use a tourniquet to stem the flow of blood from a wound. You do this by using tactics like two-step authentications, this means that if user information is stolen, it can’t then be reused. One of the things that people often don’t realise when it comes to cybersecurity solutions is that much of the control is in your hands as to how you can protect yourselves.
Gone Phishing
The main ways in which malwares such as ransomware take root in a business is by using phishing or spam tactics. This has been the case for years and continues to be so now. Traditionally, phishing has been thought of something reserved for sketchy email campaigns. Today, however, more phishing takes place outside of emails than it does within. Hackers are using Punycode, a now-common lookalike method which sees remarkably similar domain names linking to a fraudulent, malware-infested site. In addition, the little padlock symbol that appears in our search bar that we all took for granted as a sign of watertight security, no longer is. Phishing sites have found ways to use HTTPS. It seems, then, that fewer places than ever are safe online. Of course, there are still also the malicious spam email campaigns as well.
There are key signs you can look out for to determine whether an email is legitimate or not. Firstly, legitimate companies are not going to be requesting sensitive data via email, it’s as simple as that. Aboveboard companies won’t send you attachments within the email and their URLs will match their actual site. This differs from the slightly different URLs which spammers are known to use.
User Error Remains Dominant
So, what are the main ways in which malware threats worm their way in to businesses? User error. IBM have previously reported that a staggering 95% of cybersecurity attacks stem from human error in one way or another. Nobody is immune from making mistakes, especially when the threats are presenting themselves in increasingly sophisticated ways. These can be mistakes as simple as clicking on a dubious link. They can, however, also be as a result of not updating your systems as soon as updates are made available. The importance of a strong password is something you’d think would be ingrained into the minds of everyone by now. However, weak and easily-guessed passwords are still offering cybercriminals criminally easy routes into business’ systems.
More often than not, these mistakes stem from a lack of awareness. This, as opposed to any user apathy or lack of professionalism. That’s why training on the importance of cybersecurity solutions and threats is so crucial in the modern-day workplace.
The digital world in which we live is only going to become increasingly prone to cybercriminals and hackers. Unfortunately, this is an unavoidable fact of both the present and the future. So, if you’ve been hit in the past by cybercriminals or simply want to take a more proactive approach to your company’s security, contact us today on 01708 759 760 and find out more about Impress Solutions’ cybersecurity solutions.
