5 Important Cybersecurity Threats You Should Watch Out For

Cybersecurity threats are invisible, but their effects on your business and intellectual property can be very real. These threats involve malicious actors like hackers who steal, monitor or modify your digital data. They can accomplish these in numerous ways, so before you learn how to combat these threats, you need to understand what they are.

Here are some of the threats that your staff and IT personnel should watch out for:

Phishing

This type of attack includes an individual trying to gain personal information like bank details and credit cards numbers. The individual may send emails to a huge group of people with a phoney story asking for help. If anyone tries to help them, they take that opportunity to capture their details and siphon their money. Alternatively, they can send emails posing as trustworthy sources like government officials and trick your staff into giving them confidential information. The emails can also include fake hyperlinks which will download malware onto their computer when clicked.

Your IT staff should be able to put up security measures that will alert them of any suspicious activities. They should also stop hackers from accessing the client’s confidential information. Most importantly, as a preventive measure, all of your staff should be cautioned on opening links and emails that they are not familiar with to prevent attacks in the first place.

Malware

These are software that can cause severe damage to your network and system. They usually accomplish this by either hijacking your computer or stealing information from it. Most malware is used when hackers are interested in specific data. Most of the time, this software is secretly downloaded from a phishing scam. Types of malware include viruses, spyware, key loggers and worms. Whether it is a government office or corporate organisation, cybersecurity experts have to be on the lookout.

Password attacks

Most of the devices we use have passwords, whether it be a phone, tablet or computer. We usually put sensitive information on these gadgets and hope that the passwords that we have put in place will protect them from other users. Cybercriminals can perform a “dictionary attack” by using automated systems to get peoples’ passwords and gain sensitive information from their gadgets. Since these systems target commonly used words and short passwords, the best way to avoid such a scenario is by using complex passwords.

Ransomware

Have you ever heard or watched a movie about people holding others hostage for ransom? Well, this is the same thing. The only difference is that instead of kidnapping people, these cybercriminals will keep your information hostage until you give them what they want. To do so, they usually put malware in your network, which restrains the user from accessing the information on their own devices. This means that until you transfer the ransom to them, your device and the information on it remains on lock. To prevent this, make sure only to download software from trustworthy sources and keep your operating system up-to-date.

Man-in-the-middle

Just as the name suggests, man-in-the-middle (MITM) threats are when someone outside the organisation intercepts communications between you and your clients without you knowing. They can either read or steal information that you are sending out. This can be detrimental to your company because the hacker will have information that can give them better access to your organisation. Cybersecurity experts have ways to detect such an attack, such as by detecting if a transaction takes too long. You can also minimise the chance of attack by instructing your staff not to use unknown Wifi connections.

A professional cybersecurity expert can handle all these and more, especially if they had undergone cybersecurity training like in the CISSP course or project management training like in the PRINCE2 Foundation certification course. A professional cybersecurity team, together with appropriate preventive management and practices, is the best defence against the digital threats facing any company today.

Remember, when it comes to cyber threats, no company is safe. It is up to you to protect your business at all costs.

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